NEA Foundation Learning & Leadership Grant Final Report

#iteach

In lieu of a Weekly Tech Tip this week I am publishing the final report for an NEA Foundation Grant I received last year. I received this grant to fund a year-long exploration of mobile devices in education with 22 teachers from Goodhue Public Schools. The grant money provided each teacher with an iPod Touch. In exchange they agreed to participate in monthly PLC meetings and asynchronous involvement in our iTeach Mobile social network (recently moved to http://grou.ps/iteachmobile). I highly encourage you, if you are a teacher, to apply for an NEA Foundation Learning & Leadership Grant. The experience has definitely been rewarding. And, if you are interested in exploring the potential mobile devices have in the classroom I invite you to join our social network.

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Vuvox

I have been playing with a presentation program called Vuvox today. Vuvox is a web app that lets you create unconventional presentations. The one I chose was called a "collage" but it can best be described as a a scrolling panoramic image. Vuvox nicely integrates multimedia and lets you make objects in your presentation links to other media or websites. One of the best qualities of Vuvox is it forces you to think visually about your presentation. It is nearly impossible to create a boring bulleted slideshow with this tool. I may be using this tool for one of my TIES Conference presentations this year. Below is my working draft for a session titled, iTeach Mobile: Exploring Mobile Technologies for Learning, Instruction and Professional Development that I will be presenting with three of my Goodhue Public Schools colleagues. Enjoy the teaser:

iTeach Mobile App Directory

I am building a directory of iPod and iPhone apps useful to educators and students. I blogged about this a couple weeks ago (click here to read that post). I put together this video today shows you how to access the app directory on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You can also access the site from your computer by following the links below:

iTeach Mobile - Ning Site: http://iteachmobile.ning.com iTeach App Directory: http://www.yourdraft.com... Digital Backpack: http://www.goodhue.k12....

I am always looking for new apps to add to this directory so if you have any suggestions please let me know by adding a comment .

iTeach App Directory

I have been spending the past week creating a directory of iPod Touch and iPhone apps that may be useful for teachers and students. It is a new feature in the Digital Backpack but the Digital Backpack doesn't work in Safari on these devices because it uses iframes. The stand alone site works fine in the mobile browser. All links to apps in the directory will open iTunes to the download page for each app both on your computer and on your iPod or iPhone. Right now this directory contains about 100 different apps. Most of them are free. The only apps included that are not free are ones that I find extremely valuable. Over the course of the year I will add others that I find and delete ones that I have not fully tested yet. If you are a teacher, administrator, or student who uses one of these devices and have apps you find useful I would love for you to let me know so I can include them in this directory.