Tuesday Tech Tip: Join UCET

UCET: The Utah Coalition for Educational Technology is a fantastic organization dedicated to improving learning by through the effective use of technology.  Each year UCET hosts a conference where teachers and technology specialists from throughout the state and a few other places as well come together to share and collaborate.  This year UCET will be held at Jordan High School this weekend March 2 and 3, 2012.  Join us if you can. UEN will be doing multiple presentations and has a booth in the vendors area.

UCET also sponsored the first ever SUECON in conjunction with UELMA: Utah Educational Library Media Association.  SUECON was so well received that it will be back for a second year.

Find out more at http://www.ucet.org or http://suecon.org/

Wednesday Web of the Week: Wallwisher

Web Address: http://www.wallwisher.com/

Wallwisher is a unique online bulletin board.  It lets you and other's create a bulletin board and cover it in Sticky notes.

Wednesday Web of the Week: Wallwisher

Web Address: http://www.wallwisher.com/

Wallwisher is a unique online bulletin board.  It lets you and other's create a bulletin board and cover it in Sticky notes.

Tech Tip Tuesday: What's in a name?

A while back we did a series on file extensions. File extensions are the 3 characters after the file name that tell the computer which program to use to open the file.  The extension allows you to control  your files by designating the default program used with various file types.

But what about the file name?  In the olden days of computers there were limits on both the extensions (3 characters) and the file names (8 characters). In those olden days those of us who were using computers came up with all kinds of clever tricks for shorthand with filenames.  Including adding the date or severe truncation and often leaving out vowels.  Both the filenames and extensions have a lot more flexibility now but some tricks can still help.

When you are sorting files to find items, it is helpful to use the alphabetical sorting option.  But what if you have a dozen files that start with 'M', or what if you have an important file you want to be easy to find.  Try some of these tricks:

• add a '1' to the beginning of the file (to sort to the top)


• add a '!' to the beginning of the file (to sort to the very top)


• add a 'z' to the beginning of the file (to sort to the bottom)

Previously, you couldn't add spaces into file names, but now they are open game. The operating system might still truncate the file name but you will probably not ever really see the truncated version.  But adding longer file names can help you find things easier when you need them. Using underscores or dashes will allow you separate one part of a filename from another.

Finally, since you are allowed greater lengths it can be helpful to name files with the date it was created or the date it was created for.  When you do this it is good to keep in mind that this date won't change with each modification.  Also, because the computer sorts without regard to anything but the actual numbers it is useful to follow the YYYY-MM-DD pattern.  I discovered this because some programs by default use this to create folders for each day's work.  I add the date to the beginning of files that are date sensitive.

Another big help came when I realized I could use file names to help me sort student work.  When teaching PowerPoint™ to students I needed a way to organize their work fast.  I came up with this pattern #lastname,firstname.***  Where the # represents their class period and the * represents the appropriate extension

So give it a try and give it a name

Tech Tip Tuesday: What's in a name?

A while back we did a series on file extensions. File extensions are the 3 characters after the file name that tell the computer which program to use to open the file.  The extension allows you to control  your files by designating the default program used with various file types.

But what about the file name?  In the olden days of computers there were limits on both the extensions (3 characters) and the file names (8 characters). In those olden days those of us who were using computers came up with all kinds of clever tricks for shorthand with filenames.  Including adding the date or severe truncation and often leaving out vowels.  Both the filenames and extensions have a lot more flexibility now but some tricks can still help.

When you are sorting files to find items, it is helpful to use the alphabetical sorting option.  But what if you have a dozen files that start with 'M', or what if you have an important file you want to be easy to find.  Try some of these tricks:

• add a '1' to the beginning of the file (to sort to the top)


• add a '!' to the beginning of the file (to sort to the very top)


• add a 'z' to the beginning of the file (to sort to the bottom)

Previously, you couldn't add spaces into file names, but now they are open game. The operating system might still truncate the file name but you will probably not ever really see the truncated version.  But adding longer file names can help you find things easier when you need them. Using underscores or dashes will allow you separate one part of a filename from another.

Finally, since you are allowed greater lengths it can be helpful to name files with the date it was created or the date it was created for.  When you do this it is good to keep in mind that this date won't change with each modification.  Also, because the computer sorts without regard to anything but the actual numbers it is useful to follow the YYYY-MM-DD pattern.  I discovered this because some programs by default use this to create folders for each day's work.  I add the date to the beginning of files that are date sensitive.

Another big help came when I realized I could use file names to help me sort student work.  When teaching PowerPoint™ to students I needed a way to organize their work fast.  I came up with this pattern #lastname,firstname.***  Where the # represents their class period and the * represents the appropriate extension

So give it a try and give it a name

Wednesday Web of the Week: Prezi U

Web Address: http://edu.prezi.com/

Super Short post because the information is already there for you, Prezi has created a new educational community for sharing materials, tips and tricks to using Prezi to teach.  Learn about the announcement here!

Wednesday Web of the Week: Prezi U

Web Address: http://edu.prezi.com/

Super Short post because the information is already there for you, Prezi has created a new educational community for sharing materials, tips and tricks to using Prezi to teach.  Learn about the announcement here!

Tuesday Tech Tip: Take Note!

The other day I was in a meeting and needed a colleagues email.  I was pulling out my phone and looking for a quick way to take note of it.  I had lost my favorite notes app on my Android phone, so I was scrambling to find a way to jot down this email, (I don't know why but I didn't want to open Contacts).  While I am frantically scrambling around, my colleague pulls out a tiny notebook, writes his email with a pen and then tears out the sheet and hands it to me.

Sometimes low tech is faster!

In another meeting, one of my other colleages was talking about the importance of having an Ubiquitous Capture Device. Well, that is simply something you can use to record things as you think of them.  Something like this!



Something as simple as a few index card held together with a binder clip can greatly enhance your chance of recording and remembering something.

When you pair this with apps on your phone, you can also digitize this.  EverNote a website, App (for iOS and Android) and Desktop Client, allows you to take notes on all kinds of things and one of my favorites, take photos to add to notebooks.  When I am done with a paper that I want to capture the information from, I use EverNote to snap a picture and add it to the appropriate notebooks.  Then I can recycle the paper, of course, you could also just put a date on the index card and put it in a recipe box for a low tech solution.

Tuesday Tech Tip: Take Note!

The other day I was in a meeting and needed a colleagues email.  I was pulling out my phone and looking for a quick way to take note of it.  I had lost my favorite notes app on my Android phone, so I was scrambling to find a way to jot down this email, (I don't know why but I didn't want to open Contacts).  While I am frantically scrambling around, my colleague pulls out a tiny notebook, writes his email with a pen and then tears out the sheet and hands it to me.

Sometimes low tech is faster!

In another meeting, one of my other colleages was talking about the importance of having an Ubiquitous Capture Device. Well, that is simply something you can use to record things as you think of them.  Something like this!



Something as simple as a few index card held together with a binder clip can greatly enhance your chance of recording and remembering something.

When you pair this with apps on your phone, you can also digitize this.  EverNote a website, App (for iOS and Android) and Desktop Client, allows you to take notes on all kinds of things and one of my favorites, take photos to add to notebooks.  When I am done with a paper that I want to capture the information from, I use EverNote to snap a picture and add it to the appropriate notebooks.  Then I can recycle the paper, of course, you could also just put a date on the index card and put it in a recipe box for a low tech solution.

Teaching is hard work

I have been out of the classroom for a while. We took a small hiatus from our face to face classes in order to renew our agendas and syllabi. But for the last two days I toughs PowerPoint 2010for teachers. Wee do just the basics, inserting text, images, audio video, and the other basic content types. It was so much fun to actually teach again. I have been teaching my college class, but it is somehow much different. There is a sense of lightheartedness about teaching teachers who don't get a grade and who really see what this is going to mean in their classroom. It was a long hard two days though because I forgot what it takes emotionally to be on for 8 hours solid. But a lot of things came together to really make it work. I chose a new sample project on Internet Safety which worked very well and is something all the teachers could relate to. I then chose a new model project to show off how to get resources and Amphibians was a great choice too because there are RS if resources available. It also makes a good model for story boarding. All in all a very good couple of days.

Web of the Week Wednesday: Collaborate Instantly!

Web Address: http://todaysmeet.com

There are lots of great tools for online collaboration but some are much quicker than others.  One of those is Today's Meet.  Today's Meet allows you to quickly create a room where you can have others contribute to a conversation.  This works as a back channel or chat while you can be discussing something else.  It can also work very well to take questions from a large class.

One feature which can be very helpful is the expiration date.  Today's Meet expires after a set time period making it great for use during an activity that you don't need to archive.  Finally, it works really well from portable devices like iPods, Android devices and other tablets.

Web of the Week Wednesday: Collaborate Instantly!

Web Address: http://todaysmeet.com

There are lots of great tools for online collaboration but some are much quicker than others.  One of those is Today's Meet.  Today's Meet allows you to quickly create a room where you can have others contribute to a conversation.  This works as a back channel or chat while you can be discussing something else.  It can also work very well to take questions from a large class.

One feature which can be very helpful is the expiration date.  Today's Meet expires after a set time period making it great for use during an activity that you don't need to archive.  Finally, it works really well from portable devices like iPods, Android devices and other tablets.