23 Mobile Things: 23. Evaluate 23 Mobile Things

I DID IT. I DID IT!

IT TOOK MONTHS, BUT I DID IT!

Alright, not the most efficient process I've ever gone through, but hey -- an accomplishment is an accomplishment.

So here I am. Thing 23 of 23 Mobile Things.

I've been asked to evaluate the process and experience. I guess I could do that. Here are my thoughts:
1) I learned about a few new apps. The person who challenged me to do this likely thought it would be more supportive of my work than my own personal use, but overwhelmingly my discoveries were related to my not-work life. Maybe I did it wrong, but I appreciate the discoveries.
2) I'd recommend trying this if you've thought about it. If nothing else, you have some decent topics to blog and share about. Ain't nothin' wrong with that.
3) If I had a critique, it would be exclusion of non-media specialists from the "official program." I mean, I get it -- you've got to be able to manage it somehow. It's all good.

Alright, I'm keeping this short and sweet because it's all I can manage at the moment.
Tack för att du kom med på resan.

23 Mobile Things: 22. Discovering Apps

When I was 22 years old, I discovered what it meant to finally have a big person job. I discovered it was cooler to be in college. I suppose 22 and discovery are inextricably connected forever.

So yeah, Thing 22 is all about discovering apps. This thing suggests I use one of their fancy search methods to discover new apps, and so I shall.

Internal dialogue: "Let's see, Elizeduction, what shall we search for today?"
Responding internal dialogue which is also named Elizeducation: "Hmmm...I don't know, what do you think?"
Internal dialogue: "How about apple orchards? You plan to go to the orchard tomorrow!"
Responding internal dialogue which is also named Elizeducation: "My god, you're a genius!"
Internal dialogue: "You too, Elizeducation. You too."

So, I used Quixey, an app search engine, to see what I could find out about Minnesota apple orchards. It didn't go well. My internal dialogue reminded me that something so specific is probably stupid to search for. Please note, I didn't intend for this to be a teachable moment or anything. I was honestly just being stupid.

Alright, alright...new topic: Discovering new music!

So after a quick search, I found a bunch of apps I already have (Shazam, SoundCloud, Soundwave), but also one I didn't -- Discovr.

So I tried it. It's rad. I found good musics. Recommended. Buy it.

That's all.

Bye.

23 Mobile Things: 21. Free-for-all

So, I'm not completely flaky.

After taking an extended 'break,' I'm returning to actually complete the 23 Mobile Things challenge! Let's chalk up my timeline to this thing called 'summer' and the old adage that slow and steady wins the race. Yeah...that's it.

Alright, so it turns out Thing 23 is a free-for-all. The description says I'm supposed to share about an app I love.

Whilst my relationships with apps tend to be more at the "hey, let's just be friends" kind of level, there are a handful of apps I just might qualify with love. While our romance is nearly entirely one sided (yes, I'm getting the most out of this relationship), the wonderful thing is that my apps never complain. They never feel neglected, worthless, or complain when I forget their birthday. I must not be such a bad partner after all.

So app, that I love...who are you?

I suppose the app I currently love the most would be GateGuru. I'm just coming off a summer and early fall full of travel, and GateGuru turned out to be a companion worth keeping. Time at the airport can actually be pretty great if you do a little research, and GateGuru does all the heavy lifting. You can find out specific amenities by gate, ratings on the available restaurants, detailed maps to make sure you find where you're going, and it also keeps track of your flights. My favorite part, however, has the be the "tips" tab. Users can post tips such as what to order at certain restaurants, which bathrooms are the cleanest or least busy, and which stands to go to so you don't end up spending $10 on a candy bar. All around handy stuff for the frequent flyer.

So there you have it...a love story for the 21st Century. GateGuru + Elizeducation = <3

Is School an Inspiring Place to Work?

...my guess is your first thought was, "yes." My second guess is it has something to do with your perception of this grandiose and oversimplified idea that working with kids is the single most gratifying thing you can do on earth.

And truthfully, I don't disagree. My time in the classroom was gratifying beyond explanation. No person I've ever tried to articulate it to (outside of fellow teachers) truly understood how much I loved being a part of my student's lives, and how damn hard I worked because of them. And that's fine. It comes with the territory.

That said, I'm not talking about the kind of inspiration teachers get from their kids. There's plenty of that to go around. Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the inspiration that comes from above.

How do leaders create the conditions for teachers to feel inspired? To have a sense of belonging? To feel empowered and valued as the professionals they are?

Last week I had the privilege of attending the EdLeader21 conference in Atlanta, and Russ Quaglia was a featured speaker. Dr. Quaglia's work for the better part of FOREVER has focused on bringing student voice into the classroom, and the rich impact it has on learning.

He also touched on teacher voice.

Now, here it is. I've thought a lot about student voice and how critical it is. As a teacher, it was at the forefront of my mind every day. Exaggerate, I do not. It was something I decided early on in my career was a non-negotiable, and I made every attempt to get to know my students, take a genuine interest in their thoughts, passions, and dreams, and authentically incorporate them into the learning. It was fun. So damn fun.

Now that I'm out of the classroom, I've done a much crappier job of being so attentive to teacher voice, and the more I think about it, the more I realize how equally important it is.

While I'm beyond happy with the professional choices I've made, if I ever daydream about another career, it always involves working in some hip startup with open walls, convertible seating arrangements, rooms full of whiteboard, and sticky notes, and evidence of deliberation, the cliche pool table, and the prosaic bring-your-dog-to-work employee policy.

Why is it a daydream? No, it's not because the fridges are always stocked with quinoa salads and I can wear a T-shirt confirming my support for marriage equality (not to say those things aren't pretty rad).

It's because environments built for innovation and thought and positive deviants breed innovation and thought and positive deviants. And those breed ideas, and they're put into place, and the consequences of creative inspiration become tangible solutions.

Ok, ok -- I'll step back. I have many friends who work in the aforementioned types of places, and it's the not exactly the rosy picture I've painted. But it does speak to a concerted effort on the part of leaders to value the thoughts, ideas, and contributions of the professionals they employ.

How do we create similar opportunities and conditions for teachers? How do we lay the foundations for quality and research based initiatives whilst considering the voice of teachers who are the only ones who can anticipate what it will look like in their classrooms? How do we value new ideas and radical intentions within the constraints of countless protocols, standards, and six period days?

How do we afford the same respect, voice, and dignity to teachers that we require they exhibit to their students? There are lots of ways, and I think we've got many in place. But it's far from a finished exercise, and every educator who plays a part in crafting the teachers' everyday experience should be considering the question.

What Can I Say...It's Summer...

...and I live on routines. 

When those routines become disrupted, or rather adjusted, new routines take their place. And what can I say? My most recent routines just haven't really included writing. Apologies. My blog is, well, pretty lame at the moment.

That said, I've been spending most of my time professionally doing all kinds of consuming and far less creating. I've been doing an awful lot of reading, which in turn has led to an awful lot of thinking. I'm sure at some point, that will translate into an awful lot of writing.

In the mean time, don't hold your breath. Enjoy the sun, and look for more consistent writing in the near-ish future.

C'mon now...I've got to finish my 23 Mobile Things at the very least. I mean, who stops at number 20? Not cool. 

23 Mobile Things: 20. Games

Fact: I've made it to 20. This is good.

Fact: I've ran out of steam to make clever or interesting number introductions as I have in previous posts. It might be 'that time of year.'

Anyhow, I've got four left, so let's get to it. This post is all about games.

I've got little to no interest in mobile games. At any given time, I have 1 or 2 games that I play semi-regularly. And by semi-regularly I mean before bed when I'm lying around and don't have much else to do.

Right now, that game is Ruzzle.

For this particular Thing, there is a nice long list of games recommended to try. If I had even a small amount of motivation to do so, I might just try some of them myself. That said...I really don't. I'm going to gracefully bow out on this one, and really rock it on #21. I mean, really rock it out -- you don't want to miss this one folks!

<<cliffhanger>>

Choose Your Own Adventure #EdCampTC

You remember those books, don't you? Choose your own adventure? So great. Was I the only strange kid that immediately tried to choose the path that resulted in the most horrible things happening?

Yeah, I might be.

Anyhow, the selling point of the "choose your own adventure" genre was the ability to have control over outcomes. To tap into your own interests and give you as many pathways as possible. Sometimes the outcomes were desirable, sometimes not so much, but ultimately the choice in process outweighed the outcome anyhow. The process was user-driven.

The same appeal applies to EdCamps. If you've never been to an EdCamp or heard of them before, the basic premise is that the entire conference is user-driven. The content, structure and outcomes are all determined by the participants. Everyone is simultaneously an expert and a learner.

Here is a short video shared by Byron Public School's Jen Hegna from their in-district #EdCamp. It does a nice job of summing up how EdCamps generally work.

I bring all this up because this past weekend I had the privilege of attending #EdCampTC (Ed Camp Twin Cities). In the past, I've also attending #EdCampMSP and #EdCampMN -- All highly recommended events. Using what you learned in the above video, take a look at the schedule that was generated this weekend for #EdCampTC: SO MANY GOOD SESSIONS. So much learning driven by the interests of people in the crowd.

Take a moment. Think about the possibilities here. The possibilities when the people in the room dictate the direction of the day.

The possibilities for me are ones that I hold a high appreciation for: authentic collaboration, relevancy, inspiration, connections, and a whole lot more.

I'm sure many who read this blog are already familiar with EdCamps. This post isn't necessarily for you. It's for anyone who might come across this post who has never attended one. If you fall into that category, I highly recommend you seek one out in your area. You'll leave feeling invigorated, you'll likely make connections with people you'll stay connected with, and if nothing else, you'll definitely get your voice heard.

Find a list of upcoming EdCamps here

23 Mobile Things: 19. Hobbies

Have you all seen that show 19 Kids and Counting? Whoa.

I mean, that's really all I have to say about that.

Thing 19 of 23 Mobile Things is all about hobbies. While having kids may not be a hobby of mine, there's no doubt that nearly any hobby has an app to support it. 

Knowing there are thousands of apps that could fit into this category, this Thing went ahead and chose a few random apps to focus on that support a wide range of interests. Let it be highlighted that two just happen to focus on wine as a hobby. I didn't mind. 

That said, none of the apps really piqued my interest other than Spotify, which I use all the time already. For that reason, I brainstormed 5 random hobbies of mine, and attempted to seek out a few miscellaneous apps that support them. 

Hobby 1: Coupons - I'm such a nerd about coupons, but it's amazing how long I've put off signing up for all the fun coupon-y and save-y apps. I finally caved and downloaded Shopkick. May the annoying push notifications and points obsession take over my life. 

Hobby 2: Roller Derby - Turns out apps related to Roller Derby are either timers for our illustrious refs (like this one) or games (like this one). Not much out there to support derby players themselves or derby as a hobby. 

Hobby 3: College Hockey - It's a weird time to be downloading college hockey apps seeing as my beloved Gophers just rounded out their season (in a slightly disappointing way). That said, that Fargo game during the Frozen Four made it all worth it. Anyhow, I'll be primed and ready for next season after having come across the College Hockey News app. 

Hobby 4: Organic, Sustainable Foods - I found 2 apps that I'm super excited about. It's just about CSA season, so I downloaded Riverford Veg Recipes. It works by having you enter 2 or 3 vegetables you have on hand, then generates recipes to match the combination. Super handy when you get odd veggies or an unexpected abundance of something in your Summer CSA. With summer also comes Farmer's Market time! Yippee! For that, I happened across Eat Local. It will help you learn what’s in season anywhere in the US and available at local farmers’ markets. Complete with directions by car, bike, foot, or public transportation. I'm hungry.

Hobby 5: Local Fun - I love to travel. I mean, I know people say that a lot, but seriously. I love to travel. When I do, I'm not super keen on the tourist destinations, but instead love to find local hotspots that give you a feel for the city. I didn't quite find what I was looking for, but I did find something awfully handy for international travel. In my searches, I came across the World Customs app, which gives you access to customs and traditions for 165 countries. I can think of many times in my travels when having a quick heads up on local greetings, gestures, and taboos would have come in very handy. 

Hobbies, hobbies, hobbies. Oh how fun they are.

23 Mobile Things: 18. Education

Catch-22 was originally supposed to be named Catch-18 to represent the significance of the number in the Hebrew language. The author opted to change the name to 22 in order to avoid confusion with another novel, Mila 18.

I guess it's kind of a Catch-18 that the phrase Catch-22 became extremely popular while not maintaining the integrity of the author's original idea.

Oh well.

So 18. Thing 18 is all about Education. And here I was trying to apply all the other ones to Education :)

This things starts off by prefacing that there are a lot of apps in education, which we all know. The lists are endless and ever growing. This Thing then goes on to share a "mishmash" of interesting apps that spread across various grade levels and subject areas.

I've had a chance to play around with most of these, but a few were new. Therefore, I decided to jump in and check them out. The four apps that were new to me were artCircles, B-Rhymes Dictionary, colAR Mix and Show of Hands. Here are my thoughts:

artCircles: Great app for art or any time when using meaningful visuals would be a good idea. Offers various "circles" of categories such as Nature, Texture or Colors. Within each circle are various components, and each component is tied to a visual gallery. The interface is fantastic.

B-Rhymes Dictionary: iPhone only. The tag line is finding words that "almost rhyme," with the purpose being that students will find words that sound good together. When I search for "animal," the first three returns I get are "trigeminal, seminal, and sentinel."  A search for "orange" (intentional trick!) returns "lozenge, goldfinch, and scavenge." I see very limited though interesting educational uses, but it's a bummer that the process for getting to the actual definition of the returned words is cumbersome.

colAR Mix: This app sounds super cool -- apparently it turns drawings into 3D images. However, I couldn't figure out how it works. I might be dumb. Also lots of in-app purchases. I'll not so sure.

Show of Hands: A real time anonymous polling tool. At first I assumed this would be like a polleverywhere tool where the teacher could poll students in the classroom. Instead, it's an open polling medium wherein students could explore the poll results to various questions posted by users that are as in depth as "The UN Panel on Climate Change has issued a report calling for a 70% reduction in global carbon emissions within 30 years, and complete elimination by 2100. Do you think it's doable?" or as superficial as "Coke or Diet Coke?" While viewing each result, you can segregate by gender, age, income, state, and political party. Could lead to some interesting discussions.

Alright. I must know...what are your favorite Education apps?

23 Mobile Things: 17. Connecting to Community

17 is known as the 'least random number.'

In multiple studies replicated multiple times, when asked to give a random number between 1-20, humans overwhelming report 17.

Weird.

What's not weird is reporting on Thing 17 of 23 Mobile Things.

Connecting to Community. This is something incredibly important to me, and something that has become infinitely expanded with mobile technologies. You can connect with anyone, anywhere, anytime, about anything. It's no surprise This Thing boasts far, far more app suggestions than any other thing to date. In fact, the possibilities for connection via mobile devices is so robust that This Thing narrowed itself specifically to connecting in Minnesota.

Being a lover of all things Minnesota and a well established NE Minneapolitan, I've tried out a few of the suggested apps. Some of my favorites are:

• MPR Radio (cue guilty feeling if you are not already a member)
• Highlights of the Superior Hiking Trail (yay summer!)
• Minneapolis Skyway (8 miles of protection from our hideous winters)
• Minnesota State Fair (my derby teammate's name is Ana Stick to fully honor this esteemed and annual occasion)

A few I haven't tried from the list that sound positively intriguing:

• MN Museums (total museum junky)
• Enjoy Red Wing (total SE Minnesota bluffs and Red Wing Shoes junky)
• Going Out from Star Tribune (total nightlife and good food junky)
• Minnesota Beer Activists (total craft beer junky)

So...if you'd ever like to listen to MPR while hiking the Superior Hiking Trail followed by lunch in the Minneapolis Skyway preceded by some serious people watching at the Minnesota State Fair after a leisurely stroll through one of our many amazing MN Museums while wearing our Red Wing Boots before Going Out for the night and drinking a delicious beer suggested by Minnesota Beer Activists we may just be best friends.

So there you go. Your mobile device is your connection to all things wonderful in Minnesota. For those of you outside our regal borders, if I haven't convinced you to visit yet, you must be crazy. Just don't let those pesky 95° and humid or -40° with -60° wind chills scare you. There are like 5, 6 days a year that are actually quite pleasant.  

Kids Aren't Motivated By Technology

Seriously.

The same way I'm not motivated by a toilet. It's a tool I use every single day. It's exceptionally useful, I assure you. But I don't jump out of bed ready to take on the day because I have access to it -- I take it for granted because it's a part of my everyday life.

I feel very fortunate for having the privilege of teaching in a 1:1 classroom for 4 years prior to my colleagues. I have vivid memories of hearing from the other teachers in the school about how my students must love my class because they get to play on the computer. It's not surprising they behave well because they know they'll lose their computer privileges if they don't.

I used to take offense to such statements. HUGE offense.

Nobody in my classroom ever lost their computer "privileges." They never lost their pencil "privileges" either.

What good would it be to dangle the computer as a carrot? About as good as dangling the toilet I suppose :)

I wanted them to learn in ways they never could have imagined, and the computer made that possible. It wasn't the jolly rancher I handed out for behaving the right way.

Fast forward 5 years and I no longer take offense to those statements from my past. Teachers in my school have had 1:1 technology in their classrooms for the last 2 years and they've learned better than anyone that technology does not motivate students. That having 1:1 devices does not make classroom management easier. In fact, sometimes it makes management harder knowing we have an obligation to provide personalized, innovative and engaging learning experiences -- and we've got all the tools we need to do it. No excuses.

They've learned first hand that what motivates students now is what has always motivated students.

Relationships.
Engaging content.
Relevancy to their lives.
Collaboration.
Creating something new.
Being a part of something special.
Being successful.
Knowing you care.
Community.
And so much more.

As a teacher with 1:1 technology, I loved sending a message to a student to let them know I cared about how well they were doing. I loved seeing the way kids felt connected when they shared projects with ePals in Kazakstan, Germany and Japan. My favorite days were spent guiding kids as they created videos to raise money for causes they felt deeply committed to. I will never forget the way they would smile when they realized that a website could be read to them so that they could finally understand it. I was driven by seeing them motivated and times when they were so deeply connected to their work.

I'd love to say technology is the key to motivation. I'd love to share rosy anecdotes about homework completion skyrocketing when we put iPads in classrooms, and standardized test scores shooting through the roof.

If I did, it wouldn't be because of the iPads. I'd be because of the way we used them. Because of the experiences we created with them (and without them) every day.

Technology doesn't motivate kids. But you do.

23 Mobile Things: 16. Audio

Fact: On my 16th birthday I took my driver's license test.
Double Fact: I got the lowest possible score you can receive and still pass.

Oh, to be 16 again.

At least we can be this 16 -- Thing 16 of 23 Mobile Things.

This one's all about audio. It's pretty sweet actually -- the mobile devices our students carry around every day double as audio recording devices. I like to imagine the kids walking around all day recording a "Note to Self" a la Norm Macdonald, but I'm not quite sure it works that way.

Nevertheless, there are plenty of useful reasons why we would have our kids use mobile devices for audio recording. I think of young readers recording themselves to evaluate fluency, or teachers recording to model fluency. Our teachers have recorded their voices as a test modification, and our students have created mock radio shows or podcasts. Our choir and band teachers have asked students to record their singing/playing so they're able to critique it or send it to the teacher for feedback. Other students have recorded their voices over movies or presentations to enhance the product. All pretty legit and awesome uses of this technology.

When it comes to apps, our teachers and kids use a few for recording purposes. Among the most popular are Audioboo and Voice Recorder Pro. I'd say most prefer the latter.

This Thing also suggests ipadio and SoundCloud. I haven't used either, so I decided to give them both a shot.

First up -- ipadio:
This is a pretty simple app and a cool concept. But I'm not going to dig into it any further. Reason being: I work in a middle school, and right off the bat the app requests that you register, enter your first and last name, email address and even a phone number. Wha?

If you get beyond the registration page, a list of not so kid friendly terms of use pop up which are meant to be cheeky, but wouldn't fly well in the middle school classroom.

I'm sure the functionality of this app is great...I just don't see it working for our purposes.

Next up -- SoundCloud
This one also requires registration (sad face), but at least it can be logged in through a Google Account (which our kids have). I can get on board with that. Once in, SoundCloud immediately requests your musical preferences. You see, beyond being a recording app, SoundCloud's primary purpose is to expose you to new music. After selecting your preferences, a unique "stream" is created for you to promote music you might like.

The allure of SoundCloud is that you can VERY EASILY record audio and share it with an authentic audience. I like the concept -- our kids could share their original musical compositions, poetry, writing, singing, etc. with a real life audience with ease. The recording and sharing process is easy to use and seamlessly integrated into the app.

I'm not 100% sure it's middle school approved (some of the music is inappropriately named, we'd need terms of use approval, and I haven't been able to give it a long look-over). That said, even if the teacher managed and shared the content, it could be a great way to expose student creation to the world.

Well there it is.

Until next time, keep listening.

23 Mobile Things: 15. Infographics

Do you guys play tennis? I don't. I'm not trying to knock tennis because I actually think it's really entertaining to watch, but what's with all the weird scoring? Love, then 15, then 30 (ok...so double?), then 40 (nope...no double...no add 15...just a random 40), then Game. Wait, what?

Alright, sure, it's weird. But 15 is the first point scored in tennis, and Thing 15 scores major points. I guess we'll call that a win.

Thing 15 is all about Infographics, and I'm all for nonlinguistic representations that help our students better understand the information that inundates our world.

Not familiar with Infographics? They're essentially visual summarizations of data common to a particular topic.

For example, here is an Infographic about Infographics.

Alright, so Thing 15 offers up several apps that help us build or find Infographics. These apps include Infographics Hub, Info.Graphics, i Visual Info Touch Lite, and Visualize Free. Of these 4, the only one I haven't tried is i Visual Info Touch Lite. Both Infographics Hub and Info.Graphics are nice for finding Infographics. Visualize Free is a fine app, but I don't necessarily think of it as an Infographic builder -- it's more like a media filled poster creator. You could use it to build an Infographic, but I think of it more along the lines of a simplified Glogster.

Truthfully, I've always been disappointed in the free infographic builder options available on the iPad. I've always wanted to find something like a Piktochart or Easel.ly that works well on an iOS device. For that reason, I was excited to try out i Visual Info Touch Lite.

My thoughts...

Super easy to use, but just like Visualize Free I see it a bit more as a poster builder that can be used for infographics. That said, kids would pick it up quickly, but the lack of features compared to Visualize Free are pretty disappointing. I wish there was a "duplicate" feature and a "send to back/send to front" feature, but I could survive without them. You cannot change fonts, and there is no multiline text so each line needs to be a new text box. A few other features seem to be MIA as well. The HUGE missing link, however, is you cannot import a picture saved to the camera roll. That seems a bit ridiculous to not include. There is a full version app that retails for $2.99...it's hard to say whether it's worth the investment or not based on what's available in the free version.

In about 15 minutes, I made this quick Infographic about Spring Lake Park Schools, which is the district I work for:

If you ever find a great Infographic creator for the iPad, do share! I know my teachers would love to be able to explore this type of creation.