Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer

Great Ideas from the Fall 2011 DEN Virtual Conference (part 1)

This is my part 1 of my notes from the Discovery Educators Network Fall Virtual Conference (“Tech or Treat”) on October 22, 2011. (Part 2 notes are also available) MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS.

Fall 2011 Discovery Educators Network Virtual Conference

First we heard from Traci Blazosky, sharing her presentation, “The Monster Mash-Up.” Resources from her preso are on her wiki, files used for the Batty Mashup project are on: http://ge.tt/9JxVoy8

First example of a mashup video we saw about dolphins, created by teachers in the summer 2011 DEN institute

Kids love writing scripts, gets them writing and writing creativity
– kids get reading and writing skills during script writing work
– also good for collaborative learning
– great for reading with expression!

Blabberize is a great tool for media mashups
– doesn’t let you directly download creations as videos, however, you have to capture a screencast of your Blabberize

Voki is also great, however, and does allow you to download creations as videos for remixes / other videos

Next example we saw: Paper Slide video about where milk comes from (by teachers)

Traci did a great job describing the process she uses helping kids create media projects: dividing into groups, using a rubric, etc.

Traci Blazosky's Cauldron of Digital Goodies

Next we heard from Nancy Sharoff sharing her preso, “No Tricks, Just Treats.”

IPEVO camera: just $70 for a document camera!

Echo Livescribe pen
– records audio as you write
– 3 types of pens: 2 GB $100, 4 GB $150, 8 GB $200
– strongly recommend the 4 or 8 GB because it gives you access to “live Scribe Connect Premium” so you can upload those “pen casts” and then embed them onto webpages, Google Docs, etc.

Great writing activity: Wordless picture books
– students see images and have to write the text for the story AND record the audio for the book
– these can be shared with students in lower grades
– Livescribe pen can be used by students to create these

Livescribe pen features

iPod Touch and iPad are in my digital backpack

EyeFi Camera Card is great for digital cameras to directly share/upload
– replace your standard SD card in your digital camera with this one, configure it for your wifi network and it will directly upload images
– Best Buy is running a current sale on these in my area
– you can add up to 32 different wifi networks on the card
– Also an app is available from EyeFi if you own a card

iHome Capsule Speakers are GREAT for presentations ($30 on Amazon, even come in purple!)

my Smartphone is in my bag too!

Now applications from Nancy:

I use Evernote on ALL my devices
– supports searchable text from an image, it’s wonderful!

I use Quickoffice Pro HD ($20) on my iPad to create and edit MS Office files, if you store them on your Evernote account they merge seamlessly

Evernote brings along URLs
– is free, premium account is $45 per year
– the free account has been sufficient for me

Dropbox is fantastic free app
– I love how it transfers just the parts of files that change, not the entire file when you update something
– great for sharing large files with other people

Box.net gives you 4 GB instead of Dropbox’ 2 GB currently

PDAnet lets you tether your Android-based smartphone for FREE to your other devices (computers, tablets, etc)

Jing is my go-to app for screen casting
– great to take short videos of what you see on your computer monitor
– Pro version of Jing is $15 per year, can upload to YouTube and there aren’t ads… also you can add a webcam to your mix of video

Jing has a free iPad app: Screenchomp
ShowMe is another great screen casting option on the iPad (free too, some different options)

Bump is a great free app for smartphones and i-devices
– not just for contact sharing!
– you can share images from device to device, even between your own apps (Droid phone to iPad, for example)
– you can share a LOT with Bump!

Goodreader for my iPad ($5)
– basically a PDF reader but so much more
– can highlight and do all kinds of annotations
– can zoom in up to 50x on Goodreader
– I have all my user manuals for all my devices in Goodreader
– all the PDFs I have even for software I’ll put in there so I can access/use them when needed

Instapaper saves webpages for offline reading
– great for me because I’m in a rural area and don’t always have connectivity
– can download up to 500 articles

iPad Browsers:
Duet Browsers: it’s 2 browsers on 1 screen ($3)
– my 2nd favorite is Side by Side Browser – free (also supports taking notes directly on webpages)

Other browser options (from webinar participants) are iSwifter (free) and Diigo Browser – free (supports annotation and offline access)

SymbalooEDU is another great tool
– I used this for photo apps for the summer institute

BrainPop is great, my district subscribes to BrainPop Junior
– the iPad app is free, but for $1.99 per month you get a featured movie plus several more related to the focus concept

Great iPad apps for images for your students:
Guardian Eyewitness (free)
5,000 Amazing Photos of the Day – free (National Geographic)
GeoWalk HD – $3

Great iPad apps for digital storytelling:
Coolibah – – – Skrappy – $3
Album App – 42
ScrapPad ($5)
Smilebox – free
Demibooks Composer – free

Remember all of Nancy’s GREAT session links (more than I captured here) are on https://sites.google.com/site/nancysharoff/tech-or-treat
– follow Nancy Sharoff on Twitter: @nsharoff

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One response to “Great Ideas from the Fall 2011 DEN Virtual Conference (part 1)”

  1. Nancy Sharoff Avatar
    Nancy Sharoff

    WOW!  I am truly (and humbly) impressed.  I couldn’t have done a better recap (and I DID the presentation! LOL).  Glad you could join us and I hope you came away with a treat or two for your ‘tech bag’.