Vol. 1, Issue 4 May 21, 2013
Tech News Tuesday weekly eNewsletter IN THIS ISSUE Cool Tool of the Week – HowtoSMILE.org and Journey North Student Tech Mentors Online Resource of the Week – Evernote Clearly Mobile App of the Week – Math Champ Trending Topic – Rethinking Acceptable Use Polices to Enable Digital Learning Office Tip of the Week – Mail Merge multiple rows into one document in Microsoft Word Presentation Tip of the Week – Prezi.com Bonus Tip! – How to setup MCS email on Smartphone, Android, iPhone, iPad
TECH NEWS TUESDAY
| Vol. 1, Issue 4 – MAY 21, 2013
1
Table of Contents Tech News Tuesday eNewsletter will take a break during the Summer but will be back in the new school year 2013-2014 with weekly issues and upcoming Special Editions including indepth focused Professional Development. Have a great Summer!
Page 1
Page 2
Page 2 WEEKLY ENEWSLETTER PROVIDING INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY STAFF RESOURCES
Cool Tool of the Week
Page 3
How to SMILE is an online community of educators who have vetted more than 3,400 engaging hands-on, interactive STEM activities. (“SMILE” stands for Science and Math Informal Learning Educators.) SMILE has been a major project at UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science and its partner institutions since 2008. How to SMILE is a pathway (an audiencespecific branch) of the National Science Digital Library (NSDL.org). With both desktop and mobile capabilities, How to SMILE is full of activities that are both physical and virtual. Topics include Chemistry, Mathematics, Ocean Literacy, Climate, Energy, Life Sciences, Cooking and Astronomy.
Journey North is a free, Internetbased program that explores the interrelated aspects of seasonal change. Through interrelated investigations, students discover that sunlight drives all living systems, and they learn about the dynamic ecosystem that surrounds and connects them. Students study seasonal change in sunlight in a global game of hide and seek called Mystery Class. And they follow animal migrations, observing, conducting research and reporting findings as they watch journeys progress on live maps. Engaging stories, photos, videos and slideshows from the natural world build observation skills, inspire scientific thinking and create fertile ground for discussions and new questions.
www.howtosmile.org
www.learner.org/jnorth
Page 3
Page 4
Page 4
Page 4
Visit the Tech News Tuesday feedback page Current and Past Editions
Modesto City Schools | Office of Instructional Technology www.mcs4kids.com/mcsit
TECH NEWS TUESDAY
| Vol. 1, Issue 4 – MAY 21, 2013
2 ISTE NETS-S
ISTE NETS S for Students
(weekly words of weekly wisdom)
Student Tech Mentors of the Week
MAKE
Edmodo is a socia learning platform for teachers, students, and parents. It has the look of Facebook but with educational applications. On Edmodo, teachers are at the center of a powerful network that connects them to students, administrators, and parents. In Edmodo’s secure environment, teachers and students can collaborate, share content, and use educational apps to augment inclassroom learning. These powerful capabilities enable teachers to personalize learning for every student. Edmodo is free.
by Bill Roe
Downey High School, ASB/Leadership, SDC-LH Teacher
I would like to nominate Jerel Constantino, a Senior here at Downey. He ran with the idea of developing social media pages for Downey this year, at my request, and has over 2300 likes and regular viewers, has multiple media sites, most of which are beyond me, and has done an excellent job tutoring me. He also has brought on recruits to take over for him to continue the tradition of excellence which we like here at Downey. LOVED working with Jerel. Jerel Constantino posted on the social media page he started, “It has been an absolute honor to serve as the head of ASB Publicity, and the creator and founder of the official TDHS Social Media Pages. I enjoyed my last 4 years at Downey, and especially
Online Resource of the Week
SOLVE
USE
FIND
the past year. I have dedicated countless Modesto City Schools has a districthours for the school and wide deployment of Edmodo. community that I adore TO LEARN MORE VISIT: so much, and it all has been worth it knowing that I've made a difference. I will be attending UC Santa Barbara for Political Science next year; and although I'm moving on to bigger things, I will never forget the students and staff of Downey High.” > Downey High School Social Media Page started by Jerel Constantino
http://evernote.com/clearly Distraction-free reading on the web brought to us from Evernote. With Evernote Clearly create the perfect online reading experience by clearing away everything but the content. Make it your own reading experience by choosing from several pre-set themes. Save it for later, if you don’t have time to finish reading, tap on the Evernote Clearly icon on your internet browsers toolbar to finish reading it later. > Evernote Clearly video
Stay tuned to Tech News Tuesday in the new school year 2013-2014 issues with more coverage of Evernote’s suite of productivity apps and tools.
> Getting Started with Using Evernote Clearly Guide
Modesto City Schools | Office of Instructional Technology www.mcs4kids.com/mcsit
TECH NEWS TUESDAY
| Vol. 1, Issue 4 – MAY 21, 2013
Mobile App of the Week
iPad, iPod, iPhone > Teacher Host App > Student Client App
3
Math Champ
http://goo.gl/5YTLz Math Champ offers a fresh approach to classroom math tests by mixing real-time content, gamification, friendly competition and a unique but collaborative learning environment. Math Champ is a neat system of two apps working together to deliver math challenges to your students, a teacher needs to “generate” a game using the HOST app, which has an existing bank of questions aligned around the Common Core Curriculum Standards (currently for grades 4–7). Students who have the CLIENT app installed on their iPad, iPhone or iPod touch use their device like a “clicker” to answer questions on their own device. The teacher’s app tracks valuable student metrics, including data over a number of quizzes. This happens silently in the background while students are slogging it out in a battle of the brains to win the “Math Champ” belt for the class. The app is available for downloading free of charge in the iTunes App Store. > Learn more about how to use Math Champ in your classroom video
Trending Topic of the week
Rethinking Acceptable Use Policies to Enable Digital Learning The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) has been assisting school districts in implementing policies and organizational changes to make effective use of social media, mobile technologies and other Web 2.0 applications for classroom learning. CoSN has recently released a refreshed acceptable use policy (AUP) guide titled “Rethinking Acceptable Use Policies to Enable Digital Learning: A Guide for School Districts.” Designed for all school districts in today’s digital media landscape, the updated resource tackles key questions and offers effective solutions to help districts rethink their AUPs. Resources: > Rethinking Acceptable Use Policies to Enable Digital Learning PDF Guide Modesto City Schools | Office of Instructional Technology www.mcs4kids.com/mcsit
TECH NEWS TUESDAY
| Vol. 1, Issue 4 – MAY 21, 2013
Office Tip of the week What a great way to spend the Summer then to update your skills in Microsoft Office! Sign up today for the free online training for MCS Employees to take selfpaced lessons on courses you choose in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and more. Your account is good for the full calendar year.
4
Mail Merge Multiple Rows into one document in Microsoft Word The video will show how you can Mail Merge multiple rows in a data source such as Excel and merge them onto one document. Traditionally without these steps Mail Merge would create a separate document for each new record or row in the data source.
> Click here for a flyer and how to sign up Beginning Mail Merge Training Looking for a beginner level training on using Mail Merge check out these resources: > Word 2010 self-paced tutorial > Word 2010 video tutorial
Presentation Tip of the Week
www.prezi.com
Resources: > Prezi Tutorial: Getting Started video > Prezi Manual Guide > Explore Prezi samples
Prezi is a free web-based presentation editor. The uniqueness of Prezi is that it creates a zooming and motion path to the presentation. Prezi allows storytelling using a single canvas instead of traditional slides. The zoomable canvas makes it fun to explore ideas.
BONUS TIP!
ADDING YOUR MCS EMAIL TO YOUR SMART PHONE
If you ever wanted to add your MCS email to your Android, iPhone, iPad, or iPod follow the directions at this link: > SmartPhone MCS Email Setup Link
Modesto City Schools | Office of Instructional Technology www.mcs4kids.com/mcsit