SMART Hackathon: 20+ Ideas Realized in 48 hours

9 Teams of SEEs and their
assigned SMART Developers

Gotta give 'em credit: the developers over at SMART Technologies are an amazing crew.  Last week, SMART Technologies hosted the 2014 Global SEE (SMART Exemplary Educators) Summit.  76+ SEEs attended from all over the globe.  The week was filled with opportunities for collaboration and innovation.  One such activity was the Hackathon where 13 of the 76 SEEs (myself included!) were able to work alongside SMART software development team members to share and realize ideas they had regarding feature requests, modifications and improvements.  Within 48 hours, 9 teams of SEEs and their assigned developers realized over 20 ideas.  These ideas were then shared with and voted upon by the other 60+ SEEs.  Many ideas were met with enthusiastic head nods while others evoked roars of applause.

What's truly incredible is that SMART Technologies took the time to listen to teachers about their product.  It was amazing to see them take our ideas and run with them, offering suggestions we hadn't even considered.  What other software company can say that they not only produce hardware and software solutions designed for teachers but also boasts that they allow teachers to influence the design and functionality of their products?  Not very many.

SMART Technologies definitely has a good head on their shoulders and are (as they have been) proving that they understand the needs of the 21st Century Teacher.  #SMARTcares

Screencastify: A Quick and Easy Screencasting Solution for your Chromebook!

To completely negate my previous post about the nonexistence of Chromebook screencasting solutions, I have since found a fantastic little extension called Screencastify.  This is EXACTLY what I've been waiting for since discovering that the only way to do a screencast on a Chromebook is to have a solo Hangout on Air.

Screencastify has the ability to record a tab or the entire desktop.  The Record Desktop feature works cross-platform: Windows, Mac or ChromeOS.  It can also record in various resolutions and with two different audio input configurations: system audio or microphone.

When the screencast is finished, it can be renamed and stored within the extension popup window until you download it (as a .webm file), upload it to YouTube or delete it.  Best part of all is that it's lightning quick. 

Now students w/ Chromebooks can quickly capture, narrate and share their learning with you, the teacher! 

Check out my screencast below and see for yourself!

Teacher Highlight: Ms. Bachara's First iPad Experience

Below is a brief slideshow of Ms. Bachara's initial takeaways from her first experience of using iPads in the classroom!  Enjoy!

Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad

Our First Step

Hello world!  

We are excited for the opportunity to share our BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology) journey with all of you!  To introduce ourselves, we are Robert Petitto and Cathernine Neumann, the PreK-5 and 6-12 (respectively) Instructional Technology Specialists for Valley View School District 365U in Romeoville, IL.  

For a bit of history, our district serves the educational needs of more than 17000 students in over 20 educational facilities across the Bolingbrook and Romeoville communities. Valley View School District 365U is one of Will County's largest employers, with more than 2000 full time employees.  

 Current barriers: 

cc licensed
flickr photo by seantoyer
http://flickr.com/photos/seanhobson/4504828599/

• a large student population spread out over 23 buildings

• non-existance of teacher PLNs

• an outdated wireless infrastructure currently housing about 10 SSIDs

• teacher and student laptops running Windows XP that have been known to take over 5-8 minutes to start up

• an outdated SIS that doesn't always "play nice" with the other 15 teacher and student information systems

• no social media policy for students and/or teachers to collaborate or share successes

• heavy restrictions for teachers to customize their technology.

• Restricted to IE7

• Cannot mirror iPads

• Cannot download software/apps

I'm sure you can only imagine the amount of work we have before us during our transition to BYOT.  Our greatest consideration and largest obstacle has always been the sheer size of out district. It's the principle reason we decided against adopting a true 1:1 program.  Not that a BYOT program is any less labor intensive, but with BYOT, we have the freedom to allocate funds into a more reliable infrastructure rather than into the devices themselves.  And let's face it, any classroom technology integration initiative should be purposed to foster student success.  With BYOT, students are free to bring in the device that they are most comfortable with!  

Speaking of success, here is a list of some recent successes:

• K,1,5 classrooms have standardized technology resources including mounted projectors, SMART Boards, and document cameras

• provided cloud access (Applications and Shared Drives) to select HS students

• piloted HoverCam T3 and Neo3 devices to replace current document cameras

• deployed carts of iPads and Chromebooks to select HS depts.

• piloted iPads in select K-5 classrooms

• deployed iPads to K-5 LMCs

and (in my humble opinion) one of our largest steps forward:

• Upgraded wireless access points in one of our HSs

• distributed an iPad and a Chromebook to 33 teachers at one of our elementary schools as part of our evaluation technology pilot

• deployed a cart of iPads and a cart of Chromebooks to the LMC of the same elementary school

So, I'll make you a deal.  In exchange for our insight in starting, promoting and managing a BYOT program from scratch, provide us with your experience by commenting early and often here at 24/7/365U!