22, no, 28 COOL (and FREE) Ways to Enjoy #ISTE2015 Without Being There [#NOTATISTE]



Unable to attend ISTE in person this year? Me too. :/

Here are 22 28 cool ways that you can still get in on some of the action. (#21 and #22 are breaking news from +Matt Miller)


1. Follow the official ISTE Twitter hashtag #ISTE2015. Yes, of course, you already knew that. 


Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Tweetchat, Nurph, Storify, others? You decide how you want to tame the hashtag flood. 

2. Download the ISTE Program mobile app from the Apple iTunes Store 
or the Google play storeand be sure to check the News and Announcements throughout the conference.

3. Follow the #ISTE2015 hashtag on Instagram here (also available on the program app).


People are already beginning to post. Here's a neat one, a video from Rocky Hill School.
A video posted by Rocky Hill School (@rockyhillschool) on

4. Watch TeacherCast Live broadcasts hosted by +Jeffrey Bradbury, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, June 29 - July 1. Here's the broadcasting schedule.



Wow! What an array of learning opportunities! Mahalo, Jeff.

5. Join the energetic Not At ... EdTechConference G+ Community here, organized by +Jennifer Wagner, with door prizes! (My favorite). Jennifer is trying to encourage people to move out of the current #NOTATISTE Community here; be sure to check that out too.


Numbers 6 through 10 are all available for the Not At ... EdTechConference G+ Community. Yes, join!
6. Introduce yourself to the #NOTATISTE G+ community with your own badge, which you can make here. You can add ribbons like the one at the top of this post, here.
7. Play #NOTATISTE Bingo here. (Prizes!)
8. Take the NOTATISTE Challenge here. (More prizes!) 
9. Do a NOTATISTE Ignite Session. Fill out the form here. 
10. Support Slice of ISTE here, recommended by +Jennifer Wagner .

Thank you for all of your work coordinating the NOTATISTE G+ community, Jennifer!

11. Join a Voxer chat. Have friends going to ISTE? Keep in touch with them via Voxer, a texting and audio synchronous and asynchronous app. 

Look at the gigantic Educational Voxer PLN List here (add yourself), by +Theresa Stager, and the Educational Voxer Group Directory based on ISTE themes here organized by +Karen Corbell+Heather Gauckand +Sarah Thomas, and edited by +Anibal Pacheco. Fill out the form to add an #eduvoxer group here.

12. Be sure to read about what Blogger Extraordinaire +Sue Waters is doing: #NotAtISTE? How to Participate in ISTE 2015 Remotely, including,

13. Her shared Google Doc here, and
14. Her Flipboard ISTE Insights Magazine here  (she is looking for curators in different time zones).

15. People will be sharing their #ISTE15 experience on Flipgrid. How cool is that?

Can't wait to see who will share! Thank you, +Kristina Holzweiss !

16. Read blogs by ISTE attendees. I'm sure there will be many excellent posts coming out of the Bloggers Cafe
 And I hope +Craig Yen will create a Listly list of blogs again, like he did last year.

17. Become a NOTATISTE blogger. 
Sharing is caring! I'm planning to blog about what I learn, and I know others will too. 

18. Subscribe to Google for Education's G+ ISTE 2015 Collection (and turn notifications on) here.


19. EdTekHub is mum about what it's offering, but I'm sure it will be useful. I'll add the information here, as soon as it becomes available.


20. Watch the TL (Teacher-Librarian) Chat News Night, LIVE at ISTE on Wednesday, July 1, at about 10:00 am EDT, right after the ISTE Librarians Network Annual Breakfast. Yes, this G+ hangout will be for school librarians, but other educators will benefit too. The theme is "ISTE Takeaways" and +Elissa
Malespina and +Nikki D Robertson will be hosting. Can't wait.

Breaking news:

21. Watch Ditch That Textbook blogger and Google Certified Teacher +Matt Miller present at ISTE while holding a Hangout on Air for us to watch live! 


The first session is: Ditch That Textbook: Interactive lecture, Monday, June 29, 4:15 - 5:15 pm EDT. 


Description: "Engage students, integrate meaningful technology and free your teaching! Ditch That Textbook blogger Matt Miller will lead a back-channel session at ISTE 2015 on ditching your textbooks -- and your textbook assumptions about education."


RSVP YES to the hangout event here to get notifications, watch via the hangout event (you can participate in the Q and A), or watch on YouTube live or later. 



 

22. Matt's second session is: Sharing is Caring BYOD, Wednesday, July 1, 11:45 am - 12:45 pm, EDT.


"We'll introduce you to a long list of collaborative activities using the Google Apps suite at ISTE 2015. We'll demonstrate real-time collaboration, chat, commenting and link-sharing capabilities of Google Apps. These activities can cross over to administration, enabling powerful modes of staff communication. "


RSVP YES to the hangout event here to get notifications and watch via the hangout event (you can participate in the Q and A), or watch on YouTube live or later. 




I hope others will offer a hangout option for us NOTATISTEers. Thank you, Matt!

23. Breaking news, June 25: ISTE Librarian Network's Makerspace Presentation. Scheduled live and on Google Hangout for June 30, 2:15 EDT. Features +Elissa Malespina+Heidi Neltner, +Diana Rendina, and Sarah Winchowky, and moderated by +Tiffany Whitehead. Nice for anyone interested in #makered!

Watch here, live or later:


h/t +Jennifer Wagner, owner of the Not At ... Edconference G+ community.

24. BM! ISTE 2015 Session Notes here If you're attending ISTE, please add your shared notes. Thanks, +Sue Waters!
Love it!

25. +Wesley Fryer is already posting ISTE interviews and demos on his YouTube channel! Direct link to list here.



26. Participate with Periscope! +Tony Vincent will be broadcasting, and he mentions a link to other Periscope broadcasts in this G+ post. 


Periscope is something new to me. Must investigate. h/t +Christy Fennewald.

27. Just found the Mother Lode: a #NOTATISTE LiveBinder here! Chock full of goodies and so organized! h/t +Barbara Tallent of LiveBinders, and +Craig Yen for sharing the link!

28. The Best of ISTE 2015 resources and videos, a Pinterest board by Anibel Pacheco. Another goldmine, Here. Almost 100 pins! h/t +Linda Dougherty for the find, included in her #NOTATISTE Best of the Best blog post here.


It's a week after ISTE2015 and I'm still adding great resources. What did I miss? Tell me and I'll keep adding.

Have fun NOTATISTE!


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Quick Google Tip: (Only) 2 Steps to Converting an Image of Text to a Google Doc, h/t The Gooru

WHOA! Converting an image to text to an editable Google doc used to be a lot harder! 

Now, simply:

Step 1: Upload the image to Google Drive

Step 2: Open in Google Docs



Our students (and teachers) are going to  this!

Mahalo to +The Gooru for sharing the good news and the tutorial.

Learn more about Optical Character Recognition (OCR) from Google here.



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3 #GR8Finds at the Hawaii Google for Education Summit

"How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse with Google" huddle
Better late than never right?

I wrote two posts about the March 2015 Hawaii GAFE Summit: How about those Chrome Extensions! and The #FunFactor \(^▽^)/ at the Third Hawaii Google Summit!


And I promised a "What Did I Learn" article. It's #summertime #andthelivingiseasy. I'm finally getting around to it, and I'm making this post part of my #GR8Finds #ThisWeek. [ #twobirds ]


1. I got a lot out of Michael Morrison's presentation An Invitation to Inspiring Learning Spaces 4c's Learning Environments. I love that Michael added my answer to the question: "What Plant Should I Buy?" to his presentation. (Slide 49).




2. James Sanders' "How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse with Google" session demonstrated beautifully how to use theme-based activities to introduce Google Apps to students (and teachers). 

James presented the complete session on Google's Education on Air on May 9:




Check out the Zombie Apocalypse project on James' Classroom in the Future website, complete with an escape plan template and top escape plans. You can submit one!


Hawaii educators +Mia Beatty+Yvette Santos and +Nikki Kay submitted an escape plan that made the website. So very cool!





3. Along the same line of theme-based activities, the Iron Chef Google Challenge, patterned after the original at ISTE in 2013, was a rousing success!

Four teams created projects based on the ingredients they were given. I voted for Team Equinox, with a little bit of encouragement from +Sean Connors both online, 

and off☺. (Yes, Team Equinox won.)

Here are all of the presentations:



and a very informative website here

Congratulations to +Michael Fricano II and +Megan Cummings, who did a fantastic job putting the Hawaii Iron Chef Google Challenge together!

I absolutely love the idea of problem-solving, theme-based activities, with that added fun factor of friendly competition and bragging rights! Anyone out there know of any other projects similar to Zombie and Iron Chef?

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

All in all, the Google for Education Hawaii Summit put on by the +EdTechTeam is very worth your while, whether you consider yourself a total newbie or a super guru, or anywhere in between. Hope to see you there next year!



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MOVE IT! A Fun Chrome Extension to Help Fight the Unhealthy Effects of Sitting






No doubt about it. I am a Computer Sit-Down Slug, as mentioned in Why Sitting is Bad For You (even if you exercise).

I'll be spending more time in the garden this summer, and Move It will help me. It's a fun little Chrome Extension with random brain breaks and exercises that pop up on my screen, at intervals I choose. 

Learn about and install Move It here. There's also an iOS mobile app for 99¢ on iTunes here.

This exercise is super easy. 
(More of a brain break than an exercise.)

This exercise is the hardest I've encountered so far.

I've timed Move It to pop up at 30-minute intervals. 

And I've pinned this to my desk,
to remind me to take a break after I do each exercise .

Move It was created by PE Teacher Jarrod Robinson. Check out his video tour, which he did before the iOS version came out. 

Wouldn't Move It be fun for your students in the classroom, to get them active?

Hope you're enjoying your summer. 

Garden, here I come!

                                          

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5 #GR8Finds #ThisWeek at #KSUncon and #KSEdTech Conference 06.14.15



I learned A LOT at the 2015 Kamehameha EdTech Conference and the #KSUncon! Reconnected with a lot of cool Hawaii educators, and met a few new cool ones. It was awesome!


Here are 5 #GR8Finds to report:


1. Free Online Learning at GCFLearnFree from GoodWill. A plethora of tutorials that are easy to follow. H/T +Tomoko Yokooji


2. Wonderopolis. H/T Rachelle GalangLearning can be fun!



3. I already blogged about science teacher Stephen Ritz's keynote → Over-the-Top KeyNote by an Over-the-Top Teacher. So inspiring!


Check out this Green Bronx Machine teaser.






4. We LAUGHED throughout Destin Sandlin's keynote, 


with Destin's serious charge to "See the World Differently". 

I subscribed to his +SmarterEveryDay YouTube Channel that's putting his kids through college -- a great success story!

Here's the Backwards Bicycle Video that went viral.



5. I learned how to make a Scribblebot at +Michelle Carlson Colte and +Rachel Armstrong's "Become a Maker" session. Check out their presentation here.  

My Scribblebot 

was definitely not as good as 

Celeste's Scribblebot 

See instructions to make your own Scribble Machine from Instructables here.

Mahalo again to the @KSEdTech folks who planned Hana Pono and #KSUncon


                                          

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Over-the-Top Keynote by an Over-the-Top Teacher: Stephen Ritz at #KSEdTech


The Kamehameha EdTech Conference folks ALWAYS find the best keynote speakers. Mahalo!

This year's Hana Pono Conference started off totally over the top, with science teacher extraordinaire Stephen Ritz.

Learn all about Stephen's amazing story at stevenritz.com

Read about his nomination for the $1 Million Worldwide Teaching Prize (he got to meet Pope Francis!).

Watch his two TedTalks: 
Green Bronx Machine -- growing our way into a new economy: Stephen Ritz at TEDxManhattan 
A Teacher growing green in the South Bronx

Like the Green Bronx Machine Facebook Page and follow @greenBXmachine on Twitter.

Meet Stephen Ritz and Green Bronx Machine:



◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

The Storify embedded below (50+ tweets) will help you understand why so many of us who attended Stephen's keynote are inspired to think and act. (See the original story at Storify here.)

Mahalo to the tweeters who documented some of Stephen's thoughts. There was so much, so fast, so heartful, so thrilling, so inspiring!

I'll be spending a lot more time in my little garden this summer, pondering Stephen's challenge to change the world: "Put a seed in the ground. It's that simple." 

How would this work in my garden, my life, at my school, and on my island? I'll be thinking about it a lot. ... And yes, I will come up with a plan!

Mahalo Stephen! You are a gift to us all.

¡Si se puede! (Green Bronx Machine motto)








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A Social Media Image Sizes Cheat Sheet -- Thank you, Canva!

Whoo-hoo! Image sizes and tips for Facebook, G+, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram!

I love that Canva provided the embed code for this infographic right in their article The Complete Social Media Image Size Guide: With Awesome Design Tips [Infographic]. Talk about quick sharing!



Find more awesome design content at designschool.canva.com
The Complete Social Media Image Size Guide: With Awesome Design Tips [Infographic]

And did I mention before how much I love Canva? 

                                          




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