What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains

An interesting view on what's happening to us... kids AND adults (we are also guilty!)

What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains [Epipheo.TV] - (RunTime - 3:54)

   

Manic Monday: Audit your wallet!

A great website for tips on everyday living as well as for technology tips -- Lifehacker.com. This week, their suggestion was to "Audit your Wallet" -- BEFORE it comes up lost or stolen, then wish you had done so!

AND on a similar note... what about your password list… is that backed up somewhere???

Manic Monday: Planner & Calendar Templates

Planning is good… Free, pretty planners make it more fun to do "good"...planning! 

View and download the daily or weekly planners and calendars in PDFs or Word formats from Xerox. They even come in 2 per page! (Note that calendars are for March-December 2012)

Time-Saver Grading Tips (Manic Monday)

This week is the end of the 3rd quarter, so lots of grading is ahead! Here are a few tips that can help, even the slightest, in shaving (or saving) some time... so you can spend it on more important, meaningful, fun, enjoyable, etc. things! (Not that grading can't be all those things, too!) ;-)

Grade Book (Student Numbering): Although students are NOT numbers, assigning them one from the order in your grade book can help speed up recording scores (or when entering them at the computer). At the beginning of the year (ideally, or ASAP!), assign each student a number which corresponds to the number in your grade book (which usually have numbered lines for students' names.) Have students put their numbers (along with their names) on their papers. When you collect the papers, have one student put them in numerical order before you get the pile. Marking grades in order takes less time than jumping from name to name. I've also used these numbers to quickly make random pairings or groups -- pull #s to create the matches. (Source: 1; CR)

Grade/Give Feedback on the Most Important Things: Everything you assign students to do, create, practice does NOT have to be graded. You may want to at least give participation credit, but you don't have to check every assignment for "right and wrong" or provide feedback on every one. Sometimes just the act of doing something gives the student all s/he needs to "get it". Think whether all that grading is the BEST use of your time/talents! If not, reduce it for the more important things. 

Here are a few options to go along with this idea...

Options: Grade only a few key parts for "right or wrong" or feedback rather than all of it. Have students compare their work with a peer or in groups to check accuracy while you walk around and listen for misconceptions. Use a Check-Plus, Check, Check-Minus or 1, 2, 3 scoring (Sources: 1 & 2; CR)

Use Rubrics &/or Checklists: As you assign a project/task (especially "big ones"!), provide the students with a rubric (or checklist or both) so they can see BEFORE they start exactly what you expect of them and what you'll grade them on.  "Rubrics aren't just about summative feedback, 'Here's how you did,' they are also a sort of preemptive feedback, 'Here's what you need to do.'" (Source: 3)  (NOTE: In my experience, it takes 2-3 times of doing an assignment to get the rubric just right... know that going in and be flexible and honest with your students if adjustments are needed.)

"Keep them in suspense: Keep the final grade of an assignment as a carrot dangling until the feedback is read, attempted, and proven. Make them solve some of the problems in the assignment based on your feedback, and trade their solutions for access to their score."

(Source: 3)

Sources:

1 - http://www.educationoasis.com/resources/Articles/time_saving_tips.htm

2 - http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2011/11/math-time-saver-you-don%E2%80%99t-have-grade-everything 

3 - http://www.edutopia.org/blog/grading-tips-student-feedback-heather-wolpert-gawron

SMART Board Tip: Reset an Activity Page

One great tip is for Resetting a SMART Notebook page for the next student, class (or for next year). Rather than press Undo several times or remember to NOT save (which we all forget sometimes and hit the "Save" button accidentally!), try this trick described at the blog post below:

(Originally from Teq) 
 Creating a "Reset Button" in a Smartboard Notebook file:
1)  From your interactive student page, while the page is in "start" mode and without moving any of the objects, create a 1 second Page Recording... To do so:
   a) From the Properties tab, click on Start Recording (or the dot/circle) and record for 1 second only)
   b) then click on Stop Recording (or the dot/circle again) - automatically producing a Play Recorder button on the bottom of your slide.

3.  Students can do the activity and move objects within the page, when they are done simply click on the Play button (triangle > button) and your page will reset!

 

This blog post has more tips! Check it out:

http://techtips-rs.blogspot.com/2011/04/6-tips-getting-smarter-using-smart.html 

 

 

 

Time-Saver Computer Tips (PDF Sheets from MakeUseOf)

One of my favorite "tips & tricks" sites, MakeUseOf has several single-page PDFs of tips you can keep handy and practice. Over time, as you use these daily and eventually learn them, you'll be sure to save many seconds, which adds up to many minutes, and then hours!

Sign up for their email to get the password for downloading them — it's all free and you can unsubscribe at ANY time!

http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/downloads 

The programs for which cheatsheets are available include:

• iPhone
• Gmail
• Twitter
• Google search (GREAT for all teachers & students!)
• Photoshop CS5
• iTunes (for both Windows and Mac)
• Windows
• Mac OSX
• GIMP
• Chat smileys
• Facebook
• VLC Player
• Google Reader
• Mozilla Thunderbird
• Internet Explorer
• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox (for both Windows and Mac)

Manic Monday: Time-Saving Teaching Tips

Check out this list of time-saving (or sanity-saving) tips from "I Love That Teaching Idea" website... Lots of adds, but good stuff from real teachers. Consider submitting your own ideas!

Thinking Thursday: Alone Together by Sherry Turkle (webinar)

Image from: http://book.4kindle.us/buy/alone-together-expect-technology-ebook-QjAwNERMMEtXMA!!.html

Note: this post is filed under "Digital Citizenship" and "Information Literacy" to point out that sometimes knowing what we SHOULDN'T do is just as important as what we SHOULD do. Moderation AND true human connections are two keys that should help unlock a promising future.

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From the Wed, Sept 28, 2011 webinar hosted by HSM... 

Sherry Turkle on her book: Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other

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From her session: (either quotes or paraphrasing) 

Main quote (and sums up her book):

“We’re too busy to think and too busy to connect… we’re in continual contact, but we end up alone together” 

...

Many people now have an “I share, therefore I am” mentality, which is “not good for collaboration and not good for innovation.” Meaning… the “Old way was: I have a feeling, I now want to share it; the New way is I want to have a feeling; therefore, I need to send a text” (or post something online, etc — to get feedback, validation, etc.) 

...

In other words, “we need ‘them’ to make ourselves real.”

...

“Social media is a performance."

...

"(Their device) is the place for hope in their life... where something new will come to them, the place where loneliness can be defeated." 

...

“We’ve moved from conversation to communication."

 ...

 Hyper connection is NOT collaboration!

...

“Even the happiest/most satisfied users of these technologies are paying a price” (somewhere).

...

“We’ve moved from multitasking to multi-lifing”... (where people have on-screen lives and/or realities, sometimes several). 

...

 (Technologies today) “make it easy to hide” - we can choose who to reply to or contact. 

...

When you text, you have time to think about what you’re writing... (which is a pro); but people become phobic about real-time interaction due to a fear of showing our (real) selves (con).

...

“Younger people don’t know how to apologize face to face.” 

...

“We are less willing to give each other our full attention.” 

...

Ironically, in our more complex world, there is "decreased time available to us to sit and think uninterrupted"... and due to the shear amount of (emails), we "begin to expect or even demand fast answers, and in order to get them, we are asking each other simpler and simpler questions. So we're dumbing down our questions to get the simpler answers, even on the most important matters. We’ve (essentially) "put ourselves on cable news," which is "not a good climate for innovation."

 

“People of all ages admit they would rather send a text than talk.” (which is sometimes a good, thing, but not always) 

On Solitude – “If we don’t learn (how) to be alone, we will only know how to be lonely... Loneliness is failed solitude, just as connection is failed conversation.” 

Benefits & Costs - “There are MANY bounties of our ‘always on’ culture.”To make it better, Our “always on” culture -- we must face it’s costs — knowing how to be alone; solitude is needed to energize and restore, which can lead to innovation and even collaboration. 

We should avoid the notion or analogy of these technology behaviors as an addiction, since that implies the solution is to completely rid it (technology) from our lives, which is not possible. Now is a time of opportunity to develop practices that help us use technology effectively... for connections and collaboration, which lead to innovation. 

...

Favorite sentence in book - "Just because we grew up w/ the internet, we assume the internet is all grown up" (that it won’t change in the future). It can and will, as will how we work with it. But the time to make corrections is NOW! 

...

People are in "performance mode on the network" where so many put a false self online or only share good news – people don’t want to leave a digital trace online of those types of things. 

...

Schools and businesses should be teaching uni-tasking! 

In workplace, try the email reply “I’m thinking” -- and "model an approach to business life" to create that time to think (rather than react right away).

======================= 

How can you help teach or model appropriate tech behaviors for your students (and/or your peers!)?

Plan Ahead for Free & Clear Weekend!

Although all of these Time Saving Tips may not work for you, some might save you a little time this weekend so you can re-energize and be ready for next Monday! Wheeeee! (FYI -- the woman above tried some tips!)

Some of their suggestions include: Grade less, Email proactively, not reactively, and Schedule your fun (which is what Neil Fiore similarly suggests in his book The Now Habit -- he refers to it as scheduling "guilt-free play" FIRST before other tasks).

Scholastic has more ideas available at their Managing Your Time page.

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MANIC Monday: Email Time Saver Tips

• Ever miss important emails?
• Do you skim over emails instead of reading them... even though they might have important information you need?
• Feel like you don’t have enough time for email?

Here are 5 Tips that actually will SAVE you and/or your recipients time.

1) Set aside time for email... Turn OFF the notification (sound, bouncing icon in dock, alert box, etc.) Set aside 10 to 30 minutes 2-4 times per day to focus on emails (Such as: before work, lunch, prep time, after work, or ONCE in evening at home), rather than checking it or reading messages whenever they come in. (If you prefer to read email as it comes in, you’re basically becoming addicted to “technology-enhanced instant gratification” (or TEIG), which is a condition that most of our students also have! Don’t get the “TEIG disease”... Just say no to TEIG! (Obviously, if you’re expecting an important message, that’s different! Just remember that ALL email is not “important email”!)

2) Include a subject — for EVERY email –this helps the recipient quickly scan for messages that need to be handled quickly or to find the email to follow up later. Use a specific subject — for example, “How many students needed?” rather than “Question” or “Fire Alarm today” rather than “Important” or “Just saying HI” instead of “Hey”. Emails with no subjects are more likely to be missed, skipped, or deleted!

3) Organization: Are you a Sorter-Filer, Deleter, or Hoarder-Searcher? Depending on your quantity of email, your personality, and your technology skills, some of these require more time in the long run.

• Sorter-Filer – must put every email into a folder (including the trash)... Great organization, but this takes time and many seconds adds up to hours in a year!
  
• Deleter — deletes anything that doesn’t look important or seems not important, but sometimes goes too far. This person is usually the one who asks, “Can you resend that email about ____” or when you say, “I sent that information in an email last week” and they blatantly say, “I deleted it, can you send it to me again?” (Note: Senders do not like “Deleters” since they often take up more of their time)
  
• Hoarder/Searcher — leaves all/most messages in their In Box, deleting few or none, but finds things by sorting by category headings or by using the search or advanced search. This works great if you’re a good searcher and have unlimited or very high email storage on your computer and/or the email server, which most do now due to cheap storage solutions.
  

4) Remove yourself from lists/emails you don’t need. Every second counts in the email world! If you open, skim, and delete 35 emails in a week (5 per day) that you didn’t really need to see or think about, taking about 2-5 seconds each, that works out to about 1 to 2.5 hours in a year... that you can’t get back! If you think that just leaving them in your In Box is OK, remember that you spend time skimming those every time you look through your In Box, which adds up as well! Look for the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email and do it – spend time now to save time later!!!  

5) Recognize and focus on the emails that are IMPORTANT (for your professional practice or reputation, well-being, and/or livelihood) and skim/ignore the others (or see #2). This skill takes a while to develop and is mostly related to focusing your attention on email messages (see #1) rather than quickly “getting through” emails. Respect the time of the message sender as well as your own time! 

For MORE tips, view these resources:

• http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/e-text/email/ (with examples of good/bad versions)
  
• http://www.ragan.com/InternalCommunications/Articles/15_tips_to_refine_your_email_etiquette__43257.aspx  
  
• http://www.emailreplies.com/ (good tips, but contains ads)

WONDER WEDNESDAY: Do You Need A Digital Diet?

Take this quiz to find out:

• Do you... feel the urge to pull out your smart phone when someone else is making a point in a conversation?
• Have you ever realized that you were texting while your child was telling you about her day at school and later couldn't remember any of the details of her story?
• Have you ever felt that something hasn't really happened until you post it on Facebook or tweet about it?
• Does a ringing/vibrating cell phone interrupt and trump everything else?

If you said "Yes" to any (or all, help us all!) of these, then you might be interested in this book by Daniel Sieberg, called The Digital Diet: The 4-Step Plan to Break Your Tech Addiction and Regain Balance in Your Life. Learn ways to cope, modify behavior, and find support for your habits that may be affecting other areas of your life.

I would write more on this topic and this book, but I'm cutting down on my "online time"! ;-)

TOOLS 4 Tuesday: 1-Page Map Maker & Teacher's Tape

National Geographic’s 1-Page MapMaker 
(in beta or test-version, so may not function perfectly, but still can be a great resource!)

"Customize one-page maps and download, email, print, or share!"

(OR... Use on your SMART Board, just capture the map with your Image Capture tool and use!)

 

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Teacher's Tape
Foam tape for wall hangings, magnetic tape, non-stick tape for shelves, and more! 

As the year begins, classrooms are still taking shape. Why not use an alternative to tape that stays up longer and is safer for most surfaces. I've used this before and found it to be a better option on some wall surfaces. NOT FREE :-( ... but you can get a FREE SAMPLE.

Manic Monday: Online Stopwatch and Timers for ANY Class

"Manic Monday" posts contain information or tips related to time-management, time savers, and organization.

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Check out some of these time tools for time management, learning about telling time, or even about hourly pay rates (... SEE the difference between a $8.00/hour job and a $40.00/hour job). 

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Full Screen Stopwatch: 
http://www.online-stopwatch.com/full-screen-stopwatch/




MANY Other Timers available at:  
http://www.online-stopwatch.com/

Such as...

Full Screen Clock (analog)
(with numbers, Roman numerals, or marks only/no numbers)
TIP: take screen shots of the clocks to use as needed in Notebook files or worksheets, etc.

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< < <  Full Screen Egg-Timer (sand glass)

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Cash Clock (aka- "Time is Money" Clock) (set $ amount per hour)

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< < <  Alarm Clock (minute or hour hand)

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Digital Clock (tired of analog???)

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< < <  Metronome (music teachers rejoice!)

MS Word Mail Merge: Not making cents?

This issue comes up when writing a mail merge letter where you are including dollar amounts from a calculated formula column — such as... “Money Turned In” and “Money Still Due/Owed.” 

In some cases you can just change the cell format to Text, but not if that column/cell has a formula in it and needs 2 decimals to show cents! 

Below is a link to instructions that worked just wonderfully the other morning... BUT (one change to the instructions...) you will need to use “0.00x” for 2 places after the decimal (such as for cents), and “0.0x” only goes 1 place after decimal.

http://wordprocessing.about.com/od/usingmailmerge/qt/NPFSwitch.htm

Excel- Selecting several cells rather than one?

When you click/select ONE cell in Excel, do more than one get selected?

Apparently, it’s the scroll wheel on your mouse... (more info here)
http://www.computing.net/answers/office/excel-click-1-cell-selects-multiple-update/8691.html

Try this to fix it:

1. Click on scroll wheel (and let go), you’ll get a compass-like 4-arrow symbol. 
2. Without clicking, move the mouse up, down, left, right — your screen will scroll in those directions. 
3. Now press the wheel again to go back to normal mouse mode. 
4. Now left-click a single cell — it should just select ONE cell. If not, try again! (or leave a comment below and I’ll do a Jing video to show you what to look for)

How To: Combine 2 Columns into 1 in Excel ("Concatenate")

This question comes up sometimes... “How do I combine the first and last name columns into one column?” (by the way, this is officially called concatenation, which essentially means “linking things together”)

I’m sure some of you already know how to do this, but I didn’t. So, I decided that rather than ask our Tech Director how to do it (which I was going to do since I know she knows how to do it and could tell me/show me really fast), I decided to “Google it”! In Google search, I typed “how to combine two columns in excel” -- (here's the search results page... can't guarantee that the current results match what I got, but...)

Below is what I found... (first link!) It’s a YouTube video (which we, staff, all have access to now) and about 3 minutes long... A lot less time than it would take to retype all these names!!! The guy is a little goofy, but it’s a great demo of this plus a few other little tips (a couple I didn’t know!!!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe91iB_4bR8

Perhaps some other of his other videos might be helpful as well, I know I will be checking back with him...

Where's the Google Wonder Wheel?

 

Here’s a blog post about it... It’s there...
http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical/2010/09/googles-wonder-wheel-isnt-gone.html

Short version... turn off the Instant feature (to the right of the search box) and it will reappear on left side. 

Silly Google!!! What were they thinking!!??!!

Excel Calendars

Below is a link to calendar template files made in Excel that you can download free for personal use (no selling them, please!!!!)  ;-)  Just to mention, these do contain macros, so check with your tech staff BEFORE using, if there are concerns.

http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/yearly-calendar.html

Windows XP - Split Screen for 2+ Programs

If you are a Windows/PC user who frequently works between two or more programs (ex. - Word and Excel; web browser and PowerPoint), then this tip might come in handy to make both windows quickly viewable side-by-side -- like the image above.

To "undo" it, just use the Maximize button in each window.

(Thanks to Sue Swartz-JH for mentioning it!)

Great... Shorter Days?

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From Yahoo News: According to a NASA scientist... the 7th largest quake ever "should have shortened the length of an Earth day by 1.26 milliseconds, according to research scientist Richard Gross at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA"

Shorter, perhaps, but most of us won't notice -- still makes a great, attention-getting headline!!!