23 Mobile Things: Thing: 4 keeping up

Flipboard: I love this app. Great to have access to Twitter and Facebook along with news sources and 2014 Olympic feed. Saves time lost in switching between apps to check social media and news feeds. 

Zite:  not as fond of Zite but perhaps it is because I haven't used it enough to really appreciate the personalization it offers. 

Another personalized news feed is NewsTiles which organizes news items into categories that you set up.  

23 mobile Things: thing 3

I have really enjoyed using StandApp at work the past few days. I have used both the 15 and 30 minute intervals and find the 15 minute interval is a bit too disruptive. Love the standing break exercises though. I think this would be a good app for teacher to use in their classrooms. Being in a high school with 90 minute blocks out students spend a long time sitting. Wonder if our achievement level would increase if we had our students stand and stretch every 30 minutes in class. 

23 Mobile Things: thing 2

I have been struggling to get this post done for iOS tips because I keep getting lost in exploring more with the iPhone and iPad. These really are amazing little machines. 

I have ha my iPhone (4s and now 5s) and have done little with Siri, but after reading the tips and tricks am getting more use out of it. Texting and setting up reminders or calendar events work really smoothly especially since I find typing on the small keyboard to be a bit of a challenge if I don't have my readers. 

I am still trying to figure out the shared links from Twitter to Safari as they are not appearing in my Safari. I suspect it is a setting that is not properly configured but I can't figure out which app is at the root of the problem

So many tips and tricks videos on YouTube-- can spend endless hours watching them. I also spent some time learning how to conserve battery life on the phone. 

Got my hands on a nexus 7 so will be learning that gadget too. I think this will be helpful when we officially become a BYOD school. 

23 Mobile Things: Thing 1

Reviving this old blog for the new 23 Things challenge feels like a challenge in itself.  It has been 5 years since the last entry and I really am relearning the Blogger platform since I didn't spend much time with the 23 Things Challenge.
My media colleagues and I have taken on this 23 Mobile Things challenge due to the direction our district is going with technology.  Since operating a 1-to-1 device program is expensive from a district owned equipment standpoint, we are strongly considering a BYOD approach to technology access. Many of our students already bring their own web capable device to school so this make the most sense for our financially strapped school district.
I advocate for device neutral applications for our students so am loving that 23Things Mobile is set up for iOS and Android users.  I will be using an iPad, but am also hoping to get my hands on an Android device to try the 23 Things in both OS. I think this will help ease teacher fears of not knowing the devices the students have in class--knowing that I have a bit of knowledge with both OS.  I believe I can reassure them that it doesn't matter the device because our applications are device neutral.
My goal is to get through two challenges a week to be done by the end of the school year. I will encourage our teachers to go through the 23 Things as well--just for the experience--as I think the BYOD program is going to happen sooner rather than later.

Book Fair at DHS

Check out the book fair going on this week.

Thing 7: Communications

E-mail, no problem, long time user, love it. In fact, I probably have more e-mail accounts than I need, but what I love about gmail is the ability to pull all of my e-mail accounts into the one, so I read everything in one place (with the exception of my work e-mail). Instant messaging I do not use very often, probably because I prefer e-mail. I have used it at home if I am on one level of the house and the kids are on another level, both of us are online and I want to tell them to do something more active. They tend to respond more quickly to an IM than to me hollering up the stairs... go figure. Used ichat occasionally when I was at a Mac laptop school, but still preferred e-mail. . SMS I use mostly to communicate with my children. I still would prefer to pick up the phone and talk to them--its faster. But if I don't want an argument I send a text. Meebo is blocked by our web filter. Twitter I am still trying to figure out WHY TWITTER? Another way to waste time either reading a twitter or responding to twitters..

More Things on a Stick

I am going to try to finish the 23 things of the first round while simultaneously working on the 23 things in this More things round. I have been having lots of fun using image generators and learned of this new photo editing site called picnik. I told my 14 year old daughter about it and she is in love with it. She is having a great time editing picture to post to her Facebook page.