Amazon's Wispercast for schools -My how-to-guide.

Amazon released Whispercast several weeks ago, and I am finally getting time to play around with it. I had signed up our Amazon ebook account with this service, but had not gotten around to looking at the service in detail. I wondered how the school in Florida was managing their Kindle devices in their 1-to-1 deployment last year, and now I know.  I am guessing they were a beta-test site for Amazon.  This service would allow you to easily manage textbooks and documents deployed in a 1-to-1 Kindle deployment in a school district.

With personal Kindle devices, you can purchase a book and have it on up to 6 devices. (Depending on the Author.)  With Whispercast, you purchase a book for every device.  Devices can be grouped together, so if you had 500 Kindles  but 100 Kindles were grouped together in the Whispercast console for the 9th grade, you could purchase 100 books for those devices. Once that book was applied to that device, you can not collect the book and use it on another device. (You could deregister the kindle, thus freeing up that book.)

Direct from Kindle:
If your Kindles are already registered but they are not appearing in your account under Devices, we can help you add them to Whispercast. Just email us the name, email address, and kindle serial number for each account to whispercast-support@amazon.com.

If you have Kindles that are not currently registered, you must register them to an existing Amazon.com account, or create a new Amazon.com account for each one in order to receive content via Whispercast. To add them to your Whispercast account and distribute content, go to whispercast.amazon.com/accounts and click Add User to register them to your users.

More information is available on our help page: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=200894470

If you have further questions or concerns, please feel free to call us directly at 1-800-369-5661. We are available from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific Time, Monday through Friday.

Some important notes about Whispercast:

• It's not a book checkout system.  Ebooks can not be purchased and checked in and out to devices.  If you need this service, they recommend contacting OverDrive, which is often used by public libraries.
• If you have purchased Kindles and want them to become a part of your Whispercast service, you can deregister the Kindle device and then have Amazon register it with your Whispercast account. (See section below)
• When you purchase new Kindle devices direct from Amazon they will be registered automatically to your Whispercast service.
• Books assigned to a Kindle can not be un-assigned and then checked out to another Kindle.  The only way to remove books registered to a Kindle is to deregister the device.
• Documents can be uploaded and distributed along with ebooks. This is a great new feature! Accepted file types are: .pdf; .mobi; .txt; .rtf; .doc; .docx

Using Whispercast with Other Devices or Kindle Reading Applications (Taken from the Whispercast help page.)

If you don't have Kindle devices, you can also use Whispercast to distribute content to free Kindle reading applications on other non-Kindle devices. To distribute content to Kindle reading applications, create or add user accounts as you would for Kindle devices, but do not assign a device to the users. Users can access content sent to their accounts via Whispercast in the Archive folder in their reading applications.

How to register/deregister Kindles:
From Amazon.com, you can register or deregister via the Manage Your Kindle page (http://www.amazon.com/myk).

From your Kindle, select Home > Menu > Settings > Register or Deregister.

Miscellaneous Educational Resources 11-27-12

Free Holiday Christmas Album

Free Green Hill Christmas Music Sampler w/ 12 songs available today: amzn.to/Tk6aFV  (From Amazon!) (Saves right to your Cloud storage.)

And for the younger kids ... Have you grabbed these free children's music samplers from Amazon? Lots of fun songs: amzn.to/WC53HV

Some great web sites!

AMAZING site for math teachers K-12!  A+ Click Math Skills Tests : aplusclick.com (Web site works great on iPads too!)

Use Z-Type to have your students practice keyboarding in a fun way: phoboslab.org/ztype/

For the music teachers out there.... iNudge is a fun little web-based application that allows users to experiment with sounds and rhythms:inudge.net

Some nice YouTube resources

Did you know that YouTube has editing tools??? Here's a Quick Start Guide for Using YouTube's Editing Tools ow.ly/ftYAT

Simple way to search for, clean up, download you tube video: search.viewpure.com

Google+ resources  (Remember, we now have this for the Google Apps K-12!!)

Here's the Gooru's guide and how to start a Google+ hangout along with some cool features you can use in Hangouts. bit.ly/UTdr4D

Via Richard Byrne (@rmbyrne) ... This is the coolest use of Google+ that I've seen. Google+ Hangout Virtual Scavenger Hunt in the Palace of Versaillesfreetech4teachers.com/2012/11/use-go…

Want a "pick-me-up" for why I teach?

A wonderful video behind what teachers make every single day in the classroom! youtube.com/watch?feature=…

Google Chrome resources:

Google Chrome: Ten cool Chrome tricks you can use right now 

Realtime Board's Chrome App Makes Online Brainstorming Easier goo.gl/fb/Ja0lb

A Chrome Fun Zone For Kids – Part 2

Miscellaneous resources

Top 11 apps for the Nexus 7: Fall 2012 edition

The iPad mini may have grabbed most of the 7-inch tablet headlines recently but Google's Nexus 7 is still going strong, and may be the best tablet yet for the money.  These apps will help owners get the most out of the Nexus 7. Read more

FREE iPad app/book from Don Tapscott (@dtapscott): New Solutions for a Connected Planet bit.ly/UwaCmh

Free iPad App -- Living Lung - A 3D Interactive Model of the Lungs ow.ly/fxYeb

10 Google Search Tips All Students Can Use ow.ly/fxXOM

iPad: Bringing the joy of reading back to those with vision problems

A new study investigating the use of electronic reading devices shows that using the iPad for reading brings the joy of that pastime back to those with vision loss due to disease. Read more

Miscellaneous Educational Resources 11-26-12

Google+ just released! Our early Thanksgiving present to EDU.

Google+ is now open for K-12 Google Apps. We have enabled it for all teachers here at Norris. (We can enable it for students if staff have a need for their students to use this service, but that will come at a later date for our Norris Google Apps.) I just put together a quick overview in this blog article: http://goo.gl/Vsn7b  We will be putting together a few inservices for this in the next several weeks, so watch your emails! 

Some great websites and tools for education. 

• Free Technology for Teachers: 7 Resources for Developing Typing Skills 
• Z-Type - A Fun Typing Game
• Free Technology for Teachers Two Tools for Reading ePub Files in Your Browser 
• Apple - iTunes U - Learn anything, anywhere, anytime.
• Google Takes You On A Tour Of 100000 Stars -  Home Page  Nice short article about the experiment
• Read & Write - An Accessibility App for Google Docs http://ow.ly/fpQVZ 

IOS apps anyone? Some more great apps for your IOS (iphone/iPad) devices. 

If you have not seen the Nearpod app, now is the time! Check out this nice article: How The Nearpod iPad App Changed An Entire School 

Some Android tools for your Android Phones or Tablets:

• Smart Tools for Your Android Device - Check them out. (Hey I have an iPhone 5, but I still miss many things about my Android device!)
• Jump Desktop: Access your desktop from an Android tablet Free and Paid versions. 

For the more advanced Google users ....  here  is a script to manage student projects in Google Docs. Doctopus. youpd.org/doctopus 

A couple amazing web 2.0 tools you have to check out!!!

I may think I may of saved the best for last in this posting, these are amazing!!!! 

• Remix web content - video, maps, links, text, etc. using PopcornMaker: popcorn.webmaker.org Check out the TED video to watch it work 
• Dynamic,math,paper,graph,interactive,teacher,tools from Illuminations by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics -- Check it out!!! (Does not work from an iPad) 

Google+ one more amazing free tool for schools!

Click here for a nice visual of Understanding Google+ 

Google+ was just released to the K-12 Google Apps customers on 11-16-12. This service can be controlled by your Google Apps administrator through the control panel. You can select what users or groups are allowed to have this service.

What does Google+ bring to the plate for the K-12 market?

• Picasa Gets Unlimited Storage for Photos & Videos read more about this feature.
• Google+ apps on your phone can automatically back up your pictures to Picasa
• Google Hangouts may be the best video conferencing solution out there... and it's free!
• Top Ten Google+ Features from dummies.com
• Tight integration within the Google Apps for EDU product and control panel.
• Picnik is BACK!!! Yes, you can edit your photos once you upload them to Picasa. Picnik was an online photo editor used by many teachers, but now it's back if you enable Google+

For the Google Apps managers: You can enable Google+ for all / some of your org units by following the instructions in our Google Help Center article  and  Considerations before enabling Google+

VIDEO: What is Google+ (Google Plus) and do I need it?  Targeted for the individual consumer, but good 3 minute overview of Google+

VIDEO: Here's the Gooru's guide and how to start a Google+ hangout along with some cool features you can use in Hangouts. http://bit.ly/UTdr4D

Google has created resources for teens, parents, and teachers to learn more about how to use G+ in a fun, smart, and safe way. Welcome to the Google+ Safety Center

Google+: The Complete Guide (On Mashable)

Excellent Teacher Tips on The Use of Google Plus in Education

10 ways to use Google Plus in the classroom

20 Awesome Google+ Tips for Teachers

Communities, will they replace groups?
Google+ Communities Makes It Easy to Create a Discussion Group goo.gl/fb/kWfrG
Google Plus Communities Show Promise for Education Article
Google+ Communities for Educators Video  <--- Great 5 minute video to watch.
Note:

• Postings to communities show up on the community page (Publicly) but not on your stream to your circles, etc...
• Private communities can be controlled by who joins and who posts.  (Can anyone say... "Create a community for a class!")

Hangouts - amazing online meeting tool for education! 
I think the single best feature of Google+ is the amazing video conferencing capabilities in hangouts. including sharing desktops, presenting YouTube videos, collaborating on documents, and more! You can even bring anyone into the conference by calling their phone (Free of charge I might add).

Ready to start broadcasting? (Make sure you have Google+) To get started simply:

Go to hangouts.google.com.
Give your hangout a name and invite the people you want to join you in the hangout.
Select the option to Enable Hangouts On Air.
Once everyone's in the hangout and you're ready to go live, click Start broadcast at the top of the screen.
Once you click Start broadcast, you're officially "On Air" and the public will be able to watch your live hangout.

If you start a hangout and check the box to have it on air, this allows you to record and edit the hangout and post it on a website for later use.  Hangouts On Air common questions 

Specs and limits of Hangouts

Google+for Education Edition: G+ can now be enabled as a service for all Education Edition Domains. 

The size of Hangouts for G+ Premium feature domains has been increased from 10 to 15 participants (including host).

 If you activate Google+ premium features, you can have 15 participants for both Hangouts and Hangouts On Air. Make sure you have the video and voice plug-in installed. (It will install it for you, when you first enter a hangout if you do not have it.) If you enable it to be on air, then an unlimited number can view the hangout. Enabling the on air option also allows you to record, edit and post the entire recorded hangout to YouTube.

Miscellaneous Educational Resources 11-15-12

Some great web sites and web resources

Great livebinder - Math Apps IOS http://www.livebinders.com/play/play/417981 (Notice they use another nice Web 2.0 tool - Livebinders to put together this list.) 

10,000 Newspapers On Google Maps - NewsPaper Map

Infuse Learning is a free student response system that works with any Internet-connected device: infuselearning.com

STUDENT FILE MANAGEMENT WITH GOOGLE DRIVE - A great document on setting up shared folders with students and classes.  Covers all the methods, pros and cons, and includes YouTube video tutorials. 

7 bibliography and citation tools for students  Remember, one of these, EasyBib, we have incorporated right into Google Apps and it's available via the drop-down menu. 

Have you used Diigo for bookmarking? If not, it's probably the one you should be using for bookmarking websites.  It offers a lot of research tools as well, including highlighting on web sites, putting notes on sites, and more.  Check out this great resource on Diigo. 

Math Lessons Using Google SketchUp  bit.ly/PRnS61  (We do have licensing for Google Sketchup for Norris.) 

Top 10 smartphone apps for students - Daily Californian dlvr.it/2TLqHp 

More IOS (iPad/iPhone) apps:

Grafikal is a powerful graphing calculator for your iPhone and iPad. Use its custom keyboard to quickly enter the variables and equations you need to draw a graph. The graphs can then be displayed in old fashioned 2d axis graphs or viewed in 3D. With iCloud support, any mathematician should take a closer look at this app.

Miscellaneous Educational Resources 11-7-12

Web sites and resources for staff and students

 Good math website for young pre-algebra learners thirteen.org/get-the-math/ 

GmapGIS is a free tool for marking and drawing on maps without having to create or use a Google account: gmapgis.com

Another nice feature from Diigo - make a slide show from websites and embed your RSS feed: ictmagic.visibli.com/share/CWzqpj

50 Apps Students Will Be Using In Your Classroom - Edudemic Article

Using Twitter???  TeachThought-- The Complete Guide To Twitter Hashtags In Education  

Are you teaching kids tech skills? If not... you/we are probably failing them.  Do not make assumptions, many of us find are finding this true! The Fallacy of Digital Natives. 

6435 Free PowerPoint Templates and Backgrounds by Presentation Magazine.  But Wait! We do not have PowerPoint anymore.  Well, these dowload as PPT files, but remember OpenOffice as well as Google Docs will use and/or convert these to their formats as well. 

Free Graphing Calculator anyone?

This baby works through a web browser, and works on iPads, Chromebooks, etc.... New features added to free Desmos online graphing calculator; great for your BYOD program: desmos.com  (The Chrome app is here).

Speaking of Graphing calculators -- Google Is Now a Graphing Calculator! 

Split Google Chrome into two windows with Tab Scissors - Ghacks Technology News dlvr.it/2R6mYl

20 Little-Known Web Resources For Teachers edudemic.com/2012/03/20-web…   It includes... SumDog for math games,  SumoPaint - Amazing drawing tool right from your browser, AWW (A free Whiteboard), and More! 

Some nice IOS (iPad/iPhone) apps, tips, and more!

A list of 10 iPad resources and 5 Smart Phones (Mobile Learning Devices) resources from The Mobile Native blog, by Scott Newcomb.  His list includes these gems and more: TCEA's list of resources.    This includes their list of iPad Apps Separated by Subject Area. (We have shared this in the past!) 

These are some amazing bookmarklet to add to your iPhone/iPad.  Useful Bookmarklets for your iPad and iPhone. Make sure you read the directions to get these to work properly!!!

A free iPad App for the day!

Free IOS App for a limited time: 

Coin Math http://bit.ly/Xgfznw  Great for teaching kids Money Counting skills and math. 

And something to Ponder... 

I follow an assistant professor at Iowa State, Scott McLeod (@mcleod), who recently put this tweet out, hopefully none of us fall into this category at Norris.  "Majority of Teachers Take No Responsibility For Lack Of Student Classroom Engagement bit.ly/SOxpvj" Interesting short 2 minute read. 

Some nice tools to manage information overload for you and your students.

Let's face it, we are living in a time of "information overload".  There are a lot of ways you can manage archiving these resources for later. In the early days, it was the simple bookmark within a browser. If that simple bookmark serves your need, then use that feature, but there are many other ways that may be better for today's needs.  I will cover just a few of these to open your eyes to these services, and then concentrate on one called Instapaper.

Send articles to your Kindle.  Did you know that you can email things to your Kindle and have them appear just like a book.  I do not have a Kindle, but do use the Kindle apps on my iPad and Android devices.  I was excited about this prospect, until I found out that you must have a Kindle device (and not just the apps) to have an email address to send articles and attachments to.  So after spending some time and hoping to do this... I soon dropped this avenue for my uses.  If you do have a Kindle, and this works for you...start emailing articles to your Kindle...and check out this Chrome extension and web service: http://www.klip.me/

Diigo:  http://www.diigo.com
This service is like bookmarking on steroids, so use it instead of bookmarks. You can bookmark web sites, highlight content on the page, add sticky notes on the page and more.  I use this service, and love it for what it is.  For saving clutter-free web reading articles, use the Instapaper or Evernote. But for bookmarking and tagging websites, this service is great.  Make sure you add the Diigo Chrome extension: http://goo.gl/C9TYe

Evernote: http://evernote.com/
This is an amazing service that offers a lot more features than just web information archiving.  If you are not using Evernote, you need to look at this full featured service.  It does many things well, including web article archiving for reading or archiving for future use. There are many features offered with the free service, including a fair amount of upload each month.  This company is here to stay, and definitely worth a look. Even if you do not use Evernote for this feature, make sure you check out the Chrome extension called "Clearly" http://goo.gl/qe8na  This apps make it a pleasure to read an article from a web page.


Read articles later. Three similar services: 
Instapaper: http://www.instapaper.com/
Unlike Evernote, Instapaper does one thing, and that is to save website articles for easily reading at a later time. No more flashing adds, hard to read articles, or trying to find them again, just the simple article archived for later reading. They have some great tools and offer a free web site where you can view your articles you have "clipped", or you can purchase an app for your iPad/iPhone. But for me, the best feature is that it supports Flipboard. (So do Pocket and Readability, apps you will see in a moment.)  (Flipboard is one of the best apps ever for the iPad.) (They also support Google Reader, which is a popular news reader.) Get the Google Chrome extension or add the Read Later bookmarklet and start saving those pages to read later. Apps and services are here: http://www.instapaper.com/extras

Pocket (Formerly Read It Later) http://getpocket.com/ Similar to Instapaper, but it's Free!  They have some great apps for this service: http://getpocket.com/add/

Readability http://www.readability.com Another service Similar to Instapaper, and it's Free as well!  Their app list and services are impressive: http://www.readability.com/apps  Their Chrome extension is amazing.  It allows you to save your article to your Kindle, or download it as an ebook (ePub format) as well.

Which of the three do I select???  Well, a while ago, Instapaper was the only choice, but right now I think Either Pocket or Readability may be the best choice.  They seem to have a large user base, are free and offer a ton of apps and service add-ins.  I recommend Readability because I use it and love all of it's great features.