11+ Apps to Organize Your Life

This fall I was invited to speak at The Way Up Conference 2015 in Des Moines, Iowa.  This is an organization that is engaged in "Developing Women Leaders to Enhance Iowa Higher Education."

I have spoken there twice before and it is quite an experience.  First off, this conference is completely women.  It is fascinating to listen to the woman's perspective on how things are happening in the world. It is enlightening to hear women discuss their experiences in leadership.

Anyway, I was asked to share something about using technology to benefit professional lives.  After I ruminated a little, I decided to share apps that they might find handy in organizing their lives.  This proposal was accepted and I will be discussing it Thursday, November 6.

This session will be replete with firsts. This will be the first time that I have spoken on using phone apps.  I will be using Google Presenter for my slides - that's a first.  I will be running sharing my phone on the screen and controlling everything from my phone - another first.  Whether I will be directly connected or wifi connected to the projecting computer will depend upon how the wifi and other technologies are configured tomorrow.

While I am going to be suggesting apps that they might find useful, I don't want it to be a show-and-tell.  I want it to be more of a show-and-share.   While I have been doing oodles of research on this presentation, I am by no means an expert on organizational apps.  I plan to begin with sharing about what their phones can already do with Siri and/or Google Now.

To begin with, there are definitely more than 11 apps.  I used that number when I proposed it because I had no idea how many I would find.  At last count, there were 34 apps to be discussed. For the sake of organization, I have identified 9 areas of organizational tools.  I will be sharing suggested apps in each of these.  As I explore each of these areas, I will share what I know and ask the attendees to share their favorites as well.

The Question is "How can we capture all of these ideas for the future?"

tinyurl.com/AppsOrganize

I have answered this ominous question with a Google Doc.  I have aptly named it 11+ Apps for Organizing Your Life with Your Phone. This document contains all of the apps and resources that I will be sharing.  It will also be open for public editing so that the participants will be able to add their own suggestions or add the great ideas that they hear in the room from other people.   This way, if any of the attendees want to follow up on these apps, the information is there for them to use.

You can find my elaborate slideshow at:  11+ Apps to Organize Your Life

• If you attended, please leave a comment about your opinion of the presentation.
• If you didn't attend, please visit the Resource Page to find, read about and add apps to the collection.  Tell us what you did in a comment below.

Thanks,

Z

240+ Apps for Teachers Resources

Which apps should you use as a teacher?   I don't know - - - it all depends . . . It depends upon what you want to achieve, how you want to achieve it and who you want to achieve it with ...

I was just wandering the web when I ventured upon a few sites that provided sets of apps for teachers.  These really opened my eyes so I thought I would share them with you as well.

Rasmussen Colleges's 100 Apps for Teachers - This is a vast collection of apps that are divided into the following groups: Classroom Learning, Communication Tools, Personal Organization, Reference, and Teaching Tools.  You are likely to find a jewel in this collection. I found iBrainstorm and it looks a great tool for collaborative creation.

Apps for Teachers - A list of 8 apps that will address many of the typical tasks of a teacher including grading essays, taking attendance and managing documents.

50 Fab Apps for Teachers - This list by Scholastic is grouped by subject area.  They include language arts, math, science, social studies, music & art, special needs, lesson planning, classroom management, and communication & organization.  Some are free and some are a nominal fee. 

84 iPad Apps to Share With K-12 Teachers and Students -  This is a single page where Richard Byrne (of Free Tech 4 Teachers fame) has parked 4 slide decks of 21 best apps for PK-2nd grade, 3rd grade - 5th grade, Middle School and High School.  As always, Richard has effectively searched the field and gleaned a useful collection of apps for us to use.   

I hope that this collection of almost 250 app references is useful to you and your educator colleagues. Which ones did you discover and ultimately use?  What would you suggest for others to use?

Share this posting with others so that they can add to their collections of App-ropriate Apps.

Z

3 Excellent FREE 9/11 iPad Apps

The anniversary for 9/11 is here. It is not a celebration but a recognition that an event happened one decade ago what has changed the world forever.  I thought that it would be interesting to see what is available as apps for your iPad.

The 911 Memorial: Past, Present and Future  
(Free 9/1-9/12 $9.99 after)

This impressive app explores the construction of the Twin Towers, the disaster of 9/11 and the development of the Memorial Plaza and twin Pools.


This app includes 40 videos (including the 9/11 attack) along with site tours, museum updates, animations and original content. Over 400 high-res photos are used to enhance the story. Links are used to expand the resource to include an ever-current set of resources. This app provides a depth of experience that is beyond anything else I have seen.

Here is the website for 911 Memorial app.

Explore 9/11 - Free

This is the official 9/11 Memorial application has been created by the National September 11 Memorial & Museum as a guide to understanding 9/11 through the eyes of who witnessed the events. This can be used to learn about what happened and what can be found or it can be used to assist a group who is exploring the site. (Given the sensitivity surrounding the events of 9/11, viewer discretion is advised. )Here is a demo of the free Explore 9/11 iPad/iPhone app.  It is short but the site includes a number of resources that you can find useful.


9/11 Memorial Guide - Free

This app will bring the 9/11 Memorial to life for you. Along the bottom it allows you to Search for Names of victims. Once you select a name, it provides you with information and a photo. It will also point you to the panel in the memorial where the person's name is posted. In some cases, there are audio stories about victims told by their loved ones.

Here is a demo of the free 9/11 Memorial Guide iPad/iPhone app.

These iPad apps are educational and intriguing. I learned a great deal about the 9/11 Memorial and about 9/11 that I never knew before.

What are your resources for teaching/learning about 9/11?  What can you share with others about your experience in teaching 9/11?

25 Web 2.0 Apps to Improve Productivity for Students or Professors

I was just review my Tweets when I came across this link to an OEDB (Online Education Database) blog posting that reviews a number of mostly free Web 2.0 productivity apps.  OEDB is a site where you can go to search for an online masters degree program.

This posting has the typical applications like Google Calendar, Zoho Projects, MyStickies, Google Docs, Bloglines, Google Reader and such.  But it also includes a whole collection of useful apps that I have never seen including Chalksite, Schoopy, Gradefix and the like.  The only problem I have with this list is the overcropping that they used with their logos.  =-)

You can find this wonderful list at:   Top 25 Web 2.0 Apps to Improve a Student's or Professor's Productivity

Free Google App Inventor: Now You Can Create Your Own Droid Apps

It's HERE!!!! . . . . well almost here.

Mashable just posted that Google has launched a new tool called the Google App Inventor.  This new tool is supposed to enable non-coders to develop their own apps. Using a modular programming process, the neo-developer can drag and drop "blocks" to create the look, feel and functionality of the desired app.

Imagine using this capability in K-12 schools. I am not talking about programming class.  I am talking about History, Geography, Math, English and Spanish. Students will be able to augment their learning by creating apps that can assist them in solving problems and posing new ones.

The New York Times said that Google has been testing this for a while in the schools already to test out how it works.  A nursing student at Indiana University created an app that would call an emergency number if someone fell. The program used the phone's accelerometer to sense a fall and if the person didn't get up in a short while or press the onscreen button, it would automatically make the call.

I said that the App Developer was "almost here."  That is because I clicked on the link to take me to the Google App Inventor, and it took me to an application for being considered by the Google App Inventor team for receiving access to the beta version.

Not a problem. I told them that I am a Google Certified Teacher and then explained some of my visions for this wonderful way to empower the "regular guy/gal."  I hope that I am accepted.

Here is a video that shows how a neo-programmer creates, loads and executes a simple Android app in just over a minute.



Will these be polished and sophisticated applications?  I don't know enough about the interface, but at least this tool will provide the canvas upon which our creative artists can develop prototypes that can later be refined commercially if need be.

What do you think?  How would access to this type of programming assistant affect how students learn in your class?

photo: fonehome.co.uk

Thankful for Free Apps

LifeHacker asked their readers to submit their favorite Free Apps. It was a simple process. They posted the challenge and the readers were to comment with their favorite apps. It appears that they had 484 comments with hundreds of suggestions. After a great deal of review, they whittled is down to:

The 61 Free Apps We are MOST Thankful For [sic]

Check them out. You will certainly find old friends, but you might be able to expand your toolbelt with some new apps you find.

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You DON'T have to be an Expert

As a teacher, you DON'T have to be an expert in using technology before you allow your students to use it.

This is probably the greatest barrier to integrating new technologies in the classroom. Many teachers believe that they must master technologies before allowing students to use them. Teachers often feel that they must be their students' safety nets in case they fail. This is NOT the case. Teachers should be the instigators of thought and investigation, but they should allow their students to explore ways to express themselves through a plethora of new technologies.

This attitude is something that is explained through a slideshow created and displayed by Mike Fisher in the 1 Thing project that Clif Mims is running over at his blog, Clif's Notes.

JustOneThing

You might notice that Mike Fisher created this slideshow using MyPlick. This is a site where you can upload your slides, synch them with your voice and then share them with friends. It is REALLY easy to share them with friends. I just use their embed feature to transfer this file over to this blog posting - no muss, no fuss. You will probably see me begin to use this in the future. It is Tres Cool!!
Tags: Web2.0 classroom technology tools apps