As of about mid March, 2010, I’ve been through approximately 10 smart phones since a few years ago when I started teaching online. I’ve been through three computers and have finally built my own super computer. I’ve bought more monitors than you can shake a stick at -it looks like Mission Control in my office, according to my wife and my jealous friends. Seriously, I’m a technology junkie, and I’ve FINALLY gotten the bugs worked out of my processes and figured out how to combine taking full advantage of technology to do a high quality job as an online teacher and be efficient and mobile. Here’s the shopping list if you’re just now getting into this gig. Take advantage of what I’ve learned now so you don’t spend a ton of time creating this one little baby step at a time. Remember that this stuff is all tax deductible, so enjoy the shopping trip and save those receipts!
Home office furniture -
Go ahead and blow a couple hundred bucks on a nice, cushy chair. If you’re doing especially well, grab the Aeron chair. Buy the chair first. I mean it -if you buy a used one on Craigslist or a yard sale, you’re in for some back, knee, and rear-end soreness. Measure from the back of your knee to the floor, and then buy one the right seat height -an issue when you’re 6′7″ like myself!
The desk is next. Don’t buy one. Here’s a picture of mine. The trick for my freakishly tall self was to find one the right height… which is, of course, impossible. So I took two 2×4’s and about 30 minutes with a screw-gun, and viola! I had a big hunk of corian cut the right size at a cabinet shop and slapped it up on top of some supports (of course I got the corian from craigslist). There are three reasons this is better than a desk with drawers. One, after you get the chair, you can measure the height of its arms at the most comfy spot for you, and then build the desk that high -custom build for garage sale prices! Two, there is nothing on the floor, which makes the room look waay bigger and allows for easier cleaning by my little robot-friend roo-two-dee-two… and it’s just cool to have a floating desk! Three, in the winter you can put a blanket under the corian slab so that it hangs down, forming a compartment for your legs under the desk -add a space heater, and you have toasty, happy feet under your kotatsu -thanks Japan!
Storage is taken care of in big filing cabinets, which are useful! Make these the other ‘wall’ for your Kotatsu. They are just to the right in the picture of my desk above. You’ll need these filing cabinets to store all of the stuff you don’t need any more but that you can’t bring yourself to throw away because it took you a decade to create and collect it teaching face-to-face. Make sure you keep a drawer or two empty for the office supplies you’ll steal from school and then also never use.
Technology-
Logitech MX5500: This is the one I have, and my only regret is that it’s not LED backlit. The mouse works from anywhere in the house and is rechargeable, and the keyboard has a great feel. If you can get the next step up with the LED’s in the keys, get it. You’ll want that when you’re working late at night. It’ll happen. You’ll work late at night sometimes because it was a heart-achingly beautiful Spring day and you took advantage of it. Instead of sitting in a cubicle, you washed your car, went grocery shopping, jogged a 5k, and sat in the hammock with your smartphone to clear your inbox… which we’ll cover momentarily. Working late at night -not so bad.
and why might you want the mouse to work all over the house? You’ll want that because you’ll run an rgb cord from your computer, through your crawl space, and into your sweet living room television for watching media, hulu, and doing the occasional online teaching from the living room easy chair.
2. Computer -drop a bundle. Build your own if you can, if you can’t, get:
windows 7
dual monitor video card x 2. That’s right. You want ports for 4 monitors, total. Trust me. You have to get the same kind of video cards, or it won’t work. That’s the only trick.
More USB inputs than you can shake a stick at -the more, the better, I promise. I don’t have enough even after installing an extra hub on the front. Get all the usb ports you can possibly get.
SPEED -get a dual core or a quad core with the fastest processor they make. Don’t go cheap on the speed of the computer. Faster is better, period.
Storage -a tb is plenty, but it’s a good idea to have an external USB hard drive so you can move it from desktop to your netbook.
3 22″ monitors. Get the $150 acers -anything with 5 stars on newegg while being the cheapest on the market is a good buy.
1 digital projector, portable. This is dual purpose. As you’re becoming a pro, you will want to be able to roll in totally prepared for a quick workshop. Also, you’ll mount this to play on the wall above your 3 monitors on a special painted screen that looks super-badass. Craigslist is a good place to get one -I bought a $10,000 theater projector for $500, but it’s not portable… not even close. You can get one for around $350 that will get the job done.
Netbook: When you go to the iNACOL conferences, this will come in super handy. Also, when you decide to hop on your bicycle and explore, you’ll carry this in your backpack. If you’re reading this and netbooks have come out with the google operating system, jump on it. If not, check out www.woot.com on a daily basis until a cheap netbook comes along. Be sure to read the ads on woot.com -that guy’s a genius. Mine is the one pictured above, and it’s great because it has a fast wifi connection and looong batter life; that’s really all you need with one of these. Just keep Google Chrome on it and use it for the cloud and playing the media that you have on your USB external hard drive.
Headset: get a wireless one that has enough range to cover your office, the bathroom, the kitchen, and a good pacing route. Comfort and quality are important, although you can also get speakers for backup. I use this guy; try to find one that charges with a micro USB cord.
phone and accessories: I have had the following phones and discovered:
Android operating system is great software, but Motorola made a terrible piece of hardware with the droid. The keyboard’s top row is unusable. The tilt2 (or touch pro2) from HTC is a badass piece of hardware, but windows mobile operating system is awful. Aw-ful. Winner for online teaching: iPhone 3gs, 32 or 16gb… Or the nexus from google. I’ll let you know the winner when I try the nexus…. editors note from three months in the future -stick with the iphone. The touch pad on the Nexus is the pits. I’d still like to see the HTC Touch Pro 2 with Android software on it though. Email on the iPhone works perfectly, and that’s the most important issue. It won’t be long before there is a pronto app, and I went into more detail on how to go about utilizing the phone for ultimate freedom. Neither Android, windows mobile, nor Rim for blackberry could edit google docs when I tried. The iPhone 3gs, however, could. Can you say contact log and call your students on the go?
Get the mophie battery case: It will double your battery life, and it will also allow you to charge your phone with the same cord you use to charge your:
Backbeat Bluetooth Headset: It allows you to call students hands free, and it also allows you to listen to your iTunes or Pandora app wirelessly when you’re not talking to your students. Imagine jogging down the sidewalk grooving to tunes, and your music fades out. You touch your left ear, slow down, and now you’re helping a student… Then the phone call ends, and you’re grooving again… back to the future again: I was happy with this for a while, but I gotta be honest, I’m back to the good ol’ wired headset again that comes with the phone. The Android dangly headset gets caught on doors, tools, and just about anything I walk by, but it has a forward, back, and play/pause button, which I like a lot. The problem with the backbeat is that when I move around, it skips. It seems to work fine for phone calls, but I listen to audio books (Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan Right now -awesome… editor’s note -after about the 4th or 5th book, just stop.)
… And that’s about it. You’ve got the ultimate computer, ultimate mobility via netbook and tethering iPhone, and you’re “good to go” like Taco Bell! This is all pretty expensive, but remember: it’s tax deductible now that you’re an online teacher! I’m really interested to hear your opinions on this gear in the comments section. Is there a device out there that beats what I’ve listed? Have I missed something important?
Coming soon -what software do you really need to learn how to use to save time and improve outcomes for students!
attention: this method will add the info to the phone, but you’ll have to manage the info in the google contacts area. As of now, it will only add the info in the ‘notes’ section in each contact on the phone. I’m working on a fix now and waiting to hear back from google. -Shu
So, I realize I’m leaning heavily toward the technology I own, and I’m not giving fair attention to apple or blackberry. Solution: Go buy the technology I have. Then we’ll be phone buddies! We’ll be phone buddies, and you’ll have cooler toys.
IF you have an Android phone, check out this latest trick! I used to keep all of my students’ contact information in a google doc, and I tred to surf around on it -pain that it is on a 3g or wifi signal and a little screen. Now, I’ve figured out how to do one better! I add my students in their own folder in my google contacts, and then I can re-add or wipe that folder and start new every semester! Holy contact log Batman, that’s waay better!
That should take you to the page where you can manage your google contacts, which are tied to your google account, which is automatically tied to your phone! Get your contacts on an excel page saved as a .txt, upload that baby to a ’students’ contact list, and then WHAM! Your students are in your phone.
The detailed directions for NCVPS teachers with Android phones are below. Everyone else, you’re on your own! I’m sorry I can’t do a video recording of this, but it’s all contact information and confidential.
1. Got to the NCVPS registration page via the Teacher Boat Dock (in the handbook)
2. Enter your username and password, and then hit ’students’
3. Select ‘export to excel.’
4. Open the file on your desktop (hit yes if there’s a warning message), and delete all the columns except student name, email address, phone, parent phone, parent email, dla name, school, dla phone number, and dla email address. Those are the important ones, but you can leave in anything else you want associated with the students.
5. This is important: hit save as and save the file as ‘contacts.’ Then, in ’save as type:’ save the file as a Text (Tab delimited) file. Save it to your desktop so it’s easier to find later. Hit yes if you see a warning box.
6. Go to your google contacts here (make sure you’re signed into the google account associated with your phone): Google Contacts
7. Above the Contacts bar on the top left, hit the icon with a plus and a few heads on it. It’s the new group icon.
8. Name the group students, and then in the new screen that pops up, select import from the top right.
9. Hit ‘choose file’ and select the file you just saved to your desktop.
10. Select ’students’ in the add these contacts to box, and check the box. Hit import.
11. Now, on your phone, go to your contacts icon. When there, hit the menu key on the phone. Select ‘Display Options.’
12. Select the account you used to upload your contacts, then put a green check beside students. Personally, I unchecked everything else. I don’t use this icon to find contacts. I use a google search widget on my home screen to find contacts.
13. Now, every time you upload this spreadsheet to your account, your students’ contact info will be in your phone, easily accessible so you can reach out and touch someone when you need to!
I hope that helps! If anyone else wants to add instructions for how to do something similar to this in other phones in the comments section of this blog, that would be awesome.
Shu
I haven’t been doing as good a job this semester with discussion board involvement, and I think I found a solution for that this week with the help of some online teachers and Pronto.
We found that in the discussion board ‘modify’ button beside each forum, there is an option to subscribe. When you select this option and then hit the subscribe button at the top of the screen, you get an email every time students post to the discussion board! The email contains their post and a link to their post… with the reply button right there!
I know that Gary Langner is great with discussion boards. He keeps a screen open just for the discussion board throughout the day and checks it every few minutes. I have multiple monitors with one already designated for the Wimba Classroom, but I just don’t think I could do it the same way as Gary -although I gotta commend him for his excellent connections with students!
I found that I’d log in every couple of days to participate, but when I logged in, I’d see tons of discussion board contributions from students. Replying to all of them just seemed intimidating and redundant, and I worried that nobody would read what I wrote. I’m GREAT at replying to email though; I usually respond in just a few minutes, because it comes right to my cell phone.
Using the subscribe feature in the blackboard discussion board helps me treat the discussion board like I treat my email, keeping up with it reactively on the instant rather than letting it back up and handle it as a weekly proactive duty. I can even hit the link on the email and reply to a discussion board post directly from my phone!
I like to handle my proactive responsibilities (like daily grading) in the morning and then get away from my home office for the rest of the day. I go on long walks and contact students, logging the contact from my phone. I answer email from my phone and follow up via synchronous contact. And now, I can reply to students’ discussion board posts via my phone! I love being mobile! I hope that subscribing to the discussion board helps others, because it’s going to help me a ton this summer!
Here is a quick tutorial from www.screentoaster.com on how to use one wimba classroom for multiple courses. In the next post, Be Available Whenever Part II, I cover how to let your students know when you’re in the Wimba Classroom.
Hi there! When I have office hours, I try to use the Wimba Classroom. Schools block downloading and installing Pronto sometimes. To the best of my knowledge, the Wimba Classroom, however, should work on any computer in any school. (Please correct me if I’m wrong about that in the comments below.)
In order to make it simple to access the Wimba Classroom for students, I put a button on the left hand side of my course that takes students directly there. I got the idea from the elluminate button in my IQ Academy courses (great folks out there at IQ Academy in Washington!).
The thing is, I work from home and am often sitting in front of my computer grading or clicking on things “to clean up my classroom.” I wanted to be available for students for synchronous contact then too, not only when I’m supposed to be holding office hours!
My first step was to create a scrolling Marquee across the top of the Announcements. Here is the HTML (and brief instructions) to create the same Announcement in your classroom.
1. open your course in firefox and go to the announcements through the control panel.
2. add a new announcement, and call it Please
3. hit the <> key, which tells Blackboard to read the html
4. insert without the semi-colons:
;<font size=”14″><font color=”#ffff00″><marquee bgcolor=”#0000ff”>Please read the Announcements daily. Thanks</marquee></font></font>
Notice you can change the text in the scrolling marquee just by changing the text in the html code. You can also change the color by changing the FFFFOO to other colors.
Still struggling with my rudimentary knowledge, I managed to write a script using AutoHotkey that would, with the click of a button, open my courses, go to announcements, change the announcement to a different color, and change the text to “Shu is now available LIVE! Hit “live teacher access” on the left!”
I named the button “live teacher access” rather than Wimba Classroom to keep it simple for students. Now, I can quickly ‘log into’ the classroom when I’m in front of the computer, and I can ‘log out’ the same way. I have a multi-monitor set up, so I just leave the Wimba classroom open on one monitor.
This is a really efficient way to be available. I haven’t gotten many students to log in and participate, but I have heard that they appreciate knowing I’m there just in case.
I think if I had to teach math, I’d shoot myself in the face with a bazooka. Maybe twice. I’ve always been awful at math. If I had to teach math online, though, I’d have to have something like this pen mouse.
A science teacher and I were working last week on how to create a canned lesson on a math concept. With English, it’s easy. I can use the keyboard and Microsoft Word to explain concepts in language and communication. For math, though, not so easy…
I have no idea how to write complicated math equations quickly in word. After a while, we tried using good ol’ Microsoft Paint as our white board and recording the screencast with www.screentoaster.com. Here’s an article on how to use screentoaster.
It worked great, but my ‘handwriting’ using my mouse was terrible! I suggest checking into some sort of wireless pen mouse if you don’t know how to teach math or science without a white board.
Because I don’t teach these, I’m curious to see how others have met this challenge. What do you do as a math or science teacher when you’re illustrating synchronous direct instruction for students?
For a while now, teachers have been creating animoto videos and sharing them for aesthetic improvements on a unit-by unit basis. Brady from Shmoop emailed me today with a time saver though. Here is his email:
______________________________________________________________________________
Check out the new photo slide shows that we quietly launched a few days ago. Now, all of our US History and Civics guides, and about 70 of our Literature guides, have a nice photo slide show to go along with them.
Along with the slide show, we have a Widget that enables teachers to embed a mini version of the slide show right on their own classroom web page or blog (embed just as you do with YouTube videos).
I think this is a pretty cool new feature and one that a lot of teachers and students will enjoy. If you have any feedback or suggestions, I’d love to hear from you.
Brady
–
Shmoop
http://www.shmoop.com
** Best of the Internet – PC Magazine
** Official Honoree – 2010 & 2009 Webby Awards
______________________________________________________________________________
What’s great about this is that it can be embedded! To embed these little jewels, just grab the Embed code from the site (look for the photos tab in the section you’re covering), and paste it into the html (<> button) field in firefox. If you do it right, it will look like this:
Today we’re going to talk about a powerful tool for computer users -Autohotkey. First, a brief list of its attributes: it’s free… that one was easy.
Second, it’s complicated. It’s really complicated. I had to bribe my geeky brother to show me how to use it, and I had google at my fingertips. This is not a tutorial -it’s that complicated. So if you’re a tech newbie, you’ve been warned. If, however, you’re somewhere between a developing nerd and a super-geek-ninja, Autohotkey is something you should seriously consider taking a day or three to learn.
Last, here’s a brief description of what it is with a video for your viewing pleasure: with Autohotkey, you hit a key combination that you define and then any automated action magically happens on your computer… anything you tell it to do, it will do… anything.
I work from my home office, and when I come downstairs in the morning, I blearily turn on my computer and hit “#b”. That opens blackboard to all of my courses. It opens my email and goes to my unread mail. It also opens my course roster so I have my contact information handy. Last, it goes to my grade book in all of my courses. It does this while I’m making a fruit smoothie with my Magic Bullet. By the time I sit down, I’m ready to roll.
Here is another example and a bigger time saver: When I started a new course this semester, my boss-lady (love her!) told me I had to go through ‘grade details’ in the grade book to enter points and a no-credit message. I couldn’t just hit 50-enter-50-enter-50-enter in the grade book’s spreadsheet view. I made it half way through doing this for 5 classes, and rather than commit seppuku with my letter opener, I created an Autohotkey script that would repeat this process for me. Now, on Monday mornings, I tell it how many times to run through this action in a column, and voila! My netbook inputs F’s for missing assignments with a quick note, while I munch on toast and grade work that was actually turned in! This saves me approximately 4,000 hours every Monday. HUGE.
Now for a warning: If your script has errors, you are in danger. Your computer has no judgment and no brain. If you accidentally tell it to do something that will erase your hard drive, it will! Learn this new skill in small steps -you are warned.
Here is a quick video about Autohotkey. Keep in mind that this is not a tutorial. It’s just about the program. If you have any tips or tricks, please add them in the comments section -I’m rather new with the program myself!
Tired of constantly uploading your contact logs to all of your course sections? Tired of accessing wiki’s inside your courses to log contacts? Tired of trying to remember who you contacted throughout the day using your ‘recent calls’ option on your cell phone? Tired of just not making enough contact because logging the contact and finding the info is a pain? ME TOO!!So, here’s what we’re going to do about it: We’re going to create a process so that you’ll NEVER have to upload your contact logs to your course. We’ll also make it so you can log your contacts quickly no matter if you’re in front of your work computer, your home computer, your laptop, or you’re just hanging out with your smartphone. We’ll also make sure that there’s time and date information automatically provided… you know, one less thing. Last, we’ll give it a cool GUI (that’s Graphic User Interface), so you feel cool when you’re logging contacts. We’re going to make contacting students so easy you can look up the info, make the call, and log the contact while you’re out walking around this spring!! Check out this video, and tell me you love me in the comments.
Here is a link to a tutorial with more details on how to set this up!
Keep in mind that this is a two-part process. You should definitely still have your names and phone numbers in a google doc and link that doc in your smartphone too so that you have the contact info you need to make the calls. On my new iPhone, I can just tap the phone number in my google doc, and the phone says, “Oh, hi there! Would you like me to call this number for you automatically?” It’s pretty sweet. The bigger the text, the easier it is to tap the number on a touch pad phone -think large font. Again, it’s a good idea to highlight the names of failing students that’s who you’re going to focus on and call first and most often. -Shu
“Android [only]: Google Voice tracks all your calls in a searchable list. If you can’t get down with Voice, or want even more convenient tracking, CallTrack plots all your calls, or just particular calls, on a Google Calendar of your choosing.”
This is an interesting idea where one could conceivably use an android phone to log calls on a google calendar. I’m not certain how this would work with the contact log, but let me know if any of you play with it so that it’s a good process. Adding notes to the call might be a pain, and I’m not sure how you’d separate personal calls from student calls without getting a phone dedicated to just calling students. Let me know!
Now that you’re adding buttons and making changes willy-nilly in your online courses, let’s consider THIS change!
You’re familiar with google calendars now; you’ve used them to track a few of your goals and appointments. Now it’s time to take it to the next level. If you’re a course lead, create a new calendar in your ncvps account. In the calendar, add the assignments that are due in the next two weeks.
You’ve got your calendar ready now; it’s time to spread the love! Hit the upside down triangle beside your calendar’s name, and select ‘calendar settings.’ Toward the bottom of the screen, you’ll see an embed code (ta-daaaa!).
There is a number beside the height and width. It looks like this:
width=”800″ height=”600″
You’ll multiply those numbers by 1.5, changing the numbers to 1200 and 900, respectively. This will make the calendar bigger and easier to read for students.
Next, add a button in your course and add a single item within that button. Using firefox, insert the code into the item you’ve added. Now, your course should have a button that has the due dates. You’ll updated this every couple of weeks. That’s actually more work than just posting a .doc with a bunch of dates… but check THIS out.
Your next step is to email this code to everyone teaching the course. If they’ll also create a button and drop the calendar into their courses, then you’ll have a cool web 2.0 calendar in your course -aren’t YOU fancy!
So, now everyone has a cool calendar, and your revision teams don’t have to waste time creating that pain in the butt .doc -remember, snow happens.
