Sketch Notes and Slides from Ed Tech Teacher Summit

Yesterday at the Ed Tech Teacher Summit in Chicago I gave an updated version of my popular presentation Discovery, Discussion, Demonstration. Douglas Kiang was kind enough to share his sketch notes of my presentation. A screenshot of Doug's notes is posted below along with a PDF of my slides.

Haiku Deck Now Offers Syncing of Edits

Haiku Deck, the popular slideshow creation tool, has recently added a long-request feature. You can now sync edits to your slideshows between your iPad and the web version of Haiku Deck. In the updated version of the iPad app all of your presentations will automatically save to your online Haiku Deck account. You can publish your slides publicly or privately. It is important to note that all new presentations will be public by default, so make sure you change the setting if you don't want your slides to be public. Learn more about privacy settings here. The slideshow below provides an overview of the latest Haiku Deck features.


Just Tap EDIT: A Guide to Syncing Existing Decks with the New Update - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Applications for Education
Haiku Deck has been a favorite app of mine and many others since it launched because of two key features. First, Haiku Deck has an integrated Creative Commons image search that helps students find appropriate images for their presentations. Second, Haiku Deck limits how much text a student can put on a slide. Without the option to create big blocks of text to rely upon, students have to know their material well before they present to the class.

Eject Guests from Google+ Hangouts

Last week Google removed the need for a plugin to participate in Google+ Hangouts. This week another feature was added that makes Google+ Hangouts a little more school-friendly. Now you can eject guests from Google+ Hangouts. Participants who are in the same domain as the creator of the hangout can eject guests. If a guest from outside of the domain is ejected from the Hangout he or she can only rejoin by invitation.

Blendspace Joins Wikispaces and TES - Premium Features Now Free!

Blendspace, formerly known as EdCanvas, is now a part of Wikispaces and TES. The Blendspace service will continue to run as a stand-alone service. The aspect of the merger that has the most immediate impact on teachers is that the premium features of Blendspace will now be free. The premium features allow you to collaborate with other teachers to creation of lessons.

Blendspace makes it easy for teachers to organize and share educational materials in a visually pleasing format. On Blendspace you arrange videos, links, images, and files around any topic of your choosing. Blendspace has built-in search tools so that you do not have to leave your Blendspace account in order to locate resources.

When you share a set of Blendspace materials with your students they can give you feedback to show that they understand the materials or they can ask questions about the materials. You can also see if your students actually looked at all of the materials that you have shared with them.

Learn more about Blendspace in the video below.


Applications for Education
Using Blendspace can be a good way to create and deliver flipped lessons. In fact, Blendspace offers a recorded webinar about that topic. The recording is embedded below.