Connections: Take Your Own #EduTour

I've been dreading this post for a while. Trying to sum up all of my thoughts on the EduTour does not seem like something I can do in a post. There were so many great things that I could write about, I would hate to leave anything out. With school starting today, this post seem to be a bit easier for me. Something cleared up and I felt like I had something to say. 

The goal of the EduTour was to get out and meet people. I wanted to have conversations with people I would never have a chance to talk to face to face. In this aspect, the EduTour was a huge success. I was able to meet people and talk to them. I learned some new things and had a great time talking. 

However, there was more to the trip than I realized. I didn't just meet people and talk to them, I made meaningful connections. I was able to hear about the problems that others face in their classrooms and engage them in problem solving. I connected with people in a way that is not possible online. Online is a great place to start a conversation, but face to face takes it to a whole other level. 

This level of connection was something that was a pleasant surprise. I have these great connections with people from Detroit to San Francisco. There are people I can now turn to when I have questions or need some support. I would not trade this experience for anything in the world. These connections will make me a better person and a better educator. 

Another great part of the EduTour was the fact that people were following us using social media. It was a great way for friends, new and old, to support Tim and I as we drove across the country. We were sent funny messages, pictures, music suggestions and other bits of information to keep us occupied during long stretches in the car. Social Media allowed us to stay connected with the amazing  people we have met over the years and that made the trip a little more special. 

It would be awesome if every educator could jump in the car with the best buddy and drive around the country. There is so much to learn outside of our comfort zone if we get up and go. I propose a challenge to all of the educators out there; take an EduTour of your school or district. 

Find a way to take a visit across your school or your district and connect with teachers in other departments and buildings. Your EduTour can be done over the course of the school year and you can make wonderful connections with educators right around the corner. These are the connections that can help you grow as a teacher and create stronger learning environments for your students. We often forget that there are experts down the hallway that we could learn amazing things from if we take the time to say hello and listen to what they have to teacher. 

For this school year, I challenge you to create your own EduTour in your building or district and share what you learned with the rest of us. Have a great year and I can't wait to learn from you. 

Enjoy these pictures from the EduTour

Nick

StudyBlue to the rescue! #EduTour

A huge shut out to StudyBlue for hosting our final PitStop in San Francisco. We are going to be in their offices downtown and I can't wait to see where these awesome people work.

StudyBlue is an awesome tool that allows users to create notecards, flashcards and other notes and then share them using social media. The Twitter and Facebook integration is great because it allows for easy sharing for students and that is very important to them.

The other aspect of StudyBlue that is really nice is that it is accessible on the go using mobile devices. Our students are more and more mobile than ever before. They want to access their information when they want wherever they are. StudyBlue makes that possible with their mobile apps across platforms. It doesn't matter if kids are on iDevices or Android, they can share their notes and flashcards with just a couple selections.

I really see this as a big deal for students in my high school who are always getting ready for their big AP exams and other tests. These notes are very helpful to have if they have down time between classes or during lunch. They do not have to run to their locker or worry about losing their notebook because their flashcards and notes are saved in StudyBlue.

I really look forward to exploring this tool more during the school year and will really encourage my students to give it a try in my class and others.

.@ScanSnap to get ready for the #EduTour

When someone tells me that some is the best ever at doing something, I always take it with a grain of salt. I have had so many slices of the best pizza from all over the country it would truly amaze you. However, Fujitsu claimed to have really fast scanning with the ScanSnap desktop scanner and I was blown away.

I needed to scan tons of paperwork to make the #EduTour happen. I needed to send things that have been signed and contracts with other people all had to be sent out across the country. The ScanSnap scanner was more than up to the task. I didn't lose any quality in the scans either. I thought there had to be some loss in resolution, but I couldn't see it.

The ScanSnap sits nicely on my desk and I slide it out when I need to get some heavy duty scanning done. I have placed 10 pieces of paper to scan and it did it and saved it as a PDF on my desktop in under 60 seconds. That is amazing.

ScanSnap also gives you the option to attach to an email and even save directly to Evernote. So, many of these contracts and other forms I needed to scan, I was able to scan them and email them to the people that needed them AND save a copy in my Evernote notebooks. ScanSnap allowed me to be very organized for this trip and that is important. I want to be as paperless as possible and ScanSnap helped in that regard.

If you are looking for great quality and fast scanning in an effort to clean up the clutter from your desk, you have to check out the ScanSnap from Fujitsu.

Why @IdeaPaint is Awesome! #EduTour

This is a post I write some time back about the awesomeness of IdeaPaint and I want to share it again for the #EduTour. I would have loved if we could have covered the car in IdeaPaint or something so people could leave comments. If you are not familiar with IdeaPaint, here is my post on why I would rather have IdeaPaint than an IWB.

I did get the IdeaPaint and used it on my desks and my kids loved it. It was a real game changer for collaboration and note-taking for many of my students. It was a great investment and I'm glad we were able to give a painting kit to one lucky winner on the #EduTour.

Why I would take IdeaPaint over an IWB.

As an Evernote Education Ambassador, I sometimes get to see products up close and personal. When I was at the Evernote offices in California, I was able to see first-hand how Ideapaint is used. What I saw blew my mind and made me want to cover my classroom with it.

For those that do not know what Ideapaint is, here is a video that explains it in more detail. 

Turning surfaces into whiteboards is such an awesome idea. It is so much better than the IWB in my classroom and here are my reasons why. 

1. Currently, my IWB sits in the front of the room and requires all students to face that way for instruction. It makes me have to stay in the front of the room to use the board. I'm not a fan of that. I like to walk around and interact with my students and the class environment. I feel it gives me a better sense of what is going on in the class. With Ideapaint, any wall can be the focal point of the class. Heck, a student's desk could be the focal point of the discussion as I walked around and wrote notes for the kids. Ideapaint allows the discussion to be anywhere in the classroom. That freedom is so important to a teacher like myself that wants to move around and engage students all over the room. 

2. I'm stuck having my IWB connected to my computer. If my computer is on the fritz, which happens time to time, my IWB is just there. That's it. It sits there in front of my chalkboard and I look out at my kids feeling a bit helpless. With Ideapaint, I could use any surface at any time regardless of my computer. As a tech guy, I love the analog feeling of the walls and sharing ideas on them. It is a great option for teachers that have to deal with network issues in their classroom. 

3. Collaboration is not easy with a IWB in the classroom. Unless the district pays a ton of money to get the IWB that allows multiple users at the same time, it's general function is one person at a time at the front of the room. That is not how I roll in my classroom. My room is designed for collaboration. My lessons are created around teamwork. An IWB is not conducive to this type of environment. Ideapaint would allow my students to collaborate in groups on the walls or their desks. They could all work together seamlessly. This approach could really change the dynamic in my classroom. I want kids to work together easily and Ideapaint would allow them to do so. 

4. Sharing is nice with most IWB software. I can write notes on the provided software and save it as a PDF and then post it on my website or on a shared Evernote notebook. It's doable, but takes a few steps. In an Ideapaint classroom, not only could I post notes on any surface, but my students could write their own notes on walls for other students. Imagine a class dedicated for writing notes for specific chapters or themes in a story all over the classroom. Once the groups are done with their part of the notes, they could go around and take notes on the notes created by students. Over the course of a school day, all of my walls and desks would be covered with student created notes. My students now become the creators of content in a way that a IWB could never provide. By using Evernote, students could just snap photos of the notes and save them into their notebooks. 

5. Every year I come to school and the software needs a new upgrade to work on the IWB. The problem we often face is the update does to work very well on our older computers. What's the point of having the IWB if I can't use all of the features? No updates needed with Ideapaint. As long as I have a clean wall, my students can write , share and collaborate freely in my classroom. 

6. The price of projector bulbs is ridiculous. Seriously, they should not be that expensive. When they do go out, the IWB is useless. You can't do anything without the projector. Not a problem with Ideapaint. I can just go to any wall I want and start writing. Not bulbs required. Heck, if it is a nice day out, I'll turn out the lights and write on the walls using old fashioned sun light. 

7. IWB do not provide much creative space for students. It's a board controlled by the teacher's computer that students are generally kept away from. Kids sit and stare as the teachers used the IWB and take notes. Students should have the space to write down their ideas to share with the class. It should also serve as a creative space for kids to express themselves through poetry, drawings or music lyrics. I'm not talking about Art classes or English classes only, but all classrooms should have this space for kids to express themselves. The more space students have to be creative, the more likely they will feel comfortable enough to relax and learn. 

8. The last one is price. The amount of money it takes to buy, install, provide PD and IT support an IWB is crazy. Ideapaint can cover a classroom at a fraction of the cost. Also, no training is needed to show a teacher how to write on a wall. We have all been doing it since we were kids. Take out a dry erase marker and start sharing!

These are just some of the reasons why I would love to have Ideapaint in my classroom. I hope to paint the back wall of the stage in my room with Ideapaint to create a more collaborative environment for my students. I think the creative space would have a positive impact on all of my students.

Mobile Scanning Needs Met By @Doxie #EduTour

There are many people that are going to look at this post and say, "Why not just take a picture?" Yes, taking a picture might be faster, but it would not always be better. There are things that I want to look good and that is where the Doxie Scanner comes in to play.

I figured there might be things that I want to save and share with everyone and the camera on my iPhone 4 might not be good enough to capture the way I want. The Doxie Scanner I am using for the trip is the Doxie Go. Doxie has a few options worth checking out. I like the Doxie Go because it has the SD card slot that allows me to do the scanning I need and then upload them to the my iPad using the iPad/SD card connector. If I want, I can also just scan the items directly into Evernote when the scanner is connected to my laptop.

The Doxie Scanners are all very easy to carry around and keep in your backpack or luggage without any problem. As someone who travels often, it is nice to have a portable scanner that fits nicely in my luggage and can be used without a laptop. I never know when I will have to scan something and send it somewhere and the Doxie Go is great for my mobile scanning needs.

I have used Doxie in my classroom with the iPads and it has worked nicely for my students. They were able to scan written work and upload it to their Evernote accounts. They did this while the rest of class worked on projects, so it was a nice way to keep their e-portfolios up to date. Doxie is the perfect tool in my classroom when I need 30 people to scan from their desks.

The #EduTour Begins! #EdChat

Hello everyone! I'm excite to start the EduTour tomorrow. My @TheNerdyTeacher account and The Nerdy Teacher site will be relatively quite over the next two weeks. All of my social media efforts will be focused on all things EduTour related. Below you will find all of the different accounts you can follow to enjoy the ride along with us. We will be live tweeting, doing on the road podcasts, tweet ups and other great things along the way.

The main reason I'm doing this tour is to meet people outside of my educational and personal world. I want to hear what the "average" American thinks of the education they received and the education students are receiving today. I will be playing the role of a journalist and I'm excited to hear the stories and share them with all of you. 

Please do me a solid and follow the accounts, interact with us while we head west and we promise to provide hours of entertainment. 

Social Media sites for the #EduTour:

Twitter: @TheEduTour
YouTube: The EduTour
Facebook: The EduTour
Instagram: The EduTour
FourSquare: The EduTour
Flickr: The Edu Tour
Nick's Evernote Food Journal
Tim's Evernote Food Journal

.@SimpleK12 for your PD needs! #EduTour

Hello everyone! I wanted to give another shout out to another sponsor of the trip here. SimpleK12 and the Blue Bunnies donated memberships to five lucky people here on the #EduTour and we have been excited to give them away.

I've done PD with SimpleK12 and they are some of the nicest people in the edtech world. The sessions are always jammed packed with people and they are never disappointing. With great names like +Steven Anderson and +Kyle Pace doing sessions for them, you know it is going to be top quality PD from the comfort of your home.

I will be doing a session on using Evernote in the classroom on September 21st that will show people the different ways Evernote can help you as a teacher.

If you are looking for ways to grow as a professional and want access to thousands of great resources, then look no farther than SimpleK12.

Follow the bunnies!

.@Evernote and @LivescribeK12 on the #EduTour

This is the first of a few posts I will be writing about using various tools to support the EduTour.

I wanted to briefly talk about the awesomeness that is Livescribe and Evernote. I have been using the Livescribe Sky Pen for a while and I have always loved it. It can record the notes and audio and directly save it to a specific Evernote notebook. This isn't new. However, using it on this trip makes the most sense. This is something that I would recommend to all journalists and journalism classes. I will be passing this to my journalism teachers this Fall.

One of the things I am doing on this trip is interviewing people about education. I want to know what they think about the current state of education and what they thought about their education growing up. Traditionally, I would just listen and take notes on my iPad or in a notebook. My main problem is that my handwriting is not very clean and I have a hard time listening and writing down information at the same time. Note-taking has always been a nightmare for me. Livescribe and Evernote solve that problem.

I now get to keep the audio of the conversation and I do not have to worry about the handwriting or getting every word down for the interview. What I have actually done is write the questions done in advance and just create dots for each person I'm interviewing. When I go to the next questions, I create a new dot. I have all of the information right there in the book for review after the trip or while Tim is driving. By listening to the interview, I can make any other notes I want for the things that really stand out to me.

The back up to Evernote is also great. If something should happen to the notebook on the trip, everything I have is saved in Evernote. I will not lose a single interview or note. That is what is so great about the cloud based storage of Evernote and Livescribe. I really think more teachers should look into taking their class notes using Livescribe so students can do the same thing. The notes will always be there not matter what happens and that is huge for students who tend to lose things. These two guys just made the #EduTour so much easier.

The Nerdy Teacher's #EduTour

The other day, I was hanging out around the house and I thought about driving to San Francisco this summer. I have tons of great friends in the Bay Area and two of my favorite groups (Evernote and Edutopia) are out there, so it would be nice to pay them a visit.

I have always been a traveler. I like getting out there and seeing what the world has to offer. When I finally became a full-time teacher, I booked a trip to London and packed it solo through Europe for a couple of weeks. Some of the coolest people I met where staying in hostels. Awesome people and amazing conversations. There is something about sitting across from someone and sharing ideas over a beverage that cannot be duplicated with all of the technology we have today. These ideas came together when I started thinking about a road trip out West.

"What if I stop in cities along the way and have Nerdy Meet-Ups?" I would have a chance to meet so many different people and talk about all things education. What do these people do in their classrooms, schools and/or districts? I could have so many meaningful conversations with so many different people. It could be a crazy adventure over the summer infused with professional development the world has never seen.

Some people have suggested that I could do Google Hangouts and meet people that way and have conversations. While I could meet many awesome people that way, I want to shake a hand, give a hug or slap a high-five to these people. Virtual meetings can be great, but I like to get out there and see people face to face. Those connections mean more to me in a way. As digital as I am, I still love a good analog meeting.

Chronicling this #EduTour would be exciting and I know I would be able to meet many of my PLN along the way. Using my digital devices to record what I have learned in the hopes of improving myself as an educator. What an awesome way to dispel the "Summers Off" myth that so many people have around the country. Like many of us in the PLN world, making our own PD seems to be far more effective than attending what the school has to offer.

This is my question to all of you, "Am I off base in thinking that I could learn many great things on this trip that is not possible doing digitally?"

Let me know your thoughts in the comment section and make a case to be a stop on the way from Detroit to San Francisco in August if I make this idea  reality.

Photo Credit: Espen Klem Flickr Creative Commons