Byte Me--lol

Byte Conference 2012

{This is not totally iPad related but we felt this was a good spot to post for others to view and refer back to.}
Held in Portage La Prairie-one full day consisting of a Keynote Speaker and 4 tech sessions. This is an absolutely fabulous inservice. Each session is about an hour long and gives you a taste of a variety of types of technology for classroom use. There was a large variety of choices of sessions to attend. Here's my 4 choices and the highlights of what I learned. If you'd like to know more info. please let me know!!! I'd love to share more.

Keynote speaker: Joan Badger

Nothing is truly original-- We all borrow and remix other people's ideas whether it's thru books, magazines-blogs-inservices etc etc. That's what we do as teachers and that's what makes what we do so good. She wanted to share some of what she does with tech so we could go away with something to use ourselves-so here's what I BORROWED from her talk.
The Daily Create- This is a site where there's an assignment each day to practice spontaneous creativity with a short exercise.
Newspaper Map- This is a site where you can go to read Newspapers from anywhere in the world. If it's in yellow it's in English-but all can be translated to English if it's not.
Black out Poetry- Taking the important details from a newspaper article or story etc. and creating poetry with it.
WONDER
Creating wonder to help our students learn-- Students creating wonder to learn-- Wondering about our students--lol--

Session 1

Kiss It -Keep It Simple and Smile-Informational Technology-the writing process
David Juce-consultant
This presenter kept getting off topic but that was ok because here's what I took from his presentation:
The iPads can be hooked up to the LCD wirelessly by Apple tv which runs for about $100. and then--get this--you can use your mimio with it. You have to download an app Splashtop.This is just what he said--I haven't researched it at all--but I did say--" Are you sure? " soooo---- I know that for $19.99 you can purchase Splashtop with a whiteboard feature that brings up tools like the mimio or you can purchase Splashtop with a remote control desktop for $4.99 and this is the one that interacts with the mimio--I think.hmmm
He also said you can make a document camera stand for the iPad so you can use it as a doc camera.

Another site he recommended for doing mind mapping such as Inspiration--Kidspiration is called:
XMind which is free unless you want the pro version!!
Visuwords is a really cool visual dictionary and I recommend you try it out. It is an online graphical dictionary and would be so helpful for writing and researching.
He recommends you do a SAFESEARCH on Google when you are getting kids to research and it eliminates many of those nasty sites you don't want the students to view.
Trackchanges- this allows more than one person to make changes to a word document
The 5 W's of Cyberspace ---Knowing What's what and What's not-- an awareness of the internet
well worth looking into for those upper grades who have students searching on the internet
So, even though Mr. Juce tended to get off topic--he did give out loads of great information. Hope you find time to check out some of the sites above. It'll be well worth it.

Session 2

Comic Life-Presenter --Ron Nordstrom

Comic Life is a storytelling tool for all ages. Comic books are created and can be single pages or multiple pages. If you have the program installed you won't need internet connection. There is a cost but Ron says it's minimal and one of the well worth it investments for the school. A single licence is about $20.00 . There also is a free one month trial.

Here's some ideas of how to use Comic Life although this didn't come from the conference

If you don't have Comic Life downloaded on you computer you can make a pdf file 

Ron mentioned a pdf converter that's a free download called dopdf  so we can print these comics to share or post. Great hands on session and easy to use tool.

                                       Session 3

                   The New Copyright and You-- John Finch

Alternatives for posting work rather than copying others

• Create it yourself
• Public Domain-work [ie. a song] enters the public domain 50 years after the death of the creator 
• Ask permission from the creator- it really can be done quick and easy- often a response is sent within 24 hours
• Use Creative Commons
• Fair Dealings-- which always is interpreted differently from individuals and if it ever goes to court it's up to the judge and his interpretation

linking the URL is also an alternative

Google Search-- use the advanced search and check out the usage rights

Session 4

Mimio Tips and Tricks

This was probably my favorite of all the sessions just because there was so much to take back to the classroom. She was so willing to share and WOW is she organized. I loved the hands on way she approached the session and would love to go watch her teach. In any case, it's well worth checking out her site for ideas of your own.

https://sites.google.com/site/cstrifling/