Each and every lesson in my classroom had a Google Slides presentation. This included my "Do Now" activity, agenda, objectives, directions for activities etc. even if I wasn't going to be doing any lecturing that day. 

I would often times have students record their thoughts on a Google Doc or in a notebook to checks for understanding throughout the lesson. Directions like "Take 2-3 minutes to discuss the following question" were followed up by pair shares to try to ensure every student was participating. Sometimes I'd use a Polleverywhere or Socrative question to try and collect some data.

Enter Pear Deck. Pear Deck is an amazing tool that combines presentation with real-time assessment. Students log in with their GAFE accounts and the teacher controls the pace. Teachers share their interactive lessons and students respond to “checks for understanding” through any device. They can track student results on an individual and group basis. Feedback is instantaneous and can inform instruction, highlighting if a topic needs to be covered again. 

Check out my presentation for the Niles Township Institute Day! I'm presenting on two great Real-Time Assessment tools, Peardeck and Nearpod. Here is the Nearpod presentation in self-paced "Homework" mode. (Peardeck PDF coming when feature is available).

This...this is what I've been waiting for! The SnagIt Chrome extension works flawlessly across OS's, and what's more, it saves straight to your Google Drive! It even makes animated GIFs! Perfect for the quick tutorial that doesn't need audio! I've been sharing them via email and on Schoology for simple tasks like submitting work or changing settings.

Check out this tutorial (video style) that I made introducing the extension to my teachers. 

You can add the extension for yourself and take it for a spin here.

Tech Integration Specialist, Tech Coach, 21st Century Learning Specialist, etc. The list of titles go on and on, but a rose by any other name... The question I frequently am asked is, "what does a tech integration specialist do?" So, I've pulled together some resources from various sources to try and answer that question. 

Check out the post here.

I know I'm about a month late to the party here, but I wanted to wait until I had a little bit of time working with the tool before I shared. "What tool," you ask? Why, Screencastify, of course! 

I've been using Chrome OS since the Acer AC700 came out (I wasn't "worthy" of the Cr-48...grumble grumble...) and I have used it for pretty much everything. My mantra has been that if a tool isn't browser agnostic, then it wasn't worth the hassle of using.

This philosophy has worked out pretty well, but there was one major drawback: screencasting. For those of you who aren't familiar, a screencast lets you record all screen activity, including audio. This is great for "how to" videos or flipped lessons. Most of these tools use java, flash, or other plug ins, so they wouldn't work on Chrome OS. I was able to use Hangouts On Air, but this seemed unnecessarily complicated. 

Finally, last moth Screencastify hit the Chrome Web Store.  I've used it a few times with great success, but more importantly, so have my students. We are a 1:1 school with Samsung Chromebooks, so all of my students have the necessary tools. 

So far, students have used the tool to record screencasts of in-class presentations that they would have been absent for. Their group members simply inserted the YouTube videos into their Google Slides presentations and it was just like the students were there! Very cool. I'm planning on having students utilize the tool as a whole class to demonstrate their learning of upcoming concepts. I'll let you know how it goes!

This year's NICE MiniCon was a fantastic experience. Not only did I get to see three other educators share some wonderful ideas for improving student's learning experiences, but it also marked the first time that I've ever done a workshop outside of my own school. Now that I've got a taste of it, I can't wait to do it again. Too bad I didn't sign up for this year's ICE conference.

Everything went well and I received some very positive feedback. I guess that whole M.S.Ed. in Instructional Technology thing wasn't a bad idea after all. :)

My lovely wife Catherine, who presented at last year's MiniCon, gave me the great idea to create screencasts of what I was going to cover. That way everyone can go back and re-watch the videos.

What's even cooler is a Schoology Community Manager saw my videos and she liked them so much, shes's sharing them with their social networks. I'm basically famous now, guys.

If you want to see the presentation and the videos, they're all available here: mrwickham.com/nice.

I'm very excited to be presenting a session at the Northern Illinois Computing Educators Schoology MiniCon in Skokie on January 25, 2014. 

The session is entitled "LMS: Creating a Paperless Classroom" and will introduce users to how I've created a paperless learning environment using the Schoology learning management system (LMS). 

Topics to be covered include: creating assignments and assessments, annotating student work, using rubrics, discussion boards, and integrating Google Drive. 

I even had a cute little tag line in my proposal. "Teachers, don’t drown in paperwork anymore!"

The cost is only $5 and I assure you it is more than worth the price of entry (in bagels alone!). Check it out here.