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Selasa, 13 Agustus 2013
Day 24 – Khan Academy and Flipped Learning with the Surface RT

Day 24 – Khan Academy and Flipped Learning with the Surface RT

30 Days with a Surface RT for Teachers 
Teaching and Learning with a Windows 8 Tablet

Today I would like to continue with a video related post of using the Surface RT in a flipped classroom learning environment. The way that the Surface RT plays back video has been a surprise to me. With all the reports of the slow RT ARM processor I was expecting a sluggish viewing experience, this has not been the case at all. The Surface RT has been a champ at video playback.

Yesterday I laid out the possibilities of using expandable storage with the Surface RT and how I have been watching full HD MP4 files without issue. This experience has made me think that the Surface RT might make a great device for those classrooms interested in flipped learning.


Flipped learning has gained notoriety over the past five years as a different pedagogical method for engaging students in the classroom. In its most basic form teachers assign students to watch videos as homework. When students come to class the next day the teacher will have the students work on homework in class, thus the name the flipped classroom. If a student has a question they can watch the instructional video again or ask the teacher. Better yet, have students help each other and dive deeper into the homework problems together. Research has shown significant gains in student understanding when peer instruction is used.

Of course, you can make your own video screencasts and the Surface RT can help with that too, but when will you find the time?

You may be surprised to find there are already thousands of educational videos already available on the Internet. The best known site for K12 instructional videos is the Khan Academy, and as they say, there is an app for that for the Surface RT.

Sal Kahn, the originator of the Kahn Academy has become the best known advocate for flipped learning in the classroom. He has created the non-profit Khan Academy website that has thousands of videos on just about any subject imaginable for K12. These videos are typically less than 10 minutes each and build upon each other.

There are videos for Basic Math, Algebra, Geometry, Calculus, General Science, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Finance, English, Social Studies….. you get the idea.

This is where the Surface RT comes in. I installed the Khan Academy app from the Windows store and the best thing about this app is that it lets me download videos that I am interested in directly to the Surface RT.

In this area of the State of Illinois our Internet access is limited. This is especially true for our K12 students as many parents do not have access to broadband Internet. You really need to have reliable Internet connection to watch videos online and this has been a deterrent to flipped learning. But, if you download them locally to the Surface RT you can watch them anywhere WITHOUT an Internet connection!!!

This has been a big stumbling block for teachers in this area wanting to implement the flipped classroom approach to teaching. The Surface RT is capable of solving this problem.  If you have a central computer to download the videos you now have a reasonable way to share legal content with other students thanks to the Surface RT’s USB port.

With the Khan Academy app on the Surface RT students literally have access to an entire K12 curriculum in bite-sized video chunks. If you are lucky enough to have broadband Internet access you can just watch the videos when you are online, no need to download.

Another great feature of this app on the RT is that the videos are Closed Captioned and you can read the captions along as he speaks!

The Khan Academy has also added learning analytics that make it possible to track student progress if students login with a user account. If you download videos locally the Khan Academy will not be able to track video viewing, but at least students have the content available at home.

I have provided a link below to an overview of Sal Khan explaining how he created the Khan Academy and how it can help students. It is an interesting story on how he used a Tablet PC and screencasting software to tutor his cousins who were living on the other side of the country. That was the birth of the Khan Academy.

There is much more to flipped learning and you do not even have to include videos to flip your classroom but that is another discussion.  Many start with the video approach because of the success others have seen with the Khan Academy.

So, once again the Surface RT has me thinking about what students can do with this device, the list is growing.


Until next time...
Keep on Learning,

Tom Grissom, PhD

Follow me on Twitter
@tomgrissom

Interested in Teaching and Learning with Technology?
http://www.eiu.edu/itc/

Please subscribe and listen to the TechTalk4Teachers Podcast
:http://techtalk4teachers.blogspot.com/
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Senin, 12 Agustus 2013
Day 23 – Podcasts on the Surface RT

Day 23 – Podcasts on the Surface RT

30 Days with a Surface RT for Teachers 
Teaching and Learning with a Windows 8 Tablet

I continue to find value in the Surface RT tablet for teaching and learning purposes. Yesterday I lauded the USB port and microSD card slot that allows for expandable storage on the Surface RT.

What this means to me in practical terms is that I can load up a USB flash drive full of educational WMV’s, MP3’s, and MP4’s and have hours/days of listening and viewing on the Surface RT. Where do I get these free educational recordings in audio and video formats? Podcasts.

 
I have one central Desktop computer with a large hard drive that I use as my main media storage computer. I occasionally copy files to other devices, like the Surface RT, that I want to listen or view the content on while on the road. This allows me to manage my media collection without having to re-download media files from device to device wirelessly.

A 32GB Flash Drive can be purchased for under $20 now and if you are in a school setting using a USB Flash drive is often times more convenient to access multimedia content than downloading selected files to every single tablet over wireless. This also saves tremendous bandwidth costs and provides easy local access to bypass areas that do not have WiFi access. Even if you do have wireless available there are times when a network will become congested and videos will often start buffering and become unwatchable. This is particularly true if you send 30 students to the same video at the same time on the network. Having videos play locally on the local device avoids this problem.

In a perfect world we would have enough bandwidth to do what we wanted to, but for many schools this is just not the case. The Surface RT has been great at playing back HD quality videos off of the USB port.

If a 32GB Flash Drive is not enough storage for you how about a 1 Terabyte USB drive? Yes, the Surface RT will access a 1 TB USB drive that can store hundreds of HD quality MP4 files. This is another advantage of having the Desktop mode on the RT as you can use the traditional file manager to access audio and video files.

You can even connect the Surface RT to a projector or big screen HDTV if you like and if you use the 1 TB USB drive full of educational media you will have months of listening and/or viewing content available for your classroom.

Podcast Catcher Apps

There are two podcast catcher apps that I routinely use on the Surface RT. Podcasts! and Slap Dash Podcast, both are available for free in the Windows Store.

 

These apps are similar but they have different styles and different catalogs. 
 
When I am looking for something I will do a search in both catalogs to see if there is anything new I am interested in. Apple has not yet made an iTunes client available on Windows 8 but I find these two podcast apps more than adequate and a good replacement for iTunes. Plus, you already have Xbox Music for all your music needs.

 

The other nice thing about the Podcasts! and Slap Dash Podcast apps are that they give me the freedom to “live stream” audio and video podcasts to the Surface RT. When I stream I do not have to worry about downloading them and taking up storage space on the RT. The choice is yours, whether you want to subscribe and download or just stream audio/video when you have a wireless connection.

Be aware that streaming can use massive amounts of bandwidth so be mindful if you are using a metered Internet connection with data caps. This is another reason I use one central computer as it is hard-wired to a LAN connection and it is much faster downloading large video files.

Podcasts! and Slap Dash Podcast on the Surface RT gives me access to a catalog of thousands of free podcasts. Please give one or both a try on the Surface RT and see what you think. 

Might I suggest our TechTalk4Teachers podcast :)

 

Here is the TechTalk4Teachers RSS Feed, if you cannot find TechTalk4Teachers in the catalog you can manually add it  in either podcast catcher by typing in our RSS feed:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/techtalk4teachers

 
Until next time...
Keep on Learning,

Tom Grissom, PhD

Follow me on Twitter
@tomgrissom

Interested in Teaching and Learning with Technology?
http://www.eiu.edu/itc/
Please subscribe and listen to the TechTalk4Teachers Podcast:
http://techtalk4teachers.blogspot.com/
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Minggu, 11 Agustus 2013
Day 22 – Video on the Surface RT

Day 22 – Video on the Surface RT

30 Days with a Surface RT for Teachers
Teaching and Learning with a Windows 8 Tablet


Today was another day spent at the local K12 school helping out with getting ready for the first day of class. By the end of the day we were able to completely image all of the computers in the Elementary building. Now for all the tweaks and customizations and on to the middle school and high school. It is going to be a busy week.

Keeping me company again today was my Surface RT. Today I setup my Surface RT in the Computer Lab(s) I was working on and was able to connect the RT to the projector and sound system in the lab. I could play back videos that I preloaded on the Surface RT.

Besides the computer labs, we were also in areas of the school that had no WiFi so I also brought along a USB flash drive full of MP4 and WMV video files to access where no WiFi 

The Surface RT features a USB port that comes in very handy in these situations. It also has a microSD card that I can load up to 64GB of files to access locally, nice!

Expandable storage on the Surface RT is a HUGE advantage over other tablets on the market. 

I really expected the Surface RT to struggle with playing back video with all the press coverage about the slow ARM processor that is almost always mentioned in the same breath of any review of the RT. But, the RT performed very, very, well at video playback.

The screen would go black as it went to sleep but the sound kept going, the power setting can be changed so the screen does not go to sleep so fast but it does this to conserve power. I did bring my power adapter to plug-in and I did change the power settings so I could see the videos playing back in the labs.
This time of year you will find many tech people across the nation giving their own time on the weekends and evenings getting systems ready for that first day of school. I suspect many readers of this blog have been doing the same.


The Surface RT also comes with the Xbox Video service but to be honest I have not used it much as most of the videos there require a purchase. I do need to give this a try but have not found the time, nor need to do so.


You might be asking then, what videos am I watching on the RT? Stay tuned for the answer to that question tomorrow.



Until next time...
Keep on Learning,

Tom Grissom, PhD

Follow me on Twitter @tomgrissom

Interested in Teaching and Learning with Technology?
http://www.eiu.edu/itc/

Please subscribe and listen to the TechTalk4Teachers Podcast:
http://techtalk4teachers.blogspot.com/
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Sabtu, 10 Agustus 2013
Day 21 – Xbox Music on the Surface RT

Day 21 – Xbox Music on the Surface RT

30 Days with a Surface RT for Teachers 
Teaching and Learning with a Windows 8 Tablet

I spent most of the day today helping out a local K12 school setup new computers to help get ready for back to school. This post will be short but I wanted to cover another feature of the Surface RT tablet for teachers, music. Music can help lighten the load during this very busy time.


This time of year is absolutely crazy for technology staff as we get ready for the tidal wave of faculty, staff, and students that will soon hit the school doors all at once.

Technology folks work extremely hard and the summertime is no different. Many think the pace is slowed but actually there really is no such thing as a “slow time” anymore in the tech world. Floors are waxed so equipment has to be taken out of rooms and re-installed once the summer cleaning is finished. New systems are installed, software is upgraded, wireless access is being expanded, new users have to be entered, and registration systems updated. So was the case today.

To keep me company I had my Surface RT with me and I decided to listen to the Xbox Music app that comes free on the Surface RT. The Xbox Music app is a first class music service. One of the things I really like is that it lets you create playlists and radio stations of your favorite artists.

Here is a short example of how I used the Xbox Music app today.

I opened Xbox Music and did a search for the artist I wanted to hear. Once I selected my artist, let’s use Adele in the example, I created a Radio station for Adele and artists similar to Adele.




Another great thing about your own Radio station is that you can Fast Forward through a song or skip a song if you do not like it. Like other radio stations, there may sometimes be inappropriate language in some songs so keep that in mind.

What I really like about the Xbox Music service is that you will see a slideshow of pictures of the artist scrolling by in the “now playing” window.

You also get an album art experience in that you see a Biography of the artist currently playing and suggestions for other artist that are in a similar style. This is a fantastic way to expand your musical repertoire and I have discovered many artists I never knew about before using this service.


Xbox Music is free on the Surface RT but you will occasionally hear advertisements. If you do not like the advertisements you can pay $9.99 for a music pass that will get rid of the ads and also allow you to download music locally on the Surface RT so you can listen without a WiFi connection.

Another cool feature I really like when I am at home is using the Smart Glass app to “Play To” my Xbox that is connected to my HDTV to watch and listen the slideshow on the big screen.

Xbox Music kept me company today as I installed dozens and dozens of computers and it helped make the day go a little quicker.

Xbox Music Rocks!

Until next time...
Keep on Learning,

Tom Grissom, PhD

Follow me on Twitter @tomgrissom

Interested in Teaching and Learning with Technology?http://www.eiu.edu/itc/
Please subscribe and listen to the TechTalk4Teachers Podcast:http://techtalk4teachers.blogspot.com/
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Jumat, 09 Agustus 2013
Day 20 – The Magic of SkyDrive and the Surface RT

Day 20 – The Magic of SkyDrive and the Surface RT

30 Days with a Surface RT for Teachers 
Teaching and Learning with a Windows 8 Tablet

Throughout this series I have occasionally mentioned SkyDrive. SkyDrive is the Microsoft cloud storage solution for end-users. 

At present, you automatically get 7 GB of storage space when you sign-up for a free Microsoft Account. Of course you can purchase additional storage if necessary but for most users 7GB should be sufficient in getting started with SkyDrive.
I have been using SkyDrive for over five years now and this service has evolved considerably over the years. You may be familiar with similar services like Dropbox, Google Drive, or iCloud that offer cloud storage. There are others as well but Microsoft SkyDrive was an early pioneer.

Microsoft has recently been involved in a lawsuit with BSkyB over the “Sky” name and has agreed to a settlement to change the name of SkyDrive to something else. BSkyB has granted a reasonable period for Microsoft to make this name change. For now, I will continue to call it SkyDrive until a new name is announced.

SkyDrive is the Hub of Your Microsoft Account

Today, SkyDrive is becoming the hub for your Microsoft Account. There are many advantages to having files and settings stored in the cloud. Since I use the Surface RT as a companion device I often work on my main Desktop computer during the day and the RT at night. If I save selected files to SkyDrive they will be accessible on other devices I use when I login with the same Microsoft Account on a different device.



For example, if I save a file to SkyDrive at work it will be available to me at home when I login with the same Microsoft account on the Surface RT. I can work on the file at home and save it back to SkyDrive, the next morning I go to work, login, and the updated file is there waiting for me.

Cloud storage is relatively new and some organizations have policies about storing information outside a company firewall. I do not recommend storing confidential data to the cloud unless security protocols have been established but for my lesson plans and generic work it is fine for me. Be sure to follow your organizations computing policies.

Magical Account Syncing To Trusted Devices

The other huge benefit to having a Microsoft Account is that you can setup devices as “trusted devices” so that information can be synced across these trusted devices. When you update information on one trusted device, say a new photo, it is automatically synced and available to other devices via SkyDrive.




When I first received the Surface RT, brand new out of the box, I turned it on and after going through the initial setup and “trusting” the device ALL of my Microsoft Account information synced to the new RT.

This is magical!



All of my preferences, favorite websites, pictures, desktop wallpaper, pinned items on the task bar, and documents stored to SkyDrive were all immediately available to me. My new Surface RT became like my other device that I spent hours customizing just for me. ALL of this in about 20 minutes from logging in to a brand new device the first time!

After syncing, my “Live Tiles” on the Windows 8 Start Screen came to life with MY information.

The Photos Live Tile displayed my pictures, the SkyDrive Live Tile displayed the last documents I was working on, and the Weather Live Tile remembered my location. The customization offered by account syncing saves much time and takes some of the pain away when setting up a new Windows device.

The other benefit of SkyDrive is that you can access your files from anywhere there is an Internet connection. You do not even have to have an Office application installed on the computer you are using. This is another Microsoft “secret” that few know about.

You may have heard of Google Docs and how you only need a browser and Google account to access your files on Google Drive. Sound familiar?

Google is not the only one with free office-like apps, Microsoft has been busy creating “Office Web Apps” that only require a Microsoft Account and browser to use.

Office Web Apps include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. These web apps are a bit watered-down from their full-fledged big brother applications but when used with SkyDrive they become very handy to have access to anywhere an Internet connection is available.

Sharing

SkyDrive also allows you to easily share photos and documents with other individuals via a link or you can make a file public for sharing with others. You can give others read-only access to a particular file, or editing capability if trusted.

Windows Store Apps

Not all of my Windows Store apps were installed by default on my new RT. I had to go out and manually install some of the apps I wanted on the new RT from the Windows Store. All of my data was available but I did have to install certain apps.

I have heard rumors that the new Windows 8.1 update will give you the choice to “sync all of your apps” across multiple devices. What that would mean is if I installed the Kindle app on my Desktop and had “sync my apps” turned on for the RT, the Kindle app would automatically install on my Surface RT.

Magical!

Until next time...
Keep on Learning,

Tom Grissom, PhD

Follow me on Twitter @tomgrissom

Interested in Teaching and Learning with Technology?

http://www.eiu.edu/itc/
Please subscribe and listen to the TechTalk4Teachers Podcast

:http://techtalk4teachers.blogspot.com/
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Kamis, 08 Agustus 2013
Day 19 – Skyping with the Surface RT (Video Chats)

Day 19 – Skyping with the Surface RT (Video Chats)

30 Days with a Surface RT for Teachers 
Teaching and Learning with a Windows 8 Tablet

The Surface RT is turning out to be quite a diverse teaching machine for the classroom. Today I would like to introduce you to the Skype video conferencing app. Skype allows you to easily video chat with your friends using the Internet. It could not be easier to video chat with a friend using the Surface RT.

The built-in kickstand on the Surface RT comes in extremely handy for Skyping as you just set the Surface RT with the kickstand open on a table, login with your Microsoft Account, and open up the Skype app from the Start Screen. Your friend will also need a Microsoft (Skype) account. Once you know their Skype name, search for it, select it, and press the Call button, that’s it!

By default, the Skype app begins with audio only for the call and you will need to press the Video Camera icon to give permission for Skype to turn on the webcam.

The front-facing camera on the Surface RT is angled for the best video conferencing viewing experience when you using the kickstand. The Surface RT also has a built-in microphone that sounds good so you will not need to mess around with an external camera or mic.

Since I am a little camera shy I would like to introduce you to Mr. B and Mr. T who will be making the Skype call today.


Like many things with the Surface RT, the Skype app is free and can be downloaded from the Windows Store if it did not come preloaded on the Windows 8 Start Screen. 

The new version of Skype is greatly simplified over previous versions I have used on Windows 7 as it has been redesigned for Windows 8. Skype has been around for a long time and many just know video conferencing as Skyping. This is a bit like calling tissues Kleenex as there are other video chatting services, but the Skype branding is strong.

One of the benefits of a Microsoft Account is that it conglomerates all Microsoft services under one account and this makes things much easier to manage by avoiding multiple userids and passwords. I had to merge my very old Skype Account with my Microsoft account last year when Microsoft was merging multiple accounts but now I just need to login once and Skype is available to me.

Snap View with Multitasking on the Surface RT

Another huge benefit of the Surface RT over other tablets on the market is its ability to multitask. I often have multiple apps open at the same time and it is very easy to cycle through them by swiping in with my left thumb over and over to go from app to app. If I need a more static view of two apps side-by-side I use the “Snap” feature of Windows 8.


I use the snap feature a lot on the Surface RT. You can snap apps with an 80/20 split or 50/50 split. Windows 8.1 will offer additional choices when it becomes available next month.

Below are two screenshots of how you might use a video chat with snap view. The first example has the Skype call snapped to the left and on the right-hand side I have Word open to take notes about the conference call.


The next example I have the Skype call snapped to the left and PowerPoint open on the right. You could be viewing a PowerPoint together with your video conferencing friend if you email them the PowerPoint ahead of time. If you number your slides this is a great way to share and discuss the presentation if your partner cannot get together face-to-face. Of course, your partner would need a device (like the Surface RT or Surface Pro) that multitasks and offers snap-view to see both the video chat and the PowerPoint at the same time ;)

There are many apps that will work with snap-view. If you are a sports fan you can keep the game scores open on the side as you are doing other work.

Or, if you are wanting to keep track of the business world open the Bing Finance app on the side for daily info on the markets.


In the above examples I have the Skype app open in the main snap view window but you could have any combination of Windows 8 apps you want. You could have your IE browser open and the music app snapped to the side. 

Another useful combination is to snap a YouTube Tutorial to one side and have the app you are learning about in the main window. The possibilities are endless.

Surface RT Rocks!

Until next time...
Keep on Learning,

Tom Grissom, PhD

Follow me on Twitter @tomgrissom

Interested in Teaching and Learning with Technology?
http://www.eiu.edu/itc/
Please subscribe and listen to the TechTalk4Teachers Podcast:
http://techtalk4teachers.blogspot.com/
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Rabu, 07 Agustus 2013
Day 18 – Screen Clippings with OneNote, best thing since sliced bread

Day 18 – Screen Clippings with OneNote, best thing since sliced bread

30 Days with a Surface RT for Teachers 
Teaching and Learning with a Windows 8 Tablet


My perceptions of the Surface RT are changing the more I use it and the same is true of OneNote, in a good way. The Surface RT is working out to be a great companion device for me. Like the iPad, the RT has long battery life but lacks some of the real horsepower I occasionally need to get all my work done. For the heavy-lifting I still need to turn to my Desktop computer or the Surface Pro.


It is now rare that I do not have the Surface RT close by.  I usually have the Desktop IE browser open at all times and right along with it, OneNote. 

Screen Clippings in OneNote

One of the workflows I routinely use is for taking Screen Clippings with OneNote. A Screen Clipping is like a photo snapshot of an area on the screen. To do this I navigate to a website that has something of interest I want to save to OneNote. I open the IE browser to the webpage of interest in full-screen mode on the Surface RTs Desktop, then I also bring up OneNote in full-screen mode on the Desktop. Think of this as OneNote being layered on top of the webpage on the Desktop of the RT.

Now, OneNote is on top and all I see, I change to the Notebook, Section, and Page where I want to save a note about the website of interest that is now behind OneNote. I place the cursor on the Page in OneNote where I want my note to be inserted and then go to the INSERT tab on the Ribbon Interface in OneNote.



From the INSERT tab you will see an icon for Screen Clipping. When you select the Screen Clipping icon OneNote minimizes, and whatever you had open in the background (in this case our full-screen Internet browser) fades-out. Your screen will now be dim and you will see a small cross-hair pointer that you can draw a rectangle around the area of the webpage that you want to make a Screen Clipping of. As soon as you draw the area of the screen to select it OneNote will automatically Paste it into your OneNote Notebook, pretty cool!



You can select a small area of the screen or the entire screen. I often only select a small portion of the screen that I am interested in. No need to capture a full webpage that is 80 percent advertisements, concentrate on the content you want to make note of.




Best of all, along with the Screen Clipping you just made, you also get a time and date stamp along with the URL of the webpage where you took the Screen Clipping from! Talk about useful!!!

How many times have you found something of interest on a website but cannot remember where it was? With OneNote and the Surface RT you no longer have that excuse as it is so easy to make Screen Clippings. Better yet, these screen clippings are searchable and you can add your own notes off to the side of the clippings about why you thought the webpage was worthy of saving in the first place.

With OneNote you can make different Sections or Pages to categorize your Screen Clippings. The choice is really up to you, the key is to make OneNote work for you.

For now, the Windows Key + S is the keyboard shortcut for making a screen clipping for OneNote. I have heard rumors that this may change in the next version of Windows (8.1) that is due out in about a month.

I keep the Send to OneNote app in my Taskbar of the RT Desktop, I use this like a shortcut to quickly take a Screen Clipping of anything I have displayed on the Desktop. This only works on the RT in Desktop mode, if I am using a modern app or the Start Screen and I need to take a Screen Clipping I currently use the Windows Key + S keyboard shortcut.

You do not need to confine yourself to making Screen Clippings of webpages, this also works for anything else on the screen. You could make a Screen Clipping of Word, Excel, PowerPoint files. This is a great way to illustrate things in the classroom and you can use OneNote like a telestrator using the DRAW tools built into OneNote. Watch a YouTube video, pause the screen, take a Screen Clipping and annotate away. Any coaches out there?


If you are a teacher, student, or coach, you really do need to give OneNote a try, it comes free with the Surface RT.

OneNote Rocks!


Until next time...
Keep on Learning,

Tom Grissom, PhD

Follow me on Twitter @tomgrissom

Interested in Teaching and Learning with Technology?http://www.eiu.edu/itc/
Please subscribe and listen to the TechTalk4Teachers Podcast:http://techtalk4teachers.blogspot.com/
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