Mr. B EdTech Blog

First, some background. During my first year of teaching, one of my colleagues and I wrote a technology request to pilot a set of iPads in our instruction. The year was 2012, and the model was the famous iPad 2. To be completely honest, I was NOT a fan of the original iPad. I thought it was dated and obsolete before it even hit store shelves. In contrast, the iPad 2 finally offered something that I thought could be useful. It was the first Apple product I had ever purchased personally and it sucked me in to getting a MacBook Pro and an iPhone. Personally, I love these devices for a variety of reasons and I continue to use them to this day (as of March 28th, 2018) When our request for a classroom set of iPads got approved, I was ecstatic. Soon, my excitement turned into frustration and eventually into perpetual torment. In the 2012-2013 school year there was no way to manage the iPads. Each one had to be setup individually. Locking down iPads was a logistical nightmare and I cons...

This has been a common request from my staff and Google has listened. Now you can see who viewed your document and when they viewed it. More Info:  https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2018/03/docs-activity-dashboard-launch.html

Check out one of the latest updates to Google Drive. G Suite is built for working collaboratively—teams create and share files all the time. When there can be hundreds or thousands of files, though, it can be tricky to find those files later. So we’re improving how you find files that have been shared with you in Google Drive. The “Shared with Me” section shows the files that have been shared with you. We’re going to start intelligently organizing this section so you may also see people listed, along with files they’ve shared with you. Simply click on a document to quickly open it. More Info: https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2018/03/find-shared-content-with-new-file.html

How would you use this in your classroom? Computers are helping to dissolve away the walls of the classroom and take students to otherwise unreachable places. Now you can see inside Disney without waiting in line. http://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-news/disneyland-disney-world-google-street-view

Check out this resource below for a useful list of questions to ask when evaluating digital content. https://www.ictineducation.org/home-page/how-to-evaluate-digital-content-a-25-point-checklist

Here are some lessons/tips and tricks I have learned throughout handling chromebook repairs in my district for the past 5 years. Background This is our first year with 1:1, although we have had Chromebooks in our District since 2013. During that time, we have handled all damage repairs in house at our school. With the implementation of the 1:1 program, we have over 1,700 chromebooks assigned to our students and staff. In 2017, we implemented a student help desk that assists with chromebook repairs. We have 3 different models of chromebooks, Samsung XE303Cs, EduGear R4, and Lenovo N22. Our teachers each have a HP 14 G3 Chromebook. 1. Don't throw anything out 3 or 4 years of collecting chromebook parts has substantially reduced the amount of parts I have had to order. In turn, this has reduced the cost of repairing devices. Over the summer, when I was repairing chromebooks, many parts were salvaged from other chromebooks that were too far gone to repair or were beyond repa...

One of the first steps for participating in any social network or online community is creating a digital image of ourselves, an avatar. We often have several avatars across many social networks.  https://www.techlearning.com/tl-advisor-blog/10-web-tools-and-apps-for-creating-avatars