MASSP Winter Workshop
January 2011
Greg Berge, Lincoln Jr./Sr. High School (Lake City)
[email protected]
Technology Tools for Secondary School Principals
Technology leadership is becoming increasingly important for High School Principals. The ability to be 21 st
century leaders and keep up with 21st century technology skills is a tremendous challenge for school
leaders. This session will focus on how Principals can use software and web 2.0 applications such as Blogs,
RSS feeds, Prezi, Picasa, Jing, Podcasting with Audacity, and other web tools to become technology
leaders in their school.
PREZI (www.prezi.com)
What? Free and amazing presentation tool!
Why Prezi? Free and allows you to change the way you give presentation to your
staff or community. Create presentation on a canvas, make them interactive, and
creative. Change from the “linear” presentation tool of powerpoint.
How?
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Create free educational account at www.prezi.com
View tutorials
Create you first Prezi – change the way you present
RSS FEEDS
What? Most commonly expanded as Really Simple Syndication.
Why RSS Feeds? RSS Feeds allow you to have your favorite websites and blogs sent to
you. Does not require you to search for all of your websites - have information come directly to
you.
How? Find an aggregator such as netvibes or google reader and begin linking to
your favorite blogs.
NETVIBES(www.netvibes.com)
What? Looking for an RSS Aggregator where information you want all comes to you?
Subscribe to blogs, news sites, etc. and whenever new information is put on the blog it gets
sent directly to you on your netvibes account. www.netvibes.com
Why Netvibes? One of many RSS aggregators, but one that I like to use.
How?
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Go to www.netvibes.com to create account.
Click on add content to add an RSS feed
GOOGLE READER(www.google.com/reader)
What? RSS Aggregator.
Why? Another option for an RSS Aggregator.
How? Go to www.google.com/reader and follow directions.
BLOG (www.blogger.com)
What is it? Web log – a way to journal and communicate with educational stakeholder who
have similar interests to your blog topic.
Why Blog? See Handout on blogging. So easy to set up. So easy to use. Check out my blog
www.lctigerpride.blogger.com
How to Blog?
 Set up blog at www.blogger.com or www.edublog.com
 Begin blogging!
LCTIGERPRIDE BLOG
(www.lctigerpride.com)
What? My blog!
Why? Loaded with well over 1oo videos and resources relating to technology, education, assessment,
and general educational leadership.
How?
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Goto www.lctigerpride.blogspot.com
Subscribe via email or RSS feed
EMBEDIT (http://embedit.in/)
What? Embed any file into your blog including a pdf, excel file, word
document, powerpoint, any picture and more.
Why embedit? Easy to embed any file you have directly into your blog
How? Go to http://embedit.in and select your file to upload. Follow steps.
DIVSHARE (www.divshare.com)
What? Free program to publish your podcasts or audio files online.
Why Divshare? Easy to use for publishing your podcasts online or on your blog.
How?
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Create an account at www.divshare.com
Create an audio file/podcast using Audacity (free download). Save this file as an MP3.
Upload audio file to your divshare account.
Embed this divshare file on your blog.
PICASA (http://picasa.google.com/)
What? Free photo hosting software. Post and share all school photos on your computer or
online. Works seamlessly with www.blogger.com and other google applications.
Why Picasa? Free and works great with all google tools.
How? Free download at http://picasa.google.com/
PODCASTING
What? Create audio files (mps) and publish them online.
Why Podcast? Communicate with your educational stakeholders or your teaching staff
in a more efficient and high tech manner. Your staff or educational community signs up
to receive your podcast. Each time you podcast it gets automatically sent to them via
your RSS feed or itunes account.
How? (this is just one way to podcast…)
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Download audacity at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ (free)
Create account at www.divshare.com
Create blog at www.blogspot.com
Create audio file (mp3) in audacity
Upload to divshare
Embed into blog
AUDACITY (http://audacity.sourceforge.net)
What? Free program to record your podcasts or audio files.
Why Audacity? Simple and free program to record simple audio files or podcasts. Also
powerful enough to use for complex audio work.
How?
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Download audacity at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Record audio file and save as an mp3
DROPBOX (www.dropbox.com)
What? Tool that allows you to save any file you are working with on multiple computers.
Why Drop Box? Save a file you are working with at home and open it at school (no flash
drives or email needed)
How?
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Create account at www.dropbox.com
Save free software on multiple computers
Save your working files
JING (www.jing.com)
What? Awesome, free program to save video as you work through any program on your
computer (showing steps, etc.).
Why Jing? Create short video tutorials for your staff. Show them how to do their grades or
use an excel file.
How?
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Free download at www.jing.com
Follow directions to record your first video
Save on your desktop or create a link online to view the video
EXCEL DATA TUTORIALS
What? Great with excellent excel tutorials on used specific to educators and
principals.
Why? Data Driven Decision Making and Excel go hand in hand.
How? Follow link to http://schooltechleadership.org/teaching/school-data-tutorials/
URLI.ST (urli.st)
What? An easy, free way to share all of your favorite links with others.
Why Urlist? Free program that allows you to put all of the links you wish to share on a website. You are
then given the “URL” to send to others. The “URL” will have all of you favorites sites linked to share.
How?
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Go to urli.st
Start by adding a link to create your list.
Go to http://urli.st/9Dy to see a list of many of the education, technology, and leadership blogs I follow.
WORDLE (www.wordle.net)
What? Create a word cloud based on any word document, PDF file, blog, or
group of text.
Why Picasa? Want to emphasize something for your staff? Put text in a
wordle to show them. Also great for teachers to use.
How? Go to www.wordle.net, “paste” in text, create word cloud and save
file.
MOODLE (www.moodle.com)
What? Free online course delivery platform.
Why Moodle? Teachers with moodle can develop a hybrid/blended aspect to their
courses. Use as a staff development tool to have teachers collaborate about a topic or as
a place to hold resources.
How? Free and open source, but need a host for your moodle server. Can host on site or though
somewhere else. Go to http://moodle.com/ to get started. This does take a bit of expertise to set up.
GLOGSTER (www.glogster.com)
What? Free. Make interactive posters and share with friends.
Why Glogster? Nice resource to share with teachers.
How? Go to http://www.glogster.com/
TED (www.ted.com)
What? 20 minute video presentation from the best thinkers in the world!
Why Ted? Find inspirational videos relevant to so many topics – many of which relate to education. Easy
to get hooked on this site!
How? Goto www.ted.com. Start watching or search for relevant videos.
PANDORA (www.pandora.com)
What? Free online music player
Why Pandora? Use Pandora to play music online before a meeting or presentation – no
mp3 player necessary.
How? Open account at www.pandora.com. Follow directions.
WOLFGRAM ALPHA (www.wolframalpha.com)
What? Incredible tool – answers most any search you ask it with meaningful and
relevant data and information. Unbelievable math tool.
Why? Why not? Just give it a shot – amazing tool that will only grow in its use.
How? Go to www.wolframalpha.com and try a search for your school.
WALLWISHER
What? A new way to communicate and get feedback. You create a wall and post a
topic or question. Anyone can go to the link you provide and post their thoughts or
comments as “post-it notes”. All posters can see everyone’s comments.
Why Wallwisher? Get feedback from teachers. Post a question at a faculty meeting and see the
comments all show up on the wall.
How?
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Go to www.wallwisher.com
Create a new wall (no account needed)
Send link to those who you want to comment.
Watch the comments come in.
DANGEROUSLY IRRELEVANT BLOG (www.dangerouslyirrelevant.com)
What? Great technology leadership and education blog by
Scott McLeod.
Why? Stay up to date with technology topics in education
How? Go to www.dangerouslyirrelevant.com