Tuesday, March 26, 2013

myMitty Assignments and Maximum File Size

When creating an assignment in myMitty, an often overlooked field is the default assignment size.

Maximum Size is located in the Upload section, just below grading a due date

If you have assigned a video project, double-checking the maximum file size on your myMitty assignment is very important. The default size is 10MB, which is a generous amount of space for a paper or a presentation.  However a 2 minute student video will be between 50 to 150 MB in size.

To be safe, when creating a myMitty assignment for student video submissions, change the Maximum Size from 10MB to the course limit (currently 250 MB).
The course limit is a dynamic setting - if 250 MB isn't sufficient, the IT department can increase the limit system-wide.
A quick way to check the current size limit on a myMitty assignment is to click on the assignment. The upload page will have the maximum size for an uploaded file listed right above the Upload this file button.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Great Resource for Social Studies! There are thousands of primary source documents available, along with activities available for teachers of United States History.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Socrative: Best Practices

The Socrative app is useful for conducting a variety of activities using iPads. Several of our teachers use it for practice quizzes, exit tickets, and the ever-popular Space Race game.  You can import existing quizzes, create new ones, or simply ask students open-ended questions. There are a wide range of possibilities across disciplines.

Your students have the "Student" Socrative app available in Self Service. You can download the "Teacher" Socrative app via the App Store. Students and teachers can also access Socrative via Safari on a computer or iPad. Students simply visit m.socrative.com. Teachers visit socrative.com and click on Teacher Log In.

Here's a "best practices" video of Jennifer Salmon using Socrative in her Spanish classroom:

And here's an introductory video from Socrative's website:



If you're interested in using Socrative, please don't hesitate to ask for my assistance!

Wild card quiz answers


Friday, March 15, 2013

Archbishop Mitty Prayer Book

Want to download the new Archbishop Mitty Prayer Book to your iPad?

1.  On your iPad, go to Self Service.

2.  Click on ebooks at the bottom of your screen.

3. Select Archbishop Mitty Prayer Book.

4.  Open in iBooks.

5.  Enjoy your new prayer book!

Shield the Vulnerable Training Video (Student Instructions)

Troubled by Blocked Plugin Messages?

For the past few years Apple and Adobe have been at odds with each other over the use of Adobe's Flash Player to display content on the web. 

Every few months, the battle heats up. Right now there is a security issue with an older version of the Flash Player and Apple has taken steps to prevent it from loading in Safari. You might notice this when you go to a web page and see this image:


When you see this image instead of a video - your flash player is out of date.

We have tried to update everyone's Flash remotely, but it doesn't seem to be working. The most reliable way I have found to update flash is to first uninstall it, and then reinstall it.

Adobe has posted a Knowledgebase article with more details, but the short version of the instructions are: download and run the Flash Uninstaller from this link.

Once Flash is removed, you can download and install the most current version from the Adobe website.  Click on the Download Now button and run the installer.

Once Flash is up to date, the Blocked Plug-in messages will go away.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Annoyed with saving passwords?

I love when some passwords are saved, and annoyed when I want them to be saved and they are nowhere to be found.

If you find yourself in this position, and use google chrome, here is a handy website where you can manage all of your saved passwords:

http://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95606

Monday, March 11, 2013

iPad Apps and Bloom's Taxonomy

 In 1956, Benjamin Bloom along with collaborators published a framework for categorizing educational goals. This guide referred to as" Bloom's Taxonomy" has been used in k-12 and college establishments to ensure that  instruction and assessment are aligned with curriculum objectives.
 Bloom's has been revised several times to reflect trends in educational pedagogy and this latest twist  illustrates how apps for the iPad can be used to further the use of Bloom's Taxonomy and our student's cognitive skills.

Each of six rows contains app icons that may be used in the development of a cognitive skill. Check to see how many of these apps are on your iPad.
Bloom's Taxonomy: outdated? - No  ,  updated-Yes!

Friday, March 8, 2013

Rubrics for Assessing Technology Based Student Work

I came across a article on EdTechTeacher.org full of helpful links for creating rubrics to assess digital student work (video, blogs, wikis, Voicethread). From the article:
A common question that we get with regard to technology projects is "how do I grade it?" The 21st-century communication and collaboration skills which are used with most technology based projects are, in many ways, real-world problem-solving skills. The standard, multiple-choice type tests simply are not going to be able to assess students' learning. Instead of thinking of the assessment itself as the measurement, we are going to need to examine our students' performances of understanding. In other words, the assessment is the tool through which we can gauge how much our students have learned.
 I'm including a few links from the original page that I thought were interesting.
If you have any rubrics or assessment strategist for student digital work please share your thoughts in the comments.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Monarch Madness

Veteran faculty know that a well -fitting set of earplugs is essential  during the evening festivities.
  But just how loud is the cheering from the competing classes?
  Help is at hand.

Decibel Ultra is a free iPad app that measures " loudness" through sound pressure measurements .
 The app will measure up the 125 decibels. 
As a guide:
Normal conversation   50dB-    Moderate Level
Lawn Mower              80 dB-   Very Loud
Disco / Concert music 105dB   Extremely loud
Monarch Madness 2013.....................TBD


iPad Enabled Mastery Model

Chett Garcia uses a "mastery model" in his Algebra 2 class. He broke his course into key concepts and allows his students to retake key concept quizzes as many times as they need to in order to prove mastery. The most exciting part is that he uses myMitty & the iPad to proctor the quizzes! He saves six hours a week from not having to directly proctor the make up quizzes. Here's a video of Chett explaining this exciting process:


How might you be able to re-enivision your assessments with the iPad?