Wireless Mirroring with Apple TV

Ok, I have to say that I'm a bit excited about the new "toy" we got in our office. We've had a lot of success with the iPad... through workshops and productivity for things we do in our office. I just got approval to get an Apple TV so that we can wirelessly walk around the room and still project content from our iPad. This is going to help with our meetings, workshops, and hopefully present a low cost "whiteboard" alternative for many teachers throughout Fresno County. I'm very anxious to set it up... all I have to do is take the HDMI output and convert it to VGA so that it can work with our existing projector. When's all said and done, we should have an interactive whiteboard (with no wires) for less than $700 dollars.

iPad2 = $530
Apple TV = $109.00
HDMI to VGA Converter = $45

Here's a video.

Wirelessly Mirroring iPads through Apple TV from Tricia Fuglestad on Vimeo.

Google Sketchup

I think that Google Sketchup has unlimited potential for the classroom across multiple grade levels. Here's a brief video on some of it's power.

Video for Class

Here's the video I produced for a module in my Educational Technology 705 class at Fresno Pacific. I'm passionate about using Apple Technology for teaching and thought I'd showcase one of my favorite apps.



I'd love to hear what you think!

Ditractions while doing homework...

Well, I need to confess that I get distracted easy. As I was doing my homework last night (it was my reading night), my daughter came up onto the couch and asked what I was doing. I told her I was doing homework, and she wanted to help. She proceeded to show me all of her sight words on the piece of research I was reading... both daddy and daughter were doing homework, and I couldn't help but assist her in finding new words. It's truly amazing to watch her learn how to read.

The other distraction was from a fellow ADE, Kelly Croy. He did this amazing video tribute to Steve Jobs, and I couldn't help (yet again) to stop and watch the whole thing. This is truly inspiring.

The next phase

It's been a little bit since I posted, and I thought I'd quickly reflect on things over the past few weeks. First off, I thought I'd include a picture from a presentation (not my best work) that I did a few weeks back. The title of the presentation was "Finding the nerd in us all" and I felt really good about it before I started, but going on at the very end of the day of a LONG conference is tough for anyone.


This past week was very busy for me on the prepartion front as well. This summer, ISTE is coming to California and I submitted four proposals for the event. I hope I get 1 to be honest... I just thought I'd load as much as I could into the event to see what stuck. We'll see... I wasn't as prepared as I'd like to be for the submission process. I submitted four (or more) to the annual CUE conference as well. Hoping for another great year!

This coming week, I have some BTSA training to help with as well as interviews for a VAPA consultant for our office. Looking forward to an exciting week.

Thanks...

Today is a weird day for me. Having come into technology as a PC lover, I was inspired a few years back to change my life for the better and surround myself around an experience that could harness my creativity and allow me to show my true potential and inspire others to do the same. Today, Steve Jobs, passed away. He seemed like a distant uncle to me. His leadership inspired me to do something that only 1700 other educators in the world have accomplished. This past year, I became an Apple Distinguished Educator and I couldn't be MORE proud now than the moment I found out. His visionary leadership has inspired me to try new things with technology, particularly in Educational Technology, that I couldn't have imagined doing before.

This commercial sums up my feelings for how I've approached technology in Education.

Inspiration is the best word I can sum up what this person has done for me personally and professionally!


Today I sat in on another podcast to pay tribute to the man. Although it won't be published for a few days, here's a "before" snapshot about how one mans vision has affected educators from around the world.

When the new episode gets posted, I'll link to it here!

Thanks Steve!

Talking... and a lot of it.

Yesterday was a very productive day for me. I started out attending a conference about the upcoming Common Core Standards that will be rolled out in the coming year. Lots of changes are in the works for teachers and students, but I think it's a good thing. One of the great things about the upcoming standards is that there is technology built right into them. This can be good because it takes a lot of the guessing game out of it for reluctant teachers since it explicitly states "Students will create digital media to..." right in there. The dialogue around our table was great... unfortunately, I had to leave early.

It then came time for me to talk, at the end of a long day for a group of 180+ CTE teachers. I don't know why I went on at the end, but they made me. I approached this talk a little different than I normally do. Since I'm labeled as "the tech guy", I didn't want to go up there and try to overwhelm them with a bunch of stuff... it was the end of the day and they'd heard enough. My talk was basically about teachers trying to find their inner nerd and harness that same level of passion in their students. The passion I'm referring to is when you get so involved in that ONE thing, that it's hard to turn your mind off of it. It appeared to be well received.

To cap off my day, I had the pleasure of being a guest speaker on a very popular podcast called MacReach. This was my first BIG TIME podcast, so I was a little nervous and wasn't sure how best to read the others on the Skype call. It was a lot of fun to talk with Meg Wilson & Kelly Dumont about all things Mac & iOS. These two are a couple of great educators I was able to meet at the ADE Institute this summer! Hopefully I'll get the chance to get on there again.

Yea... I'm a nerd! So what?!?

I have to give credit where credit is due here. The title from this blog actually came from my brother about 25 years ago. He was a clever little guy in his youth and wrote a paper for his 5th grade class, and it's something I've always wanted to use. So thanks Scott for the inspiration.

This came to me once again as I prepare to speak in front of 200+ CTE teachers next week about technology. I've talked to this crowd before, but in smaller chunks about something specific in regards to technology. What I decided to do is to TRY and encourage each of these teachers to find their inner nerd. Not glasses and pocket-protectors, but in the sense of finding something that they are passionate about and embrace it. They might already do that, who knows. But the real question is, do their kids do it? What's their hook for wanting to learn more? Most of them are in CTE classes because they want to be there and they find it enlightening and encouraging. At once you get a kid that is nerded out, what better barometer for success is there. THEY WANT TO LEARN MORE!!!!

I'll write (and share slides) after my session next week, but I thought I'd start with sharing my thoughts in a blog. Thanks to Merlin Mann for his talk at Deconstruct that has helped with framing some of my talking points. Thanks to all my ADE family for your inspiration. And of course, thanks to Fresno ROP for the honor.... I have goosebumps!