Using QR codes

The use of QR codes in the classroom has begun to gain some traction recently. People are exploring its use in a variety of ways and I have begun to wonder how they could enable portfolios to be more easily documented or allow them to be multi-dimensional.

Don’t know what a QR code is? http://guides.boisestate.edu/QRcodes

As I explore this more I will add my discoveries to this blog but if anyone out there has some experience with QR codes let me know.

If you have a QR reader on your smart phone test out this link…

Some e-portfolio organizations

Here is a list of interesting e-portfolio organizations.

E-Portfolio Organizations, Journals, Associations, & Conferences

International Journal of ePortfolios (IJeP )

http://www.theijep.com/

Inter/National Coalition For Electronic Portfolio Research (NCEPR)

http://ncepr.org/

Association for Authentic, Experiential, and Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL) Professional association and conference

http://www.aaeebl.org/

Electronic Portfolio Action and Communication (EPAC) Community of Practice

http://epac.pbworks.com/

International Journal of ePortfolio (IJEP)

http://www.theijep.com/

E-Portfolio & Identity Conference (EPIC)

http://events.eife-l.org/

Europortfolio- A European Consortium of E-Portfolio Practitioners

http://www.eportfolio.eu

Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) Nonprofit Organization Focusing on E-Portfolios in the UK

http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/e-portfolios

Open Source Portfolio Initiative

http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/ocotillo/eport/opsi.php

Using Evernote habitually

The more we use Evernote portfolios in the classroom the more students turn to them as a place to be creative and stay organized. During my literacy lab today a group of students were working on second drafts of stories they were writing and one student decided to organize all his work by creating new notebooks for separate academic subjects. A third student was using an itouch to finish up a presentation on Jonny Cash that he was independently preparing for the class. (It was one of his goals). A fourth student was using an itouch to log her goals. These were all actions students took without prompting.

When I see this kind of spontaneous incorporation of the Portfolios into the life of the class I know that the tools are working well. It also gives me a chance to begin to see how students make their portfolios their own. I have never mentioned anything about creating new notebooks but one student discovered the possibility and realized it was a tool that HE wanted or needed to keep himself organized. Now, if others want to learn about that skill he will be available to teach them. In fact, today I will have him present his work to the rest of the class. It’s an important discovery and one others can learn from. This kind of self direction is what I hope this technology provides for my students, a freedom and power to control their learning on their own terms.

Suggestions to improve the Lexmark Scanner

Somehow I deleted the last posting on this subject so I get to recreate it.

One of the pieces of hardware that gets a lot of use in my class (and in the class of other teachers who are beginning to use Evernote as Portfolios) is the Lexmark Scanner. I have written about its use previously and wanted to add some ideas for ways this technology could be improved.

As I presently use it, in my classroom, it works just fine. I have 23 students, each who have an individual Evernote widget. When they want to scan something they place the paper on the scanner or document feeder, hit their widget and away it goes. This is great and revolutionary. But as I am in the business of making things work better I have some suggestions that could greatly improve the long term viability of this Evernote-Lexmark partnership.

#1. If you use the scanner you can never ADD things to an existing note. This is fine if you haven’t created a portfolio note yet, but if you have already started a portfolio note, added a bunch of work and want to scan something in, it won’t work. In the long run that means my students have to photograph final work, which isn’t as nice as putting it through a scanner.

#2. As I begin to set up Evernote for Portfolio accounts school-wide, and start adding many more scanners around the building, there needs to be someone that has to manage all the accounts on all the Lexmark Scanners. The scanners can only hold up to 75 individual Evernote widgets, which means that students are tied to ONE scanner. We don’t have the ability to have all students in the school be on all the scanners. PLUS that would be a nightmare to set up. No one would want to constantly be updating all the scanner with all the individual kids. Adding each individual Evernote email account to the online Smartsolutions website is time consuming, especially when you have a large group of people to enter. This is the managerial headache.

#3. When students move to new classes or teachers throughout the year or at the end of the year, all the departing students have to be removed from the scanner and put on a new one. Again, a managerial headache, especially when deal with 365 people.

MY SUGGESTION:

Each scanner should have an Evernote widget that brings the user to a log in screen (just like on mobile devices) In that way any student can use any scanner around the building. In addition, once you log in you would be prompted to add a document to a particular note or given the opportunity to create a new one. Of course this is a problem for the programers to figure out, but the result, for the end user, especially at schools or larger organizations that use Evernote and Lexmark Scanners would be significant.

Below is my visual brainstorm for those who want “Just the Facts”.

Recording the entire learning process

Back in April I wrote about how students were using Evernote to record parts of the writing process. Below are photos of the entire process. (The first draft of a book review written on paper. The second draft off the review after a single student conference typed into Evernote. The rubric and feedback from many other students after they read the 2nd draft. The final draft of the review types in Evernote.)

Having the entirety of the writing process is extremely valuable as it clearly shows what kind of changes were made along the way. It is now easy to go back and reflect on the process and I can have a clear sense of how I can continue to design lessons to improve writing. Of course this kind of documentation can really happen with any subject.

An App with great artistic potential

Online portfolios are not only about documenting, reflecting upon and presenting your work. For them to really become a living tool for students, they also need to be a place of “on going” work. If the portfolio can be the place where actual work is being created then the portfolio becomes a part of the ongoing learning.

One of the apps that I have begun to play around with allows for this kind ongoing creation. Paper by Fifty Three is just one of those apps. I like it because it is an app that allows for drawing, writing and a version of water color painting. It has the potential to be used both to “plan” and for more creative final work. In the drawing below I made a drawing of a possible automata design (we are building automata toys in my class). This kind of sketching is something that I do with my students on paper, but Paper is an app that would allow you to use an ipad instead. This drawing can then be sent to Evernote. Once it is in Evernote it can be retrieved and looked at again when students are actually in the building phase.

Multiple Email addresses with One gmail account!!

One of the time consuming issues around setting up the Evernote accounts as I have done it in the past is the need to create individual e-mail accounts for students. To have an Evernote account you need to have an email account and if a large group of students don’t have accounts (or you want to control them) it takes some time. Shannon Miller, a teacher and blogger in Iowa, gave me this great technique to more easily make accounts for everyone. It is definitely less time consuming and makes it possible to more easily access all the student e-mail accounts if there is a need.

Multiple Google Email Addresses – One Gmail Account

Google Gmail is a very slick, free email product. One Gmail feature that you may not be aware of is that multiple Google email addresses can be created from one Gmail account. These bonus email addresses are easy to create and manage and can take a few different forms.

Multiple Google Email Addresses from One Gmail Account

Having multiple Gmail addresses can provide a range of uses including easily separating personal and business email and tracking incoming email from specific subscriptions and mailing list. There are three main methods for expanding the number of usable Google email addresses that you can have from a single Gmail account:

Using the @googlemail.com domain.
Using the “dot” or period in your email name.
Using the plus sign “+” at the end of your name and adding extra characters.
Using the “@googlemail.com” Domain Name
Let’s start with the use of the @googlemail.com domain name. With every Gmail account you actually get a second email address – one is the regular @gmail.com address while the second address has @googlemail.com as the domain. So Gmail will actually see myname@gmail.com as the same as myname@googlemail.com. All email messages that are sent to myname@googlemail.com will be delivered to your

Using a Dot or Period in the Email name

Another interesting facet of Gmail addresses is what is sometimes referred to as “Dot Blindness”. In an interesting twist Gmail does not recognize dots, ”.”or periods as characters in Google email address user names. This means that Gmail “sees” my.name@gmail.com or myna.me@gmail.com as the same address as myname@gmail.com. You can also use multiple “dots” in the username such as my.na.me@gmail.com.

The same “dot blindness” also applies to email addresses using the @googlemail.com domain name with my.name@googlemail.com or my.na.me@googlemail.com being routed to the same Inbox as myname@gmail.com.

Using the Plus Sign and Additional Characters
The third trick for extending the use of your Gmail account is the ability to add extra characters to the end of your username by inserting a plus sign, “+” after your name. Google does not recognize these characters but Gmail search filters do. The characters after the plus sign can be either letters or numbers. So myname+abcde@gmail.com or myname+abcde@googlemail.com will end up in the same Inbox as myname@gmail.com.

Test these out for yourself and see what works best for you. All the variations below are from the same Google email account and will all end up in the myname@gmail.com Gmail Inbox:

myname@gmail.com

myname@googlemail.com

my.name@gmail.com

my.name@googlemail.com

my.na.me@gmail.com

my.na.me@googlemail.com

myname+abcde@gmail.com

myname+123abc@gmail.com

my.name+abcdefg78@gmail.com

my.name+abcdefg78@googlemail.com

Benefits of Multiple Google Email Address from One Gmail Account

So you say, “OK, these Google email address tips are interesting, but what would I use all these variations for”? One use is to track where mail is coming from. When you sign up for a newsletter subscription or mailing list you can create a specific email address by using the plus sign and some specific characters or “dot” pattern. You can then track incoming email based on the specific email name that you created.

For example, you sign up for a subscription to a newsletter using my.name+456news@gmail.com and then in addition to the newsletter you signed up for you start receiving email from a number of other different sources to that specific address. This could indicate that the specific mailing list might have been compromised or even sold.

Another use of these address variations is for sorting out spam or unwanted email from a specific Google email address. By using Gmail filters you can automatically direct mail to a specific address, such as myname+666@gmail.com to the spam folder.

Variations on your address can also be used to separate out personal and business messages and automatically identify each with a different label and sorted to a different folder.

Simplified Google Email Address Management

Having multiple Google email addresses is a useful tool for addressing a number of different email needs. The benefits of having a centralized email account that can easily process a number of different email addresses without having to go out and set up numerous new accounts with additional usernames and passwords can be a real plus. And they are all managed from a single Gmail account. Kind of reminds of the J.R.R. Tolkien verse: “One ring to Rule Them all, One Ring to find them.”