Supporting Teachers with ScreenSteps

One of the challenges for a person who “gets” technology is to understand how to teach those who don’t. We all have the technophobes and techno-reluctant on our staff. When you start explaining to them how to do something on their computer, their eyes gloss over as they consider whether to go to Bangkok or Sihanoukville for the upcoming 3-day weekend. Who can blame them. It’s human nature. Even for someone like me who loves technology and everything it has to offer, it can be tempting to put my fist through my macbook screen when I’m late for a meeting and I’ve got to download that one last document and my pinwheel is stuck in an infinite spin.

That’s why I felt a weight lifted off of my shoulders when I learned about the ScreenSteps software from Blue Mango Learning Systems. I mean, it’s just plain hot. I’ve labored over “How To” lessons for students and teachers this year and finally decided that for the time it took me to create one document, I could have planned my next unit and marked a class set of design workbooks. With this software, I’ve already cranked out three lessons in thirty minutes.


Here’s some of the things I like about it:

1) Cross platform. This is a super bonus because my school is cross platform and there are teachers and students who shy away from our MacBooks because they don’t know the operating system. ScreenSteps is going to help me help them see the light.
2) Exportable to html or the ScreenSteps Live website. Students, teachers, and the world (eek! I’m getting global) can access the lessons from anywhere.
3) Exportable to pdf. Because the internet in Cambodia can be a little slow at times, being able to export to pdf will enable me to put a copy on our school server.

Another fabulous thing about this software is the two-part video tutorial from ScreenCastsOnline that covers just about everything you need to get started. And, if you purchase ScreenSteps before May 1, 2008, you get a 25% discount. I, for one, am sold!

Brain Explosion - EARCOS 2008

I'm here at EARCOS and I think my brain is going to explode with all of the things that has been jammed into it in the past 72 hours. These 90 minute sessions are such a tease. They just plant the seed - during the sessions I find myself furiously typing up notes to self - websites to visit when the session's over, rss feeds to add to my netvibes page, nuggets of knowledge I need to bring back to my staff. Each 90 minute session requires at least 4 hours of follow up (not to mention a few coffees, reliable internet, and access to a power source that fits an American plug) to even begin to scratch the surface of this wide, wide web. It's completely overwhelming and exhilarating.

So I already need to call myself out on fronting - netvibes. I just made my page yesterday. I can tell it's going to revolutionize the way I interact with the internet. Can anyone remember doing web searches in altavista? Or listening to music on a walkman? RSS readers (like netvibes or Google reader) will change my daily interaction with the internet so drastically that the memory of blindly googling a topic will elicit nostalgic and slightly amused feelings a la memories of altavista and walkmen.

Top Tech Things I've Learned About (In No Particular Order)
I really feel like my brain is going to burst so I need to offload some of these thoughts into the blog to make space:

1. www.netvibes.com - My RSS reader and new best friend.
   
2. www.zamzar.com - Download any video (YouTube, for example) as any standard movie format. Clutch for teachers dealing with limited bandwidth or spotty internet (i.e. teachers in Cambodia).
3. Google Earth - I was aware of this but hadn't thought about its potential as a teaching tool.
4. www.thethinkingstick.com - I'm going to subscribe to all blogs associated with Jeff Utecht until I'm old and gray.
5. mnemograph.com - Very cool web app for making interactive timelines.

I'll share more links as I get a chance to check them out.