Evernote in the Classroom

As we roll out technology into our schools it is important to provide software tools that enhance the delivery of curriculum so these devices do not simply become time wasting distractions.

One example of a terrific application that provides a conduit for rich note taking and project collaboration is Evernote.  This power software has the ability to type notes, store documents, capture audio or photographs and allows you to organize it all and access it from any device.

Have a look at how this School is using  Evernote, you may just find a whole new way of using technology in your classroom.

App Icons made easy!

I was looking for a way to create nicely polished icons for a web page that had the same appearance as an iPad App.  So I started with an image files like this one:

I was hoping to frame it with rounded edges and give it a nice glossy appearance.

Photo editing software seemed like the obvious place to start but I have found if you are not an experienced user many higher-end photo editors can be frustrating to use.

So I began searching the web for an easier solution and was fortunate to stumble across the ICONJ web site.  This site is easy to use, gives nice configuration options and produces exactly the end result I wanted.

Here is an example of what ICONJ produces in just a few seconds:

Awesome!

Give ICONJ a try and you will have professional looking App icons in seconds.

Web Portals for Schools

The idea is to create a very simple web page that appears much like an Apps page on a mobile device.  The original design idea came from Doug Sadler who is the lead for a new team called ET2You at the W.E.C.D.S.B..  ET2You is short for "Education Technology to you".  Spent a few hours today learning Google Apps Sites and was able to tweak a basic design to come up with a nice functional web page that works well on multiple devices.  Check it out at School Portal.