The videos will be posted in my YouTube Channel.  The first – iUse Evernote: Setting up can be found here.

I’ve blogged before about personal productivity, and the frameworks and theories I tend to follow to try and organise my seemingly increasingly insanely busy life.  Well I’ve come across a great little utilisation of one of my favourite programs to enable and enhance effectiveness, and after a 5 week run it seems to be working a treat.  The system I am using is loosely based on GTD (Getting Things Done) which was originally made popular through the publications of David Allen.  His books are a good read, as are the many blogs that explore the concept of GTD.

The key concept I am following is that of “Next Actions.”  This simply identifies the tasks I should be focusing on as a priority.

The program I am using with this concept is Evernote.  I’ve blogged about Evernote before, tweeted about it, even podcasted about it.  Its an essential element of my toolkit.  Within Evernote I have created 2 top level notebooks.  These notebooks are titled;

• 0_next actions
• 0_to do

The “0″ ensures that the notebooks will always be situated at the top of the list of all notebooks, and therefore easily accessible.  The “0_to do” notebooks contains notes for all the projects and roles I am responsible for.  In these notes is a list of the tasks I need to complete relevant to this role or project.  The key though is the “0_next actions” notebook.  I transfer tasks from the “0_to do” notebook into the “0_next actions” notebook, only one task from a list at a time.  This means each role or project has its next action in the “0_next action” notebook.  When I get to work, I open that notebook and work through the tasks.  This rule of one only is not strict, and at times I will overpopulate from specific roles or projects depending on timeline pressures.  However, the maximum  number of tasks in the “0_next actions” notebook is not to exceed the number of notes in “0_to do.”

As a task is completed, it is deleted from the list.  At the end of each day, incoming tasks are processed into the appropriate note within “0_to do,” and a selection of tasks moved to the “0_next actions” notebook.

This is currently working for me.  As long as I commit to the process, organisation is enabled.

Initially a conference tag needed to be set, and this can be seen in my previous posts.   I have invested more of my time into consistently tagging my information across various platforms recently, and realise the convenience of setting and using such a tag.  When we explained the tag to the group, my perception was that many did not understand what I was talking about.  If you do not,search in google for #WTDW and you will see the benefits of a common tag for an event. @gayleenjackson set the tag, and we were away.

The collaboration consisted of tagged tweets in Twitter, public notes in Evernote, bookmarks in Delicious, a conference Ning and an etherpad.  These allowed us to post links to resources, import RSS feeds and sort information for our liking.  Through this whole process I see two significant benefits;

1. All the information is stored in the cloud, and is therefore accessible to anyone.
2. Collaborative memory is more extensive than individual memory.

My brain has been running since thinking how can I incorporate this in my teaching.  Currently I use tags, and searches of tags, to provide feeds of information from my work to students.  I could definitely use public evernotes to proide links to my notes.  Currently I export Zotero notebooks to students who use Zotero.  The same could be done for students using evernote.  We do collaboratively research and store this in a wiki within BlackBoard, but this is generally typed, copied or links.  I could expand this by educating students on RSS feeds and tags.  However one main difference remains.  In this collaborative experience, we each contributed how we were comfortable and then shared with each other.  Some conference members were only comfortable sharing within the Ning blogs.  What is important is the sharing, the collaboration.  The location is simply a function of familiarity and choice.  The colleagues I worked with on this day are more comfortable with the tools mentioned, and this is where I regularly interact with them.  My students however collaborate in entirely different forums and environments.  It is unreasonable for me to expect them to move to my way of thinking (as I have with Zotero) without similar adaptation in reversed roles.  I should be learning about their environments more concentratedly, and exploring options to utilise that for productive communication, collaboration and learning.

The power of networked learning outperforms that of any individual.  It was great to experience real collaboration (common goal and unrestricted sharing) and I’ve no doubtmy learning has benefitted.

The TPACK framework has inspired me to work within my own school to build and implement an eLearning framework – something which has been sadly lacking.  I’m excited to work with @skhill_03, a senior English teacher who is our nominated Digital Pedagogy Leader (a regional program conducted by @djone91) and the Deputy Principals responsible for IT and Pedagogy.  We will base the framework on Bloom’s Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain as it is already instilled as a framework for our academic excellence program.  We intend to develop a community approach to sharing productive digital pedagogy which ties in with the staff review and performance plans that will be implemented later this semester.  As this project progresses I will undoubtedly report on it here.

This post will focus on the iPod Touch.  I own one, and this is the one I use in class.  This will be a very different context to those teachers who are fortunate enough to have multiple items, however I believe the applications and their utilisation could translate.  Please be aware as you read, these are the applications I use and they may be alternate applications in existence.  All the apps I use are free (or at least I installed them on a promotional offer), which means there may be more functional applications in the repository.  Also, I generally use this in the absence of a wireless internet connection.  Where functionality requires wireless internet I swill mention it in the review.

One obvious use is access to podcasts relevant to the learning context within the class.  Access to these is a repetitive searching process to ensure a stream of media, however there are podcasts that can deliver a constant stream of useful media.  For me, one such podcast is the TED talks.  They are fantastic for inspiration, motivation and discussion.  Due to the range of topics that are presented in the TED talks, I believe a teacher could find at least one relevant to their context.  Alternatively, teachers (or students) could produce media that is exported to the iPod Touch as alternate learning.  I have successfully done this with tutorial videos and videos as stimulus for a response.

If stimuli is placed on the iPod Touch, I like to have a method for student response to be directly input to the device.  There are a number of applications available to enable this.  Firstly, there is the standard pre-installed “Notes” application.  Students could create a new note and type their response to the stimulus in.  If writing input is preferred, “Writepad” allows this.  Writepad can even convert handwriting to typed text.  Alternatively, voice input can be achieved with Griffin iTalk among others.  You will need to have a microphone to utilise this in the iPod Touch.  If you install the iTalk Sync program on your computer, you can move recordings from the iPod Touch to the computer over a wireless connection.

Sometimes, written or verbal responses don’t encourage the artistic or createive desires in our students.  For this purpose they could build a response in “Flipbook Lite” which is a stick animation program.  Alternatively, students could create a concept map in SimpleMindX.

For general reference and retrieval, I’ve installed “Dictionaire” – a simple dictionary.  I’m unsure of the extent of its database but I am yet to ask it a word it does not have a definition for.  I’ve also installed “TouchCalc” – an enhanced calculator and “GraphCalc” – a graphing calculator.  “MultiConvert” performs conversions in a range of categories, and “The Chemical Touch Lite” provides a range of information for the elements in the periodic table.  The standard pre-installed “Clock” and the enhanced “LabTimer” cater for all my time calculation needs.  “iTrain” contains an extensive database of exercises, including instructional animations – especially useful for us HPE teachers.

A couple of applications, using the concept of flashcards, are great for memory testing.  Where possible, I direct the students to create the flashcards as revision or quizzes for each other. “iFlipr Lite” has a bank of flashcard sets in its online storage – these can be downloaded over a wireless connection.  “gFlash+” uses Google Spreadsheets as an input for its card sets, therefore they can be created by anyone.  Often the creation of the flashcard set is a much greater pedagogical exercise than using the flashcard set.

The two most often used applications for me are “Calendar” and “Evernote”.  I sync Calendar to my Google calendars, which is where I do my planning for class.  It will automatically sync over my wireless when I am at home, however the details are available even when offline.  Evernote will also automatically sync when a wireless connection is available.  I use evernote on the iPod Touch primarily for input, which can be typed, voice or photo.  I am starting to enjoy using evernote in combinatio with SimpleMindX.  Create a mindmap in SimpleMindX, save it to the camera roll, then import into evernote.

Each of these applications allow me to use the iPod Touch in class to enable learning outside of a wireless connection.  The inclusion of this device in my class has certainly increased the engagement of some students who prefer to use it.  I have also downloaded some games that require thinking, and these are permitted to be used outside of class time or in a designated “your learning” time in class.  These games are “Scramble” – a word find game, “BrainTuner Lite” – a braintraining game, and “Tiki Lite” – a problem solving game.

I hope this breif overview of a number of apps provides some insight into their pedagogical application.

1. Laptops
1a. Lenovo R400 – Employer provided. This laptop has the managed operating environment installed and includes organisation wide software installations. This software includes MS Office, Paint.net, Irfanview. and Audacity.  It is built to connect to the corporate network (either wired or wireless).

I have installed further software that I use. My software of choice is all open source, to demonstrate accessibility to learners. My list of must have software includes; VLC media player (plays anything), FireFox (the web browser IMO), Filezilla (FTP), Kompozer (web authoring), ZScreen & Camstudio (screen capture).

1b. HP Compaq – MOE environment installed, plus every tool I’m likely to use to process learning objects, images, video and sound.  This is generally what I refer to as my processing workhorse – it does all the hard work I need.  As it has the MOE environment, I also take it to class to be used as another computer.

1c. Asus EeePC with Linux OS. I use this to increase awareness of learners to options other than what my employing organisation decides to expose them to. I’ve trialled a few distros (Xandros, EeeXubuntu, gOS, Easy Peasy) however the programs installed remain the same – OpenOffice, Audacity.

1d – 1f. 3 other laptops with MOE installed (1 x HP Compaq, 1 x Acer Aspire, 1 x Acer Travelmate).  Used for general access.

2. iPod Touch. I use this more as a standalone device in class – iTalkr for voice recording, Evernote for note taking, Notes for students to leave me notes, cable for video output, dictionaries and calculators.

3. Mobile phone (currently Nokia 6120). Even a low end phone such as this can be used for image, video and voice capture. I utilise Bluetooth to transfer files to and from learners.

4. Digital camera to record/capture learning moments. I don’t know the model off hand at the moment but it is a 6 megapixel job that cost less than $100.  Uses an SD card which all my laptops can read.

5. Digital voice recorder for capturing audio. Specifically I wanted one that had easy transfer via USB. Many cheaper ones require line in recording to transfer the file to a computer. This is a Sony ICD-P620.

6. Range of memory storage, including the portable office blogged about previously. Cables to enable data transfer from variety of tools.

Except for the 3 extra laptops (1d – 1f), I carry all of this in a backpack (yes, its a little heavy), which allows me to work anywhere in the school.  When needed I carry the extra 3 laptops in a laptop briefcase.  None of these items require connection to power during lesson time so I am truly portable.  What I have witnessed with students acceptnace and use of these can be summed in by two old sayings:

1) You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.

2) If you build it, they will come.

If I simply take these to class, students still don’t access them or engage with them.  However if I create the learning environment where they see opportunity for access through choice, they respond and access the technology readily.  This reinforces to me something I have long believed in – it is the pedagogy that matters, not the tools.  Knowing this, I can create and manage the environment that results in student engagement with all of these tools to enable and encourage learning.