Technoflash

Bellevue Public Schools, Bellevue, NE

May 4, 2017 Volume 42

NETA Nuggets

Last month, the Nebraska Education Technology Association (NETA) hosted its annual conference at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, April 19-21. NETA is a conference that inspires, engages, and connects over 2200 educators in a few short days with pre-conference workshops, a two day conference, an exhibit hall with hundreds of vendors, and a 5K race. We are proud to say that over 40 teachers attended the conference from Bellevue Public Schools, and 19 teachers presented either a workshop, breakout session, or poster session. What did our teachers take away from the conference? Click here to see a Google Spreadsheet full of ideas and resources.

Tech Tips

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Schoology

End of Year Schoology To Do list

As you begin preparing for the end of another school year, here are a few things to think about when it comes to Schoology.

It is important to take time to make sure you have all of your course materials saved to your resources.

To do this:

Go to your course
Click on Options at the top of the page
Select Save Course to Resources.

Next year, you will be able to easily move the resources you want to use into your new classes.

Your courses in Schoology will be populated from PowerSchool during the week of July 10. Remember, you can continue to build content inside your Personal or Group Resources.

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Mac

Did you know that you now have Pages, Keynote, and Numbers on your new MacBook Air? These programs are the Apple versions of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. They are powerful creation programs for both students and teachers that are also accessible on the iPads.

Appy Time

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Swift Playgounds

We were lucky to have Scott Elias, Apple Development Executive, share the new Swift Playgrounds at our iPad Academy collaboration day. Swift Playgrounds is a new iPad app that helps students learn and explore coding in Swift. There are built-in lessons and activities that teach the fundamental concepts of coding. Participants write in the Swift coding language. Learn more about Swift Playgrounds at

http://www.apple.com/education/everyone-can-code/

Want to go deeper into coding with Swift? There are three iBooks that provide guidance for teachers: Learn to Code 1 and 2, Learn to Code 3, and App Development with Swift. Each of these iBooks contains a teacher guide with 45 hours, 20 hours, and 90 hours respectively of lessons.

Download the iBooks with teacher guides below.

Swift Playgrounds: Learn to Code 1 & 2

Swift Playgrounds: Learn to Code 3

App Development with Swift

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Adobe Illustrator Draw

One of the apps presenter Tony Vincent shared at NETA was Adobe Illustrator Draw. Turn your photos into a cartoon like image. Watch Tony draw a person with Adobe Illustrator Draw in a quick two minute video. To see Tony Vincent's NETA resources, click here. Combine that with Sylvia Duckworth’s sketchnoting and this becomes a powerful tool. Click here to start learning how to sketchnote.

Blogs to Read

Schoology Blog: 5 Great Uses for Rubrics You'll Wish You'd Thought of First

Catlin Tucker: Students Email Their Parents About Missing Work

Edudemic: 15 Top Educators to Follow on Twitter in 2017

Video to Watch

Silicon Prairie: Tech startups bring innovation to Midwest

Tweet Time--Tweets From Those You Know

Use Twitter to be connected! If you are a tweeter, remember to tag your tweets with #bpsne so more teachers can see what is happening in your classroom. Sharing is the name of the game! Remember there are lots of great chats to explore to connect with others in your content area. Just pull up the hashtag and enjoy the conversation.

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Our Blog is on the Move!

The Tech Trio’s Technology Tools for Teaching blog has moved to a new location! Why is this important? Many of you subscribed to our old blog and will now need to subscribe to our new one. If you haven’t subscribed to our blog make sure to click on the link below and click FOLLOW on the right side of the page. This will send our new blog posts directly to your email to keep you up on all the things happening with technology in Bellevue Public Schools.

Click here to access our Technology Tools for Teaching blog!

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Hashtags Telling Our Story

One of the most powerful parts of Twitter is the hashtag! It connects people, ideas, and creates communities within Twitter. It is a unique way for our teachers and administrators to share the amazing things happening in our schools, classrooms, clubs, teams and organizations. Our district hashtag, #bpsne, continues to grow and is becoming a powerful tool that we can leverage as a district to connect all of our teachers, students, parents, and community members. We encourage you to continue sharing the great things happening in your classrooms. Here is a list of all of the Bellevue Public School educators on Twitter. Let's create the 2016-2017 Bellevue Public Schools story together!