We're on the Radio!

Ben & Steve were fortunate enough to be interviewed by Michael Boll for 21CL Radio. Below is the page for the show, embedded from the 21CL Radio web site. (Scroll down to see the entire page.)

One2World Revolution Week 2015 Starts Here

The Revolution... it's not 1:1 it's One2World 

The One2WorldRevolution is an opportunity to celebrate and share what has happened in the Grade 3-5 team since the start of 13-14. We designed the program with great emphasis placed on learning and the processes that are involved in this. We want students who are engaged, excited and deeply involved in the design and processes of learning. We want students to be communicating and engaging beyond the classroom walls. This is our vision for 1:World. There has been a revolution. 

In 2015-16 our first group of One to World students will enter the Middle School. They will be required to have a MacBook as per usual, but unlike any previous intake, they will be armed and dangerous in the use of iPads. Serious skill and seriously different to previous years.

We have an exciting menu ready for you to participate. 

• Student Team Presentations: Theme: "Learning we are passionate about and want to share with you..."
• Teacher presentations about effective strategies and uses of technology. 
• Open Classrooms - During these sessions you are free to visit the classroom and gain a snapshot of life in that One2World classroom.
• Student Q&A Panel We have assembled a panel of Student Experts from our One2World team. They have a message for teachers in Middle and High School...

Session Structure:

4 days, 16 sessions (4 per day) - 8.20; 10.20; 12:35; 2.05 (i.e. regular Fish Bowl times)

Full session descriptions are below the schedule, so keep reading:

_revolutionschedule

One2WorldRevolution Monday May 18

8:20am Teacher Presentation: You Don't Know Jack - And That's Totally Cool! with Colleen McCabe in The Fish Bowl

An informal discussion, Q&A session for teachers. What to expect? What do you need to know and be prepared for? How will this change your instruction?

Bring to this session: Open Mind!

10:20am Open Classroom: Student Selected Showcase with Katie Fleetwood's Grade 3 Class

Come and see what's going on with Katie's class. Students will be showing various pieces of their work...and taking requests. 

12:35pm Student Q&A Panel: Ask our Student Experts

2 panels of (student) experts has been assembled and await dialogue with their future teachers. Come and ask questions and meet students from our One2World classes. They have information to share with you about how they use technology...

2:05pm Teacher Presentation: Getting The Most Out Of Google Drawings In Your Classroom with Megan Godek

Learn how to use Google Draw with your classrooms to enhance student learning. You will be able to see how students can be creative while applying knowledge about standards. As a teacher you can make more creative assessments in which the students can manipulate. Google Draw allows students and teacher to have fun and be creative during the learning process.

Bring to this session: MacBook

One2WorldRevolution Tuesday May 19

8:20am Student Team Presentation: Immersive Storytelling via Touchcast with Brian and Murphy 

Grade 4 students Brian and Murphy will combine their two creative passions to show students can make presentations AND stories come alive. They will use the Touchcast app to share how to use immersive storytelling in the classroom.

Bring to this session: Open minds!
Location - The Fish Bowl

10:20am Teacher Presentation: One2World: Lessons from the introduction of this program with Ben Summerton

The backstory to the introduction of One2World and iPads in the Elementary School

This is an abridged version of a session presentation from 21CL Hong Kong 2014. It explains how and why KIS introduced 1:1 iPads: the challenges and triumphs!
Location - The Fish Bowl

12:35pm Student Team Presentation: Minecraft and Google Sheets with Phillip and Brandon

Phillip and Brandon will be showing Google Sheets and how they've been using for math and then taking the data and building their store in MineCraft. This is a project of great passion and should not be missed!Bring to this session: smiles...!
Location - The Fish Bowl

2:05pm Student Team Presentation: Drawing, Building, and Posting in the Classroom with Hannah and Yeoni

Grade 5 students Hannah and Yeoni will go over the benefits of using Google Draw, Minecraft, and Blogger in the classroom. They will show how it has been used this year and brief overviews of how to use each product on either iPads or MacBooks. 

Bring to this session: Macbook and iPads
Location - The Fish Bowl

One2WorldRevolution Wednesday May 20

8:20am Student Team Presentation: iBooks: Researching and Publishing a Non-Fiction text with AJ, Ahmad, Connor, Camilla, Aiva and Sarah

Grade 3 students AJ, Ahmad, Camilla, Aiva and Sarah will share how they used their iPads to research a chosen topic in order to write a nonfiction text.  They will then share how they used iBooks Author to publish their book and then how they share this with themselves and published the text in iBooks.  The rest of the class will be positioned throughout the room to share their iBook and to answer any questions.
Location - The Fish Bowl

10:20am Student Team Presentation: Freedom of Choice - Creation & Innovation with Minwoo

In a recent Civil War project, students were offered six different tasks or problems to solve. They formed groups and chose the task or problem they were most interested in. They then used any tools, devices, resources to complete the task or solve the problem. Grade 4 student Minwoo will give an overview of that structure and then share what his team completed.

Location - The Fish Bowl

12:35pm Student Team Presentation: Reading Rotation Activity with Google Drive with Yoonseo and Christie

Grade 4 students Yoonseo and Christie will be showing how to use Story Cubes on Google Drive, on the iPad. They will explain their literacy activity by demonstrating and inviting participating in a short activity. 

Bring to this session: Imagination
Location - The Fish Bowl

2:05pm Open Classroom: The Civil War with Colleen McCabe's Grade 4 Class

Students will be using technology as they see fit - research, creation - some will have products that feature no technology, others will have only technology, while others will have a mix of both. This is authentic technology integration where technology does not occupy centre-stage. 

One2WorldRevolution on Thursday May 21

8:20am Teacher Presentation: Happy Apps with Molly Rance

I'll introduce this concept, talk about why and how it works, and do a quick run-through with the participants so they can try it out!

Bring to this session: Your iPad (but iPads will be available to use if you don't bring one)
Location - The Fish Bowl

10:20am Open Classroom: Historical Writing with Megan Godek's Grade 5 Class

We will be using Touchcast to finalize historical writing pieces. 

12:35pm Student Q&A Panel: Ask our Student Experts

A panel of (student) experts has been assembled and await dialogue with their future teachers. Come and ask questions and meet students from our One2World classes. They have information to share with you about how they use technology...
Location - The Fish Bowl

2:05pm Teacher Presentation: Explain Everything: Explained with Amalia Kingsbury

Explain Everything is an easy-to-use interactive whiteboard and screen-casting tool. You can annotate, animate, narrate, and import almost anything into your presentations. And best of all you can share to almost anywhere.
Location - The Fish Bowl

One2World Technology Integration and Innovation Showcase: Callout for Presenters

In 2015-16 our first group of One to World students will enter the Middle School. They will be required to have a MacBook as per usual, but unlike any previous intake, they will be armed and dangerous in the use of iPads. Serious skill and seriously different to previous years. 

Proposal to all O2W teachers and students:

We have 16 regular Fish Bowl sessions which we thought we would like to give you and your students the opportunity to showcase your work, in particular for the benefit of our MS teachers. (Teachers please note that Friday May 22 is Sports Day!)

Sessions Types:

The 16 sessions over the O2W Week will (at this stage) be comprised of the following session types, in addition to a student panel.  

• Teacher presentations about an effective use of technology that is integrated (I have heard so many of these this year...please consider sharing. 10-40 mins, you choose)
• Students Team Presentations. Theme: "Learning we are passionate about...". This is a formal/semi-formal presentation that has structure to it. It could also follow more of a Workshop type format too though. 
• Open Classroom - where teachers and admin visit your classroom and showcasing technology integration. A snapshot of life in your classroom.

+ Student Panel EdTech plans on assembling a 9 person student panel to respond to questions or topics raised by teachers who attend. The student panel will scheduled to occur twice during O2W Week. You can nominate up to 3 students to participate per Form submitted. 

You can submit a Form for each of these opportunities. If you decide to enter your own presentation, as well as an offer to host an Open House, you will need to submit this form twice in that case. 

Session Structure:

4 days, 16 sessions (4 per day) - 8.20; 10.20; 12:35; 2.05 (i.e. regular Fish Bowl times)

You will have the opportunity to let us know what would work for you though. 

Obligation to participate? 

No. None whatsoever. But it will be a great way to celebrate and share your successes and experiences if you do!!   

>_automatic: Automator Workflows

This is week 2 of >_automatic and we are creating some interesting Automator workflows. Throughout the week we will continue to post some of the workflows we find to be helpful.

Change Image Type - Workflow

This is a converter to use when you want to change a JPG to PNG for example, or any other number of conversion combinations!

Convert Keynote to PDF - Service

A number of teachers at KIS have requested this. A conversion, however it requires AppleScript. This nice thing is this is only a 2 Action thing, and the second is an optional Display Notification. 

You will need to cut and paste the following AppleScript into the Run AppleScript action. 

property exportFileExtension : "pdf"

property useEncryptionDefaultValue : true

-- THE DESTINATION FOLDER 

-- (see the "path" to command in the Standard Additions dictionary for other locations, such as movies folder, pictures folder, desktop folder)

set the defaultDestinationFolder to (path to documents folder)

set usePDFEncryption to useEncryptionDefaultValue

tell application "Keynote"

activate

try

if playing is true then tell the front document to stop

if not (exists document 1) then error number -128

if usePDFEncryption is true then

-- PROMPT FOR PASSWORD (OPTIONAL)

repeat

display dialog "Enter a password for the PDF file:" default answer ¬

"" buttons {"Cancel", "No Password", "OK"} ¬

default button 3 with hidden answer

copy the result to ¬

{button returned:buttonPressed, text returned:firstPassword}

if buttonPressed is "No Password" then

set usePDFEncryption to false

exit repeat

else

display dialog "Enter the password again:" default answer ¬

"" buttons {"Cancel", "No Password", "OK"} ¬

default button 3 with hidden answer

copy the result to ¬

{button returned:buttonPressed, text returned:secondPassword}

if buttonPressed is "No Password" then

set usePDFEncryption to false

exit repeat

else

if firstPassword is not secondPassword then

display dialog "Passwords do no match." buttons ¬

{"Cancel", "Try Again"} default button 2

else

set providedPassword to the firstPassword

set usePDFEncryption to true

exit repeat

end if

end if

end if

end repeat

end if

-- DERIVE NAME AND FILE PATH FOR NEW EXPORT FILE

set documentName to the name of the front document

if documentName ends with ".key" then ¬

set documentName to text 1 thru -5 of documentName

tell application "Finder"

set exportItemFileName to documentName & "." & exportFileExtension

set incrementIndex to 1

repeat until not (exists document file exportItemFileName of defaultDestinationFolder)

set exportItemFileName to ¬

documentName & "-" & (incrementIndex as string) & "." & exportFileExtension

set incrementIndex to incrementIndex + 1

end repeat

end tell

set the targetFileHFSPath to (defaultDestinationFolder as string) & exportItemFileName

-- EXPORT THE DOCUMENT

with timeout of 1200 seconds

if usePDFEncryption is true then

export front document to file targetFileHFSPath ¬

as PDF with properties {password:providedPassword}

else

export front document to file targetFileHFSPath as PDF

end if

end timeout

on error errorMessage number errorNumber

if errorNumber is not -128 then

display alert "EXPORT PROBLEM" message errorMessage

end if

error number -128

end try

end tell

-- SHOW THE NEW MOVIE FILE

tell application "Finder"

activate

reveal document file targetFileHFSPath

end tell

Now press the Hammer icon in the Run AppleScript action to verify that the script is good! 

Now SAVE your Service. Call it 'Keynote to PDF or something similar. 

To test it, select a Keynote from your Finder, right-select, Go down to Services and select your 'Keynote to PDF' service. 

Convert Keynote Slides into individual PNG images - Workflow

This is a Workflow, but could easily be re-jigged as a Service if you prefer that method. This workflow in any case takes a Keynote Presentation, and kicks each slide out into a folder (set to land in your Pictures Folder) as a PNG converted image. 

There are only 2 Actions, with the second action involving a dump of some Apple Script into an Action to make it work. 

Here is the Apple  Script you need (copy paste all of the script in purple below):
(See https://iworkautomation.com/keynote/document-export.html)

property exportFormat : "PNG" -- "TIFF" "JPEG" "PNG"

property includeSkippedSlides : false

property compressionFactor : 1.0

-- THE DESTINATION FOLDER 

-- (see the "path" to command in the Standard Additions dictionary for other locations, such as documents folder, movies folder, desktop folder)

set the defaultDestinationFolder to (path to pictures folder)

tell application "Keynote"

activate

try

if playing is true then tell the front document to stop

if not (exists document 1) then error number -128

-- DERIVE NAME FOR NEW FOLDER FROM NAME OF THE FRONT DOCUMENT

set documentName to the name of the front document

if documentName ends with ".key" then ¬

set documentName to text 1 thru -5 of documentName

-- CREATE AN EXPORT DESTINATION FOLDER

-- IMPORTANT: IT’S ADVISED TO ALWAYS CREATE A NEW DESTINATION FOLDER, AS THE CONTENTS OF ANY TARGETED FOLDER WILL BE OVERWRITTEN

tell application "Finder"

set newFolderName to documentName

set incrementIndex to 1

repeat until not (exists folder newFolderName of defaultDestinationFolder)

set newFolderName to documentName & "-" & (incrementIndex as string)

set incrementIndex to incrementIndex + 1

end repeat

set the targetFolder to ¬

make new folder at defaultDestinationFolder with properties ¬

{name:newFolderName}

set the targetFolderHFSPath to targetFolder as string

end tell

-- EXPORT THE DOCUMENT

if exportFormat is "PNG" then

-- EXPORT THE FRONT DOCUMENT TO PNG IMAGES

export front document as slide images to file targetFolderHFSPath with properties ¬

{image format:PNG, skipped slides:includeSkippedSlides}

else if exportFormat is "JPEG" then

-- EXPORT THE FRONT DOCUMENT TO JPEG IMAGES

export front document as slide images to file targetFolderHFSPath with properties ¬

{image format:JPEG, skipped slides:includeSkippedSlides ¬

, compression factor:compressionFactor}

else if exportFormat is "TIFF" then

-- EXPORT THE FRONT DOCUMENT TO TIFF IMAGES

export front document as slide images to file targetFolderHFSPath with properties ¬

{image format:TIFF, skipped slides:includeSkippedSlides ¬

, compression factor:compressionFactor}

end if

on error errorMessage number errorNumber

display alert "EXPORT PROBLEM" message errorMessage

error number -128

end try

end tell

-- OPEN THE DESTINATION FOLDER

tell application "Finder"

activate

open the targetFolder

end tell

When you have copy/pasted this script into the Run AppleScript action, press the hammer button to configure it (which also checks for errors)....

Select a Keynote (from the 'Get Specified Finder Items' action) and press RUN to test it.

Convert Videos (that land in Dropbox > Camera Uploads folder) - Folder Action

A handy Folder Action that automatically converts uploaded video, as seen below, for iPad, iPhone, AppleTV etc. Very versatile.

Convert images to .png - Workflow

We find this one very useful, especially when wanting to upload an image to a web or blog site, and not have the colour profile messed with. PNG is the answer to that irksome issue, and this little workflow simply automates it for us. 

Reduce the size of PDF files - Workflow

Had a PDF document and tried to send via email only to have it bounce because it exceeds the MB limit? Gone to reduce file size, only to see all the quality stripped out of the document as well? This is a beautiful workflow that will drastically reduce the file size..with little to no discernible difference in document quality. Adding in then additional 'Create New Mail item and add the reduce PDF to it as an attachment is of course optional (depending on whether you use Mail or not).

You will need to set up the Quartz filter first.

Option: Add your 'Reduced File Size PDF to a new Mail message...automatically:

Batch Printing - Workflow

This is actually faster than a manual print workflow. Simply select all of your documents and arrange the print queue (drag and drop the selected Specified Finder Items); have your default printer saved (do this when you make the Workflow), and then hit RUN. 

PDF Splitter - Worlflow

Scenario: you have been sent or downloaded a unit plan or unit and only want specific pages from it. This little workflow will take a multi-page PDF and split it into separate PDF files (one for each page). You can the trash the unwanted material. The companion to this Workflow is the PDF Combiner, which does the opposite: it takes the wanted pages and stitches them together to create a single (but edited selection) PDF file. 

PDF Combiner - Workflow

The promised companion to the PDF Splitter is this little gem:

Wrap Text in Quotes - Service

This is a very simple 'service', and therefore differs from all the above examples. A service can be accessed by right selecting on on object - in this case a text passage. There is only 1 action, and it's 'Run AppleScript'. Copy and paste the script below:

The AppleScript is:

on run {input, parameters}
    return "\"" & (input as string) & "\""
end run

The 'Service receives selected text' setup is important to get right. Make sure you check the box as shown. DONE!

Notice 'Wrap in Quotes Service' in the screenshot below? Select text from anywhere and try it yourself. 

Create a Thumbnail version of an Image - Service

Need to create a low resolution copy of an image to use as a personal avatar on any number of social media like sites? Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc etc? There is no need to get hassled by the need to come up with a small image using a photo editing App. Just create this Automator Service and it's easy to create the thumbnail image you need. This is a Service, so go to File > New > Service. Here's the rest:

Now File > Save your new Service and call it something like 'Thumbnail This'.

To use this, simply right-select the image from within the Finder and 'Thumbnail This' will be there to choose:

Attach file(s)/folder(s) to a New Mail message - Service

Again, another 'Service', but a super useful one for those who use the native Mail app on their Mac. I like this simple little service because it means I can select any file/folder(s) and instantly have them open up as an attachment to a new email. Quick and easy to make, and use time and time again.

Feel free to download these workflows from our shared folder.