Innovation 4 Everyone

Hi! Happy Holidays! Are you tired of using the same iMovie music tracks for your videos? (or any other application you use) Well, look no further. YouTube offers free background music you can download for your videos! There's a vast collection and it's so easy to find just the right track you need. Here's a sample: In an earlier post we saw that you could edit videos within YouTube , which includes a selection of free music too. But this time we'll see how you can download the music file to your computer and insert it into your favorite movie editing tool. Try it out! Sign in to your YouTube account. Enter your dashboard. Look for CREATION TOOLS. Next, you'll see the Audio Library. Cheers!

I recently made a presentation at my school about Augmented Reality (AR). I had heard about it before, but thought is was something futuristic or far too techie. However, during the summer, at the ISTE Conference, I attended a session on Augmented Reality. I was surprised at what I learned and walked out feeling less intimidated by such a geeky word. So, as I was preparing for my own presentation, I looked around for apps that could be applicable to our educational setting and would be a fun and easy way to introduce the concept to my fellow colleagues. Below is a list of some of the apps I selected and why I chose them. ColAR Mix - This app requires you download a set of sheets. You can color the pages and the AR view includes the colors you used. I like this app because you can see how the drawing you colored comes to life. The characters shown are animated.  GWR 2014 - This app is used together with the Guinness World Record 2014 book. I like this app because you can see

Hi! I was looking for a document on my computer and I bumped into an essay I wrote back in 2008 for one of my graduate courses. I love to type and whenever I can I encourage students to learn it well, so I enjoyed the reminder of why I love it so much. Here's an extract of the paper which, by the way, was about Behaviorism Theory.   About the Teacher Mrs. Reyes had been in school for many years now; she was basically a teacher for the Commerce section. She had not studied to be an educator; she had studied to become a secretary and an accountant. She was dedicated to forming new secretaries and accountants. Unfortunately, the Commerce section at the school had to be closed down, and fortunately, she entered the secondary school faculty, hence, her experience with the course to be described. At the same time, she was the homeroom teacher for the same group of students. She was a nice, middle-aged woman at that time, with an only child: a twenty-year-old daughter.   Ab

Hi! I spent last week in Mexico City, attending the 32nd Annual Tri-Association Educators' Conference 2013 . The theme of this year's conference was "Pushing Our Limits". In fact, every keynote and session was geared towards pushing us one step further at a time. With almost 1000 educators from different parts of the continent, there was a lot of learning happening and it turned out to be a very busy week. I truly enjoyed my time there: I had the opportunity to present a workshop on Social Networking in Schools: Edmodo. The attendees were amazed at how easy and safe it is to use Edmodo in schools with young students.  I attended the two day pre-conference session called "Understanding by Design" offered by one of the authors of this concept, Mr. Jay McTighe. A valuable take-away from this session is understanding what makes an Essential Question and how important it is to state them before starting a lesson. I attended a few other sessions, such as, C

Hi everyone!  It's been a while since I last updated my blog. I've been very busy at school with the start of this school year, which is still not over. However, a recent news article I read made me feel upset and got me thinking. I didn't want to miss this opportunity to write about this important topic. You might have heard about the sad story of a 12 year old girl that committed suicide after experiencing cyberbullying. If not, you can read about it here . Coincidentally, I came across a related and thought provoking article that questions the use of social networks and devices. I have to say that I share many of her thoughts. As I was reading this, I remembered something that happened to me in school, just a few weeks ago. I was visiting a third grade classroom to help the teacher and kids solve some tech issues. I was about to leave, the teacher and I were talking about some digital citizenship topics, and casually, the homeroom teacher turns to the students an

Well, as they say, "all good things must come to an end". :o(  Summer is over and I am back in school, but very excited with my new job position. As of this school year, I am the Technology Integration Specialist for our Elementary Campus. A position I was seeking since two years ago, is finally a reality. Yay! By the way, you will notice that from this post on, the title of this blog will read: "From a tech integrators' perspective." :o) During the summer I attended the ADE North America Institute, in Austin, TX. There was a lot of learning and sharing going on that week amongst colleagues and one very important project saw the light there. I'm talking about the "One Best Thing" project, in which each ADE will share something they feel they are good at. Although an individual task, It started with small group work in which we brainstormed and bounced ideas back and forth. I'm very grateful to my team for guiding me through the process. You&#

Well, I'm back after a full week in Austin, TX. What a way to spend some summer time! I have come back inspired, empowered, and engaged in learning! I was at the Apple Distinguished Educators (ADE) Institute 2013 North America.  W-h-a-t  a  b-l-a-s-t! An intense week of professional development hosted by Apple. This institute represents for me an opportunity to meet new people, make new connections, learn from awesome teachers, attend workshops, and very importantly, reunite with my old and new friends! This has been the best PD I have had yet. The Apple folks have a way to make each and every one of us feel special. I am very grateful for this opportunity to attend as alumna of the ADE program and together welcome the new ADE class of 2013. Around 400 educators coming from different places from Canada, United States and Mexico, attended engaging, fast-paced, hands-on conference sessions led by ADEs for ADEs.  A plus in this year's institute was the

My tech colleagues and I came back from an intense week of learning and sharing. I'm talking about the ISTE 2013 Conference . I haven't been able to attend these conferences every year, but rather when they are hosted in San Antonio, TX, which is just a 6 hour drive away from home. Perhaps that's the reason why I am more than amazed by everything I saw!   To me there are five main areas to explore at the conference. They are: The workshops and concurrent sessions, the playgrounds and posters, the keynotes, the exhibit hall, and the professional learning network. You can't miss anything! From what I saw, my feeling of what are the hot topics today is: Problem-based learning Augmented reality Gamification (huge!) Mobile devices QR Codes e-Portfolios Integrating the arts Collaboration Professional development Google Apps Professional learning network Create vs. Consume
 Flipping the classroom What's new? This is the first time I att

Google does it again! I just finished the Mapping with Google course. Awesome! This makes summer learning fun! Google courses are so well prepared. You don't want to miss any of them! It focused on Google Maps and Google Earth. This course was led by the product managers themselves. How good is that, huh? If you registered, you received an invitation to access the preview of the new and improved Google Maps and to Google Maps Engine Lite. Eventually we'll all have this version. What's new (or maybe just new to me)? Google Maps Getting step by step directions with estimated travel times for different travel options. See ratings for businesses. View traffic reports. Easily drag the path to try alternative routes. Switch between maps and earth view. View images of interesting places on the bottom as a carrousel. Cool explore features - natural like. Here's a sneak preview: Before:   After: Google Maps Engine Lite Create your own maps. Add pl

The school year is over and now I am faced with 10,000+ messages on my school's email account. How can I accumulate that many? Well, that's me, I don't like to erase messages, until the end of the year, just in case I need them. The truth is that I have been able to save my day or someone else's by recovering a past email. Hey, I did partially organize my mail throughout the year, otherwise, I'd have about 20,000 by now. I've been using mailbox rules. They are very useful for automatically applying an action to a specific type of message. What actions can there be? Here's an image of what can be done in Apple's Mail application. What I use the most is Move Message to a specific folder On My Mac and Delete Message . Another rule I use, not quite for organizing, but to be alert, is Set Color to Message . That way I can "highlight" messages I receive from people I want to make sure I don't miss reading. Let's see how t

N o, it's not deja vu, I had reviewed this app back in March . However, after I updated several apps on my iPad, I noticed that this one didn't look the same. I went back to see the old blog post for this app, and yep, there it was, it was different! So I'm rewriting that post again today. Here goes... I am very excited to share with you an iPad app that I've been trying out. The app I'm referring to is called "Google Search". It brings the power of Google to your fingertips...literally! It's a free app that you can find in the iTunes Store , yet so powerful. Let me show you a little how it works. After you open the app, you will find some options to choose from:   What I use the most is "Apps". I basically use Calendar, which shows your daily agenda, and Drive, which gives you the mobile view of your docs. Cool! The amazing options I'm so excited about that I've been trying out are Voice and Goggles. With Voice you can spea

Hi! This is the third and last post of the YouTube series. If you're familiar with iMovie or MovieMaker, you'll love the YouTube Video Editor. It's really easy to use! Spare yourself from having to export and upload again, and again, if you happen to make more changes to your videos. It's all done online, so no need to be tied to a single computer when it comes to working with videos. To access the Video Editor, you can go two ways: In the Upload page, on the right side options. In the Video Manager page, select a video, go to the Enhancements page, and in the bottom right side, you'll see the "Try the YouTube Video Editor" link. Here's an overview of what you 'll find : Project/New Project Search videos (previously uploaded to your video manager) Creative Commons Videos Photos Music Transitions Text Publish Watch this video for a quick demonstration of the editor. Have fun! Cheers!

Hi! This is the second post related to editing videos in YouTube.  Did you know you can make interactive YouTube videos? Yes! This means you can add options to the video so the viewer can decide what to watch next. This is great for story telling, video series, personalized learning, etc.  Here's an example of an interactive video that plays a magic card trick with you . The options are endless ! Remember, this is done in the same place where we edit videos, but now you will go to Annotations .    Basic Steps: Upload first all the videos you'll need to YouTube. Open each video in a different tab. (This is so you can copy-paste the URL of each video easily) Start editing the first video you will start the series with. Add annotations: Note - The annotation will be visible. You write a message in the text box. Spotlight - The annotation is invisible, unless you hover the mouse over it. Great for placing a link over an image in the video. For any of t