Share your Mobile Technology Story at Conference

Our Midwinter Conference is right around the corner. As part of continuing our theme on Transformational Leadership with a focus on “Peer to Peer Sharcasing”, we have designed a way for you to share some of your success stories. We know that since our Fall Conference, many of you have expanded your use of mobile technology devices. Whether it be the iPad 2 or other tools, we want to know what you have been planning and doing to integrate technology into your daily and district operations.

We will have a station where during the conference, you will be able to record a 5 to 7 minute video sharing what you are doing and/or planning to do. We know that many of you are engaged and finding lots of ways to model, support, and grow learning of children and adults. The stories we collect will, with permission, become part of our ever growing MASA Media Library. The Media Library is accessed through our website. Specific details on where the media station will be located with times of operation will be shared after the first of the year. If you have questions or specific ideas regarding this effort, contact Dan Pappas at MASA (dpappas@gomasa.org , 517-449-1109).  

Weekly Exercises

By now you’ve probably become acclimated with your iPad2 and may feel you’ve got it mastered.  I guarantee you’ve only begun to scratch the surface. 

New Applications for organizational and educational purposes are being created weekly. We will be sure to mention the ones we recommend through this newsletter in the future.

For this month’s newsletter, we want to continue in first gear and help introduce you to basic iPad2 functions that may help you along your journey.

This month’s educational series will focus on using the iPad2’s calendar. For those who have not yet added the iPad2 to their cache of planning devices, you’ll find that with its networking capabilities, the iPad2 may soon become your planner of choice. 

You may use a palm pilot, or smart phone as your primary organizing device. Some may even argue that having a physical planner is no less efficient that having a virtual one. This argument may be true until one remembers that the physical planner is useless if it is forgotten at home or at the office. The same is true if you forget your palm pilot or if your phone runs out of batteries. The advantage of the iPad2 is that you can sync your calendar settings across all of your devices, so if one is missing, you can still access your schedule on another device.

http://www.atomiclearning.com/k12/ipad

To find the video scroll down to section “E. Calendar.” From there, select lesson number 1.

Suggested application: Readdle Calendars. For those of you who make use of google calendars, you may want to consider purchasing this application. The application works well with google calendars and features a very friendly user interface. (price: $6.99)

Weekly Exercises

Exercise 2: We know many of you rely on your palm or smart phone calendar as a primary way to stay organized. Don’t be afraid to put that kind of faith into your iPad 2.

The following video will teach you how to add events to your iPad 2’s calendar:

http://www.atomiclearning.com/k12/ipad

To find the video scroll down to section “E. Calendar.” From there, select lesson no. 6.

Exercise 3: As we all know, plans are often subject to change. Emergencies, delays, cancellations are a common part of life. Updating you calendar is essential to keep up with the fickle nature of everyday life.

The following video will teach you how to edit or delete events from your calendar:

http://www.atomiclearning.com/k12/ipad

To find the video scroll down to section “E. Calendar.” From there, select lesson no. 7.

Exercise 4: In a fast paced world of instant updates and 24 hour news it’s easy to get ahead of yourself. To remedy this, the iPad 2 offers multiple calendar views. By switching views which allow you to focus on the whole month, week, or day, you are able to better read the calendar and also make sure you stay grounded in the present.

The following video will teach you how to switch calendar views on your iPad2:

http://www.atomiclearning.com/k12/ipad

To find the video scroll down to section “E. Calendar.” From there, select lesson no. 4.

Appreciating Culture

Jerry Jennings has caught the blogging bug. You can add a quick link to his Posterous account right on your iPad homescreen, so it will open like an app. Atomic Learning has a tutorial on creating shortcuts.

You might want to try it out on Jerry's Adaptive Leadership page.