it's in the small details

Today the students began thinking about the presentations for their research. Because they want their displays to be innovative, several all already trying to figure out how to get images and music on their Chrome Books. We are blocked from Youtube so one student is downloading the Stevie Wonder song Superstition to his thumbdrive and will be using the Chrome Book as a speaker.

Images are proving to be a different animal. SketchUp (for planning the display) and Picasa (for editing pictures) seem to be other apps we were led to believe would be part of the Chrome Book purchase, but apparently were not 'part of the basic package'. So, along with EasyBib, Diigo, and Teacher Dashboard....extra money should have been built into the grant. The absence of EasyBib, in particular, became apparent today when two of the students who have taken this course before said she'd rather have been using the index cards all along because now that it's time to write the paper, she cannot sort her notes into the outline (something EasyBib does). We figured she would have to print out her spreadsheet and cut it up to sort.  Going through a multitude of clicks and copy/paste maneuvers just takes too much time.

nickagin.bigcartel.com

Now I know. I should have investigated the apps myself instead of relying on advice so I knew what to include in the grant. Live and learn!