New Technology Learning: Periscope

Last week I spent a couple of days trying my hardest to absorb so much new information from the ISTE conference via #NOTATISTE15 on Google+. Let me tell you, it's very overwhelming as you sit on your couch watching your Twitter feed update every second. I follow a lot of great educators and thanks to Tweet Deck, I can follow specific hashtags. I mainly follow #ISTE15 and #NOTATISTE15, so I didn't miss anything from the ISTE conference in Philadelphia.

One of the coolest things I've picked up from this years ISTE conference is an app called Periscope. I had no idea what this app was before Sunday, but now I've seen it in action, researched a little bit about it, and thought of several awesome ways to use this in my classroom/school campus this next school year.

My first exposure to the Periscope app was through a tweet from one of the NOTATISTE group members. I asked myself, "What in the world is this?" I had never heard of this app before. I had absolutely no clue what it did, where you could access it at, or anything else about it. I decided to go do some digging. The first thing I did was google search the name of the app. When I did I was brought to the app website. www.periscope.tv

The line they use on their site is, "Explore the world through someone else's eyes." That's exactly what you get to do. Once I got to experience that I was blown away. The great thing about this app is that it is strictly for the smartphones out there. You broadcast from your phone, but others can watch the broadcast on their computers.

You can download this app from the iTunes App Store and from Google Play. I immediately picked up my phone, went to Google Play, and downloaded the app. Another great feature of this app is that it connects right to your Twitter account. This app is from the creators of Twitter, so you can sync right up to your Twitter account. Once you turn your live broadcast on, you have the option to share a link to your Twitter account for your followers to see and watch along with you. You can also have notifications set up on your phone to be notified when one of your followers is broadcasting live.

I tried several different Periscopes during the ISTE conference last week and it was like I was sitting right there in the conference with everyone. It was fantastic. At times it was hard to get a good video, depending on signals from the broadcaster. Those are little things that people may run into during their broadcast. It was a great experience. I also had the opportunity to see some awesome fireworks in Michigan and the 7th inning stretch of my hometown KC Royals game, from my seat in my home in Louisiana on the 4th of July. The experiences are endless!

This could be a great tool for educators to use in their classrooms. There is so much that happens in our classrooms that we wish others could see, especially parents. Maybe you're putting on a great experiment with your class and would like another class to join in and watch. Share a school program with parents that can't make it due to other obligations. Share some highlights of a sporting event with the community. The ideas for the use of this on a school campus are endless.

As my school's media specialist I can't wait to use this in the classroom. There's also an auto save broadcast option in the app that saves your video to your gallery for you to publish later on YouTube or other video publishing site. This gives you something to go back to review, share with the students later on after that experiment, create a video to share highlights with parents, show that sports team their awesome play, and so much more.

I really hope this is something that can be used and be a positive influence for educators.

#NOTATISTE15

For the second year in a row I've had the privilege to be a part of a great group. The #NOTATISTE group. Thanks to Jennifer Wagner, we are using Google+ in a fun, but educational way. This is taking professional development to a whole new level. For educators, making the changes to PD is important. It keeps us on our toes and interested in what is going to happen next not only for us, but most importantly for our students.

I'm not saying other forms of PD are ineffective, because they are highly effective for those types of learners. I've been to some awesome PD that was just someone presenting on a topic or a piece of technology. (Thanks to my amazing school district.) But there are other types of learners out there, even us educators we have different learning styles. We want to work with our students on a daily, sometimes hourly basis, and make sure we're providing opportunities for those students with different learning styles to master skills and content. The same goes for educators. Not all of us learn the same way and having so many different learning opportunities out there is beneficial.

Depending on the topic being presented I can handle sitting through a regular formatted professional development session, but I'm one that loves to try things out. I need to try it out, learn on my own. I'm also one that likes to explore on my own and bet my feelers out there. There have been times, early on in my career, where I have been overwhelmed by professional development. Now that PD has developed to be more self-driven, and self-paced, I find it easier to find new tools and ideas.

Thanks to the #NOTATISTE group I've been able to explore a conference I've been unable to attend. Technology is still a huge piece of education and it's constantly growing as the world changes. As a Media Specialist on my campus I want to stay up to date with the new tools, apps, ideas, and fun that is out there for teachers and students to use. With the help of this group I've greatly spread my PLN! I can't tell you how many people I have connected with through this group between last summer and this summer. It's amazing!

If anyone DOESN'T get to go to ISTE, it may be one of the coolest things that happens to you. Why? Because the second best thing is out there for you to participate in, for FREE! Joining the #NOTATISTE group on Google+ is something worth participating in, in the future. It really allows you some freedom, allows you to learn, and it all happens from the comfort of home.

The Beginning of a Journey

I've been toying with the idea of writing a blog for some time now. Even as I sit here and write this post I wonder if this is the best idea. Are people going to be reading this? Is this coming off silly or irrelevant? I want this to be an outlet for me as an educator to share my experiences and ideas with other educators out there.

I see so many educators blogging and they have wonderful blogs. I see them as celebrities of the education world. I wish to be like them. I think to myself, "If only I can come up with creative things to say like they do," or "Wow, that was a great idea. Why didn't I think of that?" I'm hoping one day I'll get to that status of sharing some great ideas with educators around the world.

I'm hoping this is a journey to something great. But most of all, I hope this is a journey of self-reflection. Yes, I want to share my thoughts and ideas with other educators in the world, but I feel like this can do so much more. This is for me to self-reflect on my profession, on my practices, my strategies, my ideas, my expectations, and everything else that I do.

So, here's to the start of a great journey!