Get Organized!: Alabama Educational Technology Conference Recap

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Alabama Educational Technology Conference Recap

Thanks to everyone who came to one of my sessions today at AETC. As promised, all you had to do was sit back and listen. All of the notes you could have taken are in the handouts. To get to them, go to my website and click on the Free Resources link. Or, simply click on the appropriate link below to get the handout for the session you attended. Each handout required a password to open. Use the one we gave you in the session.

Get Organized With Your BlackBerry
Now you can keep your calendar digitally. All of your "to-do" items will be in one place. You can now enter all of the repeating appointments once and let the BlackBerry handle the rest. Plus, you can anything in a flash.

Syncing your BlackBerry with Outlook makes a huge difference. The one-time setup is well worth it! You will also want to grab a copy of Configuring Outlook.

Why Your PowerPoints are Awful and What to Do About It
Hopefully, you will never think of PowerPoint presentation the same way again. Now, the text is in a document, the presentation is in your head, and beautiful pictures that are worth 1,000 words are on the screen. Your audience will not only stay awake, but they will remember what you said. Just don't tell anyone how easy this was to do!

Free Digital Tools That Increase Productivity
Yes, there is a lot of neat stuff out there. But just how much do you have the time to master. With what you learned here, you just put time back in your day, reduced your stress, and remembered why it was you liked technology!

If you are interested in adding to your iGoogle page some of the same gadgets I have on mine, here is an easy way to get them. As you click each link, you will be taken to a page that describes the gadget and let's you click a button to automatically add it to your iGoogle page.

Google Bookmarks
Google Reader
Yahoo News
Twitter
Facebook
Dropbox
Bit.ly URL Shortener
Weather
CNN.com
CNN Technology
reQall
People.com
ESPN.com
MapQuest Driving Directions
Area/Zip Code Lookup
Music
YouTube
Document to PDF
Movies
GoogleDocs
GoogleCalendar
Google Map Search
Portfolio Monitor
Calculator
Stopwatch
Flight Status
Wolfram/Alpha

Want to set up a Dropbox account? Here is an easy way for you to set up an account and get an extra 250MB of free storage for both you and me. Click here to sign up.

We mentioned briefly about students being able to take tests on the computer which are instantly graded and item analysis conducted. Here is a post that goes into more depth on that concept.

If you are a first-time visitor at this blog, you will find 6 years of posts here designed to help you organize your life (with technology being a big part of it) and have more fun along the journey.

The right-hand column of this blog gives you the opportunity to subscribe, so that with every time there is a new post, you get the information in your e-mail. You can also sign-up for a free monthly e-mail newsletter, examine free resources on the website, or follow me on Twitter.

If your school could benefit by having everyone get what you got today, bringing me to your school can start by simply clicking here.

1 comment:

Dr. Frank Buck said...: Yea! Thanks to one of my session attendees, I have an extra 250MB of free Dropbox storage (and so do they)!; 8:57 PM

Comments from Workshops

This morning when I returned to the office I did my first ever drag and drop to my calendar on Outlook - wahoo! The tickler file will come next week!

One of the most informative sessions I have been to in 5 years.

I saw your presentation at the ASCD conference in New Orleans and was blown away. Please send me your monthly email essays

Practical down to earth user-friendly content. Excellent!

One of my professional goals is to be more organized and to manage time more effectively. This hit the target.

Thank you. These are tools I can and will use! WHEW!

Practical, down-to-earth user-friendly content. Excellent!

Dr. Buck did a great job. I learned LOTS of things about Outlook that I did not know.

Where have you been all my life? This is a great idea! Thank you so very much.

FANTASTIC! One of the best I’ve been to! I could have stayed longer.

I was in your organization session yesterday. It was excellent. Came back to work today and set up my tickler file! I also moved all my messy (and vague) to-do lists into my iCal program and synced it to my Blackberry. Progress!!! Thanks for a very clear and applicable session. I'm excited to keep making the ideas come to life for me!!

Awesome ideas to get my life on track. Thank you so much!

You changed my life!

Great workshop. Fabulously well informed and entertaining presenter who shared his knowledge in a readily understandable format. Helpful handout. Thank you – well worth the trip from Ottawa.

I really loved the presentation!! Dr. Buck very thorough and entertaining. Great, practical ideas and the Faculty Club was a great setting! Well done!!

Great presenter. Was very informative, practical info to apply right away.

I loved this seminar!! Very, very well presented. Clear, logical, Dr. Buck was enthusiastic and witty. Very practical information that I will put to use immediately.

As a new administrator, I found this workshop to be extremely helpful. I got affirmation on some of the things I was already doing and many great new ideas! Thank you. Would definitely recommend to others. Frank Buck provided many ideas that will make my job as an administrator 10 times easier.

This might very well be some of the most useful, timely and necessary professional learning I've done in years. Thank you!

Excellent presentation.
Dr. Frank Buck is friendly, interesting, and knowledgeable. Well done! This seminar was amazing.

I will put it unequivocally: yours is the first workshop for professional development I have been to that has had a daily effect on lowering my stress levels and being more aware of the things I need to do on a daily basis. I cannot thank you enough. Everyday is now easier knowing I know where my day is going and not worrying over where everything is. The simplicity is almost embarrassing – how come I never thought to do this 10 years ago? My answer to that is that we sometimes don’t realize that a slightly more open mind can reap benefits we didn’t imagine possible. Thank you again. I waited about 6 months to let you know, but this only proves that I’m walking proof your techniques work long term.