(Share Clip)

iOS 7 hit the general public a few days ago and I’ve had a number of people who have asked me something to the effect of “How do you do [insert common iOS 6 task here] in iOS 7. Here are some of the tips I’ve been sharing or asked to share so far. They may help you.

My biggest take away from the latest iOS refresh has to do with privacy. If you updated to iOS 7 on your phone or iPad, here are some privacy settings you might want to follow, unless you don’t mind having Apple track everything you do on your phone.

•  http://www.zdnet.com/four-privacy-settings-you-should-enable-in-ios-7-immediately-7000020902/

A couple of other helpful tips to familiarize yourself with can be found in these posts.

• http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/18/a-few-tricks-all-the-new-ios-7-users-should-know/
• http://www.tuaw.com/2013/09/18/how-to-stop-ios-7-from-destroying-your-iphones-battery-life/

This post is part of a fall semester course I am leading; Transliteracy in a New Participatory Culture of Learning (#UAtnpcl ). While it may not be relevant to all the readers of this blog (I’m sure there are about 3 of you) there may be something for you here.

[START POST]

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. I love the start of football season and our family has been busy taking in high school, college & NFL games the last few days. Hopefully all of you are taking some time to get in the last activities of the summer. Fall will be here before we know it!

Here’s your weekly update for our course.

Week 2 REWIND

Last week you should have navigated through the self-paced online content in both the “Watch These Videos” and “Read These Items” modules in Springboard. If you have not yet done this, please complete it soon. The materials there continue to help set the stage for our discussion of Transliteracy and what it means to be transliterate in our world. Outside of the videos and readings, there were several tasks for you to complete. These are listed below.

Create your blog

1. Can be personal, professional or classroom
2. Share an ABOUT ME post – In first post include: information about yourself, experience with teaching, technology, literacy, expectations for course, anything else you’d like to include. (videos encouraged, yet not necessary)

Create a Twitter account

1. Follow @uakron_literacy, @brueckj23 and @djakes accounts
2. Tweet using course hashtag #Uatnpcl – Tweet should share something you have learned about in the course so far. Could be an interesting observation, fact, or insight that will help us socially construct a mutual understanding of  the changing dynamic of literacy and learning.

Complete Digital Communication Tools Form

Week 3 PREVIEW

This week you will continue to familiarize yourself with two essential transliteracy tools that you can use to begin to build your own professional learning network; Twitter and blogs. Some people have set up their accounts, while as of press time, other have not. It is essential to our learning experience to have these two items up and running. Because of this, I am going to step away from the syllabus schedule a bit and take the time needed to get everyone up and running at a reasonable comfort level. This means if you are an individual who has already completed the Week 2 items, you get a quick break this week. If you are an individual who still needs to complete this, take this week to knock it out. If you need assistance, please contact me and I will make sure you get the support you need.

Due to these schedule changes, we WILL NOT be holding a web conference session this week. We will meet on Blackboard Collaborate on September 17, 2013 from 6:50 PM- 8:20 PM. Use http://bit.ly/BrewWebConf to join the conference room. During that time we will talk in detail about Twitter chats and discuss the protocol for holding our course related Twitter chat.

Just testing out a new resource for following Twitter chats.

Mobile Device Tips for Parents

Written by Sarah Lane with Jeremy Brueck

Most children use the summer break from school to relax and play. Most parents hope their children will learn something over break, and with all the offerings of mobile technology, the options are vast—and confusing.  So which technological amusement is more teacher than babysitter? How can children benefit intellectually and academically from the many apps available on iPads, smartphones and other mobile devices?

The challenge for parents is to make sure that their children are using technology appropriately—that they are exercising their minds and not merely their thumbs. Jeremy Brueck, director of the Digital Text Initiative at The University of Akron’s Center for Literacy, offers the following tips. Read the rest of this entry…

Here is the video of a recent talk I gave on ebooks as instructional resources in early childhood and elementary classrooms.

 Session Resources

1. Download When Ebooks Go to School (Epub format)
2. When Ebooks Go to School Bibliography
3. Read the rest of this entry…

This isn’t my typical educational technology related post. I mean, it kind of is, but it really isn’t. I believe that we all learn and grow from experiences that happen both inside and outside of the classroom, so in essence, this post is about education and technology, but it’s also about more than that. It’s about a new opportunity, a new way to look at the things around me, a new way to approach literacy and how people interact with text, media and each other via social media.

This past week, I had my own opportunity to learn outside the classroom. A few months back, it was my good fortune to merge paths in the Twittersphere with @JGuyMAC, Director of Communications for the Mid-American Conference. Back in February, I was a guest of The University of Akron’s Men’s Basketball program at a pretty big game against Ohio University. The Zips had asked me to serve as a Social Media Correspondent on Social Media Day at the arena.

As a social media correspondent, two Zips fans will cover both the men’s and women’s games as members of the media, including insider access to pre and post game activities, media seating during the game and more.

Read the rest of this entry…

EdCamp Columbus was held yesterday at Gahanna Lincoln Clark Hall, which is a beautiful facility. It is also a really nice example of ways private and public sectors can come together to create learning spaces that benefit the entire community. The photo below from Sean Wheeler is a great example of the type of learning space you find in Clark Hall.

One of the conversations I submitted to the Big Board was “Textbooks are Dead, People: The Relevance of Student Created Ebooks in the Common Core.” I’ll admit, I went for a somewhat controversial title in hopes of gather a decent crowd for the conversation.

We had a nice crowd and the comments, questions and suggestions were really good. You can review the Google Doc from the conversation if you’d like to see how the conversation broke down. Not everything discussed made it into the Doc, but there were a few people tweeting from the session. Their Storify story is below. Read the rest of this entry…

Here’s a nice quick reference visual that lays out the major changes taking place in Ohio education from 2010-2016.