Death knell for proprietary tablet ecosystems?

This past week has seen a lot of news on the tablet front. While it may be old news that tablet sales are declining, this past week two negative major stories broke about school-focused tablet companies. 

The first involved high profile Amplify, which created a school-only tablet with big subscription dreams, the idea being that schools adopt a relatively low-cost proprietary tablet system and then spend annually on a management and other content subscriptions. Past news for Amplify had not been positive, with a large scale high profile mess in Guilford County schools in North Carolina, where a very high percentage of the devices suffered from hardware issues, such as cracked screens and overheating device chargers. Now News Corp is ready to unload Amplify, which is ending production of its tablets. 

Then came the news that the KUNO tablet, that had been named the iPad’s biggest competitor in 2012, had its own problems and that several districts were suing CurriculumLoft over a multitude of issues with the proprietary tablet. 

Is this the tablet death knell in K-12? Probably not. But it’s no secret that tablets (or any other device) are not the secret to transforming learning, and that in many use scenarios students prefer having a keyboard, which both KUNO and Amplify sold as accessories. This begs the question, why not just buy a device with an attached keyboard? 

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The hardest part of change

I started cleaning some items out for our annual curbside trash pickup yesterday. As I grabbed a lawn mower grass bag that had been in the garage for at least five years, never touched once during that time, I had to stop myself from the “but you might need this argument.” We are all guilty of hanging on to items that we don’t need, ideas that are outdated, systems that don't work, and practices that have little to no positive

effect. Whether it is rows in the classroom facing a teacher, textbooks sitting idly on a shelf, software that shows little instructional value, or the venerable “we have always done it this way”, the start of the school year brings the perfect opportunity for all of us to choose some items that need to be cleaned out of our instructional arsenals. Why don’t we? Because change almost always produces some resistance in us, resistance to the uneasy feelings we get when things are different. But like the first time we sat on a bicycle when we felt very unsure and a little bit scared, the end result is often an amazing ride, bringing benefits we could never have predicted. 

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Judson ISD Parent Center wins a Best in Texas Award from the Center for Digital Government

Technology is a growing industry with an impact in virtually every walk of our modern life.  Education has certainly been affected and Judson ISD's Technology Services has proven to be a leader in innovation among not just public education, but in general public sector applications as well. Judson ISD's Technology Services Department recently was awarded a Best in Texas technology award by the Center For Digital Government. It was a selection as "Best In-House Developed Application," for the district's Parent Center. The Parent Center is an application that keeps parents informed about important areas such as grades, assignments, attendance, library books, discipline, lunch accounts and more.  And it's all in one place that's accessible from multiple devices. 

The popularity of this tool has been growing with usage up across the board for administrators, parents and especially students.  All this was developed in house by the innovative folks from the JISD Technology Services Department. 

This is excerpted from the original blog post by Steve Linscomb at http://www.judsonisd.org/jblog/post.cfm/jisd-techies-earn-best-in-texas-award 

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Innovation is Not About the Technology

A reporter recently asked me, "Are any of the new technologies being introduced into K-12 education actually causing student test scores to increase?" While the question has been asked a lot, her point was that with all the venture capital being poured into educational technology now, investors and the public may start wanting products to show actual data on how they actually improve test scores. In the case of many products, a lot of which focus on remediating students for particular subjects, this is certainly a valid question. But I think many times we are hoping software, hardware, remediation systems, and other assorted educational technology products will magically transform education, when they will not.  Read the great article at ISTE One of the best pieces I've read this week was written by Grant Lichtman and published by ISTE. The author traveled to tens of schools across the country and visited with teachers and students and observed the learning process at many innovative schools. The author concludes that the innovation is really not about the technology at all, but rather about how learning is structured where the students are the leaders in learning. Of course this does not mean that technology can't play a role in the process, but the critical factors include how classes are structured, how students take charge of their learning and investigation, and how teachers and administrators must release control of learning to students. I urge you to read this great piece and join the conversation by sharing your thoughts.

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My New Year's Wish List for Ed Tech

It's been another fast-paced year in educational technology, with nothing more certain than change. Yet as much as there is innovation and exciting new products and ideas, there is a lot that I keep hoping will change, ideally at a rate faster than the speed of smell. So here is my Ed-Tech New Year wish list in no particular order of urgency: Transparent pricing: We are in education and cost IS important; if we have to use Chinese water torture to get a price for your product or service or to figure some outlandish set of options and upgrades, we may shop somewhere else. Fair contracts: Contracts need to take into account that we get funded by fickle entities. Stop writing auto-renewing contracts with no outs, or worse yet, multi-year auto renewals. Learning content standards: Digital content is exploding everywhere, yet much of it is locked in proprietary content prison cells, inaccessible from our learning management systems. Let's all get behind a common standard, like "Learning Tools Interoperability" or LTI for short. Easy log in: If your company cannot support LTI, at least bless us with some sort of common authentication or single sign-on. We can't bear to have teachers or administrators waste one more second administering accounts or wasting time logging in to a web site. Old web technology: It's far past the time to layout web pages in tables, run Flash animations, and use Java to validate forms. Join this century and leverage HTML 5 and responsive web design, so all of our devices can access your 1999 web site. A common wireless video standard that actually works: Students and teachers all have different devices and all have great things to share with the class, but in most cases, most of their devices cannot share their content to a TV or projector over the same standard. There is money to be made by someone solving this!

Ed Tech - change is for certain

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Dell World 2014 Report

Michael Dell and company judging ed tech startups at the Pitch Slam at Dell World 2014

Last week I had the opportunity to attend Dell World 2014, an event that showcased Dell’s commitment to its education customers and continued support of education innovation. This was especially evident in Dell’s sponsorship of the “Pitch Slam,” where three chosen edtech startups pitched products to the judges, headed by Michael Dell. The three products were very different, but all had lots of potential to be used across K-12:

·        BeeLine Reader helps readers use color grading of words to make it easy to follow sentences. 

·        EduCanon helps teachers create videos to flip their classrooms. The product includes an embedded check for understanding, which students must complete before continuing on with the video, giving teachers a great formative assessment dashboard.

·        PenPal Schools, which won the Dell Pitch Slam, enables students from different parts of the world to write and learn together. The students learn new languages and cultures in a safe and secure online system, which includes pre-made assignments that make it easy for teachers to get their classes writing to peers across the world.

Overall, this and other events at Dell World 2014 confirmed that the company is in the education market for the long haul.

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How districts are feeding the mobile app beast?

I forgot to post this article on the Judson ISD Connect! mobile app that was done by Edtech magazine in October 2013.

Check out the article at: http://www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2013/10/how-districts-are-feeding-mobile-app-beast

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Thanks!

I am very humbled and honored that the Texas K-12 CTO Council (the Texas state chapter of CoSN) presented me an award as the Grace Hopper Texas CTO of the Year at their Winter Meeting in February.

Without the incredible support and hard work of my amazing staff, this would not have been at all possible.  My staff is an incredibly hard working talented group of professionals that does amazing things each and every day.

The other group I need to thank are all the amazing CTOs and Technology Directors around the state who are part of the Texas K-12 CTO Council.  This group of individuals exemplifies hard work, collegiality, and is a group that makes each and every member better at being leaders.

More info at Judson ISD: https://www.judsonisd.org/jblog/post.cfm/young-receives-hopper-award-as-cto-of-the-year 

Texas K-12 CTO of the Year

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Where is the app integration and innovation in K-12?

I came back from TCEA, underwhelmed, not by the myriad of great presenters, but by vendor product offerings.  Where were the companies transforming education and interconnecting systems so that educators can leverage multiple platforms as needed to help provide a better more integrated learning experience?  Most of what I saw was just incremental improvements of existing products.  While there were some standouts, I was not wowed.  

I came home to beautiful warm weather over the weekend and decided to

Endomondo

work off too many conference calories by exercising.  I thought about how technology has transformed fitness for me in the past couple of years and it struck me that other industries are embracing interconnected app and data ecosystems much faster than K-12 Education.  I use an app called MyFitnessPal to track weight, calories, exercise and more.  I chose this app mainly because of its very robust third party integration.  It integrates with Endomondo, which I use to track running, walking, and cycling. So I donned my bluetooth headset, which allowed me to play cloud streamed Spotify music, while I biked many miles be tracked by GPS on Endomondo. At the end of the ride my ride data was automagically synced from Endomondo to MyFitnessPal, allowing me a seamless experience that made working out a less taxing more enjoyable experience.  That is what is needed in education. We need products that integrate easily together and provide students and staff enjoyable and powerful educational experiences.  

We are seeing more companies do this. Products such as Google Apps for Education, Schoology, and Edmodo, just to name a few are working on app ecosystems so staff and students can easily integrate apps and data for a seamless and more productive learning experience.  We need a lot less siloed products that are hard to manage and do not share data and functions with other apps or systems.  Am I wishing for too much, or do our students deserve this?

This blog entry is cross posted with the great folks at SchoolCIO

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Wearable technology: Coming to a classroom near you

Carl Hooker rightly noted that wearable and connected technologies were the standout of the Consumer Electronics Show. I don't doubt the days of my fridge knowing I'm low on milk and letting my grocery store know to put it on my order are not that far away. I’m perfectly fine with my fridge restocking itself.

EyeTap

The technology of connected everything is here. Proof enough is that it's such a beautiful day here in Texas that I can't be bothered to go inside and find my laptop, so I am writing this on my iPhone on 75 degree Texas January afternoon using Google Drive. We are very connected and classrooms are increasingly more so everyday.

So my question is...is Carl Hooker correct in saying wearable technology is coming to classrooms?  My opinion is that for a while most teachers will be terrified of students wearing items like EyeTap or Google Glass. Is Billy looking up facts, recording me, or being inappropriate?  But then just a few years ago wasn't the idea of cell phones in classrooms thought to be crazy by most?  Wearable and connected technologies will certainly cause an uproar at times. Students will get in trouble. Innovators and us nerds will find great educational uses. And undoubtedly we will have to craft new policies, many of which will probably be too draconian and reactionary at the outset. What do you think the future holds for education and wearable technologies?

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An inspiring story that says a lot about education

November 2013 Issue of Wired magazine

If you have not picked up the November 2013 issue of Wired magazine and read the cover story, “The Next Steve Jobs”, then you missed out on a truly inspiring story of a teacher, struggling to get by with little to no resources in the drug war ravaged Mexican border region.  While the star of the article is an impoverished young girl, 12-year-old Paloma Noyola Bueno, who responds to her teacher’s radical change in teaching methodology and becomes one of the best students in all of Mexico, the real story is about the teacher, Sergio Juárez Correa.

Correa struggled to reach his students and meet state testing standards (sound familiar?)  He knew that with virtually infinite access to information online (which his students did not have access to), the days of him being the bearer of knowledge for his students were numbered, and it was not producing results for his students.  So as Correa struggled to learn about how teachers are changing their instruction and having tremendous success, he decided to make a change in his classroom. So he told his students that they do have it extremely difficult and have none of the modern advantages, such as laptops and high speed internet, which students across the river in Brownsville, Texas have.  But he knew his students had potential to learn and to love doing it, which often seems to be lost on students and teachers neck deep in state and national mandates.

The methodology employed by Correa was at least partially modeled on the pioneering and increasingly cited work of TED darling Sugata Mitra.  But rather than leaving students unattended, Correa changed his role and now took a back seat in the classroom, as his students became investigators, cooperatively working on problems and debating answers in order to find solutions.  He largely did this without the use of technology, and had amazing results.

Would technology have hurt or enhanced what was done is his classroom?  I think it certainly could have assisted in enhancing a great teaching and learning environment, but I would also argue that if Correa had unleashed his students to lookup facts using Google, his results would not have been the same.  The power was in asking the students to think about problems and work cooperatively on solving them.

Teaching and leadership make a huge difference in student learning – clearly shown in this story, but they also too often stifle it: sadly, the article the quotes the chief of the Regional Center of Educational Development in Matamoros as saying “The teaching method makes little difference.” 

This blog entry is cross posted with the great folks at SchoolCIO

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Education has yet to experience digital transformation

Gartner Symposium 2013

This past week thousands of IT leaders descended on Orlando for Gartner Symposium.  This was not a conference about the nuts and bolts of IT, as much as it was about trends, strategies, and the new reality of the impact of everything and everyone becoming digitally connected. While the conference was not focused on education, it was abundantly clear that K-12 education is lagging behind many industries in transformational uses of technology.  Gartner Senior Vice President Peter Sondergaard's keynote termed what is happening globally as "digitalization", saying "Every budget is an IT budget. Every company is an IT company. Every business leader is becoming a digital leader..."  The message was that all industries are being dramatically altered and technology is the common thread behind massive transformation. Sondergaard insisted that industries and leaders need to understand and harness the innovative power that technology.   

While technology in education has been a key ingredient in innovative classrooms as demonstrated in numerous classrooms, schools, districts, and the Project Red study, there are many examples poorly implemented technology in schools.  For schools to be truly transformed by digitalization, they will need to leverage technology to educate every student with customized learning content and feedback supplemented and supported by well-trained educators.  The learning model itself at some point probably needs to change, lest many schools will continue to be only marginally impacted by technology.  What are your thoughts?  Have we truly transformed education through technology, or do we have a long way to go?  What are you doing to start your transformation?   Your comments are welcome at http://ctotechnotes.blogspot.com/

This blog entry is cross posted with the great folks at SchoolCIO

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Live streaming graduation broadcasts – Our guide to making it happen

About five or so weeks prior to the first of our district’s three high school graduations, my team was tasked with live streaming all three events, which would take place in two separate locations.  The difficult part was that we did not have the equipment needed and we would have to piece together a mobile production studio very quickly, leaving little room for testing and training once all the pieces were received and put together.

While I have some background with A/V and video, putting on major events like this are a team effort, so I knew that we would have to get several people involved in planning and testing, leveraging everybody’s skill sets.

We initially conducted some online research and consulted our peers through a listserv to see how they broadcast their events.  We had come across what we thought to be a very cost effective video production switcher from Blackmagicdesign, called the ATEM Television Studio, which looked like it would work well as the core component for producing the live event.  Several people on the listserv confirmed that this is a great device and would work well for us.

One thing that became apparent quickly was that the ATEM only accepted HD video inputs through HDMI and through SDI, but all we had was a couple of older cameras that did not output in HD.  While we wanted to keep costs relatively low, we felt that investing in older analog technologies would be a mistake, so we knew we need to go the HD route.

We found a loaner HDMI camera from our high school campus and we used a very low cost consumer Sony HDMI consumer camera for testing.  We ordered several HDMI cables of different lengths and costs.  This is where we found our first major issue, and by this point we were several weeks into the process and couple of weeks from the first graduation.  We found that only the short (and low cost) HDMI cables worked with the good cameras, while the only camera that worked with the long amplified HDMI cables was the low cost Sony, which was really meant to be either used as a wide shot cut camera or as a backup camera.  We had also purchased a great new Panasonic HD camera, the G-AC90 AVCCAM HD handheld camcorder, and when it arrived, we tested it and it only worked with the short cable.  We knew we had an issue, as it would be necessary to have one camera at least 100 to 150’ away from our ATEM production studio.   We eventually stumbled on the solution in the recesses of internet forums; The Blackmagic Design HDMI to SDI Battery Converter was the key.   This device allowed us to hook up a standard short (or longer if needed) HMDI cable to our video camera, and connect some really long (and less expensive than HMDI) SDI cables to move cameras away from our ATEM.

The next issue we found was that we needed a way to bring in analog audio from the sound boards at both graduation venues and convert that audio to digital.  This could be done on a good HD camera like the Panasonic mentioned earlier or the Sony I will mention further into this write up.  But we wanted the audio separate from the cameras if possible, so once again the Internet saved us and recommended the Behringer Ultramatch Pro, which allowed us to convert analog audio from the events’ sounds board coming in on XLR cables, and then output digital audio over a RCA to the input on the ATEM.

Another choice we had to make was choosing a service provider for the live streaming of the event.  One of my colleagues looked at several services and settled on Livestream.com, since they had a plan we felt was affordable, and which offered predictable pricing, unlike some competitors who charged more based on how many people viewed the stream.  We had no idea how many people would tune in, and we did not want to overspend on the streaming.  Livestream.com also recommended and showed the ATEM as a product it certifies to work with their service, which we felt was a major plus.  A major benefit of the chosen Basic plan was that we were able to setup Livestream.com to send data to our free Google Analytics account, allowing us a very good view into how many people watched our events, and to also know where they were located.

Another one of my awesome colleagues assembled the aforementioned gear and some additional parts, which included:

• Gator mobile pop up portable console rack cart
• Laptop shelf with a laptop
• Small network switch
• Behringer PMP1680S – this will allow us to use this mobile cart to produce our own live audio events
• TrippLite 12 Outlet Rackmount Power Strip RS-1215
• External HDMI monitor for use with the ATEM (this was not on the cart)
• Handheld radios with mic/headsets for team communication during the live events

The end result was our mobile live production studio pictured below:

Judson ISD’s mobile production studio

Our first streamed graduation was an event in our Performing Arts Center.  We setup and tested a day prior and all worked well.  But we knew from this that our low cost consumer Sony camera was not going to be sufficient long term.  Our remote stream test watcher commented on how much worse the video looked when we were using this camera.  We also pushed the Panasonic’s optical zoom to near its max on this event, so we knew that the next two graduations in the Alamodome would require a much larger optical zoom, so we went ahead and bought one more very good Sony HDR-AX2000 High Definition Camcorder.  Both this camera and the Panasonic produced fantastic pictures event in reduced lighting situations and both featured XLR audio inputs, which we knew we would end up needing as well.

Our team learned fast from our trials and from each successive graduation.  The events went extremely well, and the quality of the LIvestream.com broadcasts and our production looked very good.  We had a huge success of the events with over 3600 unique viewers, who spanned all 50 states and over 30 countries around the world.  We knew we had many military families that would be watching, but we truly did not anticipate this level and breadth of viewership.

There are a few things we learned from the process that we want to implement for next year.  One is having a much more powerful PC powering production, which will allow us to send a full HD and separate mobile stream.  We will be looking at a rack mounted might powered Intel i7 based PC with a rack mounted KVM to accomplish this.

We also found that we need to have a chat moderator watching the stream and chat as the live graduations unfold.  During one of the events, a couple of malcontents started saying inappropriate things in the chat, amongst the great comments like “I just watched my granddaughter walk the stage from here in Puerto Rico.”  We were able to ban these users form the chat, but next time we need to dedicate someone to this task.

Panasonic camera pointed towards ATEM production studio in the Alamodome

Live graduation unfolding in the Alamodome

Live Google analytics feed during a graduation

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Tablets, Laptops, and PC’s Oh My

If you were to read any educational technology magazine or site the past couple of years, you might think that there was only one device out there for use in the classroom.  While this may be pure hyperbole, it appears that the market for computing devices is changing again…..surprise!

This week saw Apple’s stock price tumble, largely seen as a barometer of things to come.   Will this also serve as an indication that the iPad’s dominance in the classroom may be waning?  Already it is predicted that Apple will be number two to Android this year in the overall tablet market.

From some of the press about trends in devices, one might think that PCs are a thing of the past, but when one looks at recently published numbers, that is hardly the case.  PC’s sales have been impacted, whether by tablets or by a lackluster Windows 8 reception.  Yet PC sales still are well above tablet sales.  And with Microsoft now executing a tablet strategy, Microsoft is still the major player in this game.  This week predictions surfaced that Microsoft may consider bringing back the Start Menu to Windows 8 with boot to the desktop functionality in an upcoming patch.  This alone could alleviate a lot of the pain association with schools and companies moving to Windows 8.  Who has the time or budget to train our staff on how to start a program, or shut down a computer?

While Apple’s iOS has made great inroads in education, Windows is still a dominant player in the market and it is a safe bet that Microsoft will continue to be a major player in education along with Google’s Android and Chrome OS. 

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Making 1 to 1 Programs Actually Succeed

There are many schools that have either piloted or implemented one to one student to computer initiatives.  These are nothing new.  The success of these programs, much like other education initiatives, has varied.  Most technology and curriculum leaders now recognize that there is much more to student and school success, than just putting a computer in the hands of a student and getting instant miracle results.   Just as a new hammer will not help a bad carpenter build a better house, a computer in the hands of a student will not turn the tide in the midst of bad teaching or ineffective school leadership.  But there is now fairly convincing evidence that properly implemented one to one computing is a contributing factor to school success, as evidenced in the rather convincing results from the Project Red study.  ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) has published a book about this report called Revolutionizing Education through Technology. A free electronic edition of the book is available at ISTE site.  I highly recommend that any superintendents, curriculum leaders, instructional technology directors or anyone else seriously looking at 1:1 programs read this books and consider all that it takes beyond a device to make one to one really succeed.

This blog was a Tech & Learning Newsletter Intro and is also on the Project Red site at: http://www.projectred.org/latest-news/173-t-l-advisor-guest-post—steve-young,-cto-of-judson-isd,-tx.html 

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We are social beings, so let's start learning that way!

This afternoon after checking into an early showing of Skyfall at the local theater on Facebook, I wanted to know how my drive up to Austin would be, so I opened my favorite driving app, Waze. Most readers are undoubtedly familiar with using Google Maps or other tools for navigation. Waze takes driving social, and leverages the power of connected drivers to predict traffic and travel times, but what is really powerful are the reports that appear on your map from others; there is an accident ahead, an object in the road, a traffic jam, or a hidden police car. Waze let me know that there was no major traffic, but to be careful about all of the police en route to Austin.

This is a fantastic use of social media. The reports of others are making my drives more pleasant, safe, and more on time. I never would have thought social media would be used to make driving better - but it has. Social media (which by most definitions involves a broad range of web sites, technologies, and apps) is a powerful set of communications technologies. Like any communications technology, it can be incredibly powerful, and of course like all others, it can be used for destructive purposes.

The ways which social media had helped are too numerous for a short blog post, but needless to say my travel, eating, professional networking, and learning will never be the same.

To some extent education seems very late to the social media game. Many schools are still just discussing if it should be used and if any social media tools are instructionally relevant. I am not advocating that all schools open up and start using every social media tool. There are many culture, policy, and instructional decisions that must be made at the local level before implementing many social media tools. But I am advocating that we should be leveraging some power of social networks, even if they are just walled garden social networks that we can use with our students to leverage peer learning. If I took one great piece of knowledge away from a great lecture last week by Dr. Abigail Baird, a Psychologist at Vassar College, it is that teens are social beings and that their peers are hugely important to them.

Dr. Baird did not advocate for using social learning with teens, but it really seems to be a great fit with what she talked about. She also pointed out that teens are most definitely not adults, which I think may be where much of our caution with social media in learning starts.

But ultimately social media has transformed many things we do and how we interact with our world and environment, but it has yet to make major inroads into most classrooms, when maybe it should, since social media technologies have improved our lives in many ways. Now it's back to improving my travel with social media; I am going to see what people on Yelp and Urbanspoon have to say about Austin's eateries.

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Judson ISD Connect Mobile App Takes the Bronze Lovie Award

Yesterday we received notification that the Judson ISD Connect! mobile school app for Android and iOS received a Bronze award in the European Lovie Awards.  I am so very proud of my co-workers who worked very hard to make this app what it is.  I am also most appreciative of Conduit Mobile and their fantastic team who worked with us to make the app better and resolve issues to make the app what it is today. More info on the app is available at the app page at http://www.judsonisd.org/district/technology/jisd_mobile.cfm or read about our development experience here in the CTO Technotes blog via Tech & Learning Magazine.

Conduit Mobile

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iPad Productivity Apps (for Principals & Administrators)

I am going to be training our principals (and other administrators) on productivity apps for better utilizing their iPads.  I have talked with several people, who have given some great ideas and many people across the state have contributed ideas through the TECSIG email list.   So far, here is the list of iPad apps for productivity (this list would probably work for more than just educators):

iPad Apps for (Principal and Administrator) Productivity

Stock iPad Apps
Safari	Web Browser	Included with iPad
Contacts	Syncs with Exchange (Outlook)	Included with iPad
Email	Syncs with Exchange (Outlook)	Included with iPad
Calendar	Syncs with Exchange (Outlook)	Included with iPad
Camera	Takes pictures	Included with iPad
Photos	Email, tweet, your photos..	Included with iPad
FaceTime	Real time video conference with other iOS users	Included with iPad

Notetaking Apps
Evernote	The e-filing cabinet of choice – use as your memory.  Stores emails, text notes & audio.  Syncs across many devices and web.  Great search!	Free
Notability	Any easy to use simple text, written, audio and photo note app – email or PDF notes	$9.99
GoodReader	Great PDF annotation and reader software	$4.99
PDF Expert	Simple PDF annotation with WiFi transfer and Box support	$9.99
Audio Memos Free	Voice recorder, email up to 3mb files, WiFi download	Free
Dragon Dictation	Voice to text transcriptions	Free

Office Apps
Pages, Numbers, and Keynote	Apple’s GREAT office apps for Word Processing, spreadsheet, and presentations.  These are the apps to use if using iPad for content creation.	$9.99 each
QuickOffice Pro	All in one office suite – edits Microsoft Office docs and syncs with Box.net and WiFi file transfer.  This more affordable suite is geared towards just editing.	$14.99
CloudOn	Cloud-Based MS Office with Box synchronization	Free
Digits Calculator	Great desktop calc with editable, comment-able eTape that can be emailed	$1.99
Dictionary.com	Great dictionary and thesaurus	Free

Book  Apps
iBooks, Nook & Kindle	eBooks from the big three.	Free

News Apps
Pulse	Incredible customizable news aggregator	Free
FlipBoard	Another great customizable new aggregator	Free
Texas Tribune	Stay on top of Texas news and the legislature	Free

Other Useful Apps
Box	App to synchronize files to the cloud and web browser..use to move files between PC and iPad	Free
Citrix	Get a JISD Windows desktop and use MS Office,  access your H and T drives, etc	Free
Twitter	Great social networking tool to expand your PLN	Free
iThoughtsHD	Easy mind mapping with Image & PDF export and Box synchronization	$9.99
Skitch	Simple annotation app – take a photo and mark up ideas and notes (syncs to Evernote)	Free
Explain Everything	Annotate and narrate on screen then export video – great way to narrate presentations then share	$2.99

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