In this episode of The Wired Educator Podcast, I interview Monica Burns, the founder of Class Tech Tips! Monica was guest back on episode 72. It was great catching up with Monica and seeing the wonderful resources she creates for educators. You are going to love this episode.

Dr. Monica Burns is a Curriculum and EdTech Consultant, Apple Distinguished Educator and Founder of ClassTechTips.com. Monica was part of her school’s leadership team and was a vocal advocate for bringing one-to-one technology into her classroom. As a classroom teacher, Monica used iPads to create an engaging, differentiated learning experience to meet the unique needs of her students. Realizing the power of digital tools in the classroom, Monica started ClassTechTips.com to provide a resource for educators.

Since starting ClassTechTips.com, Monica has presented to teachers, administrators and tech-enthusiasts at numerous national and international conferences including SXSWedu, ISTE, FETC and EduTECH. She is a webinar host for SimpleK12 and a regular contributor to Edutopia. Monica is the author of Tasks Before Apps: Designing Rigorous Learning in a Tech-Rich Classroom (ASCD), #FormativeTech: Meaningful, Sustainable, and Scannable Formative Assessment with Technology (Corwin), Deeper Learning with QR Codes and Augmented Reality (Corwin), and co-author of 40 Ways to Inject Creativity into Your Classroom with Adobe Spark.

Monica visits schools across the country to work with PreK-20 teachers to make technology integration exciting and accessible. In addition to being named an Apple Distinguished Educator in 2013, Monica is a graduate of the University of Delaware and Hunter College, and completed a Doctorate in Global Education Leadership at Lamar University in 2016.

Mentioned in this episode: 

Moncia’s website: www.classtechtips.com

Monica’s podcast: https://classtechtips.com/category/podcast/

Follow Monica on these social media platforms: 

Twitter: Twitter.com/classtechtips

Facebook: Facebook.com/classtechtips

Pinterest: Pinterest.com/classtechtips

Instagram: Instagram.com/classtechtips

Monica’s Books: 

• Tasks Before Apps: Designing Rigorous Learning in a Tech-Rich Classroom
• 40 Ways to Inject Creativity into Your Classroom with Adobe Spark
• #FormativeTech: Meaningful, Sustainable, and Scalable Formative Assessment with Technology​
• Deeper Learning with QR Codes and Augmented Reality: A Scannable Solution for Your Classroom

From Kelly: 

Sign-up for my free newsletter: To help you kick off the new year and to help you reach your goals and resolutions this year, I am giving away a free copy of my 64-page eBook, The Greatest Year of Your Life (2020 Edition) to everyone who signs up for my newsletter. Become more productive. Get things done. Level-up your leadership. Design a more dynamic life. All you have to do to receive the free copy is to sign-up for my free newsletter. Just click this link and enter your email. That’s it. It’s that simple. This eBook is available only until January 15, 2020.

Sign-up for Kelly’s newsletter here. Kelly Croy is an author, speaker and educator. If you’d like to learn more about Kelly, or invite him to your school or conference to speak please send him an email. • Listen to Kelly’s other podcast, The Future Focused Podcastand subscribe. • Subscribe to The Wired Educator Podcast with over 150 episodes of interviews and professional development. • Visit Kelly’s website at www.KellyCroy.com. • Looking for a dynamic speaker for your school’s opening day? • Consider Kelly Croy at www.KellyCroy.com • Order Kelly’s book, Along Came a Leaderfor a school book study or your personal library. • Follow Kelly Croy on Facebook.  • Follow Kelly Croy on Twitter.  •  Follow Kelly Croy on Instagram  

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In this episode, I interview Mat Pullen, an Apple Distinguished Educator from South Wales, and the creator of the popular ‘So You Want To…’ eBook Series. He will enchant you with his accent and blow you away with his brilliance of all things EDU. He is truly the embodiment of the everyone can create movement in education. I am excited to share my interview with Mat with you!

Mat is an Apple Distinguished Educator, Class of 2013 and is also a senior lecturer in Initial Teacher Education at the University if South Wales. A physical education teacher by trade, and now works closely with future teachers and established educators.

He is passionate about supporting those that education can sometimes leave behind, the ones that just need an alternative way to show what they are capable of accomplishing. 

Finding the true impact of technology back in 2010 with his students, Mat now looks for creativity and problem solving approaches to support his learners and to inspire other educators.

Mat is the author of a successful series of eBooks that are simple yet creative and helpful guides to show you how you can use tech in the classroom.  The ‘So You Want To…” series now has over 30 titles.  Mat is a public speaker, consultant and avid social media sharer, he has just completed his Masters in Innovative Learning with his final thesis on Sketchnoting and the impact on learners.

Mentioned in this episode: 

Mat’s free eBook series, ‘So You Want To…”: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book-series/so-you-want-to/id1417317481?mt=11

Mat’s favorite book: The End of Average by Todd Rose.

Another of Mat’s favorite reads: Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek

Follow Mat on Twitter.

Follow my Santa Every Until Christmas art on Instagram.

Win a singed copy of Kids Deserve it! by Todd Nesloney and Adam Welcome by commenting on Adam’s photo in my Instagram feed. One winner will be chosen.

I am giving away a signed copy of Kasey Bell’s Shake Up Learning; just tweet “I love listening to The Wired Educator Podcast” and tag me, @wirededucator in your tweet. One winner will be chosen.

Are you doing something amazing in education? I want to know. I want to recognize listeners of the podcast in some special way on www.WiredEducator.com, and I my even choose to interview you on the show. Stay tuned.

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Kelly Croy is an author, speaker and educator. If you’d like to learn more about Kelly, or invite him to your school or conference to speak please send him an email. • Listen to Kelly’s other podcast, The Future Focused Podcast and subscribe. • Subscribe to The Wired Educator Podcast with over 147 episodes of interviews and professional development. • Visit Kelly’s website at www.KellyCroy.com. • Looking for a dynamic speaker for your school’s opening day? • Consider Kelly Croy at www.KellyCroy.com • Order Kelly’s book, Along Came a Leaderfor a school book study or your personal library. • Follow Kelly Croy on Facebook.  • Follow Kelly Croy on Twitter.  •  Follow Kelly Croy on Instagram 

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Six Reasons The iPad Dominates Over the Chromebook in Education: 

1. Accessibility: The iPad is loaded with accessibility features that no other device has, and these features can help ALL students such as: Captioning and Audio Descriptions, VoiceOver, Display Customization, Guided Access, Speech and so much more! I use Speech to have my emails read to me and I love Magnifier and LiveListen. All students can benefit from accessibility features. Too many teachers think these features are for a particular group of student. You can learn more about iOS Accessibility Features here. 
2. Durability & Longevity: The iPad wins this one outright. The iPad is made of stronger materials and has less physical features to fail than other devices. Sure the screen can be of a concern but that I don’t think you would want to drop either device, and in a drop test I’ll take the iPad. Battery life on an iPad is superior from my use. The screen looks better on an iPad, the sound, sounds better on an iPad, and the overall experience of operation is awesome.
3. Portability: Hands down, the iPad is by far a more portable device. The front and rear-facing camera, and the ability to use the iPad in any flexible seating situation makes it perfect for education. Combine this with the long battery life and its super-slim footprint, the iPad can go anywhere. Changing the brightness of the iPad’s screen also makes it great for portability; allowing the student to use it in a theatre and other situations without disturbing others. Watch how students awkwardly try to use Chromebooks: to shoot video, in flexible seating, in labs, while standing.
4. Reading Device: The iPad as a tablet is an incredible reading device storing thousands of books. There are a variety of reading apps available including: Kindle, Nook, Google Play, iBooks and so many more. It’s a light reading device that is much more pleasurable to read with than a traditional Chromebook laptop. This makes the iPad the best Chromebook for reading. More books and a better format.
5. Apps: There are far more apps, and educational apps and creation apps available for the iPad than the Chromebook. It’s insane how many awesome apps there are for teachers and students to use to amazing things! No other device has access to this library of GREAT tools to teach and make a difference.
6. Apple’s Apps for Education: Apple’s apps designed especially for education, only to be found on the iPad: iTunes U, Schoolwork, and Classroom. iTunes University is only available on the iPad and I believe this is the game-changer for education. Giving teachers and students the ability to create interactive textbooks and creating online courses with embedded discussions is the future of education for all levels of education. iTunes University is being used from primary grades all the way through post secondary with incredible gains and impact. For this reason, you can see why the iPad would be the Chromebook of choice for teachers and schools. These apps are free.
7. Everyone Can Create: Apple has created a dedicated curriculum on using the iPad to create in the classroom, and it’s called Everyone Can Create. You can learn more here. It’s free.