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Post 1 of [15] of the “Organising a tech conference” series. I recently organised the ECIS International Technology Conference at the Bavarian International School in Munich, Germany. The event was a success with over 220 tech professionals joining from over 75 organisations around the world. Photo credit: Sebastian Stiphout © 2015 While the whole process has been extremely rewarding, it has also been a very demanding one. In this series of blog posts, I outline what needed to be done in order for the conference to be a success, and also what we wish we had done better....

Formative assessment tool 1: Todaysmeet Todaysmeet is a free backchanneling tool that can be used as a formative assessment tool. It is a kind of ‘private Twitter’ for your classroom. Here is a quick tutorial to set it up as a teacher Formative assessment tool 2: Plickers Plickers is a free and innovative student response system using QR codes and a mobile app. Only the teacher needs to have access to a networked device....

Safari has allowed third-party extensions for a few years now, and there are quite a few that can be extremely useful to teachers and students. Here is my curated list. 1. Lazarus: Form recovery Ever had one of those moments when you’ve finally finished filling out a long form and hit submit only to see an error message? And when you hit the back button the form was blank…...

1. Learn to type faster Okay, this one might sound a bit like a copout, but think about it. The average person types approximately 20 words per minute while composing, when a ‘fast’ typist is twice as fast, with 40 words per minute. You could cut the time you spend writing student reports in half simply by learning how to type faster. While learning to touch type can be a lengthy process, it certainly is worth it over the long term, especially when it comes to student reports....

Before you get started, you should try and locate the following keys on your keyboard, you will be using them (a lot). ⌘ Command key ⌃ Control key ⌥ Alt/Option key ⇧ Shift Key ⇪ Caps Lock fn Function Key ⇥ Tab Key ← Backspace Basic Keyboard Shortcuts 1. Move from text-box to text-box in webpages ⇥ As teachers, we fill in Web forms all of the time, may it be for electronic grade books, electronic attendance, electronic marking, etc....