April+7,+2010

We were a small group today. Steve and Tom were quite helpful. They explained that they are well aware of the Gradebook constantly needing the password issue, and they have informed Pearson of the issue.

Tom told us that when iCal files get too big, they can crash. This happens when teachers use iCal to attach too many documents. Ken V's rule of thumb is that after two weeks, old documents need to be deleted.

We spoke about how students are frustrated by the many ways that teachers use iCal. We plan to ask a small group of students to speak at our next Tech PLC meeting. The topic: what is the student perspective on our communication attempts: iCal, websites, email.

We also discussed more about working paperlessly. Bill showed how Preview can be used to assemble PDF documents from various sources into a single document with drag and drop from Sidebar. He also showed how a PDF can be turned into an editable form, but Steve and Tom showed an even neater trick- turning on the Typewriter in Adobe Acrobat Pro to allow students to type anywhere on a PDF.

We also briefly discussed the difficulties of collecting paperless student work. Rick spoke about the benefits of Google Docs in his classes.