This next installment of the Tandem Smart Brief series compares Microsoft Outlook to Tandem for Schools.  While Microsoft Outlook is intended for office use, some schools try to use it as a online academic calendar and have limited results.  Here are some highlights of the key differences between Tandem for Schools and Microsoft Outlook:

-Both can send email notifications

-Tandem can give directions to events

-Tandem can rent facilities online

View the entire Smart Brief: Outlook Vs. Tandem for Schools

When selecting a online school calendar it is important for a school to pick not just an online calendar but an online school calendar.  That is why we here at Intand have develop a series of Tandem Smart Briefs centered around comparing Tandem for Schools with other common calendaring systems.  The first installment or our series compares Google Calendar to Tandem for Schools.  Here are a few highlights:

-Booth are a hosted solutions

-Tandem has a simple and flexible approval system while Google Calendar does not.

-Tandem allows users to send text message updates

View the entire smart brief: Google Calendar vs. Tandem for Schools

We have added new features to your favorite online school calendar again! This time we made two significant upgrades that allow users to take advantage of more recent technology.

-Twitter: You can now post a tweet about new and changed events to your twitter account straight from your school calendar.  You can also sign in to Twitter with your Twitter login if you are already signed into Twitter.

-QR codes: You can now print a PDF document containing QR codes for specific groups and facilities that will allow smartphone users to automatically sync events with their personal calendar.

-Ability to disable/remove: Schools, Schedules, Photos, News, and Yearly Calendars

-Batch invoicing for Facility Rentals

-Better “Edit Recurrence” wizard for Event and Facility Rentals

Enjoy!

Many schools still use paper calendars and may be satisfied with that process. So, why should a school switch?  Here are just a few reasons:

-Constantly out of date:  Often times a paper school calendar is out of date the moment it is printed.  If any changes occur to the calendar, you have no way to instantly notify all staff, students, or parents.

-Go green: The number of paper calendars and newsletters can easily be reduced by implementing an electronic calendar. Thus, reducing the environmental impact that a school has.

-Reduce costs:  The cost of printing multiple calendars can be in the thousands.

-Accessibility:  An online school calendar can viewed from anywhere with an internet connection.

-All events in one place:  Store all school events in one place online.

Have you noticed any other benefits than an electronic calendar has over an online calendar?  Let us know!

Tandem is a great tool for not only the school but as well as the community.  We recently had a submission from a school that really understood how important Tandem can be to the community.  Below is a link to a short video that Ruffing Montessori created to demonstrate Tandem to the community.

http://www.ruffingmontessori.net/Intand%20for%20Schools_demo/Intand%20for%20Schools_demo.htm

How do you promote Tandem to the community?  Have you created a video like Ruffing Montessori?

Let us know!  We look forward to hearing from you!

Customizable and convenient are the adjectives that best describe Tandem for School’s online calendar. The convenience of an online format is ideal for busy modern families, while today’s technology makes it possible to tailor calendars to suit individual needs. What advantages does Tandem offer parents?

Convenience of Access

Accessing Tandem’s online calendar tool is as simple as logging on by computer or any internet-enabled device. Wherever and whenever an internet connection is available, parents can get the latest information on school events without having to rely on harried office staff for accurate updates. Never miss another chance to cheer on your team or forget to pick up your child from an after-school activity because the school’s front desk was closed!

Search, Filter, and Track Options

Whether your busy schedule leaves you short on time or you just prefer simplicity, Tandem’s search, filter, and tracking features are the answer. Tandem takes the headache out of keeping up with multiple schools and assorted extra-curricular activities. From the comprehensive calendar, choose to display just the events that pertain to your child. Need the latest information in a hurry? Simply enter the event you’re seeking into the search bar and you’ll be presented with all matches. Search and sort by keyword, group, school, or event with the option to view by day, week, month, or year.

In addition, it’s possible to access details from the calendar by clicking on an event to get contact and travel information and more. Need directions to an out-of-town game or band concert? Click “get directions” in the event detail display and you’ll be connected to Google Maps with the destination information ready.

Interested in following a particular team or club? Whether your child is a participant or you’re just a fan, use Tandem’s tracking feature to get the latest event information with email updates simply by clicking “track this group”. For even more convenience, choose “set reminder” for a given event and you’ll automatically receive an email notice for upcoming events. Designate a reminder interval and you’ll get an email alert hours in advance – the time-frame is up to you!

Integrate Tandem with your Personal Calendar

Maximize the potential of this helpful technology and enjoy the advantage of being able to export information to a personal calendar format like Google, iCal, or Outlook. Automate the process by synchronizing your own calendar with Tandem and the events you specify will be posted without having to lift a finger!

Added bonuses of online calendar’s like Intand’s version include print-capability and the option to subscribe to receive RSS feeds for updates. As registered users, parents can contribute photos and news briefs for events, as well as upload photos and forward email with event details to friends. Tandem takes some of the stress out of “parent involvement” so you can relax and enjoy these precious school years.

2009 was a solid year for educational releases, and the first year where many of the bestselling educational resources on Amazon.com were books for the Kindle. Here is a closer look at ten of the bestsellers on Amazon.com:

1. Empowering Online Learning: 100+Activities for Reading, Reflecting, Displaying, and Doing by Ke Zhang.

While this volume is catered towards exclusive online learning, the basic concepts it relays concerning content delivery online for different learning types can be utilized by educators who wish to supplement the classroom with digital content.

2. You Can Do It: How to Boost Your Child’s Achievement in School by Michael E. Bernard

You Can Do It is a parent’s resource first and foremost, but teachers can also benefit from a read. The book is particularly adept at offering advice on curtailing small problems before they become serious school performance issues.

3. Content Matters: A Disciplinary Literacy Approach to Improving Student Learning by Anthony M. Petrosky

This book outlines an instruction framework developed by the Institute for Learning at the University of Pittsburgh. It will prove a particularly good resource for teachers concerned with preparing junior high and high school students for a college education.

4. Wikiworld by Juha Suoranta and Tere Vaden

Wikiworld focuses on the course learning has taken in recent years with a particular emphasis on new types of critical learning and open collaboration (as in a wiki).

5. The Writing Teacher’s Lesson a Day: 180 Reproducible Prompts and Quick-Writes for the Secondary Classroom by Mary Ellen Ledbetter

Even the best teacher needs a little help sometimes, and this book provides the writing teacher with all of the prompts needed to keep high school students busy!

6. Building Online Learning Communities: Effective Strategies for the Virtual Classroom by Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt

The larger problems facing both educating and learning, especially within the context of modern education, are addressed in this book. It offers pointed advice for the crafting and utilization of engaging and educational online communities.

7. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Seventh Edition: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers by Kate L. Turabian

Books to help students structure research papers and other school assignments are a must. This Kindle Edition of a classic resource was an educational bestseller.

8. See It. Say It. Do It! The Parent’s & Teacher’s Action Guide to Creating Successful Students & Confident Kids by Dr. Lynn F. Hellerstein

This book’s main focus is on encouraging the use of visualization and imagery skills children already possess to help them, as students, grasp numerous types of learning challenges.

9. Teaching with Classroom Response Systems: Creating Active Learning Environments by Derek Bruff

This book emphasizes creative ways to use the “clicker” technology that is popular in colleges and universities. Beyond this basic premise though, the book is an effective idea board for interactive teaching.

The Classroom Teacher’s Survival Guide: Practical Strategies, Management Techniques and Reproducibles for New and Experienced Teachers by Ronald L. Partin

This new edition of “Teacher’s Survival Guide contains new information on inquiry-based learning and much more. It also features special web-access to additional supplemental materials for the teacher.

The ten best sellers featured here come from several different Educational subheadings. Many of the more popular books this year were Kindle editions, but a Kindle does not have to be owned to enjoy the books. Several feature hard copy versions and a PC version of the Kindle reader is available for free download for Kindle only books.

iTunes University is a diverse collection of easily accessible and free podcasts, videos, and TV shows uploaded into the iTunes library from colleges, universities, and other educational organizations. Any student, teacher, or parent with the free iTunes software downloaded into their computer can access this content. If you have a iPod you can download these podcasts and carry a world of knowledge around in your pocket.

The iTunes University homepage is accessed from the iTunes software. The iTunesU icon will appear in the left hand column of the software and include a number list of downloaded materials. When this icon is clicked the main iTunes University page is brought up containing featured courses and educational institutions that rotate in the top bar. Noteworthy contributions are also featured in the lower half of the screen. An iTunes U Quick Links section breaks down the “university” into four links: Universities & Colleges, Beyond Campus, K-12, and iTunes U Power Search.

The K-12 section of the site contains contributions from several state educational systems as well as selections targeted specifically towards educators. Eager teachers and schools that already have started an online library of video content can also apply to have their content features in iTunes U where it can be accessed by students and schools all over the world.

The opportunities for a real virtual classroom are game-changing when coupled with the power of the iTunes distribution. Any content contributed will be archived for use in subsequent school years making this service a valid consideration when planning to incorporate more technology into school. A one time investment of time can provide years of learning supplementation, especially in courses such as math where information remains relatively static. Tools like iTunes University allow teachers to create content that can be shared with students all over the world. This allows students the opportunity to tap the collective knowledge of a vast number of teachers, which was not possible for students just a few years ago. Students who live in areas with limited teaching resources now have the opportunity access to great teaching for free.

Past the secondary school level on iTunes U is the rich library of content from colleges and universities. These videos and podcasts can be utilized by high school teachers in a number of ways. Videos that cover an element of a current classroom project can be incorporated into lesson plans and viewed during class or assigned as extra credit. Students who need to do research for a paper or school fair can also access the library and view videos from prestigious universities like Yale for a multimedia source on an assigned topic.

Integrating Tandem’s online calendar with your already existing school website is simple and easy, requiring very little technical knowledge. Since a Tandem school calendar is a hosted service (or software as a service, SaaS), there is no software to install or major changes required to your existing website. When you sign up for a Tandem school calendar you will be given a specific URL such as http://Lakewood.Tandem.com. Simply add a link from your school website to your Tandem school calendar’s specific URL. You can request that the webmaster of the school website add this link, or you can add it yourself if you know how.

Once you have linked to your Tandem calendar, visitors to your school website can easily access the school’s online calendar by clicking on the link or they can type in the URL in their web browser.

Customizing Your Online School Calendar
Tandem allows you to easily change the color scheme of your school calendar. Currently the available colors are blue, black, green, orange, purple, and red. You can also add your school logo to your calendar by uploading the image. Both of these customizations can be easily made in the “Config” menu so there is no programming required.

Here is a collection of useful and interesting blogs by teachers.

1. Cool Cat Teacher
2. Bud the Teacher
3. Christopher D Sessums
4. Hip Teacher
5. NYC Educator
6. The Daily Grind
7. Dave’s Educational Blog
8. Bionic Teaching
9. 2 Cents Worth
10. Making Teachers Nerdy
11. Teachers Count
12. The Dream Teacher
13. 21st Century Learning
14. PE for Children
15. Artichoke
16. Creating Lifelong Learners
17. The Elementary Educator
18. Teachers at Risk
19. Think Like a Teacher
20. Free Technology for Teachers
21. I Want to Teach Forever
22. Learn Me Good
23. Epic Adventures Are Often Uncomfortable
24. Sustainably Digital
25. Dangerously Irrelevant