The New Empower 2.0

If you haven't seen it already, Empower's (formerly Educate) site has had an overhaul on its layout and design.  Very new; and very different.  However, much more user friendly and much simpler to navigate through.  It's designed to allow the user to have most everything they need without having to look to hard for it.  I think the one feature that many will appreciate is you have immediate view and access to your classes and class data right on the homepage when you login to your account.

Before, the homepage was the messaging service (which, you can still access in the top right-hand menu) and you had to look around for you class data.

I have embedded below a string of tweets I posted yesterday during workshop loaded full of helpful tips and demos of the new Empower site design.  Be sure to peruse through these posts to help you learn how to navigate and use Empower.

You can access our SAD1 Empower Site by going to:

sad1.educatek12.com

If you have any questions, please contact me.

Learning Workshop Idea for PIMS

I realize that lessons and plans for learning workshops have been already planned for the rest of this school year.  However, thinking ahead, for next year, SimCity has recently released an iOS app, FREE.

If you are not familiar with SimCity, it is a simulation gaming franchise that has been out since the late 80s and the premise of the game is that you are the mayor of a potential city.  As mayor, you have to build and improve your city to help it grow and make your city residents happy.  As a learning tool, students will learn how to manage the cities finances and resources, make critical thinking decisions and learn to work efficiently with the resources they have to develop a successful running city.  Not only is the game fun and clean, it is a great way to develop strategic thinking and problem solving and planning.

Perhaps consider this for your next Learning Workshop in the 2015-16 school year.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

The SimCity gaming community in education is so large, there is a site devoted to creating lesson plans and collaborating lesson ideas when using SimCity in the classroom.  Check out GlassLab's SimCityEdu.