Tools to Make Your Job Easier

Many of these tools could be useful for program managers of Volunteer Literacy Programs

Tech Tidbits & Free Social Media Apps for the Hurried Admin

I attended the Tech Tidbits & Free Social Media Apps for the Hurried Administrator presentation last Wednesday, October 2. It was presented by Dr. Rob Furman, Principal of South Park Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I was interested in this session, because I wanted to learn about new tools that can possibly save me time on tasks and grow professionally.
The session featured over a dozen technology tools that are available on the internet for free. Some of the tools I had heard of before (Evernote, Pinterest), but some were new to me (Flipboard, Author Stream). What is interesting was how these tools were being repurposed for use in education.
Below is a list of the technology tools mentioned in the presentation. In some cases, an example of how an administrator can use the tool in an educational context is provided:

• Evernote: This is a note-taking application (that allows for audio, video, images, text) that can transfer content to every device you own. An administrator could type classroom observations on a laptop or tablet and the content will automatically transfer to every device you sync the application to, including your office desktop computer. https://evernote.com/

• • Original text from the Discussion: Connected Educator Month: The Adult Education Connection 
    
  • I-Fang Cheng's comment on the Discussion
    
    
  
  See more tools on future posts.....
  
  Share your ideas of how this App could make your job easier or could be used in a literacy program....
  

New GED 2014 Test Practice Test Post

VALF is following some of the discussions on the Connected Educator LINCS site. Here is a recent post with a link to a new GED 2014  Practice Test

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A free 2014 GED practice test from GEDTS
Yesterday, the GED Testing Service released a free 2014 practice test on their website.  Have you take it? What did you think?
A few things to note before diving in for the first time:

• About quarter-length, so half the length of the GED Ready (OPT).
• It's web-based, so probably not something programs can print and use as an skill assessment.
• Gives an alignment of the problems to the 2014 GED Assessment Targets.
• It's not predictive of passing 
• GED Ready will be released in late-November.

A couple observations:

• Working through this practice test was not the strenuous (humbling) exercise that I experienced going through the Item Sampler this past spring.  That test was not representative of the level of rigor that testers will encounter in 2014, but this one seems to be the result of a norming process. Do you feel like 60% of graduating high school seniors could pass this free practice test? 
• The test seemed to lean slightly toward word-problems and text-based content (and maybe standard multiple choice questions in general) more so than  graphic literacy or overly-complex diagram formats (though the new formats are certainly present).   

Overall, it seems fairly traditional and straight-forward to me.Of course, there's only so much we can infer from a quarter-length test, so please take my conclusions with a grain of salt.  I'm curious to hear from others.
Here's the link to the test again:  http://www.gedtestingservice.com/educators/freepracticetest?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Non%20TT&utm_content=2014+Countdown
(I posted this as a comment in reply to an older question about this, but it could probably use its own thread)
Jason Guard
Essential Education
jason@essentialed.com