Being a leader, whether it is part of your title or given to you by those you support, can sometimes be challenging. With a wide variety of tasks and skills that you have to manage, you may find that it is sometimes downright daunting…unless you have some help from selected apps, websites, and gadgets. We’ve curated a few tech-related tools for leaders that are related to gathering information, sharing information, and focusing on work without distractions for you to try out.
Gathering Information
As a leader, it is important that you are up to date on so much information. Here are a few tools to help you in that endeavor.
Flipboard – This customizable e-magazine allows you to identify topics and sites you would like to follow. Unlike in the “old days” where you had to gather RSS feeds and put them in your aggregator, Flipboard allows you to easily search and identify resources in a very user-friendly way. Then, each time you open Flipboard, it will have gathered the most recent blogs, websites, videos, and news based on your identified interests. And it can even learn nuances of your interests as you like different pages.
Paper.li is a similar tool that does the gathering for you and puts it in a nicely presented newsletter format. With a paid subscription, you can upgrade the look of your paper from a newsletter to a full blown website. You may choose that you don’t want to start your own paper, so here are some that others have already been started to help you gather information on a variety of topics: edtech, students, classrooms, technology, and virtual reality.
If you are searching for information that is no longer posted on a website, then you might try your luck using the Way Back Machine. Enter the url of the site you want to review and check to see if there are any archived snapshots of it. If so, you can review the website on those specific dates and possibly find the information that you need.
Though many folks use digital tools to take notes (such as OneNote, Google Keep, etc.), you may prefer to take notes the old fashioned way with paper and pen. If this you, then check out the Rocketbook Wave Smart Notebook. Write notes and draw sketches in the notebook. Afterwards, you can use their app to digitize the information and sync to your favorite tool. When your notebook is full, just pop it in the microwave for the recommended time to remove all the ink. Voila, you now have a clean notebook ready to be filled again! You can refill a notebook up to four times.
Sharing Information
Whether you are sharing information with someone now or making it available for them to access at their convenience, you are sure to find these tools a handy addition to your toolbox.
Video conferencing doesn’t get any easier than Appear.in. This tool is great if you have virtual office hours or need to have a video chat with someone on the fly. If you think you would use it often, you can reserve a room name to make it easy for everyone to remember. There’s only enough “room” for four participants so it’s not the ideal solution for larger meetings. But if you are like me, many of my meetings include only one or two other folks; I’ve reserved the room https://appear.in/tcea for such meetings. This is a great tool, especially if you are meeting with tech-challenged coworkers or stakeholders since there is no learning curve and they can access through any web browser.
For instances when you need to share how to access or do something on the computer or internet, I highly recommend Screencastify. This go-to tool allows you to record your screen casts with or without your webcam inset. This is one tool that is worth paying the low yearly fee to remove the watermark and the 10-minute time limit. When done, you can easily share your cast via YouTube or Google Drive. If you have the paid version, you can download the video as an MP4 or animated GIF, as well as crop/trim your video.
Flipgrid allows you to create asynchronous video discussions. Again, this is another tool that is worth the annual fee to have the premium features. If you decide to purchase several licenses at once, you can get a discount! Think of this as an easy way to share your video without putting it out on YouTube, Vimeo, or the like. Then folks can respond and keep the conversation going (by text comments with the free version; by text or video with the paid version). Not only is this a great tool in the classroom, it’s a powerful tool for busy leaders.
Focused Work
We all hit times where we need to close the door and get the job done without any distractions. These two tools will help you be more aware of how you are using your time and block out some of those annoying distractions.
Timular, mentioned in a previous blog post, is an eight-sided die that lets you easily track the time you spend on various tasks. This is great for leaders who find they have more tasks than time to complete them. Knowing exactly how you spend your time can help you make positive decisions on where to make adjustments. You can review how your time was spent within the app or on a calendar that you’ve synced to it.
Noisli is robust noise machine with 16 different sound scenes that you can combine to make the perfect background noise for you…and you can save up to five favorite combos. One of my favorites is a little pink noise, some wind, and a modest thunderstorm. You can also set a timer and, if you need to do some writing, open its distraction-free writing tool. Whatever your recipe for helping your focus, you’ll find that Noisli is a great tool to have handy.
Even More Resources…
If you would like additional tech tools for leaders, be sure to check out our longer list (PDF or PNG). As always, we would enjoy hearing some of your favorite tech tools – whether apps, websites, or gadgets – that you find helpful. Just add them to the comments below.
Adobe users unite! You’ll find this the perfect academy if you use any of the Adobe products yourself or if you teach your students how to use them. Innovative uses, clever work-arounds, and new features will be shared to give you the solutions and steps you need. And, if you are new to Adobe, you will find several sessions that will help you get up to speed and boost your confidence. Adobe pros haven’t been left out; our presenters have clever ideas that are worth listening to and taking note of.
Make a point to attend our first annual Microsoft Academy to boost your skills in Microsoft products including Office365 and Minecraft. This is going to be a great gathering! You’ll also be introduced to mobile coding with Creative Coding through Games and Apps and gain a deeper understanding into Microsoft Makers projects and 3D Builder. You will definitely find this packed full of topics that you can’t get at other learning opportunities.
Even if you don’t have a Chromebook, but use Google Suite for Education, you will find these sessions filled with new and great ideas that you can take back to transform the way your students learn. Be sure to bring a friend so you can divide and conquer on the sessions and then share with each other at the end of the day!
Do you teach any of the Technology Applications or Career and Technology Education courses where students learn to use Adobe products such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Lightroom, Premiere, etc.? Or do you want to enhance your creative Adobe skills for personal projects and enjoyment? If either of those are true, then you definitely want to attend the Adobe Academy on June 19-20! Besides networking with other creative educators, you’ll have concurrent sessions to choose from in order to gain fresh ideas, polish your Adobe skills, and take your curriculum to the next level. You’ll learn from other Adobe-using educators in this hands-on event. For more information about this academy go to 
If you are one of the many Microsoft-using educators, you will find the Microsoft Academy a perfect fit. On July 12-13, you can experience a wide array of Microsoft tools to help you extend your learning and gain fresh ideas of how to use the tools with your students and fellow educators. Whether you are using Office365 in the cloud or are using a not-quite-so-new version, join in on the active sessions and take away new ideas. For more information about this academy go to 
Calling all Googlers! Learn from some of the Googliest educators around at our interactive Chromebook Academy on July 26-27. There will be great sessions for Google Suite administrators as well as for teachers integrating Google Suite in their classroom. You’ll learn about the most current features and how you can use them to maximize your impact with students. Add-ons, scripts, hyperdocs, Slides, Forms, and more will be explored so that you can get what you need to take your students to the next level! To learn more about the Chromebook Academy, go to 
Before you can address some of your habits, you may have to identify them and discover which ones are taking up more time than you realize. In doing so, I highly recommend 
Bone conduction works on a similar premise as how you normally hear. Normally, sound waves (vibrations) enter your ear and are translated by your inner ear. With bone conduction, though, sound travels through your bone (skull) to reach your inner ear. While this process sounds like something from science fiction, it works very well. You actually don’t feel anything unless you have your music turned up on high.
The other day, I was talking with my wife. She had just come home from work and was sharing a frustration of her day. Before she was able to complete two sentences, I was ready to provide a solution that only included three easy steps. As I interrupted with what I thought was going to be received as a caring gesture, she looked at me and said “I’m not looking for a solution. I know what to do. I just needed someone that I can share my frustration with.” Ouch! While I didn’t gain any Husband of the Year votes from that encounter, it did get me to thinking about how many times I assume everyone is needing a solution when they talk with me…or at least before they get two sentences out.
