Yes. Chromebooks for Graphic Design
I teach a high school desktop publishing class which includes graphic design, page layout, image editing, and more. We can use Chromebooks for almost everything we do. And we use completely free cloud software to do it. No Adobe Creative Suite, no Microsoft Office, no expensive, high-learning-curve software. Should I be teaching industry-standard software? Why? I teach the concepts; the tools don't really matter. My students can learn the basics in the numerous free Google Apps and Web-based applications that are available for graphic design. Let's take a look!

I am not a handyman. I'm not good with mechanical tools. Hand tools, power tools...scissors. I am afraid of most power tools. I use hand tools when I must-when my father-in-law isn't available to help me. And I, well, I suck at using them. I rarely pound a nail in without bending it.

I am good with technology tools. Give me Adobe Creative Suite or Microsoft Office and I can make something...something good. Give me Web 2.0 tools and I will create. I will create something good, useful, educational, fun...

Presentation software applications are tools. If you know how to use them, you can do great things! But knowing how to use them doesn't just mean you understand what all the tools do. Knowing how to use them means you know the best practices for creating a presentation.

First, let me apologize for the title. Perhaps you are familiar with the well-known (and snarky) maxim,  "Never use a preposition to end a sentence with." If you don't understand that, then the grammatical error in my title probably doesn't bother you. If you caught the error, kudos to you! Either way, I think it's a catchy headline.

About three or four years ago, we (East Dubuque School District) became a Google Apps for Education (GAFE) school. At the time we were still using Microsoft Office 2003 and Adobe Creative Suite CS. We had made the decision that we would no longer buy upgrades and manually install them on each computer in our school. We wanted to save time and money, both very good reasons for turning to cloud computing.

Google Apps for Education has been a boon for us. Many, but not all, teachers in our small district use Google Drive in their classrooms. And why not? Collaboration and sharing of documents, presentations, spreadsheets, drawings, and more makes the class material accessible 24-7, 365 to anyone, anywhere with a computer and internet access. Most of our students can access Google Drive from home or with a smart phone. We never pay for any upgrades, nor do we need to install software on every computer in the district. In addition, all students have a school email, which I find to be an "electronic paper trail" to foster accountability on the part of the student. "I didn't know" or "I lost it" are no longer acceptable excuses when using GAFE and other cloud applications. The assignment can't be left in the student's locker or eaten by the dog.

Of course, students are resourceful, and have invented new excuses:
"The internet was down."
"My mom needed the computer."
"The power was out."
"My computer died."
"The dog ate my computer."

All-in-all, my experience with cloud computing in the classroom has been a positive one. I use more applications than just those available through Google Drive. In my desktop publishing class, the only native software we use is Gimp (free Photoshop alternative) and Cyberlink PowerDirector, because serious video editing online just isn't available...yet.

So besides all the Google Drive applications, I make use of the following free cloud, browser-based applications in my desktop publishing and/or English classes. I'm sure this won't be a comprehensive list, for I am sure to forget some.

• LucidPress for print media page design. (I once used a fantastic suite of creative software called Aviary, but the company decided to go in another direction.) I've tried a few others such as Fat Paint, and Just2Easy, but they were clunky and undependable. I actually began using LucidCharts for page layout and it worked great! Then Lucid came out with LucidPress, and my dreams of a good online page layout program came true.
  
  
• Pixlr for image editing (before we switched to Gimp)
  
  
• Prezi for presentations (also Google Presentations). I've also used SlideShare
  
  
• PowToon for animated videos (I teach my students how to make an explainer video.)
  
  
• Weebly for web design. It has a great, free education version.
  
  
• Glogster for interactive digital posters
  
  
• Voki for creating talking avatars
  
  
• Biteslide for creating "slide books"

I could go on and on. Visit my Linkedin profile for more ideas, or see my Cloud Computing and Web 2.0 Tools site. I haven't updated it in awhile, but it has some great resources.

As the band Boston did, I am singing Don't Look Back! The 2014-2015 school year will be my last as a teacher at East Dubuque (IL) High School. I have officially submitted my "intent to retire" to the superintendent. There is no going back now. But at 56 years of age upon retirement, I am excited about starting a new career. If all goes as planned, that career will still involve education, but in the world of adults rather than young adults. I plan to teach professional development courses in technology, perhaps online but preferably in a classroom setting. I would like to present at educational technology conferences, teach at the community college level, facilitate workshops for educators at their schools, and whatever else it takes to get this career moving! My expertise is in Web 2.0 (browser-based) software applications. They have become my passion; I spend much of my free time looking for new sites or for updates to existing ones.

This TechMan Training website is a beginning, I hope. Sometimes I think it is too cheesy, but the cartoon hero theme is something that matches my personality and creativity. Perhaps I launched the website too early, before I had the time to put into it. After all, I am teaching full time right now and will be next school year too. This summer I would like to get the ball rolling toward my post-secondary teaching career and add many tutorials to the site. 

Besides TechMan Training, I have a few other irons in the fire, as they say. In the spring I will be teaching a Prezi course at Northeast Iowa Community College's Town Clock Business Center in Dubuque, Iowa. Also, it looks like I will be teaching some type of technology professional development course for teachers this summer through the Regional Office of Education #8 in Freeport, IL. I'll actually team-teach the class with a long-time colleague, and we are just beginning the planning stage for the course.

Clicking the send button on the intent-to-retire email to my superintendent took only a smidge of courage and a millisecond of hesitation, but I am excited about my decision! My wife and I are now "empty-nesters" which should give me plenty of time to get this career off the ground!

I love the idea of bring-your-own-device (BYOD), but it can be a nightmare! I recently taught a class entitled Cloud Computing and Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers. The class was held in a wireless conference room, but the attendees had to bring their own devices. Keep in mind that the students in the class were teachers, most of whom were using their school-issued computers. School-issued computers! School issued computers that were locked down tighter than my high school’s network (and let me tell you, that is locked down). That was a problem I did not anticipate..

First and foremost, I was teaching the class using the Google Chrome browser and some of the apps from the Chrome Store. The school-issued laptops had Firefox and IE installed on them...no Chrome. So I just had them install the Chrome browser, right? Wrong. They had no administrative rights whatsoever and could not install, change, alter, modify, or otherwise tweak anything.

Because I was training them in the use of browser-based software, they needed the newest versions of java, flash, and other plug-ins, add-ons, applications, and what-not. Some had them; others didn’t. Want to learn screencasting with Screenr or Screencast-O-Matic? Better have the newest version of Java. And with the Java security issues, it needs to be enabled! Some students couldn’t do screencasting. Status of my screencasting lesson: fail.

That’s only the beginning. Other websites required Flash, Silverlight, Adobe Reader, etc. Some students couldn’t use certain websites, see videos, edit videos, or read PDFs. Some couldn’t do image editing or create presentations. My class met once each week, so I asked the students to have their tech personnel update some of the required plug-ins during the time between classes. Some did it; others didn’t.What a nightmare...and a learning experience! We somehow got by. I altered my course content, found alternatives, and stayed calm. I also used the entire situation as a learning experience for the students. If they planned to use some of the applications in their classes, they would need to meet with their tech people first to set up student computers. They would need to check the school’s computer use policies to see what software applications are allowed and which ones are taboo. 

What did I learn? When creating a course, think hard about the problems you could encounter and build requirements into your course description to nip the issues in the bud. My new requirements/recommendations include using a PC with Google Chrome, a Gmail account, updated versions of the aforementioned browser plug-ins, and either administrative rights to the computer or easy access to someone who has such rights. I learned, but I learned the hard way.

Next year, after 34 years of teaching (the last 33 at the same school), I am retiring at the end of the 2014-2015 school year. I'm retiring from public school teaching. I am not retiring from working (I'll only be 56 years old). Now there is something I didn't ever expect to say: "only 56 years old". 

It's a scary thought--retirement. Secondary teaching (English and driver education) is all I've known since graduating from college in 1981. Or is it? I spent two summers working as a reporter and page/ad designer at an area newspaper. I spent a year doing reporting part time for another. I worked another summer designing athletic programs in the sports information office at a local college. For several summers I was a house painter.

I've taught professional development/graduate-credit courses in cloud computing and Web 2.0 tools for education, digital video, and Web page design. I taught a digital photography class for our local public library. I've done some staff training in technology for my current school district.

I've been a coach of volleyball and basketball. I was a high school newspaper and yearbook advisor. I developed and still teach a high school class in desktop publishing, which includes print media/page layout and design, Web page design, digital video editing, and presentation design. 

Along the way, I was fortunate enough to learn and use Adobe CS and CS4, including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat, Fireworks, and a little bit of Flash and Dreamweaver; Microsoft Office 2003-2010; Google Apps for Education, and a host of browser-based Web 2.0 software. I've learned how to do screencasting, audio editing with Audacity, animated videos with PowToon, presentations with PowerPoint and Prezi. Let me take a breath here (pause) and add that I go back as far as PageMaker 5.0 and Microsoft FrontPage.

So I am more than a teacher. Upon retirement I want to put all the above skills to use. I want to do software training, teach professional development courses, write, design, consult, teach online; almost anything besides teach driver education. I have skills. It's time to put them to use.

So I am trying to get a head start on my next career with techmantraining.com. It's been a slow process getting it off the ground, but I guess I have over a year to get something going so that I will have at least part-time work after retirement. I will eventually have some online classes and tutorials available. I will be teaching a Prezi course at a local community college this spring. I would love to do some entry-level design work and/or writing for a publication. I will freelance, contract, work from home, or work at a company. I just want to put all the skills I've learned to use; I want to spend the rest of my working career using these skills because I love them! They have become my passion. My head is in the cloud; I am caught in the Web. Please, no more driver education! I can't take it anymore.