No App? No Problem! Adding Tiles to Your #ISTE13 Surface

Like countless other educators, Cara and I were super excited to receive a free Microsoft Surface RT while we were at ISTE. We started playing with it that very night, but with the rush of ISTE I wasn't able to really dig in until I got home. One of the first things  I tried to do was find a Twitter app such as Hootsuite, but there are none I like as of now. The Windows store is still really new, but I wasn't willing to wait, so here's what I did. I opened a web version of Hootsuite and saved it as a tile on my start screen. Now, even though I don't have the app I'm able to use it from my device with one tap. Here's how:

Quick note: For this tutorial I began in the desktop version of IE, not the IE tile on the start menu. The desktop version saves a tile that has a small picture on it and will also open in desktop mode. I will post how to do the start menu version shortly.

Step 1: Open the site you wish to have access to on your start menu. I used Hootsuite.

 

Step 2: Tap on the wheel in the upper right corner.

 

Step 3: Choose 'Add Site to Start Screen.'

 

 





Step 4: Tap the add button.



 

 

Your new tile will appear at the end of your other tiles. You can move it around by using a quick swipe down to select it, then dragging it and dropping where you'd like it to be.

 



Just One ISTE Tip for the Memory Challenged

With all of the wonderful posts out there about getting ready for ISTE, there's not much that hasn't been covered. That is, except for organizing and accessing all of those pesky little details like flight information, hotel name, sight-seeing info, etc...Who actually remembers all of that off the top of their head? (Okay, if you have a great memory, you may want to stop reading now. This post is for those of us who can't hold lots of little details in our brains at once).

As I was going over all of those details the other day, I thought to myself, "It sure would be great if I had access to all of this on my phone so I don't have to dig through my bag." Hence, this one little ISTE tip: Create shortcuts to the websites on my phone's desktop! Now I have at my fingertips my flight info, links to the restaurants, tours, hotel, and of course, the ISTE 2013 app!

Here's how to do it:
1. Open the website you want to save as an icon in Safari.
2. Tap the button circled in red below:

3. Tap "Add to Home Screen."

4. Give your link a name, and tap "Add."

5. After you have a few on your home screen, press and hold one icon until you see them wiggle and an "X" appear. 

6. Using your finger, drag and drop one of the icons on top of another one. This will create a group that you name whatever you want. 

That's it! Hope this little tip helps you stay organized and on top of those little details during your ISTE trip!