Cool Websites and Tools [December 16th]
Comment Blocker – On many websites the comments sections is filled with obscenities and other spam text you would prefer not to be visible – just ask any YouTube user. Thankfully there are developers out there creating tools to battle the unwanted comments section on websites. CommentBlocker is one such tool. Read more:CommentBlocker: Automatically Block Comments On Websites (Chrome Extension)
10 Tips for Using Google Reader in the Classroom
Google Reader and RSS have been a very beneficial addition to my PLN. I like how easy it is to stay organized with the latest information available on the web. It makes reading what is important to me easier, especially since I can use it on the iPhone and iPad. At the same time, Google Reader can be a valuable tool for teachers in the classroom.
1.) We should all be teaching current events. News websites are a great way to keep up to date on current events. Each morning you could check your Google Reader account and share the news with your students. You could take it one step further and subscribe to the feed for CNN and Fox and then compare how the two news station report the news.
2.) I love the weather and in science classes, the weather can be a great unit that can be integrated into other units. TheWeather Channel has an RSS feed that you can subscribe to for national and local forecast, as well as a weather blog. It makes checking the weather forecast much easier and saves me time.
3.) Just mentioned to me by an English teacher is subscribing to a website like The Onion for her unit on teaching satire. You could then compare these stories to the real news stories that you get from tip #1 and discuss the difference in wording.
4.) With an increase in Web 2.0 sites, it is very beneficial to try your best to stay on top of the updates that these software sites go through. What is great about these sites is that they all have a blog that provides updates on the changes to their service or additions that might be useful to know about. Following the Prezi Blog allowed me to learn about the new feature of Prezi Meeting.
5.) There are several free online journals related to the various subject matter and educational technology. The key is finding them and searching them out and then discovering if they have an RSS feed for updated articles. This would be a great way to stay on top of what is going on with your curriculum. Here is a great Directory of Open Access Journals in Education that would be worth starting to look at. THE Journal is a a great educational technology magazine that offers RSS feeds as well.
6.) The most common method of using Google Reader in the classroom is for teachers to follow blogs. With the ability to create folders you can easily find blogs from teachers who share resources, experiences and ideas for your subject matter. You can easily organize that information to read certain blog post based on what you are in the mood for. Here are some great starting points to find some great blogs:
- The Edublog Awards - There is a past awards directory as well.
- Top 100 Education Blogs
- Top 100 Education Advice Blogs
- 100 Best Blogs for Teachers of the Future
- Moving Forward Wiki - Blogs by Subject and General Blogs
- Top 100 High School Teachers Who Blog
7.) Do your student's blog? If they do, Google reader would be a great way to keep up with all of your students blogs without having to visit each one individually. Create a folder for these blogs and then easily read them at your convenience.
8.) Google Reader allows you to share what you are reading. This would be a great way to collaborate with other teachers in your building so that you can see what they are reading and you can see what they are reading. You can choose a custom style as well as a URL so that it can be easy to find. If you are wanting to get students to comment on each others blogs, this would be a good way to share the blogs with your classes and create a reading and communication portal. When you share your Google Reader you follow people similar to following blogs and you can select what you want to share, so it is not a mass share of your entire reader account. You might share one a week for students to comment on. And for the sake of "sharing", here is My Google Reader.
9.) Google Reader has a neat feature called Notes. This allows you to drag a bookmarklet into your browser and then when you come across something that you might not be subscribe to but want to keep and read for later you can "Note in Reader" so that you have it available for later and have a note about it so you can remember why you marked it. This is a great feature for when you find a resource while surfing the Internet, or a post on a blog that you really like, but might not necessarily want to follow the blog and have a way to save it in something you read all the time.
10.) Sometimes it can be difficult to find an RSS feed on a website. Google Reader has a "Subscribe" bookmarklet that you can insert into your browser and when you visit a site click on that button. It will then search for the sites feed. If it cannot find it, it will let you know. If it finds the feed it will direct you to your Google Reader where it will provide feed stats and then ask if you want to subscribe. This could be very helpful for those teachers who have trouble understanding copy and paste and how to look for a feed. It is also an easy way to subscribe to feeds for your favorite sites.
Unthreaded conversation view in Gmail now available to all Google Apps users
Gmail offers users the ability to switch between conversation view and the traditional message-based unthreaded view. When a user switches to unthreaded view, messages are no longer grouped together into a conversation, and each message is shown as a separate entry in the inbox. The inbox is still sorted in reverse chronological order.
Previously, this feature was only available to domains whose administrators has enabled the ‘enable pre-release features’ checkbox in the Control Panel. This is now available to all Google Apps domains.
Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Partner Edition and Google Apps for Government
Languages included:
All languages supported by Gmail
How to access what's new:
In Gmail ‘Settings’, go to the new ‘Conversation View’ section and choose to have that view on or off and click ‘save changes’.
Note: The mobile web-based view of Gmail will still be threaded, as will the Gmail Mobile Client app. However, if you are using a Blackberry, Window Mobile, iPhone, or Android device, you can access Gmail unthreaded in the native mail clients of those devices using Google’s sync tools.
For more information:
http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/09/threaded-email-or-not-now-its-your.html
Drag and Drop images into a Google Document
You can now drag images from your desktop and drop them directly into a document. You can use image drag and drop with the latest versions of Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. We’ll enable it on other browsers, as soon as they support the feature.
Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team, Partner Edition and Google Apps for Government
Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Docs
For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/10/drag-and-drop-images-in-documents.html
Subscribing via RSS & Google Reader to Classroom Blogs
All of our classrooms at MJGDS have their own blog. Several grade levels are piloting individual student portfolios based on a blogging platform.
- How do you keep up with all this information?
- How do you filter and organize it?
- How can you avoid having to go back to blogs to check if the owner has updated with a new post?
You can download this How-To-Guide for Subscribing via RSS & Google Reader to Classroom Blogs as a pdf.
According to Wikipedia an
RSS (most commonly expanded as Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.[2] An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”,[3] or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an “RSS reader”, “feed reader”, or “aggregator”, which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based.
RSS Feed Icons
RSS in Plain English Video
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Google Reader in Pain English Video
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Start scanning websites you frequent often for different variations of this RSS feed icon. Some will have the icon listed in a prominent place on the website, others will just have a text link in the sidebar of footer of the page or some will have NO sign that there is an RSS feed available.
You can subscribe, among others to the following RSS feeds:
- · Blogs
- · Wikis
- · Google Searches for specific topics or keywords
- · Twitter feeds of individual users
- · Facebook feeds for individual users or pages
If you are not sure if a certain page has an RSS feed available and you are using Firefox as your browser, you check for an RSS icon on the right side in the URL Address box. If a feed is available you can see the RSS icon, if there is no icon, then there is no RSS feed available for this site.
Create a Google Account (if you don’t have one already), sign in and and go to Google Reader-http://www.google.com/reader .
When you are at a website that has a RSS feed, you have a few options available to you.
Copy the URL (Web Address) of the site you want to subscribe to and then paste it into the “Add Subscription” box
In your Firefox browser, click on the RSS icon in the URL Address bar
A dropdown menu will appear. Choose the RSS feed
Make sure you select Google from the dropdown menu, you might want to check off the option “Always use Google to subscribe to feeds”, then click the “Subscribe Now” button.
Click “Add to Google Reader”
Click on dropdown menu of “Feed Settings”
Choose an already created folder or choose “New Folder” to create and name.
Your RSS feed will be filed and available in the Subscription Folders in the left sidebar.
A new and unread post will be shown in bold letters.
In order to read the post, click on the title. The post will drop down.
If you would like to read leave a comment on the post or look directly on the blog click on the arrow to the right of the post’s title.
You can also star, organize (tag), share or e-mail the posts by choosing and clicking on one of the icon at the bottom of the post in Google Reader.
Oregon Apps Google Summit
I visited Sherwood, Oregon to participate in the first Oregon Google Summit. I set up a new web page with my presentations (in GoogleDocs) and links to my video. I also set up a page on their website. I enjoyed meeting some of the educators in Oregon who are leading this effort, plus a few people from Google who led technical sessions. My "aha" moment: the fact that Folders in GoogleDocs are really tags that can be used to classify documents; single Docs can be tagged to multiple folders without making multiple copies. This concept is different from how we manage files on our computers or server space, which will require a different level of explanation. But it allows portfolio artifacts to be tagged in folders for individual classes (collection), and then also tagged to a Portfolio folder (selection) which can be shared with a teacher. See this Google blog entry by a high school teacher.
My proposals to the Northwest Council for Computer Education conference in March 2011 have been approved:
- Presentation: GoogleApps ePortfolios
Oregon was the first state to adopt GoogleApps for all K-12 schools. These powerful tools are ready-made for teachers and students to maintain electronic portfolios. Get an overview of creating artifacts using Google Docs and Picasa, a reflective learning portfolio using Blogger, and a showcase/assessment/presentation portfolio with Google Sites.
- 3-hour Workshop: Create ePortfolios using GoogleApps
Oregon was the first state to adopt GoogleApps for all K-12 schools. These powerful tools are ready-made for creating and maintaining electronic portfolios by teachers and students. Learn how to create artifacts using Google Docs and Picasa, a reflective learning portfolio using Blogger, and a showcase/assessment/presentation portfolio with Google Sites. (March 3, 2011, 8:30 AM)
Google Under the Hood - Workshop Outline
This morning I ran a workshop at ACTEM's annual conference. The focus of the workshop was on exploring some of the lesser-known products offered by Google. During the workshop there were four brainstorming sessions during which participants contributed to a Google Document to share their ideas for using these lesser-known Google products in their classrooms. As you go through the slides below you will see the Google products we explored and the links to the brainstorming documents. The brainstorming documents are open to the public so feel free to make your contributions or to save the documents for your own use.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Google Earth Across the Curriculum
Free 33 Page Guide - Google for Teachers
Beyond Google - Improve Your Search Results
Google Demo Slam - Short Tech Demos
Google Demo Slam is a new Google site featuring short tech demonstrations. The idea of the site is to have people compete to make the best short tech demonstration videos they can. Users upload their videos to YouTube then Google picks a "slam of the week" in which two videos face-off. The winner is determined by viewer voting. The prize is bragging rights. Right now Demo Slam is in "pre-season" which means all of the videos have come from Google employees.
Applications for Education
Google Demo Slam could spur the development of some creative and useful technology demonstration videos. Those videos could be useful in technology-focused professional development workshops. Demo Slam could also be a good motivator for students to create their own short demonstration videos while focusing on being clear and concise in their explanations.
How to Embed Google Presentations Into Wikispaces
I was asked this evening if I had directions for embedding presentations made in Google Documents into Wikispacespages. I thought I had published directions for that before, but when I went through my Google Docs folders I realized that I hadn't. Embedded below are directions for embedding presentations made in Google Documents into Wikispacespages.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
How To Do 11 Techy Things in the New School Year
131 Tips for New Teachers
Google Tutorials for Teachers
Googlios
Googlios is a site for creating ePortfolios through the use of Google tools that has been getting quite of bit of press online lately. This is done by creating a portfolio using a Google Site.
I highly recommend checking out the video below to get an idea of this relatively easy yet cool project...
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For other ePorfolio ideas check out VisualCV.
Click here for more info on Googlios.
YouCanBook.Me - Appointment Booking in Google Calendar
YouCanBook.Me is a free scheduling tool that integrates with your Google Calendar. YouCanBook.Me allows people to book fixed blocks of time in your calendar. You specify the length of each block of time and the dates and times you are available. Visitors to your calendar click a block and enter their email addresses to reserve a block of your time. When a block of time is reserved you receive an email alert. Watch the video here to see a demonstration of YouCanBook.Me.
Thanks to Angela Maiers for sharing this on Twitter.
Applications for EducationYouCanBook.Me could be a great tool when it comes time to schedule parent-teacher conferences. Post your YouCanBook.Me calendar on your classroom blog to let parents schedule meetings at a time that is convenient for all parties involved.
Education? Read This
Whenever I talk about Google Apps for Education or Google Apps in general at a school or conference there is almost always someone who tells me they've heard, "Google will own your information." And often there are people who have concerns and questions about privacy as well. These are good questions to ask before you switch your school to Google Apps for Education. To make it easy to find answers to those questions and concerns, Google Certified Teacher Lisa Thumann has written a blog post linking to resources that address common concerns and questions about Google Apps. Read Lisa's post here. And while you're there, consider subscribing to her blog as she always has good things to share.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Google for Teachers - Free Ebook
Google for Teachers II - Free Ebook
A Fun Video for Introducing Google Docs
How to Create Self-Graded Quizzes in Google Docs
In my free ebook Google for Teachers I included directions for creating and publishing a quiz using Google Documents forms. Recently, Dr. Mark Wagner published a blog post that includes directions for creating formulas that will result in quizzes created in Google Docs forms being self-graded. His post includes a video screencast and slides. I've embedded the video below.
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Applications for EducationGrading quizzes can be a tedious task if you have many students on your roster. Creating and administering quizzes through Google Documents forms can save you time and save paper at the same time. By saving time on grading you can give students feedback quicker than before.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
5 Tools to Create and Administer Quizzes Online
47 Alternatives to Using YouTube in the Classroom
Google for Teachers II - Free Ebook
Google New - Find the Newest Google Offerings
Google maintains blogs for all of their various products and services. I subscribe to many of those blogs to stay up to date on the latest enhancements to the products I use on a regular basis. Yesterday, Google introduced a new and better way to stay current on their latest new offerings. Google New is a central location where visitors will find news on the latest updates to Google's products and the newest product offerings from Google. Embedded below is a short video introduction to Google New.
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Applications for Education
While you don't have to be as obsessed as I am with the latest tech developments, but it is important for teachers to be aware of new tech developments that can be of use to their students. Visiting Google New from time to time is one way that teachers can find out what's new from one of the most widely-used service providers on the web.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Free 33 Page Guide - Google for Teachers
140 New Things Being Tried In Classroom This Fall
How To Do 11 Techy Things In the New School Year
links for 2010-09-28
Google Student Blog
I am a huge user and fan of Google's many applications and their use in education. I use Blogger for this blog and my classroom blogs, Google Sites for my classroom site, Google Docs, Google Earth, iGoogle and much more with my students and for my own use. I show my students Google's applications because they are easy to use, useful, and free.
Google recently launched the Google Student Blog. This blog site is a great resource for students who use Google's products. It includes information, updates, how-to's, tips, and much more on how to use Google's applications as a student. If your students use Google's products, they should be reading the Google Student Blog.
Related Articles:
http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/search/label/google
Google Apps Education Training Center
The Google Apps Education Training Center is an online learning environment dedicated for educators and students to learn how to effectively use Google Apps in an educational context. In other words, it provides training materials to learn how to use Google Apps in education.
While you don't need a Google Apps account to use this site, it is recommended so that you can experience what you learn. Of course, if you have a Google account you can use many of the apps anyway.
This is a good resource for teachers and students whose school system uses Google Apps or for any teacher or student who uses Google's applications for school.
Gone Google - Calculate Savings from Using Google
Many of us already know that using Google Apps can save schools and businesses thousands of dollars every year. Now we have a tool to prove that. Today, Google launched Gone Google. Gone Google is a simple tool for calculating the potential savings organizations could see by switching to Google Apps. Gone Google is based on switching to Google Apps for Enterprise which costs $50/user. The savings for schools that switch to Google Apps for Education at $0/user (yes, free) are greater. Try Gone Google now to see how much your school district could save.
Tech Training Wheels
Tech Training Wheels is a great site created by a group of Google Certified Teachers. They have created some excellent tutorial videos on topics like embedding videos in a Google site, Managing navigation of a Google site, using Sketchup and documents, among others.
They have a community part set up on the site and encourage users to upload their own tutorials.
It is a great site for newbies or even experts to find new tips and ideas.
Google Earth Skills Quiz and Tutorials
This afternoon while trying to remember how to perform a small task in Google Earth I was forced to admit defeat and consult the Google Earth help page. While there I discovered something I hadn't seen before, I discovered Google Earth: Learn, Become an Explorer. Become an Explorer is a nine part series of tutorials, directions, and quizzes regarding Google Earth skills. The series takes users from the basics of navigation through advanced features of Google Earth. Perhaps the best way to describe Google Earth: Learn, Become an Explorer is as a guided scavenger hunt.
In case you need a reminder about why geography matters, watch this.
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Applications for EducationGoogle Earth: Learn, Become an Explorer could be a great aid in teaching students how to navigate all of the great things available in Google Earth.
Google for Teachers II - Free 33 Page Guide
Back in March I published Google for Teachers. Since then it has been viewed more than 50,000 times. As much as that guide had in it, it didn't cover everything that Google offers to teachers. Therefore, I am releasing Google for Teachers II. This guide is designed to introduce and walk teachers through using Google Sites, Google Custom Search, Google Alerts, Google Bookmarks, Google Groups, and Google Calendar.
Google Instant - Search As You Type
Earlier today Google launched a new search tool called Google Instant. The benefits of Google Instant being touted Google are faster search, smarter predictions, and instant results. Here's how it works; start typing any search term and as soon as you type a letter search results start to populate, keep typing and the results continue to change until you're done typing. Watch the video below to learn more about Google Instant.
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How to Teach With Google Earth
Cool Websites and Tools [December 16th]
Comment Blocker – On many websites the comments sections is filled with obscenities and other spam text you would prefer not to be visible – just ask any YouTube user. Thankfully there are developers out there creating tools to battle the unwanted comments section on websites. CommentBlocker is one such tool. Read more:CommentBlocker: Automatically Block Comments On Websites (Chrome Extension)
10 Tips for Using Google Reader in the Classroom
Google Reader and RSS have been a very beneficial addition to my PLN. I like how easy it is to stay organized with the latest information available on the web. It makes reading what is important to me easier, especially since I can use it on the iPhone and iPad. At the same time, Google Reader can be a valuable tool for teachers in the classroom.
1.) We should all be teaching current events. News websites are a great way to keep up to date on current events. Each morning you could check your Google Reader account and share the news with your students. You could take it one step further and subscribe to the feed for CNN and Fox and then compare how the two news station report the news.
2.) I love the weather and in science classes, the weather can be a great unit that can be integrated into other units. TheWeather Channel has an RSS feed that you can subscribe to for national and local forecast, as well as a weather blog. It makes checking the weather forecast much easier and saves me time.
3.) Just mentioned to me by an English teacher is subscribing to a website like The Onion for her unit on teaching satire. You could then compare these stories to the real news stories that you get from tip #1 and discuss the difference in wording.
4.) With an increase in Web 2.0 sites, it is very beneficial to try your best to stay on top of the updates that these software sites go through. What is great about these sites is that they all have a blog that provides updates on the changes to their service or additions that might be useful to know about. Following the Prezi Blog allowed me to learn about the new feature of Prezi Meeting.
5.) There are several free online journals related to the various subject matter and educational technology. The key is finding them and searching them out and then discovering if they have an RSS feed for updated articles. This would be a great way to stay on top of what is going on with your curriculum. Here is a great Directory of Open Access Journals in Education that would be worth starting to look at. THE Journal is a a great educational technology magazine that offers RSS feeds as well.
6.) The most common method of using Google Reader in the classroom is for teachers to follow blogs. With the ability to create folders you can easily find blogs from teachers who share resources, experiences and ideas for your subject matter. You can easily organize that information to read certain blog post based on what you are in the mood for. Here are some great starting points to find some great blogs:
- The Edublog Awards - There is a past awards directory as well.
- Top 100 Education Blogs
- Top 100 Education Advice Blogs
- 100 Best Blogs for Teachers of the Future
- Moving Forward Wiki - Blogs by Subject and General Blogs
- Top 100 High School Teachers Who Blog
7.) Do your student's blog? If they do, Google reader would be a great way to keep up with all of your students blogs without having to visit each one individually. Create a folder for these blogs and then easily read them at your convenience.
8.) Google Reader allows you to share what you are reading. This would be a great way to collaborate with other teachers in your building so that you can see what they are reading and you can see what they are reading. You can choose a custom style as well as a URL so that it can be easy to find. If you are wanting to get students to comment on each others blogs, this would be a good way to share the blogs with your classes and create a reading and communication portal. When you share your Google Reader you follow people similar to following blogs and you can select what you want to share, so it is not a mass share of your entire reader account. You might share one a week for students to comment on. And for the sake of "sharing", here is My Google Reader.
9.) Google Reader has a neat feature called Notes. This allows you to drag a bookmarklet into your browser and then when you come across something that you might not be subscribe to but want to keep and read for later you can "Note in Reader" so that you have it available for later and have a note about it so you can remember why you marked it. This is a great feature for when you find a resource while surfing the Internet, or a post on a blog that you really like, but might not necessarily want to follow the blog and have a way to save it in something you read all the time.
10.) Sometimes it can be difficult to find an RSS feed on a website. Google Reader has a "Subscribe" bookmarklet that you can insert into your browser and when you visit a site click on that button. It will then search for the sites feed. If it cannot find it, it will let you know. If it finds the feed it will direct you to your Google Reader where it will provide feed stats and then ask if you want to subscribe. This could be very helpful for those teachers who have trouble understanding copy and paste and how to look for a feed. It is also an easy way to subscribe to feeds for your favorite sites.
Unthreaded conversation view in Gmail now available to all Google Apps users
Gmail offers users the ability to switch between conversation view and the traditional message-based unthreaded view. When a user switches to unthreaded view, messages are no longer grouped together into a conversation, and each message is shown as a separate entry in the inbox. The inbox is still sorted in reverse chronological order.
Previously, this feature was only available to domains whose administrators has enabled the ‘enable pre-release features’ checkbox in the Control Panel. This is now available to all Google Apps domains.
Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Partner Edition and Google Apps for Government
Languages included:
All languages supported by Gmail
How to access what's new:
In Gmail ‘Settings’, go to the new ‘Conversation View’ section and choose to have that view on or off and click ‘save changes’.
Note: The mobile web-based view of Gmail will still be threaded, as will the Gmail Mobile Client app. However, if you are using a Blackberry, Window Mobile, iPhone, or Android device, you can access Gmail unthreaded in the native mail clients of those devices using Google’s sync tools.
For more information:
http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/09/threaded-email-or-not-now-its-your.html
Drag and Drop images into a Google Document
You can now drag images from your desktop and drop them directly into a document. You can use image drag and drop with the latest versions of Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. We’ll enable it on other browsers, as soon as they support the feature.
Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team, Partner Edition and Google Apps for Government
Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Docs
For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/10/drag-and-drop-images-in-documents.html
Subscribing via RSS & Google Reader to Classroom Blogs
All of our classrooms at MJGDS have their own blog. Several grade levels are piloting individual student portfolios based on a blogging platform.
- How do you keep up with all this information?
- How do you filter and organize it?
- How can you avoid having to go back to blogs to check if the owner has updated with a new post?
You can download this How-To-Guide for Subscribing via RSS & Google Reader to Classroom Blogs as a pdf.
According to Wikipedia an
RSS (most commonly expanded as Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.[2] An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”,[3] or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an “RSS reader”, “feed reader”, or “aggregator”, which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based.
RSS Feed Icons
RSS in Plain English Video
Popout
Google Reader in Pain English Video
Popout
Start scanning websites you frequent often for different variations of this RSS feed icon. Some will have the icon listed in a prominent place on the website, others will just have a text link in the sidebar of footer of the page or some will have NO sign that there is an RSS feed available.
You can subscribe, among others to the following RSS feeds:
- · Blogs
- · Wikis
- · Google Searches for specific topics or keywords
- · Twitter feeds of individual users
- · Facebook feeds for individual users or pages
If you are not sure if a certain page has an RSS feed available and you are using Firefox as your browser, you check for an RSS icon on the right side in the URL Address box. If a feed is available you can see the RSS icon, if there is no icon, then there is no RSS feed available for this site.
Create a Google Account (if you don’t have one already), sign in and and go to Google Reader-http://www.google.com/reader .
When you are at a website that has a RSS feed, you have a few options available to you.
Copy the URL (Web Address) of the site you want to subscribe to and then paste it into the “Add Subscription” box
In your Firefox browser, click on the RSS icon in the URL Address bar
A dropdown menu will appear. Choose the RSS feed
Make sure you select Google from the dropdown menu, you might want to check off the option “Always use Google to subscribe to feeds”, then click the “Subscribe Now” button.
Click “Add to Google Reader”
Click on dropdown menu of “Feed Settings”
Choose an already created folder or choose “New Folder” to create and name.
Your RSS feed will be filed and available in the Subscription Folders in the left sidebar.
A new and unread post will be shown in bold letters.
In order to read the post, click on the title. The post will drop down.
If you would like to read leave a comment on the post or look directly on the blog click on the arrow to the right of the post’s title.
You can also star, organize (tag), share or e-mail the posts by choosing and clicking on one of the icon at the bottom of the post in Google Reader.
Oregon Apps Google Summit
I visited Sherwood, Oregon to participate in the first Oregon Google Summit. I set up a new web page with my presentations (in GoogleDocs) and links to my video. I also set up a page on their website. I enjoyed meeting some of the educators in Oregon who are leading this effort, plus a few people from Google who led technical sessions. My "aha" moment: the fact that Folders in GoogleDocs are really tags that can be used to classify documents; single Docs can be tagged to multiple folders without making multiple copies. This concept is different from how we manage files on our computers or server space, which will require a different level of explanation. But it allows portfolio artifacts to be tagged in folders for individual classes (collection), and then also tagged to a Portfolio folder (selection) which can be shared with a teacher. See this Google blog entry by a high school teacher.
My proposals to the Northwest Council for Computer Education conference in March 2011 have been approved:
- Presentation: GoogleApps ePortfolios
Oregon was the first state to adopt GoogleApps for all K-12 schools. These powerful tools are ready-made for teachers and students to maintain electronic portfolios. Get an overview of creating artifacts using Google Docs and Picasa, a reflective learning portfolio using Blogger, and a showcase/assessment/presentation portfolio with Google Sites.
- 3-hour Workshop: Create ePortfolios using GoogleApps
Oregon was the first state to adopt GoogleApps for all K-12 schools. These powerful tools are ready-made for creating and maintaining electronic portfolios by teachers and students. Learn how to create artifacts using Google Docs and Picasa, a reflective learning portfolio using Blogger, and a showcase/assessment/presentation portfolio with Google Sites. (March 3, 2011, 8:30 AM)
Google Under the Hood - Workshop Outline
This morning I ran a workshop at ACTEM's annual conference. The focus of the workshop was on exploring some of the lesser-known products offered by Google. During the workshop there were four brainstorming sessions during which participants contributed to a Google Document to share their ideas for using these lesser-known Google products in their classrooms. As you go through the slides below you will see the Google products we explored and the links to the brainstorming documents. The brainstorming documents are open to the public so feel free to make your contributions or to save the documents for your own use.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Google Earth Across the Curriculum
Free 33 Page Guide - Google for Teachers
Beyond Google - Improve Your Search Results
Google Demo Slam - Short Tech Demos
Google Demo Slam is a new Google site featuring short tech demonstrations. The idea of the site is to have people compete to make the best short tech demonstration videos they can. Users upload their videos to YouTube then Google picks a "slam of the week" in which two videos face-off. The winner is determined by viewer voting. The prize is bragging rights. Right now Demo Slam is in "pre-season" which means all of the videos have come from Google employees.
Applications for Education
Google Demo Slam could spur the development of some creative and useful technology demonstration videos. Those videos could be useful in technology-focused professional development workshops. Demo Slam could also be a good motivator for students to create their own short demonstration videos while focusing on being clear and concise in their explanations.
How to Embed Google Presentations Into Wikispaces
I was asked this evening if I had directions for embedding presentations made in Google Documents into Wikispacespages. I thought I had published directions for that before, but when I went through my Google Docs folders I realized that I hadn't. Embedded below are directions for embedding presentations made in Google Documents into Wikispacespages.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
How To Do 11 Techy Things in the New School Year
131 Tips for New Teachers
Google Tutorials for Teachers
Googlios
Googlios is a site for creating ePortfolios through the use of Google tools that has been getting quite of bit of press online lately. This is done by creating a portfolio using a Google Site.
I highly recommend checking out the video below to get an idea of this relatively easy yet cool project...
Popout
For other ePorfolio ideas check out VisualCV.
Click here for more info on Googlios.
YouCanBook.Me - Appointment Booking in Google Calendar
YouCanBook.Me is a free scheduling tool that integrates with your Google Calendar. YouCanBook.Me allows people to book fixed blocks of time in your calendar. You specify the length of each block of time and the dates and times you are available. Visitors to your calendar click a block and enter their email addresses to reserve a block of your time. When a block of time is reserved you receive an email alert. Watch the video here to see a demonstration of YouCanBook.Me.
Thanks to Angela Maiers for sharing this on Twitter.
Applications for EducationYouCanBook.Me could be a great tool when it comes time to schedule parent-teacher conferences. Post your YouCanBook.Me calendar on your classroom blog to let parents schedule meetings at a time that is convenient for all parties involved.
Education? Read This
Whenever I talk about Google Apps for Education or Google Apps in general at a school or conference there is almost always someone who tells me they've heard, "Google will own your information." And often there are people who have concerns and questions about privacy as well. These are good questions to ask before you switch your school to Google Apps for Education. To make it easy to find answers to those questions and concerns, Google Certified Teacher Lisa Thumann has written a blog post linking to resources that address common concerns and questions about Google Apps. Read Lisa's post here. And while you're there, consider subscribing to her blog as she always has good things to share.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Google for Teachers - Free Ebook
Google for Teachers II - Free Ebook
A Fun Video for Introducing Google Docs
How to Create Self-Graded Quizzes in Google Docs
In my free ebook Google for Teachers I included directions for creating and publishing a quiz using Google Documents forms. Recently, Dr. Mark Wagner published a blog post that includes directions for creating formulas that will result in quizzes created in Google Docs forms being self-graded. His post includes a video screencast and slides. I've embedded the video below.
Popout
Applications for EducationGrading quizzes can be a tedious task if you have many students on your roster. Creating and administering quizzes through Google Documents forms can save you time and save paper at the same time. By saving time on grading you can give students feedback quicker than before.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
5 Tools to Create and Administer Quizzes Online
47 Alternatives to Using YouTube in the Classroom
Google for Teachers II - Free Ebook
Google New - Find the Newest Google Offerings
Google maintains blogs for all of their various products and services. I subscribe to many of those blogs to stay up to date on the latest enhancements to the products I use on a regular basis. Yesterday, Google introduced a new and better way to stay current on their latest new offerings. Google New is a central location where visitors will find news on the latest updates to Google's products and the newest product offerings from Google. Embedded below is a short video introduction to Google New.
Popout
Applications for Education
While you don't have to be as obsessed as I am with the latest tech developments, but it is important for teachers to be aware of new tech developments that can be of use to their students. Visiting Google New from time to time is one way that teachers can find out what's new from one of the most widely-used service providers on the web.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Free 33 Page Guide - Google for Teachers
140 New Things Being Tried In Classroom This Fall
How To Do 11 Techy Things In the New School Year
links for 2010-09-28
Google Student Blog
I am a huge user and fan of Google's many applications and their use in education. I use Blogger for this blog and my classroom blogs, Google Sites for my classroom site, Google Docs, Google Earth, iGoogle and much more with my students and for my own use. I show my students Google's applications because they are easy to use, useful, and free.
Google recently launched the Google Student Blog. This blog site is a great resource for students who use Google's products. It includes information, updates, how-to's, tips, and much more on how to use Google's applications as a student. If your students use Google's products, they should be reading the Google Student Blog.
Related Articles:
http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/search/label/google
Cool Websites and Tools [December 16th]
Comment Blocker – On many websites the comments sections is filled with obscenities and other spam text you would prefer not to be visible – just ask any YouTube user. Thankfully there are developers out there creating tools to battle the unwanted comments section on websites. CommentBlocker is one such tool. Read more:CommentBlocker: Automatically Block Comments On Websites (Chrome Extension)
10 Tips for Using Google Reader in the Classroom
Google Reader and RSS have been a very beneficial addition to my PLN. I like how easy it is to stay organized with the latest information available on the web. It makes reading what is important to me easier, especially since I can use it on the iPhone and iPad. At the same time, Google Reader can be a valuable tool for teachers in the classroom.
1.) We should all be teaching current events. News websites are a great way to keep up to date on current events. Each morning you could check your Google Reader account and share the news with your students. You could take it one step further and subscribe to the feed for CNN and Fox and then compare how the two news station report the news.
2.) I love the weather and in science classes, the weather can be a great unit that can be integrated into other units. TheWeather Channel has an RSS feed that you can subscribe to for national and local forecast, as well as a weather blog. It makes checking the weather forecast much easier and saves me time.
3.) Just mentioned to me by an English teacher is subscribing to a website like The Onion for her unit on teaching satire. You could then compare these stories to the real news stories that you get from tip #1 and discuss the difference in wording.
4.) With an increase in Web 2.0 sites, it is very beneficial to try your best to stay on top of the updates that these software sites go through. What is great about these sites is that they all have a blog that provides updates on the changes to their service or additions that might be useful to know about. Following the Prezi Blog allowed me to learn about the new feature of Prezi Meeting.
5.) There are several free online journals related to the various subject matter and educational technology. The key is finding them and searching them out and then discovering if they have an RSS feed for updated articles. This would be a great way to stay on top of what is going on with your curriculum. Here is a great Directory of Open Access Journals in Education that would be worth starting to look at. THE Journal is a a great educational technology magazine that offers RSS feeds as well.
6.) The most common method of using Google Reader in the classroom is for teachers to follow blogs. With the ability to create folders you can easily find blogs from teachers who share resources, experiences and ideas for your subject matter. You can easily organize that information to read certain blog post based on what you are in the mood for. Here are some great starting points to find some great blogs:
- The Edublog Awards - There is a past awards directory as well.
- Top 100 Education Blogs
- Top 100 Education Advice Blogs
- 100 Best Blogs for Teachers of the Future
- Moving Forward Wiki - Blogs by Subject and General Blogs
- Top 100 High School Teachers Who Blog
7.) Do your student's blog? If they do, Google reader would be a great way to keep up with all of your students blogs without having to visit each one individually. Create a folder for these blogs and then easily read them at your convenience.
8.) Google Reader allows you to share what you are reading. This would be a great way to collaborate with other teachers in your building so that you can see what they are reading and you can see what they are reading. You can choose a custom style as well as a URL so that it can be easy to find. If you are wanting to get students to comment on each others blogs, this would be a good way to share the blogs with your classes and create a reading and communication portal. When you share your Google Reader you follow people similar to following blogs and you can select what you want to share, so it is not a mass share of your entire reader account. You might share one a week for students to comment on. And for the sake of "sharing", here is My Google Reader.
9.) Google Reader has a neat feature called Notes. This allows you to drag a bookmarklet into your browser and then when you come across something that you might not be subscribe to but want to keep and read for later you can "Note in Reader" so that you have it available for later and have a note about it so you can remember why you marked it. This is a great feature for when you find a resource while surfing the Internet, or a post on a blog that you really like, but might not necessarily want to follow the blog and have a way to save it in something you read all the time.
10.) Sometimes it can be difficult to find an RSS feed on a website. Google Reader has a "Subscribe" bookmarklet that you can insert into your browser and when you visit a site click on that button. It will then search for the sites feed. If it cannot find it, it will let you know. If it finds the feed it will direct you to your Google Reader where it will provide feed stats and then ask if you want to subscribe. This could be very helpful for those teachers who have trouble understanding copy and paste and how to look for a feed. It is also an easy way to subscribe to feeds for your favorite sites.
Unthreaded conversation view in Gmail now available to all Google Apps users
Gmail offers users the ability to switch between conversation view and the traditional message-based unthreaded view. When a user switches to unthreaded view, messages are no longer grouped together into a conversation, and each message is shown as a separate entry in the inbox. The inbox is still sorted in reverse chronological order.
Previously, this feature was only available to domains whose administrators has enabled the ‘enable pre-release features’ checkbox in the Control Panel. This is now available to all Google Apps domains.
Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Partner Edition and Google Apps for Government
Languages included:
All languages supported by Gmail
How to access what's new:
In Gmail ‘Settings’, go to the new ‘Conversation View’ section and choose to have that view on or off and click ‘save changes’.
Note: The mobile web-based view of Gmail will still be threaded, as will the Gmail Mobile Client app. However, if you are using a Blackberry, Window Mobile, iPhone, or Android device, you can access Gmail unthreaded in the native mail clients of those devices using Google’s sync tools.
For more information:
http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/09/threaded-email-or-not-now-its-your.html
Drag and Drop images into a Google Document
You can now drag images from your desktop and drop them directly into a document. You can use image drag and drop with the latest versions of Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. We’ll enable it on other browsers, as soon as they support the feature.
Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team, Partner Edition and Google Apps for Government
Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Docs
For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/10/drag-and-drop-images-in-documents.html
Subscribing via RSS & Google Reader to Classroom Blogs
All of our classrooms at MJGDS have their own blog. Several grade levels are piloting individual student portfolios based on a blogging platform.
- How do you keep up with all this information?
- How do you filter and organize it?
- How can you avoid having to go back to blogs to check if the owner has updated with a new post?
You can download this How-To-Guide for Subscribing via RSS & Google Reader to Classroom Blogs as a pdf.
According to Wikipedia an
RSS (most commonly expanded as Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.[2] An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”,[3] or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an “RSS reader”, “feed reader”, or “aggregator”, which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based.
RSS Feed Icons
RSS in Plain English Video
Popout
Google Reader in Pain English Video
Popout
Start scanning websites you frequent often for different variations of this RSS feed icon. Some will have the icon listed in a prominent place on the website, others will just have a text link in the sidebar of footer of the page or some will have NO sign that there is an RSS feed available.
You can subscribe, among others to the following RSS feeds:
- · Blogs
- · Wikis
- · Google Searches for specific topics or keywords
- · Twitter feeds of individual users
- · Facebook feeds for individual users or pages
If you are not sure if a certain page has an RSS feed available and you are using Firefox as your browser, you check for an RSS icon on the right side in the URL Address box. If a feed is available you can see the RSS icon, if there is no icon, then there is no RSS feed available for this site.
Create a Google Account (if you don’t have one already), sign in and and go to Google Reader-http://www.google.com/reader .
When you are at a website that has a RSS feed, you have a few options available to you.
Copy the URL (Web Address) of the site you want to subscribe to and then paste it into the “Add Subscription” box
In your Firefox browser, click on the RSS icon in the URL Address bar
A dropdown menu will appear. Choose the RSS feed
Make sure you select Google from the dropdown menu, you might want to check off the option “Always use Google to subscribe to feeds”, then click the “Subscribe Now” button.
Click “Add to Google Reader”
Click on dropdown menu of “Feed Settings”
Choose an already created folder or choose “New Folder” to create and name.
Your RSS feed will be filed and available in the Subscription Folders in the left sidebar.
A new and unread post will be shown in bold letters.
In order to read the post, click on the title. The post will drop down.
If you would like to read leave a comment on the post or look directly on the blog click on the arrow to the right of the post’s title.
You can also star, organize (tag), share or e-mail the posts by choosing and clicking on one of the icon at the bottom of the post in Google Reader.
Oregon Apps Google Summit
I visited Sherwood, Oregon to participate in the first Oregon Google Summit. I set up a new web page with my presentations (in GoogleDocs) and links to my video. I also set up a page on their website. I enjoyed meeting some of the educators in Oregon who are leading this effort, plus a few people from Google who led technical sessions. My "aha" moment: the fact that Folders in GoogleDocs are really tags that can be used to classify documents; single Docs can be tagged to multiple folders without making multiple copies. This concept is different from how we manage files on our computers or server space, which will require a different level of explanation. But it allows portfolio artifacts to be tagged in folders for individual classes (collection), and then also tagged to a Portfolio folder (selection) which can be shared with a teacher. See this Google blog entry by a high school teacher.
My proposals to the Northwest Council for Computer Education conference in March 2011 have been approved:
- Presentation: GoogleApps ePortfolios
Oregon was the first state to adopt GoogleApps for all K-12 schools. These powerful tools are ready-made for teachers and students to maintain electronic portfolios. Get an overview of creating artifacts using Google Docs and Picasa, a reflective learning portfolio using Blogger, and a showcase/assessment/presentation portfolio with Google Sites.
- 3-hour Workshop: Create ePortfolios using GoogleApps
Oregon was the first state to adopt GoogleApps for all K-12 schools. These powerful tools are ready-made for creating and maintaining electronic portfolios by teachers and students. Learn how to create artifacts using Google Docs and Picasa, a reflective learning portfolio using Blogger, and a showcase/assessment/presentation portfolio with Google Sites. (March 3, 2011, 8:30 AM)
Google Under the Hood - Workshop Outline
This morning I ran a workshop at ACTEM's annual conference. The focus of the workshop was on exploring some of the lesser-known products offered by Google. During the workshop there were four brainstorming sessions during which participants contributed to a Google Document to share their ideas for using these lesser-known Google products in their classrooms. As you go through the slides below you will see the Google products we explored and the links to the brainstorming documents. The brainstorming documents are open to the public so feel free to make your contributions or to save the documents for your own use.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Google Earth Across the Curriculum
Free 33 Page Guide - Google for Teachers
Beyond Google - Improve Your Search Results
Google Demo Slam - Short Tech Demos
Google Demo Slam is a new Google site featuring short tech demonstrations. The idea of the site is to have people compete to make the best short tech demonstration videos they can. Users upload their videos to YouTube then Google picks a "slam of the week" in which two videos face-off. The winner is determined by viewer voting. The prize is bragging rights. Right now Demo Slam is in "pre-season" which means all of the videos have come from Google employees.
Applications for Education
Google Demo Slam could spur the development of some creative and useful technology demonstration videos. Those videos could be useful in technology-focused professional development workshops. Demo Slam could also be a good motivator for students to create their own short demonstration videos while focusing on being clear and concise in their explanations.
How to Embed Google Presentations Into Wikispaces
I was asked this evening if I had directions for embedding presentations made in Google Documents into Wikispacespages. I thought I had published directions for that before, but when I went through my Google Docs folders I realized that I hadn't. Embedded below are directions for embedding presentations made in Google Documents into Wikispacespages.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
How To Do 11 Techy Things in the New School Year
131 Tips for New Teachers
Google Tutorials for Teachers
Googlios
Googlios is a site for creating ePortfolios through the use of Google tools that has been getting quite of bit of press online lately. This is done by creating a portfolio using a Google Site.
I highly recommend checking out the video below to get an idea of this relatively easy yet cool project...
Popout
For other ePorfolio ideas check out VisualCV.
Click here for more info on Googlios.
YouCanBook.Me - Appointment Booking in Google Calendar
YouCanBook.Me is a free scheduling tool that integrates with your Google Calendar. YouCanBook.Me allows people to book fixed blocks of time in your calendar. You specify the length of each block of time and the dates and times you are available. Visitors to your calendar click a block and enter their email addresses to reserve a block of your time. When a block of time is reserved you receive an email alert. Watch the video here to see a demonstration of YouCanBook.Me.
Thanks to Angela Maiers for sharing this on Twitter.
Applications for EducationYouCanBook.Me could be a great tool when it comes time to schedule parent-teacher conferences. Post your YouCanBook.Me calendar on your classroom blog to let parents schedule meetings at a time that is convenient for all parties involved.
Education? Read This
Whenever I talk about Google Apps for Education or Google Apps in general at a school or conference there is almost always someone who tells me they've heard, "Google will own your information." And often there are people who have concerns and questions about privacy as well. These are good questions to ask before you switch your school to Google Apps for Education. To make it easy to find answers to those questions and concerns, Google Certified Teacher Lisa Thumann has written a blog post linking to resources that address common concerns and questions about Google Apps. Read Lisa's post here. And while you're there, consider subscribing to her blog as she always has good things to share.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Google for Teachers - Free Ebook
Google for Teachers II - Free Ebook
A Fun Video for Introducing Google Docs
How to Create Self-Graded Quizzes in Google Docs
In my free ebook Google for Teachers I included directions for creating and publishing a quiz using Google Documents forms. Recently, Dr. Mark Wagner published a blog post that includes directions for creating formulas that will result in quizzes created in Google Docs forms being self-graded. His post includes a video screencast and slides. I've embedded the video below.
Popout
Applications for EducationGrading quizzes can be a tedious task if you have many students on your roster. Creating and administering quizzes through Google Documents forms can save you time and save paper at the same time. By saving time on grading you can give students feedback quicker than before.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
5 Tools to Create and Administer Quizzes Online
47 Alternatives to Using YouTube in the Classroom
Google for Teachers II - Free Ebook
Google New - Find the Newest Google Offerings
Google maintains blogs for all of their various products and services. I subscribe to many of those blogs to stay up to date on the latest enhancements to the products I use on a regular basis. Yesterday, Google introduced a new and better way to stay current on their latest new offerings. Google New is a central location where visitors will find news on the latest updates to Google's products and the newest product offerings from Google. Embedded below is a short video introduction to Google New.
Popout
Applications for Education
While you don't have to be as obsessed as I am with the latest tech developments, but it is important for teachers to be aware of new tech developments that can be of use to their students. Visiting Google New from time to time is one way that teachers can find out what's new from one of the most widely-used service providers on the web.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Free 33 Page Guide - Google for Teachers
140 New Things Being Tried In Classroom This Fall
How To Do 11 Techy Things In the New School Year
Cool Websites and Tools [December 16th]
Comment Blocker – On many websites the comments sections is filled with obscenities and other spam text you would prefer not to be visible – just ask any YouTube user. Thankfully there are developers out there creating tools to battle the unwanted comments section on websites. CommentBlocker is one such tool. Read more:CommentBlocker: Automatically Block Comments On Websites (Chrome Extension)
10 Tips for Using Google Reader in the Classroom
Google Reader and RSS have been a very beneficial addition to my PLN. I like how easy it is to stay organized with the latest information available on the web. It makes reading what is important to me easier, especially since I can use it on the iPhone and iPad. At the same time, Google Reader can be a valuable tool for teachers in the classroom.
1.) We should all be teaching current events. News websites are a great way to keep up to date on current events. Each morning you could check your Google Reader account and share the news with your students. You could take it one step further and subscribe to the feed for CNN and Fox and then compare how the two news station report the news.
2.) I love the weather and in science classes, the weather can be a great unit that can be integrated into other units. TheWeather Channel has an RSS feed that you can subscribe to for national and local forecast, as well as a weather blog. It makes checking the weather forecast much easier and saves me time.
3.) Just mentioned to me by an English teacher is subscribing to a website like The Onion for her unit on teaching satire. You could then compare these stories to the real news stories that you get from tip #1 and discuss the difference in wording.
4.) With an increase in Web 2.0 sites, it is very beneficial to try your best to stay on top of the updates that these software sites go through. What is great about these sites is that they all have a blog that provides updates on the changes to their service or additions that might be useful to know about. Following the Prezi Blog allowed me to learn about the new feature of Prezi Meeting.
5.) There are several free online journals related to the various subject matter and educational technology. The key is finding them and searching them out and then discovering if they have an RSS feed for updated articles. This would be a great way to stay on top of what is going on with your curriculum. Here is a great Directory of Open Access Journals in Education that would be worth starting to look at. THE Journal is a a great educational technology magazine that offers RSS feeds as well.
6.) The most common method of using Google Reader in the classroom is for teachers to follow blogs. With the ability to create folders you can easily find blogs from teachers who share resources, experiences and ideas for your subject matter. You can easily organize that information to read certain blog post based on what you are in the mood for. Here are some great starting points to find some great blogs:
- The Edublog Awards - There is a past awards directory as well.
- Top 100 Education Blogs
- Top 100 Education Advice Blogs
- 100 Best Blogs for Teachers of the Future
- Moving Forward Wiki - Blogs by Subject and General Blogs
- Top 100 High School Teachers Who Blog
7.) Do your student's blog? If they do, Google reader would be a great way to keep up with all of your students blogs without having to visit each one individually. Create a folder for these blogs and then easily read them at your convenience.
8.) Google Reader allows you to share what you are reading. This would be a great way to collaborate with other teachers in your building so that you can see what they are reading and you can see what they are reading. You can choose a custom style as well as a URL so that it can be easy to find. If you are wanting to get students to comment on each others blogs, this would be a good way to share the blogs with your classes and create a reading and communication portal. When you share your Google Reader you follow people similar to following blogs and you can select what you want to share, so it is not a mass share of your entire reader account. You might share one a week for students to comment on. And for the sake of "sharing", here is My Google Reader.
9.) Google Reader has a neat feature called Notes. This allows you to drag a bookmarklet into your browser and then when you come across something that you might not be subscribe to but want to keep and read for later you can "Note in Reader" so that you have it available for later and have a note about it so you can remember why you marked it. This is a great feature for when you find a resource while surfing the Internet, or a post on a blog that you really like, but might not necessarily want to follow the blog and have a way to save it in something you read all the time.
10.) Sometimes it can be difficult to find an RSS feed on a website. Google Reader has a "Subscribe" bookmarklet that you can insert into your browser and when you visit a site click on that button. It will then search for the sites feed. If it cannot find it, it will let you know. If it finds the feed it will direct you to your Google Reader where it will provide feed stats and then ask if you want to subscribe. This could be very helpful for those teachers who have trouble understanding copy and paste and how to look for a feed. It is also an easy way to subscribe to feeds for your favorite sites.
Unthreaded conversation view in Gmail now available to all Google Apps users
Gmail offers users the ability to switch between conversation view and the traditional message-based unthreaded view. When a user switches to unthreaded view, messages are no longer grouped together into a conversation, and each message is shown as a separate entry in the inbox. The inbox is still sorted in reverse chronological order.
Previously, this feature was only available to domains whose administrators has enabled the ‘enable pre-release features’ checkbox in the Control Panel. This is now available to all Google Apps domains.
Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Partner Edition and Google Apps for Government
Languages included:
All languages supported by Gmail
How to access what's new:
In Gmail ‘Settings’, go to the new ‘Conversation View’ section and choose to have that view on or off and click ‘save changes’.
Note: The mobile web-based view of Gmail will still be threaded, as will the Gmail Mobile Client app. However, if you are using a Blackberry, Window Mobile, iPhone, or Android device, you can access Gmail unthreaded in the native mail clients of those devices using Google’s sync tools.
For more information:
http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/09/threaded-email-or-not-now-its-your.html
Drag and Drop images into a Google Document
You can now drag images from your desktop and drop them directly into a document. You can use image drag and drop with the latest versions of Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. We’ll enable it on other browsers, as soon as they support the feature.
Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team, Partner Edition and Google Apps for Government
Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Docs
For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/10/drag-and-drop-images-in-documents.html
Subscribing via RSS & Google Reader to Classroom Blogs
All of our classrooms at MJGDS have their own blog. Several grade levels are piloting individual student portfolios based on a blogging platform.
- How do you keep up with all this information?
- How do you filter and organize it?
- How can you avoid having to go back to blogs to check if the owner has updated with a new post?
You can download this How-To-Guide for Subscribing via RSS & Google Reader to Classroom Blogs as a pdf.
According to Wikipedia an
RSS (most commonly expanded as Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.[2] An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”,[3] or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an “RSS reader”, “feed reader”, or “aggregator”, which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based.
RSS Feed Icons
RSS in Plain English Video
Popout
Google Reader in Pain English Video
Popout
Start scanning websites you frequent often for different variations of this RSS feed icon. Some will have the icon listed in a prominent place on the website, others will just have a text link in the sidebar of footer of the page or some will have NO sign that there is an RSS feed available.
You can subscribe, among others to the following RSS feeds:
- · Blogs
- · Wikis
- · Google Searches for specific topics or keywords
- · Twitter feeds of individual users
- · Facebook feeds for individual users or pages
If you are not sure if a certain page has an RSS feed available and you are using Firefox as your browser, you check for an RSS icon on the right side in the URL Address box. If a feed is available you can see the RSS icon, if there is no icon, then there is no RSS feed available for this site.
Create a Google Account (if you don’t have one already), sign in and and go to Google Reader-http://www.google.com/reader .
When you are at a website that has a RSS feed, you have a few options available to you.
Copy the URL (Web Address) of the site you want to subscribe to and then paste it into the “Add Subscription” box
In your Firefox browser, click on the RSS icon in the URL Address bar
A dropdown menu will appear. Choose the RSS feed
Make sure you select Google from the dropdown menu, you might want to check off the option “Always use Google to subscribe to feeds”, then click the “Subscribe Now” button.
Click “Add to Google Reader”
Click on dropdown menu of “Feed Settings”
Choose an already created folder or choose “New Folder” to create and name.
Your RSS feed will be filed and available in the Subscription Folders in the left sidebar.
A new and unread post will be shown in bold letters.
In order to read the post, click on the title. The post will drop down.
If you would like to read leave a comment on the post or look directly on the blog click on the arrow to the right of the post’s title.
You can also star, organize (tag), share or e-mail the posts by choosing and clicking on one of the icon at the bottom of the post in Google Reader.
Oregon Apps Google Summit
I visited Sherwood, Oregon to participate in the first Oregon Google Summit. I set up a new web page with my presentations (in GoogleDocs) and links to my video. I also set up a page on their website. I enjoyed meeting some of the educators in Oregon who are leading this effort, plus a few people from Google who led technical sessions. My "aha" moment: the fact that Folders in GoogleDocs are really tags that can be used to classify documents; single Docs can be tagged to multiple folders without making multiple copies. This concept is different from how we manage files on our computers or server space, which will require a different level of explanation. But it allows portfolio artifacts to be tagged in folders for individual classes (collection), and then also tagged to a Portfolio folder (selection) which can be shared with a teacher. See this Google blog entry by a high school teacher.
My proposals to the Northwest Council for Computer Education conference in March 2011 have been approved:
- Presentation: GoogleApps ePortfolios
Oregon was the first state to adopt GoogleApps for all K-12 schools. These powerful tools are ready-made for teachers and students to maintain electronic portfolios. Get an overview of creating artifacts using Google Docs and Picasa, a reflective learning portfolio using Blogger, and a showcase/assessment/presentation portfolio with Google Sites.
- 3-hour Workshop: Create ePortfolios using GoogleApps
Oregon was the first state to adopt GoogleApps for all K-12 schools. These powerful tools are ready-made for creating and maintaining electronic portfolios by teachers and students. Learn how to create artifacts using Google Docs and Picasa, a reflective learning portfolio using Blogger, and a showcase/assessment/presentation portfolio with Google Sites. (March 3, 2011, 8:30 AM)
Google Under the Hood - Workshop Outline
This morning I ran a workshop at ACTEM's annual conference. The focus of the workshop was on exploring some of the lesser-known products offered by Google. During the workshop there were four brainstorming sessions during which participants contributed to a Google Document to share their ideas for using these lesser-known Google products in their classrooms. As you go through the slides below you will see the Google products we explored and the links to the brainstorming documents. The brainstorming documents are open to the public so feel free to make your contributions or to save the documents for your own use.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Google Earth Across the Curriculum
Free 33 Page Guide - Google for Teachers
Beyond Google - Improve Your Search Results
Google Demo Slam - Short Tech Demos
Google Demo Slam is a new Google site featuring short tech demonstrations. The idea of the site is to have people compete to make the best short tech demonstration videos they can. Users upload their videos to YouTube then Google picks a "slam of the week" in which two videos face-off. The winner is determined by viewer voting. The prize is bragging rights. Right now Demo Slam is in "pre-season" which means all of the videos have come from Google employees.
Applications for Education
Google Demo Slam could spur the development of some creative and useful technology demonstration videos. Those videos could be useful in technology-focused professional development workshops. Demo Slam could also be a good motivator for students to create their own short demonstration videos while focusing on being clear and concise in their explanations.
How to Embed Google Presentations Into Wikispaces
I was asked this evening if I had directions for embedding presentations made in Google Documents into Wikispacespages. I thought I had published directions for that before, but when I went through my Google Docs folders I realized that I hadn't. Embedded below are directions for embedding presentations made in Google Documents into Wikispacespages.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
How To Do 11 Techy Things in the New School Year
131 Tips for New Teachers
Google Tutorials for Teachers
Googlios
Googlios is a site for creating ePortfolios through the use of Google tools that has been getting quite of bit of press online lately. This is done by creating a portfolio using a Google Site.
I highly recommend checking out the video below to get an idea of this relatively easy yet cool project...
Popout
For other ePorfolio ideas check out VisualCV.
Click here for more info on Googlios.
YouCanBook.Me - Appointment Booking in Google Calendar
YouCanBook.Me is a free scheduling tool that integrates with your Google Calendar. YouCanBook.Me allows people to book fixed blocks of time in your calendar. You specify the length of each block of time and the dates and times you are available. Visitors to your calendar click a block and enter their email addresses to reserve a block of your time. When a block of time is reserved you receive an email alert. Watch the video here to see a demonstration of YouCanBook.Me.
Thanks to Angela Maiers for sharing this on Twitter.
Applications for EducationYouCanBook.Me could be a great tool when it comes time to schedule parent-teacher conferences. Post your YouCanBook.Me calendar on your classroom blog to let parents schedule meetings at a time that is convenient for all parties involved.
Education? Read This
Whenever I talk about Google Apps for Education or Google Apps in general at a school or conference there is almost always someone who tells me they've heard, "Google will own your information." And often there are people who have concerns and questions about privacy as well. These are good questions to ask before you switch your school to Google Apps for Education. To make it easy to find answers to those questions and concerns, Google Certified Teacher Lisa Thumann has written a blog post linking to resources that address common concerns and questions about Google Apps. Read Lisa's post here. And while you're there, consider subscribing to her blog as she always has good things to share.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Google for Teachers - Free Ebook
Google for Teachers II - Free Ebook
A Fun Video for Introducing Google Docs
Cool Websites and Tools [December 16th]
Comment Blocker – On many websites the comments sections is filled with obscenities and other spam text you would prefer not to be visible – just ask any YouTube user. Thankfully there are developers out there creating tools to battle the unwanted comments section on websites. CommentBlocker is one such tool. Read more:CommentBlocker: Automatically Block Comments On Websites (Chrome Extension)
10 Tips for Using Google Reader in the Classroom
Google Reader and RSS have been a very beneficial addition to my PLN. I like how easy it is to stay organized with the latest information available on the web. It makes reading what is important to me easier, especially since I can use it on the iPhone and iPad. At the same time, Google Reader can be a valuable tool for teachers in the classroom.
1.) We should all be teaching current events. News websites are a great way to keep up to date on current events. Each morning you could check your Google Reader account and share the news with your students. You could take it one step further and subscribe to the feed for CNN and Fox and then compare how the two news station report the news.
2.) I love the weather and in science classes, the weather can be a great unit that can be integrated into other units. TheWeather Channel has an RSS feed that you can subscribe to for national and local forecast, as well as a weather blog. It makes checking the weather forecast much easier and saves me time.
3.) Just mentioned to me by an English teacher is subscribing to a website like The Onion for her unit on teaching satire. You could then compare these stories to the real news stories that you get from tip #1 and discuss the difference in wording.
4.) With an increase in Web 2.0 sites, it is very beneficial to try your best to stay on top of the updates that these software sites go through. What is great about these sites is that they all have a blog that provides updates on the changes to their service or additions that might be useful to know about. Following the Prezi Blog allowed me to learn about the new feature of Prezi Meeting.
5.) There are several free online journals related to the various subject matter and educational technology. The key is finding them and searching them out and then discovering if they have an RSS feed for updated articles. This would be a great way to stay on top of what is going on with your curriculum. Here is a great Directory of Open Access Journals in Education that would be worth starting to look at. THE Journal is a a great educational technology magazine that offers RSS feeds as well.
6.) The most common method of using Google Reader in the classroom is for teachers to follow blogs. With the ability to create folders you can easily find blogs from teachers who share resources, experiences and ideas for your subject matter. You can easily organize that information to read certain blog post based on what you are in the mood for. Here are some great starting points to find some great blogs:
- The Edublog Awards - There is a past awards directory as well.
- Top 100 Education Blogs
- Top 100 Education Advice Blogs
- 100 Best Blogs for Teachers of the Future
- Moving Forward Wiki - Blogs by Subject and General Blogs
- Top 100 High School Teachers Who Blog
7.) Do your student's blog? If they do, Google reader would be a great way to keep up with all of your students blogs without having to visit each one individually. Create a folder for these blogs and then easily read them at your convenience.
8.) Google Reader allows you to share what you are reading. This would be a great way to collaborate with other teachers in your building so that you can see what they are reading and you can see what they are reading. You can choose a custom style as well as a URL so that it can be easy to find. If you are wanting to get students to comment on each others blogs, this would be a good way to share the blogs with your classes and create a reading and communication portal. When you share your Google Reader you follow people similar to following blogs and you can select what you want to share, so it is not a mass share of your entire reader account. You might share one a week for students to comment on. And for the sake of "sharing", here is My Google Reader.
9.) Google Reader has a neat feature called Notes. This allows you to drag a bookmarklet into your browser and then when you come across something that you might not be subscribe to but want to keep and read for later you can "Note in Reader" so that you have it available for later and have a note about it so you can remember why you marked it. This is a great feature for when you find a resource while surfing the Internet, or a post on a blog that you really like, but might not necessarily want to follow the blog and have a way to save it in something you read all the time.
10.) Sometimes it can be difficult to find an RSS feed on a website. Google Reader has a "Subscribe" bookmarklet that you can insert into your browser and when you visit a site click on that button. It will then search for the sites feed. If it cannot find it, it will let you know. If it finds the feed it will direct you to your Google Reader where it will provide feed stats and then ask if you want to subscribe. This could be very helpful for those teachers who have trouble understanding copy and paste and how to look for a feed. It is also an easy way to subscribe to feeds for your favorite sites.
Unthreaded conversation view in Gmail now available to all Google Apps users
Gmail offers users the ability to switch between conversation view and the traditional message-based unthreaded view. When a user switches to unthreaded view, messages are no longer grouped together into a conversation, and each message is shown as a separate entry in the inbox. The inbox is still sorted in reverse chronological order.
Previously, this feature was only available to domains whose administrators has enabled the ‘enable pre-release features’ checkbox in the Control Panel. This is now available to all Google Apps domains.
Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Partner Edition and Google Apps for Government
Languages included:
All languages supported by Gmail
How to access what's new:
In Gmail ‘Settings’, go to the new ‘Conversation View’ section and choose to have that view on or off and click ‘save changes’.
Note: The mobile web-based view of Gmail will still be threaded, as will the Gmail Mobile Client app. However, if you are using a Blackberry, Window Mobile, iPhone, or Android device, you can access Gmail unthreaded in the native mail clients of those devices using Google’s sync tools.
For more information:
http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/09/threaded-email-or-not-now-its-your.html
Drag and Drop images into a Google Document
You can now drag images from your desktop and drop them directly into a document. You can use image drag and drop with the latest versions of Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. We’ll enable it on other browsers, as soon as they support the feature.
Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team, Partner Edition and Google Apps for Government
Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Docs
For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/10/drag-and-drop-images-in-documents.html
Subscribing via RSS & Google Reader to Classroom Blogs
All of our classrooms at MJGDS have their own blog. Several grade levels are piloting individual student portfolios based on a blogging platform.
- How do you keep up with all this information?
- How do you filter and organize it?
- How can you avoid having to go back to blogs to check if the owner has updated with a new post?
You can download this How-To-Guide for Subscribing via RSS & Google Reader to Classroom Blogs as a pdf.
According to Wikipedia an
RSS (most commonly expanded as Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.[2] An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”,[3] or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an “RSS reader”, “feed reader”, or “aggregator”, which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based.
RSS Feed Icons
RSS in Plain English Video
Popout
Google Reader in Pain English Video
Popout
Start scanning websites you frequent often for different variations of this RSS feed icon. Some will have the icon listed in a prominent place on the website, others will just have a text link in the sidebar of footer of the page or some will have NO sign that there is an RSS feed available.
You can subscribe, among others to the following RSS feeds:
- · Blogs
- · Wikis
- · Google Searches for specific topics or keywords
- · Twitter feeds of individual users
- · Facebook feeds for individual users or pages
If you are not sure if a certain page has an RSS feed available and you are using Firefox as your browser, you check for an RSS icon on the right side in the URL Address box. If a feed is available you can see the RSS icon, if there is no icon, then there is no RSS feed available for this site.
Create a Google Account (if you don’t have one already), sign in and and go to Google Reader-http://www.google.com/reader .
When you are at a website that has a RSS feed, you have a few options available to you.
Copy the URL (Web Address) of the site you want to subscribe to and then paste it into the “Add Subscription” box
In your Firefox browser, click on the RSS icon in the URL Address bar
A dropdown menu will appear. Choose the RSS feed
Make sure you select Google from the dropdown menu, you might want to check off the option “Always use Google to subscribe to feeds”, then click the “Subscribe Now” button.
Click “Add to Google Reader”
Click on dropdown menu of “Feed Settings”
Choose an already created folder or choose “New Folder” to create and name.
Your RSS feed will be filed and available in the Subscription Folders in the left sidebar.
A new and unread post will be shown in bold letters.
In order to read the post, click on the title. The post will drop down.
If you would like to read leave a comment on the post or look directly on the blog click on the arrow to the right of the post’s title.
You can also star, organize (tag), share or e-mail the posts by choosing and clicking on one of the icon at the bottom of the post in Google Reader.
Oregon Apps Google Summit
I visited Sherwood, Oregon to participate in the first Oregon Google Summit. I set up a new web page with my presentations (in GoogleDocs) and links to my video. I also set up a page on their website. I enjoyed meeting some of the educators in Oregon who are leading this effort, plus a few people from Google who led technical sessions. My "aha" moment: the fact that Folders in GoogleDocs are really tags that can be used to classify documents; single Docs can be tagged to multiple folders without making multiple copies. This concept is different from how we manage files on our computers or server space, which will require a different level of explanation. But it allows portfolio artifacts to be tagged in folders for individual classes (collection), and then also tagged to a Portfolio folder (selection) which can be shared with a teacher. See this Google blog entry by a high school teacher.
My proposals to the Northwest Council for Computer Education conference in March 2011 have been approved:
- Presentation: GoogleApps ePortfolios
Oregon was the first state to adopt GoogleApps for all K-12 schools. These powerful tools are ready-made for teachers and students to maintain electronic portfolios. Get an overview of creating artifacts using Google Docs and Picasa, a reflective learning portfolio using Blogger, and a showcase/assessment/presentation portfolio with Google Sites.
- 3-hour Workshop: Create ePortfolios using GoogleApps
Oregon was the first state to adopt GoogleApps for all K-12 schools. These powerful tools are ready-made for creating and maintaining electronic portfolios by teachers and students. Learn how to create artifacts using Google Docs and Picasa, a reflective learning portfolio using Blogger, and a showcase/assessment/presentation portfolio with Google Sites. (March 3, 2011, 8:30 AM)
Google Under the Hood - Workshop Outline
This morning I ran a workshop at ACTEM's annual conference. The focus of the workshop was on exploring some of the lesser-known products offered by Google. During the workshop there were four brainstorming sessions during which participants contributed to a Google Document to share their ideas for using these lesser-known Google products in their classrooms. As you go through the slides below you will see the Google products we explored and the links to the brainstorming documents. The brainstorming documents are open to the public so feel free to make your contributions or to save the documents for your own use.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Google Earth Across the Curriculum
Free 33 Page Guide - Google for Teachers
Beyond Google - Improve Your Search Results
Google Demo Slam - Short Tech Demos
Google Demo Slam is a new Google site featuring short tech demonstrations. The idea of the site is to have people compete to make the best short tech demonstration videos they can. Users upload their videos to YouTube then Google picks a "slam of the week" in which two videos face-off. The winner is determined by viewer voting. The prize is bragging rights. Right now Demo Slam is in "pre-season" which means all of the videos have come from Google employees.
Applications for Education
Google Demo Slam could spur the development of some creative and useful technology demonstration videos. Those videos could be useful in technology-focused professional development workshops. Demo Slam could also be a good motivator for students to create their own short demonstration videos while focusing on being clear and concise in their explanations.
How to Embed Google Presentations Into Wikispaces
I was asked this evening if I had directions for embedding presentations made in Google Documents into Wikispacespages. I thought I had published directions for that before, but when I went through my Google Docs folders I realized that I hadn't. Embedded below are directions for embedding presentations made in Google Documents into Wikispacespages.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
How To Do 11 Techy Things in the New School Year
131 Tips for New Teachers
Google Tutorials for Teachers
Googlios
Googlios is a site for creating ePortfolios through the use of Google tools that has been getting quite of bit of press online lately. This is done by creating a portfolio using a Google Site.
I highly recommend checking out the video below to get an idea of this relatively easy yet cool project...
Popout
For other ePorfolio ideas check out VisualCV.
Click here for more info on Googlios.
Cool Websites and Tools [December 16th]
Comment Blocker – On many websites the comments sections is filled with obscenities and other spam text you would prefer not to be visible – just ask any YouTube user. Thankfully there are developers out there creating tools to battle the unwanted comments section on websites. CommentBlocker is one such tool. Read more:CommentBlocker: Automatically Block Comments On Websites (Chrome Extension)
10 Tips for Using Google Reader in the Classroom
Google Reader and RSS have been a very beneficial addition to my PLN. I like how easy it is to stay organized with the latest information available on the web. It makes reading what is important to me easier, especially since I can use it on the iPhone and iPad. At the same time, Google Reader can be a valuable tool for teachers in the classroom.
1.) We should all be teaching current events. News websites are a great way to keep up to date on current events. Each morning you could check your Google Reader account and share the news with your students. You could take it one step further and subscribe to the feed for CNN and Fox and then compare how the two news station report the news.
2.) I love the weather and in science classes, the weather can be a great unit that can be integrated into other units. TheWeather Channel has an RSS feed that you can subscribe to for national and local forecast, as well as a weather blog. It makes checking the weather forecast much easier and saves me time.
3.) Just mentioned to me by an English teacher is subscribing to a website like The Onion for her unit on teaching satire. You could then compare these stories to the real news stories that you get from tip #1 and discuss the difference in wording.
4.) With an increase in Web 2.0 sites, it is very beneficial to try your best to stay on top of the updates that these software sites go through. What is great about these sites is that they all have a blog that provides updates on the changes to their service or additions that might be useful to know about. Following the Prezi Blog allowed me to learn about the new feature of Prezi Meeting.
5.) There are several free online journals related to the various subject matter and educational technology. The key is finding them and searching them out and then discovering if they have an RSS feed for updated articles. This would be a great way to stay on top of what is going on with your curriculum. Here is a great Directory of Open Access Journals in Education that would be worth starting to look at. THE Journal is a a great educational technology magazine that offers RSS feeds as well.
6.) The most common method of using Google Reader in the classroom is for teachers to follow blogs. With the ability to create folders you can easily find blogs from teachers who share resources, experiences and ideas for your subject matter. You can easily organize that information to read certain blog post based on what you are in the mood for. Here are some great starting points to find some great blogs:
- The Edublog Awards - There is a past awards directory as well.
- Top 100 Education Blogs
- Top 100 Education Advice Blogs
- 100 Best Blogs for Teachers of the Future
- Moving Forward Wiki - Blogs by Subject and General Blogs
- Top 100 High School Teachers Who Blog
7.) Do your student's blog? If they do, Google reader would be a great way to keep up with all of your students blogs without having to visit each one individually. Create a folder for these blogs and then easily read them at your convenience.
8.) Google Reader allows you to share what you are reading. This would be a great way to collaborate with other teachers in your building so that you can see what they are reading and you can see what they are reading. You can choose a custom style as well as a URL so that it can be easy to find. If you are wanting to get students to comment on each others blogs, this would be a good way to share the blogs with your classes and create a reading and communication portal. When you share your Google Reader you follow people similar to following blogs and you can select what you want to share, so it is not a mass share of your entire reader account. You might share one a week for students to comment on. And for the sake of "sharing", here is My Google Reader.
9.) Google Reader has a neat feature called Notes. This allows you to drag a bookmarklet into your browser and then when you come across something that you might not be subscribe to but want to keep and read for later you can "Note in Reader" so that you have it available for later and have a note about it so you can remember why you marked it. This is a great feature for when you find a resource while surfing the Internet, or a post on a blog that you really like, but might not necessarily want to follow the blog and have a way to save it in something you read all the time.
10.) Sometimes it can be difficult to find an RSS feed on a website. Google Reader has a "Subscribe" bookmarklet that you can insert into your browser and when you visit a site click on that button. It will then search for the sites feed. If it cannot find it, it will let you know. If it finds the feed it will direct you to your Google Reader where it will provide feed stats and then ask if you want to subscribe. This could be very helpful for those teachers who have trouble understanding copy and paste and how to look for a feed. It is also an easy way to subscribe to feeds for your favorite sites.
Unthreaded conversation view in Gmail now available to all Google Apps users
Gmail offers users the ability to switch between conversation view and the traditional message-based unthreaded view. When a user switches to unthreaded view, messages are no longer grouped together into a conversation, and each message is shown as a separate entry in the inbox. The inbox is still sorted in reverse chronological order.
Previously, this feature was only available to domains whose administrators has enabled the ‘enable pre-release features’ checkbox in the Control Panel. This is now available to all Google Apps domains.
Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Partner Edition and Google Apps for Government
Languages included:
All languages supported by Gmail
How to access what's new:
In Gmail ‘Settings’, go to the new ‘Conversation View’ section and choose to have that view on or off and click ‘save changes’.
Note: The mobile web-based view of Gmail will still be threaded, as will the Gmail Mobile Client app. However, if you are using a Blackberry, Window Mobile, iPhone, or Android device, you can access Gmail unthreaded in the native mail clients of those devices using Google’s sync tools.
For more information:
http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/09/threaded-email-or-not-now-its-your.html
Drag and Drop images into a Google Document
You can now drag images from your desktop and drop them directly into a document. You can use image drag and drop with the latest versions of Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. We’ll enable it on other browsers, as soon as they support the feature.
Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team, Partner Edition and Google Apps for Government
Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Docs
For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/10/drag-and-drop-images-in-documents.html
Subscribing via RSS & Google Reader to Classroom Blogs
All of our classrooms at MJGDS have their own blog. Several grade levels are piloting individual student portfolios based on a blogging platform.
- How do you keep up with all this information?
- How do you filter and organize it?
- How can you avoid having to go back to blogs to check if the owner has updated with a new post?
You can download this How-To-Guide for Subscribing via RSS & Google Reader to Classroom Blogs as a pdf.
According to Wikipedia an
RSS (most commonly expanded as Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.[2] An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”,[3] or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an “RSS reader”, “feed reader”, or “aggregator”, which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based.
RSS Feed Icons
RSS in Plain English Video
Popout
Google Reader in Pain English Video
Popout
Start scanning websites you frequent often for different variations of this RSS feed icon. Some will have the icon listed in a prominent place on the website, others will just have a text link in the sidebar of footer of the page or some will have NO sign that there is an RSS feed available.
You can subscribe, among others to the following RSS feeds:
- · Blogs
- · Wikis
- · Google Searches for specific topics or keywords
- · Twitter feeds of individual users
- · Facebook feeds for individual users or pages
If you are not sure if a certain page has an RSS feed available and you are using Firefox as your browser, you check for an RSS icon on the right side in the URL Address box. If a feed is available you can see the RSS icon, if there is no icon, then there is no RSS feed available for this site.
Create a Google Account (if you don’t have one already), sign in and and go to Google Reader-http://www.google.com/reader .
When you are at a website that has a RSS feed, you have a few options available to you.
Copy the URL (Web Address) of the site you want to subscribe to and then paste it into the “Add Subscription” box
In your Firefox browser, click on the RSS icon in the URL Address bar
A dropdown menu will appear. Choose the RSS feed
Make sure you select Google from the dropdown menu, you might want to check off the option “Always use Google to subscribe to feeds”, then click the “Subscribe Now” button.
Click “Add to Google Reader”
Click on dropdown menu of “Feed Settings”
Choose an already created folder or choose “New Folder” to create and name.
Your RSS feed will be filed and available in the Subscription Folders in the left sidebar.
A new and unread post will be shown in bold letters.
In order to read the post, click on the title. The post will drop down.
If you would like to read leave a comment on the post or look directly on the blog click on the arrow to the right of the post’s title.
You can also star, organize (tag), share or e-mail the posts by choosing and clicking on one of the icon at the bottom of the post in Google Reader.
Oregon Apps Google Summit
I visited Sherwood, Oregon to participate in the first Oregon Google Summit. I set up a new web page with my presentations (in GoogleDocs) and links to my video. I also set up a page on their website. I enjoyed meeting some of the educators in Oregon who are leading this effort, plus a few people from Google who led technical sessions. My "aha" moment: the fact that Folders in GoogleDocs are really tags that can be used to classify documents; single Docs can be tagged to multiple folders without making multiple copies. This concept is different from how we manage files on our computers or server space, which will require a different level of explanation. But it allows portfolio artifacts to be tagged in folders for individual classes (collection), and then also tagged to a Portfolio folder (selection) which can be shared with a teacher. See this Google blog entry by a high school teacher.
My proposals to the Northwest Council for Computer Education conference in March 2011 have been approved:
- Presentation: GoogleApps ePortfolios
Oregon was the first state to adopt GoogleApps for all K-12 schools. These powerful tools are ready-made for teachers and students to maintain electronic portfolios. Get an overview of creating artifacts using Google Docs and Picasa, a reflective learning portfolio using Blogger, and a showcase/assessment/presentation portfolio with Google Sites.
- 3-hour Workshop: Create ePortfolios using GoogleApps
Oregon was the first state to adopt GoogleApps for all K-12 schools. These powerful tools are ready-made for creating and maintaining electronic portfolios by teachers and students. Learn how to create artifacts using Google Docs and Picasa, a reflective learning portfolio using Blogger, and a showcase/assessment/presentation portfolio with Google Sites. (March 3, 2011, 8:30 AM)
Google Under the Hood - Workshop Outline
This morning I ran a workshop at ACTEM's annual conference. The focus of the workshop was on exploring some of the lesser-known products offered by Google. During the workshop there were four brainstorming sessions during which participants contributed to a Google Document to share their ideas for using these lesser-known Google products in their classrooms. As you go through the slides below you will see the Google products we explored and the links to the brainstorming documents. The brainstorming documents are open to the public so feel free to make your contributions or to save the documents for your own use.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Google Earth Across the Curriculum
Free 33 Page Guide - Google for Teachers
Beyond Google - Improve Your Search Results
Google Demo Slam - Short Tech Demos
Google Demo Slam is a new Google site featuring short tech demonstrations. The idea of the site is to have people compete to make the best short tech demonstration videos they can. Users upload their videos to YouTube then Google picks a "slam of the week" in which two videos face-off. The winner is determined by viewer voting. The prize is bragging rights. Right now Demo Slam is in "pre-season" which means all of the videos have come from Google employees.
Applications for Education
Google Demo Slam could spur the development of some creative and useful technology demonstration videos. Those videos could be useful in technology-focused professional development workshops. Demo Slam could also be a good motivator for students to create their own short demonstration videos while focusing on being clear and concise in their explanations.
Cool Websites and Tools [December 16th]
Comment Blocker – On many websites the comments sections is filled with obscenities and other spam text you would prefer not to be visible – just ask any YouTube user. Thankfully there are developers out there creating tools to battle the unwanted comments section on websites. CommentBlocker is one such tool. Read more:CommentBlocker: Automatically Block Comments On Websites (Chrome Extension)
10 Tips for Using Google Reader in the Classroom
Google Reader and RSS have been a very beneficial addition to my PLN. I like how easy it is to stay organized with the latest information available on the web. It makes reading what is important to me easier, especially since I can use it on the iPhone and iPad. At the same time, Google Reader can be a valuable tool for teachers in the classroom.
1.) We should all be teaching current events. News websites are a great way to keep up to date on current events. Each morning you could check your Google Reader account and share the news with your students. You could take it one step further and subscribe to the feed for CNN and Fox and then compare how the two news station report the news.
2.) I love the weather and in science classes, the weather can be a great unit that can be integrated into other units. TheWeather Channel has an RSS feed that you can subscribe to for national and local forecast, as well as a weather blog. It makes checking the weather forecast much easier and saves me time.
3.) Just mentioned to me by an English teacher is subscribing to a website like The Onion for her unit on teaching satire. You could then compare these stories to the real news stories that you get from tip #1 and discuss the difference in wording.
4.) With an increase in Web 2.0 sites, it is very beneficial to try your best to stay on top of the updates that these software sites go through. What is great about these sites is that they all have a blog that provides updates on the changes to their service or additions that might be useful to know about. Following the Prezi Blog allowed me to learn about the new feature of Prezi Meeting.
5.) There are several free online journals related to the various subject matter and educational technology. The key is finding them and searching them out and then discovering if they have an RSS feed for updated articles. This would be a great way to stay on top of what is going on with your curriculum. Here is a great Directory of Open Access Journals in Education that would be worth starting to look at. THE Journal is a a great educational technology magazine that offers RSS feeds as well.
6.) The most common method of using Google Reader in the classroom is for teachers to follow blogs. With the ability to create folders you can easily find blogs from teachers who share resources, experiences and ideas for your subject matter. You can easily organize that information to read certain blog post based on what you are in the mood for. Here are some great starting points to find some great blogs:
- The Edublog Awards - There is a past awards directory as well.
- Top 100 Education Blogs
- Top 100 Education Advice Blogs
- 100 Best Blogs for Teachers of the Future
- Moving Forward Wiki - Blogs by Subject and General Blogs
- Top 100 High School Teachers Who Blog
7.) Do your student's blog? If they do, Google reader would be a great way to keep up with all of your students blogs without having to visit each one individually. Create a folder for these blogs and then easily read them at your convenience.
8.) Google Reader allows you to share what you are reading. This would be a great way to collaborate with other teachers in your building so that you can see what they are reading and you can see what they are reading. You can choose a custom style as well as a URL so that it can be easy to find. If you are wanting to get students to comment on each others blogs, this would be a good way to share the blogs with your classes and create a reading and communication portal. When you share your Google Reader you follow people similar to following blogs and you can select what you want to share, so it is not a mass share of your entire reader account. You might share one a week for students to comment on. And for the sake of "sharing", here is My Google Reader.
9.) Google Reader has a neat feature called Notes. This allows you to drag a bookmarklet into your browser and then when you come across something that you might not be subscribe to but want to keep and read for later you can "Note in Reader" so that you have it available for later and have a note about it so you can remember why you marked it. This is a great feature for when you find a resource while surfing the Internet, or a post on a blog that you really like, but might not necessarily want to follow the blog and have a way to save it in something you read all the time.
10.) Sometimes it can be difficult to find an RSS feed on a website. Google Reader has a "Subscribe" bookmarklet that you can insert into your browser and when you visit a site click on that button. It will then search for the sites feed. If it cannot find it, it will let you know. If it finds the feed it will direct you to your Google Reader where it will provide feed stats and then ask if you want to subscribe. This could be very helpful for those teachers who have trouble understanding copy and paste and how to look for a feed. It is also an easy way to subscribe to feeds for your favorite sites.
Unthreaded conversation view in Gmail now available to all Google Apps users
Gmail offers users the ability to switch between conversation view and the traditional message-based unthreaded view. When a user switches to unthreaded view, messages are no longer grouped together into a conversation, and each message is shown as a separate entry in the inbox. The inbox is still sorted in reverse chronological order.
Previously, this feature was only available to domains whose administrators has enabled the ‘enable pre-release features’ checkbox in the Control Panel. This is now available to all Google Apps domains.
Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Partner Edition and Google Apps for Government
Languages included:
All languages supported by Gmail
How to access what's new:
In Gmail ‘Settings’, go to the new ‘Conversation View’ section and choose to have that view on or off and click ‘save changes’.
Note: The mobile web-based view of Gmail will still be threaded, as will the Gmail Mobile Client app. However, if you are using a Blackberry, Window Mobile, iPhone, or Android device, you can access Gmail unthreaded in the native mail clients of those devices using Google’s sync tools.
For more information:
http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/09/threaded-email-or-not-now-its-your.html
Drag and Drop images into a Google Document
You can now drag images from your desktop and drop them directly into a document. You can use image drag and drop with the latest versions of Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. We’ll enable it on other browsers, as soon as they support the feature.
Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team, Partner Edition and Google Apps for Government
Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Docs
For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/10/drag-and-drop-images-in-documents.html
Subscribing via RSS & Google Reader to Classroom Blogs
All of our classrooms at MJGDS have their own blog. Several grade levels are piloting individual student portfolios based on a blogging platform.
- How do you keep up with all this information?
- How do you filter and organize it?
- How can you avoid having to go back to blogs to check if the owner has updated with a new post?
You can download this How-To-Guide for Subscribing via RSS & Google Reader to Classroom Blogs as a pdf.
According to Wikipedia an
RSS (most commonly expanded as Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.[2] An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”,[3] or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an “RSS reader”, “feed reader”, or “aggregator”, which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based.
RSS Feed Icons
RSS in Plain English Video
Popout
Google Reader in Pain English Video
Popout
Start scanning websites you frequent often for different variations of this RSS feed icon. Some will have the icon listed in a prominent place on the website, others will just have a text link in the sidebar of footer of the page or some will have NO sign that there is an RSS feed available.
You can subscribe, among others to the following RSS feeds:
- · Blogs
- · Wikis
- · Google Searches for specific topics or keywords
- · Twitter feeds of individual users
- · Facebook feeds for individual users or pages
If you are not sure if a certain page has an RSS feed available and you are using Firefox as your browser, you check for an RSS icon on the right side in the URL Address box. If a feed is available you can see the RSS icon, if there is no icon, then there is no RSS feed available for this site.
Create a Google Account (if you don’t have one already), sign in and and go to Google Reader-http://www.google.com/reader .
When you are at a website that has a RSS feed, you have a few options available to you.
Copy the URL (Web Address) of the site you want to subscribe to and then paste it into the “Add Subscription” box
In your Firefox browser, click on the RSS icon in the URL Address bar
A dropdown menu will appear. Choose the RSS feed
Make sure you select Google from the dropdown menu, you might want to check off the option “Always use Google to subscribe to feeds”, then click the “Subscribe Now” button.
Click “Add to Google Reader”
Click on dropdown menu of “Feed Settings”
Choose an already created folder or choose “New Folder” to create and name.
Your RSS feed will be filed and available in the Subscription Folders in the left sidebar.
A new and unread post will be shown in bold letters.
In order to read the post, click on the title. The post will drop down.
If you would like to read leave a comment on the post or look directly on the blog click on the arrow to the right of the post’s title.
You can also star, organize (tag), share or e-mail the posts by choosing and clicking on one of the icon at the bottom of the post in Google Reader.
Oregon Apps Google Summit
I visited Sherwood, Oregon to participate in the first Oregon Google Summit. I set up a new web page with my presentations (in GoogleDocs) and links to my video. I also set up a page on their website. I enjoyed meeting some of the educators in Oregon who are leading this effort, plus a few people from Google who led technical sessions. My "aha" moment: the fact that Folders in GoogleDocs are really tags that can be used to classify documents; single Docs can be tagged to multiple folders without making multiple copies. This concept is different from how we manage files on our computers or server space, which will require a different level of explanation. But it allows portfolio artifacts to be tagged in folders for individual classes (collection), and then also tagged to a Portfolio folder (selection) which can be shared with a teacher. See this Google blog entry by a high school teacher.
My proposals to the Northwest Council for Computer Education conference in March 2011 have been approved:
- Presentation: GoogleApps ePortfolios
Oregon was the first state to adopt GoogleApps for all K-12 schools. These powerful tools are ready-made for teachers and students to maintain electronic portfolios. Get an overview of creating artifacts using Google Docs and Picasa, a reflective learning portfolio using Blogger, and a showcase/assessment/presentation portfolio with Google Sites.
- 3-hour Workshop: Create ePortfolios using GoogleApps
Oregon was the first state to adopt GoogleApps for all K-12 schools. These powerful tools are ready-made for creating and maintaining electronic portfolios by teachers and students. Learn how to create artifacts using Google Docs and Picasa, a reflective learning portfolio using Blogger, and a showcase/assessment/presentation portfolio with Google Sites. (March 3, 2011, 8:30 AM)
Cool Websites and Tools [December 16th]
Comment Blocker – On many websites the comments sections is filled with obscenities and other spam text you would prefer not to be visible – just ask any YouTube user. Thankfully there are developers out there creating tools to battle the unwanted comments section on websites. CommentBlocker is one such tool. Read more:CommentBlocker: Automatically Block Comments On Websites (Chrome Extension)
10 Tips for Using Google Reader in the Classroom
Google Reader and RSS have been a very beneficial addition to my PLN. I like how easy it is to stay organized with the latest information available on the web. It makes reading what is important to me easier, especially since I can use it on the iPhone and iPad. At the same time, Google Reader can be a valuable tool for teachers in the classroom.
1.) We should all be teaching current events. News websites are a great way to keep up to date on current events. Each morning you could check your Google Reader account and share the news with your students. You could take it one step further and subscribe to the feed for CNN and Fox and then compare how the two news station report the news.
2.) I love the weather and in science classes, the weather can be a great unit that can be integrated into other units. TheWeather Channel has an RSS feed that you can subscribe to for national and local forecast, as well as a weather blog. It makes checking the weather forecast much easier and saves me time.
3.) Just mentioned to me by an English teacher is subscribing to a website like The Onion for her unit on teaching satire. You could then compare these stories to the real news stories that you get from tip #1 and discuss the difference in wording.
4.) With an increase in Web 2.0 sites, it is very beneficial to try your best to stay on top of the updates that these software sites go through. What is great about these sites is that they all have a blog that provides updates on the changes to their service or additions that might be useful to know about. Following the Prezi Blog allowed me to learn about the new feature of Prezi Meeting.
5.) There are several free online journals related to the various subject matter and educational technology. The key is finding them and searching them out and then discovering if they have an RSS feed for updated articles. This would be a great way to stay on top of what is going on with your curriculum. Here is a great Directory of Open Access Journals in Education that would be worth starting to look at. THE Journal is a a great educational technology magazine that offers RSS feeds as well.
6.) The most common method of using Google Reader in the classroom is for teachers to follow blogs. With the ability to create folders you can easily find blogs from teachers who share resources, experiences and ideas for your subject matter. You can easily organize that information to read certain blog post based on what you are in the mood for. Here are some great starting points to find some great blogs:
- The Edublog Awards - There is a past awards directory as well.
- Top 100 Education Blogs
- Top 100 Education Advice Blogs
- 100 Best Blogs for Teachers of the Future
- Moving Forward Wiki - Blogs by Subject and General Blogs
- Top 100 High School Teachers Who Blog
7.) Do your student's blog? If they do, Google reader would be a great way to keep up with all of your students blogs without having to visit each one individually. Create a folder for these blogs and then easily read them at your convenience.
8.) Google Reader allows you to share what you are reading. This would be a great way to collaborate with other teachers in your building so that you can see what they are reading and you can see what they are reading. You can choose a custom style as well as a URL so that it can be easy to find. If you are wanting to get students to comment on each others blogs, this would be a good way to share the blogs with your classes and create a reading and communication portal. When you share your Google Reader you follow people similar to following blogs and you can select what you want to share, so it is not a mass share of your entire reader account. You might share one a week for students to comment on. And for the sake of "sharing", here is My Google Reader.
9.) Google Reader has a neat feature called Notes. This allows you to drag a bookmarklet into your browser and then when you come across something that you might not be subscribe to but want to keep and read for later you can "Note in Reader" so that you have it available for later and have a note about it so you can remember why you marked it. This is a great feature for when you find a resource while surfing the Internet, or a post on a blog that you really like, but might not necessarily want to follow the blog and have a way to save it in something you read all the time.
10.) Sometimes it can be difficult to find an RSS feed on a website. Google Reader has a "Subscribe" bookmarklet that you can insert into your browser and when you visit a site click on that button. It will then search for the sites feed. If it cannot find it, it will let you know. If it finds the feed it will direct you to your Google Reader where it will provide feed stats and then ask if you want to subscribe. This could be very helpful for those teachers who have trouble understanding copy and paste and how to look for a feed. It is also an easy way to subscribe to feeds for your favorite sites.
Unthreaded conversation view in Gmail now available to all Google Apps users
Gmail offers users the ability to switch between conversation view and the traditional message-based unthreaded view. When a user switches to unthreaded view, messages are no longer grouped together into a conversation, and each message is shown as a separate entry in the inbox. The inbox is still sorted in reverse chronological order.
Previously, this feature was only available to domains whose administrators has enabled the ‘enable pre-release features’ checkbox in the Control Panel. This is now available to all Google Apps domains.
Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Partner Edition and Google Apps for Government
Languages included:
All languages supported by Gmail
How to access what's new:
In Gmail ‘Settings’, go to the new ‘Conversation View’ section and choose to have that view on or off and click ‘save changes’.
Note: The mobile web-based view of Gmail will still be threaded, as will the Gmail Mobile Client app. However, if you are using a Blackberry, Window Mobile, iPhone, or Android device, you can access Gmail unthreaded in the native mail clients of those devices using Google’s sync tools.
For more information:
http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/09/threaded-email-or-not-now-its-your.html
Drag and Drop images into a Google Document
You can now drag images from your desktop and drop them directly into a document. You can use image drag and drop with the latest versions of Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. We’ll enable it on other browsers, as soon as they support the feature.
Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team, Partner Edition and Google Apps for Government
Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Docs
For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/10/drag-and-drop-images-in-documents.html
Cool Websites and Tools [December 16th]
Comment Blocker – On many websites the comments sections is filled with obscenities and other spam text you would prefer not to be visible – just ask any YouTube user. Thankfully there are developers out there creating tools to battle the unwanted comments section on websites. CommentBlocker is one such tool. Read more:CommentBlocker: Automatically Block Comments On Websites (Chrome Extension)
10 Tips for Using Google Reader in the Classroom
Google Reader and RSS have been a very beneficial addition to my PLN. I like how easy it is to stay organized with the latest information available on the web. It makes reading what is important to me easier, especially since I can use it on the iPhone and iPad. At the same time, Google Reader can be a valuable tool for teachers in the classroom.
1.) We should all be teaching current events. News websites are a great way to keep up to date on current events. Each morning you could check your Google Reader account and share the news with your students. You could take it one step further and subscribe to the feed for CNN and Fox and then compare how the two news station report the news.
2.) I love the weather and in science classes, the weather can be a great unit that can be integrated into other units. TheWeather Channel has an RSS feed that you can subscribe to for national and local forecast, as well as a weather blog. It makes checking the weather forecast much easier and saves me time.
3.) Just mentioned to me by an English teacher is subscribing to a website like The Onion for her unit on teaching satire. You could then compare these stories to the real news stories that you get from tip #1 and discuss the difference in wording.
4.) With an increase in Web 2.0 sites, it is very beneficial to try your best to stay on top of the updates that these software sites go through. What is great about these sites is that they all have a blog that provides updates on the changes to their service or additions that might be useful to know about. Following the Prezi Blog allowed me to learn about the new feature of Prezi Meeting.
5.) There are several free online journals related to the various subject matter and educational technology. The key is finding them and searching them out and then discovering if they have an RSS feed for updated articles. This would be a great way to stay on top of what is going on with your curriculum. Here is a great Directory of Open Access Journals in Education that would be worth starting to look at. THE Journal is a a great educational technology magazine that offers RSS feeds as well.
6.) The most common method of using Google Reader in the classroom is for teachers to follow blogs. With the ability to create folders you can easily find blogs from teachers who share resources, experiences and ideas for your subject matter. You can easily organize that information to read certain blog post based on what you are in the mood for. Here are some great starting points to find some great blogs:
- The Edublog Awards - There is a past awards directory as well.
- Top 100 Education Blogs
- Top 100 Education Advice Blogs
- 100 Best Blogs for Teachers of the Future
- Moving Forward Wiki - Blogs by Subject and General Blogs
- Top 100 High School Teachers Who Blog
7.) Do your student's blog? If they do, Google reader would be a great way to keep up with all of your students blogs without having to visit each one individually. Create a folder for these blogs and then easily read them at your convenience.
8.) Google Reader allows you to share what you are reading. This would be a great way to collaborate with other teachers in your building so that you can see what they are reading and you can see what they are reading. You can choose a custom style as well as a URL so that it can be easy to find. If you are wanting to get students to comment on each others blogs, this would be a good way to share the blogs with your classes and create a reading and communication portal. When you share your Google Reader you follow people similar to following blogs and you can select what you want to share, so it is not a mass share of your entire reader account. You might share one a week for students to comment on. And for the sake of "sharing", here is My Google Reader.
9.) Google Reader has a neat feature called Notes. This allows you to drag a bookmarklet into your browser and then when you come across something that you might not be subscribe to but want to keep and read for later you can "Note in Reader" so that you have it available for later and have a note about it so you can remember why you marked it. This is a great feature for when you find a resource while surfing the Internet, or a post on a blog that you really like, but might not necessarily want to follow the blog and have a way to save it in something you read all the time.
10.) Sometimes it can be difficult to find an RSS feed on a website. Google Reader has a "Subscribe" bookmarklet that you can insert into your browser and when you visit a site click on that button. It will then search for the sites feed. If it cannot find it, it will let you know. If it finds the feed it will direct you to your Google Reader where it will provide feed stats and then ask if you want to subscribe. This could be very helpful for those teachers who have trouble understanding copy and paste and how to look for a feed. It is also an easy way to subscribe to feeds for your favorite sites.
Cool Websites and Tools [December 16th]Comment Blocker – On many websites the comments sections is filled with obscenities and other spam text you would prefer not to be visible – just ask any YouTube user. Thankfully there are developers out there creating tools to battle the unwanted comments section on websites. CommentBlocker is one such tool. Read more:CommentBlocker: Automatically Block Comments On Websites (Chrome Extension) |
Google Reader and RSS have been a very beneficial addition to my PLN. I like how easy it is to stay organized with the latest information available on the web. It makes reading what is important to me easier, especially since I can use it on the iPhone and iPad. At the same time, Google Reader can be a valuable tool for teachers in the classroom.
1.) We should all be teaching current events. News websites are a great way to keep up to date on current events. Each morning you could check your Google Reader account and share the news with your students. You could take it one step further and subscribe to the feed for CNN and Fox and then compare how the two news station report the news.
2.) I love the weather and in science classes, the weather can be a great unit that can be integrated into other units. TheWeather Channel has an RSS feed that you can subscribe to for national and local forecast, as well as a weather blog. It makes checking the weather forecast much easier and saves me time.
3.) Just mentioned to me by an English teacher is subscribing to a website like The Onion for her unit on teaching satire. You could then compare these stories to the real news stories that you get from tip #1 and discuss the difference in wording.
4.) With an increase in Web 2.0 sites, it is very beneficial to try your best to stay on top of the updates that these software sites go through. What is great about these sites is that they all have a blog that provides updates on the changes to their service or additions that might be useful to know about. Following the Prezi Blog allowed me to learn about the new feature of Prezi Meeting.
5.) There are several free online journals related to the various subject matter and educational technology. The key is finding them and searching them out and then discovering if they have an RSS feed for updated articles. This would be a great way to stay on top of what is going on with your curriculum. Here is a great Directory of Open Access Journals in Education that would be worth starting to look at. THE Journal is a a great educational technology magazine that offers RSS feeds as well.
6.) The most common method of using Google Reader in the classroom is for teachers to follow blogs. With the ability to create folders you can easily find blogs from teachers who share resources, experiences and ideas for your subject matter. You can easily organize that information to read certain blog post based on what you are in the mood for. Here are some great starting points to find some great blogs:
- The Edublog Awards - There is a past awards directory as well.
- Top 100 Education Blogs
- Top 100 Education Advice Blogs
- 100 Best Blogs for Teachers of the Future
- Moving Forward Wiki - Blogs by Subject and General Blogs
- Top 100 High School Teachers Who Blog
7.) Do your student's blog? If they do, Google reader would be a great way to keep up with all of your students blogs without having to visit each one individually. Create a folder for these blogs and then easily read them at your convenience.
8.) Google Reader allows you to share what you are reading. This would be a great way to collaborate with other teachers in your building so that you can see what they are reading and you can see what they are reading. You can choose a custom style as well as a URL so that it can be easy to find. If you are wanting to get students to comment on each others blogs, this would be a good way to share the blogs with your classes and create a reading and communication portal. When you share your Google Reader you follow people similar to following blogs and you can select what you want to share, so it is not a mass share of your entire reader account. You might share one a week for students to comment on. And for the sake of "sharing", here is My Google Reader.
9.) Google Reader has a neat feature called Notes. This allows you to drag a bookmarklet into your browser and then when you come across something that you might not be subscribe to but want to keep and read for later you can "Note in Reader" so that you have it available for later and have a note about it so you can remember why you marked it. This is a great feature for when you find a resource while surfing the Internet, or a post on a blog that you really like, but might not necessarily want to follow the blog and have a way to save it in something you read all the time.
10.) Sometimes it can be difficult to find an RSS feed on a website. Google Reader has a "Subscribe" bookmarklet that you can insert into your browser and when you visit a site click on that button. It will then search for the sites feed. If it cannot find it, it will let you know. If it finds the feed it will direct you to your Google Reader where it will provide feed stats and then ask if you want to subscribe. This could be very helpful for those teachers who have trouble understanding copy and paste and how to look for a feed. It is also an easy way to subscribe to feeds for your favorite sites.
1.) We should all be teaching current events. News websites are a great way to keep up to date on current events. Each morning you could check your Google Reader account and share the news with your students. You could take it one step further and subscribe to the feed for CNN and Fox and then compare how the two news station report the news.
2.) I love the weather and in science classes, the weather can be a great unit that can be integrated into other units. TheWeather Channel has an RSS feed that you can subscribe to for national and local forecast, as well as a weather blog. It makes checking the weather forecast much easier and saves me time.
3.) Just mentioned to me by an English teacher is subscribing to a website like The Onion for her unit on teaching satire. You could then compare these stories to the real news stories that you get from tip #1 and discuss the difference in wording.
4.) With an increase in Web 2.0 sites, it is very beneficial to try your best to stay on top of the updates that these software sites go through. What is great about these sites is that they all have a blog that provides updates on the changes to their service or additions that might be useful to know about. Following the Prezi Blog allowed me to learn about the new feature of Prezi Meeting.
5.) There are several free online journals related to the various subject matter and educational technology. The key is finding them and searching them out and then discovering if they have an RSS feed for updated articles. This would be a great way to stay on top of what is going on with your curriculum. Here is a great Directory of Open Access Journals in Education that would be worth starting to look at. THE Journal is a a great educational technology magazine that offers RSS feeds as well.
6.) The most common method of using Google Reader in the classroom is for teachers to follow blogs. With the ability to create folders you can easily find blogs from teachers who share resources, experiences and ideas for your subject matter. You can easily organize that information to read certain blog post based on what you are in the mood for. Here are some great starting points to find some great blogs:
- The Edublog Awards - There is a past awards directory as well.
- Top 100 Education Blogs
- Top 100 Education Advice Blogs
- 100 Best Blogs for Teachers of the Future
- Moving Forward Wiki - Blogs by Subject and General Blogs
- Top 100 High School Teachers Who Blog
7.) Do your student's blog? If they do, Google reader would be a great way to keep up with all of your students blogs without having to visit each one individually. Create a folder for these blogs and then easily read them at your convenience.
8.) Google Reader allows you to share what you are reading. This would be a great way to collaborate with other teachers in your building so that you can see what they are reading and you can see what they are reading. You can choose a custom style as well as a URL so that it can be easy to find. If you are wanting to get students to comment on each others blogs, this would be a good way to share the blogs with your classes and create a reading and communication portal. When you share your Google Reader you follow people similar to following blogs and you can select what you want to share, so it is not a mass share of your entire reader account. You might share one a week for students to comment on. And for the sake of "sharing", here is My Google Reader.
9.) Google Reader has a neat feature called Notes. This allows you to drag a bookmarklet into your browser and then when you come across something that you might not be subscribe to but want to keep and read for later you can "Note in Reader" so that you have it available for later and have a note about it so you can remember why you marked it. This is a great feature for when you find a resource while surfing the Internet, or a post on a blog that you really like, but might not necessarily want to follow the blog and have a way to save it in something you read all the time.
10.) Sometimes it can be difficult to find an RSS feed on a website. Google Reader has a "Subscribe" bookmarklet that you can insert into your browser and when you visit a site click on that button. It will then search for the sites feed. If it cannot find it, it will let you know. If it finds the feed it will direct you to your Google Reader where it will provide feed stats and then ask if you want to subscribe. This could be very helpful for those teachers who have trouble understanding copy and paste and how to look for a feed. It is also an easy way to subscribe to feeds for your favorite sites.
Unthreaded conversation view in Gmail now available to all Google Apps users
Gmail offers users the ability to switch between conversation view and the traditional message-based unthreaded view. When a user switches to unthreaded view, messages are no longer grouped together into a conversation, and each message is shown as a separate entry in the inbox. The inbox is still sorted in reverse chronological order.
Previously, this feature was only available to domains whose administrators has enabled the ‘enable pre-release features’ checkbox in the Control Panel. This is now available to all Google Apps domains.
Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Partner Edition and Google Apps for Government
Languages included:
All languages supported by Gmail
How to access what's new:
In Gmail ‘Settings’, go to the new ‘Conversation View’ section and choose to have that view on or off and click ‘save changes’.
Note: The mobile web-based view of Gmail will still be threaded, as will the Gmail Mobile Client app. However, if you are using a Blackberry, Window Mobile, iPhone, or Android device, you can access Gmail unthreaded in the native mail clients of those devices using Google’s sync tools.
For more information:
http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/09/threaded-email-or-not-now-its-your.html
Previously, this feature was only available to domains whose administrators has enabled the ‘enable pre-release features’ checkbox in the Control Panel. This is now available to all Google Apps domains.
Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Partner Edition and Google Apps for Government
Languages included:
All languages supported by Gmail
How to access what's new:
In Gmail ‘Settings’, go to the new ‘Conversation View’ section and choose to have that view on or off and click ‘save changes’.
Note: The mobile web-based view of Gmail will still be threaded, as will the Gmail Mobile Client app. However, if you are using a Blackberry, Window Mobile, iPhone, or Android device, you can access Gmail unthreaded in the native mail clients of those devices using Google’s sync tools.
For more information:
http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/09/threaded-email-or-not-now-its-your.html
You can now drag images from your desktop and drop them directly into a document. You can use image drag and drop with the latest versions of Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. We’ll enable it on other browsers, as soon as they support the feature.
Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team, Partner Edition and Google Apps for Government
Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Docs
For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/10/drag-and-drop-images-in-documents.html
Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team, Partner Edition and Google Apps for Government
Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Docs
For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/10/drag-and-drop-images-in-documents.html
Subscribing via RSS & Google Reader to Classroom Blogs
All of our classrooms at MJGDS have their own blog. Several grade levels are piloting individual student portfolios based on a blogging platform.
According to Wikipedia an
RSS Feed Icons
RSS in Plain English Video
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Google Reader in Pain English Video
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Start scanning websites you frequent often for different variations of this RSS feed icon. Some will have the icon listed in a prominent place on the website, others will just have a text link in the sidebar of footer of the page or some will have NO sign that there is an RSS feed available.
You can subscribe, among others to the following RSS feeds:
If you are not sure if a certain page has an RSS feed available and you are using Firefox as your browser, you check for an RSS icon on the right side in the URL Address box. If a feed is available you can see the RSS icon, if there is no icon, then there is no RSS feed available for this site.
Create a Google Account (if you don’t have one already), sign in and and go to Google Reader-http://www.google.com/reader .
When you are at a website that has a RSS feed, you have a few options available to you.
Copy the URL (Web Address) of the site you want to subscribe to and then paste it into the “Add Subscription” box
In your Firefox browser, click on the RSS icon in the URL Address bar
A dropdown menu will appear. Choose the RSS feed
Make sure you select Google from the dropdown menu, you might want to check off the option “Always use Google to subscribe to feeds”, then click the “Subscribe Now” button.
Click “Add to Google Reader”
Click on dropdown menu of “Feed Settings”
Choose an already created folder or choose “New Folder” to create and name.
Your RSS feed will be filed and available in the Subscription Folders in the left sidebar.
A new and unread post will be shown in bold letters.
In order to read the post, click on the title. The post will drop down.
If you would like to read leave a comment on the post or look directly on the blog click on the arrow to the right of the post’s title.
You can also star, organize (tag), share or e-mail the posts by choosing and clicking on one of the icon at the bottom of the post in Google Reader.
- How do you keep up with all this information?
- How do you filter and organize it?
- How can you avoid having to go back to blogs to check if the owner has updated with a new post?
According to Wikipedia an
RSS (most commonly expanded as Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.[2] An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”,[3] or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an “RSS reader”, “feed reader”, or “aggregator”, which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based.
RSS Feed Icons
RSS in Plain English Video
Popout
Google Reader in Pain English Video
Popout
Start scanning websites you frequent often for different variations of this RSS feed icon. Some will have the icon listed in a prominent place on the website, others will just have a text link in the sidebar of footer of the page or some will have NO sign that there is an RSS feed available.
You can subscribe, among others to the following RSS feeds:
- · Blogs
- · Wikis
- · Google Searches for specific topics or keywords
- · Twitter feeds of individual users
- · Facebook feeds for individual users or pages
If you are not sure if a certain page has an RSS feed available and you are using Firefox as your browser, you check for an RSS icon on the right side in the URL Address box. If a feed is available you can see the RSS icon, if there is no icon, then there is no RSS feed available for this site.
Create a Google Account (if you don’t have one already), sign in and and go to Google Reader-http://www.google.com/reader .
When you are at a website that has a RSS feed, you have a few options available to you.
Copy the URL (Web Address) of the site you want to subscribe to and then paste it into the “Add Subscription” box
In your Firefox browser, click on the RSS icon in the URL Address bar
A dropdown menu will appear. Choose the RSS feed
Make sure you select Google from the dropdown menu, you might want to check off the option “Always use Google to subscribe to feeds”, then click the “Subscribe Now” button.
Click “Add to Google Reader”
Click on dropdown menu of “Feed Settings”
Choose an already created folder or choose “New Folder” to create and name.
Your RSS feed will be filed and available in the Subscription Folders in the left sidebar.
A new and unread post will be shown in bold letters.
In order to read the post, click on the title. The post will drop down.
If you would like to read leave a comment on the post or look directly on the blog click on the arrow to the right of the post’s title.
You can also star, organize (tag), share or e-mail the posts by choosing and clicking on one of the icon at the bottom of the post in Google Reader.
I visited Sherwood, Oregon to participate in the first Oregon Google Summit. I set up a new web page with my presentations (in GoogleDocs) and links to my video. I also set up a page on their website. I enjoyed meeting some of the educators in Oregon who are leading this effort, plus a few people from Google who led technical sessions. My "aha" moment: the fact that Folders in GoogleDocs are really tags that can be used to classify documents; single Docs can be tagged to multiple folders without making multiple copies. This concept is different from how we manage files on our computers or server space, which will require a different level of explanation. But it allows portfolio artifacts to be tagged in folders for individual classes (collection), and then also tagged to a Portfolio folder (selection) which can be shared with a teacher. See this Google blog entry by a high school teacher.
My proposals to the Northwest Council for Computer Education conference in March 2011 have been approved:
My proposals to the Northwest Council for Computer Education conference in March 2011 have been approved:
- Presentation: GoogleApps ePortfolios
Oregon was the first state to adopt GoogleApps for all K-12 schools. These powerful tools are ready-made for teachers and students to maintain electronic portfolios. Get an overview of creating artifacts using Google Docs and Picasa, a reflective learning portfolio using Blogger, and a showcase/assessment/presentation portfolio with Google Sites. - 3-hour Workshop: Create ePortfolios using GoogleApps
Oregon was the first state to adopt GoogleApps for all K-12 schools. These powerful tools are ready-made for creating and maintaining electronic portfolios by teachers and students. Learn how to create artifacts using Google Docs and Picasa, a reflective learning portfolio using Blogger, and a showcase/assessment/presentation portfolio with Google Sites. (March 3, 2011, 8:30 AM)
Google Under the Hood - Workshop Outline
This morning I ran a workshop at ACTEM's annual conference. The focus of the workshop was on exploring some of the lesser-known products offered by Google. During the workshop there were four brainstorming sessions during which participants contributed to a Google Document to share their ideas for using these lesser-known Google products in their classrooms. As you go through the slides below you will see the Google products we explored and the links to the brainstorming documents. The brainstorming documents are open to the public so feel free to make your contributions or to save the documents for your own use.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Google Earth Across the Curriculum
Free 33 Page Guide - Google for Teachers
Beyond Google - Improve Your Search Results
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Google Earth Across the Curriculum
Free 33 Page Guide - Google for Teachers
Beyond Google - Improve Your Search Results
Applications for Education
Google Demo Slam could spur the development of some creative and useful technology demonstration videos. Those videos could be useful in technology-focused professional development workshops. Demo Slam could also be a good motivator for students to create their own short demonstration videos while focusing on being clear and concise in their explanations.
How to Embed Google Presentations Into Wikispaces
I was asked this evening if I had directions for embedding presentations made in Google Documents into Wikispacespages. I thought I had published directions for that before, but when I went through my Google Docs folders I realized that I hadn't. Embedded below are directions for embedding presentations made in Google Documents into Wikispacespages.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
How To Do 11 Techy Things in the New School Year
131 Tips for New Teachers
Google Tutorials for Teachers
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
How To Do 11 Techy Things in the New School Year
131 Tips for New Teachers
Google Tutorials for Teachers
Googlios is a site for creating ePortfolios through the use of Google tools that has been getting quite of bit of press online lately. This is done by creating a portfolio using a Google Site.
I highly recommend checking out the video below to get an idea of this relatively easy yet cool project...
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For other ePorfolio ideas check out VisualCV.
Click here for more info on Googlios.
I highly recommend checking out the video below to get an idea of this relatively easy yet cool project...
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For other ePorfolio ideas check out VisualCV.
Click here for more info on Googlios.
YouCanBook.Me - Appointment Booking in Google Calendar
YouCanBook.Me is a free scheduling tool that integrates with your Google Calendar. YouCanBook.Me allows people to book fixed blocks of time in your calendar. You specify the length of each block of time and the dates and times you are available. Visitors to your calendar click a block and enter their email addresses to reserve a block of your time. When a block of time is reserved you receive an email alert. Watch the video here to see a demonstration of YouCanBook.Me.Thanks to Angela Maiers for sharing this on Twitter.
Applications for Education
YouCanBook.Me could be a great tool when it comes time to schedule parent-teacher conferences. Post your YouCanBook.Me calendar on your classroom blog to let parents schedule meetings at a time that is convenient for all parties involved.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Google for Teachers - Free Ebook
Google for Teachers II - Free Ebook
A Fun Video for Introducing Google Docs
How to Create Self-Graded Quizzes in Google Docs
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Applications for Education
Grading quizzes can be a tedious task if you have many students on your roster. Creating and administering quizzes through Google Documents forms can save you time and save paper at the same time. By saving time on grading you can give students feedback quicker than before.Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
5 Tools to Create and Administer Quizzes Online
47 Alternatives to Using YouTube in the Classroom
Google for Teachers II - Free Ebook
Google maintains blogs for all of their various products and services. I subscribe to many of those blogs to stay up to date on the latest enhancements to the products I use on a regular basis. Yesterday, Google introduced a new and better way to stay current on their latest new offerings. Google New is a central location where visitors will find news on the latest updates to Google's products and the newest product offerings from Google. Embedded below is a short video introduction to Google New.Popout
Applications for Education
While you don't have to be as obsessed as I am with the latest tech developments, but it is important for teachers to be aware of new tech developments that can be of use to their students. Visiting Google New from time to time is one way that teachers can find out what's new from one of the most widely-used service providers on the web.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Free 33 Page Guide - Google for Teachers
140 New Things Being Tried In Classroom This Fall
How To Do 11 Techy Things In the New School Year
links for 2010-09-28
I am a huge user and fan of Google's many applications and their use in education. I use Blogger for this blog and my classroom blogs, Google Sites for my classroom site, Google Docs, Google Earth, iGoogle and much more with my students and for my own use. I show my students Google's applications because they are easy to use, useful, and free.
Google recently launched the Google Student Blog. This blog site is a great resource for students who use Google's products. It includes information, updates, how-to's, tips, and much more on how to use Google's applications as a student. If your students use Google's products, they should be reading the Google Student Blog.
Related Articles:
http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/search/label/google
Google Apps Education Training Center
While you don't need a Google Apps account to use this site, it is recommended so that you can experience what you learn. Of course, if you have a Google account you can use many of the apps anyway.
This is a good resource for teachers and students whose school system uses Google Apps or for any teacher or student who uses Google's applications for school.
Many of us already know that using Google Apps can save schools and businesses thousands of dollars every year. Now we have a tool to prove that. Today, Google launched Gone Google. Gone Google is a simple tool for calculating the potential savings organizations could see by switching to Google Apps. Gone Google is based on switching to Google Apps for Enterprise which costs $50/user. The savings for schools that switch to Google Apps for Education at $0/user (yes, free) are greater. Try Gone Google now to see how much your school district could save.
Tech Training Wheels
Tech Training Wheels is a great site created by a group of Google Certified Teachers. They have created some excellent tutorial videos on topics like embedding videos in a Google site, Managing navigation of a Google site, using Sketchup and documents, among others.
They have a community part set up on the site and encourage users to upload their own tutorials.
It is a great site for newbies or even experts to find new tips and ideas.
Tech Training Wheels is a great site created by a group of Google Certified Teachers. They have created some excellent tutorial videos on topics like embedding videos in a Google site, Managing navigation of a Google site, using Sketchup and documents, among others.
They have a community part set up on the site and encourage users to upload their own tutorials.
It is a great site for newbies or even experts to find new tips and ideas.
Google Earth Skills Quiz and Tutorials
This afternoon while trying to remember how to perform a small task in Google Earth I was forced to admit defeat and consult the Google Earth help page. While there I discovered something I hadn't seen before, I discovered Google Earth: Learn, Become an Explorer. Become an Explorer is a nine part series of tutorials, directions, and quizzes regarding Google Earth skills. The series takes users from the basics of navigation through advanced features of Google Earth. Perhaps the best way to describe Google Earth: Learn, Become an Explorer is as a guided scavenger hunt.In case you need a reminder about why geography matters, watch this.
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Applications for EducationGoogle Earth: Learn, Become an Explorer could be a great aid in teaching students how to navigate all of the great things available in Google Earth.
Back in March I published Google for Teachers. Since then it has been viewed more than 50,000 times. As much as that guide had in it, it didn't cover everything that Google offers to teachers. Therefore, I am releasing Google for Teachers II. This guide is designed to introduce and walk teachers through using Google Sites, Google Custom Search, Google Alerts, Google Bookmarks, Google Groups, and Google Calendar.Google Instant - Search As You Type
Earlier today Google launched a new search tool called Google Instant. The benefits of Google Instant being touted Google are faster search, smarter predictions, and instant results. Here's how it works; start typing any search term and as soon as you type a letter search results start to populate, keep typing and the results continue to change until you're done typing. Watch the video below to learn more about Google Instant.Popout
100 Ways Google Can Make You a Better Educator
100 Ways Google Can Make You a Better Educator is a great article on the Online Education Database. The article lists different ways to use Google's applications for communication, collaboration, research, organization and more in the classroom. It is short, sweet, and to the point and gives concrete examples of how to use Google's apps to make education better. Each tip is a link to either a Google app or how-to page or to another online article that describes how to use Google in that way.
The Online Education Database has many more great resources on their page too.
A Simple Guide to Google Video Chat
Google Video Chat is a nice alternative to Skype available to anyone using Gmail. Some folks aren't aware of how easy it is to video chat using Google Video Chat. Therefore, yesterday Google released a simple video guide andPDF guide about it.
Watch the video below.
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Thanks to Steven Anderson for alerting me to this video.
Applications for Education
If you want to video chat with other classrooms around the world, but your school doesn't allow you to install Skype, Google Video Chat is a great web-based alternative.
100 Ways Google Can Make You a Better Educator
The Online Education Database has many more great resources on their page too.
Google Video Chat is a nice alternative to Skype available to anyone using Gmail. Some folks aren't aware of how easy it is to video chat using Google Video Chat. Therefore, yesterday Google released a simple video guide andPDF guide about it.Watch the video below.
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Thanks to Steven Anderson for alerting me to this video.
Applications for Education
If you want to video chat with other classrooms around the world, but your school doesn't allow you to install Skype, Google Video Chat is a great web-based alternative.
Check Out the Google Apps Training Center
This week at the ISTE 2010 conference I learned about new training program available from Google. The Google Apps Training Center is an online learning environment in which teachers and students can learn to effectively use Google Apps in an education setting. The training center offers six modules. The modules are Google Apps Education Edition, Apps Mail, Calendar, Docs, Sites, and "Other Tools." Each module consists of several chapters.
In conjunction with the Google Apps Training Center, Google has launched the Google Certified Trainer program. The Google Certified Trainer program gives people who provide professional development to schools and have passed the tests for all six modules the Google "seal of approval" as Certified Trainers. If you plan to pursue becoming a Google Certified Trainer, bear in mind that you must complete all six modules and pass the tests within 60 days of starting the program. (Thanks to Collette Cassinelli for that tip).
Applications for EducationIf your school has just migrated to Google Apps for Education or is considering migrating to Google Apps for Education, the Google Apps Training Center will be a great resource for learning about the things you can do with Google Apps in your classroom.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Google Earth Across the Curriculum
Free 33 Page Guide - Google for Teachers
Beyond Google - Improve Your Search Results
5 Lesser-Known Google Tools for Students & Teachers
Most people hear "Google" and think of the search engine. But, there is much more to Google than just Internet search. I've written about and constructed how-to guides for many of Google's other products, but there is still more that teachers could find useful. Here are some of the lesser-known Google products that teachers should know about for the 2010/2011 school year.
Google Fast Flip is a magazine-style display of popular articles from some of the most popular websites on the Internet. Content is drawn from news outlets like The Washington Post, Popular Science, The New York Times, and Reuters. The visual display makes it easy to quickly browse through websites. Fast Flip can be a useful resource for social studies students and their teachers.
Google Books virtual bookshelves: Google Books provides an index of millions of books and periodicals. Books and articles in that are in the public domain can be viewed, read, and downloaded in their entirety. Titles not in the public domain can be previewed. If you create a Google account you can build virtual bookshelves of your favorite titles. Bookshelves can be private or you can choose to make them public for others to view. Reading and literature teachers could build virtual bookshelves to share with students when they need to select an independent reading book. Teachers could ask students to contribute their favorite titles to the bookshelves. Learn how to make a Google Books virtual bookshelf here.
Google Image Swirl is an image search tool intended to help people visually refine and alter their searches for images. To use Image Swirl, just enter your search term as you would in the regular image search service. The results of your search will be displayed in a grid similar to that with which you're probably familiar. Click any image in the grid a web of more, related, images will appear. Click an image in the web and another web of images will appear.
Google Wonder Wheel is a search refinement tool that helps students visually refine and alter their web searches. Wonder Wheel displays your original search term(s) as the center of a web with six to eight branches of related search terms. Click on any of those related terms to see the results for those terms. To access Wonder Wheel you must first run a standard search then look for the Wonder Wheel link under the "more search tools" list on the left side of the search results page. Learn about more search refinement tools in Beyond Google.
Google Scholar allows you to search for, find, and read full text legal opinions from scholarly journals, US federal and state district courts, appellate courts, and the Supreme Court. You can search for opinions by case name (like Miranda v. Arizona) or by topic (like school busing). Google Scholar could help schools reduce or eliminate the need to purchase updated legal opinion books every few years.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
How To Do 11 Techy Things in the New School YearFree 33 Page Guide - Google for Teachers
Beyond Google - Improve Your Search Results
Check Out the Google Apps Training Center
This week at the ISTE 2010 conference I learned about new training program available from Google. The Google Apps Training Center is an online learning environment in which teachers and students can learn to effectively use Google Apps in an education setting. The training center offers six modules. The modules are Google Apps Education Edition, Apps Mail, Calendar, Docs, Sites, and "Other Tools." Each module consists of several chapters.In conjunction with the Google Apps Training Center, Google has launched the Google Certified Trainer program. The Google Certified Trainer program gives people who provide professional development to schools and have passed the tests for all six modules the Google "seal of approval" as Certified Trainers. If you plan to pursue becoming a Google Certified Trainer, bear in mind that you must complete all six modules and pass the tests within 60 days of starting the program. (Thanks to Collette Cassinelli for that tip).
Applications for EducationIf your school has just migrated to Google Apps for Education or is considering migrating to Google Apps for Education, the Google Apps Training Center will be a great resource for learning about the things you can do with Google Apps in your classroom.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Google Earth Across the Curriculum
Free 33 Page Guide - Google for Teachers
Beyond Google - Improve Your Search Results
Most people hear "Google" and think of the search engine. But, there is much more to Google than just Internet search. I've written about and constructed how-to guides for many of Google's other products, but there is still more that teachers could find useful. Here are some of the lesser-known Google products that teachers should know about for the 2010/2011 school year.
Google Fast Flip is a magazine-style display of popular articles from some of the most popular websites on the Internet. Content is drawn from news outlets like The Washington Post, Popular Science, The New York Times, and Reuters. The visual display makes it easy to quickly browse through websites. Fast Flip can be a useful resource for social studies students and their teachers.
Google Books virtual bookshelves: Google Books provides an index of millions of books and periodicals. Books and articles in that are in the public domain can be viewed, read, and downloaded in their entirety. Titles not in the public domain can be previewed. If you create a Google account you can build virtual bookshelves of your favorite titles. Bookshelves can be private or you can choose to make them public for others to view. Reading and literature teachers could build virtual bookshelves to share with students when they need to select an independent reading book. Teachers could ask students to contribute their favorite titles to the bookshelves. Learn how to make a Google Books virtual bookshelf here.
Google Image Swirl is an image search tool intended to help people visually refine and alter their searches for images. To use Image Swirl, just enter your search term as you would in the regular image search service. The results of your search will be displayed in a grid similar to that with which you're probably familiar. Click any image in the grid a web of more, related, images will appear. Click an image in the web and another web of images will appear.
Google Wonder Wheel is a search refinement tool that helps students visually refine and alter their web searches. Wonder Wheel displays your original search term(s) as the center of a web with six to eight branches of related search terms. Click on any of those related terms to see the results for those terms. To access Wonder Wheel you must first run a standard search then look for the Wonder Wheel link under the "more search tools" list on the left side of the search results page. Learn about more search refinement tools in Beyond Google.
Google Scholar allows you to search for, find, and read full text legal opinions from scholarly journals, US federal and state district courts, appellate courts, and the Supreme Court. You can search for opinions by case name (like Miranda v. Arizona) or by topic (like school busing). Google Scholar could help schools reduce or eliminate the need to purchase updated legal opinion books every few years.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
How To Do 11 Techy Things in the New School YearFree 33 Page Guide - Google for Teachers
Beyond Google - Improve Your Search Results
Google Fast Flip is a magazine-style display of popular articles from some of the most popular websites on the Internet. Content is drawn from news outlets like The Washington Post, Popular Science, The New York Times, and Reuters. The visual display makes it easy to quickly browse through websites. Fast Flip can be a useful resource for social studies students and their teachers.
Google Books virtual bookshelves: Google Books provides an index of millions of books and periodicals. Books and articles in that are in the public domain can be viewed, read, and downloaded in their entirety. Titles not in the public domain can be previewed. If you create a Google account you can build virtual bookshelves of your favorite titles. Bookshelves can be private or you can choose to make them public for others to view. Reading and literature teachers could build virtual bookshelves to share with students when they need to select an independent reading book. Teachers could ask students to contribute their favorite titles to the bookshelves. Learn how to make a Google Books virtual bookshelf here.
Google Image Swirl is an image search tool intended to help people visually refine and alter their searches for images. To use Image Swirl, just enter your search term as you would in the regular image search service. The results of your search will be displayed in a grid similar to that with which you're probably familiar. Click any image in the grid a web of more, related, images will appear. Click an image in the web and another web of images will appear.
Google Wonder Wheel is a search refinement tool that helps students visually refine and alter their web searches. Wonder Wheel displays your original search term(s) as the center of a web with six to eight branches of related search terms. Click on any of those related terms to see the results for those terms. To access Wonder Wheel you must first run a standard search then look for the Wonder Wheel link under the "more search tools" list on the left side of the search results page. Learn about more search refinement tools in Beyond Google.
Google Scholar allows you to search for, find, and read full text legal opinions from scholarly journals, US federal and state district courts, appellate courts, and the Supreme Court. You can search for opinions by case name (like Miranda v. Arizona) or by topic (like school busing). Google Scholar could help schools reduce or eliminate the need to purchase updated legal opinion books every few years.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
How To Do 11 Techy Things in the New School YearFree 33 Page Guide - Google for Teachers
Beyond Google - Improve Your Search Results
21st Century Workshop
Naomi Harm, one of the truly innovative and special educators around is conducting a workshop on 21st Century Tools using Google Apps. The list of Google Apps is endless and she shares practical easy ways to increase your technology literacy.
I highly recommend checking out this site by clicking here!!!
Using Google Maps with our students
21st Century Workshop
Naomi Harm, one of the truly innovative and special educators around is conducting a workshop on 21st Century Tools using Google Apps. The list of Google Apps is endless and she shares practical easy ways to increase your technology literacy.
I highly recommend checking out this site by clicking here!!!
Naomi Harm, one of the truly innovative and special educators around is conducting a workshop on 21st Century Tools using Google Apps. The list of Google Apps is endless and she shares practical easy ways to increase your technology literacy.
I highly recommend checking out this site by clicking here!!!
Using Google Maps with our students
Google Earth Help
Came across this from a weekly email I receive. If you have students, or even teachers, interested in usingGoogle Earth, it can be a daunting task for many of them. Google Earth has created a quiz/tutorial that has 7 levels plus a bonus level that students/teachers can take to get a better understanding of this great educational tool. The tutorial does a great job of showing all the features and how to use them. Google Earth is a great tool for Earth/Space Science, History, Geography, Math, and Current Events
Twenty Four Interesting Ways* to use Google Docs in the Classroom(*and Tips) by Tom Barrett
Google Earth Help
Came across this from a weekly email I receive. If you have students, or even teachers, interested in usingGoogle Earth, it can be a daunting task for many of them. Google Earth has created a quiz/tutorial that has 7 levels plus a bonus level that students/teachers can take to get a better understanding of this great educational tool. The tutorial does a great job of showing all the features and how to use them. Google Earth is a great tool for Earth/Space Science, History, Geography, Math, and Current Events
Twenty Four Interesting Ways* to use Google Docs in the Classroom(*and Tips) by Tom Barrett
https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhn2vcv5_8323t58h3ft
Tip 88 - Creating Lesson Plans in a Google Spreadsheet
In this tip we’ll explore options for creating your lesson plans using a Google Spreadsheet. Then in Tip 89, we’ll learn how to share your plans with other teachers, and in TIp 90, we’ll learn how to publish your lesson plans for parents and students!
Why use a Google spreadsheet for lesson plans?
• You can enter/edit/view your lesson plans from any computer.
• You can view your lesson plans via a mobile device.
• An entire year’s lesson plans can be saved in one file.
• You can easily share your lesson plans with an administrator, or even with parents and/or students.
• If you team teach, multiple teachers can add/edit lesson plans.
• Repeating events can easily be copied and pasted.
• You can enter as much or a little as you want and each cell will automatically expand to fit your info.
• You can save some trees by doing paperless lesson plans.
How to do it:
Note - Since everyone’s needs will be different, I’m going to provide generic instructions and let you adapt them as needed.
1. Go to docs.google.com or go to your school’s Google Apps start page and choose Google Docs.
2. Resize columns and rows as desired.
3. Add labels to the top rows and to the left two or three columns.
4. Pull down the Tools menu to freeze the rows and columns that contain your labels.
5. Use the toolbar at the top of the page to fancy it up -- change fonts, sizes, borders, and colors as desired.
6. Enter your plans, one day per row!
Options for Lesson Plans:
• You can keep your entire year’s lesson plans on this one sheet. Just keep adding each day’s plans as a new row in the spreadsheet.
• To view the most current lesson plan, either scroll to the bottom, or sort the “Date” column “from Z to A” so that the most current plans are at the top! (Click the header above the date column to see sorting options.)
Advanced Options for Lesson Plans:
• To automatically highlight today’s date: a. Click the header above your “Date” label. b. Pull down to “Change colors with rules...” c. Use the pull-down menus to choose “Date is” and “today.” d. Click to choose the desired background color. e. Click the “Save rules” button!
• To have the day of the week enter automatically: a. Click to select your top “Day” cell. b. Enter this formula: =MID(TEXT(A3; "yyEEEE" );3;32) c. Replace the cell reference “A3” with the cell containing your first date. d. Fill down the formula. (Click the dark square in the lower-left corner of the cell and drag down. Note - Your cursor should look like a skinny plus sign while filling down.) Now when you enter a date in column A, the day of the week will automatically appear in column B!
Why use a Google spreadsheet for lesson plans?
• You can enter/edit/view your lesson plans from any computer.
• You can view your lesson plans via a mobile device.
• An entire year’s lesson plans can be saved in one file.
• You can easily share your lesson plans with an administrator, or even with parents and/or students.
• If you team teach, multiple teachers can add/edit lesson plans.
• Repeating events can easily be copied and pasted.
• You can enter as much or a little as you want and each cell will automatically expand to fit your info.
• You can save some trees by doing paperless lesson plans.
How to do it:
Note - Since everyone’s needs will be different, I’m going to provide generic instructions and let you adapt them as needed.
1. Go to docs.google.com or go to your school’s Google Apps start page and choose Google Docs.
2. Resize columns and rows as desired.
3. Add labels to the top rows and to the left two or three columns.
4. Pull down the Tools menu to freeze the rows and columns that contain your labels.
5. Use the toolbar at the top of the page to fancy it up -- change fonts, sizes, borders, and colors as desired.
6. Enter your plans, one day per row!
Options for Lesson Plans:
• You can keep your entire year’s lesson plans on this one sheet. Just keep adding each day’s plans as a new row in the spreadsheet.
• To view the most current lesson plan, either scroll to the bottom, or sort the “Date” column “from Z to A” so that the most current plans are at the top! (Click the header above the date column to see sorting options.)
Advanced Options for Lesson Plans:
• To automatically highlight today’s date: a. Click the header above your “Date” label. b. Pull down to “Change colors with rules...” c. Use the pull-down menus to choose “Date is” and “today.” d. Click to choose the desired background color. e. Click the “Save rules” button!
• To have the day of the week enter automatically: a. Click to select your top “Day” cell. b. Enter this formula: =MID(TEXT(A3; "yyEEEE" );3;32) c. Replace the cell reference “A3” with the cell containing your first date. d. Fill down the formula. (Click the dark square in the lower-left corner of the cell and drag down. Note - Your cursor should look like a skinny plus sign while filling down.) Now when you enter a date in column A, the day of the week will automatically appear in column B!
Image credit: Adventure Maker
