4 Important Google Drive Skills for Teachers December 3, 2015 As we were sifting through our Google Drive archive here in EdTech and mLearning it dawned on us to create this list of important tips and hacks every teacher should be aware of. We labelled them as skills because once mastered they have the potential of transforming teachers' Drive experience and enable them to tap into its real educational potential. We invite you to check them out and share with your colleagues. 1- Create Shared Folder in Google Drive You can easily create a shared folder and share it with your students. A- Create a folder B- Name your folder C- Customize sharing setting of your folder D- Customize visibility settings of your folder E- Share your folder Now anything you add to that folder will be automatically displayed in students Drive. 2- Install Google Drive Apps''To install apps compatible with your Drive: Courtesy of Google Drive Help.
The First Step In EdTech Integration? Connecting With Students - The First Step In EdTech Integration? Connecting With Students by Rachelle Dene Poth You can always find a lot of discussion about the best ways, tools, and ideas for integrating technology in the classroom. Educating yourself about the tools available and best strategies for integrating technology into the classroom is important to stay up to date with your profession. Teachers may find themselves on varying ends of the spectrum of being technology savvy. I have grown up in the age of computing, and as a result, incorporating technology into my classroom was not something I was afraid to do–nor was it a seamless process either. So where to begin? For my classroom, it came down to what I have referred to as a “disconnect” between my students, our class and their access to vital resources. “Edtech integration,” I wondered to myself “has to start there.” The Need For Communication Resources So how did this impact my classroom? Think connections. The First Step In EdTech Integration?
Spreadsheets/Forms - Integrating iPads & Google Tools 4 Teachers Google offers a spreadsheet as part of its office tool suite. A spreadsheet helps you organize data in columns and rows and can generate graphs using the data. Google Spreadsheet has the added features of being stored online to allow access from any online computer. Collecting data from multiples users has always been quite the challenge. Here are some examples of how you can use Google spreadsheets: * Collect names, addresses, and emails of group members or class parents * Create a survey for opinions. votes, or preferences * Collaborate with others for data collection (ie, fast food nutritional information, State facts, Historical data) * Financial Planning or Budgeting * Plan a project * Collect and store student information Here's how: Another option is to upload an existing Excel spreadsheet. If you would rather have the users enter the data into a FORM - go to New > Form and you will see the beginnings of a web form. Example of peer evaluation form from HS science class
Educational Technology and Mobile Learning: A Step by Step Guide on How to Create Interactive Presentations Using The New Google Slides Features May 6, 2016 After posting about the new Slides’ Q&A feature, we received a couple of questions regarding its usage. So we created this visual guide to walk you through the process of integrating questions in your presentation. But let us firs start with a refresher about what Slides Q&A is all about.This is a new functionality that allows members of your audience to engage with your presentation by asking realtime questions while you are presenting. Here is how to start a live Q&A session during a presentation with Google Slides. ‘Open a presentation in Google Slides.At the top, next to "Present," click the Down arrow.Click Presenter View. In the new window, click Audience tools.To start a new session, click Start new.To resume a recent session, click Continue recent.To stop accepting questions, click the on/off switch in the Q&A window.’ This is how to show questions from the audience: To present questions live to your audience: Source: Docs Help Center
25 Tips For Teaching With Apps 25 Tips For Teaching With Apps by Terry Heick We’ve done tips in the past for teaching with tablets. 1. If you’re going to use something important, interdependent, and new, you’re going to need some kind of model or framework to contextualize it. “Despite the rhetoric around m-learning virtually guaranteeing contextualised learning, very few of these scenarios rated highly in the scales for authenticity. It is mobility and access that underscores learning through apps, and using this technology without adjusting the design of learning experiences could yield underwhelming results. 2. There are a lot of apps, tools, and platforms out there. They call themselves a “discovery engine,” and that’s exactly how they function. You can create your own app collection, or see other collections created by other teachers, along with comments and feedback, which apps are trending, how many collections certain apps are included in, and so on. 3. You can’t download everything at once. 4. 5. 6. Not magic.
Making the Most of Google Docs: Tips & Lesson Ideas Since attending the Google Teacher Academy in April, I have been trying to learn as much as possible about each Google application. The result? So, in this blog want to share some information on basic functionality as well as fun ideas for using Google Docs (now Google Drive for some of us) with students. Back to Basics Let’s start with a definition, Google Docs “is a suite of products that lets you create different kinds of online documents, work on them in real time with other people, and store your documents and your other files — all online, and all for free.” Types of Docs: Documents Documents are a free online word processor. Click here to check out “Google Docs in the Classroom” a resource created by CUE and WestEd for Google. Forms “Collect RSVPs, run a survey, or quickly create a team roster with a simple online form. Use forms to: – Collect student data & get to know them better – Create rubrics & quick assessments – Support peer and self assessments Spreadsheets Use spreadsheets to: 1.
Back up photos & videos - Android - Google Photos Help Teaching With YouTube: 197 Digital Channels For Learning Teaching With YouTube: 197 Digital Channels For Learning If you don’t have a YouTube channel as an education provider, there’s a good chance you’re behind the times. Nearly every major educational institution in the world now hosts its own collection of videos featuring news, lectures, tutorials, and open courseware. Just as many individuals have their own channel, curating their expertise in a series of broadcasted lessons. These channels allow instructors to share information and blend media in unprecedented and exciting new ways. From teaching Mandarin Chinese to busting myths about Astronomy, the educational possibilities are diverse and dynamic. Here are the top channels worth following based on views, subscriptions, and quality of content: General YouTube EDU: Launched in 2009, Youtube EDU centralizes content from over 100 universities and colleges, providing access to lectures, research, and campus tours. Physical Sciences Engineering & Technology Mathematics Mr. The Arts
Must Have Chrome Apps for The New School Year August 20, 2015 You probably are already working on your digital toolkit making it ready for the start of a new school year. Part of your preparation will definitely consist of making decision on the kind of web applications and mobil apps you will be incorporating in your teaching. This means that you need to have a fairly decent knowledge of educational web tools out there and the potentialities they can offer to your instruction. To this end and to help you make informed decisions about the technology to use in your class, we went ahead and did some digging into our archive and curated this collection comprising some of the best educational Chrome apps out there. We hope you will find it useful. 1- Chrome Apps for Math Teachers 2- Chrome Apps for Recording and Editing Audio 3- Chrome Apps for Annotating and Editing PDFs 4- Chrome Apps for Bookmarking and Curating Content 5- Chrome Apps to Enhance Students Reading Experiences 6- Chrome Apps to Enhance Teachers Productivity
Educational Technology and Mobile Learning: 3 Great Grading Add-ons for Google Docs July 3, 2016 Below are two Google Docs add-ons that you can use to grade students assignments and provide written feedback to them. The apps will absolutely facilitate your grading and save you some precious time to spend on other instructional tasks. Check them out and share with us your feedback. Enjoy 1- Grading Help ‘GradingHelp leverages Google Docs comments, so you can easily link between the student's text and the related comment, which appears in the margin. 2- OrangeSlice: Teacher Rubric ‘OrangeSlice: Teacher Rubric increases the teacher’s grading productivity by eliminating repetitive clicks, presenting the rubric selections in an easy to use format and presenting the final grades in a consistent, professional format. 3- JoeZoo Express
7 Ways You Can Use Texting to Your Advantage in the Classroom If you were to take a glance around a classroom in which no smartphone policy has been set, it would be easy to conclude that texting at school is nothing but a distraction. Just look at all of those bent heads and rapidly moving thumbs! Take a look at the caliber of those texts — “wat r u doing l8er” — and it would also be easy to assume texting will one day bring about the end of literacy and analytical thought, if it hasn’t already. This may be true — and it may also not be. The studies in this area are even newer than texting itself, and results are mixed, with one study indicating that texting makes students worse in one academic area while another study finds the opposite. Photo credit: Gordon Mei Why Texting May Not Be As Bad As You Think It Is 1. Texting, just like conversational speech, is loose in structure and lacks any concern for the rules. Considered in this light, texting in itself is its own dialect. 2. What’s behind this? 3. The same goes for texting. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.