Back to School With Google Docs Last year all of the students in our school district received Google Docs accounts and I was kept quite busy all year getting students up and running and then finding innovative ways to use the tools for learning. Upon reflection,if I got the opportunity to do it all over again there are three things I would make sure to do at the start of the year to kick off Google Docs. 1. Encourage Teachers to Create an In Box with a Google Form One of the challenges of using Google Docs with a class full of students is in managing all those Google Docs. While it's fairly easy for students to learn to share their work with you, the clutter that ends up in your email box can be overwhelming. Teachers create and publish a Google Form, or In Box, in a convenient place for students to access. 2. The Google Docs revision history tracks all changes that have been made to a document by each collaborator, which makes this a useful feature for student accountability. 3. How to Use an Existing Templates
Find facts and do research inside Google Documents Today we’re introducing the research pane—a new feature that brings the web’s wealth of information to you as you’re writing documents. The research pane taps into Google Search directly from Google documents, so whether you want to add a cool destination to your itinerary for an upcoming trip to India or you're looking for the perfect presidential quote for a political science paper, you don’t even have to open a new tab. You can access the research pane from the Tools menu by right clicking on a selected word that you want to learn more about, or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+R on Windows or Cmd+Alt+R on Mac. From the research pane, you can search for whatever info you need to help you write your document. With just a couple clicks you can look up maps, quotes, images, and much more. If you find something you like, you can add it by clicking the insert button or, for images, by dragging them directly into your document.
100+ Google Tricks for Teachers It's Google's world, we're just teaching in it. Now, we can use it a little more easily. With classes, homework, and projects–not to mention your social life–time is truly at a premium for all teachers, so why not take advantage of the wide world that Google has to offer? From super-effective search tricks to Google tools specifically for education to tricks and tips for using Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar, these tricks will surely save you some precious time. Search Tricks These search tricks can save you time when researching online for your next project or just to find out what time it is across the world, so start using these right away. Convert units. Google Specifically for Education From Google Scholar that returns only results from scholarly literature to learning more about computer science, these Google items will help you at school. Google Scholar. Google Docs 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. Gmail 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. Google Calendar 44.
Tech Tools for Teachers: Social-bookmarking By Nik Peachey Nik Peachey explores social-bookmarking and how we can use it to save bookmarks online to access them from any computer. Nik provides a comprehensive overview article on the use of social-bookmarking, including a list of tools to collate web pages like scrible and Delicious, a downloadable lesson plan, a video screencast tutorial and a printable how-to guide. What is social-bookmarking? To explain what social bookmarking is, let’s first look at bookmarking. In this article, we look at the use of social-bookmarking to see how it can be used to share ideas and enhance learning. Equipment needed | Why is social-bookmarking useful for language teaching? Equipment needed You don’t need any special equipment to get involved in social-bookmarking, though many social-bookmarking services do offer you browser plug-ins and bookmarklets that can make using their services faster and more efficient. Why is social-bookmarking useful for language teaching? Tips for creating social bookmarks
4 New Ways to Use Google Docs Forms with Students - Getting Smart by Susan Oxnevad - free technology, GAFE, google docs, multimedia, video The Google Docs form is an efficient tool for teaching and learning because it is user friendly, free, and works on most computing devices. Forms can be embedded into a variety of online learning platforms or emailed directly to students for easy access. Recently, Google improved the form by adding some multimedia features, providing teachers with more ways to use it for guided, independent learning. Embed YouTube Video into a Google Docs Form Now you can embed live YouTube video right into a form to create a guided video lesson for students. Create a Self-Grading Quiz with Google Docs Forms and Flubaroo Information collected through a Google Docs form is instantly displayed in a spreadsheet. Embed an Image Into a Google Docs Form Pictures can be powerful tools for launching writing activities. Use a Google Docs Form as an Exit Ticket Gauge student understanding and evaluate the effectiveness of a lesson by using a form as an exit ticket. Final Thoughts
Back to School With Google Docs Last year all of the students in our school district received Google Docs accounts and I was kept quite busy all year getting students up and running and then finding innovative ways to use the tools for learning. Upon reflection,if I got the opportunity to do it all over again there are three things I would make sure to do at the start of the year to kick off Google Docs. 1. Encourage Teachers to Create an In Box with a Google Form One of the challenges of using Google Docs with a class full of students is in managing all those Google Docs. While it's fairly easy for students to learn to share their work with you, the clutter that ends up in your email box can be overwhelming. Teachers create and publish a Google Form, or In Box, in a convenient place for students to access. 2. The Google Docs revision history tracks all changes that have been made to a document by each collaborator, which makes this a useful feature for student accountability. 3. How to Use an Existing Templates
Adding Voice Comments to Google Docs Got Better Now February, 2014 Kaizena is one of my favourite web tools for adding comments to Google Docs. When granting Kaizena access to your Google Drive you will be able to add both text and voice comments to your documents and anyone who has access to these documents can also see these comments. This could be a great way for sharing audio as well as written feedback with students . A few days ago, Kaizena rolled out some interesting new features to its service. With this new update, users now can import not only documents they have stored on their Drive but they can also import entire folders : We’ve made it a lot easier for you to import a large volume of documents. Watch this video to learn more about Kaizena
25 Things Teachers Should Know About Gamification Gamification has been a big buzzword in education in recent times. Using game-style methods to incentivize students to get their learn on can be fun and effective teaching and learning methods.Take a look at these 25 things that all teachers should know about gamification. See Also: The 100-Second Guide To Gamification In Education From the most simple questions (like, ‘what is gamification, anyway?) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. Dr.