12 Online Tools For Effective Teacher to Student and Parent Communication Guest post by Reese Jones & Shelly Sanchez Terrell Having a clear and positive communication with the students and their parents are a vital necessity among educators. According to School Family, good communication results in increased student achievement and better services from the school. An effective way in pursuit of this is through the use of technology, specifically the internet. This practice is becoming evident among 21st century educators whose are utilizing digital facilities and implementing the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) system. Organizations like Microsoft and O2 support digital facilities and launch their own way of supporting education thru technology. Google Forms As part of Google Drive, Google Forms provide an interactive way of exchanging information with your students and their parents. Blogs Colorful Posters/Graphics Even if you have a dedicated classroom blog, it’s always good to keep your homeroom bulletin board updated. Remind 101 Screencasts Cel.ly Wiki Twitter
80 Interesting Ways to Use Google Forms to Support Learning I am pleased to relaunch this popular resource form the Interesting Ways series after a little bit of TLC. If you are new to the idea behind the Interesting Ways series, they are open Google Presentations which teachers add their ideas to – one idea, one slide, one image. They have been running for years now and have proven massively helpful to teachers across the world as crowdsourced idea banks to share with colleagues. I have checked through this one on Google Forms and updated the first and last slides – I hope you find the ideas useful and of course please feel free to follow the link below to add your own ideas (jump to the last slide for info on what to do) after all that is what they are here for! Add your ideas by editing the document. Thanks to everyone for helping to support these resources – I will continue to work through them all in the coming weeks and update and tend to them accordingly.
How To Create Courses That Sell Online Are you creating and marketing courses teaching others your expertise? Are you helping your clients to design courses they will market and leverage to grow their business? The “teaching others” business has expanded into a 7 billion industry and the opportunity to apply your e-learning design skills in this market is enormous. I have experienced courses, (some good and a lot of them not-so-good), interviewed the creators of courses generating 6 –figure+ revenue, created 6- and 7-figure courses myself, and in the process identified the universal patterns of success. What The Experts Who Generate 6 - and 7 - Figures in Online Course Revenue Do Differently They solve a very specific problemInstead of “helping people grow their businesses online,” it’s “how to get 10,000 fans of Facebook” Instead of “how to become a better knitter” it’s “learn the best cast-on and bind-off for your lace projects.”Brain Bit: Our attention decreases after 10 minutes of “learning”.
Cool Ways to Use Google to Inspire Your Students to Create Dynamic Worlds Thanks to the Internet, we can now see more detailed views of the world than ever before. A student wondering what the Eiffel Tower looks like doesn’t have to wait for that once-in-a-lifetime trip to Paris: Google Street View has the answer. As interesting as virtual sightseeing can be, the novelty wears off sooner rather than later. However, having your students create and present their own tours for class assignments will maintain their interest. Google Maps and Google Earth, both free, are two of the most popular tools for taking virtual journeys. With both applications, students can create tours of the places they hope to visit someday—or, perhaps, the settings of their favorite books—and build tours of places they’ve been. Their excursions don’t all have to be rooted in reality: encourage students to invent stories about a character traveling the globe who meets people along the way. Google Maps Engine Lite is a Google Maps tool for crafting custom maps by adding placemarks.
This is How to Automatically Grade Quizzes Using Google Forms March 26, 2014 Today somebody emailed me asking for a web tool to use for automatic grading. The first thing that comes to my mind is Flubaroo. Flubaroo is a free tool that helps you quickly grade assignments and email grading reports to your students. I have been using it with my students and I love the work it does. You will notice a Spreadsheet in your Drive entitled "Responses". Search for Flubaroo in the search pane and then click on "install" Grant authorization to the app Now click on Flubaroo from within your spreadsheet and select "Grade Assignment" Select a grading option for each of the questions your in your assignment or click on skip grading if you don't want to grade a question.Next click on "continue". Now select which submission you want to use as the Answer Key.This submission is the one you made when you first completed the form. After the grading is completed a new worksheet called "Grades" will be created.
10 ways I use Google Forms in my tablet classroom Image courtesy of TBR Mohamed El-Ashiry takes a look at ways of using Google Forms in the classroom. I am one of Google Forms‘ biggest fans! I have many reasons to love the service, and I use it in many different ways. While there have been many other advantages, the biggest advantage of using Google Forms in my classroom is being able to give students immediate feedback. In my classroom, students have had tablets (iPads) for two years now. 1. Student self-assessment is a very powerful tool in any classroom. 2. Peer-assessment also plays a critical role in any classroom. 3. In my classes, whenever I assign the students a major assessment task, I show them them the rubric that will be used to assess their work. 4. Google Forms has been a great way of documenting student merit points and rewards for positive behaviour. 5. Teachers are required to maintain evidence of any professional development they undertake. 6. I have created several reflection forms for students to use in my classroom.
You Can Now Edit Microsoft Office Files in Google Docs Google announced on Wednesday that Google Docs users can now edit Microsoft Office files through the cloud-based platform, a move that eliminates the limitations of making Docs a full-time home office option. Google also announced on Wednesday during its I/O Developers Conference that users can now open Word, Excel and PowerPoint files and save them in their native formats via its suite of cloud-based software. This means you'll be able to view, create and share documents, spreadsheets and presentations on both mobile devices and the desktop. There's offline support too, so users can make edits or start from scratch without an Internet connection and then sync up later. Google Docs users will have ability to save and edit any type of file Google Docs users will have ability to save and edit any type of file, including old Microsoft Office files, and convert them to Google Docs. Have something to add to this story? BONUS: 5 Surprising Facts About Google
Kaizena · Give Great Feedback Connected Learning to the Max with Google+ Connected Learning to the Max with Google+ Presented at ISTE 2014, Atlanta, GA Tuesday, July 1, 8:30 am - 9:30 am EDT (Eastern Daylight Time) Building/Room: GWCC B407 Presenters: Charlene Chausis -- Creativity & Innovation Specialist, Aptakisic Jr. Session description: Google+ is all the rage in social media. Join this demonstration of Google+ Streams, Circles, Communities, and Hangouts. Connected Learning to the Max with Google+ Connected Learning to the Max with Google+
The New Collaborative Classroom Experience The learning experience needs to be dynamic and personalized. Chalkup was created to make for a more collaborative experience in the classroom - and to actually get students more involved in their learning. We've made some great updates today to make it even easier for classes to come together as a community of learners. It's all about collaboration. Working together can be the key to a more successful class. All-new designUp-votes and comment repliesView the “Trending” Class DiscussionsCreate a Real-Time Class PollNew Quote and Collaboration DiscussionsMark responses “Solved” by Instructors with badges in Question discussions. Beautiful new assignments design. Chalkup is the simplest way to create, share and discuss assignments, but now assignments have an all-new design. We also added lots of small improvements based on some great user feedback! Check out the new features!
Handy Google Drive Tip for Teachers- Moving Docs to Multiple Folders July 25, 2014 Here is an excellent Google Drive tip I learned today from Shake Up Learning. As much as I love Google Drive and spend so much time discovering its hidden tricks and features I must say that this new tip has completely taken me by surprise and I am not sure how I missed it. This new tip allows you to move Google Drive files, documents, presentations and spreadsheets into multiple folders. For instance, you have tow folders for two separate classes and you want to share a document you have written with both classes. Open the document you want to share and then click on the folder icon. Alternatively, you don't have to open the document to do this. Now if you want to add the document to a single folder you can simply select the name of the folder and click add to but if you want to add it to multiple folders, hold the control key (Windows) or the command key (Mac) as you click to select multiple folders.