Do Not Go Digital Recently I was in a teacher’s classroom and she was showing off these awesome geometry town projects her students had created. She gleefully told me how much fun the students had being creative in designing their town. Some students took the assignment well beyond the minimum requirements and even started to devise how the town government would work. After demonstrating Google Drawing she pondered that the students could do this same project in Google Draw. Yes…. you could… BUT…. Technology was not going to improve this project. Sometimes the right technology is no technology. If a teacher does not have mobile devices to allow students to submit pictures of their non-digital work, students can still attach pictures through the Google Classroom site. Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2015
The Best Google Drive Add-ons for Creating Flowcharts and Diagrams December , 2015 Google Docs has a number of interesting features that render it an awesome productivity tool to use in your instruction. With the use of add-ons, the strength of Google Docs is even expanded allowing you to do amazing things with your documents. From creating mindmaps and bibliographies to generating word clouds and electronically signing documents, the educational possibilities in Google Docs are endless. In today’s post we are bringing to your attention four excellent add-ons you can use to easily create beautiful charts, diagrams, and flowcharts right in your documents.1- Lucidchart Lucid chart is an excellent Google Docs add-on that allows you to create and insert diagrams, flowcharts and mind maps into your Docs. 2- Gliffy Cliffy is another great tool to use in your Google Docs to create professional looking diagrams and flowcharts. 3- Charts Charts allows you to build a chart from data in your Google Spreadsheet and insert that right into your document.
A Good Google Drive App for Creating Photo Collages May 16, 2015 Here is an excellent Chrome app for creating photo collages. Loupe Collage is a web based tool that is integrated with Google Drive and enables users to easily create beautiful photo collages. Loupe Collage supports a wide variety of shapes. You can turn your photos into hearts, animals, words, logos and many more. You can even draw your own shapes and add them to your collages. Besides being able to upload photos directly from your local drive, Loupe Collage has recently released a new update which enables users to use photos they have on other websites such as Google Plus, Google Drive, Flickr, Google Image search, Twitter...etc. Here is a round-up of the features provided by Loupe Collage:
A Comprehensive Collection of Some of The Best Google Drive Add-ons for Teachers and Educators January 4, 2015 Google Drive has proved to be an indispensable tool in teachers digital toolkit. It provides everything teachers need to write up a document, create a quick presentation or spreadsheet and design beautiful visuals and drawings, creative possibilities in Google Drive are endless. Additionally, Drive works across different devices and platforms so you can easily continue working on your documents anywhere you go and without even the need for Internet connection. In 2015 Google Drive has known a lot of improvements with the addition of a number of key features. We have covered all of these features in Drive for Teachers section here in EdTech and mLearning.
Teachers' Guide to The Use of Google Voice in Education May 24, 2015 Google Voice is a great communicational utility with huge educational potential. As a teacher, you can use Google Voice to obtain a phone number to use when communicating with students and parents without you revealing your personal phone number. You can connect your Google Voice number with multiple phone numbers (e.g landline number, mobile number, work number) and have incoming calls routed to all of these numbers simultaneously. You can also select a single number to forward all your incoming calls to. The voicemail features of Google Voice are also wonderful. All voicemails are recorded and transcribed. From language teaching to storytelling, Google Voice can be used in a variety of ways with students. 2- Voicemail Transcription 3- One Number 4- SMS to Email 5- Share Voicemails 6- Conference Calls 7- Mobile App
6 Terrific Tools to Transform Your 2016 Presented by Suzy Lolley, Instructional Technology Specialist for Cherokee County Schools in Georgia Hosted by Common Sense Education Looking for terrific tools to kick off 2016? Want to expand your “digital toolkit” this year? This live, interactive webinar will cover these teacher favorites: Developing dynamic presentations with Microsoft Office Sway Creating snazzy graphics and photo editing with CanvaAbsorbing interactive daily news stories with NewselaPlaying and making educational games with TinyTapGetting formative assessment feedback with KahootBuilding digital portfolios with Seesaw Join Suzy Lolley, Instructional Technology Specialist for Cherokee County Schools in Georgia, to learn about these tools and see examples of how you can use them to support your own teaching. Suzy Lolley is a thirteen-year veteran of middle and high school ELA education. A CE certificate will be emailed to live attendees within 24 hours of the live event.
Five Great Google Education Tools You probably already use Google daily, either for Web searches, email, or maps. The tech company is increasingly involved in modernizing education, and it has developed several ventures to encourage an interest in science and computer programming. Some of these ventures are contests, and some are designed for use by afterschool or summer programs. But you can access this great content even if you don’t officially participate in a program. Many of these activities use art, music, and social awareness to make technical lessons more appealing. Take a look at these activities, and start thinking outside the little Google search box. Image via Flickr by Lexie Flickinger Google Science Fair With this worldwide contest, Google has thought far beyond the high school gymnasium science fair that we all know. Made with Code The Made with Code project is designed to show girls that coding is cool. Doodle 4 Google CS First Google Educator Groups Still innovating
20 Google tools teachers should try (and how to use them in classrooms) There’s a reason teachers like Google tools. They’re free, easy to use, and you already have an account on basically all of them. Add in the fact that Google is making a huge push into the world of teacher tools and you quickly realize it’s a good time to be a teacher. There are a ton of Google tools that you should try out. But not all of them are relevant to your classroom. See Also: 6 little-known Google tools you should try today First, check out the graphic we worked hard on making for you. Google Tools Teachers Should Try (And How To Use Them In Classrooms) Scroll the whole way down this VERY long visual for links and more! Links And Other Information Privacy and Security Tools Ensure your students’ (and your!) Google Drive Take your classroom paperless, collaborate, and share easily with this one stop for all of your documents. Docs/Sheets/Slides Easy to use word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation tools for classroom work and professional development. Google Sites Calendar Forms
Posting a Daily Warm-Up If you give a daily warm-up, you can use Google Classroom to facilitate the administration. Create a generic Google Form. Link to the live Form view in the “About” tab of Google Classroom. Have students use the same form every day to fill out the “5 a day.” Go to Google Drive and create a Google Form for your daily warm up. View sample warm up Google Form: If you would like to make a copy of the above Google Form warm-up template click here to view the edit screen. Since you will use the same Google Form for the daily warm-up, you can place the link to the Form in the “About” tab of Google Classroom. Click on “Add materials…” to add the link to the Google Form. Title the material “Daily Warm-Up Link.” Daily, the students will click on the “About” tab to access the Warm-Up. Since the Google Form is generic, you will need to display the questions in another location besides the Google Form. Students will reference the posted questions and answer in the Google Form.
A Comprehensive Guide of Everything Teachers Need to Know about Google Classroom May 26, 2015 Since its release awhile ago, Google Classroom has been such a hit in the EdTech world with millions of teachers already incorporating it in their daily instruction.With this widespread use of Google Classroom, Google rolled out a host of important updates to improve the functionality of Classroom and to respond to the emerging needs of educators. All of these updates are included in this post. Today’s post is intended to help teachers and educators make the best of Google Classroom by providing them with access to some very useful resources, materials and tips on the use of Classroom in education. All of these resources are created and provided by Classroom Help Center. 1- What is Google Classroom? “Classroom is designed to help teachers create and collect assignments paperlessly, including time-saving features like the ability to automatically make a copy of a Google document for each student. 2- How does Google Classroom Work? Teachers Students