Google Training

Google Training 2-7-14

Just a quick review of learned material from 2-7-14 PD

Google Connected Classrooms: Bring the world into your classroom using Google+

Google Connected Classrooms

Google Connected Classrooms allow teachers and students to go on Virtual Field Trips for free.  100's of reputable providers have created field trips but teachers and students can also create their own.  Some key features.  When used live you can have remote video playing of a presenter with a Q and A session running on the side.

Google Hangouts and Google Air:  Both of these are similar in function.  Google Hangouts seems to have some great use when it comes to collaboration between teachers from different schools, countries, etc.  The possibilities seem to be endless.  Once you start you will find that you can share video, screens, pictures, voice, and much more.  I think this is a much more useful tool then Skype.  You also have the ability to record the entire experience for use at a later date.

• Google Hangouts Guide for Teachers
• Google Hangouts in Education for Air

Google Sites:  A Google product that allows you to quickly create websites.  For novice users this is a great resource if you are looking to put together a website but do not want to learn HTML.  How do I access this?  sites.google.com  Once you create a site you are able to edit the site very easily.  The edit feature looks similar to a Google Doc

Getting Sand Everywhere:  Website that lists different Scripts that can be used in Google Drive to help make your life a little easier.

The Learning Revolution Project:  A great resource that curates technology related professional development courses and events for teachers all in one source.  The best feature from this site is the ability to embed the sites Google Calendar into your own personal calendar.

A nice document put together by Mike Geraghty explaining different apps and extensions.

D230 Learning Mobile Explorations:  A Google Site created by Lucy Gray as a history of the 1:1 process through the 2013-2014 school year.

Personality WebQuest

Personality Web Quest

Today was the first day that all machines worked as they should.  Overall it was a very successful day.  We started out class with a 6 question formative quiz taken using the Mastery Manager Online Portal.  Then we moved onto a Web Quest.  The Quest itself was shared through Google Drive to each individual student using Doctopus.  I showed students then how to split their screen on the Chromebooks using an extension called.  *Split Screen* which will divide the chrome-browser into two equal browser windows.  

I was able to re-collect all assignments back through Doctopus which allowed me to quickly grade the assignment and email out the students' scores and feedback. 

Chrome Extensions

Chrome Extensions

What is a Script? - A script is a piece of software you can add to the Chrome Web Browser that will hopefully make something in your life easier.

How do I find these Scripts?  The Chrome Web Store Most are free

Below is a list of some of my favorite Chrome Extensions:

• Read Comfortably - This allows you to do three different things when viewing a web page.  
• First it will take a web page and strip it of its ads and clutter and change the text into a cleaner more readable copy.  I love using this with my students.  If I find a newspaper article I can run it through this script before sharing it with my students.  
• Second it will take a web page and save it for reading at a later time.
• Third it will take a webpage and send it to your Kindle for reading at a later time.
• WatchDoc - Watch Doc allows me to keep tabs on my shared folder in Google Drive.  When I open Chrome it updates me on what files have changed that I have share with people.
• Diigo - Social Book Marking - Diigo allows you do so many things.  In is simpilist form it allows you to keep your bookmarks in the cloud.  If you are feeling a little more advanterous you could do the following:
• Use it for exploration of what others are bookmarking.  Since it is a Social Bookmarking site this means that you can search what others are bookmarking.
• Share bookmark folders - Very helpful as a teacher.  I can setup folders in my bookmarks and share that folder out.  Ex. Psychology 1 folder of all websites that my students will need to visit this semester.  Share this out to all my students an now they have all my bookmarks.  The nice thing is that as the semester moves forward and I decide to change link it will also change in their bookmarks.
• Sharing and Annotate - Diigo also allows you to take a website and email, tweet it, or annotate it and save it as a PDF.
• Goo.gl URL Shortner - Simple Script.  Ever have a URL that you want to share but it is way to long?  Click this script and it will shorten the URL to a more manageable length.  
• SplitScreen - This script allows you to split one webpage into two.  If you are working on a Windows based computer I see no purpose in using this.  If you are working on a Chromebook or a device with a small screen this is very usefull.
• Awesome Screen Shot Capture - Similar to Windows Snipit Tool.  This Script allows you to Screen capture whole webpage or portions.  It then allows you to annotate over what you have captured.  

Psychology Perspectives Assignment 1-14-14

Psychology Perspectives Assignment

Today I used the Chromebooks to do a simple jigsaw activity.  I used Doctopus to distribute several files to students using the group function of Doctopus.  Here are the files.  I showed the students how to use the Split Screen Script which allows you to split one web page into two different panes.

Had several problems with the devices themselves.  First issue - several students had profile issues.  Had technology look into the problem and seem to not have a complete solution yet but have solved most.  Second issue was a Google Chrome error that popped up on several devices.

Things to think about:

• Easier way to move between multiple websites.  
• Look into speed issue of device

First Day with Chromebooks

My first impressions of the Chromebooks is that I am disappointed with the touch pads.  They do not seem very responsive.  I introduced the Chromebooks to my Psychology 2 classes.  These students had the pleasure of working with the iPads first semester.  They are very disappointed that they no longer have iPads.  I spent most of the period talking up the pluses of the Chromebooks and how these will be able to help us do a lot of the same things as the iPads just a little different.

One thing the students brought to my attention was that the Chromebooks are not as similar in setup as the iPads.  Even though students could customize the layout of the home screen on the iPads, I as the teacher could over write these settings by plugging them into the MacPro and over writing their settings.  With the Chromebooks each student will need to setup their profile how I want with the layout I want for quicker management.

I'm looking for quick buy in over the next week so that we can get past the device and into what the device can do for us.  

Observations about iPads

Observations of iPads

Starting this 1:1 adventure, I was very open minded about the two devices.  After using the iPads for 18 weeks I hate to admit that I have very much fallen in love with the iPads.  One of my biggest fears with the iPads was the fact that there was no keyboard.  In the end this seemed more of a problem for me and less of a problem for my students.  On two different occasions my students had to type class essays.  They seemed to be able to type just as fast on the iPad as they could on a traditional keyboard.  This problem seems more generational than anything.  My current students have grown up using touch screens and texting on touch screens.  This is practically second nature to them now.

My second fear was one of them breaking.  This was also one of the biggest fears of my students.  At the end of 18 weeks all made it through with no damage.  To the shagrin of administrators, some had been dropped.  For 30 devices with no protective cases being handled by 120-130 students each day I feel that's pretty impressive.

I can honestly say that the iPad was initially a hassle.  The biggest challenge was getting around the lack of Flash, which my online textbook uses.  Once I was able to get over this hurdle I can  honestly say I fell in love with this device.  Below is a list of my favorite apps:

• Google Drive
• GMail
• 3D Brain - Allows students to manipulate a human brain.  They can move and tilt the brain highlight specific area which then gives them a definition of what that piece does.
• Puffin Browser - Allows for the use of flash on Apple devices
• Socrative - Assessment App
• NearPod - Assessment App
• iMovie - Used for producing movies and movie trailers.

Overall I feel these devices accomplished everything I set out to do with my students.  I believe that there is so much more left to be explored with these devices and overall are a great choice when looking to move 1:1.  One of my biggest regrets is that this is not a true 1:1 program yet.  I feel like there was so much more that I could have done with these devices if the students where able to take them home each night.  I would have really like to start using iTunesU and iBooks.  iTunesU truly seems intriguing and could easily be used as an LMS.

Google Integration for iPad

Google Integration with iPads

One of the biggest things I focused on when preparing lessons for the 1:1 devices was making sure that all assignments could be replicated on both the iPads and the Chromebooks.  For the most part I held true to this.  Google Apps Suite really was the lynch pin that helped to make this happen.  

iTunes offers a free Google Drive app for the iPad.  There are some limitations to this app as it does not do everything you can do on a regular desktop, but for the most part it was a very effective and efficient means for handing out documents to students, mini assignments and for handling workflow for handing in assignments.

The biggest hurdle to tackle with Google apps is how to keep kids organized and how to quickly handout assignments to the class and collect them back.  Two Google Scripts helped to tackle this problem.

The first is gClassRoster  This allows me to quickly create and share folders for each of my students.  Here is a video to help explain how it is used:

The second is Doctopus  This script allows me to quickly share files with each student.  The nice thing about Doctopus is that I can revoke editing rights when it comes time for grading the assignments.  I can mark up the assignment and email out graded work all from within the script.  Here is a video to help explain how it is used: