tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34073102277084532192024-02-18T22:13:57.752-09:00Google, Apps and EducationEducational technology blog with a Google slant. I discuss ideas and tips related to learning in a digital world. Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407310227708453219.post-44092918859474079922014-04-03T20:19:00.001-08:002014-04-03T20:23:34.218-08:00When tech fails<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We all know that effective teaching and training require the ability to tap dance, so to speak. Since we all know that our sessions don't always go as planned, we’re prepared to work around problems that are bound to come up against. Here is a list of some of my favorite tools for those awkward moments.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-384e7e35-2af6-b519-5571-de24663f7676" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Online solutions:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #666666; color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Issue </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> You cannot physically get to the meeting- </span><span style="background-color: #4a86e8; color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Solution </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Google Hangouts, Skype.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 27pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since most professionals already use video conferencing tools, these services can keep you connected no matter where you are. I prefer Google Hangouts, since you can work on meeting notes together simultaneously while you meet. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: #666666; color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Issue </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The projector bulb burns out- </span><span style="background-color: #4a86e8; color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Solution </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Screen leap.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 27pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Screen leap is a free online tool that allows you to project your computer screen onto a web page. Give your participants a simple link and they can watch your presentation from their own screens. It works on smartphones, too.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: #666666; color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Issue </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> MS Office fails or is unavailable- </span><span style="background-color: #4a86e8; color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Solution </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Google apps, Zoho or Office.live.com.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These all have great word processors. Office Live will allow you to edit the documents properly and Google will convert your documents (albeit with severe formatting issues).</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: #666666; color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Issue </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> You forget an important file- </span><span style="background-color: #4a86e8; color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Solution </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Chrome Remote Desktop or Screenleap. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Use one of the many Remote Desktop Platforms available to connect to your computer from afar.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: #666666; color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Issue </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Laptop failure- </span><span style="background-color: #4a86e8; color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Solution </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Chrome + Google suites.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This can save you as long as you maintain your important files in Google Drive and use online tools. As long as you sign into Chrome, you'll be able to bring up any tabs you had open on any other device. If your laptop dies while using Chrome, you can grab any other device and seamlessly continue where you left off.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hardware solutions:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #666666; color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Issue </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> No Wireless - </span><span style="background-color: #4a86e8; color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Solution </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Simple wireless access point (WAP) and an ethernet cord.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 27pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For around 40 bucks total, this is a great way to get around those uncomfortable connection issues. As long as you can plug your ethernet cord into an active port, you’ll be fine. These are also great for hotel stays. Its usually free to use their wired internet, so you can plug in your WAP and create some free wi-fi.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: #666666; color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Issue </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> No Speakers - </span><span style="background-color: #4a86e8; color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Solution </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Cassette tape adaptor.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since most schools and many venues have large stereos or other speaker systems that still have working tape decks, its a good 10 dollar investment.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No-tech-at-all:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #666666; color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Issue </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> You completely lose access to technology. </span><span style="background-color: #4a86e8; color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Solution</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Paper, manipulatives and you.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 27pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I like to keep a few low tech solutions on hand just in case. I have a print out of my presentation for my own reference and a stack of one page handouts for my audience. For K-12 audiences, I’ve always had some hands on materials as well. Finally, I always make sure that I’ve gotten to know my audience ahead of time. With a little preparation, I can be engaging and informative without my tools. My presentation may not be as compelling, but I won’t leave the group high and dry.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span>Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407310227708453219.post-32406776820097397572014-04-01T21:32:00.002-08:002014-04-01T21:32:37.680-08:00Make images interactive, freeThere are an astounding number of places for students to go to get information they want. However, while the online universe can be a rich source of information, the educational potential of the internet is not in what can be consumed. The greatest power of online learning lies in what students can create.<br />
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One of the most useful free tools for useful, creative student projects is <a href="https://www.thinglink.com/" target="_blank">Thinglink</a>. The idea is simple. Upload a picture, then make it interactive. See the example below.<br />
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<img height="300" src="//cdn.thinglink.me/api/image/507778183341277184/1024/10/scaletowidth#tl-507778183341277184;1043138249" style="max-width: 100%;" width="400" /><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//cdn.thinglink.me/jse/embed.js"></script><br />
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The site designers had students in mind when they created it. You have the option of creating student groups and registering your students so that they don't have to. Once you have a log in set up for your students, they can go in and start annotating images as a way of explaining what they know about a given subject.<br />
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This tool has an amazing number of uses. Here are a few ideas:<br />
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<ul>
<li>K-12</li>
<ul>
<li>Elementary- Students can label the pictures they take themselves. </li>
<li>Middle- After completing a poster, students photograph it. Then they add tags explaining what it all means. </li>
<li>High- Students create online reports for history, literature or science. They include interactive pictures. </li>
</ul>
<li>Professional development- Upload images of items your team needs to learn about. Add relevant information in the form of text, video or links to other pages. </li>
</ul>
Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407310227708453219.post-89336869964578885782014-03-24T20:45:00.002-08:002014-03-28T11:47:18.582-08:00Chromebook remote supportOnce you start using Chromebooks in your Google Apps district, you'll start having people call you about issues. Your clients are out there and you are, well, somewhere else. You'll want to find some way of providing support for your users from a distance.<br />
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A temporary fix would be to have a couple of spare Chromebooks on hand. It takes under a minute for a student to grab another computer, start it up and log in. Whatever issue that other device was having is inconsequential as long as there is a spare on hand.<br />
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Of course spares aren't always available. One option is to use Google Hangouts which have a remote desktop feature that would allow you to reach across the distance and offer a helping hand. Of course, if you're giving students access to Google Hangouts, you'll be opening up an entirely new set of issues surrounding privacy and student safety. Its a tough call. (Please don't confuse this with the Chrome Remote Desktop App. That won't work with Chromebooks. Ironic, I know.)<br />
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There is always the option of using a third party remote desktop application like AccessToGo. Depending on your firewall's settings, the particular brand of Chromebook you've procured and your bandwidth this may or may not work for you.<br />
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The take away message is this: Don't count on the kind of simple and dependable remote support you've seen from Apple and Microsoft. Chromebooks are going to be a different animal altogether.<br />
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<br />Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407310227708453219.post-60414942688706504752014-03-22T13:39:00.000-08:002014-03-22T13:39:26.665-08:00Edit video on Chromebooks with WeVideo<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://www.wpclipart.com/computer/laptop/.cache/laptop_02.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Image of Laptop" border="0" src="http://www.wpclipart.com/computer/laptop/.cache/laptop_02.png" title="" /></a>Chromebooks are becoming a popular choice for schools around the US. Some teachers, though have expressed concern over what seems to be limited functionality. After all, if you can only produce content online, how are teachers supposed to do things like video creation?</div>
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<a href="http://www.wevideo.com/%E2%80%8E" target="_blank">WeVideo</a> is the best tool I've found to give kids the tools to create, store and share video projects. This is primarily because it's free and it publishes videos directly to Google Drive. Note the use of the word "publish" instead of "save". Here is how it works: You create videos on their servers and are then given the option to publicly publish your video to the internet. In the free version, all videos are public by default. Once you publish the video to your Google Drive account however, making it private is simple. Just adjust the Sharing settings as you would with any other file. Keep in mind that if you have any privacy concerns, you'll have to be careful to adjust the sharing settings to every video you produce.<br />
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This option to save to Google Drive is important. First, it gives you immediate control over who may see your students' videos. For example, share the videos with parents, but prevent anyone else for seeing them. You'll also have a simple way of managing all those video files that come in. Put them into folders and organize them in a way that makes sense for you. The Google Drive app provides even more power. With it, those videos can be streamed (without being saved) to mobile devices. If you have the app yourself, you'll be able to take video with a smartphone and simply upload them to your Drive account. From there, you'll be able to edit them with WeVideo.<br />
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There are other video editors out there that are both free and produce a decent final video. Thus far, all of them have fatal flaws. Consider Youtube editor. The final result is in Youtube's proprietary format which means you have to use a third party application to download the video. Possibly more problematic is that Youtube is blocked in many school districts, so this wouldn't even be an option. Other video editors store your finished product on their own servers which may be fine. However, they just might reserve the right to use your video as part of their promotional material. "Free" accounts often come with some strings attached. So give this a try and let me know what you think.<br />
<br />Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407310227708453219.post-13794122722515776032013-06-09T09:09:00.000-08:002013-06-09T09:09:43.055-08:00Use Prezi as a memory tool<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you haven’t tried working with <a href="http://prezi.com/" style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none; white-space: normal;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Prezi</span></a> yet, you’re missing out on an amazing product. What makes it so useful is the break from that forced march from beginning to end you get with other presentation tools like </span><a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/" style="line-height: 1.15; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Power Point</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Prezi allows you to zoom in and out of a virtual canvas, revealing text and other objects in crisp detail as you move closer or further out. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This zooming feature makes it perfect for a memory technique known as the memory palace. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here is the technique in its most simple form. Think of a place you know well like the home you grew up in. In each room, you create a vivid image representing the idea or fact that you want to recall. To remember it later, just mentally move through the rooms until you find what you need. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You can create as many memory palaces as you need. Prezi can really help in this because you can create an online version of your palace and use it as a visual aid while you memorize the material. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To do so, get a picture of a house. Make sure you use something that is licensed for reuse and modification. I like to go to </span><a href="http://www.google.ca/advanced_search" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Google Advanced Search</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and filter my search by license in order to make sure I’m not breaking any laws or ticking someone off. Next, create a blank Prezi. Now, drag and drop your (copyright friendly) image onto the Prezi. It should upload automatically. Once you have the image, simple add text describing the facts you want to recall. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><a href="http://prezi.com/p8cv2kcgq_3q/untitled-prezi/?kw=view-p8cv2kcgq_3q&rc=ref-6072545" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here is a sample Prezi I made as an example.</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br />
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<br />Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407310227708453219.post-73719043892957053832013-05-05T17:34:00.000-08:002013-05-05T17:34:46.513-08:00Interactive tutorials with Google<b id="docs-internal-guid-3a7154af-771a-24ce-e070-89477755f9dd" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.15;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Google presentations are great for a lot of reasons. Unfortunately, they are designed to go from one slide to the next in a simple, linear fashion. There’s a way to make them interactive. This post tells you how to do just that. </span></b><b id="docs-internal-guid-3a7154af-771a-24ce-e070-89477755f9dd" style="font-weight: normal;"></b><br />
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-3a7154af-771a-24ce-e070-89477755f9dd" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Short instructions:</span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-3a7154af-771a-24ce-e070-89477755f9dd" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1) Create a presentation. </span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-3a7154af-771a-24ce-e070-89477755f9dd" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2) Completely cover each slide with a transparent box.</span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-3a7154af-771a-24ce-e070-89477755f9dd" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3) Link that box to the same slide on which it was placed. </span></b></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-3a7154af-771a-24ce-e070-89477755f9dd" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4) Add small transparent boxes over the portions that will make your "buttons" interactive. </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><img height="171px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/M9ZzMHHCZfGXOrcmFaNR3yQ7uWHzW5uPj-g64G0Ce6EZMOr6_QH2Ah_Bal67lAqmGxk0_QCd83PcBxJAVrcgm6kO-Irkn2cAXJLbHCs8X9S0mHlANuaexyCB2Q" width="310px;" /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-3a7154af-771a-24ce-e070-89477755f9dd" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Long instructions: </span></b></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-3a7154af-771a-24ce-e070-89477755f9dd" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
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<b>Create your slides</b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b id="docs-internal-guid-3a7154af-771a-24ce-e070-89477755f9dd" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First create the entire tutorial minus the interaction. This includes any interactive buttons or clickable objects. Also, make sure you add any animations or slide transitions before moving on to step two. I'll explain why latter. I suggest making the tutorial in something like Powerpoint first, then copying it over to Google Docs. Powerpoint is far easier to work with. You’ll be better able to concentrate on architecture of the tutorial and be able to troubleshoot with less hassle. Google Docs will convert Powerpoints into a Google presentation, so there really isn’t much more work creating the tutorial in a separate program. </span></b></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-3a7154af-771a-24ce-e070-89477755f9dd" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br />
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<div style="line-height: 1.15;">
<b id="docs-internal-guid-3a7154af-771a-24ce-e070-89477755f9dd" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Once the tutorial has been created, uploaded and converted, it’s time to add the magic. First, we have to remove a feature that Google built into presentations. Normally, when you click on a slide it will automatically move to the next slide. You can stop that from happening by covering the entire slide with a transparent box. </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Cover each slide</b></span></span><br />
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<b style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.15;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Add the box by clicking on “Insert”, then “Shapes”, then choose the square. You'll get a pair of cross hairs that you can use to draw whatever size square you choose. Start drawing just outside the slide, then click and drag to create a shape large enough to extend beyond the borders of the slide. Next, change the fill to transparent. Leave the line. This makes the box easy to for you see and since the box is outside the boundries of the actual slide, no one else will notice them. Now, click on that box, then click on the link button. One of your options will be to link to a specific slide. Choose the slide you are currently on. That way, when someone clicks anywhere on the slide, they'll stay on that slide and won't be able to move forward. You'll be giving them a way to move around in a moment. For now, you just need to prevent them from pushing forward every time they click on a slide. </span></b></div>
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Add invisible, linked squares<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally,you’ll need to add the interactivity. Remember that you've already created the tutorial. All you're doing at this point is making your buttons and other clickable objects work. Once again, you'll need to create a transparent box and link it to a slide. This time, however you'll be linking to a slide</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">further along in your presentation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In my example presentation, you'll see a "Next" button. I've covered that button with a transparent box that is hyperlinked to the next slide. When someone tries to click "Next", they'll actually click on my transparent box and be sent to the next slide in the tutorial. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Copy and paste is your friend here. For buttons like Next, Previous, Home and Exit, the transparent boxes will all be the same size and placed in same area on each slide. Once you have the boxes created for one slide, select all of the blocks (ctrl + click) then copy them all. Now all you have to do is go down from slide to slide hitting ctrl +v, pasting those boxes into position. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Publish or share<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Don't forget that when you're all done, you need to change the privacy settings in your presentation to allow others to see what you've wrought. Below, I have an example of an very short interactive tutorial. It will give you an idea of what you can create.</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="429" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1nPgKDAjovw0IW6KGr7RcW_BSb9qfQM0-dJqxULvgnHk/embed?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="533"></iframe><br />
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</b>Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407310227708453219.post-29340173066578604102013-04-19T18:42:00.001-08:002013-04-19T18:42:31.781-08:00Embed a video from Google DocsIn our school system, youtube is blocked, so I wouldn't be able to upload any class videos and share them with my students. <br />
Fortunately, I can embed videos strait from Google Drive. Instead of explaining how it's done, I thought it would be more appropriate to put a quick video together showing you how it's done. I chose not to add sound, but you certainly could. <br />
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<iframe height="385" src="https://docs.google.com/a/darrclass.com/file/d/0B6g8H3kJlOIFTndsUUw2M3pWNlk/preview" width="640"></iframe><br />
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I would appreciate comments and suggestions on how this could work for a flipped classroom. Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407310227708453219.post-37722711139080839252013-04-10T19:01:00.000-08:002013-04-10T19:01:51.851-08:00Awesome Note as a Classroom Tool<b id="internal-source-marker_0.13535258593037724" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><img height="106px;" src="https://docs.google.com/a/bendarr.com/drawings/d/s7rkYxheXZ6IE4bmw46pmWQ/image?w=290&h=106&rev=41&ac=1" width="290px;" /><img height="131px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/qPm9C7S-4SA_A_kx89y4Ii7SWHmSuHwCmL_Uv_yqAP5QcE0bvseGCQ9wI9UsYvsQeVwijaUDHIaGFBt7i-l5u96_eJpA_Pxe2QciODtM67QFHlH4owhkXYUzsQ" width="131px;" /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Ubuntu; font-size: 11px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Source: http://sebastian.laxell.fi/files/awesome_note-300x300.jpg</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last time, I wrote about how great Awesome Note (aNote) is. Many of you loved it and I’m grateful to everyone who took the time to read that post. I left something out of it, though. This blog is dedicated to technological learning tools, and I never said a word about how to use aNote to either learn or teach. Let me correct that oversight now. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Teaching</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Grading bulky projects like the vinegar/ baking soda volcano- Take a snapshot of the project you need to grade. After syncing with Google, go online and grade the project. This way, you don’t have to stay after to grade nor do you have to worry about lugging the projects home. </span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Opportunistic slides- Have you ever seen something that you would love to show to your students? Snap a picture and add it to your notes. After syncing with Google, you’ll be able to create a nice, classroom friendly visual aide. </span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lesson Planning- If you teach more than one group of kids, you’re bound to ask this classic question: “Did I tell you all this or did I just tell it to the other students?” A lesson checklist gets around this conundrum. Typing the list in Docs ahead of time makes this a breeze. </span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Share your notes- You can adjust the privacy settings in Google Docs. That means that you can make one or all of your aNote folders viewable by whomever you want. This way, you can easily add class notes to a shared folder by doing nothing more than typing a note and syncing. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Learning</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Note: Evernote is much better for archiving information, since it recognizes and can search any words on any picture you upload. The problem is that it costs money to upload a large number of snapshots to Evernote at one time. If you want to upload more, be prepared to pay. </span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Making notes about what you read- Snap a picture of the book or worksheet and make some notes about that section. </span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Photograph the board, overheads- Photograph the teacher’s board while she’s lecturing. Later, you can go into Docs to add some notes. </span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pics of handouts- Snap pictures of handouts or sections of the handouts for future reference. </span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Create reference cards- Create some simple notes in Google Docs and sync them to aNote on your phone or tablet. That way, you’ll always have them handy. </span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Share folders, share notes- I mentioned this in the section on teaching. You can share Google Docs folders. That means the folders you’ve synced with aNote can also be shared with whomever you like. </span></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Online Study Groups- Google hangouts allows you to work collaboratively on a Google Doc with the people in the hangout. You could start a hangout with classmates and pull up notes that you’ve taken in class. </span></div>
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<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One more thing. Using aNote to collect all this data could take up gigabytes of valuable space on your device. It’s easy to transfer notes if you sync with Docs. Just move the notes out of the folder called Awesome Notes in your Google Docs account. It doesn’t matter where you put them. Maybe you could make a folder called “Old Notes”. Once those files are out of the Awesome Note folder, the notes will be erased from you device during your next sync and safely stored online. </span></b>Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407310227708453219.post-35109202380175856692013-03-18T18:01:00.000-08:002013-03-18T18:01:00.401-08:00Awesome Note +Google Drive<b id="internal-source-marker_0.2887066809926182" style="font-weight: normal;"><img height="131px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/qPm9C7S-4SA_A_kx89y4Ii7SWHmSuHwCmL_Uv_yqAP5QcE0bvseGCQ9wI9UsYvsQeVwijaUDHIaGFBt7i-l5u96_eJpA_Pxe2QciODtM67QFHlH4owhkXYUzsQ" width="131px;" /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br />
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.2887066809926182" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Ubuntu; font-size: 11px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Source: http://sebastian.laxell.fi/files/awesome_note-300x300.jpg</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many of us organize our entire existence around our smartphones. I’m no exception. I depend on that little iPhone for my work and personal life. The phone, though is only as good as the apps I use. Recently, I’ve started using </span><a href="http://bridworks.com/anote/en/index.php"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Awesome Note</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and I have to say it lives up to it’s name. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is a note-taking, to-do and calendar app all wrapped into one. While it doesn’t do everything I want, Awesome Note is probably the best overall productivity app I’ve found. As a calendar, it can read/write your iPhone’s calendar and Reminders. The to-do function is alright. As you’d expect, you can add a due date, tell it to repeat and mark the status as in progress, pending or waiting. You can also change the relative importance of a task by marking it with 0 to 5 stars. Not fantastic but not bad, either. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As befits the app’s name, it creates fantastic notes that can be modified in dozens of ways. You can add checkboxes, dates and pictures. You can choose from plenty of backgrounds and fonts as well. Add a title and tag to each note and they become easily searchable. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The notes stay well organized in folders which can be be assigned a unique color and icon. Arranging the folders is as simple as dragging and dropping and adding spaces to separate the folders into groups. This app allows for an almost infinite range of customization, which is a double edged sword. You can adjust this app to work in exactly the way you need it to. On the other hand, you might also get caught up in tweaking the app so much that it cuts into your productivity. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Awesome Note syncs with either </span><a href="http://evernote.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Evernote</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> or </span><a href="http://drive.google.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Google Drive</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The advantage of using Evernote is that it can read the text on any picture, making search a breeze. On the other hand, you have a data upload limit on the free plan. In other words, if you plan on syncing your Awesome Note on a regular basis, you should have a paid account with Evernote. On the other hand, Google Drive is free. Sync everything. Don’t pay a dime. There are two downsides that you should be aware of, though. First, Google doesn’t read the text on pictures the way Evernote does. The other issue is really a matter of preference. Google reads your stuff. All of it. It’s not that you have a funny looking bald man reading through everything. Computers analyze your emails and documents to find patterns that they can use to feed you personalized ads. I’m OK with that. I don’t pay attention to ads anyway. If privacy is a big issue for you, you’ll want to get an account with Evernote instead. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The other reason Drive is the clear choice for me is that you have a simple way to edit your notes online. To be clear, notes in Awesome Note can only become documents in Drive. Of course, it works the other way, too. Documents you make in Drive become notes. However, you won’t be able to sync Presentations, Spreadsheets, Drawings or anything else to Awesome Note. </span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There it is. Awesome Note in combination with Google Drive can create a fantastic system of productivity. </span></b>Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407310227708453219.post-65398277898105862432013-03-14T16:30:00.002-08:002013-03-14T16:30:48.742-08:00OnlineEducation's great graphic: Digital research<b>Please include attribution to OnlineEducation.net with this graphic, if you choose to use it. </b> <a href="http://www.onlineeducation.net/2013/03/11/digital-research-a-double-edged-sword"><img alt="Digital Research Infographic" border="0" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/infographics/030813DigitalResearchFINAL2.jpg" width="500" /></a>Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407310227708453219.post-29008697549760007492013-03-13T11:58:00.002-08:002013-03-13T11:58:51.968-08:00Google Apps still free for schoolsGoogle Apps has officially eliminated the free version of Google Apps for business. The company warned that this was coming for quite some time. The good news is that we can still utilize GAFE (Google Apps For Education) at no cost.<br />
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This shouldn't be surprising considering Google's business modle. They want people to look at the adds that accompany online searches. If thousands of school children are growing up with the Google environment, the company will essentially grow a whole new generation of loyal customers. Don't misunderstand. There is nothing wrong with a company making a profit while providing great educational tools. In fact, that is the only way great tools are ever going to be brought to students. After all, without financial support of some kind, how many of us would actually go into teaching?Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407310227708453219.post-7587092273509976212013-01-26T19:18:00.001-09:002013-01-26T19:18:46.468-09:00<b id="internal-source-marker_0.7091224528849125" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">iPads can email photos, PDF’s and a few other file types. This makes it possible to email items from student iPads to teacher email accounts. It is fairly straightforward to add a single email account to each student iPad. In fact, you probably already have an account that you used to register the iPads iTunes account. The problem is that every email will appear to have come from the same sender. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br />
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<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="border: 0px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 7px; vertical-align: top;"><img height="200px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/lrt-HDdiyfkprGwQyGYXhl22WwSpNiGPT-A6G6xTGLcvJILn4ZRwNG75ZGsb6s7bO96t00PddAN57Z0zovnPadym7AWaqy2XLXvfrXQpr3bmZc-HcVDT" width="146px;" /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td><td style="border: 0px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 7px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s possible to set up an iPad account so that each email will appear to have come from the device from which it was sent. In this blog, I’m going to explain how to adjust an iPad’s email settings to make that happen. I’ll also show you how to shut down the iPad’s inbox and finally how to monitor the emails that students send out. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To make this work, I recommend choosing “other”. You’ll see later why this is important.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td></tr>
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.7091224528849125" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr">
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<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="border: 0px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 7px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When adding a mail account, you’ll always be asked for both a name and a description. The description is just for you, so it doesn’t matter what you put on that line. The </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">name</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is for whoever is going to be receiving an email from that account, though. So, on the first iPad, you would enter the name “iPad #1”, or “Washington High iPad #1”. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The recipient of any email coming from that device will see that name in the from section of the email. This way, you can be sure of knowing the origin of anything sent out from one of the schools’ devices. You can rest assured that any prank email can easily be tracked down to the student who signed out the device using the date stamp and the name on the email. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td><td style="border: 0px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 7px; vertical-align: top;"><div style="text-align: right;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><img height="86" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/kxFXy1M6mlcO-b1GKRVK675OgA26Pimvwgu3OFaXDvLDj6w5KMkgOvl2L6zPavSjt5oq1uFvgWjFfi17aFqdfckjf68aZ9KAP2DCTa7puergtUFBPnB1" width="320" /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The next step is to make sure your students don’t get access to the iPad account’s inbox. When you first set up an email account on an iPad, the device is supposed to start showing you any emails you’ve received. Normally, that’s exactly what you want. In this case however, you want each iPad to send email but not recieve it. This is going to take two steps. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First, delete the account password and enter in something random. This is going to prevent the iPad from receiving any emails from this account. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Second, enter in the account username and password in the “Outgoing Mail Server” section. That will give the iPad the ability to send mail through the iPad email account.
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td><td style="border: 0px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 7px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><img height="321px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/FztDERX1mWciaqPaaGNl89LjZ0llaGW_9WwOAJwOZaND8W4jmypstcH7Fj2NkuS090lubm1kQVvIek30SiktMHI55BmBu0sW2EDhs0Wp6CcpnlMbcETT" width="305px;" /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td></tr>
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<table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; width: 631px;"><colgroup><col width="*"></col><col width="*"></col></colgroup><tbody>
<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="border: 0px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 7px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The last step is going to allow you to monitor the emails that students send out. In the student iPad email settings, turn on “Always Bcc Myself”. This the only way you’ll be able to keep a record of which email was sent from which device. While you do have the sent folder in the email account you set up, that cannot tell you from which device it came. That bit of information is only going to be recorded if the student account receives a copy of the email. Be careful here. In many cases, you’ll have a email account quota. If you have hundreds of students emailing from these devices, you’ll reach that quota pretty quickly. It would be wise to get an account with a substantial quota limit like Gmail.</span></td><td style="border: 0px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 7px; vertical-align: top;"><img height="349px;" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/s_oBge447LRm7OFdVuYbRkyrBGpUSGSVIO_6WPxEyGcWtkLQEw1S5R9Vpu4zFk6JVz6P4G6r8NeK8syYdtVySIjWuq3iSSKjB_VdVPuJh9G2BlxTofjn" width="260px;" />*<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td></tr>
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<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That’s it. You should now have a set of devices that can send out pictures, PDF’s and other items while still being relatively secure. </span></b><br />
Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407310227708453219.post-27949011754094945952013-01-19T09:06:00.004-09:002013-01-19T09:07:51.075-09:00Digital content distribution and collection<b id="internal-source-marker_0.454750410746783" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><img height="165px;" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/1B8AuzmumeWIsze0-ajbfb1pE4psd0XuKaNw1V1VAvpR0qZyoHYcHGpQZcp2jD2JsexTjmaYgRlpSPxVz8A4L99LaolHogMbwOoWtlKqRVeBj1gaMOtF" width="220px;" /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the basic decisions any educator has to make is how get materials (notes, handouts, lectures) to students and how to get assessments (tests, homework, projects) from them. Here, I’m going to write about two general technology options and then talk about two specific products. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Two general options</span></b><br />
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.454750410746783" style="font-weight: normal;"><b id="internal-source-marker_0.454750410746783" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Website- </span></b></b><br />
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.454750410746783" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of easiest and most simple ways to work with digital material is a website. The most basic sites simply consist of lesson plans and contact information. Just a little more work will produce a site with a class calendar and homework downloads. </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Make a site for free:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">General site builders</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">IM Creator-</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a href="http://imcreator.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://imcreator.com/</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">U Coz- </span><a href="http://www.ucoz.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.ucoz.com/</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Weebly- </span><a href="http://www.weebly.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.weebly.com/</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Google sites- </span><a href="http://www.sites.google.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.sites.google.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">K-12 specific</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Class Jump- </span><a href="http://www.classjump.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.classjump.com/</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Class connection- </span><a href="http://www.classconnection.org/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.classconnection.org/</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Educator Pages- </span><a href="http://www.educatorpages.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.educatorpages.com/</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">School Rack- </span><a href="http://www.schoolrack.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.schoolrack.com/</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">LMS-</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This acronym stands for “learning management system”. This is a place to store all of your course content, online assessments and interactive tools like blogs and instant messaging. It works well to track student progress and guide participants through a course. Be warned- there’s a bit of a learning curve for instructors who have never worked with an LMS. However, once a teacher or trainer understands how to use these online tools, their students benefit tremendously.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Create an LMS for free:</span><br /><div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Blackboard coursites- </span><a href="https://www.coursesites.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.coursesites.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">MyiCourse- </span><a href="http://www.myicourse.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.myicourse.com/</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Openclass- </span><a href="http://www.joinopenclass.com/open/view/t1"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.joinopenclass.com/open/view/t1</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Edmodo- </span><a href="http://www.edmodo.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.edmodo.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">/</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Odijoo- </span><a href="http://www.odijoo.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.odijoo.com/</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ninehub- </span><a href="http://ninehub.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://ninehub.com/</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.454750410746783" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Two specific products:</span></b><br /><hr />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><a href="https://www.gaggle.net/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gaggle</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-</span><br /><div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You won’t get anything free here. It’s popular enough and powerful enough to include it in a post that’s primarily about free resources for content distribution and collection, though. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With Gaggle, you’re going to get safe student emails, online file storage and great teaching tools. For a school district, this is going to be one of the safest ways to provide your students with email access. Emails and any attachments are filtered for inappropriate words and images. If something is caught (like “breast”), it gets sent off to a human who reads the word in context and decides to let it go through or flag it and assign consequences to the student. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One great thing about this company is that they will go into action if there is a threat to the student (think suicide, abuse or violence). They will contact authorities and get help for potential issues. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In terms of digital distribution, Gaggle is a powerhouse. They provide space to store documents of all kinds and have partnered with </span><a href="http://www.zoho.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Zoho</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to allow students to work on documents together, just like </span><a href="https://drive.google.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Google Drive</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. They also provide a class calendar, assignment creation and social tools like blogs. The most interesting thing tool they have is for grading. After a student submits a document, his teacher can digitally write on it, highlight words, comment and grade that document. No need to hunt for a pen. No more worrying about papers getting lost. Its all online and works beautifully. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><a href="http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">iTunesU</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-</span><br /><div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You need Safari to create and manage courses through iTunesU and students will only be able to access courses on iOS devices (iPads, iPods, iPhone). If you use iPads for your students, you should sign up for an account. If not, this really isn’t for you. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That being said, this is a great way to distribute your digital material. Please note that it isn’t meant to assess your students’ learning. It is only a means of providing them with fantastic learning opportunities. Some of the great features include task checklists, interactive iBooks and the ability to take notes on specific sections of videos. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Aside from being able to create beautiful, interactive and effective content, this is probably the best way to conduct lessons involving an iPad. Your students will need instructions, explanations and tasks to complete for any lesson you do. They’ll also have to be able to find the app you’ll be using. With iTunesU, you can quickly and easily create a lesson which includes all of these elements. Teachers will find it easy to use and students will have clear instructions and an engaging lesson. </span></div>
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</b>Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407310227708453219.post-24288820176929007462013-01-18T09:30:00.001-09:002013-01-18T09:30:38.930-09:00More control over Google Apps... for a price<b id="internal-source-marker_0.972363046137616" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The latest </span><a href="http://googleappsupdates.blogspot.com/2013/01/define-google-vault-retention-rules-for.html"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Google update alert</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> gave us the exciting news that Google Apps administrators can now define how long your various suborganizations will retain emails. You’ll be able to say that deleted teacher emails are kept for ever, but deleted student emails are only retained for a year. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This would be some very exciting news if it were free. It isn’t. You’ll need to have the </span><a href="http://www.google.com/aclk?sa=l&ai=C843pzFP5UOaZNrHL6QHKhICAA_G2tPMBweL4wj_58ei8gAEIABABKAJQkq380f7_____AWDJjuGM4KSEFKABr-_S7gPIAQGqBBlP0GtR2l-QcOQV5OXcyhehnl5-VAKuHmGRgAe5kK0R&sig=AOD64_1JT5JvVlO9NQ2o2mAH6tP4SrZS8w&ved=0CC4Q0Qw&adurl=http://www.google.com/intl/en/enterprise/apps/business/products.html%3Futm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3Dcpc%26utm_campaign%3Dnortham--2012q3--na_apps_smb_ha_2012-branded:70160000000jezbaag%26utm_term%3D%252Bgoogle%2520%252Bapps%2520%252Bvault%23vault"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Google Vault</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> app which costs $5 per month/user. For a school, that’s pretty pricey. For now, administrators will still have to manage accounts manually. </span></b>Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407310227708453219.post-39887503754849488002013-01-15T05:00:00.000-09:002013-01-15T05:00:06.240-09:00Google’s not Narcissus after all<b id="internal-source-marker_0.43312455248087645" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.43312455248087645" style="font-weight: normal;"><b id="internal-source-marker_0.43312455248087645" style="font-weight: normal;"><img height="378px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/YTVTZwYoQZ4BB70wBZXYHHCeXhZapLxgBBDEgy7PrTy307sPG4vhWiImhMwYQv-cLWI_aTxsNWgMtxmjxL5VmYeVYmr_hX0QyKDkw8WM0HYGh8FiRSEC" width="312px;" /></b></b></div>
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.43312455248087645" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Google is usually seen as a selfish search giant. Common public opinion is that Google will serve up whatever is going to bring the company maximum benefit. Type in “maps” and you get Google maps; “images”, Google images; “books”, Google books. I’ve always thought that Google searches were a bit biased, though I still use them to bring me the best results. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Imagine my surprise when I discovered a hidden gem in the depths of Google’s digital interior. Try searching for “dead sea scrolls”. The top five hits have nothing to do with Google. A little more looking will reveal a couple of blog mentions on Google. Finally, you’ll notice the following link: </span><a href="http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/about/deadseascroll.html"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1122cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dead Sea Scrolls – Cultural Institute</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. This is a simply amazing site allowing you to read through these ancient texts without the need to study Hebrew. </span><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While this little gem is awesome in and of itself, the implications are important. Here is a Google product with a relatively low search ranking. There is good evidence to infer that the biggest search business in the world isn’t focused totally and completely on itself. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407310227708453219.post-6762243135240619102013-01-14T18:17:00.000-09:002013-01-14T18:17:38.008-09:00Log on and let them mold you<b id="internal-source-marker_0.43312455248087645" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.43312455248087645" style="font-weight: normal;"><b id="internal-source-marker_0.43312455248087645" style="font-weight: normal;"><img height="234px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/76F0claK5WcsXJMrufHDhsDOescAbFC2SxKF4rxS9dIpllsCqXZrKEnqhoFZ7LoQg8XHiZWv0JEbeGIGt-lYWEBJwITabhfV4PRc4XG-uXCLKN4m-rzV" width="305px;" /></b></b></div>
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.43312455248087645" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Two of the most powerfully formative forces for our personalities are our memories and the people with whom we surround ourselves. Until recently, that statement would have simply referred to the stuff in your head and your neighbors. For better or worse, the internet has changed that.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First of all, many of our memories have become externalized. To-Do applications, cloud services and search histories are some of the ways in which we record information so that we don’t have to worry about storing it in our most fallible human minds. Whether you see this as a miracle or tragedy, there is no doubt its all part of our modern world. What you may not have considered are the ways in which this could mold your personality. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“This is where I come from. This is who I am.”</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Let’s start with how your search history influences your future searches for information. Google (and other search companies) really want to be able to help you find what you're looking for. To do that, they track you. Got a GMail account? Youtube? Drive? I do. By their own admission, Google scans all of your emails and searches for keywords and trends. They don’t care about your dirty laundry. They want to know what kinds of results to give you. In a way, that's great, since it can help you find what you want more quickly. It’ll bias you though. People who click on left-leaning news links will get more left leaning commentary. Conspiracy theorists will get more fodder for their fantasies. Essentially, when you’re signed in, you allow Google to exaggerate some of your beliefs. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Truth are us.”</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The other issue here is that we are what our tribe tells us to be. There is great documentation that the best way to change public behavior is to convince people that everyone is already doing the thing you want them to do. When you log onto your favorite social network (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Edmodo, etc...) you’ll be submerging yourself into the culture of that network. The trends that you notice there will drive some of your behaviors. Unless you actively oppose a way of thinking or an attitude, it will almost inevitably make its way into your psyche. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So consider staying offline for certain chunks of time, like each weekend. Spend that time reading or chatting with family. The memories you get from those experiences will serve to balance out a lot of what’s going to creep into your mind while logged in. </span></b>Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407310227708453219.post-19809282594280122782013-01-09T19:11:00.000-09:002013-01-09T19:11:02.012-09:00Blogger plus Drive = Awesome<b id="internal-source-marker_0.004886697046458721" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the great things about Google is that it uses largely the same platform for all of it’s services (Drive, Sites and Blogger). That means that you can use one service to create your content and publish it using the other service. I’ve mentioned this before </span><a href="http://benjamindarr.blogspot.com/2012/05/advantages-of-google-for-teachers.html"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, but I thought it was worth mentioning again. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>This post was not written in Blogger, but in Google Drive where I compose all of my posts. When I’m finished, all I need to do is copy and paste everything into Blogger and hit publish. The big advantage here are the editing tools that Google provides for you in Drive that are missing in Blogger. Specifically, I can add tables, move text around easily, change line spacing and format my document in ways that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to do. Google drive also makes working with images a breeze. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>If you’ve been using Blogger for a while and would really like to have more functionality, try creating your work in Google Drive and just using Blogger as a publisher. I think you’ll be really pleased. </span></b>Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407310227708453219.post-65682372512709239692012-07-28T09:59:00.002-08:002012-07-28T09:59:29.438-08:00Psychologically sound PowerPoints<b id="internal-source-marker_0.312865850282833" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">PowerPoint® presentations can be a challenge to put together. It can be even more difficult teaching someone else how to do a presentation well. There are literally thousands sites offering to show you how to make beautiful and effective slides. Unfortunately, none of that advice is backed by evidence. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A new </span><a href="http://www.frontiersin.org/Educational_Psychology/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00230/full"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">study</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was published in July 17th of this year that finally provides evidence based recommendations for making an excellent presentation. The goal was to look at PowerPoint design in light of good brain science. To properly conduct the study, a list of best practices was drawn up and written as negatives. Instead of saying “speak clearly”, for example the study listed “mumbled” as one way a presentation could fail. I was tempted to copy and paste their “List of rules for each principal” (Table 1) and then translate back into a list of best practices, but even with proper citation, I thought it would be too close to plagiarism for my comfort. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There really isn’t anything surprising in that list. In fact, most of us follow these without without thinking about it. Here is a quick rundown of some of the most relevant or interesting:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1) Remember that your goal is to convey a message, not to be as creative as possible. Use standard fonts, bullets and terminology. Also use colors conventionally (red indicates a warning for example).</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2) Keep your audience in mind. Your words should have all the connotations the audience expects them to have. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3) Use graphs properly:</span></b><br />
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.312865850282833" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a) Graphs should be used for making comparisons.</span></b></div>
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.312865850282833" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">b) Line graphs show trends.</span></b></div>
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.312865850282833" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">c) Bar graphs show differences between specific values.</span></b></div>
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.312865850282833" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*If the labels are very long, a bar graph should be horizontal, not vertical.</span></b></div>
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.312865850282833" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">d) Pie graphs show proportional differences. </span></b></div>
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.312865850282833" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">e) Label your graphs and mark any axes clearly.</span></b></div>
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.312865850282833" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4) Keep pointless creativity out of your slides. If you’re presenting on the Olympics, don’t throw in pictures of kitties just because you think they’re cute.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5) Don’t use deep blue for fonts or to underline.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">6) Keep red and blue from touching. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">7) Only animate something if it helps convey your message.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">8) Use decent sound and pictures. Grainy pics and low-fidelity sound is a bad idea. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">9) Sudden changes in visuals or sound should only be used when you’re changing topics or to signal the end of your presentation. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">10) Have an obvious end for the show. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">11) Reveal bullet points one at a time.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">12) Use 4 or less items per slide: (4 items in a list, 4 graphical units, etc.)</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">13) Your audience should be able to read every slide in under a minute.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">14) Use grid lines on your tables.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">15) If you’re going to use color to indicate numerical value, that’s fine. Never use hue, saturation or tone, though. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">16) Be clear about what your presentation is actually about.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">17) Explain complex graphics during your presentation. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">18) If a slide element is important, make it prominent. If something is prominent, make sure it’s important to your presentation. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">19) Center your illustrations. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">20) Use warm colors to define the foreground. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">21) If you’re providing geographical information (directions, locations, etc...) a map is usually necessary. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like I said, there should be nothing shocking in this list. Still, it’s interesting to see best practices as defined by psychologists. </span></b>Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407310227708453219.post-38611157453546981142012-07-26T17:36:00.000-08:002012-07-26T17:37:41.286-08:00Effects of Internet Search on Learning Things(Originally posted <a href="http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2011/09/19/google-and-your-memory/" target="_blank">here</a>.)<br />
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<a href="http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2011/09/19/google-and-your-memory/"><img alt="Google and Memory" border="0" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/infographics/GoogleMemory_page.png" width="600" /></a><br />
Research and Design by: <a href="http://www.onlinecolleges.net/">Online Colleges Site</a>Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407310227708453219.post-56719221825148488782012-07-26T13:06:00.000-08:002012-07-26T13:06:01.363-08:00Edit Docs Offline<b id="internal-source-marker_0.7818763109389693" style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://googleappsupdates.blogspot.com/2012/07/scheduled-release-track-features-update_24.html"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Originally Posted by Google</span></a><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: 24 Jul 2012 07:56 PM PDT</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Scheduled Google Docs Update for July 31st</span></b><br />
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By the beginning of the school year, you'll be able to edit your Google docs without an internet connection. All you'll need is the latest version of <a href="http://www.google.com/chrome/" target="_blank">Chrome</a> and the Google Drive app from the Chrome store. </span></b><br />
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another nice feature is the ability to preserve previous versions of documents. As you may or may not know, Google deletes any revisions older than 30 days or when there are more than 100 previous versions of the same document. By August, you'll be able to indicate that you want certain versions saved. This could be useful when curriculum mapping. </span></b>Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407310227708453219.post-10481219696228463772012-07-11T13:16:00.000-08:002012-07-11T13:16:52.460-08:00Google Power Search class, A-Google has just launched a class on using Google search to it's full potential. Titled "Power Searching with Google", the promise is to make you a Google search guru. I have thus far gone through the first two classes and am fairly pleased with what I see. They've decided to go with the traditional classroom format of lecture-activity-repeat. In addition to the video lectures, they also provide text versions and slides containing the same information.<br />
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While Google could have done a better job with lesson delivery, the content is great. Every student body is going to be mixed and I think they've done a great job of providing beginner and more advanced search techniques in the classes. Daniel Russell, the lecturer, is clear, understandable, and easy to listen to. Overall, I'd have to give the class an A-. I'm interested in hearing what you all think!Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407310227708453219.post-755307418675940272012-06-19T06:33:00.000-08:002012-06-19T06:37:23.358-08:00Summer improvements<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/Wikinews_collaboration_logo.svg/605px-Wikinews_collaboration_logo.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="182" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/Wikinews_collaboration_logo.svg/605px-Wikinews_collaboration_logo.svg.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: Plik:Wikinews collaboration logo.svg</td></tr>
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Finally, summer vacation is in full swing around the country. Well, as far as I know no one is still waiting to begin break. That word "break" is a bit of a misnomer for many of us in education since summer is really a time for us to reflect on learning outcomes and use the data to alter instruction for the coming year.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">A great way to work </span><span style="background-color: white;">collaboratively on data interpretation is by using Google Spreadsheets. Collaboration is an important part of data interpretation since it requires us to infer what has worked and what needs to change. Software, </span><span style="background-color: white;">algorithms</span><span style="background-color: white;"> and spreadsheet formulas are great for doing math, but they'll never give us the </span><span style="background-color: white;">explanations</span><span style="background-color: white;"> or guidance we need improve outcomes. No, that takes human intervention. With Google Spreadsheets, you can upload any Excel document that contains assessment data. Once it's uploaded, change the privacy settings to </span><i style="background-color: white;">Anyone who has the link can edit</i><span style="background-color: white;">. Email that link to your </span><span style="background-color: white;">colleagues</span><span style="background-color: white;"> and you can all start sorting through the information together. There is no need to have a Google account, they just need the link you've provided. </span><br />
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If your colleagues do have a Google account, then you have an even better opportunity to work with the data- Google plus. While continuing to collaborate on the Spreadsheet, up to 10 people can video chat about the information through <i>Hangouts</i>. Essentially, you'll be having a virtual PLC which saves everyone time and gas money. <br />
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This summer, don't just work solo. Get together with others in your department over a Google Spreadsheet and come up with some great ideas. You'll be sure to see great results in the coming year. And, hey... you'll also have something to brag about to administrators.<br />
<br />Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407310227708453219.post-89401388751825680922012-06-15T18:18:00.000-08:002012-06-15T18:18:21.147-08:00DIY LMS or get one pre-made?I've been wondering about Learning Management Systems (LMS's). How exactly is learning management different from teaching? Yes, I know all of the discussion about online content storage, assessment creation and data tracking. All of that really just begs the question, though. After all, in a typical teaching situation, there is a person who serves as a repository of information (supplemented by a textbook) who gives out assignments and keeps track of how students are performing. An LMS is really just a way to do all of this digitally. <div>
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Since an LMS is a digital "teacher", can't we as teachers just make our own LMS? And are formal LMS's performing any better than ad-hoc systems? I've read quite a bit on both sides of the argument. So far, I'm not wowed by the pre-fab products. A well designed system can provide students with the essential items. First, they'll need review materials (videos, presentations, text) to understand an idea. Next, is a way to work with the material socially or alone so that learners understand ideas rather than memorize facts or phrases. This is typically done by assigning some sort of assignment. Finally, the system also has to have some way to assess students and share that assessment data with the students in a secure and sensible way. Usually, this is in the form of a gradebook. </div>
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I've put these ad-hoc LMS's together using Google tools and a bit of hard work and they've performed pretty well. The biggest challenge (besides creating the actual learning material) was to decide how to organize everything so students could easily find what they wanted to quickly and easily. However, since all LMS's have a very similar design, it wasn't terribly difficult to get it to work about as well as Moodle or Blackboard. The most important thing I did was to keep the system consistent with what I did in the classroom. I think if a teacher does that, any LMS is as good as the next. </div>Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407310227708453219.post-44367497981659295352012-06-08T16:04:00.000-08:002012-06-08T16:04:52.416-08:00Gmail and ESL<div style="text-align: center;">
Update: Gmail now available in Latin American Spanish</div>
<i>Originally posted by Chris Yang, Product Manager, Translator Toolkit</i><br />
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It has taken Google a surprisingly long time to provide translation services for Latin American Spanish (LAS) emailers. As teachers, we have been working with LAS communities for years and communication between English speaking teachers and non-English speaking parents can be tricky. Now that we can translate our emails into LAS, parent-teacher communication just got easier.<br />
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Google hopes that by making Gmail available in many languages, more people will be able to share their culture and knowledge with others worldwide. Spanish is spoken by more than 300 million people in the Americas and the Caribbean. The Latin American Spanish version of Gmail is designed to be a closer match to the expectations of Spanish speakers in the Americas. You can select Latin American Spanish as your default language in Settings:<br />
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<br />Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407310227708453219.post-44657836426337870752012-05-08T17:00:00.002-08:002012-05-08T17:00:44.942-08:00Google Passes the "LMS" test<b id="internal-source-marker_0.9884669983293861"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Craig Weiss has a </span><a href="http://elearninfo247.com/2012/04/27/education-learning-management-system-trends/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">great post</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> on what makes for a great LMS. His intention was to write about trends in the LMS market but what it really turned into a great list of recommendations. Based on what he has written, I’d like to address some of the ways in which a combination of Google Apps along with </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Openclass</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> outperforms other Learning Management System (LMS) options. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mobile Learning- </span></b><br />
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.9884669983293861"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">OK, so Google doesn’t do a great job with this, either. The best I can say is that you can access </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Openclass</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> on smartphone browsers. You can also access Google docs on mobile devices. </span></b></div>
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.9884669983293861"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Texting/ SMS- </span><br /><div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Openclass</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> itself doesn’t support texting. However, Gmail Chat does. You do have to go through a few steps to get this going, but once it’s in place, a teacher can easily send a text to any and all of his or her students.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">File Repositories-</span><br /><div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Google Drive (a re-branding of Google Docs) is just the kind of file storage that any learning management system needs. It allows any user to store, share and collaborate on any number of files. Even better, Google provides a large number of tools to track exactly who does what to which file. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Social Learning-</span><br /><div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #fefefe; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Google Plus is an option here (not a great one, though). Of course, it cannot be used for high schools since one must be 18 or older to use the service. Nor is it for companies who need to keep private information private. It helps that the Google Apps administrator has access to all Google Plus data, since users will be careful about what they post. However, if learners are willing to engage with one another on this platform, great things can happen. Since an infinite number of “circles” can be created, learners can maintain focus on specific topics they are trying to learn about. For example, if you’re learning about architecture, you certainly don’t want all those biology discussions cluttering your desktop. There is also a fantastic video chat feature to use if you need a face to face discussion. </span></div>
<span style="background-color: #fefefe; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: #fefefe; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Parent Portal- </span><br /><div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #fefefe; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unfortunately, there is no obvious way for parents to access student data. </span></div>
<span style="background-color: #fefefe; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: #fefefe; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Integrate with an SIS (student information system)-</span><span style="background-color: #fefefe; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #fefefe; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Google Apps for education has made this pretty straight forward. Granted, you’re going to need someone who’s tech savy enough to set up Google Directory Sync with your local LDAP server. </span></div>
<span style="background-color: #fefefe; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: #fefefe; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Navigation and UI-</span><br /><div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #fefefe; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For Google Apps, this is kind of a tricky issue to address. If there is a lot of effort put into website design or heavy customization of the </span><span style="background-color: #fefefe; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Openclass</span><span style="background-color: #fefefe; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> LMS, then navigation can be fantastic. However, if you are a teacher who lacks the time and skills necessary to really do this kind of design, then you’re left with something that works, but isn’t particularly user friendly. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All in all, Google apps, along with </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Openclass</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, makes for a great LMS. There are some items that require a bit of technical know how but overall, it looks like Google has put together a suite of products that address the digital needs of learners and instructors alike. </span></b>Ben Darrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06767799643379786540noreply@blogger.com0