Getting Started with Google Classroom

Click the link below for videos (3) and information on Google Classroom:

A Quick Start Guide to Google Classroom

By Holly Clark

Many people are jumping on the Google Classroom bandwagon, as they should be! It is an amazing way to manage workflow in a Google Apps for Education empowered class.

For those who want to get started, but don't know where to begin, I curated a few resources you should find very helpful!

In just 10 minutes, you can be an expert in Google Classroom!

Google Classroom Resources

Nicer Tube

From EduTech for Teachers

Time for the next tech-isode in my new “Tech It Up Tuesday” series in which I will share an edtech tool, app, site or other resource that can be utilized in the educational setting.

This week the focus is on NicerTube, a nifty web tool that allows users to get rid of all of the fluff, distractions and sometimes less than desirable content associated with YouTube videos so they can be shared via an easy to view page. Yep, it’s really that cool—and simple too! Read on to find out how the magic works.

Find a useful YouTube video to enhance classroom content. Copy the URL and paste it into the NicerTube interface. Then choose a background type from three available options including web page, solid color or other design (such as holiday, birthday, nature and texture themes). After selecting the “click to continue“ button, a new URL is generated—one that can be copied and shared with others as desired.

So, basically—NicerTube turns this…


Into this…




No more worrying about what types of questionable stuff may pop up when you’re showing a video in class. Pretty neat, eh?

Oh, and just so you know—There is no registration or sign-up required to use NicerTube.

Tech Tip: If your school blocks YouTube, this tool may or may not work with your filter. To be sure, check out the link before you attempt to utilize it with students.

Classroom Connection:

Use NicerTube to eliminate unnecessary distractions from YouTube videos so students can better focus on the content at hand.

10 Good Google Docs, Sheets, and Forms Add-Ons for Teachers

From Richard Byrne:  Free Tech4Teachers

This afternoon I was asked if I could put together a list of my favorite Google Docs, Sheets, and Forms Add-ons. In the past I had put together lists of Sheets scripts, but most of those lists are outdated as Add-ons have mostly replaced scripts. Here's my updated list of my favorite Google Docs, Sheets and Forms Add-ons.

Google Docs Add-ons:
The Tag Cloud Generator Add-on will create a word cloud in the right-hand margin of any of your Google Documents that contain more than one hundred words.

One of the most useful Add-ons for Google Documents is the EasyBib Bibliography Creator. The EasyBib Bibliography Creator makes it easy to properly cite resources and format a bibliography in APA, MLA, or Chicago style.

Knowing the right keyboard shortcuts to type the accents and characters is one of the challenges that students face when learning and trying to type in a new language. Easy Accents is a Google Docs Add-on that can eliminate that challenge. Easy Accents provides a virtual keyboard that enables students to quickly insert the letters and accents found in French, German, Spanish, Māori, and Sámi.

g(Math) is an Add-on for Google Docs that enables you to easily insert graphs and equations into your Google Documents. The Add-on opens in the right side of your document and from there you can insert the parameters of your graph and or generate equations.

Google Sheets Add-ons:
Add Reminders is a Google Sheets Add-on that will set-up your spreadsheet so that you simply enter reminder messages and email addresses then specify a date on which you want your reminders sent. The Add Reminders Add-on allows you to send the same reminder to everyone in your email list or you can send individualized reminders to everyone in your email list.

Save As Doc is a free Google Spreadsheets Add-on that enables you to select a series of adjacent cells and turn them into an easy to read Google Document. The Save As Doc Add-on takes just a minute to install. Once installed select the Add-on from your "Add-on's" drop-down menu and click "start." After clicking "start" you can choose a set of cells or all cells to be converted into a Google Document. The document will appear in your Google Drive dashboard (it might take a minute or two to appear if you have selected a large set of cells) where you can then view it, edit it, or download it as a PDF.

Flubaroo is a popular Google Sheets Add-on that enables teachers to grade all at once all of their students' responses to a quiz created in Google Forms. Flubaroo offers automatic grading and emailing of grades. The autograde option in Flubaroo allows you to have students automatically receive their scores after submitting their responses to a quiz you created in Google Forms. The autograde feature will send students an email with their scores and the answer key (you can exclude the answer key). With autograding enabled students do not have to wait for you to run the grading process or wait for you to send emails.

Google Forms Add-ons:
FormLimiter is one of my favorite Forms Add-ons. FormLimiter allows you to set a time for a form to automatically stop accepting responses. You can also use FormLimiter to set a limit on number of responses a form will accept.

g(Math) is a also available as a Google Forms Add-on that allows you to insert graphs and mathematical expressions into your Google Forms. To insert graphs and equations into your Form select g(Math) from your Add-ons menu and follow the directions that pop-up on the right side of the screen.

Form Notifications allows you to create triggers for emails to be sent to you when submissions are made through one of your forms. You can set the Add-on to send you an email alert after a specified number of responses are received or after every submission. The Add-on also allows you to have an email sent to Form respondents after they have completed your Form.

Transform Quotes into Visual Masterpieces for Learning

From Edutech for Teachers:

The use of quotes and/or images to motivate and inspire students is not a new concept. I personally incorporate both on a regular basis and can honestly say that this strategy is one of my most favorite ways to begin the class.

Of course, if you conduct a search for tools that can achieve this outcome, you will locate more than enough options. However, after several hours of experimenting, I found ReciteThis to be the perfect tool for teachers who are looking for a quick and easy yet powerful way to create their own quote images and/or who want their students to do the same.

If you need further justification for integrating tools like ReciteThis into your lessons, then use the visual literacy rationale. Why? Because we live in a world in which our students are constantly bombarded with images; thus, it is essential for them to have the skills to recognize, interpret and understand the context of these signs, pictures, graphics and/or symbols in order to make meaning of their environment.

Want to add another layer of technology in connection with quote images? Then consider utilizing Edmodo, an educational microblogging platform that allows students to share and discuss their responses to quote images in a collaborative online environment. Not only is this application engaging and relevant, but students really enjoy completing writing assignments in this manner.

Examples:

5 Videos on Making Flipped Video Lessons

Creating flipped video lessons is one of the topics that I frequently receive questions about in my email inbox. I've started putting together some videos about how to use various tools for creating and sharing flipped video lessons. In the videos embedded below I demonstrate how use EduCanon, VideoNotes, EDpuzzle, Versal, and Otus to create and distribute flipped video lessons.






Disclosure: Versal is currently advertising on FreeTech4Teachers.com.

Adding an Image Search Tool to Your Blog

Richard Byrne at Free4Teachers

Photos for Class is an image search engine that locates images that are labeled with a Creative Commons license. When students download images from Photos for Class the images include the attribution that they need to include when they re-use the image. This week Photos for Class published a couple of widgets that you can embed into your blog. In the video embedded below I demonstrate how to add the Photos for Class image search widget to your blog.

Staff Survey Response Data

Click the link below to view the data collected from staff about their wishes for future staff development in multiple areas of technology and learning.  This data will serve to help the technology and learning committee plan for the spring and summer.  If you haven't had a chance to respond to the survey yet, it will stay open for a while longer - so give it a go!

Survey response data

Week 30: The Research Tool in Google Docs

The Research Tool

Google Docs and Drive offer some built-in tools that can make integrating a wide variety of information quick and easy. One of the most powerful (and overlooked) tool is the Research Tool. The Research Tool is available within Google Documents and Presentations. It allows you to search the web for a specific term, search for quotations from a person or about a topic, look for images, and even look words up in an online dictionary. If you find something that you would like to add to your Document or Presentation, you can insert a link or a citation right from within the Research Tool.

Here's how:

1. Click on the "Tools" menu at the top of the page and click "Research"
   
   
2. The Research Tool will appear on the right side of the page. The Research Tool will often try to predict what you might want to search for based upon what you were working on your Document or Presentation
   
   
3. Enter a word, term or phrase to research at the top of the tool
   
   
4. Clicking the small arrow to the left of the search term allows you to narrow your search to just images, academic articles, quotations, a dictionary, or tables of information
   
   
5. If you place your mouse cursor over some of the information, you will see options to "Preview", "Insert link", or "Cite"
   
   
6. Clicking "Insert link" will insert a link to the information found in the Research Tool
   
   
7. Clicking "Cite" will insert a citation and create a footnote within the Document or Presentation
   
   

Here's a short video that does a good job of demonstrating the Research Tool

Quickly save images to Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneNote

Ballloon 

Type: Productivity (images)
Summary: This extension allows you to quickly save images to Drive, Dropbox and OneNote

Balloon is a chrome extension (search in the Chrome store) and add it to your desktop or Chromebook.  This extension solves the problem of a two or three step process to get images to drive to be utilized in docs, slides, presentations, etc.

As in the picture above, once added, any picture you find and hover over will give you multiple options for using or saving the image.

Vialogues from Richard Byrne

Try Vialogues to Build Discussions Around Videos

I've featured VideoNotes a few times over the last year because it is a good tool for building discussions around YouTube videos. It's a great tool, but it doesn't work with videos that aren't already hosted online. Vialogues is a free service that allows you to build online discussions around videos hosted online and videos that you have saved on your computer.

Registered users can upload videos to Vialogues or use YouTube videos as the centerpieces of their conversations. After you have selected a video from YouTube or uploaded a video of your own, you can post poll questions and add comments that are tied to points in the video. Your Vialogue can be made public or private. Public Vialogue's can be embedded into your blog or website. Embedded below you will see a Vialogue that I started around John Green's video about the Vikings.


Applications for Education 
Vialogues could be a great tool to use to publish questions for your students to answer while they are watching a video that you have created or found online. You could also use the comments in Vialogues to simply call attention to a specific point made in a video. I'm thinking that I would write comments like, "make sure you know this when you write your essay."

Create and Distribute Flipped Lessons with EDPuzzle

From Free Tech 4 Teachers:

EDpuzzle is a neat tool that allows you to add your voice and text questions to educational videos. On EDpuzzle you can search for educational videos and or upload your own videos to use as the basis of your lesson. EDpuzzle has an online classroom component that you can use to assign videos to students and track their progress through your video lessons. In the video embedded below I demonstrate how to use the main features of EDPuzzle.

 

Links to Mr. Snodgrass's Presentation

Thanks to Mr. Snodgrass for his presentation today!  I have included links to most of the things he shared:

Mr. Snodgrass's Weebly

Kahoot.it

Sporcle

Dipity

Loupe

Thinglink

Yorktown eLearning Opportunity

I love how Yorktown's eLearning Conference is set up (see below).  It offers attendees an opportunity to pick the spot that they think represents where they are or where they want to be!  Check it out below:  Yorktown's WeLearn Conference

WeLearn Session Strands

WeLeap: Are you just beginning to utilize technology in your classroom? Sessions in this strand will help you "make the leap" to a 21st century instruction. Understand how and why technology can enhance instruction by learning about integration frameworks, as well as basic tools and strategies for using tech with your students.  WeLaunch: Are you comfortable using the technology that your district provides, but feel that you are ready to move your lessons to the next level? Sessions in this strand will focus on moving instruction up the SAMR ladder, providing students with deeper learning experiences.  WeLead: Do you consider yourself to be leader when it comes to technology integration? Sessions in this strand will introduce you to the "new and next", as well as provide you with information on how to lead others in the digital learning charge.

Indiana's Summer of eLearning

The Indiana Department of Education's eLearning Division has released the summer opportunities for 2015:

Their press release says:

The 2015 Summer of eLearning marks a new milestone for our tradition of supporting high-quality professional learning in Indiana. This year, our summer conference series spans 28 days in June and July, features 24 host locations, and is supported by the work of 41 school districts!

Summer of eLearning Conference List

Summer of eLearning Map

There's a Clip for that! RefSeek!

There’s a clip for that!

Well, we all know that there’s an app for just about anything imaginable these days, but did you know that there are also tons of video clips available to integrate into your lessons?

Yep—it’s true! Check out RefSeek’s must-see guide to 25 of the best online resources for locating educational videos. Even better—with the exception of BrainPOP and Cosmeo, all listed sites offer their extensive video libraries for free and without registration. Yay!

Classroom Connection:

Supplement instruction with video clips from one or more of the sites listed on RefSeek. Use these videos with a multimedia projector, blended and/or online learning to engage and interest students in classroom content!

Here’s a shout out to Kristi Bush from the Michigan Discovery Education Network for sharing this valuable resource. Go Blue!

From EduTech for Teachers.

Tube Chop

Customize Videos with Tube Chop

Tube Chop is a neat utility which allows users to clip a section from any YouTube video and share it with viewers/students. It is as simple as locating a video on YouTube and then copying and pasting the URL into the Tube Chop search box. Once the video has been loaded to the Tube Chop application, the timeline tool can be utilized to select the desired part of the video to be cut. After clicking the “Chop It” button, the user will then be sent to a brand-new web page which will include the new video segment as well as multiple ways to share the clip—via the newly created link, email, Facebook and/or Twitter. The video can also be incorporated into a classroom blog or wiki by means of the embed code provided.

Classroom Connection:

Utilize Tube Chop to customize You Tube videos to meet your classroom/curricular needs.

From EduTech for Teachers.

Week 29: Just For Fun

From EduTech for Teachers:

CuePrompter.com - The Online Teleprompter
Free teleprompter/autocue service

CuePrompter is a free teleprompter/autocue service. Your browser works like a teleprompter -no extra software needed.  Free for any use (both commercial and non-commercial)
Bookmark this site and come again whenever you need teleprompter services.

Quick startWrite or cut and paste your script to the form below. Press the button to start the prompter.
If text needs editing, just close the prompter window and restart with the new script.

(max. 10.000 characters)

Screen Size  Small Big Max	Reverse Mirror  Normal Mirrored Download Kcab -font
Font Size Small  Big
Set colors White text - black background  Black text - white background  Black text - yellow background

Edudemic: Digital Scavenger Hunts

 The Teacher’s Guide To Digital Scavenger Hunts

If you’ve got a smartphone or a tablet in your classroom, you’re ready for the adventure to begin! By adventure I mean, of course, the world of active learning through digital scavenger hunts. In this hunt, students are tasked with finding a particular physical object, person, or place and have to use technology to track it down. Note: an ‘online scavenger hunt’ usually implies that you’re hunting around online and not physically with classmates. For the purpose of this article, I’m focusing on the physical version I’ve dubbed ‘digital scavenger hunts’.

Teaching Digital Citizenship

Ready-Made Lesson Plans to Launch Learning About Digital Citizenship

Ready-made lesson plans about digital citizenship can serve as the perfect launchpad for discussing this topic in class. The following resources have what you need to help you organize your thoughts and present digital citizenship in an appealing way:

• In honor of Digital Citizenship week, Edutopia put together a list of the latest and best resources to help educators bring digital citizenship awareness to their classrooms. Digizen made the cut. It welcomes visitors with this appealing description of its main goal — the website “shares specific advice and resources on issues such as social networking and cyberbullying and how these relate to and affect their own and other people’s online experiences and behaviours.” The glossary section is particularly useful, as it defines computer-related terms that your students — and you — may not be familiar with. Some of the information here is specifically geared toward educators.
• The good folks at Google have joined up with iKeepSafe to develop a curriculum that highlights three vital areas of responsible online behavior: differentiating between truth and lies on the Web, using wise practices to manage online reputation, and being able to pick out harmful scams. Each part of the curriculum includes a lesson plan, handouts, and at least one video.
• Common Sense Media offers a resource for educators to teach students about digital literacy and citizenship that includes a bounty of other resources about digital citizenship. Short videos use personal accounts to illustrate the importance of digital citizenship. The website also showcases a printable curriculum and colorful posters that highlight important points.
• Cyberwise follows the mantra, “No grownup left behind!” Their website has a host of information geared toward educators and parents. For a small fee, you can take an online course to hone how you teach your students about digital citizenship. The blog is also worth a look; it provides regular updates and reminders about how kids and adults can stay safe in cyberspace.
• The Kings Canyon school district in California offers a list of digital citizenship lessons organized by grade level. The lessons include PowerPoint presentations, worksheets, and other materials.
• Brainpop serves up a selection of adaptable digital citizenship lessons that you can tweak to fit any classroom between kindergarten and 12th grade. The material addresses things like bullying, online safety, and research.

Google has a built in and simple way to record page numbers for multipage documents. Navigate to “Insert” and then select “Page Number” and choose whether you would like the numbers (…) Read more

Add Page Numbers To A Google Doc

Week 28: CK-12 Offers Teacher Created Multimedia Textbooks

CK-12 Announces the Top Flexbooks of the Year

The CK-12 Foundation's FlexBook tool allows teachers to develop their own multimedia textbooks. Those books can be shared publicly with the CK-12 community. This CK-12 released a list of the most used FlexBooks of the year.

This year's five most used CK-12 FlexBooks areBiology Concepts, Chemistry Concepts, Life Science Concepts for Middle School, Physical Science Concepts for Middle School, and Earth Science Concepts for Middle School.

If you would like to try developing your own FlexBooks, the tutorials embedded below will help you get started.

Googly Things!

To get things rolling, I found a super cool interactive image created bySylvia Duckworth—a sketch note that was initially generated using theFlipInk app and then smashed with one of my all-time favorite tools—ThingLink. The result: One amazing resource that provides 25 reasons why educators can and should love, love, love Google. Check out this must-see masterpiece shown below.

Be sure to hover over the image to reveal the “hotspots” located within the graphic. Warning Label: Side effects may include becoming uncontrollably “Googly” over the plethora of tools that can used to tech out your classroom.

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