Educational Technology Guy

Google accepting applications for next Google Teacher Academy (GTA) in Chicago July 24-25

2013-05-22T09:29:00.002-04:00

Google is now accepting applications for the next Google Teacher Academy (GTA) in Chicago, Illinois on July 24-25. This is a great, free, professional development experience for educators that Google runs around the world. Teachers who have attended always give it rave reviews. If you use Google's tools, or plan to, and want to learn how to use them more effectively in education, this is your chance.

The GTA is a free professional development experience designed to help educators from around the globe get the most from innovative technologies. Each Academy is an intensive, two-day event during which participants get hands-on experience with Google's free tools, learn about innovative instructional strategies, share with and teach colleagues, and immerse themselves in a supportive community of educators making impact.

Apply by June 10. Learn more and access the application on our webpage. #gtachi

http://www.google.com/edu/teachers/google-teacher-academy.html

Educators who attend a Google Teacher Academy become Google Certified Teachers (GCTs). GCTs are:

Outstanding educators with a passion for using innovative technologies and approaches to improve teaching and learning.
Creative leaders who understand opportunities and challenges, and have a desire to help empower others in their local community and beyond.
Ambassadors for change who model high expectations, life-long learning, collaboration, equity, and innovation.

They also receive access to more resources and events from Google.

CloudConvert - online file format conversion

2013-05-20T16:32:00.001-04:00

CloudConvert is a free, online file format conversion service that lets you easily convert files from different formats. Simply select, or drag and drop, your files, select options (email when done, send to Dropbox, send to Google Drive) and off you go. As it's name implies, everything is done in the cloud with no software to download. It also works in mobile browsers so you can convert files on the go to be able to view them on your mobile device.

The send to Dropbox and Google Drive are options that most conversion services don't have. Most of them send you an email with a link that you click on to download your converted file. This makes things more streamlined.

It supports over 100 audio, video, document, archive, image, ebook, spreadsheet and presentation formats with advanced options for each.

Guest users (no login) get 5 daily conversions, with up to 2 concurrent and a 100MB file size. Registered users (can user Google+, Facebook, Twitter, or create account) get 25 daily conversions and up to 5 concurrent conversions with a 1000 MB file size.

Related:

VLC - Awesome free video and audio player (and converter)

Lots of PDF resources - print, markup, convert and more

Media Converter - fast free online audio and video converter

Free Video Format Conversion Software (3 of them)

Zamzar - free online file conversion - great resource

Online Converter - convert file formats of audio, video, docs, eBooks, images and more

Google Apps and Chromebooks Training Resources

2013-05-20T13:34:00.003-04:00

I put this list together for our district as we are going with GAFE and Chromebooks and I figured I'd share it here too.

Google Apps and Chromebooks Training Resources

Google Apps for Education (GAFE)

GAFE Training Center http://edutraining.googleapps.com/
Learn how to use GAFE http://learn.googleapps.com/
GAFE User Guides http://deployment.googleapps.com/Home/user-resources/documentation-templates
Google in Education - Teacher Resources http://www.google.com/edu/teachers/index.html
Google for Educators Resources http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/p/google-for-educators_22.html
GCF Learn Free - Google Training http://www.gcflearnfree.org/google
Google Apps Crib Sheets http://goo.gl/EBN5O
Recordings -- Innovative Chromebook Teachers - Hangout on Air Series
100 Tips for Google Chrome http://www.chromestory.com/100_Chrome_ChromeOS_And_ChromeBook_Tips_Ebook.pdf

Google Drive

https://www.udemy.com/googledriveeducators
http://edutraining.googleapps.com/Training-Home/module-4-docs
http://blog.laptopmag.com/how-to-convert-microsoft-office-files-to-google-docs-on-your-chromebook
Intro to Google Drive for Educators http://youtu.be/LcoppNExlZE
Introduction to Google Drivehttp://youtu.be/wKJ9KzGQq0w
How to Open and Edit Word Files in Google Drive http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/12/how-to-open-and-edit-word-files-in.html

Chromebooks

Product Page for Chromebooks http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/landing.html
Introducing the Chromebookhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVqe8ieqz10
Chromebook user Guide http://www.chromestory.com/chromebook-user-guide/
Chromebook EDU site https://sites.google.com/site/chromebookedu/home
Chromebook Central - Chromebook user group - https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=&hl=en#!forum/chromebook-central
Chromebooks for Education Overviewhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSbZQNJwPuI
Guided Tour of Chrome OS (Chromebooks)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntLPcVAyNPE
What Chromebooks can and can’t do http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/your-questions-answered-what-chromebooks-can-and-cant-do/106
70 Tips for Mastering Chrome OS http://www.chromestory.com/google-chromebook/

Android for Education Resources http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/p/android-for-education.html

Miscellaneous Computer and Tech Help
Free online resources on computers http://www.gcflearnfree.org/computers

Wonderopolis - free resource for find the answers to what students wonder

2013-05-17T15:47:00.001-04:00

Wonderopolis is a great, free resource that has some great resources to help students learn and explore all kinds of topics. It has topics ranging from the science of why the sky is blue to how sound effects are made to pretty much any question, or "wonder" a child has.

There are quizzes to help reinforce knowledge and connect to related ideas, mobile design and navigation, social networking features, ways for users to share ideas, and over 900 different topics of wonder.

Some ways Wonderopolis is used:

Wonderers include teachers, students and parents wondering about the world around them in a variety of ways:
· A fifth grade teacher supplements classroom work to help her students develop authentic writing skills, critical thinking and expanded vocabulary
· A third grade class taps Wonderopolis while researching and writing papers
· The mother of a first grader spends early morning quality time with her son checking out the Wonder of the Day and exploring past Wonders

Take a look at it and use it with your students. Share it with your students and parents as a resource to use over the summer to continue learning and curiosity.

Wonderopolis is run by the National Center for Family Literacy and supported by the Verizon Foundation.

PBS KIDS' Design Squad Nation - great STEM resources and lessons

2013-05-17T15:34:00.002-04:00

PBS KIDS' Design Squad Nation is an Emmy Award winning program with STEM related videos, activities, games and an interactive community. There is also a Parents and Educators section with lesson plans, curriculum guides, and more.

There are some great new features to it, including a Solar System unit with games, activities, and lesson resources about our solar system, a roller coaster project where students compete to build the best roller coaster out of poster board, and a variety of other resources.

Topics include science, flying, hobbies, sports, and much more.

This is a great, free resource for educators, parents and students and well worth the time to explore it.

eduClipper social web clipper gets Updated with Some Great New Features

2013-05-08T09:57:00.002-04:00

eduClipper is a great app from EduTecher Adam Bellow that provides a way to clip anything from the web and then share it with anyone.

It's free and allows you to clip and capture anything from the web including articles, links, videos, lesson plans and more. You then create a clipboard to organize what you have clipped and then you can share the clipboards with students, colleagues, the public or just keep it for yourself. Students can use it too and the clipboards are searchable. You can also share your clipboards via different social networks.

The social sharing aspect is what makes it different from other web clipping services and apps. You share what you have clipped with others and people can comment and discuss the clip.

It was recently updated with some great new features...

Teacher and Student Accounts : We are excited to announce teacher and student accounts. Teachers can easily set up classes of students and create eduClipboards of content to share with whole classes or groups of learners.
Teachers can also change settings to make eduClipper more or less restrictive for the whole class or individual learners based on school or classroom policies. There’s a lot there - and we really want to put you in the driver’s seat when it comes to how you wish to use a powerful tool like eduClipper with your kids.

New Bookmarking Tool : We are really proud of the new eduClip It button. This bookmarking tool lets you clip literally any type of content and bring it into eduClipper as an eduClip. It is smooth and fun to use!

Collaborative Clipboards : Sharing resources is great - but creating collaborative clipboards with users on a topic is an even better way to offer real-time collaboration in classes for students or teachers. Great for educators connecting with colleagues to create the ultimate resource board as well as for students to join each other and curate the best resources for academic or interest-based learning.

Citations : Being a “good digital citizen” starts with citing sources and we have worked with EasyBib to generate citations for all eduClipped web content. A quick and painless way to annotate your eduClips.
Those are just a few quick things - but in short... everything is 100% more awesome and we are excited to tell you that this is just the tip of the iceberg. We have a lot more up our sleeve and you should be on the lookout for more cool news soon.
Take a look at the new site and give it a shot - we know you will love it!
And if you have questions or comments - we are all ears!
eduClipper exists to help bring education forward and we are eager to hear your feedback.

Related:

EduTecher - explore and share educational web tools

StudyBlue announces annual teacher appreciation program “Thank a Teacher a Latte.”

2013-04-29T11:00:00.001-04:00

Mobile and social study platform, StudyBlue today announced the launch of its annual teacher appreciation program “Thank a Teacher a Latte.” As the largest digital library of peer-sourced study materials, StudyBlue is inviting students, parents and industry leaders nationwide to join in building a virtual Wall of Thanks to give back to the educators who have made a difference in their lives.

The 2013 Thank a Teacher a Latte program is open to everyone, including students, former students and parents. In addition, any teacher or school staff member may be recognized. With one click, a digital thank-you card is created and displayed as a keepsake. Once submitted, the esteemed educator will receive a digital “badge of honor” they can display with pride on Pinterest and other social media outlets. 300 lucky teachers will receive $5 coffee cards at the end of May when the contest subsides.

2012’s campaign saw thousands of submissions from cities and school districts across the country. Praise came from parents, students and a CEO or two “Educators are busy, and often don’t hear a simple “Thanks. With this platform we wanted to help students easily extend their gratitude to a teacher who is making, or has made, a difference in their educational goals,” said CEO Becky Splitt.

For more information on the program, to see all current Thank You Cards in real-time, visit http:/thankateacher.studyblue.com/ and www.studyblue.com.

Quick and easy way to add memory to your Chromebook

2013-04-26T13:06:00.001-04:00

I've been using a Chromebook since getting a CR-48 from Google a few years ago, and I love it. I am currently using a Samsung Chromebook, and our district is deploying over 5000 of them.

The Chromebooks, and Chrome OS in general, are fast and work great, but every once in a while they can bog down when doing serious multitasking. Many only have 2GB of RAM and do not offer the ability to add more RAM physically. I found out about a great way to increase your memory by using zRam which uses swap space on your hard disk/SSD. Kevin C. Tofel shared this great resource that is very easy to do.

Here are the simple steps:

Open up a terminal tab with the CTRL + ALT + T keys.
Type “swap enable” (without the quotes).
Restart your Chromebook.

It's that easy. I did it and my Chromebook runs much smoother and faster and rarely bogs down, even with 15+ tabs open.

Disabling it is easy too. Do all of the steps but type "disable" instead of "enable".

Give it a try and see how it improves your Chromebook's performance.

Chromebooks in Education: http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2012/05/new-chromebook-chromebox-and-updated.html

Google Keep, Google's Note Taking App, get's some improvements and new features.

2013-04-26T12:47:00.002-04:00

Google’s Keep, Google's easy to use note taking app, has some new features, improved features and bug fixes. Here is the list of new features from the Google Play Store.

• Create notes, lists, and audio notes
• Add photos to any note
• Hide and show checkboxes to turn notes into checkable lists
• View and create notes from homescreen and lockscreen widgets (lockscreen widgets require Android 4.2+)
• Selectable color for notes
• Safely sync notes to Google Drive and other devices
• Notes can also be used from http://drive.google.com/keep

I use Evernote for most things, but also use Keep for quick notes on the go, along with voice notes, and then I can share the notes to other apps, or just access them as needed.

Google Keep note taking service launched

2013-03-21T14:53:00.000-04:00

Google has just launched Keep, a note taking service, that is free. It is a cool note taking system, that allows you to quickly jot down notes, checklists, transcribe a voice memo, search your notes, and more.

Your notes are saved in Google Drive and synced to all of your devices. There is an Android app for Android 4.0+ and you can access, edit and create new notes on the web at http://drive.google.com/keep and Google will be adding these functions directly in Google Drive shortly.

It has a nice layout, using boxes instead of text and you can rearrange the notes based on your needs and priorities and you can color code your notes.

Knowing that I am a huge user of Evernote, many people have asked me about Google Keep. I will be using both. Evernote has many more features that I use and I have over 4900 notes in Evernote. However, I find Evernote a little more cumbersome for quick note taking on my phone or tablet. So, I'm going to be using Keep for quick notes on the go, along with voice notes, and then I can share the notes to other apps, or just access them as needed. I don't feel like I have to choose one note taking app, but rather that I can use two or more based on my needs.

Here's a nice video overview of Google Keep:

Evernote Resources