Free Google PD

Our friends at Google in Education have created 5 new online courses to explain how Google Apps and other web tools can help you to meet your teaching and learning goals.  These are self-paced courses that you can work on when its convenient for you.  These courses include videos, toolkits and reflection questions.

The available courses are:

1. Internet 101 - Learn the basics of getting online and finding information, connecting, and sharing on the web. 
2. Google Apps for Education (GAFE) Overview - Understand how to implement and use Google Apps for Education in your schools and classrooms. 
3. Gmail for Educators -  Learn tips and tricks for managing Gmail to save you time and resources. 
4. Google Drive for Educators -  Improve your use of Google Drive to help facilitate creation and collaboration in your classroom. 
5. Chrome and Chromebooks for Education - Hone your browsing skills as you explore how to bring the power of the web to your school.

I know I can't wait to get started on these courses.  Who is with me?

Target Offering At Least $200 for Any iPad Trade-In Through Nov. 9

Need some extra cash around the holidays?  Have an old iPad just gathering dust around the house?

Well, Target is offering $200 for any iPad Traded-in by November 9th.  Here is the article about this deal and the link to the actual Target site with more information.

Google Scholar and Alerts

Google Scholar is an excellent tool that can be used for research and writing papers.  Here is a brief description from the Google Scholar page:

"Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research."

Anyway, there is a way that students can create 'alerts' in Google scholar to let them know when something new is added to a topic that they have been researching.  This is a good way to stay relevant with the latest information about a subject. These alerts can be created in 3 easy steps.  Instructions to create these alerts can be found in the Free Technology for Teachers blog post written by Richard Byrne.

Google Guide to Staying Safe and Secure Online

Google has released an easy-to-read and interactive guide to staying safe and secure online.

 

 This guide is broken down into 4 categories:

1. Stay Safe and Secure Online - In this section you will explore quick tips and how-to’s that explain what you can do to stay safe and secure on the web.
2. Keep your Family Safe Online - In this section you will get advice from parents at Google and family safety experts on how to help your family safely surf the web.
3. Learn How Google Helps Protect You - In this section, you will learn how Google works hard to protect you whenever you use the web.
4. Know Your Web - In this section you will become more familiar with the basics of the web and learns things such as .. What is a browser? How to chat online, search effectively and more.

This is a great reference for any parent, student or teacher.  I especially recommend it for those students/teachers who are participating in a 1:1 or BYOD learning environment.