Google Tips and Tricks - Part 1

Last week I was lucky enough to attend the GAFE (Google Apps for Education) New England Summit in Burlington.  Besides being able to visit the Cambridge Google office (see images below) and try on a pair of Google Glasses,  I was also able to learn a lot of in-depth information about the various google products.






Here were some interesting tidbits from my 4-day google-a-thon:

• Google Docs - When adding a comment to a paper, if you start your comment with +, this will send an email to the person with your comment. For example "+studentname@mail.medfield.k12.ma.us you need more clarity" will send that student a message with your comment.  Clicking on the + in your comment will bring up your contacts, so you can easily select a student name without typing it in.

• Google Drive - If you have a Word document in google drive and you want to convert it to a Google doc, you do NOT need to download and then re-upload and convert the doc.  Instead just 'open with Google Docs' (see below)

• Inserting Images -  Now when you go to insert an image and you click on search you have access to insert Stock Images and from Life Magazine.  All these images are labeled for commercial reuse.

• For fun- Go to google.com and type in 'Do a Barrell Roll'

Look out for part 2 coming next week ..

What's your favorite Google Tip?   Please share in the comments section below ..

New Year's Resolution

2014 New Years Resolution

Check out this excellent infographic from Holly Clark (of EdTechTeacher) about her resolutions for this year.  Lots to think about and lots to do.  Here's to a great 2014!

 I'd love to hear your thoughts on this inforgraphic?  Is this all feasible?  Are you already doing this in your classroom?  What other resolutions do you have?  Add comments by clicking on the 'comments' link below.

Neal

Google Tips

Just when you thought you knew it all about Google ..  there comes along a great site with Google Tips.  This site tells you "a bunch of stuff you can do with Google".

You can get tips for the home, office or by Google product.  For example, did you know that:

• You can get your own personalized Google Doodle on your Birthday
• Get your laptop to give directions to your phone
• Add some interior design to your GMail inbox

All these great tips and more can be found at the Google Tips site.

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.