Wednesday, November 23, 2016

The NEW Google Sites: It's About Time!!

Ok...I'm a bit giddy about this one!! I heard back in July that Google was revamping their Google Sites and letting some early adopters take a look at it in beta. That period of time was a quiet one as early adopters were mum on social media about it all...call it Phase 🤐 Well, that phase is past us now and Google released the product to the public and we all have access now!!

To explain my giddiness, recall, some of you who remember, when we all had district hosted websites.  I spent years altering mine to fit my and my students' needs. It was a daily feature in my curriculum somehow, someway. I was proud of my baby.  She (don't know why she's a she, but just go with it) was amazing. But then she went away. We didn't re-up with the hosting company and... bye bye websites. In the aftermath, I searched for replacements. Sorry Weebly, you weren't ready. No thank you Wordpress. Eventually I settled on Blogger (one of the reasons when I started this new gig I went straight there to build a site). Before I decided on Blogger, I spent a considerable time with Google Sites. Before this massive redesign, Google Sites looked the same 4-5 years ago as it did two days ago. It was confusing to build a site, it was limited in what you could do, I didn't like the way it looked or operated for the user (that was key!!), and I didn't have the time or patience to really get into it.


So the past few years, as Google has become synonymous with education applications, I've been waiting for them to turn their attention to Google Sites for the upgrade. They've delivered! Easy to use, collaborative, with all the integration of other Google products (Docs, Forms, Slides, YouTube, Maps, etc.), the New Google Sites is going to be yuuuuuuge (we have to say that now instead of "huge," right?).

For the Teacher:

  • Easily create a site for your class using their drag and drop tools
  • For those not using Schoology yet, you can push out assignments and instructions to students using this tool for classwork or homework
  • Create sites or pages on your site to publish student work and examples
  • For Club advisers, Coaches, and other Extra-Curricular program leaders, you now can promote thos programs to the community and the world
For the Student:
  • Student Portfolios - because it integrates with their Google Drive and they can upload virtually anything from there, they have a tailor-made student portfolio for their work in your class and all classes - this is great for employers and college recruiters to see
  • Collaborative Student Projects - the sharing/collaborative function works the same as other Google products
  • Presentations - because of it's sleek look it can be used to present research findings as a culminating assessment 
  • Make connections in the real world - students can practice some of their Digital Citizenship norms and skills by creating a site for their own personal interests, publishing, marketing/branding, and adapting it


Like I say...I'm giddy. So much so that I'm going to transition my current site into the New Google Slides in the coming months as my primary mode of communicating with all of ya'll. I'll keep the blog (Blogger being another Google product), but you'll most likely find it on my new site in the future. 

To access the new Google Sites dashboard to build your own, click the link here: The NEW Google Sites!! Have fun getting into it!! 

Update: If you need some assistance setting up your Site, check out the EdTechTeam webinar below for a walk through.


And if you like your tips in written (and slightly visual form), check out the online flyer from EdTechTeam.



Friday, November 18, 2016

Google Doc Add-On: Wolfram Alpha

Add-ons!! One of the cool features of Google Docs is the ability to add on features to make it work for your needs. Want an easy citation tool? There's an Add-On for that. Want to create rubrics within Google Docs...yup, got ya covered there too.

One of the more powerful add-ons I've seen in some time is Wolfram Alpha. For those that don't know Wolfram Alpha or haven't used it before, its a computational program that aims to collect and curate any knowledge, idea, problem, equation, and provide solutions to it backed by data. The program is excellent across many subject matters and a quick viewing of their website will give you a sense for the sheer vastness of their content reach.

Where it really gets interesting is merging this powerful tool within Google Docs. Students will have the ability to type in research terms and have data returned to them that is accurate and usable by the student. Below is a gif of how to access the add-on store. With a Google Doc open, follow the visual steps, and type "Wolfram Alpha" in the search field. It will be the only on that pops up.


This add-on follows all your documents and your student will have access to it on any Doc they create. Below is a brief screencast of what it looks like in action. Please excuse the lame music...at least ya don't have to listen to my voice though...so....win/win.


Maths, Social Science, Science, ELA, CTE students and more can all benefit from this free easy to use feature.  I did a post last week on Research resources and I would certainly add this to the list!! 

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Research Resources: Utilizing EdTech to Work Smarter

Research projects are a cornerstone in any secondary curricula. New standards on Research skills are not merely for ELA or Mathmatics classes. Whatever your subject, we need to teach, model, and allow students to demonstrate mastery of research skills. Educational Technology can assist in this process in numerous ways. Below is a list of various apps, extensions, web services, and resources that you can incorporate into whatever research project you assign next.

Brainstorming & Organization Resources - That all important first phase that puts and keeps students on track
  • Make Checklists in Google Docs
  • Create a concept Map in Google Drawing
  • Google Keep (They already have this) - Create checklists on tasks needed to complete when planning a project, collaborate with other students, and get reminders sent across their devices
  • Mindmup - Mindmaps on your Chromebooks
  • Popplet - Web and iPad app that allows you to create multi-media mindmaps
  • Wunderlist - App & Extension - Create dynamic to-do lists for students to stay on task when planning a project
Note taking Resources - Use to type up ideas and arguments or counter-arguments for tpics raised in the project

  • Google Keep - add notes quickly 
  • Sticky notes - see my previous post on sticky notes
  • Super Simple Highlighter - kinda self explanatory, but students can highlight info on web pages and they stay on the page when they return to them later after closing their tab
  • VideoNot.es - synchronize their note taking with any video they are tasked with watching. Notes are saved in Google Drive
  • Evernote - Evernote is an excellent educational research for keeping organized on projects. It operates like a Digital Notebook where students have the ability to take notes and clip sites and documents on the web related to their research topic. Web-version, Chromebook App, Extension, and mobile apps for all your devices

Information Collection Resources - Locate and save sources for the project

  • Feedly - Curate content from around the web around a single topic or tag. The mobile app allows for syncing with the web account. Students can have the information come to them
  • Google Keep - again...this thing is awesome
  • Padlet - When students would work on research projects, I'd often have them save evidence from a website that was useful for them. Padlet works well for this as an online, collaborative corkboard of sorts. So if there is a group research project, students can be working on the same Padlet together
  • Evernote - Again...powerful tool

Citation Resources - Gotta make sure credit goes to where it belongs

  • Chrome Extensions - Cite This For Me and EasyBib will give the proper citation of websites instantly in different styles 
  • Citation Machine - Books, Magazines, Websites, Journal, Film? No problem...this free web service can do that for your students in thousands of styles (Turabian? Hmmmmm)
  • BibMe - Works like Citation Machine

Presentation Tools - Speaking & Presenting standards need to be met as well

  • We Video App - Students create Digital Stories ...think iMovie or Movie Maker only the Chromebook version
  • Bunkr - Web presentation software where students can embed a ton of content from code, to interactive graphs, social media posts and more! It looks and presents everything nice and clean 
  • Weebly - Students can create their own websites and portfolios in a drag and drop fashion!
  • Infographics - these are great products to create depending on the research project ad purpose of the presentation. This would be an excellent presentation option for Technical Writing research projects. The best web resources for this is Easel.ly, Canva, and Piktochart



ELL EdTech PD Resources

After school yesterday at NU I ran a PD session on resources to help with teaching ELL populations. It was a good group of educators from different departments all looking to increasing their toolkit. As I will do with all of my PD sessions I passed along and previewed some tools and resources you can use in the classroom. Below are my materials from the session. I'll be offering the session again in the future as well as others in different areas. For now, poke around the Slidedeck and see if there is anything of interest to you.  If you have any questions, about the technology or want some help in incorporating it into your curriculum, feel free to contact me.

Don't forget to sign up for future PD sessions with me!! Google for Beginners and Formative Assessments this month at both NU & BR! Check out the calendar under the "EdTech Professional Development" tab above.