I love Google #22

Every week I like to keep a record of what folk, especially educators, re saying about Google in the blogosphere. Here is my List.ly list from this week.

Great Google posts this week #22

View more lists from Fiona Beal

Links to the recordings from the Google Education on Air Online conference on May 8 and 9, 2015

This Google Education on Air Online conference can only be described as a feast! Google’s recent free online conference on May 8th and 9th was a HUGE two-day event with amazing speakers. What a great way to share information with the world of educators. All the recordings were uploaded by the next day! The 2015 Education on Air conference featured tens of thousands of registered educators from 185 countries. They had more than 100 sessions to choose from in the two-day event.

Where to find the recordings
The recordings can be found neatly organised at the following link:  https://educationonair.withgoogle.com/live/2015-may. Matt Miller from Ditch that Textbook was equally fast in uploading his review of the event via his blogpost ‘10 key takeaways from Google’s Education on Air conference’. He reports that the videos can also be found at this link on YouTube.

Thank you Google for this educational feast!

Google Education On Air online, free conference for educators – May 8th and 9th. Sounds good! Register today!

This is an exciting message from Karen Walstra from the Google team in South Africa. This conference sounds really worth registering for.

“Dear Google for Education user,

Hope you are well. I am writing to let you know that we just announced Education on Air, a free online conference for educators on May 8-9, 2015.  (Time zone is US based)

Day 1 of the event will focus on "leading for the future" with sessions from educators, students, and other leaders.

On Day 2 over 100 educators will lead sessions on "shaping the classroom today." Topics will range from "increasing student collaboration" to "successful device deployments" to "teaching computer science." I hope that you and your teammates will find this conference valuable.
You can register online for the free event, and there is more info in this blog post.

Thanks."
Learn more about Google in Education

Follow them on Google+”

I love Google #5

I love finding out more about how to use Google in the classroom. After looking through all the Google posts that were shared to my various subscriptions this week, these were the ten that caught my eye. 

1. Best Practices for Using Google Classroom - gCON for GAFE
http://goo.gl/BVNvzN
This is an hour long video. Join Juan De Luca, Google Certified Teacher and Trainer, and learn how take advantage of Google Classroom in your school. This simple, but powerful, tool can help organize your classroom workflow and improve the productivity of teachers and students. The session will include best practices, tips and tricks on setting up and managing Classroom.



2. 20 collaborative Google Apps activities for schools
http://goo.gl/jpey23
Ditch that textbook has a great list of collaborative activity ideas (also available as a PDF here). The way that Google Apps is interactive and easy to share is powerful. Students can share ideas in real time with other students around the world, an option that never existed before.

3. How to Disable Chrome's New User Menu
http://goo.gl/c5rUz2
There's an update rolling out for Chrome right now that adds a new menu to the top-right of the app that lets you manage users.I can’t say that I like it – it takes up too much time - and I was glad to read about this way of disabling it. Here's how to disable it.

4. How to use Hangouts in the Classroom
http://goo.gl/OjDOhj
Teachers can start using Hangouts simply by setting up a Google+ page and signing up for the Hangout feature. They can conduct virtual classrooms at a number of places; it allows a teacher to teach up to 10 classrooms at the same time. It makes classes interactive and students can ask questions whenever they want. They can use it to connect their classroom with other classrooms or to connect their students with experts across the world, providing them with connected learning experiences. There are many ways in which teachers and students can derive benefits from using Hangouts in the classroom. This posts names a few.

5. ‘Introduction to redesigned Admin Console’ from Google for Work
http://goo.gl/BWAFfA



The Admin Console has a new look. The redesign comes as part of a Google-wide move to updated interface design standards intended to make products easier to navigate and use. This video highlights a few things that have changed.

6. What IS Google Classroom?
http://goo.gl/1GC8Ae
If you've been wondering what Google Classroom is (or is NOT), this video from moi is for you! Should you get ready for implementation? Can you replace your current system with Classroom? This video will help you answer those burning questions. Then, join the discussion below this post on Google+ to share how your school is using Classroom to improve instruction. Also, don’t forget to install the free Synergyse training for Classroom by visiting https://www.synergyse.com/ and clicking the large green Install button!



7. The Apps Show Shortcuts: Email Aliases
http://goo.gl/cJjYd1
Keeping your inbox safe has never been easier! In this Shortcut, Charles shows you how to quickly create an email alias so you easily filter unwanted messages.

8. A Guide to Google Apps for the iPad
http://goo.gl/mLGRiZ
The infographic embedded in the post above details the most useful Google apps for the iPad in the opinion of Kasey Bell.

9. Get your FREE Google Classroom iPad App User Guides!
http://goo.gl/Yk6zhF
Get your FREE user guide for the new Google ClassroomiPad App!
Google just released an Android& iOS app for Google Classroom. It's not full featured (yet) so it's important that teachers and students understand exactly what you can and can't do with the app. There are two user guides – one for students and one for teachers.

10. A Curated List of the Best Youtube Channels for Educators
http://goo.gl/IaYdtk
Michael Fricano’s PLN has helped curate this great list of educational Youtube Channels! Click to access the Google Doc directly. Create a comment or suggestion to add your favorite channels!

Invitation to the 2015 Google for Education Innovation Tour arranged by Google for Education, South Africa

 

Here is an email from Karen Walstra who is the Program Manager for Education at Google for Education in South Africa.

Dear Administrators, IT Leaders, Academic Heads of Schools, Universities, FET and TVET Colleges

You are invited to attend one of our Innovation Tour Days in Durban, Johannesburg or  Bloemfontein

At each one-day event we will share ideas about Google for Education from both the technical and academic points of view. Our GEG Team will also discuss Google communities and initiatives

Event Overview

• Learn how Google for EDU is bringing South African educational institutions online, transforming the way students, learners and staff use technology.
• Google Apps technical implementation, integration and deployment topics.
• Google for Education Academic & Teaching ideas and hands-on activities.
• You are welcome to bring your own device.
• Chromebooks will be available for you to try out.

We would like to invite 2 IT/Management and 2 Academic staff from each organization.

Durban

Where: Westville Boys High
26 Wandsbeck Road, Westville, KZN
When: Tuesday, 24th Feb 2015
8:30am - 4:30pm

Johannesburg

Where: Grayston Prep
Corner North Road and Gillard Street, Sandton, Gauteng
When: Thursday,  26th Feb 2015
8:30am - 4:30pm

Bloemfontein

Where: UFS IT Campus
Bloemfontein, FS
When: Saturday, 28th Feb 2015
8:30am - 4:30pm

RSVP
...by completing the form or copy and paste this link in a web-address bar to complete the form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ysRdwxLiNv47fAmSBrgwYb1yHZ3OjrIYM9ydvFfntlk/viewform

See list of workshop links below.

Programme Overview

Morning Session

• Pre-Registration (online via forms)
• The Paperless Classroom, using Google for Education apps and tools
• Panel discussion & knowledge sharing of how they use Google - from R-12 to Higher Ed.
• Impact of Google for Education - be inspired !
• Panel discussion with GfE partners assisting educational institutions to Go Google & organisations using GAfE as part of their solution - affecting education positively.

Afternoon Session

Select three sessions you would like to attend from anyone of the streams:

• Stream 1 - GfE Technical Toolkit focus
• Stream 2 - GfE Academic & Teaching ideas, if your school has recently gone Google
• Stream 3 - GfE Academic & Teaching ideas, if your school has been using Google for awhile

Choice of workshops - please choose 3 options


Stream 1 - Technical Toolkit focus (These sessions are 1.5hours)
Stream 1 - Technical (T1): Getting Started with Google Apps: Signing up & The Admin Console
Stream 1 - Technical (T2): Introduction to Google Apps Scripts & Integration
Stream 1 - Technical (T3): Initiating the uninitiated: How ICT Team & Management can help staff to make the transition to technology-enabled learning


Stream 2 - GfE Academic & Teaching
Stream 2 - Academic (A1): Hand-on workshop: Google for EDU apps, including Classroom
Stream 2 - Academic (A2): Professional Development: Google Certifications & Communities: GEG, GDG
Stream 2 - Academic (A3): Making Learning fun:

• How to create Connected Classrooms
• How to start a CS First Club

Stream 3 - Academic & Teaching

Stream 3 - Academic (A4): Using Google in the classroom everyday - Advanced Tips & Tricks (including Google Maps & Earth)
Stream 3 - Academic (A5): UX Computer Science & Psychology

Remember to complete the form to book your place

Look forward to meeting you all. Here is the link to the published doc as well:
https://docs.google.com/a/google.com/document/d/1uudzMSmlSPYR42ebdCwRZwv7xmfYWCNj-J0ZMwVZOrY/pub


Kind Regards
GfE Team




Learn more about Google for Education and Education Go Digital. Follow us on Google+
Karen Walstra | Program Manager | Education | kwalstra@google.com | +27722593911

Did you know that Google automatically shared Blogger posts to Google+?

If you have a Blogger blog - did you see this post? ‘Google now automatically shares Blogger posts to Google+, turns feature on by default for linked accounts’ http://goo.gl/16XJLL

I didn’t even know about this! In the past, to my knowledge,  I have always been asked if I want to share the post on Google+. This morning, however, for the first time I noticed my posts on my profile! I  set out to discover what was up and came across the above=mentioned post on http://thenextweb.com/ . This feature can be adjusted. The nextweb says, “If you want to avoid this occurrence the next time you publish a post, or you’d prefer to be prompted each time, Google says you can adjust your preferences in the Google+ tab of your Blogger Dashboard. If you’ve taken the steps to link Google+ to Blogger, however, the company assumes you’ll want to have your posts shared automatically.”

1. Look down the dashboard on the left to find Google+

2. You’ll notice the tick for automatic sharing is linked. You can change this to ‘Prompt to share on Google+’.

So there we have it!

What can you do with Google? A great infographic from GCFLearnFree

I have seen this infographic on quite a number of blogs recently including Edudemic and Educational Technology Guy and several others. It stems from that wonderful site GCLearn Free http://www.gcflearnfree.org/googleaccount/1.2 (GCFLearnFree is a program of Goodwill Industries of Eastern NC and provides quality online learning courses for free.) I would like to include this infographic on my blog as well because it sums up at least 27 things that can be done with 9 of Google’s free products.

 

A thank you message from the Google in Edu team at the end of 2014

 This is a great message from the Google in Edu group from South Africa. I love all the useful links.

"The Google  for Education​ Team would like to thank you for your involvement this year in the workshop and for using Google for Education Tools in your learning environment.

2014 has been a great year - We launched great tools like Google Classroom, Google Apps School Directory Sync, Android 5.0 has great APIs for Work and Education,  90+ open source server software (Tomcat, Wordpress, Moodle, Drupal, LAMP etc) became click-to-run on Google Cloud Platform​, and we introduced the Hangouts Chrome App for Chrome OS and Windows.
Chromebooks became available in South Africa and got Photoshop and its first set of Android Apps.​ 
The new Google  for Education​ website has all the information you may need about teaching resources and training.

Existing tools got greater features - you can now 'store everything' on Google Drive free of charge as Drive for Education supports individual files up to 5TB and unlimited storage, and Google Apps Vault, our solution for search​/archive​ and e-​discovery for compliance needs, ​is now free to all Apps for Education users.​

Google introduced CS First  a program to increase school learner exposure to Computer Science through after school or in school programmes or even as clubs, the resources are interactive and fun!
You can subscribe to our Education Blog and/or Google Africa Blog for live updates​.

​We have been thinking of more ways to support Faculty and enable ICT growth, and in 2015 we would be looking at ways to enrich curriculum in the areas of Digital Marketing and Android/Java development. Please contact ​obumekeke@google.com if your university / college has an interest in teaching these courses locally ​your area.

Join the South African Google Educator Groups on Google+. G+ communities: GEG South Africa, join the chapter in the area you live in! We would love to see your comments and updates on the G+ pages, and join the events in 2015!

Our twitter handle is @googleforeducation
Thank you, have a great Festive season and Happy Holidays !​
Thanking you
The Google Edu Team"

Let's learn about searching using Google Chrome

I am most definitely a Google Chrome fan! I have discovered that it is incredibly useful for students. 

At the recent Google in Education Summit in Cape Town there were a number of presentations outlining the usefulness of Google Chrome as a browser option (one of them was given by me!). Not only is it fast and reliable as a browser but it has a unique way of enabling almost everything that you want to do in your browsing session work right from the browser bar - by means of extensions.  This is what my browser bar looks like currently and the list is growing.



Another unique feature in Chrome is that the Omnibox can be used for so many different purposes in addition to being the place where the page URL is shown.  This is a great time-saving feature for students.

So I thought that it would be a good idea to introduce Chrome to my students showing in particular these two features to start off with. This presentation introduces six useful extensions for students as well as seven useful ways of searching from the Omnibox.



Note: One point to remember is that Google is always improving matters, so nothing remains static. Even extensions are improved and changed. This presentation might already be out of date!

[Grade 9] Learn about Google search using the Chrome browser

Google Chrome is a really good browser to use and I want ot make sure my students know all its benefits. Today's task centred around learning how to use Google Chrome to search for information one needs for completing school tasks.

Here is the presentation we used in class



Exploring Google Chrome
a) We signed in to Google Chrome yo create our own profiles
b) We added some useful extensions - Diigo bookmarking, Google Dictionary, Text to Speech, Google Translate, Basic calculator, Google similar pages,
c) We tried out some of the useful search tips using Chrome's omnibox

Short Videoclips we watched today
These are lovely. The students enjoyed watching both of them.

a) Chrome fun




b) Google search highlights 2012

Create video notes when watching YouTube videos

http://www.videonot.es/
Video notes is a great new tool that enables you to watch a video online and take notes at the same time. This could work really well with information that you want students to explore. This free application works with a number of applications:

How VideoNotes works

Step 1. Open VideoNotes
For the purpose of this post we will explore how it works with  YouTube in particular. The way it work with YouTube is that you open VideoNotes (http://www.videonot.es/) and synchronize it with Google Drive.

Step 2. Notice the dual screen
You’ll notice that VideoNotes opens up a dual screen. The left side is for the video and the right side is a notepad for taking notes. This sychronizes with Google Drive where the notes will be saved. This would enable you to collaborate on your notes just as you would if you were collaborating on a Google Document.

The video leaves a place marker at each new note, which is a very helpful feature.


A fantastic presentation on VideoNotes from Matt Newland in Hong Kong
Matt is a Google certified teacher who lives in Hong Kong, and he sent the group his presentation saying “Here is the presentation I did on Video Notes at the HK Google Summit. Please feel free use.” This gives a great overview of VideoNotes plus detailed steps for using the application.. The presentation also shows the video that went viral (also on the news) from Duncanville High when a student complained about the old-fashioned way the teacher was teaching. 

VideoNotes in the Classroom Presentation:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10eis7InH6wWKMVT8ahD6Kj2Yk0w6uneplHtGeXGOK6o/edit?usp=sharing
Matt includes an example task you could set your students at the end of the presentation.

Classroom Use of VideoNotes
1. The teacher or the students could create very useful tutorials.
2. Students could create the videos as a way of presenting work with notes.
3. Students in groups could divide up a task and each find or create relevant videos with notes to empower the rest of the group.
4. Students could use VideoNotes for research and note-taking purposes
5. Students could view curriculum material, respond to it and share their responses.

A great feature in Blogger – Schedule your blogpost

One of the really useful features that  blogging platforms, and definitely Blogger, includes is the ability to write a post and then schedule when you would like it to be published.  I haven't used this much in the past, but now, writing about it, I can see a lot of advantages to using this feature.  I thought I would give a quick outline here on how to do this.

1. Write your post in the normal manner using the new post template and give the post its title.

2. When you have finished look for the word Schedule on the right side and click on it.

3. Click on Add date and time. Select the date and choose the time. (Note:You need to make sure that your blog is set to the time zone of your country before you start with it. That can be done by going to Settings on your dashboard and choosing Language and Formatting/Time Zone.) When you are done choose Done!

4. Now you need to click on Publish. Under normal circumstances this would publish your blogpost to the web immediately – but you’ll get a pleasant surprise when you see the post only publishes at the set time on the chosen day. Wonderful!

Try it sometime.

New additions to Google Hangouts– including an icon to take snapshots of the group!

One of the Google features I absolutely love is Google Hangouts. They have incredible potential for the teacher in the classroom, for professional development purposes and for older students to use for collaboration. Google, of course, is always improving its projects and you never know when something is about to improve before your eyes, and this has proved true of Hangouts! Here are three new features that I have noticed.

1. 'Hangouts chat' now get an extension on the Chrome toolbar
Chrome is such a versatile browser to use. My browser bar is populated with extensions which enable a quick and seamless browser experience which puts everything at your fingertips. You just click on the required extension on your browser bar and “it happens”.  

Google has recently created an extension for Hangouts called ‘Hangout chats’ and I have just added it to my toolbar. With this app, you just click on it and it opens a screen in the bottom right hand corner of your browser page for chatting to whoever is a member of your Google+ community. This reminds me of the Skype chat feature which I often felt was sadly missing with hangouts.


2. A new video launcher app for Hangouts
Another new feature is a video launcher app for hangouts. This can be added to the Chrome
apps section of your browser on any device and it enables you to launch a hangout from there. What could be simpler! You can see mine on the second row from the bottom in the screenshot below.




3. Take snapshots while you are talkingOne can have a lot of fun while participating in a Hangout, and the newest addition for this is the addition of the camera icon with the word ‘Capture’ on the left side.  I experienced a reunion hangout with buddies from the New York Google Teacher Academy 2012 on Sunday evening and this was a good opportunity to try this out. (This regular reunion is a fun time of catching up with news and views, and various teachers slip in and out of the Hangout as their time permits.) On the side bar below you can see the word ‘Capture’. Whenever anyone clicks on it it takes a photo of whoever is in focus but the awesome is that it lets everyone know so that there is no secrecy about it.

Below you can see JR Ginex-Orinion, a Science High School teacher from New York, with his cute little daughter, Katie. He was preparing for her birthday party so we were singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to her; and you can see that some of us captured snapshots. The camera icon at the side tells how many snapshots have been snapped and the little camera then settles on the thumbnail photo below the main picture showing who took the photo.

All the photos taken by anyone on the Hangout appear on one’s Google+ events stream afterwards and I particularly liked this one captured by Linda Yollis from Los Angeles.

If you haven’t tried Google Hangouts before you really are missing out!  They are free with your Google account. Try them!

Discover the potential of YouTube to motivate you as a teacher

There are so many really amazing, educational videos available on YouTube that can really motivate a teacher. These are often brief but powerful in the message expressed. Take a look at these few examples.

1) Connecting classrooms (1min 53secs)
Cathy Cassidy a Grade 1 teacher from Canada Gr 1 teacher gives 'A brief description of my journey to connect my classroom of 6 and 7 year olds'


2) What most schools don’t teach (5min 46secs)
These famous names in technology such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Will.i.am, Chris Bosh, Jack Dorsey, Tony Hsieh, Drew Houston, Gabe Newell, Ruchi Sanghvi, Elena Silenok, Vanessa Hurst, and Hadi Partovi.  express their viewpoints on knowing how to code a computer.


3) The Future of Learning, Networked Society - Ericsson (20 min 16secs)
We’re living in a networked society – a great way to learn anything new. Watch this video as world renowned experts and educators talk about a networked society’s potential to shift away from traditional methods of learning based on memorization and repetition to more holistic approaches that focus on individual students' needs and self expression.


4) What is 21st century learning?(2min 11secs)


These are just a few of the many many offerings that can inspire teachers on YouTube. Do you know of any others to recommend?

Have you see the new #G+eduhangout site? Take a look…

One of the participants at the amazing Google Teacher Academy New York in October 2012, Brent Catlett, has created an awesome new site called #G+Eduhangouts. http://eduhangout.org/

This is what Brent says about the site: 

This is Brent

"#G+eduhangout has been designed to:

• Connect educators together all across the world using Google + Hangouts.
• Bring experts, authors, and kids together.
• Share the wonderful things happening in your classroom with others.
• Learn from others that are willing to share.
• and a whole lot more. . ."

Ideas for using #G+eduhangout
Brent  gives a whole page of ideas on how to use the site: " #G+eduhangout was created with the idea of flattening the globe, connecting students in classrooms with other students, and sharing the #edugood things going on inside classrooms all over the world.  This lists of ideas is simply some thoughts.  The creativity in which educators spin things is merely up to them.  Run with these ideas, build off them, create new ones.  Please do not hestitate to contact me to add your idea to this page."

• These ideas cover Reading / LA / Writing / English, Maths, Science, Social Studies etc.
• Have a Virtual Book Club
• Conduct a Math Bee with multiple classes
• Show off an experiment
• Use it for mapping / geography skills
• Conduct a global research project together and report back via #G+eduhangout
• Book talk
• Share projects and demonstrations
• Share writing & get feedback from other students
• Have students show younger students something they are working on & vice versa
• Have people from different places talk to you about the weather in their area at the time
• Parts of lessons, perhaps 3 or 4 groups each take a part in the lesson
• Connect with Authors and Poets.  Here is a GREAT list of Authors on Twitter:  http://goo.gl/as03t 
• Perhaps share Apps that are being used and share how they are being used.
• Experiments could be looked at from week to week with students hypothesizing and questioning possibilities
• Discuss qualities of your school, city, state, country like size, population, weather, tourist attractions, etc. with other places
• Connect with students to discuss their coursework and papers for a research course
• English classes could do characters from stories and compare and contrast novels
• Show off a class pet, live creatures, or exotic animal from local zoo visit to your classroom
• Have a Quest to connect with every State or multiple countries to gain research data for a project
• Interview experts and leaders in the field and record #G+eduhangout on air and then have for use in class later
• Connect your BLOGGERS with their audience 
• Have a Mystery Hangout with other classes from all over the world and have students ask questions to guess where they are from.
• For PE the class could have athlete, Olympian, or fitness gurus join the Hangout
• Use it to collaborate with other schools reading the same text
• Celebrate special events or holidays.  For example, during World Read Aloud Day our high school students read to our elementary students in different buildings

and loads more ideas!

Whew, this all looks awesome. Brent gives detailed instructions of how he envisions this site developing:

Six useful ‘Google in the classroom’ posts

There are just so many posts about how to use Google in the classroom that it is quite mind-blowing. Today I thought I would list a few of them that I have found helpful. Four excerpts come from come from one of my favourite blogs, the TeachThought blog. .

1) 5 Simple Ways To Use Google Docs In The Classroom (from the TeachThought blog)

from http://www.teachthought.com/technology/5-simple-ways-to-use-google-docs-in-the-classroom/

This is a great post that you must read. It outlines:

• how to introduce collaborative writing using the integrated reference tools and smart spell checker 
• how to use Google Forms as an inbox for collecting assignments from students, 
• how to use Google for online, collaborative brainstorming  sessions that provide students with opportunities to work together to develop ideas.how to provide students with immediate feedback and increase motivation by creating a simple self-grading quiz with a Google Form.
• How to use and create Google Doc templates as a virtual copy machine to save time.

2) 25 ways Google can help you to become a better teacher (from the TeachThought blog)

from http://www.teachthought.com/featured/25-ways-google-can-help-you-become-a-better-teacher/

This post has 25 very useful tips on using Google in your daily teaching. It is definitely worth a read.

3) 21 Google Chrome Extensions For Increased Productivity (from the TeachThought blog)

Google Chrome is an amazing browser for both teacher and students for many reasons. One big plus is that you can sign into your profile from any compyter and have all your bookmarks, history, settings come up immediately. You’ll see all your extensions appear in a  shot and these make browsing an absolute breeze because everything is right there saving hours of time.

This post highlights 21 really useful extensions for encouraging productivityin the classroom.   You need to take a read of  21 Google Chrome Extensions For Increased Productivity

4) 20 Useful Google Search Tips You Probably Don’t Know (from the TeachThought blog)

Searching the Internet is such a vital skill these days. There is a lovely embedded plugin that shows the 20 useful lovely tips. (Would love to know which application was used to create this!)

from http://www.teachthought.com/technology/20-useful-google-search-tips-you-probably-dont-know/


5) 52 Tips And Tricks For Google Docs In The Classroom 
(from the TeachThought blog)

This post raises the question ‘Are you using Google to its fullest potential?'  It outlines 52 great ideas for getting the most out of Google Docs including awesome ideas and tricks for collaboration, sharing, and staying productive. This post is definitely worth a read….52 Tips And Tricks For Google Docs In The Classroom 

6) Paperless Classroom Series: Google Drive
Andy Marsinek shows how he moved from being a teacher who collected everything on paper, to introducing the paperless classroom. This is made possible with Google Drive. He says “students and teachers can access, edit, and work on assignments almost anywhere. And I am certain these mobile device features for Google Docs will only get better.” Take a read….Paperless Classroom Series: Google Drive

Google glasses? This is INCREDIBLE technology!

What are Google glasses?

I have been reading bits and pieces about Google glasses, and today I thought I would investigate further. All I can say is ‘Wow, wow, wow’. it is quite mind-blowing. You wear them like glasses but they appear to give information, record experiences and allow you to connect with others.

from http://www.google.com/glass/start/what-it-does/

 http://www.news.com.au/technology/google-unveils-augmented-reality-glasses/story-e6frfro0-1226319356168 

Take a look at this video that Google has put on YouTube about the glasses ‘How it fees through glass’ that I have embedded below. First, here is their write up which was first of all published on Feb 20, 2013:
“Want to see how Glass actually feels? It's surprisingly simple. Say "take a picture" to take a picture. Record what you see, hands free. Even share what you see, live. Directions are right in front of you. Speak to send a message, or translate your voice. Get the notifications that matter most. Ask whatever's on your mind and get answers without having to ask. All video footage captured through Glass. Welcome to a world through Glass. See more at http://www.google.com/glass/start”

Now for the video…you MUST watch this! 


http://youtu.be/v1uyQZNg2vE

Well, the future is definitely changing very rapidly. How do we keep up!

Google #16: Convert your blog to an editable file on your computer!

Submitted by Fiona Beal
Recently I have read a couple of intriguing blog posts about the importance of backing up your blog, and even using sites such as BlogBooker to make a PDF or printed book of your blog – and I thought that today would be the day to try some of these ideas.

What is BlogBooker?
BogBooker advertises itself like this: "BlogBooker: From your Blog to a Book."
http://www.blogbooker.com/

The website says that “BlogBooker produces a high-quality PDF Blog Book from all your blog's entries and comments. Archives can be generated from any blog running on WordPress, LiveJournal or Blogger. The whole process takes about 3-4 minutes, depending on the size of your blog. Blogbooker is a free service offered thanks to donations.“

How does it work?

• You submit an export file provided by your blog system to BlogBooker.
• Your file is verified and all linked images are fetched.
• Entries, comments and Images are assembled into a high-quality PDF.
• The PDF is provided without any restriction and thus can be submitted for printing to third-parties. 
• High quality images are only allowed if you donate.

The first step
Before you start you need to export your blog and download it as a .xml file and store it on your computer. Most blogs tell you how to do this under 'Settings'. 

How to export your blog to Blogbooker
Once you open BlogBooker and add your blog details it helps you with this process. All you have to do is follow the prompts and make a few decisions about the final outcome.

What happens if you are not satisfied with the PDF?
This is what happened to me! I wasn’t happy with the layout but was unable to edit it as it was in PDF format. So then I set about finding a free PDF to Word Converter. I decided on ‘Free PDF to Word Converter’, downloaded it and set about the conversion process.

The result was great. I could edit the pages and move the layouts and images around.

A SlideShare of the process!
I thought I would document my journey with this process on a Slideshare. Here it is...

Convert your blog to a PDF and a Word file from Fiona Beal

Educational use
1. If you have a classroom blog you can export it, download it and give it to your students as a memory of their year with you at school.
2. You can also turn your blog PDF into a hard covered book format with one of the web services that do this. BlogBooker has a suggestion for this.
3. You can create a memoir of your year at school recording your journey in teaching year by year. Imagine how you'll feel at retirement one day with a collection of memories in this format.

Try it! It would be interesting to hear how you went about this.