One of my favourite bloggers, Kasey Bell from Shake Up Learning, has created posted a wonderful cheat sheet on Google Slides in Scribd. She has very kindly given this a Creative Commons license so as a result I am embedding it in this post. Head over to her blog to see the original post: Google Slides CHEAT SHEET! (Free Download) Kasey says, "This Google Slides Cheat Sheet will give teachers and students an overview of the NEW Slides Home Screen, as well as a good overview of the available features in the menu and toolbar.
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Monday, November 9, 2015
I love Google #32
Every week I like to keep a record of what educators and others are posting with regard to Google. Here are 10 from this week. Teachers will love these.
2. Microsoft Releases New Office Extension For Google Chrome
This is great news for Chrome users and even Chromebook users. Microsoft Office team released, a few days ago, a new Google Chrome extension that lets you create and open Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Sway documents using Office Online right from the Chrome browser. You can also use the extension to open and view existing Office documents stored on OneDrive, on OneDrive for Business and on your computer right from Chrome.
3. A Beginner’s Guide to Google Sheets for Educators
http://goo.gl/lkr2Xs
4. Google Classroom is not an LMS – it’s better!
http://goo.gl/UxqaOE
Tom Malaney says: “Even the leading expert on Google Classroom, Alice Keeler, says it is not an LMS. She argues that Google Classroom is neither an LMS nor a CMS (Content Management System) because it does not automate course enrollment, have a grade book, or house content. Alice Keeler is right. Google Classroom is not an LMS, it’s better. She goes on to define Google Classroom as “Google Drive Management.” This description is accurate. Google Drive Management is more valuable to students and teachers than what an LMS provides because Google Apps for Education (GAFE) are essential for collaboration and feedback. Students hone future-ready skills when they collaborate and give and receive feedback in the Google ecosystem. Google Classroom automates the distribution of Google Drive files. Conventional LMSs force teachers and students into time-wasting workarounds to access and share Google Drive files.”
5. How to Make a Copy of a Google Slides Presentation Marked as View Only
http://goo.gl/SR1hcH
Richard Byrne says, “Last night I posted a copy of my iPad Summit presentation. The presentation was created in Google Slides. I forgot to share it as view only and instead only selected publish to the web in my settings. I have changed that setting so that now anyone who has a Google Account will be able to make a copy of the slides for themselves. To make a copy of a Google Slides presentation that you find on the web, click on the gear icon and select "open editor." When the editor opens (you'll need to be signed into your Google Account) select "make copy" from the File menu.”
6. 25 Google Drive Tips You’ve Probably Never Heard Before
https://goo.gl/4gB9hs
Process Street says, “Recently I moved over from Dropbox to Google Drive and found a few unexpected benefits. At first I had a little trouble managing the space since the 1TB on my Google Drive was bigger than my HDD, but after I got that sorted I started to learn some of the deeper features of Google Drive, some of which are pretty cool. Below is a list of the top tips and tricks I have learned from playing with Google Drive over the last few months.”
7. The Kids' Guide to Google Search
https://goo.gl/VWEpZS
Every kid knows how to Google, but do they know how to Google well? A wealth of built-in -- but sometimes hidden -- features can help kids find the information they need much more efficiently than their usual shot-in-the-dark searches. A little Google technique can open up a world of trusted facts, homework boosters, and cool tricks to impress their friends (or their parents).
8. Seven Tools for Adding Questions and Notes to Videos
http://goo.gl/0TuHJu
Short videos from YouTube and other sources can be quite helpful in introducing topics to students and or reinforcing concepts that you have taught. Watching the video can be enough for some students, it's better if we can call students' attention to specific sections of videos while they are watching them. The following tools allow you to add comments and questions to videos that you share with your students.
9. OpenEd Offers Thousands of Quizzes and Review Materials to Share in Google Classroom
http://goo.gl/bKJ6bF
OpenEd is a service that has offers a massive catalog of educational videos, games, and practice assessments that you can browse by topic, grade level, or Common Core standard. Today, OpenEd announced an improved integration with Google Classroom.
There are two ways that you can use OpenEd resources with Google Classroom. First, you can share resources from OpenEd to your Google Classroom classes by using the "share to Google Classroom" button within OpenEd resources. Second, you can now import your Google Classroom roster into OpenEd. Importing your roster will allow you to create collections of resources to share with your students instead of just sharing individual items.
10. Three easy ways to open and edit Office files on your Chromebook.
http://goo.gl/8Ti2Mi
There are three easy ways to work on Office files on your Chromebook device. Using these three tips, you will be able to open and edit your Office files and also share them with others and start collaboratively editing them in real time. For these tips to work you need to make sure your Chromebook software is up to date and that you have the newest version of Google Drive.
11. Google Classroom – 9 tips for attaching Drive files
http://goo.gl/RKnwPO
1. The Golden treasures of Google
In this presentation Casey Bell shares 30 Google treasures to try out. These are worth looking into.
That's it for now. The rest of the Google links posts can be found at http://goo.gl/CNO3M2
2. Microsoft Releases New Office Extension For Google Chrome
This is great news for Chrome users and even Chromebook users. Microsoft Office team released, a few days ago, a new Google Chrome extension that lets you create and open Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Sway documents using Office Online right from the Chrome browser. You can also use the extension to open and view existing Office documents stored on OneDrive, on OneDrive for Business and on your computer right from Chrome.
3. A Beginner’s Guide to Google Sheets for Educators
http://goo.gl/lkr2Xs
Jenny Kessman says, “The Google Apps for Education ecosystem provides teachers and students with countless ways to stay organized, get creative, and collaborate with others. One application that sometimes gets overlooked, though, is Google Sheets. Yeah, we know, spreadsheets aren’t the most fun or fascinating tool to play with, but there are powerful possibilities for using Google Sheets in education. Here are 22 ways you can get started with using Google Sheets in the classroom.
http://goo.gl/UxqaOE
Tom Malaney says: “Even the leading expert on Google Classroom, Alice Keeler, says it is not an LMS. She argues that Google Classroom is neither an LMS nor a CMS (Content Management System) because it does not automate course enrollment, have a grade book, or house content. Alice Keeler is right. Google Classroom is not an LMS, it’s better. She goes on to define Google Classroom as “Google Drive Management.” This description is accurate. Google Drive Management is more valuable to students and teachers than what an LMS provides because Google Apps for Education (GAFE) are essential for collaboration and feedback. Students hone future-ready skills when they collaborate and give and receive feedback in the Google ecosystem. Google Classroom automates the distribution of Google Drive files. Conventional LMSs force teachers and students into time-wasting workarounds to access and share Google Drive files.”
5. How to Make a Copy of a Google Slides Presentation Marked as View Only
http://goo.gl/SR1hcH
Richard Byrne says, “Last night I posted a copy of my iPad Summit presentation. The presentation was created in Google Slides. I forgot to share it as view only and instead only selected publish to the web in my settings. I have changed that setting so that now anyone who has a Google Account will be able to make a copy of the slides for themselves. To make a copy of a Google Slides presentation that you find on the web, click on the gear icon and select "open editor." When the editor opens (you'll need to be signed into your Google Account) select "make copy" from the File menu.”
6. 25 Google Drive Tips You’ve Probably Never Heard Before
https://goo.gl/4gB9hs
Process Street says, “Recently I moved over from Dropbox to Google Drive and found a few unexpected benefits. At first I had a little trouble managing the space since the 1TB on my Google Drive was bigger than my HDD, but after I got that sorted I started to learn some of the deeper features of Google Drive, some of which are pretty cool. Below is a list of the top tips and tricks I have learned from playing with Google Drive over the last few months.”
7. The Kids' Guide to Google Search
https://goo.gl/VWEpZS
Every kid knows how to Google, but do they know how to Google well? A wealth of built-in -- but sometimes hidden -- features can help kids find the information they need much more efficiently than their usual shot-in-the-dark searches. A little Google technique can open up a world of trusted facts, homework boosters, and cool tricks to impress their friends (or their parents).
8. Seven Tools for Adding Questions and Notes to Videos
http://goo.gl/0TuHJu
Short videos from YouTube and other sources can be quite helpful in introducing topics to students and or reinforcing concepts that you have taught. Watching the video can be enough for some students, it's better if we can call students' attention to specific sections of videos while they are watching them. The following tools allow you to add comments and questions to videos that you share with your students.
9. OpenEd Offers Thousands of Quizzes and Review Materials to Share in Google Classroom
http://goo.gl/bKJ6bF
OpenEd is a service that has offers a massive catalog of educational videos, games, and practice assessments that you can browse by topic, grade level, or Common Core standard. Today, OpenEd announced an improved integration with Google Classroom.
There are two ways that you can use OpenEd resources with Google Classroom. First, you can share resources from OpenEd to your Google Classroom classes by using the "share to Google Classroom" button within OpenEd resources. Second, you can now import your Google Classroom roster into OpenEd. Importing your roster will allow you to create collections of resources to share with your students instead of just sharing individual items.
10. Three easy ways to open and edit Office files on your Chromebook.
http://goo.gl/8Ti2Mi
There are three easy ways to work on Office files on your Chromebook device. Using these three tips, you will be able to open and edit your Office files and also share them with others and start collaboratively editing them in real time. For these tips to work you need to make sure your Chromebook software is up to date and that you have the newest version of Google Drive.
11. Google Classroom – 9 tips for attaching Drive files
http://goo.gl/RKnwPO
Alice Keeler says, “Adding files to Google Classroom is not the same as searching for files in Google Drive. Here are some tips to help you maximize your efficiency with attaching Google Drive files to Google Classroom.”
That's it for now. The rest of the Google links posts can be found at http://goo.gl/CNO3M2
Friday, October 30, 2015
Ten takeaways from the EdTechTeam’s Google Summit in Cape Town 2015
This is a cross post of the one I wrote for the SchoolNet blog. This Summit was so memorable - I want to remember it always!
There is one event an educator does not want to miss out on every year in South Africa, and that is the EdTechTeam's Global Summit featuring Google for Education (https://za.gafesummit.com/). Every year this amazing team sweeps in with new brooms and they dust away all the cobwebs from one's mind showing us what can be achieved not only by using Google Apps in the classroom but also by redefining our roles as teachers. "I am not just the teacher, I am a TEACHER. I am here to change the world one child at a time." We were constantly encouraged to think about #onenewthing that we'll introduce in our classrooms next week. Not only does this team inspire, befriend and amaze - they share their resources so freely with everyone! Visit https://goo.gl/Iyu and you’ll see what I mean.
Everything about the Summit this October was great, but I am going to condense things down into ten takeaways - the ‘AHA’ moments that stuck with me most deeply.
1. Connecting with passionate educators such as the EdTechTeam feeds the spirit...
The team brought four international members with them - Molly Schroeder, Rushton Hurley, Jenny Magiera and Holly Clarke - an awesome four. Every year we experience a variety of international team members and I am always so totally impressed by their calibre. These are young game-changers in education, incredible speakers and presenters, and they always bring with them fresh, new ideas on how to apply Google in the classroom and MORE. They share their resources and themselves SO freely. In addition we had an impressive line-up of local presenters whose sessions were well-attended.
2. Kids can change the world!
I was especially keen to hear Jenny Magiera’s keynote and of course her presentations. . She was at the Google Teacher Academy with me in New York 2012 and is currently a leading world figure in education. I was posting on Twitter as @fibeal and @schoolnetsa at the Summit and here was my reaction after her AMAZING keynote: Basically, what I was left with and want to remember every day in class - kids can make a difference...kids can change the world!
3. Telling a story in GIFS...
The Demoslam is always a time of great fun and laughter and this year’s round-up was no exception. The four extensions/apps I want to try out as a result of the Demoslam are DocentEDU, Draftback, The Seesaw App and Make a Gif. ‘Make a gif’ was shared by Holly Clark in a hilarious presentation. (She kindly shared her presentation via Twitter https://goo.gl/EnkaV1 after the Demoslam). With this extension ‘Make a Gif’ one can create animated GIFs from video clips.
4. Create projects students will never forget...
Rushton Hurley is always a firm favourite. His style of presenting is very easy and interactive. There were so many takeaways from Rushton but this year I really want to explore his website Next Vista for Learning http://www.nextvista.org/ a bit more. Kids love video projects and they are a great way for them to express their thinking. The Next Vista for Learning website that Rushton represents has a number of video contests every year. I loved the example of Foster City Little League Challengers Division as part of the showcasing service to others which was added as part of the 2014 Service via Video project http://nextvista.org/v/6842/ Incidentally, this Service via Video project is a yearly video project which would be really worth entering. Rushton gives full details on how to go about this project at http://goo.gl/O7NiiD . He talked about how to create strong EduVideos:
Find out how to make a strong educational video here: https://goo.gl/C6NQGS and consider getting your kids to enter some of these contests. http://goo.gl/xUtn2c
5. Assessment in the digital age…wow!
It’s amazing what you can do with assessment and Google Apps. In this session we explored mostly formative assessment tips and tools and also creative ways that you can provide individualized feedback to students based about projects and assignments. We looked at Google Spreadsheet Add-Ons like Doctopus/Goobric to use rubrics to grade Google Classroom assignments, Flubaroo to self grade multiple choice questions, Autocrat to provide personalized feedback on assessments and Yet Another Mail Merge to share feedback via email. Other feedback and assessment tools like PearDeck, Socrative, Kahoot and more were touched on! Molly has a very comprehensive Google site page with all her references. Find it at: https://goo.gl/iBFn4u
6. Experience the World with Google Maps and Cardboard...
We can take our students outside of the four walls of our classrooms. In this session with Molly we has such a lot of fun exploring Google Maps, Google Cardboard and other tools to get us experiencing the world. Before the session was finished many folk had already purchased their Google Cardboard on TakeaLot! The EdTechTeam has a whole Google Cardbaord page which is full of ideas to try out. https://goo.gl/KX7Fu7
7. Three educational concepts to incorporate into lessons...
Holly Clark shared a lot on this idea at the iOS Summit. However she brought it up as a way of seeing education in the 21st Century in her ‘Google Infused Classroom’ session found at https://goo.gl/ZcFaVs, and she showed us the various applications that makes this possible. I love the way this approach has started to become infused into my thinking. It resonates with me.
8. What is wrong with what is right?
Rushton’s keynote with this title at the Summit was very inspirational. The teacher plays such a crucial role in the classroom . How do we get students to move from doing what's asked to asking more of themselves? He encouraged us to take a look at ourselves from the perspective of the kids we teach. Our job is to educate and inspire. We need to ask the right questions. Encourage them to create artefacts that are fascinating and cool. Session resources can be found at https://goo.gl/P8gSC4
Rushton passed on a great thought to absorb for ourselves and also to share with our students:
9. Google Drawing is an application to take note of...
I use Google Drawing a lot in my classes but at the Summit I got new glimpses of its uses. The revision history, for example, can be used very meaningfully in lessons. You can use Google Drawings for all types of activities. Jenny Magiera showed a drawing she had made at Easter to illustrate how revision history saves every 30 seconds. This enables one to use Google Drawings in a way that students can explain their thinking. Session resources can be found at bit.ly/drawedu
10. I won a Chromebook at the Summit!
I must just add that I won a Chromebook at the Summit sponsored by the awesome team at
http://cloudedsolutions.co.za/ This was really exciting especially as Chromebooks are a great classroom asset for students and I want to explore them thoroughly...and, of course, persuade my school to buy a classroom set!
There’s SO much more I can say!These ten were just some of the many, many highlights. The Summit was an incredible experience. Honestly, there are always so many new things to learn when the EdTechTeam is around! Some heartfelt advice - don't miss the next one in 2016 which will be hosted by Dainfern College in Joburg.
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