Well I went on Summer Vacation – and I hope you all did too – and I never got back into action on my postings. Here you go!
Tech Resources:
Went to a Google Conference and saw some new things. One of the most interesting things is the power of some of the new extensions. I am going to recommend for this week that you spend a little bit of time filtering through the Chrome (or Firefox if you like) Extensions – Open Chrome > Settings (it is on the far right 3 stacked bars) > Extensions – then scroll to the bottom of the page and click ‘Get more Extenstions’. You will find them catagorized – I like the Education and Productivity Extensions. Here are a couple I use ALL the time.
FAVORITE PICKS!
Google Translate – used to see what UOB Texted me this weekend (is it pay day yet??)
Goobric – AWESOME Rubric builder for inside Chrome
Quizlet – free games and flashcard builder
Easybib – Bibliography Tool (don’t tell Mischele 🙂
Blackboard – Allows for ‘Writing’ Then captures
Ever use TinyUrl or want to shorten those super long Url addresses? Want to gather statistics on your links you send out? Want to create a QR Code? Check out goo.gl. This little tool provides a very short Url to share and also gives all of these other options. If you are presenting something where you need to Share a link with people just go to the site paste your current URL in and it is done. AWESOME TOOL!
StoryTelling with Data
I recently worked with some of the Science Classes and the Freshmen using Numbers (Mac version of Excel). It is an extremely powerful tool. It is perfect for making Infographics or StoryTelling with Data.
Two links here – one for a Tutorial on Numbers
Method for StoryTelling – 5 Steps for Using Data Visually
Editing/Clipping Videos
Several people have come to me with the issue of not wanting to show a whole video but only a clip. See below:
You can clip a video in Youtube very easily. Here is a tutorial on video clipping using Youtube’s tools
If you have a video on disk there are also web based tools that will help – I suggest using WeVideo – this tool actually lets you edit, create and store videos. A free
account will allow you 5GB of space. However you get access to all the tools. There is a great 5 minute tutorial. Checkout WeVideo.
Use the Comments tool in Google Docs to provide your students with immediate feedback, suggestions and support. Added to this all students to Comment during a Group Project or Presentation. By Sharing the document properly with students you can allow students to edit/modify work and Comment. The some benefits:
- It provides a method of communication that can take place in or outside of school
- Creates a transcript that can assist you in identifying student student progress and learning
- Creates a data collection point for monitoring student growth
Here is a site with 10 Google Tips for Teachers to use in the Classroom
International Ed Tech Guy 