Google Chrome

There are many tools to explore with GAFE, and we will get to all of them, but let's begin with Google Chrome, the browser that interfaces with all the Google applications. Many of you have already signed into Chrome and may have already become familiar with its advantages:

• Browsing history, settings, and data, such as bookmarks, apps, extensions, themes are saved to your Google account and can be recovered if your computer is lost or broken. Simply signing into Chrome again will bring them back.

• Changes you make on one computer are automatically and instantaneously reflected on the other computers where you are signed in and have enabled sync.

• You can also sync open tabs, bookmarks, and omnibox data from your computer to your phone or tablet with a Google account. Accessing previous searches and settings across devices can help both teachers and students save valuable time.

• Chrome has the ability to extend its functionality through apps and extensions.

Let's begin with Chrome's menu:

Click on the "hotdogs" (hey, I don't name 'em) in the upper right corner of Chrome.

Here you will find your bookmarks (and where to import and export them), your history, your recent tabs, as well as tabs open on your other devices. Under "Settings" you can customize the appearance, such as font size and style themes, and can personalize your search experience. This is also where you sign in to Chrome if you have not already done so.

Further down the menu is "Help".   Help > Help Center is a great place to get you started, where you can review the basics, learn how to personalize Chrome, find tips for searching the web, and more.

The Omnibox

The green rectangle below is called the "omnibox", it's the familiar place where we type our URL's and where many of us begin our searches. Typing key words here will produce popular search suggestions and auto-complete recently bookmarked sites, but did you know you can do math calculations in the omnibox, or convert currency and measurements? By typing in specific words like Define:, or Filetype: you can filter your searches.

Use the omnibox as a dictionary.

Enter math equations.

You can also use the omnibox to track a package, or check the status of a flight, set a timer, find a sport score. Click here to see more  Google search tips and tricks.

You can quickly add websites to your favourites by clicking on the star shown in figure 1 below.

Tabs

Using tabs (#2) in our browser is not new to us, but here are a few tips I find useful:

1. Dragging a tab to your desktop will automatically open a new window
2. Highlighting and dragging text to a tab will open a search with those words
3. Right-clicking on a tab will allow you to: 
1. Pin your tab so that it will open the next time you open Chrome, 
2. reopen closed tabs
3. bookmark all open tabs at once

Apps

We can add apps and extensions to Chrome. Think of apps as web-based software. To access the Webstore click on the apps button on the right of your browser.

Then Click on the Webstore icon. The other icons you see below are app I have added.

There are a daunting amount of apps available. You can filter your searches to be only apps produced by Google, and that might be a good place to start. They are also divided into categories, and there is one for Education. As you can see in the figure below a description and reviews are available, but feel free to try out different apps to see which work for you. There are some apps that work offline.

The Webstore is also where you will find Extensions. These work directly in Chrome to enhance its capabilities. Here you can see some extensions I've added. An example would be a Youtube ad blocker extension, which will block ads when you play a Youtube video.

You can manage them (turn them on and off) by going to your Chrome hotdog icon and choosing "more tools".

I've created a Google sheet of apps and extension. Please add to this list when you find something you like. As the list grows, I will  divide the list into tabs. Enter only the information you think is needed. I've added a few of my favourites.

Google Search

We've gotten used to "Image search", but you can also search Google using voice. You will notice a microphone in the Google's search window. Clicking on it will activate the tool. (If you go to Google.com, saying the words "Okay Google", will activate the mic.)

Once active, you will notice the mic will turn red while "Listening..." will display.

Speak into your mic and let Google do its magic.

A tool that I think is most important is the "Reading Level" tool. 

1. Type your search (or speak)
2. Click on "Search tools
3. Choose "Reading level" and choose Basic, Intermediate, or Advanced

Next time: Google Drive

Welcome to GAFE!

So as we embark on this exciting move to Google Apps for Education (GAFE), I would like to say how happy I am about the response we have had. Though it may seem we will need to learn a whole new set of skills, really we are moving to a platform that will make so many things so much easier for so many of us and our learners. Some things will need a little adjustment time but for the most part I think the transition will be a smooth one. Remember, Microsoft Office is still available whenever needed, but do try out the different tools available even before training begins.

Stay tuned to this blog to get detailed instructions and help as we learn about the tools available in the Google suite.Click here to learn more: GAFE

ReTweet!

So it's time we revisit Twitter. 

This isn't my first blog entry about it, and though I know I couldn't do my job without it, there are many teachers who are still reluctant to sign on. This week at a faculty meeting I briefly showed a few ways Twitter can be used by educators. Even if you don't use it in your classroom (though the access you have to authors, experts, unfolding world events, etc.  makes it more than classroom worthy), do take advantage of the Personal Learning Network it affords you. On Twitter you have access to thousands of teachers just like you, struggling with the same issues, willing to share everything. Talk about crowd sourcing!  Scholastic posted an article by Kim Greene on:

Why Your Teachers Should Use Twitter

Included are schedules for on-line Twitter chats where teachers meet up regularly to have moderated discussions.

To get you started Edudemic has posted a Teachers' Guide to Twitter and Twitter 101 for Teachers, and because we all learn differently here is a slideshare on Twitter for Teachers.

If you are looking for people to follow, TeachThought (follow them!) has put out this list to get you started: 10 Educators On Twitter You Should Follow (But Probably Don’t), and here's a great list from Mashable: 10 Rockstar Teachers on Twitter.

And finally, for those of you who might want to start a class Twitter, here's  Twitter support on how to have people follow you even if they don't have a Twitter account. The Shortcode you will need for Canada is 21212.

Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends!

Quizzing

So I'm driving in my car one Saturday afternoon, and I'm listening to NPR. TED Radio Hour, RadioLab, and Spark are on one after another...what luck! Even though I am driving from one listening zone to another, I use the NPR app on my phone and plug it into my car radio (now if they would only invent PVR for radio –– would that be PAR?) and I can have uninterrupted listening for as long as my phone battery lasts.
The subject is Learning and Remembering...on one of the shows, can't remember which and my favourite story is about a young science grad who wants to go to medical school. He comes from small town USA and when he gets to Big University Medical School (I don't remember where he got in) he realizes he's ill-prepared for the work load. One month in he has his first test. He studies night and day and feels there is no way he can flub this test. Wrong. As soon as he begins, he realizes his recall just isn't working. He gets a 65.
He is not willing to give up his dream of being a doctor, but he knows he can not work any harder. He studied as hard as he could. It becomes clear he has to study better. This is when he discovers Dr. Bjork's research at the Learning and Forgetting Lab at UCLA.
What he finds out is that reading notes over and over again will help you remember some of what you read, but not for very long. For the truly deeper learning, your brain has to be asked to recall the newly acquired information over and over again. The more time you ask your brain to recall the new information, the better, and the different applications (like real world connections) you use, even better.

So our young med student creates quizzes for himself...he asks fellow students to quiz him (Hello Socrates!) He also learns from Bjork's research that mixing data up or "Interleaving" works best. So rather than "blocking" information to study, mixing things up with previous learned data, or completely different subjects will result in better great recall.



All this leads to the presentations I made to both our ES and HS faculties. Quizzing. I am not talking about "testing" but maybe I'm splitting hairs.  We can test for many things...checking in for understanding, for prior knowledge, exit tickets, formative assessment –– not every quiz need generate a mark. Tests, Dr. Bjork tells us, can also provide an opportunity for learning.
One last thought, testing just to assess knowledge can create fear. We know our prefrontal cortex will shut down when threatened so we need to take the fear out of quizzes. Let's make them fun.

Here are three tools to start you on your way:

Socrative:
Hmm, great name, huh? This a an online tool that lets you shoot a quiz, exit ticket, discussion prompt and more to your students either through their website or to a mobile app. Imagine your students solving a quadratic equation on the bus/car ride home. What's great about Socrative is how spontaneous you can be. Kids don't need to create accounts, so accessing the quiz couldn't be easier. Once your students have answered, an excel spreadsheet report is made for you to download.

Google Forms:

If you've used other online survey tools, like Survey Monkey, you'll be comfortable with Google Forms. You can create questions with multiple choice, text, or paragraph answers. Images and videos can be inserted as well, so if you've been flipping your classroom, or you need to differentiate, you're all set. An option to view a summary of the results gives you graphs that help you analyze the data yourself or share with your students.

Flubaroo: 
Flubaroo is a google sheet add-on that will mark your quizzes for you. This works great with Google Forms and is not complicated to use. At a glance you can see which questions cause the most trouble, and which students are having the most difficulty.

# BestYearEver

Welcome back everyone! 

So for my first post  this school year I couldn't resist Edutopia's offering, "#BestYearEver". There are weeks of downloadable material, from redesigning your classroom to how to remember names, but my two favourites are "7 Questions to Ask Parents at the Beginning of the Year" and "53 Ways to Check for Understanding". Okay, I also like the article on " 5 Ways to Help Your Students Become Better Questioners", especially because  of our focus on visible thinking.

Wishing you all a great start and...you got it...Best Year Ever!

Visible Thinking

Visible thinking: what is it and how do we achieve it? Harvard"s Project Zero, an educational research group has put together a comprehensive site on Visible Thinking, chock full of strategies for changing the culture of your school and incorporating thinking routines into your classroom.

But what digital tools work best to promote visible thinking? Blogging stands out as one of the best tools, where thoughts, discussion, debate, minds being changed, are all evident – sometimes all in one discussion thread. AND the broad reach of online blogging only adds to to the layers and richness of the learning.

Realtime online discussion can also facilitate visible thinking. Tools like PollEverywhere, Socarative, or Padlet, help generate class participation, while also generating formative assessment.

Our friends at Te@chThought understand that formative assessment can take the form of conversation and suggest 5 Tools for Giving Students Narrative Feedback. One tool that is not on the list is Thinglink. This tool allows you to annotate images with text or sound. Look at this beautiful example: Here.

And finally you can't read about "visible thinking", without running into "visible learning".


Digital Story Telling is an effective tool for visible learning. William "Bud" Deihl from Virginia Commonwealth University(VCT) Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) has put together an excellent wikispace on "Making Learning Visible". The page "Digital Story Telling" is of particular interest. I love how Bud has laid it out with guiding questions and 7 elements of DST. My favourite line: "1st, it (digital storytelling) is not about the technology, but considers technologies or approaches as the means to achieve storytelling goals."
Check out the other tabs in the wiki, including Screencasting
UBC has put together a course for using screencasting for visible learning. The course is available free on iTunesU.  Our ES teachers have had great success using ExplainEverything, Showme, and Educreations on iPads, all included in this course.

Welcome back everyone!

Before the break I was working with the Grade 9's on creating presentations. A visit to Slideshare often gives me some great ideas to work with, good and bad. Today I came across David Theriault's, Turning Your Learning Inside Out. David is a HS English teacher (you can follow him on Twitter) and today he has made my job so much easier. In his slide show below, he gives great examples of taking the lesson out of the classroom, or rather, going beyond the 4 walls and making the learning transparent and more meaningful at the same time. Yes, of course he uses social media; it's all about connecting, right? Take a look. I love the "Novel Blackout Poems".

Thank you David!

Turn your learning inside out from David Theriault