Goal Setting with Google Calendar

Use Google Calendar on your iOS or Android phone/tablet to set and track your summer goals such as getting healthier or developing a new skill. See this 2 minute tutorial on how to use this Goal Setting feature.

​​Wishing you a wonderful and restful summer break!

The 4 C's

Today’s tech tip is not about a tool. It’s about the skills our students need to be successful in today’s technology-rich world. We call them the 4 C’s (Communication, Collaboration, Critical thinking and Creativity), and they are are surrounded by the larger context of digital citizenship.

Communication

Collaboration

Critical Thinking

Creativity

Integrating technology into your classrooms can help our students develop these success skills. Here are just a few examples:

• Communication--Online discussions, collaborative google docs, and email give students a chance to learn how to communicate in a digital platform. Communication in the digital world is a critical success skill.
• Collaboration--Using shared Google Docs, Spreadsheets, Presentations and folders helps students learn to create collaboratively. Face-to-face discussions about digital creations and projects extends this experience.
• Critical Thinking--Having student problem solve is invaluable, and problem solving nearly always requires the use of some type of technology. We research, brainstorm, collaborate and create with digital tools. Chromebooks, iPads and computers can all be used to leverage a vast number of incredible, digital resources available.
• Creativity--Having students “create” elevates learning to the highest levels of Bloom’s Hierarchy, increases cognitive complexity and engages students in their learning. Technology tools serve as great catalysts for the creative process. They not only help us to research and find answers, but they give us nearly unlimited options for products to create to apply and represent our learning. Having students work in groups to create a product using technology requires students to practice all of these skills!
• Digital Citizenship--Students use technology every day, but that does not mean they have the skills to make good choices and use them wisely. We can use our classrooms as an opportunity to teach students these skills in a safe environment under our guidance.

As you wrap up this school year and prepare for next fall, ask yourself this question: How can I create learning experiences in my classroom that leverage technology in a way that helps develop these 21st Century life skills?

If our students have these skills, they will have a great advantage after they leave our school system.

Learn more at the Partnership for 21st Century Learning. You can also contact me at anytime if you want to brainstorm ways to promote these skills in your classroom.

Insert Charts into Google Docs and Sheets

Google just updated Docs and Slides so that you can now easily create and insert charts. You can start the chart in right in Docs/Slides, and it will create the Sheet for you to add the data. Or if you already have a Sheet with data, you can grab that data to quickly insert a chart into your Doc/Slide.

The charts are linked to the data in Sheets, so if you change any data, your chart in Docs/Slides will quickly update with one click. This new feature makes it easy to present your data and to quickly update the charts as needed.

See this video tutorial for directions.

You only need to watch the first 2 minutes to get the idea of how this works.

Open Web Email Links in Gmail

When you click on an email link in Campus or on the web, do you want the link to automatically open in Gmail instead of requiring you to copy/paste these emails addresses?  

For example, when you click a link to an email . . .

. . . the link will open in Gmail, and you are ready to send a message.

Directions:​​

Step 1: Open Chrome (These directions only apply to Chrome--another good reason to start using this browser :).

Step 2: Open Gmail

Step 3: Click diamonds in Omnibox (see printscreen below)

Step 4: Click ALLOW and select "Manage handler settings"

Step 5: Select "mail.google.com" from drop down list and click DONE two times

Step 6: Enjoy the ease of emailing those email links in Chrome!

Q & A in Google Slides

Google Slides has just released a neat new feature to help engage your audience. It’s called Q&A, and it allows people in your audience to submit questions during your presentation. They can see all the questions submitted by accessing a unique URL, and then they can vote questions up or down. This screenshot shows a student view with one question submitted.

As a presenter, you can review the questions submitted, and if you want to answer one, you can have it display on your screen. This is a great way to engage your audience in your presentation. Even students who are too shy to raise their hand can submit a question online.

The Basics:

1. Open a Google Slideshow. Click the dropdown arrow next to the “Present” button and choose “Presenter View.”
• Note: If you just click “Present,” you will still have the option of choosing “presenter view” at the bottom of the presentation screen.

2. A presenter view will pop up over your slideshow. Start a new Q&A and click “ON” to activate the Q & A feature.
3. A short URL will appear at the top of your slideshow. Students can open this on their device to ask questions and/or vote up/down other questions.
4. On the presenter view screen, the presenter can see all questions and how many votes it received. Click “Present” to have this question appear as a temporary slide on your slideshow.

To learn more, check out these helpful resources or contact your digital learning specialist for assistance.

• Blog post with a video showing it in action

• Brief how-to video

Free Video Resources

You are all familiar with YouTube as a source for free videos. However, there are some other excellent sources available to you, and many contain only educational or high quality content. Here are a few to check out.

• http://www.schooltube.com/
• Mainly videos
• http://www.watchknowlearn.org/
• Videos searchable by subject, common core standard, grade level, etc.
• http://www.teachertube.com/
• Video, audio, docs, collections, playlists, etc.
• http://www.mnvideovault.org/
• Twin Cities PBS video archives.
• https://www.khanacademy.org/
• Math, and much more! Create classrooms and track progress.

Bonus Tip #1: https://safeshare.tv/

• Paste in a Youtube or Vimeo video address to show w/o adds, suggested videos or comments appearing.

Bonus Tip #2: Create a QR code or post a link.

• Create a QR code that takes students directly to the video or post a web link into Schoology or Seesaw for easy access by students.

Bonus Tip #3: Embed in Schoology.

• Copy the embed code from a video and embed the video directly into Schoology.
• View Schoology directions.

Symbaloo

Last week I shared an interactive table of technology resources as a quick way for you to access a lot of sites displayed visually on one page. You and your students can create something similar with Symbaloo EDU. With Symbaloo you can quickly and easily design webmixes of interactive buttons to visually organize and share websites (ie. create visual bookmarks).

When you open the site, you will see an example webmix. Click the "Symbaloo Tour" tile located in the top center of the screen to get a 1 minute interactive tutorial on how to use this fun and easy site (an owl will appear in the corner or your screen--click the ? above his head to start the tour).

​

Here are some examples of webmixes others have created and shared (click the magnify glass on the top bar to search for publicly shared webmixes).

EDU Tools: https://www.symbaloo.com/home/mix/edutools90

Great Classroom Tools: https://www.symbaloo.com/home/mix/greatclassroomtools

Elementary Math Sites: https://www.symbaloo.com/mix/elementarymath1

Science Sites: https://www.symbaloo.com/mix/science19

Periodic Table of Ed Tech/Integration

This week's tip is a fun way to explore a list of education technology options. You may be familiar with some of these, but I encourage you to check out some that may be new to you. Have fun exploring!

Periodic Table of Ed Tech/Integration

http://dailygenius.com/periodic-table

Check out Kathy Schrock’s clickable version here.

Extension Shortener and QR Codes

You and your students can add the goo.gl Chrome extension to shorten website URLS and to create QR codes with just one click.

QR codes make it easier and more engaging for students to access resources on the internet (websites, YouTube videos, Google Docs, images, text, etc.). Students scan the QR codes using the camera on their devices by using Apps like ScanQR (Chromebooks) or QR Reader (iPads, iPhones).

QR codes can be used to create interactive learning stations, scavenger hunts, self-directed learning, etc. For examples on how to use QR codes in your classroom, see 25 Fun Ways to use QR Codes for Teaching and Learning, TED Ed: Magic of QR Codes and How to Scan QR Codes and Ideas for the Classroom (mainly math).  

Once you install the extension, here are the steps using goo.gl:

1. Go to a website (or file saved in Google Drive)

2. Click the goo.gl extension icon on your extension bar

3. Highlight and copy goo.gl address  ---OR---

3. Click QR Code in the list and then right click on QR code to copy or save image

4. Post it (print it or add it to a Google Slideshow, Google Doc, Calendar event, Schoology, etc.)

Quizlet's Collaborative Game Feature (and how to embed in Schoology)

Tech Tip of the Week . . .Quizlet and its new collaborative game feature.

Quizlet has long been a teacher favorite for helping students study and review content. It’s also a great formative assessment tool for students. Here are some of the activities available in Quizlet:.

• Flashcards (with text, audio and images)
• Learn mode (students type answers)
• Speller (students spell the word they hear)
• Test (students complete practice tests with 4 possible question types)
• Scatter (an independent matching game)
• Gravity (review game where students type answers to save the planet from asteroids)

Note: Flashcards are available in multiple languages!

New! Quizlet has just added a collaborative quiz game for teams of students called Live. Once you’ve created a set of at least 12 cards and have at least 6 students to play, you can create the game. Click “Live” and get a game code. Students go to quizlet.live and enter a quiz code. They do not even need accounts! The game randomly puts students in teams where they need to collaborate to answer the questions. The first team to get all the answers correct wins.

Learn more at the Quizlet blog

Bonus Tip: You can get embed code from the Quizlet site to embed the review activities into your Schoology page. Students can review without leaving Schoology! Here are a few steps in Schoology to do this:

1. Create a page.
2. Click insert “Insert Content” button.
3. Choose “Image/media.”
4. Choose “From the web.”
5. Choose “Media.”
6. Paste the embed code.
7. Save page.

Google Calendar Reminders

Are you looking for a way to manage your "to do" items within your calendar? Google just added Reminders as an option in Google Calendars. Creating reminders is similar to creating events on the calendar. You can set a reminder for a certain date, but if you don't get it done, it will automatically carry forward to the next day until you mark it as done.

Click here for more details.