Education Technology

One of the things I  like about Google Docs is how often they are updated and improved.  The latest improvements are Document outline and Document expiration dates. Document Outlines will help you navigate lengthy documents by showing you the different headers and sub titles of the document on a navigation side bar.  You need to go to "tools" and then "document outline"  If you do not normally use headers or forgot to add headers to your document, Google will do that automatically for you...#winwin The next feature is Expiration Dates on Drive, Docs, Slides and Sheets.  You can now set expiration dates on these types of files.  Many times we work with projects that involve other people.  We share the document/folder with others; this gives them perpetual access to those documents unless we manually go into the document and remove their access (you have to remember to do this...so setting a timer or calendar alert?) With the newest release, you can now ...

One of the most common complains I hear when training staff on Google Apps is: " I can't use Google Docs because it is nearly impossible to share them with all my parents.  Not everyone has a Google account" This is a very common misconception.  Google Docs, Slides and any Google app allows you to share your final products with anybody.  The way by which we share these items is different. We are used to creating a document, a newsletter or even a presentation and attaching to a parent group email.  We are using email as the vehicle to deliver our product.  This method requires the other users to have compatible software or accounts to open the attachment sent in the email. With Google, you don't have to worry about programs, versions of programs ( read: I did my newsletter on Word 98 but they have either a newer version of Word or an older version of Word) or user accounts.  Simply grab a shareable link and you are good to go! Below I will explain how to d...

Learning how to maximize your browsing experience is important these days. Specially since we get information form online sources most of the time.  We are having our students browse online for research and we are using digital tools for our students to create their work, turn in assignments and much more.  Wouldn't it be nice to have an Internet Browser that will make your browsing experience much more efficient, personalized and smarter?  Well, Google Chrome is all that and more. With Google Chrome, you can get all of your browsing history, your bookmarks with you any time from any device.  you can also add apps and extensions that will enhance the use of the browser and make it much more functional for you for example, an app that lets you do screencasts (SnagIt) right on your browser for free.  Or an extension that lets you zap all the clutter from web articles so that they are less distracting for students (Readability) Below you will find a slide deck that...

It's time to Power Up your Google Forms. You probably have used Google forms to create quizzes for your students - if you have not thought about using Google Forms for that, then you might want to still watch this 3 min tutorial ;) Using Google Forms for quiz creation is an excellent tool, especially if you are a Google Apps for EDU district.  With Google Forms, you can create quizzes that will collect all answers in one spreadsheet, making it easier for you to grade and to sort the data collected. Google Forms has recently been improved.  For example, you can now shuffle the questions order for every student, allow only one submission per student and what's more- and my favorite- you can now use "Add-Ons" which enhance the already awesome features of Google Forms and make them even better! If you create a new Form now, you will see an "Add-Ons" menu item along side file, edit and tools. Click on it and then click on "get "Add-Ons"  You will s...

It's very easy to drag to files and folders around in Google Drive, too easy in fact, and dragging items in a shared folder moves them from everyone who is part of the folder...so ... Let's look at the steps that will prevent this from happening.  But before, let's understand the difference between "Add to" and "Move" One of the best things that Google Drive offers is the ability to have a folder structure in which subfolders are housed in top level folders. Let's say you have a folder structure with 4 sub folders and you move one of those sub folders to your "My Drive" for easy access.  Great! but be careful you do not move the folder for everyone else.  A simple way to make sure you keep the folder structure in place is always press CTRL and then drag. Alternatively, use the "move to" menu item.  Both of these actions will actually "Add" a folder rather than "Move" the folder- this is how Windows handles it t...

If you have gone digital and your students are sharing their work with you, you are likely to be overwhelmed with "Shared with you" items in your inbox. Here's a way that may help you create a better workflow for you and your students.  This presentation shows two solutions for workflows one includes Google Classroom.

Most of you have joined Google Classroom and have experienced it for a couple of weeks.  During its use, you may have noticed a couple of hiccups that Google has not provided a fix for.  I have found some workarounds to some of the common problems you may have encountered. Google Classroom Hacks Problem 1 : There is no way to add a Co-Teacher to my class.   Solution :  Share the "Classroom" folder housed in your Google Drive with your Co-Teacher and give her/him editing rights.  This will allow the other teacher to see all assignments and comment on them too. While this is not the perfect solution because the co-teacher cannot grade assignments, this workaround is better than adding the co-teacher as a student to your class.  Doing the latter will not allow her to see all student's assignments. Problem 2:  I can't share an entire folder of resources with my students through Classroom Solution :  Select the folder that you want to share with stude...