If you are like me, than you know that Google Forms are the best thing since sliced bread. A check for understanding from students, a parent survey, a workshop evaluation, a classroom walk-through...well, the list is endless for what you can do with a form.  What is even better is that the end user does not need a Google account to actually fill out the form.  Isn't that great?!  You simply provide a link to your form and you can begin collecting data. You can send the link via email, you can embed the form on a site, or you can even use social media such as Google+ or twitter to share the link.  As long as your form is accepting responses, just about anyone with an internet connection can complete the form. Google Forms Rock!You can find out even more about Google Forms at the Google Apps for Education Rocky Mountain Summit on August 2 & 3 in colorful Colorado.  Join us!

One of the new features in the FrogLearn Brunel Release is site backgrounds. This simply allows you to upload an image to become the background for a site, rather than having to create a theme - which was a bit more complex (see my previous posts on themes). While themes were great, we were never going to get lots of staff designing new themes for every site, however Backgrounds enables a much more custom feel to each site.  Some examples so far:

During our initial planning discussions in preparation for the Google Apps for Education Summits, our team committed to donating a percentage of the net income from each event directly to classrooms - specifically to put internet connected devices into the hands of students. Happily, Google has recently released the Nexus 7, the next generation Android tablet in a student-friendly 7 inch form factor - for only $199. We've now committed to donating 24 Nexus 7 tablets to a classroom. We're working with our sponsors and others to make this a full class set of 30 or more devices in the coming weeks.Google is only positioning these devices as consumer products at this point, but the EdTechTeam believes they have great potential for student use and would love to see how an innovative teacher facilitates this - and we'd love to learn more about what challenges this might present. We'd most like to see these placed in a 1:1 pilot program (either at the elementary level, or for a single class at the secondary level) that allows students to take the devices home with them on a daily basis. So... what would you do with a class set of Nexus 7 Tablets? Write up your proposal and then submit it via this form: http://goo.gl/rVwqiBe sure to describe how students might use the devices in your class, and what you'll do to facilitate student use of the devices for inquiry and creation. On August 21, 2012 we'll select the winner of the first class set. If you're not selected for funding by us, we encourage you to develop an account on DonorsChoose.org, where anyone else can fund your proposals! We see this as a way to empower teachers to seek funding for far more classes than we could ever fund ourselves. If you setup your proposal on DonorsChoose, please use the form above to let us know, too. You can promote your proposal anywhere - and we'll help spread the word! Please let us know if you have any questions about this. We look forward to seeing your proposals, helping to make them happen, and hearing about the impact these devices make in your classes.BONUS: iBallz has generously offered to provide iBallz Minis for every Nexus 7 we give away!UPDATE 2012/08/21: Three finalists have been chosen, and more information has been requested from them. All other applicants have been notified as well. The form above is no longer accepting submissions. We will launch a new application as soon as we are able. :)

In case this is of use to anyone - a quick use A6 card that describes how to set work in Frog (using New Assignment from the timeline) and some of the applications we have in Frog. Feel free to download an alter as required… PDF Files Applications Assignments Adobe Illustrator Files Applications Assignments

I shared this elsewhere and thought I'd share it on the team blog as well. I hope others might find it useful.UPDATE: I buried the lead... by switching from AT&T to StraightTalk I'm basically getting my new phone AND laptop for FREE. :)Wow. I exhausted all the possibilities and finally settled on a new laptop, phone, and phone service. I'm going all open source, unlocked, and contract free. :)Laptop: ZaReason UltraLap 430 w/Ubuntu 12.04https://zareason.com/shop/UltraLap-430.htmlPhone: Google Galaxy Nexus by Samsunghttp://www.google.com/nexus/#/galaxyService: StraightTalk Unlimited (Month-to-Month)https://www.straighttalk.com/secure/ServicePlansBTW, I'll save more than $1000 over two years by leaving AT&T... plus another $1400 since I'll be canceling my MiFi as well. I can buy a new phone whenever I want! (This made it easier to say no to the Samsung Galaxy SIII for now, as did the promise of Jelly Bean sooner on the Nexus... not to mention the Nexus was half the price unlocked. I really wanted to do the SIII on Credo for $199, but the two year contract at AT&T like prices turned me off despite Credo's social mission.)Also, the laptop has double the RAM of a Maxed out Macbook Air, and more SSD storage than possible with a Macbook Air... for over $300 less. And, I found great looking alternatives to all my favorite Mac Apps, including TextExpander and FlyCut. Oh, and they're all free.These are still not inexpensive purchases, but I feel like it's money well spent... I was out the door for 15% less than I would've been with a maxed out Macbook Air and a basic iPhone 5. And with the savings over time with the cell plan, I basically just got my new phone and computer for FREE!I guess I buried the lead, eh?And of course I'll be sharing my experiences switching from OS X and iOS to Linux and Android... and I'm looking forward to finally walking the open source talk. :)

By Second Grade Teacher Julie StewartIt is just about a year ago when I told Beth Mossholder, our resident Google Certified Teacher and technology teacher, that I was going to try to find a way to get tablets into my classroom.  Little did I know that I could actually make it happen!  After attending the Google Apps for Education Rocky Mountain Summit this past August, I knew I had to get the 21st century into my classroom for more than just one day a week when my class had a technology class.  When I saw the opportunity offered from the Ed Tech Team to place Nexus 7 tablets into the hands of students for a pilot program, I knew this was my chance to make this a reality.  I applied and am now thrilled to be part of this amazing journey that has already opened the world up to my students.September 24, 2012 marked the beginning of this amazing journey for my second grade class with the arrival of our classroom set of Nexus 7 tablets.  We had been following the shipment via UPS with their tracking system, so when we saw that they were in Colorado at a UPS depot just miles from our school, the class could hardly sit still!  The school office was alerted to make the phone call once the truck arrived with this very special delivery.  Beth and I knew our world was about to change in a matter of hours.The phone finally rang with our much anticipated phone call.  I quickly got the students to line up; how I managed that I will never know!  I went two doors down from my classroom to get Beth as my second graders followed me like little ducklings all in a row.  We started to hurry down the long hallway when hurrying suddenly turned into something similar to running.  The chatter of  happy voices disturbing every classroom along the way was priceless!  Little faces peered out from behind classroom doors as we made our way to the school office.  We were greeted with a smiling UPS delivery man with the special delivery from the Ed Tech Team!This had to be the best day ever for my second graders!  The addition of these tablets is going to change the way my students learn this school year and beyond into their futures.  The 21st century has arrived in my classroom, and I cannot wait to see where it takes us.Thank you, Ed Tech Team, for making a dream come true.  Our journey has just begun and what a ride it is going to be!

One thing that has been missing from Frog is an e-book system - so we recently added RM Books to Frog. RM Books gives us access to a range of eBooks including quite a few free classic literature books and some school text books. There is no initial cost to set up and use the free books and some of our departments are now using textbooks via RM Books rather than more expensive paper copies. Getting RM Books into Frog At the moment there is no official integration - so we used a HTML Sign In Script (originally developed by Ninestiles School to log into something else) to link the two. This script requires Frog3 - on the first use, users enter their username and password. Once Frog has this information all future log ins are automatic. Get in touch if you want me to email you the Frog3 Page and HMTL Script to use.  In the future it would be good to see better integration between RM Books and Frog, possibly getting the books into Discover and on the book offering more publishers of Secondary Textbooks into the system.  

This is cross-posted from the EdTechLife blog.I wrote (most of) this on the plane ride home after the Google Apps for Education New England Summit last week...If I'm going to blog publicly, I can ask myself... what did I learn this weekend? I usually learn something new at each summit... from dropping in on sessions, or from good questions asked in my own sessions... or, of course, from new tools or features released since I last ran my sessions. :)Thanks to an attendee question, I relearned how to search the Google News Archives using the new interface. If I post this to my blog, I'll have to re-record a new video of it. It's awesome. In short, though, you can now access the Google News Archives by simply visiting Google News, and clicking on the drop down arrow in the search box. One of the options is to search in the archive - and you can limit your search by date as well.Here's the video... my first screencast using my new Linux laptop. I used RecordMyDesktop to create an ogv file and then uploaded it directly to YouTube. I forgot to turn up my audio input first... and YouTube seems to have crunched the resolution down pretty far, but considering I wasn't up for a second take, I'm pretty happy with how it gets the point across. :)Given my difficulty in articulating what else I've learned this weekend, I think another take away is this: I've got to make it more of a priority to spend substantial time in the other sessions in order to learn something new each time (and to take advantage of where we are, and who we are with). It will also help me have an even better idea about how each presenter runs their sessions and how the events are going. Right now I stick my head into every session (when I'm not presenting) to see how it's going. I busy myself taking pictures (as unobtrusively as possible)while I get a sense for how the energy in the room, but I don't usually stick around for the content. Most of the content is of course familiar to me, but I still pick up nuggets here and there, and there's no doubt in my mind that the speakers at these events have vastly different experiences and expertise from mine - that I could benefit from if I put more time into listening.That being said, I did learn A LOT this weekend, but not necessarily about educational technology. I continue to learn a lot about business... and about people (and organizations)... and about myself. These things just might not be appropriate for an educational technology blog. Depending on the reflections, though, they might work here (it is an "and life" blog too after all), or they might work on a separate blog - or perhaps on an anonymous blog. Or perhaps only in a private file - in a hidden directory on an encryped drive. I've been doing some journaling too. ;)

This is a nice add on to Google Chrome - which shows an image (usually something Geographical), the time and says good morning to me. There is also the option to store a To Do List and set some targets for the day.   It’s is available in the Chrome Web Store. 

Cross-posted from edtechlife.com.This is an excerpt from something I wrote for the team back in February. It has stood the test of time well, and I'm excited to finally share it here. I look forward to any comments, feedback, or pushback from others. :)Over the past few years I’ve found that my personal and professional values have more or less converged, so I’m particularly passionate about my commitment to these values... and I think they’re a good fit for this team.PassionWe do only work that we are passionate about. Don’t accept a job from the team that you aren’t passionate about. Do feel free to send us leads you’re not passionate about, but know that I won’t move on a lead unless I am passionate about it... or unless I know someone else on the team that is. It follows that we also don’t provide or recommend products or services that we are not passionate about. Sticking to your passions is also a very positive way to ensure you never threaten your own integrity.FlexibilityWe are a flexible team. This is probably the essence of the EdTechTeam, and I often pitch this benefit to clients: "We are a nimble organization, able to be flexible and responsive to your needs... Our services can be scaled up or back as necessary, and we are experienced in developing custom services based on client requests. Because we always work on a contract basis, few of the commitments required to hire an employee are necessary for your organization to tap into our expertise." I value flexibility over systems, rules, and precedents - and I value flexibility over checklists, goals, and plans. Flexibility is critical to the philosophy of the "lean startup" and that philosophy is key to our success and future growth. If I say "thank you for your flexibility" it is high praise coming from me. OpennessWe are an open team. I mean this in many ways. Most importantly, we are open with each other. Hopefully this message is a good step toward making that even more of a reality. If you have questions, concerns, or potential conflicts... let me (and anyone else involved) know. We are also open with the clients, educators, and students that we serve; we always share our opinions (and identify them as such); we always disclose potential conflicts of interest; and we always disclose any additional funding or support we might be receiving. And, of course, we always thank the people and organizations that have contributed to successful events and projects. Also, we share as much of our resources as we can. That is why all of our workshop resources and publicly posted materials (including blog posts and wikis) are released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. We’re paying it forward to other educators and learners. CreativityWe are a creative team. Creativity is a cornerstone of my educational philosophy. I believe that encouraging creativity is both a means for learning other things, and a valuable end for education to aspire to. I value working with creative people (like all of you), and our creative solutions to others’ problems are in a very real way what we are selling. We find creative ways to help people learn. SimplicitySimplicity is good. All things being equal, simplicity is better than complexity. Simple solutions are better than complex solutions. Simple tools are better than complex tools. Simple rules of thumb are better than complex manuals, and simple values are better than complex contracts. If in any case, a simpler tool can be used, simpler words will suffice, or a simpler route can be taken... we should always choose the most simple path to the solution we want. I feel my language in this message is simple, but I know it is still unnecessarily long and complex. I look forward to the day I’ll be able to express these things in only a few lines. Health, Balance, and AuthenticityWe live healthy, balanced, and authentic lives. I mentioned that my personal and professional values have converged over the years. These are three values (collected for simplicity’s sake) that I aspire to in my personal life, that I admire in many of you, and that we should look to for guidance as a team. We should not suggest things to clients, educators, and learners that would not be healthy or that would lead them to lead an unbalanced or inauthentic life; rather, we should encourage healthy choices, balanced behaviors, and authentic communication. I’m a fan of teaching "the whole child" (regardless of the political baggage this term may have acquired), and I think it is critically important to always deal with everyone, educators and students included, first as people. Discover their passions and their challenges if you truly want to help. The technology in our name and mission does not outweigh the health and happiness of the people we serve. GivingWe donate 5% of our net income to put devices in the hands of students. As I’ve worked to reboot this business in 2012, I’ve wanted to ensure that giving is baked right into the business model. (Among other things, I was inspired by Blake Mycoskie’s Start Something That Matters.) When I asked myself what we could do, I kept coming back to the importance of putting devices in the hands of kids... to creating as many 1:1 situations as we can (even on an individual scale). We can’t offer any sort of 1-for-1 deal similar to Mycoskie’s TOMS shoes (it would be too expense to include the price of a mobile device with every workshop ticket... or to give away a workshop for each one sold), but we can dedicate  5% of our net profit to putting devices in kids hands. Inspired by Warren Dale, who provides some very convincing arguments for giving kids iPod Touches (which they will carry and use everywhere) I am giving iPod Touches to kids in schools with teachers (and visionary educational technologists) who will provide the best chance for the devices to be put to good use. UPDATE: The entire core team for the Google Apps for Education Summits has committed to giving away Nexus 7 devices... and I just shipped our second class set yesterday!SynchronicityWe embrace synchronicity. Whatever cause or causes have brought all of us together, there is no doubt in my mind that this team is greater than the sum of it’s parts - that I am better working with you than I am working alone. Similarly, I trust my intuition... and I trust yours; your opinions and insights are extremely valuable to me. As a team, we should continue to embrace the happy accidents and meaningful connections that our work presents us with. I look forward to seeing how our efforts will be shaped in the months and years to come.I feel the same way about this (sometimes dormant) blog. And on this particular day I'm Thankful for all of the happy accidents and meaningful connections I've found here with all of you as well. :)See also a flashback "Thank You" post that still resonates with me 9 months later: http://edtechlife.com/?p=2942

Simple Marking The simplest marking involves using existing tools within Google Drive to leave a comment or make a suggestion. 1. Using Comment Comment enables you to leave a side comment on the work. Students receive an e-mail when comments are left on their work. To insert a comment highlight the text you want to comment on and then press CTRL+ALT+M. You can only leave a comment once text is highlighted. Students can mark a comment as resolved, which removes it from the side and sends you a e-mail to notify you . However all comments are still availble to view under "Comments" at the top of the document. 2. Using "Suggesting" Suggesting enables you to edit the document, and your changes are made as suggestions which the student can choose to accept or reject. The suggestions are left as comments alongside the document.   Advance Marking 3. Audio Feedback using Kaizena Kaizena is an add on to Google Docs, before using it you need to go to "Add-ons" in the top menu bar and then Get Add Ons, and browse the Add On list until you find Kaizena. Once you have added this, it will prompt you to also install a Chrome Extension - you need to add both to make this work. Once installed Kaizena  works in a similar way to Comments - you highlight the text you want to comment on then press "New Feedback" in the Kaizena Side Bar: You can then select to record some audio feedback, leave normal text feedback or give a link to a document. Tracking Changes 4. Tracking Changes - Revision History Going to File, then See Revision History - shows the times that a student has spent working on a document and the changes they have made. This can be useful for tracking homework completion. 5. Draftback Draftback creates a movie of the document and shows the changes made over time, along with the dates the changes were made. It is effectively an annimated version of the Revision History. To use Draftback you need to install a Chrome Extension.  Once installed Draftback can be accessed from a button on the top menu, next to comments. This produces a movie of the document and the changes made.

We're all so proud to be involved with this effort. The second class set of Nexus 7s the EdTechTeam donated for 1:1 student use was rolled out earlier this month...YEAH!!!! The Nexus 7s arrived in Maine on Friday afternoon and we were able to give them to students just three days later. Kate Parkin (4th grade teacher) and I had spent time preparing for the devices, exploring apps, becoming familiar with various resources like Edutecher and Android4Schools and thinking about how to bring this to her students in the most productive way. Some weekend work went into charging, updating and preparing the tablets with each student's Yarmouth Google account.  Read More on Kathy Wolinsky's Blog...Do any of you know of any schools purchasing Nexus 7s for student use? We'd love to connect with the educators in those schools as well - to share challenges and best practices. Thank you in advance for any comments you might leave.Meanwhile, we hope you all have a happy new year celebration. :)

These instructions were originally produced as a worksheet which can be downloaded here: Creating a Site in Frog Learn.pdf 1. Log into Frog Learn 2. On the top menu (the black bar) - go to Frog Drive. 3. Select Sites / My Sites and a folder of your existing sites will open. 4. Press New Site 5. Give your site a title and description (this can be edited later). 6. You will then need to select a theme and icon for your site. A theme is the design of the site (the background and containers). Frog will use the title and description to suggest an icon for your site, or you can upload your own (both can be edited later). Then press Next. 7. Now you have the option to give further information about your  site to help others find it in the search box in Frog. You should include any keywords, the subject and key stage here, after selecting remember to press "Add Tag", so that the tag appears on this page. This information is optional and it is possible to create a site leaving this blank. 8. Finally press "Create Site" - you will now have a blank site to add content to. More details on adding content to a site can be found in these posts:  Frog Learn Widgets and Apps Guide Embedding in Frog Learn

By Second Grade Teacher Julie StewartWe have had our share of memorable moments since receiving our Nexus 7 tablets.  Things like charging multiple tablets and having non-homeroom students also using the tablets was now on my list of daily things to manage. It was going to be so easy...I did not think too much about it, at first, because I thought it would be one of those easy tasks that did not take a lot of effort.  When the tablets needed to be charged, I would just plug them in.  It all seemed so simple.  I suddenly found myself wondering how was I going to do this, and where on earth do I put them in my already crowded classroom?  The minor problem came when I realized that I did not have enough power strips on hand.  I called my teammate, Beth, and asked if she had some that I could use.  Thank goodness for the IT department for having a secret stash of odds and ends for technological emergencies!  With her spares, I had enough to set up charging stations all over my classroom on any horizontal or vertical surface that was available.Before I could actually start plugging them in and charging them, my next task was to remove each charger from its box and take off the plastic bags and ties.  After I got the USB cables plugged into the charging units, the tablets were finally ready to be charged.  As I started this task, my college-aged son, Stephen, stopped by my classroom to lend me a hand.  He helped me find a few more open outlets for the power strips, and we got them all plugged in and charging in less than 10 minutes.  They were scattered all over my classroom, but each tablet had a home to charge.  My "Oh, no!" moment was no more!I had mentioned in an earlier post that it was important that I have identification names and numbers on all of the tablets. This was done to prevent major "Oh, no!" moments.  Since my school does ability grouping for math and reading, my class decided that we should share our tablets with the other second graders who have me as their math and reading teacher. Doing this has allowed me to put the Nexus 7’s into the hands of close to 75 second grade students! This kind gesture made the other second grade classes very happy.  By assigning each guest student a specific tablet, I have made all of them accountable for using them.  This, along with adding LanSchool to each tablet, has made the students very aware of computer security.  It also prevents 25 students from asking me all at the same time as to which one they should use!A funny moment happened one day when I heard an "Oh, no!" from one of my homeroom students when she was looking at her photos in her photo gallery.  She brought her tablet over to me to see.  One of the guest students assigned to her tablet had been exploring the camera feature while usng her tablet and snapped a self portrait. My homeroom student remarked, "Well, it is okay, Mrs. Stewart.  She took a really good picutre, and now you don’t need to show her how to use the camera. She will be an expert pretty soon."  All I could do was smile!  This is the kind of moment that makes this teacher pretty darn happy.My next post will be showcasing some of the work the students have done out in the field using their tablets and the camera  to show their creative "wow" moments.  You will be amazed at what they did with just a few minutes of instruction on using the camera feature and being set free on their photo safari in and around our school.

With over 800 Chromebooks now in the academy - here are the results of the Chromebook Survey for 2014: View the previous survey here. 

So a few days ago Zeb was leaving the house and told me he was going to a doctors appointment. Being the nosey wife I am I inquired for what. "Just a check up.", he stated. "A checkup for what?", I replied. "Oh, just the usual.", he said. Now I had noticed he was limping around but I thought he had just pulled a muscle or something. Later on that day I was talking with the girls and one of them mentioned "Dad's foot". Inquiring minds had to know more so I found Zeb and asked to see his foot. Boy, was I surprised! From the knee down he was black and blue all over. Take a gander at the picture below.Turns out he was playing basketball and took out one of the players accidentally. That player was fine but fell on top of Zeb's leg apparently. It wasn't until a few days later that I found out the "player" was his brother Mitch. I should've known since Mitch already has a reputation for hurting my husband. :)The doctor says nothings broken at this point but some of us are wondering because the swelling is quite large. Guess time will tell but in the mean time just call Zeb "Hop-a-Long."

Chrome Extensions are small add on’s for the Chrome Browser that can provide shortcuts and additional functionality to Chrome. Here are some great extensions for teachers to use in Chrome: Awesome Screenshot Enables you to capture screens, or areas of a screen in one easy move. Much easier and faster than using Print Screen then cropping the image. The delayed capture is useful if you need to use your mouse to highlight or press something - while the screen is captured. Draftback Draftback is an extension which runs in Google Drive and allows you to play back the creation of a document - a sort of timelapse movie for documents. You can see how much or how little time has been spent creating a document. Turn Off the Lights Makes the rest of a page fade to black when a movie is played. Useful when showing a film to a class as it hides other content. Google Mail Checker Displays the number of unread e-mails you have. Adblock for YouTube Stops adverts from playing before you show a video. Particularly useful if you rely on YouTube in Assemblies. One-Click Timer If you like to give accurate times for your class to complete an activity this extension displays a nice big clock. Even if you browse other sites it keeps counting down until the alarm sounds. Date Today When pressed shows the Date and Time. Useful for the "put today’s date at the top of the page" moment.. Send Later Sends g-mails at a later time or date - useful when you remember to send an e-mail late at night, but want it to go the next day. If you have another suggestion for a useful extension - leave it as a comment below..

By Second Grade Teacher Julie StewartWe set out one afternoon before fall break to take in the beauty of the autumn colors.  Our weather was changing fast, and we needed to get outside and snap some pictures before all of the leaves ended up on the ground.  Because we did not have a fancy tablet cover for our Nexus 7 tablets, taking them outside was something that we were a bit nervous about doing.  Our technology teacher, Beth Mossholder, came to class with a solution...Rubber bands!  You heard it right.  We could do this inexpensively and make it work!  Each child was given a rubber band and instructed to attach it to the tablet by slipping their non-writing/typing hand through the rubber band on the back of the Nexus 7.  It worked beautifully!  It was quick and secure, so we could venture outside the classroom and begin our autumn photo safari around the school grounds.  As they made their way outside, I could hear conversations about what they would take pictures of, how they were going to do it, and how they would help each other.  We were ready for our adventure!Three Simple Steps For a Successful Autumn Photo Safari1.  Add a rubber band and you are instantly ready to take pictures almost hands-free.2.  Head outside to capture the beauty of autumn with a Nexus 7 tablet.3.  Share photos with the teacher.I have to say that the camera on the Nexus 7 tablet did a great job and did not disappoint anyone.  Even though this tablet just has a front facing camera, a student discovered that by holding it over your shoulder or off to the side, you could see the picture that you were taking.  It is not as good as having the added feature of a rear facing camera, but it worked and they got some really good pictures.  We headed back inside and shared photos and photography tips!  There was even time for peer-to-peer teaching.   One of my "expert" students showed the rest of the class a faster way to view their pictures.   (I loved how they  actually listened and had questions for her at the end!)Autumn through the eyes of a child and a Nexus 7 tablet!  I do believe that their photo safari was a success!

This post could also be titled: "What I meant to share during yesterday's glitchy demo slam..." ;)When teachers talk about using Chromebooks as student machines, they often lament the lack of multimedia editing tools for student projects (such as the iLife Suite that has for years made Macs an excellent choice for student use and 1:1 programs). Chromebooks, of course, don't have any local applications... just a fast, secure, and feature rich browser... work is created and stored "in the cloud."Google Docs (now Google Drive) has been an amazing web-based creation and collaboration tool for years, but now that Google Drive is a platform and an ecology of apps is evolving, more and more options are available for the "iLife like" experience on the web. Here are three Google Drive Apps that I shared during the demo slam at the Google in Education Summit yesterday.Pixlr Editor for editing images (a photoshop analog)UJAM for creating music (a GarageBand analog)WeVideo for editing video (an iMovie analog)While these web-based apps may not be as mature as their harddrive based equivalents... look what is possible on the web today! And imagine what is to come. You might browse the collection Drive Apps in the Chrome Web Store to get a better glimpse of what your browser is now capable of doing. :)Personally, I moved almost completely into the cloud almost two years ago and have never regretted it... it's been amazing too watch how quickly the pace of change in the browser has accelerated, and though I'm no expert in this new breed of online apps, I'm excited about what they mean for the accessibility, usability, and portability of student data, media, and computing/creating/collaborating experiences. Let me know in the comments if you have other favorite Drive Apps... and please share any success stories (or challenges) you might already have experienced personally or with your students.

The one missing link in Google Classroom seems to be its ability to show the deadlines of set work in your Google Calendar. The Google Apps Script below does just that, adding assignment deadlines to your calendar and along the way creating a Google Sheet of all your assignments too. It does this by picking up the incoming e-mails sent out when new assignments are set, reading them and adding them to the sheet and calendar. There are two versions of the script here -  with slight differences in how the e-mails are handled in GMail. Version 1 - In this version you need to set a filter to star all assignments from Google Classroom that arrive in your inbox. Once the script runs the star is removed. This is the most accurate way of running the script as it is removed from each GMail message in turn - no matter how many assignments you have. However when doing this you cannot use the star feature in GMail for anything else (because if you do the script will try to read it and then remove the star). Version 2 - In this version you need to set a filter to add a label to incoming assignments called "Classroom". Once the script runs it will add the assignment to the calendar and then remove the label. The problem with this method is that if more than one assignment has arrived it will only add the first one to the calendar and then remove the label from all the e-mails. This problem is caused because Google Scripts do not have an option to remove a label from a single message (like they do for stars). You can overcome this to some extent by setting the script to automatically run very often (perhaps every 5 minutes). How to set up 1. You need to filter your e-mails in GMail. Go to Setting (the cog on the top right) and then settings. 2. Once the settings menu opens, go to Filters and add create a new filter. This filter needs to pick up any e-mails with the Subject "New Assignment*" and either star it or apply a label depending on which version of the script you are using.   3. Now you have the filter set up you can add the script - which is done in Google Drive. Go to New and Script. If you cannot see the Script option you may need to go to Connect More Apps and add the Script Option.   4. Now copy the correct version of the script below into the script area. Version 1 - Version 2 - 5. Now save the script and run it - on the first occasion you run the script it will ask for permission to use your mail, drive and calendar. You will get an error message if there are no e-mails for it to find (either starred or in the folder). 6. You probably want to trigger the script to run automatically in the background - go to Resources and All Your Triggers to set the script to run - you can run it as often as needed - make sure you turn notifications off - otherwise you will get a notification every time the script fails, which is every time there are no e-mails for it to find.     The outcome of the script is that your assignments will be shown as all day events in Google Calendar on the day they are due. You will also have a Spreadsheet called "Classroom Assignments" in Google Drive which stores the details of all of your assignments. If your a teacher - you could use this to set up a homework calendar.  There is nothing original here and I made this using lots of other posts on the web about Google Scripts and how to use Regular Expressions - feel free to have a play and adapt the script to your own use. It should be possible to do other things with the data, such as pushing it to twitter or to a text message. If you do something great post about it in the comments below…  

Well...here we are again on the annual trip to the ISTE conference! As of this writing, I’m on the plane to San Antonio, Texas writing this on a Chromebook Pixel with offline Google Docs. Despite the misnomer, there are many things you can do on a Chromebook without Internet access. To be fair, the experience would be far better with web access (come on United! Get wifi on all your planes!), but I would argue that even my Macbook Pro is mostly useless without wifi as I primarily live/work/play on the web--not with offline, desktop-based apps. But I digress...I love travelling to ISTE because I nearly always run into someone I know at the airport on the way there. This year, I ran into Bill Selak (a 2013 ISTE Emerging Leader award recipient!). We both checked in on Foursquare and I received a notification that a friend of mine was nearby as a result. It turns out we were actually on the same flight! It’s always fun to connect up with other educators in unexpected ways through these tools that we’re now taking for granted. I look back and even five years ago most of this would have been a pipedream. That’s what makes tech--and, specifically, edtech, so much fun. We get to experience the future now. I’m really looking forward to seeing many people I haven’t seen in some time now along with meeting new friends. My schedule isn’t too packed this year so I’ll have more time to chat and visit than I have in the past. I’m leading one half-day workshop Android App Inventor Bootcamp with fellow Google Certified Teacher, Brian Van Dyke. I look forward to helping guide educators through getting started with App Inventor while Brian reglales them with tales of working with the Google CAPE program and his conversations with Hal Ableson of MIT’s famed Media Lab. I’m also spending a bit of time at the Google booth where I’ll be presenting on Google Tools and Creating Presence in the Online Classroom. It’s a 30 minute session in the teaching theatre at the Google booth on Tuesday at 12:00 PM. Hope to see you there. If you can’t make my session, then be sure to check out all of the amazing educators who will be presenting on various topics for 15-30 minutes each. Some standouts include:Jim Sill - Making Movies with YouTubeJennie Magiera - Google School Makeover- 10 ways Google Apps for Education will revolutionize your schoolMonica Martinez - Three Easy Ways to use Google Drive in the ClassroomJulene Reed - Google+ for Personalized Learning and CollaborationJason Markey - Leverage the Web with ChromebooksDan McDowell - Collaborative Essays with Google DocsMolly Schroeder - Chrome Ninja Tips and TricksAs usual, I’ll spend quite a bit of time in the vendor hall walking the aisles and talking to old and new friends as well as checking out their wares. Particularly, I’m very interested in cost-effective iPad and Chromebook carts, storage cases for Chromebooks, blended learning solutions for grades 3-6, and the list goes on.My final thought on ISTE before landing in San Antonio is that I’m really wondering when ISTE will truly be international and host a conference outside the United States. In the past year of hosting Google in Education Summits both in the U.S. and internationally, I’ve had the fortune of travelling to New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. I have found the practice of getting outside of the United States helpful in reshaping my perspective on the education landscape and I do think that’s hard to do when you’re on familiar ground--even if you’re among like-minded peeps. What I learn from my travels and visits to other locations and schools I bring back to my school district in the form of new ideas for learning spaces, instructional strategies, and different thoughts about student learning and assessment. It’s refreshing. I look forward to the time when ISTE truly goes international.Note: all hyperlinks and images were added in after I landed and had wifi connectivity.

Google Classroom is great for setting work, but assignments are only visible by the students and you. Often you want to share these with other staff and parents, without adding them to all the classroom student list, or perhaps you want to track assignments set by staff across the school. This idea uses a script I have written here - about how to get Google Classroom assignments to a Calendar. 1. Firstly set up a new account - ideally one just for this task. In our case we called the username "homework@… " 2. Then add the Google Classroom Script as detailed in this post. 3. Now ask all the staff you want to collect assignments from to add this user to their Google Classroom groups. 4. Our new user account will now be getting lots of assignments, with all the details going into a spreadsheet and their calendar. 5. The calendar can be shared - or you could embed the calendar in a webpage, as agenda view to show a list of upcoming assignments.  

It's a pretty magical time in education these days. I am reminded just how awesome so many of our teachers are and just how much time and energy is put into the daily flow. The idea of working smarter and not harder and freeing up teacher time, by leveraging the technology and specifically Google's tools into their classrooms inspires me often.And this is why I love the Google in Education Summits, produced by EdTechTeam. An amazing array of teachers from different regions, backgrounds, and content areas come together and share, learn, inquire, and try new and amazing things in their classrooms. Time after time folks are walking away inspired and more confident than ever that this is the time to change or add to their classrooms, their delivery models, and their strategies.In the coming weeks and months, I will be trying to do a better job of capturing some of this awesomeness of sharing and learning; by way of this blog and through the use of feeds and social media tools like Storify, Vine, Instagram, etc.For now, I would like to share a resource from one of the first sessions I was ever able to attend at one of these summits, shared courtesy of my friend and colleague, Chris Bell: 25+ Ways to Use Google Tools for Online & Blended Learning  Attending this session allowed me to step back for a moment and truly reflect on the value add of something as simple as timely feedback. As Chris pointed out that day, if feedback was tightened up and informal communication increased, the online asynchronous siloed teacher/student relationships could be a thing of the past.Thank you to everyone who has led, attended, or lurked from afar in one of the sessions over the past 16 months. There is real power in sharing and when we can leverage face to face events and still have access to the resources later on, the learning truly never stops. Sharing something that you learned, tried, or want to know more about, models a passionate; launch, reflect, and iterate model so many of us want for our kiddos.I will continue to share and learn long side many of you. Thank you for that opportunity.

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