Jun 242018
 

Permalink: https://goo.gl/h7QGzm

In this two-day course, we’ll get you up to speed on the incredible array of services and applications that Google provides to teachers and students for free. If you have Chromebooks in your classroom, this workshop will open your eyes to the possibilities and realities of a paperless classroom, as well as having a place to showcase student work, collaborate with experts in the outside world, and managing your limited time in a more effective way.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the course, participants will:

  • Create a Google Site to provide information to students and parents, highlight classroom activities, and showcase exceptional student work.
  • Create a collaborative Google Slides presentation, and publish it to their Google Site.
  • Be able to effectively use Google Classroom for assigning and collecting student work digitally.
  • Create a lesson plan utilizing additional Chromebook apps where students will create a project, demonstrating strategic and/or extended thinking.

Day 1:

Day 2:

Oct 272016
 

Google ChromecastGoogle announced recently that they have fully integrated Google Cast (formerly known as Chromecast) into the Chrome web browser. Is this good news for teachers? If you have access to, or have a classroom set of Chromebooks, then the resounding answer is YES!

In the past, you needed a $40’ish piece of hardware that you could plug directly into a newer TV or projector which you could then send or “cast” any Chrome browser page to that device to show the video and audio. It was a great solution for the home, but it never really caught on with any teachers that I knew of – probably because the majority of teachers have, shall we say, “Vintage” projectors in their classrooms which didn’t have the proper HDMI connections.

On the iOS side, many schools have tried really hard to get Apple TV’s working. They work amazingly well in the home environment, but for some technical reasons that I’ll spare you today, they didn’t work very well in large scale school wireless networks. And, each Apple TV set you back $99.

Now, back to why this announcement is great news for teachers, especially those teachers integrating Chromebooks into their classrooms.  Google has also released a new Chrome app called Google Cast for Education. Once you install this app for your Chrome browser, your computer will act as the Chromecast device. Since Google Cast is now integrated into Chrome, any of your students with a Chromebook can now request to share their screen with you, to show you the great work they are doing, or the amazing video or page that they found while researching online.

Since your classroom computer is probably already hooked up to your classroom projector &/or interactive whiteboard, students that ‘Cast’ their screens to you will also be sharing to the entire class! No extra things to buy, no extra configurations, it just works. If you are worried about students hijacking your screen, fear not! Google has built in some pretty clever settings for this reason. No one can see your screen to share unless you have shared this privilege with them. Also, when they attempt to share their screen, depending on the user you can set it so that you must approve it before it shows on your screen, or it will just show up. They have also integrated Google Classroom so that you can invite a whole class at a time to share to your screen. It’s pretty cool!

Learn more about Google Cast for Education here:

Aug 162016
 

Permalink: http://goo.gl/kwDhKp

View the session recording (Google Drive), or view it on YouTube.

Read&Write for Google Chrome™- Quick Reference Guide

If you or other teachers would like to sign up for their “Free for Teachers” account have them follow the steps below:

Here are some additional resources:

Jul 112016
 

Permalink: http://goo.gl/IdZR0l (capitol i after the slash)

In this two-day course, we’ll get you up to speed on the incredible array of services and applications that Google provides to teachers and students for free. If you have Chromebooks in your classroom, this workshop will open your eyes to the possibilities and realities of a paperless classroom, as well as having a place to showcase student work, collaborate with experts in the outside world, and managing your limited time in a more effective way.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the course, participants will:

  • Create a Google Site to provide information to students and parents, highlight classroom activities, and showcase exceptional student work.
  • Create a collaborative Google Slides presentation, and publish it to their Google Site.
  • Be able to effectively use Google Classroom for assigning and collecting student work digitally.
  • Create a lesson plan utilizing additional Chromebook apps where students will create a project, demonstrating strategic and/or extended thinking.

Day 1:

Day 2:

Jul 312013
 

Chromecast from Google. Wireless video display to an HDMI TV or projector, with no remote. It uses devices that are already in classrooms: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android devices, and (wait for it…) anything you can do or view in a Chrome web browser window on the Mac and PC. Get started in 3 easy steps: plug Chromecast into any HDTV, connect it to WiFi, then send videos and more from your smartphone, tablet or laptop to your TV with the press of a button.

Best of all, it’s only $35 – about 1/3 the cost of an Apple TV.

Amazing. Needless to say, I’ve ordered one – approximately 10 minutes after I knew of it’s existence. I’ll let you know what I think once it comes in 3-4 weeks.

Jul 112013
 
Permalink: http://goo.gl/AdRlw

Thank you for joining me at the URSA Conference to learn more about an amazing device that is becoming more and more commonplace in our schools – Google Chromebooks. I will give you a brief tour of the Chromebook and make sure to save time to answer all of your questions. Remember, you can always get back to this information with the permalink above, or you can visit the Chromebook tag on my site.

Feb 062013
 

Permalink: http://goo.gl/lGXQY

Today we will take a look at some new technology that is coming to your schools in a big way – Chrome browser and Chromebooks from Google. We will see how the Chromebook works, look at some great tools from Google and Google Docs, and show you how you can use Docs/Drive for group collaboration work.

How does Google Docs work???

This article will get you started with Google Docs & give you a preview of a true paperless workflow. Need a handout for how to use Google Docs? You can find some great Google Docs help here. We will be getting our hands ‘dirty’ with some collaborative work today. Please don’t access this document before I ask you to!

After today, you can take a look at the Top 10 Educational Uses for Google Docs, or 50 little known ways you can use Google Docs in education.