“The Superman Ride of Steel roller coaster has been remade as a VR experience as riders strap on Samsung Galaxy Gear headsets” (Source).
Tag: Google
Fostering Writing and Collaboration with Google Docs
High school English teacher, Sarah Brown Wessling, shares strategies for promoting collaborative writing inside and outside of the classroom. Wessling highlights that such lessons also promote digital etiquette, provide opportunities for teachers to provide rich feedback, and provide teachers with insights into the individual student’s or the collaborative group’s writing process.
Boogie Boarding at Cocoa Beach, FL
Google Photos generated this highlight video showcasing some of our family’s experiences during Spring Break 2015. We wrapped-up the trip by spending two days boogie boarding at Cocoa Beach, FL. There was a huge storm headed inland on the first day, so the waves were huge.
I highly recommend using Google Photos. It makes taking, storing, editing, and sharing videos a cinch. You can use Google Photos from your smartphone, tablet, or computer.
Snorkeling in the Florida Keys
Google Photos generated this highlight video showcasing some of our family’s experiences during Spring Break 2015. We spent a week in the Florida Keys enjoying snorkeling, sailing, jet skiing, parasailing, sea kayaking, sunsets, and lots of smiles.
I highly recommend using Google Photos. It makes taking, storing, editing, and sharing videos a cinch. You can use Google Photos from your smartphone, tablet, or computer.
Google+ Communities
I’m a big, big fan of Google+. It’s a very big component of my personal learning network (PLN). Here are some thoughts about about why I prefer Google+ over the other social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.). I encourage everyone to take a look at Google+’s services and consider taking advantage of them.
Friend Me
Please feel free to friend me on Google+. Then browse through my Links and Other Profiles to make connections, collaborate, and share resources through other networks. As I frequently say, “Together we learn more.”
Google+ Communities
I’ve developed several Google+ Communities where we can interact and share resources around particular topics. I invite you to join and actively contribute to all of these groups in which you have an interest/expertise.
- EdTeach and Professional Development
- Making Thinking Visible with Technology – Tipton County Schools
- School Technology Leadership – Sponsored by CASTLE
- I have also been using Google+ Communities to support the classes that I teach since Fall 2012.
Google Announces New Learning Management System (LMS)
“Classroom is a new, free tool coming to Google Apps for Education that helps teachers easily and quickly create and organize assignments, provide feedback, and communicate with their classes” (Source). “Classroom weaves together Google Docs, Drive and Gmail to help teachers create and organize assignments quickly, provide feedback efficiently, and communicate with their classes with ease…it lets students organize their work, complete and turn it in, and communicate directly with their teachers and peers” (Source).
The following video highlights the experiences of some of the teachers and students who provided feedback as Google developed Classroom.
Benefits for Classes
Easy to Set up
Teachers can add students directly or share a code with their class to join. It takes just minutes to set up.
Saves Time
The simple, paperless assignment workflow allows teachers to create, review, and grade assignments quickly, all in one place.
Improves Organization
Students can see all of their assignments on an assignments page, and all class materials are automatically filed into folders in Google Drive.
Enhances Communication
Classroom allows teachers to send announcements and questions instantly. Since students can post to the stream, they can help out their classmates.
Affordable and Secure
Like the rest of our Google Apps for Education services, Classroom contains no ads, never uses your content or student data for advertising purposes, and is free for schools.
Learn more: http://google.com/edu/classroom
Social Media: An Overview
Yesterday’s blog post provided an overview of social networks. Today we are going to build on that and look at social media.
What is social media? How do you define it?
“Social media is the interaction among people in which they create, share, or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks” (Source). It describes the technology of interaction amongst a network of people. Perhaps because of the current pervasive use of online social media, many mistakenly assume that social media only came into existence with modern-day technology. Consider that African drums have long been used by tribes to quickly pass news about deaths, marriages, and other events. In this case, the drums serve as the social media.
Look over the this provocative article and consider how it fits within your understanding and definition of social media.
Conclusion
“Digital social media are mobile and web-based applications that enable users to interact, collaborate, co-create, share, and publish information, ideas, and multimedia. Social media connects people and is built on the foundations of Web 2.0” (Source).
In a broader sense, social media is the technology that might be leveraged to connect individuals or groups, be it digital or other. We’ve had social networks and social media for a long time.
Social Networks: An Overview
In yesterday’s post, Lisa Durff and I discussed social networks and the role that they play in her life. I thought I’d dedicate this blog post to diving a bit deeper into this topic.
A social network describes the relationships between individuals or groups. The following video provides a quick overview.
Everyday parents, students, and educators connect through blogs, wikis, Twitter, and other forms of social media. This crowdsourced video explains a few of the reasons.
Read Mark Suster’s TechCrunch Series:
Managing Online Identities
Keeping up with the state of technology is not easy. New social media services such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Diigo, YouTube , Tumblr, Instagram, and AudioBoo continue to emerge and users sign-up and setup profiles without considering the full ramifications of sharing personal information. Practical tips for helping you and your students thoughtfully setup and maintain your online identities will be shared.
Below are my slides for this session. All the workshop materials and resources are available on my wiki, Learning Telecollaboratively.
An Introduction to Online Word Processing
(Repost from 12/04/2009)
This video provides a great overview of the concept of online productivity tools (word processor, presentations, spreadsheets) in under 3 minutes.
Click to take a look at Google Docs and Zoho Writer.
See this tutorial on collaborating with others with web applications like Google Docs.
Consider how these kinds of technologies could be integrated with teaching and learning and leave your ideas in the comments section below.
