You-tilizing YouTube in the Classroom

This week I'll be presenting at the Indiana Computing Educators Conference in Indianapolis, IN on 10/15/2010. I'll be presenting a session entitled You-tilizing YouTube in the Classroom. Here is a handy-dandy tutorial I created for that, on how to use YouTube safely with your students.  Enjoy!

Adding your profile picture to Google Apps for Ed.

I created this handy video for teachers that are new to Google Apps for Education. I notice that many teachers don't have a profile picture in our district email account. With a district as large as ours, I think that adding a profile pic could be fun, but also could help all of us in the district get to know each other a little bit better. You know- put a name to a face.

Anyhow, hope this is helpful to those who use Google Apps for Ed!

Google Apps for the Class- Create a Podcast in Google Apps!

This week the Google Apps Marketplace opened up, and I was quick to discover that there is an audio editing tool in it. I wanted to see how quickly I could create an introduction for my Adventures in Ed Tech podcast.  Never having used the tool before, it took me all but 11 minutes. I think that's a pretty good forecast for an intuitive tool. I created a time-lapse video for that, so if you want to get a peek into the tool, go ahead and watch!

Google Apps for the Class: Exporting Google Earth to My Maps

Okay, so Google Maps is not part of Google Apps. However, it is still possible to use this tool to share students' work. This next part of my tutorial series, Google Apps for the Class shows you how to take students' Google Earth folders and files, and bulk upload them to a Google Map or My Map.

I have middle school kids and would not sign them up for regular Google accounts just so that they can use the My Maps feature, so what I am doing here is just using my own Google Maps account.  I know that there are other ways to do this, but I found this way just fine.  Hope it gives you some ideas. Enjoy!

Oh, and here is the link to my students' completed Olympic Venues Map. 

Google Apps for the Class- Fun With Images in Google Presentations

This very short version of Google Apps for the Class shows off a couple of neat things that you can do with adding images to Google Presentations.


Animated Gifs: Did you know that you can input animated gifs into a Google Presentation? Well, I personally didn't even know that websites used animated gifs anymore, but here's a whole bunch of holiday themed gifs!
http://www.webdeveloper.com/animations/Holiday.html 

Incremental Reveal: Presentations never had a lot of capabilities for animating your slides, but it does allow you to slowly reveal images in a presentation. Have fun!

Google Apps for the Class: Using Google Presentations

If you've never used Google Presentations before, here's a handy tutorial to get you started!

Google Apps for the Class- Using Site Templates

This is the next installment of my series Google Apps for the Class. Site templates is a new feature in Google Sites, and here I show you how to create a functioning blog or online journal that you can then feed out to a group of people, or in my case, students. This one's a little longer, but I hope it will be helpful!

Google Apps for the Class: Storyboard Template

Many teachers are getting the bug to do digital storytelling and film making in their classes. Well, Google Docs' drawing tool makes storyboarding online- easy, environmentally friendly, and a lot of fun! Here's a 2 minute tutorial about how to use the Storyboard Template in your class. And of course, with Google Docs, many students can collaborate on the same storyboards.



Here's the link to the Storyboard Template. Let me know if it's helpful to you!

https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AUKY528tgMv_ZGR3MnZxeF8xNTBmc3RudHJ6aA&hl=en

Google Apps in the Class: Text Coding in Google Docs

One of my favorite reading and comprehension strategies is the text coding approach from Doug Buehl's Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning. I love this strategy because it forces the student to pause and think about what they are reading about, therefore, helping them with meta-cognitive skills as well as their reading comprehension.

What occurred to me recently is that text coding can be done quite nicely in the Google Docs environment, and can even take on a new life when you share the document with 2 or 3 students and they code simultaneously. This way- students are also becoming cognitive of how other students are reading a document. Very nice.

In this, the second "episode" of Google Apps for the Class, I show how text coding can be done in Google Docs. Hope it's helpful!

Google Apps in the Class: Creating Online Seating Charts

This year is my first year using Google Apps, and I'm discovering new ways to do many things- like the age-old seating chart. When you pass around the old seating chart, students inevitably write their name awkwardly or draw funny pictures, forget to put their name in, and if you don't pay attention, the seating chart gets stuck half-way around the room, and doesn't get completed! No more- I say. Let's fix this with Google Spreadsheets.




The great thing about this is that the actual time it takes students to put in their names is merely minutes. While this may take you a little time to set up, it can last forever (or at least until you move your desks around). If you have a substitute teacher, simply print them out for the sub, or share the link to view the spreadsheet online.

My final seating chart is available to view here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tx8p65M_2w5zcKjM4Fp3S-g&output=html

Good luck in your teaching practice! I hope this was helpful.

DR