Chromebook 101 Training

12:00    Teaching in a Connected Classroom

•  Digital in the Common Core  :Where is the Tech in Common Core?
•  SAMR  
• SAMR in 120 Seconds
•  Digital Citizenship

12:30   Getting Started

•  Log Ins
•  Differences with the Chromebook
• Keyboard Shortcuts    ctrl   alt   ?   
• Users

1:00    Google Apps

• The Parts of Drive
• Docs
• Presentation
• Spreadsheet
• Form
• Drawing 
• Folders
• Sharing/Collaborating
• Working Off Line 

 1:45  Brain Break! 

2:00   Other parts of Google:  blogger, sites, youtube, google+

2:30   Google Store and Finding Other Apps

• MangaHigh
• Edmodo
• Remind 101 (for teachers)
• The QR Code Generator (for teachers) 

  
3:30   Discussing Plan for Roll Outs and Expectations 

Safe Searching with Youtube and Google

Do you worry about accidentally revealing websites that are inappropriate?  Whether in YouTube or Google, be sure you have turned on "Safe Searching".

In YouTube, scroll all the way to the bottom and click on the "Safety".  You can also lock on this feature, which means the only person that can unlock it is the owner of the account.

In Google when you search, both images or web content, you should see a "Safe Search" is on box appear on the top right.  If you don't see this box, you probably don't have it turned on.  Click into Search Settings to check the appropriate box, then be sure to save your updated settings. 

Google also allows you to lock your safe search to the On position. If safe search is locked on, balloons will appear in the upper right hand corner for a quick glance check.

Primary Wall and Padlet - two Word Walls

Padlet and Primary Wall are two word walls you can use with your students as a way to collect stickies and have them visible in a brainstorming or labeling activity.

Both of these online resources can be used without creating an account.  However, if you do decide to create an account more options will be available to you.

In each case, when you create a wall, the wall has an associated URL you can pass along to others to collaborate and add their stickies.

Both of these tools are iPad compatible, so end users can be on a computer or mobile device.





Padlet allows you to change wallpaper, which can include any photo you wish to upload or point to via a URL.  For instance, you can have a map, and ask students place stickies on certain locations.

The wall is identified with a random URL, and Padlet does allow you to create your own unique URL.  This will allow you to create easy to remember URL's for students.

You can have stickies freeform or streamed next to each other. There are no formatting options for the sticky notes, however you can upload an image, video, or add a link to your sticky (note: uploading not compatible with iDevices)

Primary Wall  provides you with a default background, and you are unable to change this background without an account.   This is a great word wall to use with younger students because of the limited options.

When selecting a sticky, you can choose from four different colors, but the font and size is set for you.  You can not upload any other items to associate with your sticky.

The feature that Primary Wall offers is the ability to Sort or Search throughout stickies.  If you have 30 stickies, when you Sort them everyone's wall will view them in sorted order.  You can also Search for a sticky containing a particular word or phrase found anywhere on the sticky.

 

With either tool, these word wall tools are excellent choices to use integrating a collaborative environment into your classroom environment.  

Draftin - an Online Writing Tool

Draft, at Draftin.com, is an online writing tool that focuses on a writers progression through several drafts of a writing project, keeping track of each one as the writer moves along.


A simple email and password are required to join.  The site offers very limited formatting options so the writing focus is on the content, not the look.  In fact, you have the choice of a couple of fonts and sizes, and that is it.  There is no underline, no boldface, no italic, no color, no images, no fonts.  Just writing.  Even the logo is very simple.

The process could go something like this.  You start out by typing your first rough draft.  Come back a day later and make changes.  Then a few days later make additional changes for a second revision.

Finally, you send it off to a peer for their input.  They provide their revision, however, you have the ability to accept which ever revisions you'd like, from just 1 to all the suggested revisions.

At anytime you can review any of the prior revisions of the document, and even revert back.  All revisions are maintained for reference.  Here is an example of a document I revised, revised again, and had peer reviewed.

You can export your document to a variety of online services like Google Drive, Drop Box, or Evernote.  Once exported, any further revisions done in draft can be synced to the exported document.

This tool offers great possibilities for young writers learning the draft revise process of perfecting a piece their writing.  In fact, it's fairly good for those of you that are more advanced.

Google Reading Levels

Working with Intermediate students searching Google for information about the Civil War, or Lewis and Clark, sometimes is a daunting task when resource after resource comes back in a reading level too high for elementary readers.

Use Google Reading Level settings to help narrow your search.  The levels aren't necessarily associated to grade levels or Lexile scores, but it's a start.

For example you may want to search for Lewis and Clark, which will return results similar to these listed below.

Find the Advanced Search button (gear shift icon in upper right).  

Out of the Advanced Search options find Reading Level and make your selection.

The new results will have Reading Level breakdowns listed by percentages.  From here click on Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, or "All" to see particular selections of interest.

Remember, be more descriptive in your searches by adding additional keywords to narrow your search.  For example when I search for Lewis and Clark, do I mean explorers, or the college?  The additional keywords will be very helpful.

PicMonkey Chrome Extension - Easy Photo Editing

Google Chrome Browser has many handy extensions.  One that I recently came across and have really enjoyed is the PicMonkey extension.  I like to use the PicMonkey site for quick photo editing. No account setup needed, just pull your photo in, edit, and then save back to your computer.  

A Little On Extensions and How to Find Them:                                 You can find extensions in the Chrome Web Store, which can be found on your apps page of home screen when using Chrome in a few places.  As you can see on the right, I have the Web Store on the main page, as well as the ability to access it in the lower right hand corner of the screen.   When extensions are added to your Chrome Browser, you can find them as small icons at the end of your address bar (see upper right hand corner of image).  

Once in the Chrome Web Store you can search the store by categories, by name (if you know what you want), as well as filtering by either app or extension.  Apps essentially are quick shortcuts that take you straight to a certain site, where as extensions are tools that you can utilize while on any page.  

Once you find the extension you are searching for, tap the button "Add to Chrome" and it will install the Extension for you.                                  

Now Back to the PicMonkey Extension: 

When on a page that contains photos (below I'm on Google Images), I can click on the extension icon at the top right.  It will then generate a drop down of all the images on that page.  By clicking on the small image in the drop down, I am then immediately taken to the PicMonkey website with that image already loaded ready to edit.  

As you can see in the image below, the workspace in PicMonkey has a lot of great options.  Quickly rotate or crop, add text or stickers, frames, adjust brightness...






As always, make sure that you are using photos correctly, following copyright and fair use guidelines.  In Google Images advanced settings, you can adjust the filtering to all for only "free to use or share".  We have a post on where to find this option "Free Image Search with Google".

Infuse Learning - turn Computers, Smart Phones, or iDevices into Clickers!

We did a write up on Infuse Learning on iDevice in the Mountains at the end of last year.  

It's such a handy website, I thought it would be great to post here as well.  

This site that can be used on any internet accessible device, 

giving teachers the ability to utilize whatever is available to them in their schools.