Google Shared Documents

I had three young ladies in my lab this afternoon. They had come in to work on a script for one of their classes, and I watched as each opened a separate Word document. I suggested that they might like to log on to their amitybethany accounts and share one document. One of the girls had had more experience with using Google docs than the other two, so she initiated the document and shared it with them. They were sitting side by side, each editing the document and were quite pleased to see the document update as each saved a new entry. One of the young ladies asked if they could still work on this at home from their individual computers, and I said, "That's the whole purpose of Google docs." They were all pleased with what they accomplished and are going to let me interview them tomorrow on how it went when they collaborated from their home computers.

Even more exciting is the news that users can upload Word documents from their computers to Google docs - even files larger than 578kb, which was the size limitation previously. Now documents can be uploaded and shared even with a number of pictures embedded in the document.

It seems to get better and better. I hope we will not be disappointed in the future.

Discovery Time Starts Again

After quite a few days away from the computer, I opened my email this evening and started following links. I found my way to a blog by Michael Zimmer, a technology integration specialist at Hopkins Country School District in Madisonville, Kentucky. I followed a link in his blog to PicLits.com which he said English teachers were using with their students.
I created a quick PicLit and then joined in order to embed it here. It's kind of fun playing with pictures and words, and I'm sure the students will come up with much more creative products than mine:

See the full PicLit at PicLits.com

We'll be back to school in a brand new year on Monday. Let's hope our increasing use of technology in the classrooms will engage and inspire our students to produce wonderful work.

Google Goggles -

Oh, my Gosh,
In my previous post, I included a video on Google Wave.
I was going to shut down my computer lid and go do some holiday baking, but I followed another link and found this brand new app from Google called "Google Goggles". It allows you to take a picture on your cell phone and Google will search on the picture for you - no typing or voice. Thankfully, they will not do a search, YET!, on a picture of a person because of privacy issues.
Anyway, take a look at this. I like the fact that in the future you can take a picture of a tree leaf or a flower, and Google may be able to identify it for you.I never can remember names of plants that I see and would like to get for my backyard perennial garden.



Now I really am going to go do something else besides stare into this computer screen. I need more balance in my life!
I hope you enjoyed learning about these Google apps. It also makes me a bit afraid!

The Google Wave is Here!

Whether we like it or not, Google Wave, a sort of real-time collaborative email program, is here and catching on. On Twitter, I saw several educators begging to be invited. I was not one of them. I have all I can handle with getting Google Apps for Education set up and getting kids and teachers used to using it.
However, it is important to be aware of these tsunami technological trends.
I got a message in my email that John Sowash, the Electric Educator, was now following me on Twitter. I am flattered; John is a Google certified educator as well as a technology guru at his high school in Southfield, Michigan. While scanning through his very excellent blog located at:
http://electriceducator.blogspot.com/
I came across this video he embedded in his blog explaining Google Wave. I decided to follow his example and include it in my blog. It takes about 7 minutes to view, and it's packed with info, but it's a starting point. I hope you enjoy it. Right now, I think you still need an invitation to be part of "the wave". I'm sure it will be more widely available in the near future, so get ready. Even if we don't use it, you can bet our students will be.



Well, it's our first snow day. I think I'll shut down this computer lid and go do some baking for the holidays.

Little Book of Leadership Powerpoint

I joined a webinar tonight sponsored by LearnCentral.org. Ruston Hurley moderated the on-line presentation by Mr. Jon Corippo, a media production, English, and instructional technology teacher from Minarets High School, part of Chawanakee Unified School District in North Fork, California. This school is on the cutting edge of technology and believes all students need to use technology in school to learn 21st century skills they need to succeed. On the mission statement page of their website, http://minaretsmustangs.wikispaces.com/, I found a link to the presentation embedded below. It is well worth a read and even a reread.
Enjoy.

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Little Book of Leadership Powerpoint

View more presentations from PhilDourado.

Learn.org and Classroom2.0 offer many free webinars using Elluminate; Here is a link to their archive page where you can listen to recorded streams of sessions of interest. It's great fun to participate live and participate in the chat, but having the recorded sessions to listen to is also a tremendous resource.
http://live.classroom20.com/archive-and-resources.html

Creative Commons Attribution-an experiment

I found this "wordle" on the topic of Google Docs pasted in the a blog by Matt Montagne called the "Digital Down Low". The image is by Nedral. When I decided to use the image in documents I am preparing for parents and staff on our Google Apps for Education roll-out, I clicked on the Creative Commons licensing for the image, and found it was o.k. to use provided I gave attribution to the author. There was also some .html to copy and paste. I tried pasting it into a Google doc, and just the .html pasted, so I knew I needed to put it into a vehicle which would translate .html, so I decided to experiment in my blog. What happened was the .html code actually translated into a link to the wordle's creator's Photo Stream on Flicker. I previewed it, and everything seems appropriate, so I am leaving the link in my blog. There is also a link to an overview of Creative Commons licensing.
I am determined to learn more about using photos, videos, etc. under the Creative Commons licensing in order to use them for educational purposes and follow the copyright guidelines of the creator of the content.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nedrai/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Alan November - "Who Owns the Learning"

In my web wanderings this evening - actually, I picked up this link from a tweet by demacisaac, a elementary teacher on P.E.I. in Canada.
The video by Alan November doesn't give us answers but leaves us with lots of questions. Take six minutes to watch it; it's worth it. It reminds me a little of a book by Mel Levine Ready or Not, Here Life Comes. Just as in the video by Mr. November, Mel questions how we can prepare our kids to live lives independent of their parents once the kids come of age.

I have copied the embed code for the video. Hopefully, it will paste successfully below.

Mrs. Miller's Fabulous Bethany Book Blog

Lots of wonderful things going on at Bethany. We had a great assembly with Len Cabral who returned to instruct and entertain Bethany students with his wonderful stories. Everyone has a story to tell, and Mr. Cabral got some of our 7th graders involved in telling their own stories - very cool.
Speaking of stories, if you haven't checked it out for a while, you must visit Mrs. Miller's Bethany Book Blog. She has been reading up a storm and producing wonderful reviews of books she's read hoping to entice others to enjoy the books. It's also a great place for you to share your opinion of the books listed there that you have read.
So please, click on the link, read some of the reviews, grab a book, and start reading.
I am going to read Laurie Halse Anderson's Chains before the snow flies, I hope.

http://amitybooktalk.blogspot.com/

Back To School 2009-2010

Welcome back, everyone, to a new school year.
The summer flew by. Thank goodness I had the motivation of the calendar feature on my iPhone to journal, at least a little, of the events of every day.
As for this woefully, neglected blog, now that the new school year is here, I hope to document new things I'm learning that I feel are worth sharing with my colleagues and students alike.
In fact, I downloaded a Seedlings podcast to my iPhone today from February of 2009. Bob Sprankle was interviewing the owner of http://pixton.com, a site set up where people who are drawing challenged can still create cartoons. The site is free, but the owners, a husband and wife team, offer a subscription service to schools where teachers can have kids use the tools and share their cartoons in a safe, walled environment. It is offered by the month and fee per student, so you are not locked into an expensive contract.

It was a smooth start to the new year. Let's hope for wonderful achievements from our students.

My new iPhoneG3s

Wow! I just figured out that I could add a new post to my blog from my iPhone.
Very cool! It will be nice when I'm traveling, and I don't have Internet for my laptop, but one finger typing gets a bit tedious.