Introduction to Google Apps for Education

Today, we started training buildings.  Google Apps for Education for the Dublin City Schools.  How exciting for teachers and students.  Teachers are getting their accounts, learning how to log in, seeing what will be available and being introduced to Google Documents.  What a huge spectrum of learners.  Some are users of Google Apps and others have never logged into a Google Account.

They are just floored when they see that you can type in a document at the same time as another user. Wow.  You can see the teachers thinking of ways to use this in the classroom.  It is going to be outstanding to see this roll out.  Hopefully, they will not try to jump in too quickly.  Apps accounts are up and running, but mail is not flowing in until after Spring Break.

Here are a couple videos that teachers can watch if they want to see more info, or they could not make it to their building's session #1 training.

Intro to Google Apps



Intro to Google Documents and Basic Sharing

Quick Introduction to Google Apps for Education

Our district has recently decided to go Google.  I couldn't be more happy and excited.  Google Apps for Education will allow teachers (and students - soon) to be able to collaborate, share, and easily access their information.  Gmail, Calendars, Drive, Groups - easily shared with each other and easily accessed on any device with web access.  How great is that?  I think it will make a huge difference in how we do our day-to-day work.

Here is a quick commercial about Google Apps for Education for those that aren't all "Googly", like me.

Great iPad Apps for the Classroom - Part II

Here is Part II of a list of iPad Apps that my colleagues and I recommend for classroom iPads.  These are excellent Apps for creating and sharing.  Give them a try.  They are very easy to use and figure out.  We also suggest these Apps to parents for their kids.  We are not into skill and drill, we prefer making things.  These are a good place to start.  Many of them work on an iPhone or iPod, as well.

App Icon	Description     and  single-copy price/volume price - 20 or more
	Baiboard is an ipad app that allows you to create, share and collaborate on your education content.  It allows for zoomable multi-page whiteboard, collaborative annotation on PDF docs, and screen sharing from iPad to web browser.  Free
	Qrafter (Crafter) is a two-dimensional barcode scanner for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Its main purpose is to scan and parse the contents of QR Codes.  Free
	Feltz allows you to create pictures from over 550 felt graphics to play with. So if you want to make a farm, a monster flying a plane, dinosaurs and frogs on skateboards or a simple flower, your imagination is the limit.  $.99/$.49
	Comic Life, the award winning photo comic creation software, is the funnest, easiest and fastest way ever to create photo comics on a mobile device. Your comics come to life with our integrated reader on brilliant iOS displays. Easily go from taking photos to creating full comics all on one device with full page templates and panel layouts.  $4.99/$2.49
	Hopscotch teaches kids to code using simple, intuitive building blocks. Kids can create games, animations and other programs in this colorful, interactive environment.  Free
	Daisy the Dinosaur! is a free, fun app that has an easy drag and drop interface that kids of all ages can use to animate Daisy to dance across the screen. Kids will intuitively grasp the basics of objects, sequencing, loops and events by solving this app's challenges.  Free
	Skitch is an app that will help you show how you feel instead of writing about it. Snap it, mark it, and send it on. Capture a photo and make a friend laugh with you or inspire a student by labeling the insides of a robot. Impress your boss with a snap of the white board with her comments right after the meeting finishes.  Free
	Drawing Box Free is the most suitable app to learn and practice drawing and painting. With responsive smooth pencil and brush strokes, graphical and intuitive interface, you can use it to make a quick sketch or a detailed study on the go.   Free
	Voice Record Pro is a professional voice recorder. It allows you to record voice memos and on-site sounds at unlimited length with configurable quality.  Recorded voices are in standard AAC/MP4/M4A format. They can be converted to MP3 and can be saved in various places.  Free
	Light-bot is a programming puzzle game: a puzzle game that uses game mechanics that are firmly rooted in programming concepts.  Light-bot LITE lets players gain a practical understanding of basic concepts like writing instruction sequences and procedures, just by guiding a robot with commands to light up tiles and solve levels.  Free
	Popplet is a platform for your ideas. Popplet's super simple interface allows you to move at the speed of your thoughts. With Popplet you can capture your ideas and sort them visually in realtime. Quickly and easily!  Free
	My WebDav can turn your iPhone, ipad, ipod into WebDav client, download files from WebDav server and upload files into WebDav server.  Free
	Book Creator is the simple way to create your own beautiful iBooks, right on the iPad. Read them in iBooks, send them to your friends, or submit them to the iBookstore.  Ideal for children’s picture books, photo books, art books, cook books, manuals, textbooks, and the list goes on.  $4.99/$2.49
	Google Drive is one safe place for all your stuff. Upload photos, videos, documents, and other files that are important to you, then access what you need wherever you go, on any device.   Free

Great iPad Apps for the Classroom - Part I

Here is Part I of a list of iPad Apps that my colleagues and I recommend for classroom iPads.  These are excellent Apps for creating and sharing.  Give them a try.  They are very easy to use and figure out.  We also suggest these Apps to parents for their kids.  We are not into skill and drill, we prefer making things.  These are a good place to start.  Many of them work on an iPhone or iPod, as well.

App Icon	Description     and  single-copy price/volume price - 20 or more
	Explain Everything is an easy-to-use design, screencasting, and interactive whiteboard tool that lets you annotate, animate, narrate, import, and export almost anything to and from almost anywhere.  $2.99/$1.49
	Pages is the most beautiful word processor you’ve ever seen on a mobile device. This powerful word processor helps you create gorgeous reports, resumes, and documents in minutes. Pages has been designed exclusively for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch with support for Multi-Touch gestures and Smart Zoom.  Free on new iPads
	Keynote is the most powerful presentation app ever designed for a mobile device. Built from the ground up for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, it makes creating a world-class presentation — complete with animated charts and transitions — as simple as touching and tapping.  Free on new iPads
	Numbers is the most innovative spreadsheet app ever designed for a mobile device. Created exclusively for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, Numbers includes support for Multi-Touch gestures and Smart Zoom so you can create powerful spreadsheets using just your fingers.  Free on new iPads
	iMovie puts everything you need to tell your story at your fingertips, with a beautifully streamlined interface and Multi-Touch gestures that let you enjoy your videos like never before. Browse your video library, quickly share favorite moments, and create beautiful HD movies and Hollywood-style trailers. And with iCloud, you can enjoy them in iMovie Theater on all your devices.  Free on new iPads
	GarageBand turns your iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch into a collection of Touch Instruments and a full-featured recording studio — so you can make music anywhere you go. Use Multi-Touch gestures to play a piano, organ, guitar, and drums. They sound and play like their counterparts, but let you do things you could never do on a real instrument.  Free on new iPads
	iBooks is an amazing way to download and read books. iBooks includes the iBooks Store, where you can download the latest bestselling books or your favorite classics – day or night. Browse your library on a beautiful bookshelf, tap a book to open it, flip through pages with a swipe or a tap, and bookmark or add notes to your favorite passages.  Free on new iPads
	Office² HD, the most intuitive and straightforward office document editor available on the iPad, makes it easy to open, view, create and edit Word (DOC & DOCX), Excel (XLS & XLSX), and PowerPoint (PPT & PPTX) files right from your iPad!  $7.99/$3.99
	Pixie is the award winning authoring tool students can use to share ideas, imagination, and understanding through a combination of text, original artwork, voice narration, and images. Students can use Pixie’s paint tools, text options, clip art, and voice recording to develop storybooks, curriculum projects, videos, and so much more.  $9.99/$4.99
	Storybook Maker is an amazing app for children to express their creativity. With Storybook Maker you can make a book and share it with friends! The app comes equipped with all the tools needed to create incredible and exciting stories!  $.99/$.49
	iMotion HD is an intuitive and powerful time-lapse and stop-motion app for iOS.  Take pictures, edit your movie and export HD 1080p & 720p videos to your device or directly to Youtube.  Free
	GoodNotes lets you take handwritten notes, sketch diagrams, mark-up PDFs and organize them on a beautiful bookshelf. Turn pages with a swipe, highlight or add notes to any page, and share your notes with anyone. GoodNotes will automatically save your notes and has full backup function to prevent data loss.  $5.99/$2.99
	Notability is the best-selling note-taking app on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Notability is so powerful that it will transform how you work: sketch ideas, annotate documents, sign contracts, complete worksheets, keep a journal, jot travel notes, teach a class, make a presentation and much more. With iCloud support, your notes stay up to date on all your devices!  $2.99/$1.49

OETC 2014

Over the last few frigid days, I have been fortunate to attend the Ohio Educational Technology Conference.  I have been attending this conference every year for the past 10 or so years.  This year, I had the opportunity to hear some excellent educators.

Monday's Keynote speaker was Kevin Honeycutt.  His topic, "Inspirational Teachers Change Minds & Lives, " was a great way to kick off the conference.  He was outstanding.  He also spoke later in the day.  I saw him speak about "Teaching Wired Learners."  He shared great insights from being a parent and teacher of kids that are connected.  His website - KevinHoneycutt.org - contains many free resources and access to his presentations.  He is more than willing to share his knowledge and time with people that want to help.  Kevin was outstanding.

Wednesday's Keynote speaker was Alan November.  His topic, "The End of Technology Planning, " walked through his experiences with using technology with students.  Alan has been to the Ohio conference 3 times now.  He is a leader in educational technology and shares his experiences with his readers.  He shared some outstanding resources and explained why they were so powerful.  His number one power app for iPads and computers was Wolfram Alpha.  It is extremely helpful to math and science students in the way that it solves problems step-by-step.

This is the third time I've heard Alan speak.  If you would like to see more of Alan November, you can check out a summer conference he runs called BLC - Building Learning Communities.  I attended that conference in 2010 and 2011.  It is an outstanding conference.  That conference helped push me into blogging.

Some other good informational sessions -

Teach Like a Hacker - by Ryan Collins - He talked about tips and tricks to help teachers and students be more efficient.  Hacking is not necessarily a bad thing.

App Smackdown - iOS - Here is a list of shared Apps.

Effective Use of Google Forms - by Andreas Johansson.  He shared ways  to use Google Forms to collect data easily.  Here is information from his presentation.  Here is his website.

One of the best parts of being a the conference, was being able to touch base with outstanding technology educators.  Keeping face-to-face contact is nice, since many of us keep contact through Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, and other social networks.

Next year, come to Columbus and join in the fun.  The dates are Feb. 10-12, 2015.

Becoming Part of the #NerdLution

Consumed by the pressure put on me by my wife and daughter, I have decided that I will participate in the #NerdLution.  I have decided to commit to 50 days of the following activities -
1 - Drink 3 large glasses of water (I never get enough, and this might get me in the habit)
2 - Exercise for 30 minutes of some type (walking, riding bike, etc.)

The pressure of my nerd friends and the resolution to do something good for me will hopefully power me through the days when I want to stop.

Admit your "nerdiness" and join the #NerdLution.  It starts tomorrow and goes on for 50 consecutive days.

Lenmar Power Pack

This power pack from Lenmar is outstanding for iPhones and iPads.  The one that we have is the Lenmar Wave 7000.  My daughter took it on her trip to Washington, D.C. and had great success keeping her iPhone 5S charged on the bus.  Her friends all wanted one.  It was easy to charge and easy to use.  If you are looking for an external portable charging source, this could be your answer.