Tech Tips March 2017

March Break is right around the corner, here are some good PD opportunities for those interested.

MOOC Innovator Mindset http://immooc.org/2017/02/27/immooc-live-episode-1-and-blog-prompts/

Google Educator Level 1 https://edutrainingcenter.withgoogle.com/certification_level1

New Tips and Tricks

Google Keep Now part of Gsuite, and available on all mobile and chrome browser. This pretty cool app allows you to quickly save notes, websites, images, reminders, to do lists ,etc... and keep them sync across all of your devices. It also can capture the text from any image and integrates with Google Docs super easily. Really worth a look. https://keep.google.com/#home

Insert Google Drive videos directly into Google Slides https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2017/02/insert-videos-from-google-drive-in.html?m=1

Remember to change the viewing permissions on the videos to anyone with the link.

Khan Academy now integrates with Google Classroom You can now import your Google Classroom roster directly into a Khan Academy course. https://www.khanacademy.org/about/blog/post/157632001245/khan-academy-announces-roster-integration-for

Academic Google Extension and App List I found this great academic list of Extensions and Apps that has also a short description of each one. Its one two spreadsheet tabs at the top.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/1H6UEQAqV6eZqd0DLt1NfuBtF33KYuQGVIItFGOwEyys/htmlview#

Add some Pizazz to Google Classroom and Forms with animated Headers 

http://badinerbytes.blogspot.ca/2017/02/google-classroom-animated-header.html?m=1

http://badinerbytes.blogspot.ca/2017/02/google-forms-animated-header.html?m=1

Tech Tips January 2017

1) Reminder Gmail and onCampus, create Contact groups automatically from onCampus. You can create groups for students and parents of specific classes.

https://youtu.be/B3ESOaDJusU

2) Chrome Broswer on IOS allow 2 cool features, 1) it has a built in QR Code reader now 2) You can Request Desktop Site for Gmail and be able to email contact groups. Here is a video

3) 360 tour of the White House, before Obama left office he had a studio create a tour of the white house in 360 degree.

https://www.facebook.com/ObamaWhiteHouse/videos/10155140995934238/-- 

4) Decoration/Learning ideas for your classes http://worlds-of-learning.com/2017/01/28/beyond-lego-walls/

5) Cool Gym class idea for K-Gr1-Gr 2 http://blog.airsquirrels.com/2017/01/gym-class-jitterbug-how-to-play-the-game-teachers-are-raving-about/ All you need is a projector and an iPad, you click on the bugs or bubbles when you see a lot of balls have hit them. The app they use is not available in canada but many similiar apps are.

Tech Tip December 2016

Here are some great tech tips

Screen Castify : A great screen recorder that saves directly to Google Drive to create tutorials or provide great feedback to students. The free version is limited to 10 minutes which should be more then enough for an evaluation or to do a small training video for flipped learning

Demo and explanation

Essay Metrics: Great Google sheets add-on for evaluating basic essay data like # of words, paragraphs, sentences, etc... very quickly. Also integrates with google classroom and drive. Demo and explanation

For fun but can be used for team building or design thinking exercices

Google Build with Lego https://www.buildwithchrome.com/ only works on Computer

as well as the Lego Serious Play method https://www.lego.com/en-us/seriousplay

Food For Thought videos

Human Population Through Time

It took 200,000 years for our human population to reach 1 billion—and only 200 years to reach 7 billion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUwmA3Q0_OE

The future of shopping in stores Amazon Go https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrmMk1Myrxc

Gun Violence prevention but can be applied to many other subjects like suicide, bullying, great to share with students. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8syQeFtBKc

Tech Tips and ideas October 2016

Hi everyone,

Here are some tech tips and ideas

1.Google has some new features for Docs, Sheets and Slides as well as Google forms.

Create Actions on specific lines of text like upgraded comments. 

Intelligent Google form building, with predictive questions.

Check out this page for the new features.

https://www.blog.google/products/g-suite/five-new-ways-reach-your-goals-faster-g-suite/

2.Poster collection of Google tips available in english and french

https://drive.google.com/drive/mobile/folders/0BzgdYCCzI3LLY2JFYm1ZRUw1cW8?usp=sharing#

3.For a few links concerning classroom and school design, 

-A podcast in french on Académie St-Anne (the old Queen of Angels) renovation and philosophy.

http://www.lafabriqueculturelle.tv/capsules/7517/l-ecole-de-demain-episode-1

-Worlds most innovative schools

http://www.businessinsider.com/most-innovative-schools-in-the-world-2-2016-10

-Flexible seating and student centered learning

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/flexible-seating-student-centered-classroom-kayla-delzer

Some of you may have seen this video about taking school to court. Fro those who haven't its worth some food for thought.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqTTojTija8

May 2016 Tech Tips

I had the pleasure of going to the Future Ready conference with Bill Bedard and Stéphanie Lafortune a few days before going on paternity leave. This conference gave me a few project ideas and tools but also some food for thought on our current education system and what could we do more not just for our students but also for ourselves. We got to see the documentary, Most Likely to Succeed which analyses the history of education as well as new models like High Tech High and how they relates to traditional views of education.

1. Google Slides Q&A, you can now collect questions from the class during your presentation with Google Slides new feature Q&A New Link 

2. Leafsnap: free ios app that allows you to take a photo of a leaf and identify the tree automatically http://leafsnap.com

3. icell : http://icell.hudsonalpha.org  you will have to download a small plugin but you get to see cells of plants, animals,etc... in 3D

4. Storymaps http://storymaps.arcgis.com/en/ create a story with maps and see other projects. You can sign-in using your google account

5.Mindmup or Coggle Collaborative mind mapping tools, have multiple users collaborate at the same time on a mind map and use your google account for easy access.

6. http://www.montrealenhistoires.com/home   free app for ios or android, dictated history for most landmarks in old Montreal as well as historic photos. Great for experiential learning experience and history class. English, French or even Spanish.

Tech Tips April 2016

1-

Ever wonder where all the data to run Google is stored, take a tour of just one of Google's Data Centers in 360 degree video with Google Chrome - 

Great little activity to show kids where just some of the data is stored for the internet

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDAYZU4A3w0

2-Do ink Green Screen for iPad

Great site with tutorials on how to use and do things you may have not thought of with Do ink Green Screen

http://drydenart.weebly.com/fugleblog/fuglefun-ways-to-use-green-screen

3-

Virtual Reality conference call with Holoportation

Microsft has a new device coming out called Hololens and it will allow for a fully augmented reality, the latest demo added a VR conference call

• http://www.engadget.com/2016/03/26/holoportation-demo-makes-live-video-holograms-look-easy/

4-

Google Classroom update - you can now poll the class quickly and easily to ask questions right from your class page

March 2016 Tech tips

Just a few tips

1. Open-Sankore: Free alternative to Smartnote book, allows you to import many different file types and you can output as a video podcast your lesson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0y9XvbZO7c 

2. Bio Human 3.0 - Free Chrome Extension to see the human body in multiple levels from the muscle systems to the nervous systems, organs and bones. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/human-30/meefjekipolcgabfgaclcpdkbghhmoah?hl=en 

IOS, iPhone, iPad Tips

1. Load Desktop version of Website on iPad and iPhone: In Safari, hold down the refresh button and choose Request Desktop Site

2. Bubble Level - Open the Compass app, flick to the side and turn your phone sideways to get a Bubble Leveler.

January 2016 Tech Tips

Here is your January 2016 Tech Tip

Historypins - Look up locations to see pieces of history, or take a historical tour of well know landmarks in time. Built with Google Maps as a back end, this simple navigation can show you images from the past layered on top of recent street views. http://www.historypin.org/en/

New-York Public Library Digital Collection of 672,186 items is free for everyone to use http://digitalcollections.nypl.org

Draftback - this cool extension will take any Google Doc and make a video out of all the edits. You can see the process of the building of the document, along with any big copy and paste sections, easily to view the thought process or plagiarism, its also a cool effect. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/draftback/nnajoiemfpldioamchanognpjmocgkbg 

Coggle - an online collaborative mind map tool, sort of like a shared inspiration. login using your Google account and to work collaboratively and keep track of who does what, have your students keep a specific color for the items they contribute. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/coggle-free-collaborative/hbcapocoafbfccjgdgammadkndakcfoi?hl=en-GB 

http://www.timer-tab.com/ - A Cool and simple Timer, Alarm and Stop watch, you can also under the setting gear, add a Youtube video to launch when the timer hits 0, I like the Final Countdown by Europe.

Opinion Casts - An iPad & iphone app that allows you to record, edit and publish podcasts with ease. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/opinion-podcasts-record-edit/id926260308?mt=8 

In honor of David Bowie, he is an cappella version of Under Pressure with another legend Freddie Mercury https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMQb9LCNGxs 

December 2015 Tech tips

Here is a few more tech tips to try for the holidays.

1.Google Docs Voice Typing feature located under Tools, can now work in 40 languages, try it out.

2. I was connected to Billy Corcoran @MisterCMaine by Beth Holland @brholland and he is a great teacher of a grade 3 class who has embraced ed tech as well as learning spaces and experiential learning.

Here is a great project he did that helps the community, uses technology and even a Wood workshop with cross curricular work with older students.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-69w6LC3y0s&index=1&list=PL7Kkhrn4tsETEjABM4ZT8YhTAINupRE8I 

Web site created by students 

 http://millikenmillstrails.weebly.com/ 

Teachers web site

 http://www.mistercmaine.org/ 

Class Site

 http://mistercloranger.weebly.com/ 

3. Code.org and hour of code with Star Wars https://code.org/ could be a great activity for students or even adults if you want to try coding.

4. Google Apps for Education training Handbook

 https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en/us/edu/pdf/guide/professional-development-handbook.pdf

Everything you ever wanted to know about Google Training, products, certifications, community...

5. Ninite.com Ninite allows you to download a whole bunch of popular apps at once and keep them updated.

6. Ed Tech Teacher has released Vol 2 of their Awesome Activities for the classroom series of ebooks, you can get both after signing up http://edtechteacher.org/awesome/

7. We all know that modifications, adaptations, and accommodations useful to reach different students, but different subjects have different techniques, here is a collection of ideas on how to differentiate your teaching style to reach more students.

http://archive.brookespublishing.com/content/blog/modifications-and-supports.pdf

November 2015 Tech Tip

November 2015 Tech Tips

Go Formative - www.goformative.com Free live quiz app that is web based and can be used on any device and its FREE. You can build your quizzes, distribute them and see them filled out live. You students also don’t need to sign up so it's super easy to implement.

Intro Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Cu8F6gMshg

EdPuzzle -https://edpuzzle.com/  Similiar to Go Formative you can have a video lesson and layer your voice on top and ask questions at certain intervals. You also get great reporting tools. Your students need to create accounts and you need to build classes so setup takes more time but this tool is very interactive and great in a flipped classroom environment.

Google Chrome Extension - Permanent Clipboard http://bit.ly/1KBVv2m

Create a list of clipboard items, that you can right-click and choose from, quickly writing sentences without having to type them out. Great for Commenting in Google Apps Documents.

Book Creator - New Update Comic Book Stips - Book Creator on the iPad has just gotten a nice update, you can now build comic books and add stickers. Here is an intro video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sxm_sW0PBkk

This is a tutorial on how to animate your comic books with explain everything and then add sound effects in iMovie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HCSIABQNp4 credits go to the Book Creator Team for making the tutorial videos

September 2015 Tech Tips

Hi Everyone,

I know I have not posted in a while but with the start of the new school year, I am sure I will have loads of  amazing tips and tricks that can help you in your classroom.


Book'In A free program to organize your book collection and track who has what

http://www.2025exmachina.net Online Interactive Game that is available in both in English and French on Digital Citizenship and the dangers of online and Social Media

Pixar in a Box A collaboration with Pixar and Khan Acamedy to show all of the jobs and steps that go into making a Pixar Film


https://plickers.com/ Cool way to poll and ask questions to your students with an iPad or iPhone


https://www.thatquiz.org/ A free collection of quizzes, mainly on math but on many other subjects.

Final Tech Tip before Summer

This will be the last Tech tip before the summer but maybe a few will be sent during the break for fun.

1. An interesting look at the evolution of the desk https://vimeo.com/107569286

video courtesy of: bestreviews.com/best-computer-desks#history-of-the-computer-desk  http://bestreviews.com/best-desk-lamps#evolution-of-the-desk
photography by dougthomsen.tv / engineering by anton georgiev 

2. An interesting TED talk on how Boys learn and how video gaming can give you a way to connect with them. http://www.teachthought.com/video-games-2/using-video-games-to-reconnect-with-a-lost-generation-of-male-learners/

3. Bounce by ideapaint  or Skitch by Evernote- ideapaint is a whiteboard paint that allows you to write on any surface but they just released for FREE, an app that allows to take a photo of a wall or anything really and annotate and share, much like Skitch which now has a desktop app. https://evernote.com/skitch/guide/windows/or  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id986372086?utm_content=16424345&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

4. A cool Digital Citizenship infographic http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/04/awesome-digital-citizenship-graphic-for.html

5. from the same site and for those who want to start digging into Google Apps before next year http://www.educatorstechnology.com/search/label/google%20docs

6. Google Read & Write is a comprehensive Google Chrome extension that provides support for reading and writing, its also FREE for teachers http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2015/06/read-write-for-google-now-available-in.html#.VYHMU2BwVRF but they also just added French as a language.

7. Free screen recording app that can also record your web camera and voice. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/capturecast-chrome/dmhhfoemgdlphenmfoicajbakonjcgee

8. For a great outdoor activity you can use Leafsnap on the ipad to identify plants just by taking a picture of it leaf http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2015/06/try-leafsnap-for-help-identifying-plants.html?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=freetech4teachers#.VYHPyWBwVRE

Have a great Summer

More Tips and Tricks April 2015

I have a few more Tips and Tricks to share this month so here they are, a few of them are also good for the french teachers.

1. Here are two great services for creating timelines

hstry.co

 A web based timeline creation tool

timeline.knightlab.com

This timeline creation tools uses Google Spreadsheets to write all the content, then upload to create a timeline that can easily be shared or embedded.

2. Un site créer par Annie Marois de la comission scolaire des Découvreurs qui donne plein de ressource en français comme des tutoriel pour des application iPads.

http://seduc.csdecou.qc.ca/recit-tablette/tutoriels-dapplications-ipad/

3. Exemple d'une classe inversé par Marie Soulie https://slate.adobe.com/a/WdwNQ

4. This is great for short quizzes about Math, Vocabulary, Geography and Science, a great resource that is available in French and English. 

http://www.thatquiz.org

5. Social Media Statistics for 2015 on Teens http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/09/teens-social-media-technology-2015/

Tech Tip April 2015

A few interesting links and updates

A Bunch of Easter activities for kids: http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/easter-fun/

Refme: free reference generator in multiple styles and for websites, books, journals, etc... https://www.refme.com 

ChallengeU: a collection of lesson plans created by teachers for teachers on a whole range of subjects. [ www.challengeu.com ]www.challengeu.com

EdPuzzle: A free website that allows you to grab videos from your computer or the internet and add text, links, questions ,etc... https://edpuzzle.com/ 

Kidsblog: if you ever wanted to easily create a blog for each of your students, a great service that is easy to use. http://kidblog.org/home/

iPad Adobe Voice: this simple video maker used to only save on the Adobe website but now you can save and use the videos everywhere. http://getvoice.adobe.com

Google Logged-in device status: if you want to check which devices your account is currently logged in, log into your google account and simply follow this link https://security.google.com/settings/security/activity?pli=1  if the list does not appear click on Recent Activity - Devices  from there you will be able to remotely log off. This is perticulary usefull if you used a computer in a hotel or cafe and forgot to log off.

Facebook Logged-in device status: Log into Facebook and but follow this link https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=security&section=sessions&view  you will get a list of all the devices you are currently opened sessions.

Tips and Tricks before March Break

Here is a small Tech Tip Email before March Break

Youtube for Kids - Google has just released a version of youtube for Android and IOS that is kid friendly loaded with loads of features made especially for parents and kids.

iMovie Trailers - Here is a series of PDF plans to organize you imovie trailers, http://learninginhand.com/blog/2014/8/6/plan-a-better-imovie-trailer-with-these-pdfs

Prodigy Elementary Math Game - This web based game is a free way to gamify math exercises for grade 1-7. The Game also has a full set of reporting and assessment tools. http://www.teachthought.com/apps-2/prodigy-math-game-elementary-skill-building/

Mystery Skype - You students will call another class somewhere in the world and need to figure out where the other class is and vice versa, this teaches geography, global citizenship, etc...

This is an article that explains all the steps and how to make a Mystery Skype call.

 New Link 

Tech Tips February 2015

Paper

Paper is the ios app for note taking, doodles and idea creation was free but if you wanted all of the tools you had to pay 3.99$, well as of today all the tools are free to use so update the app or go download it for the first time.

 New Link 

Google Earth Pro - Thanks to Richard Byrnes http://www.freetech4teachers.com  for this tech tip

• Google earth pro is a  is now free for everyone use license key GEPFREE, Google Earth Pro offers at least nine features that are not available in the standard version of Google Earth. 
• Those features include importing GIS data, mapping multiple points at once, measuring areas of polygons and circles, and automatically geo-locating imported GIS images.
• and you can download it from this link http://www.google.com/intl/en/earth/download/gep/agree.html
• Here is a list of resources to use Google Earth Pro in Science, English and Math
• http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2015/01/some-of-my-favorite-resources-for.html#.VNUCQMZDaqc

Professional Development

Here is another PD resource that I think would be interesting http://home.edweb.net

Signing up is free for K-12 and they have webinars and blogs for free on a wide range to topics

Hype Cycle

https://hypecycle.umn.edu

The University of Minnesota has compiled a series of reports mainly from Gartner to create an interactive Hype Cycle. Click here for detailed description

A hype cycle is a curve that shows where new emerging technologies stand, from the point of being announced, hyped up, actually implemented and sustainability. 

Its good to see what is coming in the next few years, and where we stand in education. If you have any project, ideas or concerns you need help with, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Tech Tips Nov 2014

Sorry for not sending the tech tips more regularly but I will now try to send them more often.

1. Noisli

• http://www.noisli.com

A collection of Noises and atmosphere to help with Productivity, Relaxation and Concentration. If your more confortable working in a cafe with a small wood fire you can program it very easily using sliders. It could beneficial for yourself or your class. Make your class sound like a forest to change the atmosphere. Also available for iphone, ipad for 1.99.

2. Class Dojo

I have sent this website out before but it has really improved over the last year and added great functionality with ipad and iphone apps. Its a free classroom management system. I know Elisabeth Jean and Gabriel Maynard have used it with elementary and middle school with some good results. Each student gets a character that will get more or less points depending how they perform in the class. Not only is this a great visual effect to motivate students but also it keeps a record or their progress during the semester and could be helpful to learnign specialist or even to the parents to see how the student is performing.

https://www.classdojo.com

3. I may have said this one before but you can use Google to have a quick timer just search:     timer     in the google search bar to have a programmable timer. Its great for showing time left on exams or orals, it can even have an alarm.

4. Build with Chrome, have students build landmarks, maybe even selwyn house on top of google earth using LEGOs. Its free and you can connect and share your work.

http://www.buildwithchrome.com