Entries Tagged 'Resources' ↓

Want to search for websites that have been indexed by Google in the last week or day?  Go here! http://www.researchbuzz.org/2003/09/goofresh.shtml

Got questions about Google?  Search here! http://www.google.com/support/

Do you like more picture with your news?  Go here and when you hover over a picture the headline on the side will scroll to match it with links to more on the story.

http://news.google.com/news?&imv=1

For an alphabetically ordered list of help topics go here:

http://www.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=alpha_index.html

Can’t find the answer to your question?  Learn from other users here: http://www.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=portal_groups.cs&hl=en

Google Docs

To embed a document into an email

Open the document you wish to send

Click Share

Choose Email as an Attachment

You will see a pop up menu
Choose Paste the document itself into the email message

Some email clients do not show images or embedded html pages so to be sure everyone can see it, publish the document and include the URL and a message letting the recipient know that if they cannot see the document in their email to click on the URL

This tip was found in the Google Docs How To Group courtesy of the awesome Ahab!

I have been spending a lot of time playing with Google Docs and I am very impressed. There are a lot of resources for help but no single tutorials. I can understand why since the applications are constantly being changed and improved but this makes it a bit hard on someone who is trying it out for the first time.

I’m going to start sharing some of the information I find on this blog.

Today we are going to learn about Google Spreadsheets and Forms.

You can create a spreadsheet from scratch in Google Docs or you can upload one from your computer. There is a list of functions available for Google Spreadsheets. I will spend more time on that later. Today I want to tell you how to create a form than can be shared. When folks fill out the form and click the submit button, the data automatically populates the spreadsheet you create before you send it out. Here are the basic steps (courtesy of Google)

Features: Creating forms

You can create a form from any spreadsheet. Just follow these instructions:

1. Open a new spreadsheet.
2. Save the spreadsheet.
3. Click the Share tab.

1. Under ‘Invite people:’ choose the radio button to fill out a form.

1. Click Start editing your form…

In the form template that opens, you can add any questions and options you’d like.

1. Click the Next, choose recipients tab. Here, you can add email addresses, a custom confirmation message, and choose whether you want people to see the responses.
2. When you’re finished, click Send.

There is so much more you can do but this is good way to try things out.

Some uses for this feature?

1. Planning an event - check schedules or compile a list of who can bring what

2. Create a poll

3. Give a quiz

4. Send out field trip parent forms

5. Collect addresses and phone numbers for a club

I know there are more - can you think of some??

Here is my handout.  Some of it is covered in other places in this blog. I created it on a Macbook using Pages and exported it as a PDF.  Coolness.

Jumpdrive

Create a folder

PowerPoint Backgrounds and creating content in Word

Adding Sound to PowerPoint and making the music play across multiple slides

Creating Screenshots

Creating a group in Outlook Express

Locking your computer

Word Tips

FireFox

End of year grade export

maystaffdevtips.pdf

Interactive Biology Websites

Medtropolis

Human Anatomy Online

Nature’s Best The Human Body

The Human Heart

Interactive Biology

Do you have any favorites to add to the list?

What can they do?

For TAKS:

Interactive Study Guides

Interactive Tool

For Vocabulary Enrichment

FreeRice

For Planning For the Future

Reality Check

Presenter Shaunna Buck

The best parts of this session for me were the student presentation examples. It was truly exciting to see the quality.

7th grade writing program meant to grow beyond writing well enough to pass
Develop writing portfolio
Folders for
Rough drafts
Final drafts
Favorites
Reflective place – higher order thinking

“Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe, shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish.” John Jakes

Collections and reflections
Organizational pattern akin to true writer’s notebook
Student’s papers that received a “4” were blown up poster size, a picture sometimes added, laminated and put up on the hall wall
Student’s goal became creating a “wall worthy” paper
Slowed the traffic pattern in the hall but it was kind of hard to get on to a student who was slow moving when the reason was that they were reading.
Reaction “ so and so’s up there?? How did they get a paper up there??”
Students no longer convinced that their first draft is their best work”
Motivation through competition

Students recorded reading their papers using audacity then uploaded as podcast

Incorporated Photostory 3 video to create digital stories enhanced the program
“Photostory like PowerPoint on speed”
Easy to learn and use
Students were motivated to rewrite

“Revision no longer a dirty word”
“Public recognition key”

Public presentation skills – students who were not comfortable getting up in front of class presenting had success in a room alone recording.

Save ppt slides as jpeg and import into Photostory, add music and audio – insert
Reading students used their class novel
Project – two word sentences – subject,verb – subject verb
Great for inclusion kids

Student went to district – made people cry
Photostory presentation about mom being killed in a car wreck – not true just a story but made me cry anyway
“if you make people cry you almost always get a 4!”

Think about their writing visually

Project – study origin of their name – not just definition but what it means to them, who they are.
Beyond thinking literally

Planning
Digital camera to make their own pictures , google images, scans
discussion about copyright
template for storyboard (looks like filmstrip)
require storyboard and script

Note what images go where
Import pictures into photostory
They used the headphones with mic attached
Pairs – one to talk, the other to click buttons, then they switch places
Photostory has a lot of built in music clips
Resource : freeplaymusic.com

Suggested book “Mechanically Inclined” Jeff Anderson

Patrick Crispen takes a sneak peak at what’s just over the horizon. Site: netsquirrel

Thanks to my guest Paris ISD teacher Nancy Bratteli for these notes on the session! This presentation was lightening fast and fun - I was scribbling so fast I could barely read my writing!

Polaroid Zink printer – zero ink – thermal, permanent, $149, about 30cents/print, available 12/08

new hard drives; SSD SATA 5000 1.8” 72GB; uses about 5% of the power of old drives; in 5 years, all will be this way; no spinning platters, less hard drive crash

USB3 is on the way; uses fiber optic cable, ridiculously fast (10X faster than 2)

Wireless USB (short range – speed relative to distance); Belkin has one now;
connects device to device

Eye-Fi SD memory card 2GB for camera; available now for $99; card transfers pics wirelessly to computer, filesharing sites, automatically

802.11n – (IEEE—guys who set global standards) new version of wireless coming April 2008; 540 megabits/sec; look for DRAFT 2.0 (some products out too early)

WiMax (802.16) metro area network – 70 mb/s;
it will be everywhere like cell phone service?

RFID – now in all U.S. passports (concerning?), toll tags, etc.; in 5 yrs. will replace bar codes

LEDs – last so long they will replace light bulbs in 10 yrs.

OLED see how stuff works for explanation - organic light-emitting diodes; bright, thin displays on electronic devices using less power

Recordable media – as of January, Blu-Ray has won, HD is gone

AACS – Advanced Access Content System – if signal is broken anywhere (hacked), may not play HD in the future

Distributed Computing – e.g., PS3 folding at home, Seti

508v2 and WCAG 2.0 – Web Content for Accessibility (504s)

IPv6 – new system large enough to assign an address for every atom in the body of every person on earth

Presentations 2.0 – Crispen used today; cleaner alternative to PPT

TV – original color standard set in the 1950s; showed great diagram of difference between interlaced and progressive signals; 1080p is gold standard, but nobody does it; digital-to-digital connections: cables aren’t important, so get cheap ones (good cheap source: monoprice.com) (get converter box vouchers for schools!)

Also posted at Thoughts Have Wings

This was a good session that gave some basic common sense tips on using PowerPoint.

Why would we want to use it (well)?

• This generation has little tolerance for delays or mistakes in delivery of information

• It’s an easy way to get information across in a short time period

Caution:

• Too much information - on each slide
• Color choices (may depend on lighting in presentation location)
• Can be “eye catching or eye watering”
• Presentation often not test driven to catch problems

If well used can be extremely engaging

Tips:

• Proof read
• Don’t include all information
• Practice test run
• Don’t over-use the software in the classroom

Key - Keep the focus on the presenter

Start with the basics

• Know your information
• What are the key points or concepts
• Make an outline (enter basic information on blank slides)
• Order is important
• Add relevant materials (diagrams, images, audio, video)

Consider approaches for presenting

• How is the slide being used?
• Ask a question on the slide (stop for discussion)
• Break up with a related activity (stop presentation, do short activity, go back to presentation)

Adjust style elements (easy place to waste time)

• Visual interest is key but remember to keep focus on the presenter
• You can use WordArt to make notes on each slide to remind you of details, changes, and additions - what needs to be done to each slide
• Do test run
• Prepare your oral presentation (this is the part that many people omit!)
• To prepare you can take your original outline and print it out or print slide handouts.
• 3 slides to a page and you can have lines on the right side for notes

Presentations without a presenter

• Podcast presentation
• Save each slide as a jpeg
• Insert into MovieMaker
• Create audio voiceover using Audacity put together audio and movie - Podcast

*They did a Distance Learning Day at Good Shepherd. They submitted lesson plans, students stayed home and did assignments via internet. This type of podcast presentation was part of her lesson.

If you go to TCEA 2008 and click on Sessions and Workshops, list free sessions you will see the entire list and the session I attend will have the session number in the post as well. You will be able to look for handouts there in a few weeks.

I like Patrick Crispen’s presenting style. He starts on time, tells you what he will cover, moves through the presentation like an east Texas wind. Before you know it he is saying we have to hurry because there are only three minutes left, ties is all up and sends you out as the next group comes in. He must have an incredible amount of energy or sleep for a week after a conference like this.

His website is NetSquirrel and if you go there and click on PowerPoint Presentations on the side you will have access to all his handouts. They are licensed under Creative Commons (he was the first person I heard even mention Creative Commons yesterday) so you are free to download his material. The presentation for this session will be udated in a few days.
Some new things I learned yesterday:

• Google free business directory assistance 1 - 800 - 466 - 4411
  • Voice, directions, maps on your cell phone. Google wants to do voice search - this is there start at getting voices saying words
• Google Notebook now datestamps your entries
• Google.com/educators has added discovery videos

This morning I found a new little snippet in my reader about Google docs - they have added a new little tool. When you share a spreadsheet you now have three choices - collaborator, viewer, and now “to fill out a form”. You can create a form in Google spreadsheets, share it with people and as they respond to the form, the data is automatically added to your spreadsheet.

posted at Thoughts Have Wings