Google Docs Part 1

This week and last meeting, I covered a basic introduction to Google Docs.  Google Docs is very similar to the Microsoft Office suite, but it's available anywhere you have internet access (like email).  It is also FREE!  You don't have to purchase it to have it on your computer.  Gone are the days when you have to email documents to yourself if you've worked on them at home or carry a flash drive around.

To get started, go to the Earlham Google Docs page and log in using your  username and password.  Click on DOCS instead of email.

When you get in Google Docs, you can create a document (like a basic Word doc), a presentation (PowerPoint) or spreadsheet (Excel).  Click on "Create New" and it will give you the options.

*A form is something you can use to create a survey like I made previously on the Tech Tuesday blog.  If you want to learn more about a form, that can be another Tech Tuesday topic.

Picture Book Maker

This week's topic is Picture Book Maker.

How to use this tool:

When you arrive at the page, you will see a hardcover looking book.  At the bottom of the book, click "enter."

At the bottom of the page, there are many tools to use.

1. Backgrounds: use the arrow to select a background.  Clicking on the background places it on the page.

2. Characters: use the arrows to select a character.  Clicking on it will place it on the page.  Also, clicking the arrows on "scale" and "action" (once it is placed on the page) will change the size and action of the character.

3. Objects: use the arrows to select an object.  Clicking on it will place it on the page.  Also, like the character, you can use the "scale" to change its size.

• Selecting the pencil/Write option brings up a text box that the author can type in.  The "scale" option makes the text larger or smaller.  Also, the tex box can be moved by dragging any black corner.
• The "pages" option allows the author to write multiple pages as well as a cover and back of the book.

• To delete an object, select it and then select the trash bin option.  
• When finished with the book, select "finish book."  You will then have the option to read the book by turning the pages, emailing the book to someone, or printing the book out.  
• Selecting "exit" clears the book and takes you back to the start screen.

Application for this tool:

I feel that this tool is applicable to all ages.  It is a bit limited by the amount of characters/backgrounds/objects, but it can teach students ho to write a short story.  A lower elementary student could write a few words on each page.  An upper elementary student could write a longer short story or even compose poetry.
I think it is great that you have the option of printing the book for free as well as sharing it with someone via email.  Can you think of other uses for this tool?

Visuwords

 Visuwords is an online graphical dictionary and thesaurus.  All that you do to use it is type in a word at the top.

A web pops up with the word and synonyms and antonyms.  It is really neat because it shows the relationship between the words and the other words that show up in the web by

This tool is probably more useful for upper grades, but can still be applicable with younger students and basic parts of speech.

Tech Tuesday Survey

Spezify

Spezify is a visual search engine.  You can type in a word or phrase that you want to search, similar to what you would do in Google, and it will come up with results in picture or "news clipping" looking format.  I know students would really like to do this, and it also would be a useful tool for those beginning readers to search for pictures of words.  This site, just like Google, doesn't necessarily have a "student friendly" filter, but I've found that if you search for something a little more specific, like "fractions math" and not just "fractions," you will come up with a more educationally focused result. 

Here's a screen shot from my search for "Trumpeter Swans."  You can see the "play" buttons on some of the images because they are actual videos from YouTube.

Wordle

Today's Tech Tuesday was about a fun online tool called Wordle.  This tool is easy for anyone, including students, to use and has SO MANY possibilities.

To use Wordle, head to their website and click on "Create."

You can enter in whatever text you'd like.  The more times you enter a word, the larger it will appear in your Wordle.

For example, here is a Wordle I created just putting in colors.  I put in pink 5 times, blue 3 times, red 2 times, and green, yellow, orange and purple each once.   I just typed in the word with a space in between.




If you'd like your Wordle to contain phrases, like this Wordle my class did on the word SAFE, put a ~ sign between each word in the phrase (not a space) and it will keep that phrase together.



After you've input your text into the create box, click"Go."  Then, it will pop up in a random font/color scheme.  If you don't like that scheme, click "Randomize" and it will give you a different scheme.  You can randomize until you find one you like.

We had a great discussion about the many uses for Wordle in the classroom at our Tech Tuesday gathering.  Here is a sildeshow that tells 38 Interesting Ways to Use Wordle in the Classroom.  I'm sure you can think of many more ways to use it!

Also, just a side note when using Wordle, the public gallery on the website is not "student friendly."  You may find some inappropriate material if you look for it, so I have the link on my blog that students use go directly to the create page by using www.wordle.net/create 

Bundle of Blogs/Feeds!

My mother-in-law (a former educator) sent me a link today.  It's a starter list of education feeds.  It seems to have a lot packed into it, but you can subscribe to it to get your Google Reader really loaded with good info!

RSS Feeds/Using Google Reader

Our Tech Tuesday topic for October 6 was RSS Feeds/Google Reader.  Using this technology, you can get website and blog updates coming to you instead of going out to check all the websites you visit.  It's really similar to getting website updates in your inbox, but it's a separate program.  I use this as a professional learning tool and as a way to get news information, since I don't have much time to watch the news.

1. To get started, I would recommend using the Firefox web browser.  I'm not familiar with using Internet Explorer for this.  You can download Firefox here if you don't have it.

2. After you've done that, go to Google Reader and log in with your google user name and password.  Just stay logged in so your browser recognizes you're a Google user.

 3. Now, you can go to any website you'd like.  I've listed some blogs I recommend in my last post.  Once you're on the site, look to see if it has this symbol in the address bar:

 

 

 

If it does, click on it. It should give you some subscription options (RSS or Atom?)  Either one you pick is fine.

4. Then it should give you an option to subscribe with Google.  Do this, and then choose Google Reader.

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.  It should redirect you to Google Reader after you've subscribed.  Your sidebar will then have a list of the bogs/websites you're subscribed to as you add them.  

As you can see, I added Tech Tuesdays, so it's now there on my list (You can repeat this process for as many blogs/websites as you'd like.).

5.  To read through your website updates, you can choose all items, and scroll through them, or skip from one to the next using the "N" key.  You can also (if you have pop-ups enabled) click the "V" key to view the entry in a separate tab or window (depending on your browser settings).

 

 

If you'd like to just read the updates from a specific website, you can just click on that website's subscription and scroll through.  

6. If you're not sure what you'd like to subscribe to, here is a video from AndyWibbels.com on how to search for subscriptions in Google Reader.

If you have any further questions or need some help, please let me know!

 

 

Education Blogs

Here are some blogs I would suggest to get you started on your journey with Google Reader.  Feel free to comment and suggest more if you read something that I don't have on this list:

Angela Maiers Education Services
Earlham FYI by Rachel Burrow, our librarian
Free Technology for Teachers
Education Technology (news)
Meta Musings by Matt Townsley (my brother) - hs math educator
TAG Mirror by Russ Goerend (my husband) - 6th grade reading/language arts and former TAG teacher
The Changing Face of Education in Iowa by Evan Abbey - Heartland AEA
Wright Notes by Michael Wright, our Superintendent 
U.S. Department of Education 
Teach Science and Math
A Wiki of Many Blogs!

Add to your blog

This past Tech Tuesday, we worked on adding a couple things to the blogs participants had created.  We accomplished 4 main things:

1. Comment Moderation:  Making sure any comment posted to your blog is approved by you first before it goes on the page.  Here's how:

-Click on the "Settings" tab and click on "Comments."

-Choose that anyone can comment (so parents or students don't have to have a specific type of account to comment).

 

-Change your comment moderation to "Always."

-Add your email address to the email address box and save!  Then you're done!

2. Add a labels gadget to your side bar.  This way when you label posts, your labels will appear on the side bar so viewers can see them and utilize them.

-Go to the "Layout" tab and click "Get a Gadget."

-Find the "Labels" gadget and click the +.

-I recommend keeping the default settings. Click "Save" and you're done!

3. Add a "Links" gadget to your side bar.

-Go to the "Layout" tab if you aren't still there, and select "Get a Gadget" once again.

-Select the Link List gadget by clicking the +.

-1 Title the link list what you'd like: Student Links, Parent Links, etc.

-2 Select how you would like the links to be sorted.

-3 Type in a web address of a website you'd like to add.

-4 Give the site a title that will appear on your Link List.

-5 Click "Add Link."

-6 If you're done, click "Save."  If you aren't done, you can add more links using steps 3-5.

4.  The last thing we did was add a way for readers to subscribe via email.  When a reader subscribes via email, he or she will not have to check the blog.  All posts will be emailed right to the reader's inbox.  I would suggest adding this feature and then telling parents about it right when you publicize your blog to them.  This way, they can never forget about your blog!  It comes right to them!

The website FEEDBURNER is an external website that we used to do this.

I found a resource that explains how to do this well, so instead of recreating the explanation, just go read it here.

That's all for Tech Tuesday this week!  Next week I will show you some great blogs to read and how to read them all in one place instead of visiting them to check if they're updated.  Not all blogs have a wonderful email subscription gadget like yours now should!

If you haven't attended a Tech Tuesday yet, I would HIGHLY encourage the next session.  The only thing you'll need to have is a Google account.  If you have a Gmail address, you're set.  Otherwise you can use your school email to set up a Google account.  Refer to the first Tech Tuesday post to learn how to make your own Google account.

Multiple Blog Authors

Third grade teachers,
You wanted to have one blog for their grade level.  I would still encourage you to all sign up for Google accounts and a Blogger accoung.  Have one person create the blog and then she can add the others as contributors to the blog by clicking on the "Settings" tab and then clicking "Permissions."  There you can add authors and the blog will appear on each person's blogger account.

Check out the screen shot and give it a try.  Let me know if you have questions!

Create Your Blog

Today we had a great first Tech Tuesday! Here's what we covered for those that were present to refer back to and those who couldn't make it to start with!  I tried to put in some screen shots to help along the way.  They seem to appear blurry, but try clicking on them to make them bigger.

• I showed my blog. It is for parents, students, and other interested community members near and far!

• I showed how to sign up for a Google account. If you are planning on participating in any Tech Tuesdays (even if you aren't interested in blogging) you should have a Google account. You can go to gmail and get a Google email address or just sign up with your school email using the following steps:

1. Go to Google.com
Click "sign in"

 

 2. Create a new account

3. Enter your email

4. Add your password and go through the rest of the steps of getting an account.  It should be pretty spelled out on the site, then you're done with that part!

• I showed them how to create a Blogger account (using their Google account) and begin a new post:

1. Go to Blogger.com and log in with your Google account.

 

2. Once you've signed in, it should  prompt you to set up your account.  Then, go ahead and create your blog title/website address.  The title will appear at the top of your blog like mine says "Tech Tuesdays."  The URL will be what people must type in to access your blog.  My address is http://earlhamtechtuesdays.blogspot.com.  Notice there is NOT a www. before the address.

3. Choose your template (what the top bar of your blog will look like and what the color scheme will be).

4. Once you've done that, you're ready to create a post!  If it doesn't take you directly to do so, click on the "Posting" tab and then "New Post" on the lower options below the tab.  Type away, change the font, color, etc.  Then, click "Preview" to see how it will look on your blog.  Once you're ready, click "Publish Post" at the bottom of the page and it will appear on your blog.  If you're working and would like to come back to the post later before publishing, just click "Save Now" at the bottom of the page. 

That's all we covered this session!  Your assignment is to follow these steps and create your blog!  Come back next week with your blog and any questions you have!