Healthy Minds, Flourishing Lives: A Philosophical Approach to Mental Health a...
Google Tools for Teachers
1. Google Tools for Teachers
Lucy Gray
Education Consultant
http://www.lucygray.org
1
2. Google’s mission is to organize
the world’s information and make
it universally accessible and
useful.
2
3. A sense of fun
pervades
everything.
Risking taking and
pursuing’s one
passion are
encouraged.
Everything is in a
state of perpetual
beta. Continous
improvement is
important.
Creativity and
innovation are core
Thinking Outside the Box:
Google’s Working Environment
3
5. Guiding Principles
5
Focus on the user and all else will follow.
It’s best to do one thing really, really well.
Fast is better than slow.
Democracy on the web works.
You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer.
6. Guiding Principles
You can make money without doing evil.
There’s always more information out there.
The need for information crosses all borders.
You can be serious without a suit.
Great isn’t just good enough.
6
7. Applied to Learning
Focus on the student and all else will follow
It’s best to teach a few things really, really well.
Fast is better than slow.
Democracy in the classroom works.
You don’t need to be at school to need an answer.
7
8. Applied to Learning
You can teach without doing evil.
There’s always more information out there.
The need for information crosses all borders.
You can be serious without a suit.
Great just isn’t good enough.
Courtesy of Mark Wagner, CUE
8
10. A Video Speaks 1000 Words
10
http://youtu.be/VfDW7qAdFGk
11. Food for Thought....
How can we incorporate these ideas into our own
schools?
What can schools learn from innovative businesses
without becoming “corporate” ?
What are we doing differently as institutions?
11
23. Docs
23
Create collaborative or private documents,
spreadsheets, forms, drawings, presentations
and fusion tables
Varying levels of permissions can be enabled
Revision history lets you track changes
Commenting and chat in Docs and
Spreadsheets
Work offline and upload later
38. Docs Ideas
38
Peer editing during
writers’ workshop
Lit circle group activities
Project management
Lab reports
ePortfolios
Shared lesson repositories
Curriculum guides
Unit Plans
Course evaluations
Shared notetaking at
meetings and conferences
Classroom walk throughs
Grant proposals
Sign up forms
Surveys
Book talks
Embedded presentations
in Google Sites
39. Sites
39
Easy to use web site creation tool
Based on wiki technology
Varying levels of permissions can be enabled
including page level permissions
Revision history available
Create templates which can be shared
across Google Apps domains
Embed media created with Google tools and
other Web 2.0 applications
47. Sites Ideas
47
Teacher web site
Professional
portfolios
Repository for
departmental
meeting notes
Accreditation
documentation
Event planning
Professional
development
resources
Assessment
Student portfolios
Digital science
notebooks
Book previews
48. Books
48
Locate information related to millions of books
Find full texts that no longer fall under copyright
Preview books that are copyrighted
Search inside books
Locate books in online stores and libraries (WorldCat)
Purchase eBooks
Save book titles to your Google account through My Library
61. Book Search Ideas
Post your required
readings for courses
in My Library on
bookshelves by topic
Post the link to a
specific bookshelf
within an assignment
or on a Google Site
Have students
search text for
keywords or to find
quotes
Have older
students write
reviews
Embed the Google
Book Search listing
in a wiki or blog
61
62. YouTube
62
Create your own channel of
content for easy access to digital
media
Bookmark videos to playlists
Record right into YouTube
Edit and annotate video
Post video from your mobile
device
“Flip” your classroom using
educational video content
65. Curating
Use the browse and search functionality of YouTube to find channels
and individual videos. Use Filter to refine your query.
Create playlists for units that you teach. Set them up ahead of time
or create them on the fly.
Give links to playlists to students to supplement classroom materials
Collect videos created by students to show to parents. Can use
private links.
65
91. Potential Uses
91
Flip your classroom
Review and remediation
Language resources
Project research
Independent study
From Tami’s Tech4Teaching
Professional development
Student and teacher reflection
Writing prompts
Field trip documentation
Listening/viewing centers on mobile
devices using Belkin’s Rockstar
splitter
Choose Your Own Adventure
activities
Screencasts
Embed a video in a Google Site and
have kids answer questions in an
embedded Google Form
92. Activity
92
Upload your video via email.
Take out your mobile device.
Interview a neighbor. Ask them about their conference experience thus far.
Email it to:
62497548264@mms.youtube.com
Visit my channel to see the results:
http://youtube.com/elemenous
93. YouTube Ideas
Organize material for
courses into playlists
Create screencasts
and videos for your
lectures
Subscribe to
channels to be
updated of new
content
Look at the
subscriptions of friends
for channels to
subscribe to
Have kids access
your playlists through
their mobile devices
Have students
design a collaborative
project (i.e Life in a
Day)
Email video to your
channel while on field
trips
93
102. Google Earth and Maps Ideas
View and create Google Earth Lit Trips
Appoint a student to be the class
cartographer to document locations
encountered by your class
Enable layers in Google Earth to see
supplementary materials
Create buildings in Sketchup and import
them into Google Earth
102
103. Custom Search
103
Formerly known as Google Co-op
Roll your own search engine using pre-selected sites
Embed on your website and blog; integrate into Google Sites
Bookmark sites directly to list of web sites
Others can can contribute to the web sites search
Examples:
My Search Engines
104. Two of Lucy’s Search Engines
104
http://goo.gl/LgUZEhttp://goo.gl/bHHBM
105. Custom Search Engine Ideas
105
Create a search
engine for particular
units
Have a
departmental or
grade level engine
with members
contributing links
through Google
Marker
Have students
serve as curators by
creating their own
search engines for a
unit of study
125. Organizing a Search
What is it I’m looking for?
(think about common keywords)
How would someone else talk about it?
(what words would they use? how would THEY describe it?)
Which of those terms would be most common?
Which of those terms would be very specialized to this topic?
What kind of thing would make me happy?
(do I want a single web page, a definition, a collection, an image.... or … ?)
125
126. Keyword Choice
Think about what you are trying to find
Choose words that you think will appear on the page
Put yourself in the mindset of the author of those words
Use synonyms
Start broad and use just a few words, then go deep
Use contextual terms
126
127. Other Search Tips
Use specifiers
Example: [Georgia population wikipedia]
Try an image search when normal means fail, you might find
something that will be useful or spark your interest in a different way.
Word order matters—when it’s not working one way, try another.
When searching for common phrases, don’t leave out the “stop
words.” (e.g., [ Lord of the Rings] )
Use double quotes to find a particular sequence of words
Example: “Daniel M Russell” or “Ursula K Le Guin”
127
130. General Google Strategies
130
Get a Google Account (Gmail gives you a Google account OR you can
make a Google account with any email address)
Concentrate on one tool to start
Focus on your own productivity
Remember that great help documentation is built into every Google tool
Encourage your school to sign up for Google Apps
Advocate and educate in your district about the power of these tools
131. Additional Resources
The Search by John Batelle
The Official Google Blog
Google in Education group within Diigo
Google Teacher Center newsletter
Google’s YouTube channel
Google Teacher Academy Resources
CUE’s Google Workshop for Educators Resources
click on Events and view the agendas to find great resources
131
132. Lucy Gray
elemenous on Twitter, YouTube, Flickr,
etc.
lucy@lucygrayconsulting.com
http://lucygrayconsulting.com
132
