Archives For Helpful Resources

Google Apps For Education

January 21, 2013  Leave a comment

One of the hottest trends in education around the world is Google Apps For Education (GAFE)

Google Apps Logo Google Apps For Education

Over the last year I have become increasing involved in helping teachers and students use Google Apps For Education.  In 2011 I became a Google Certified Teacher and then last year I became a Google Apps For Education Certified Trainer.

This has allowed me to work with teachers and schools right around the world and has opened up some amazing opportunities to work with Google and speak at some of their Google Apps For Education Summits.

If you’re interested in the latest developments in Google Apps for Education and would like to learn simple tips and tricks that will help you motivate and engage your students, you can head over to our new blog www.googleappsforedu.com 

The Google Apps for Education blog will cover topics that will be helpful for teachers who are just getting going with Google through to teachers and students who have used Google for some time.

So far on the blog I have posted a couple of my presentation slides from the Google Apps for Education Summits in Hawaii and Sydney this month.  You will also find a video that will show you how to create self grading assessments; something that every teacher loves!

In the next week or so we will also be launching a Google Apps for Education user group.

This will bring teachers from all over the world together to share ideas and resources.  We are just working out the finer details with Google but will let you know as soon as it launches.

I will continue to update this blog with ideas around classroom management, student engagement and motivation as well as technology use in general, but anything Google related will now be posted on the Google Apps for Education blog.

 

In Helpful Resources, Technology in the Classroom , ,
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Everything You Need To Know About Using Twitter In Education

September 24, 2012  10 Comments

Here is everything you need to know about using Twitter in education

Over the last year and a half I have written a number of blog posts, teaching magazine articles and spoken at a number of conferences about how to use Twitter in education.  I thought that rather than having my material spread out throughout my blog I would bring it all together in this one blog post.

You can follow the links which will walk you through how to set up a Twitter account as well as how to use Twitter in a way that doesn’t compromise your professional relationship with your students.

twitter Everything You Need To Know About Using Twitter In Education

Here are the 6 things you should know or do…

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Instagrok – An Interesting (re)search Engine For Students

September 21, 2012  2 Comments

Take a look at this interesting (re)search engine for students.

Last week I showed you three safe search engines for young students.  Today I want to show you a research engine (not strictly a search engine) that might be good for your students called Instagrok.

Up until about a year ago Google had a tool called wonderwheel where students could see the search results in a diagram rather than just text (see below)

Google Wonderwheel1 Instagrok An Interesting (re)search Engine For Students

 Since then I have looked at Wikkisummarizer which is a tool that is connected to the Wikipedia website.  Wikisummarizer collects all the information found on Wikipedia and summarises it into either text or a mind map. (See below).  Some teachers have issues with the reliability of Wikipedia, which probably needs to be another discussion for another day, so some didn’t like this as a solution.

Wikisummarizer Instagrok An Interesting (re)search Engine For Students

This week one of the owners of Instagrok contacted me and let me know about their research engine for students.  Normally when someone contacts me, their product isn’t worth mentioning but Instagrok has caught my attention.

Instagrok has some good features and a few things to be aware of:

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In Helpful Resources, Technology in the Classroom
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5 ways any school can waste money and what to do about it Pt 3

May 22, 2012  1 Comment

In the first and second post of this series we have looked at the following three ways schools waste money and what we can do about it:

1.  The principal is not aware of their leadership role.

2.  Hire the wrong type of person to oversee the technology in your school.

3.  Spending money on licences for software and becoming too reliant on hardware such as servers.

In this post we will look at an area that flies under the radar of schools.  In fact I am yet to find a school that is consciously aware of this money trap!

throw money away 5 ways any school can waste money and what to do about it Pt 3 

How much money are you wasting in this area?

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5 ways any school can waste money and what to do about it Pt 2

May 21, 2012  3 Comments

In the previous post on 5 ways schools can waste money we looked at the how schools can waste money:

1.  The principal is not aware of their leadership role.

2.  Hire the wrong type of person to oversee the technology in your school.

In this post we will look at the third way that I see schools waste money and what they can do about it.

schools save money 5 ways any school can waste money and what to do about it Pt 2

Save your money!

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In Google, Helpful Resources, Technology in the Classroom , ,
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