Flipboard Likes and Dislikes #edtech

Besides Twitter, Flipboard is my go-to source for news (this is being written prior to Apple's News app which is coming out in iOS 9 in a few weeks).  I like the easy of use and ability to craft the categories to my liking.  I wrote about how I Flip for Flipboard here.

It has a place in the classroom because it encourages students not only to be engaged in the world around them by understanding what's going on, but it also delivers content to kids that they're more likely to read.

The latest update goes one step further in that it allows you to give a thumbs up and thumbs down to specific stories, which in turn allows you to tell Flipboard that you want more or less of the categories associated with the story.  For example, in the Sports category there are a lot of English Premier League Soccer stories, most of which I'm not interested in.  By pressing the little down arrow at the top of the story I can choose 'More Like This' or 'Less Like This' and therefore finetune Flipboard to my liking.  Within the main stories that Flipboard thinks you'll like you can only give a thumbs up and down.  But inside the categories you've chosen you can tell Flipboard to turn off certain tags that accompany each story.  So I can turn off Soccer Transfers, Serie A, Italian Football, but leave Soccer on.

I've been playing with it for about a week now and although it's hard to tell if things are really changing, I get the sense they are.

Gradebook Split Chrome Extension #edtech @alicekeeler #grading

Alice Keeler is someone you should follow on Twitter because she always offers useful and up-to-date tips on how to navigate the digital teacher world.  Not only is her blog great but she has a few Chrome and Google Drive extensions that make life much easier.

Gradebook Split is a Chrome extension that allows you to have your students' work on the left side of your screen while opening your online gradebook on the right side, all with one click.  You can also use it to have any website pop up automatically, but the idea behind the extension is for grading and entering scores.

Here is her blog post about the extension and I've linked the movie below

Add to Google Drive Chrome Extension #gafe #edtech #googlechrome

As we use Google Drive more and more as a depository for everything, it becomes increasingly useful to have tools and extensions to make using it more efficient and easier.  The Save to Google Drive extension will take a screenshot of the page you're on and automatically drop it into your Google Drive.  It got me to thinking about a lot of clutter in my Google Drive and made me wish there was a filtering system in Drive that took incoming files with a certain name or extension and put them into the correct folder.

Bookaround - Allows Ss to Share Video Book Recommendations #edtech #reading #literacy @thebookaround

Bookaround is a relatively new site that allows students and teachers to record short, 25 second, videos giving a book review.  We have something similar in our district with Destiny Quest, which allows students to connect, but it doesn't have the video component.

Teachers create a free account and give a code to their students.  Students use the code to access their teachers page and from there they can recommend books, invite their friends to view their 'bookshelf', and view their friends' recommendations.  The interface does not work on iPads but if you get your kids to the lab or grab some Chromebooks you're all set.  Students enter the title and the author of the book and then get a four easy emoticon buttons to press to tell what they thought of it.  After pressing 'Allow' to enable the camera and microphone they can start to record their thoughts, which are then shared with anyone else who has access to their bookshelf.  Teachers get instant access to all of their students' bookshelves.

Not only will most students enjoy this format but there are a few other plusses that this service brings.  It allows students a place to practice digital citizenship by posting and using the tool for the better of the class and their followers.  It builds community within a classroom and gives voice to those who might not normally speak up in class.  It can motivate readers because they have an audience to share their passions with and it can help them discover new books to read from those who have similar tastes.

It's also a great tool for teachers to assess where their students are at and if they're truly reading the material they're supposed to be reading.  This video gives more information on creating a Bookaround classroom and here is Bookaround's YouTube channel for all of their tutorials.

Tab Scissors and Glue - Split Tabs #googlechrome #edtech #gafe #wsdtech

Last year I wrote about a Chrome extension called Panel Tabs that allows you to take one of your open tabs and separate it from the rest so you can put tabs side by side for comparison.  Today I learned about a different extension that allows you to do something similar but I think in a better way.  Tab Scissors takes the current tab and separates it from your current tabs and automatically puts it side by side with your other tabs.  The reason I like it better than Panel Tabs is you don't have to spend any time resizing the windows, it does it for you.

If you cut something apart you have to glue it back together and that's where the Tab Glue extension comes to the party.  It takes the tab you recently split and merges it back with the other tabs, nice and neat.  The educational part of me sees a teacher using this to easily multiple items with a class without having to constantly switch back and forth between tabs.  A presenter getting ready for a presentation could have their Google Slides on one side and presentation notes on the other.  Lots of uses.

The one downside, ironically, is that I wish the two extensions were glued into one so I don't have another thing littering my task bar, but somehow I'll survive.

Google Classroom Updates #gafe #google #googleclassroom #edtech

Google Classroom just keeps getting better and better.  Just last week I was very excited about EduSync because it had Google Classroom integration, and while it's still a great tool with lots of options, one of the biggest reasons I liked it was its Google Calendar integration.  With the latest updates to Google Classroom coming out soon that integration in now baked right into your Classroom environment.

Calendar Integration 

In the next month, Classroom will automatically create a calendar for each of your classes in Google Calendar. All assignments with a due date will be automatically added to your class calendar and kept up to date. You’ll be able to view your calendar from within Classroom or on Google Calendar, where you can manually add class events like field trips or guest speakers.

A few of the other noteworthy updates include the ability to reuse posts from previous years, question-driven questions in your activity stream with the ability for students to reply to other students' comments (or not), the ability to bump a post to the top of the stream, optional due dates, and the ability to add a Google Form to a post.

Read the whole post here

Quick Hit Google Tips @TheGoogleGooru #edtech #gafe #google #googleedu #edchat #gafechat

@TheGoogleGooru is someone I recently followed on Twitter and has some great quick tips to share about Google products.  The idea behind the tips below are that you can print out little cards to give to staff members as a quick reminders on how to accomplish tasks in Google.  You could even print them for kids and place them on a key chain ring for easy reference.  Give them a follow on Twitter for great tips or check out some of the cards below.

- Gooru Quick Hits for Drive
- Gooru Quick Hits for Gmail
- Gooru Quick Hits for Admins
- Gooru Quick Hits for Calendar