Summer Quest: Creek Squad and Google Apps

I am catching up on reading following the July 4th holidays and found this interesting YouTube video on eighth grade students teaching students and teachers how to use Google Apps and cloud computing at their school in Iowa.

This link was recommended by the Edmodo blog I follow with two field reporters sharing their favorite presentations from ISTE 2011. The session was called "Building Learning Communities with Google Apps" which is one of my summer quest topics.

On the video, the students share benefits of using Google docs and apps. One named "improved speed" which is a major concern in my district. They also named the benefits of access to shared information which leads to collaboration, a key area of 21st Century Skills.

View this link for the Creek Squad tech support team and the district perspective on using this tool in education.

Summer Quest: Getting Up to Speed on Google Tips and Tools

I realize that I am usually behind the times in all aspects of my life--fashion, cars, what's going on at my school (otherwise named as "gossip"), and of course, edtech and Web 2.0. So I am setting a quest this summer to focus on Google tools, especially Google docs.

I need to break down and actually become a paying member of some of the various edtech groups that I follow but usually the amount of time I have available still does not meet the amount of free information these groups provide!! One of the groups I follow is SimpleK12 and I recently attended a free webinar advertised as "Google Tips and Tools." I made a reservation as I thought they might provide information on Google docs. Nothing on that but I received some great general information about Google and I want to be sure that others are aware of these excellent edtech resources.

One resource I thought would be helpful and visual for my students would be the use of Wonder Wheel. By typing in a general topic like "Civil War," Wonder Wheel creates a graphic organizer in the shape of a wheel of related topics. This would help students see options to narrow down their search toward their actual research needs. By clicking on one of the spokes to select "Civil War battles", another wheel pops up to further define the needed search. Related searches is another option to help students to better define their search but it does not provide the visual treatment that I think would appeal to my students. Both of these options are found on the left sidebar of a Google search.

Another option located on the left sidebar is Timeline which displays a timeline of the general topic and provides general information arranged by date. By clicking on a section of the timeline, the search is made more specific with articles of information specific to that time period. An example of "Civil War battles" looks like this.

Looking at the top of the Google screen are options like "Images", "Maps", and one called "more" with a drop-down arrow. Clicking on that one and scrolling to the bottom to find "even more" takes students to a more organized screen of Google products. Here students could look at the "Media" section for images, news, books, and YouTube. Google Docs are located under the "Home and Office" section and the "Specialized Search" section features Trends (past and present search trends) and Scholar (scholarly papers and articles). And under the section of "Innovation" you find Labs--Google's technology playground!

One lab tool that I think both teachers and students will appreciate is Google Squared. This tool searches and organizes its findings into a spreadsheet that can be edited. Requesting a search of "Civil War battles, " Google Squared provided 20 items with categories of information of "Battle Name," "Images"which was often a map, "Description," "Location," "Date," and "Result"--all in a matter of seconds!!

Other lab tools that I think would be helpful to both teachers and students are News Timeline and Fast Flip. Both of these tools provide media information on specific topics or dates. News Timeline is described as "a web application that organizes information chronologically. Google News Timeline allows users to view news, scanned newspapers and magazines, blog posts, sports scores, and more on a zoomable, graphical timeline." Fast Flip offers "blinding fast overviews of headline pages of top newspapers."

And last I want to mention the free iPhone/Android app called Google Goggles which uses pictures from your smartphone to retrieve relevant information. An example on the description page shows taking a picture of a menu in another language and obtaining a translation.

Are these relevant tools for today's student? When showing them to my college son this weekend, his response was "Why didn't you show me this stuff a couple of semesters ago when I had to research information for all of those papers?!?" Hmmm--maybe this old girl isn't so far behind the times!! :)

Summer Quest: Google Docs

As a librarian and a National Board Certified Teacher, I work hard to find ways to maximize classroom learning for my students and my teachers. For the most part, and under the circumstances, I believe that I have been successful to achieve the majority of my professional goals.

In addition to professional goals, I also set personal goals for myself. For example, a few years ago when I realized that I was not keeping up with web2.0 technology, I involved myself in a summer quest to experience "23 Things" for librarians. I had already started this blog after seeing and enjoying a fellow librarian's efforts. I also enjoyed playing with photo editing tools, such as Picnik and PhotoFunia. I was well acquainted with Windows Office tools and utilized Google Reader. During that summer, I established a Delicious account which I continue to use today (although I'm still working on fine-tuning my tagging!). I joined some wikis and established one for my own use (but have not really developed.) I follow Twitter and established a presence on Facebook. So I've made gains in this web2.0 world.

Although I have played around with Google docs and used them with a professional committee for a virtual meeting, I have not utilized them for my personal benefit. So understanding and using Google docs has become my summer quest. Although many people will find this goal dated and off the cutting edge in edtech applications, I think that Google docs might be a way to assist me as I serve three sites and need to access my files in those locations as well as at home.

So, here I go and I'll be sharing tidbits that especially catch my eye along the way. Please feel free to join me and comment on aspects of Google docs that you think would helpful to me!!