Tag: google

10 Google Forms For the Classroom

0
August 26, 2010
by Mark

google_docs_logo.jpg

I must admit that, even though I have had an account for a while, I have only just really started to utilise GoogleDocs.

I’ve found it to be a tool that I can start to build on and use; it’s also a great way to share live documents with colleagues or students. That’s why I was excited to come across this article from Tom Barrett explaining ten Google based documents that designed for use in the classroom. I suggest that they be good starting points for integrating (I hate to say it) the power of Google into your class setting. The ten forms are;

  1. Get to know your class
  2. Emotion graph
  3. Spelling test
  4. Comprehension questions
  5. Weekly Reading Record
  6. Maths data handling
  7. Guided Reading Record
  8. Prior Learning Assessment
  9. Library Book Review
  10. Learning Success

Get your own copies from the article, which can be found here.

Popularity: 7% [?]

: Resources, Tools
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50 Really Cool Online Tools for Science Teachers

0
July 15, 2010
by Mark

Picture 2.jpgEducation is certainly taking its place amongst the realms of the internet. From classroom blogs to fully fledged courses, it’s not just a place for school’s to advertise their wares. One place that allows participants to complete courses via cyberspace is Online Degree Programs. Here’s something from their ‘About Page’

If you are considering going back to school and don’t have the time for a traditional campus life, or if you just desire your education delivered in a different format than in overcrowded lecture halls, then online education is the solution for you. Online Degree Programs is here to help you achieve your higher education goals by sorting through the best schools with the best online programs so you don’t have to.

With everything from entertainment to communication to business going online, it is only natural that education follow suit. Online education is just the thing to bring many people back into higher education, especially those with demanding schedules that do not fit into rigid classroom presence requirements.

However, it’s not just students that they attract or target. Online Degree Programs also have features for educators. One nice resource that they have for Science Teachers is a compilation of 50 online tools. Divided into categories they cover;

  • Science tools to use with students
  • AP tools
  • Websites and resources for Science Teachers
  • Calculators
  • Online Games
  • Google Earth

You can find the complete listing here, as well as a short paragraph of each of the tools offered. A terrific resource, and one that should be shared amongst science faculties of both elementary and secondary schools.

Popularity: 5% [?]

: Resources
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Searching? Try Goofram

0
May 19, 2010
by Mark

Picture 1.jpgNow this is a great idea. And I like great ideas. Goofram, besides sounding rather obscure is actually a website that allows you to search Google.com and WolframAlpha.com at the same time.   

My search for “US Presidents” yielded the screen screen, where Google results were on the left, while WA results were on the right.

Picture 2.jpg

For younger students searching on topics, there will be the issue of disseminating the information and working out what is best for their needs, however this is a great tool in allowing information and links appear. For more on Wolfram Alpha, I recommend this article at Wikipedia that covers the nature of this very impressive website resource. You can also click ‘More’ on the WA toolbar at the top and then follow the ‘New To Wolfram Alpha’ link to try first hand some things that Wolfram can do.

Popularity: 8% [?]

: Resources
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Six New Apps from Google

0
December 9, 2009
by Mark

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Google just launched six new utilities for users. I won’t go into big details here but will instead link to two articles at ReadWriteWeb.com  

The first article talks about five tools

1. Near Instant Voice Translation

2. Customized suggest based on Location

3. Google product search combined with Inventory Feeds from Local Retailers

4. Near Me Now

5. Google Goggles

The second article contains news, links and video about the Real Time Search.

Well worth your time to investigate what these new technologies could mean for you, your students and your classroom.

Popularity: 6% [?]

: Resources
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Google Wave Cheat Sheet

7
December 7, 2009
by Mark

I take no credit for this.  I came across these little ‘helps’ from ChurchTechMatters and thought it was too important for Wave users to not post.  So with all credit to their writers here’s a very comprehensive list of cheats for navigating Google Wave.

If you would like to download this as a friendly PDF file for handy-dandy reference, here’s the link. Google Wave Cheat Sheet -PDF

———–

Search Cheat Sheet

This is a quick guide to the operators and restricts supported by wave search.

Keywords

about:[keyword] — finds waves which have [keyword] occurring anywhere. Same as [keyword].
title:[keyword] — finds waves which have [keyword] in the title.
caption:[keyword] — finds waves which have an attachment where [keyword] occurs in the caption.
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Status

is:read — finds all read waves.
is:unread — finds all unread waves.
Note: you cannot currently do a search like “-is:read” by itself and get reliable results due to an outstanding restriction on megastore queries

is:mute — finds all muted waves.
is:unmute — finds all waves not muted
is:active — currently the same as is:unread.
is:note — finds all waves which have you as the only participant and contributor
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Participants

from:[address] — finds waves from the participant identified by the address. Special case of from:me identifying waves from yourself.
by:[address] — same as from:[address].
to:[address] — find waves which are a dialogue between you and the participant identified by the address.
with:[address] — find waves that have the participant identified by the given address explicitly listed.
owner:[address] — find waves by person, that they created.
only:[address] — finds waves to which only the participant specified by the given address contributed.
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Date Search

Currently, there are a few restricts:

past:[date term] — finds all waves in the last period.
previous:[date term] — finds all waves in the period before the last period.
before:[date term] — finds all waves before a certain period.
after:[date term] — finds all waves after a certain period.
which can be combined with date terms:

day
week
month
year
So you can have past:week, past:year. There is also support for

past:N[date term] where N > 0. So you can have past:3days (today, yesterday, the day before yesterday).
Also you can have

past:Ndays
past:Nweeks
past:Nmonths
past:Nyears
Finally, you can abbreviate days, weeks, months and years to a single letter (d, w, m, y). Thus you can write

past:3d
past:2w
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Folders

in:[folder name] — find waves in the folder with the given name. For example, in:inbox.
in:[search name] — find waves in the saved search with the given name.
is:unfiled — find waves which have not been moved to a user folder.
is:filed — find waves which belong to some user folder.
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Attachments

has:attachment — finds waves with an attachment. This changed from “is:image”.
has:document — finds waves with an attachment which is a document. (coming soon)
has:image — finds waves with an attachments which is an image. (coming soon)
caption:[keyword] — finds waves with an attachment with caption containing [keyword].
filename:[keyword] — finds waves with an attachment with filename containing [keyword]. (coming soon)
mimetype:[keyword] — finds waves with an attachment with mimetype containing [keyword]. (coming soon)
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Tags

tag:[tag name] — finds waves with the tag [tag name].
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Gadgets

has:gadget — finds waves which contain a gadget.
gadget:[keyword] — finds waves which contain a gadget with name containing keywords. e.g. chess, fridge, map, risk, sokoban.
gadgeturl:[keyword] — finds waves which contain a gadget with urls containing keyword.
gadgettitle:[keyword] — finds waves which contain a gadget with a title containing keywords.
————————————————

Expressions

foo & bar — match waves with foo and bar.
You can use AND, or skip the operator altogether, as the logical and is the default.
foo | bar — match waves with foo or bar (or both).
foo OR bar — match waves with foo or bar (or both).
-foo — match waves that do not contain foo. (There is an outstanding bug that causes searches with only negative terms to fail. To get around it, use to:me -foo)
“foo … bar” — matches waves that contain the exact phrase “foo … bar” (There is an outstanding bug for live search not working with phrases)
foo & (bar | -baz) — matches waves that contain foo and either bar or do not contain baz.
————————————————

Phrases

“[multiple terms]” — match waves with one or more terms in sequence:
“hot dog” catches waves with the terms hot and dog in sequence. This is also required for other operators such as in:”new inbox” where say “new inbox” is a saved search.
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XML Search

tags:subtag — find all waves which have this combination.
tag:[tag] — find all waves which have this .
attribute:[value keyword] — finds all waves which have < …. attribute=value …> where keyword is a token in value.
————————————————

Wave ID

id:”” — find a wave with a specific wave id.
————————————————

Zero Inbox

If you want to zero inbox, you can hack this temporarily by saving a search “my inbox” with the query:

in:inbox is:unread this:week. You can then use the menu option “Mark as read” in the wave panel.
Alternative zero inbox: in:inbox is:unread past:7days -is:mail
————————————————

Saved Searches

A search can be saved using one of two methods:

Create a search in the search box and then press the Save search button at the bottom of the Digest panel.
Add a search using the searches Add button on the Navigation panel. Then add the search query and name of the search in the Saved Search popup panel.
Saved searches can be edited and managed using the pop-up menu which shows when hovering over the saved search in the searches section of the Navigation panel.
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Filters

Filters are saved searches which also have an action to apply to all waves which match the saved search. The actions supported are

skip inbox – removes the wave from inbox. Whilst this wave continues to match the search, it will continue to stay out of the inbox. Skip inbox will shortly be renamed archive.
mark as read – Whilst the wave continues to match the search, it will be marked as read.
————————————————

Folders

You can add a folder by using the Add button on the folders section of the Navigation panel. A folder is added by typing the folder name in the text box given and hitting enter.

Folders can be managed using the pop-up menu that shows when hovering over the folder on the Navigation panel.

Add folder – A subfolder can be added under the current folder.
Rename – rename the current folder.
Delete – delete the current folder.

Popularity: 100% [?]

: Resources
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Twurdy – Searching the Web for Readable Results

3
October 8, 2009
by Mark

Application: Twurdy

Twurdy Header

I’m all for the internet and searching. I am however, a little over Google’s hold on the search engine market. But I do understand the reasons that it is. But I think what frustrates me the most is that the kids I teach (Grade 4) think that it will solve all their needs for knowledge. The really frustrating thing is that when they are researching a topic it’s hard for them to decipher the information presented to them after their search results appear. I’ve had everything from inappropriate content to University grade papers. Not easy for 9 year olds. Enter a new search engine application – Twurdy. Their aim is clearly stated;

Twurdy’s goal is to provide web searchers with information that is most appropriate for them. This will mean that 10 year olds doing school assignments don’t have to click through difficult material to find something they can use. It will also mean that phd students do not have to click through websites designed for kids in order to find what they are looking for.

Twurdy is a search engine (yes, results are through Google) but…it assesses the readability of the page; great for younger students. It is in Beta mode at the moment but seems to be working fairly well. There’s no advertisements (however it’s free) and the page is very easy to navigate with colour coded results. My students have an assignment coming up later this term so I will be keen to see whether this helps them.

Has anyone got similar resources or used it practically in the classroom themselves?

Popularity: 3% [?]

: Resources
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Earth Album

0
October 5, 2009
by Mark

Application: Earth Album

Came across this little gem of a site late last week. Earth Album is no fuss mashup site that is low on the pretty graphics (the header is a plain text image) but high on the content. And it works well too. Using Flickr, it’s a world map that integrates with the photos tagged in certain areas. A very good thing if you are teaching geography. There’s also a CoolIris plug-in for those who are using Firefox or Flock.

Earth album is a simpler, slicker Flickr mash-up that allows you to explore some of the most stunning photos in the world courtesy of Google maps and Flickr. To begin your journey, just click somewhere on the map, e.g. “India”. Note– since the top Flickr images are used, the images change every few weeks; bookmark this site and check back for a different experience in a month!

There are a few ways of navigation. You can click on any country or place around the world and 12 images will appear. Below is the screen that appeared when I clicked on Australia.

sydney.jpg

Clicking on any one of those images will then display a more detailed photo and information window as shown. Clicking on the hyperlink will take you to the image on Flickr

sandydesert.jpg

The other option of navigation appears in the top menu bar (shown below) labelled ‘Jump to’ of which the web author writes;

earthalbummenubar.jpg

I placed the “Jump to place” bar in the upper right-hand corner of the page. You can type in pretty much any kind of address in the bar; it uses Google’s reverse-geolocation functionality to jump you to the right place in the world. For example, you can type anything from “Egypt” to “Hawaii” to “Sydney” to a particular address in the world. Based on what you type, it will try to guess whether what you typed is a country or a city and jump you to that place automatically.

I typed in my home town of Melbourne there and got this enhanced view of Victoria. As you can see there’s still some issues of relevancy (I’m not sure Melbourne = Cat), bit I do like that 9 of 10 it’s pretty close.

melbourneearthalbum.jpg

Classroom Use: Teachers of geography will see an immediate use for this in their lessons, particularly with an Interactive Whiteboard. Alternatively, any lesson on location or countries of the world will benefit from this site, as will students of all levels doing a project on a particular local. I’m impressed with the way the site narrows in on a location, very good for a student perspective of who they are in the world – especially with the more junior levels.

Popularity: 10% [?]

: IWBs
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How to Create your own Student Friendly Search Engine

1
September 14, 2009
by Mark

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I’d like to point you in the direction of an article that describes how you can make your own search engine in Google. This has been something I’ve always wondered about but it’s nice to find that it can be done, and a link on how it can be achieved.

Alix Peshette has written an extensive blog post (with pictures to navigate) describing how you can create a search engine that will only allow students to search certain websites. A certain help for those teachers who have done research with students and found the open waters of the internet just a bit too distracting.

Thanks Alix for the post.

Popularity: 4% [?]

: Resources, Tools, Web2.0
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