CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-06-04 14:12:58 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

iPad (and other tablets) tripod mount designed and marketed by middle-school students under the guidance of +Warren Apel at the International School of Amsterdam.

2013-05-29 23:42:49 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Andrew's project on Burlington County, NJ.

2013-05-29 23:46:27 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

2013-05-23 03:29:34 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Applications are open for the next Google Teacher Academy in Chicago on July 24-25! Apply by June 10. #gtachi  

2013-05-23 02:29:18 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Since the new interface update, I can't find the option to uninvite someone from the community who has not accepted an invitation yet.  The option is on the iPad app, and I'm pretty sure I remember it being in the desktop/web version before.  

When I click the member options drop down for someone listed in the "Invited" section of the member list using the web interface, the only option I get is ban.  However, on the iPad app, I have Cancel Invitation.  

Unfortunately, the iPad app will only show me the first few invited members so I can't easily remove a bunch of people who I'm not sure how they got invited.  (I recently added some moderators to the community in question for which I'm the owner so maybe some new made a mistake.

On the web app, I can ban them then remove them from the ban list, but that's extra work.  Also, if I dothat wi... more »

2013-05-10 19:18:29 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Google Drive outage is real for some users, but not all.  For example, I can access Google Drive on my Apps for Ed account, but some other users on my domain can not.  I can not access Drive using my personal gmail account.

Google has now acknowledge the problem, which seems to have started around 2:45 PM Eastern, on their Google Apps Status Dashboard - http://www.google.com/appsstatus#hl=en&v=status&ts=1368211839088

If past experience is a reliable indicator, Google will restore service in less than an hour.

Below is one of many online articles reporting this so while not affecting everyone it is widespread enough to get a lot of attention.

2013-05-10 19:29:37 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 1 +1s)

The sample size is very small, but the methodology on this research project seems good. The results showed no significant difference in the typing speed of grade 3 to 5 students between using a computer keyboard and an iPad virtual keyboard.

One of the comments brings up an interesting point that among people who don't touch type, the keyboard being part of the screen requires less looking back and forth between keyboard and content, which might be an advantage for the virtual iPad keyboard.

2013-05-07 19:53:33 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Here is a list of potential PD opportunities I'm creating for our middle-school faculty who will be teaching students participating in our digitally supported learning initiative using iPads.  We are located on the east coast of the US right outside of NYC so the geographic focus is primarily in that area although folks might travel for a really great opportunity.

The list is incomplete and only includes June and July at the moment. I plan to add more later for August through December 2013.  If anyone has any suggestions, please comment back. Thanks.

#ipad   #education   #1to1

2013-04-24 16:14:30 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Four things I agree educators should do to help even a classroom full of "digital natives", which is a term I'm not fond of because some people use it as a way to excuse not teaching kids when they use technology:
give students high-quality examples,
provide students with the necessary thinking tools,
teach them how to learn socially and share, and
introduce them to new apps for learning.

#ipad   #education   #1to1  

2013-04-18 15:30:00 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Google Apps Script and SQL
As I learn more about Google Apps Script I continue to imagine more possibilities   I suspect it has been available for quite a while, but I just discovered that Google Apps Script supports the ability to read and write MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server databases via JDBC support. It is documented here: https://developers.google.com/apps-script/jdbc

Apps Script is JavaScript that runs in the cloud as opposed to the browser.  One downside is because the JavaScript runs on Google servers, access through a firewall to a target local SQL database server is necessary from a group of Google owned IP addresses (https://developers.google.com/apps-script/jdbc#accessing_local_databases)

My school's asset management, repair work-flow, purchasing, and trouble-tickets for our 1:1 program are all stored in a locally built mySQL database accessed bya lot of c... more »

2013-04-18 13:02:34 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

I like this quote from a blog post by +Catlin Tucker about the difference between technology literacy and fluency:

"Technology literate students are perfectly capable of using tech tools. They know how to use them and what to do with them. In contrast, students who are tech fluent know when to use a tool to achieve a desired outcome, and why that tool is the best tool to get a particular job done."

I've never been a big fan of the digital native vs digital immigrant terminology as it encourages some people to take an overly simplistic view that students learn how to use technology on their own and don't really need to be taught much related to good tech use. Using Caitlin's terminology, I would say many kids are technology literate but teachers have an obligation to help them become technology fluent by providing guided opportunities.

However, onthe LM... more »

2013-04-17 13:23:50 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 0 +1s)

Google services down - sort of
According to the Google Apps Status Dashboard (http://www.google.com/appsstatus) "Admin control panel / API" is experiencing and issue (time stampted 8:20 AM Eastern on Apr 17).  We are an Apps for Education school that uses Single Sign-On to login to Google services.  What that means for us is that users who are already logged in to Google services (including our big three - Mail, Calendar, and Drive) seem to be using the service fine.  (iOS and Android tablet users also seem to be ok since the apps are already logged in.)

However, anyone who is not already logged in is getting a Google Apps server error. My personal gmail.com account is logging in correctly so this seems limited to custom domains from the limited testing I can do.

Is anyone else with a custom domain and NOT using single sign-on experiencing this issue?
... more »

2013-04-01 00:00:44 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

This song reminds me why parenting is my most important job.

2013-03-27 15:45:51 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 0 +1s)

The following challenges from the list (in no particular order) caught my attention:
* Faculty training still does not acknowledge the fact that digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key skill in every discipline and profession.

* K-12 must address the increased blending of formal and informal learning.

* Ongoing professional development needs to be valued and integrated into the culture of the schools.

* Too often it is education’s own processes and practices that limit broader uptake of new technologies.

* We are not using digital media for formative assessment the way we could and should.

2013-03-22 13:15:03 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 0 +1s)

This study of 5th graders using the iPad App Motion Math HD showed improvement in test scores intended to measure improvement in the ability to estimate fractions. Motion Math HD is $2.99 in the App Store and is reported to have been developed at the Stanford School of Education.  The game publisher Motion Math also has a few other math learning games for elementary students. Some of them have free "lite" versions.

2013-03-21 19:34:10 (8 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

I'm really excited about sharing with the teachers I support how they can use  gClassFolders and Doctopus together now through gClassHub.  I've been promoting both tools separately since before the versions that work together.  Thanks +Andrew Stillman and +Bjorn Behrendt for collaborating on this!

So, since I don't teach a class of kids this semester, I've been piloting the use of gClassFolders v2 myself with a small group of teachers and administrators with who I'm meeting weekly for PD purposes. I setup folders using this group as "students" a couple of weeks ago without a hitch.  Went to create a Doctopus document today and when I use "Get gClassHub URL" from the gClassFolders menu in my gClassFolders dashboard spreadsheet, I get the error:
Couldn't open document with id t2lBh2G7r6IpuY_UFok-aKQ: You do not have permissions to access therequest... more »

2013-03-22 01:06:49 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Great story shared by Google Engineer +Neil Fraser about Computer Science instruction at Vietnamese school. It also highlights problems with CS education in the US.

Also, check out the Blockly Maze game Neil wrote for the school. It is a "self-teaching set of tutorials that introduces loops and conditionals". Seems like good way for students to think about and experience a little CS and programming in only a class period or two.  I just recommended it to a few of my colleagues.  Thanks Neil!

By the way, it mostly works on an #ipad too.  (Levels 1-9 seem to work fine on the iPad, but level 10 doesn't show the programming blocks when you select a library.)  That's good enough to get through all the the instructional learn-by-doing stuff.

2013-03-19 20:42:29 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 0 +1s)

With the excitement (some genuine and some hype) about using iPads in K12 education for the past couple of years, thinking about how tablet apps fit into Bloom's Taxonomy is a good idea for teachers and teacher coaches/trainers. This post from +Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano is not a bad place to start for iOS. The article is about two years old so a few of the apps may be less relevant (i.e. Posterous, which is shutting down in April, and GoDocs, which was more important when Google iOS Drive client was less functional).  However, I still see a lot of good choices listed.

An update to the article posted about a year ago yielded a comment [1] with a link to a similar Android chart by James Wassmer who appears to have been an ed tech graduate student at the time - http://www.livesincontext.org/google-apps-blooms-taxonomy.html

Also, here's an article by +Med kharbach that givesa litt... more »

2013-03-14 17:21:53 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

I choose Feedly to replace Google Reader

Google Reader is going away July 1st

I've been looking for a Google Reader replacement since yesterday's announcement.  After trying several, I found that I liked Feedly the best, but there was no automatic way to bring my Google Reader Feeds across.  Today's announcement that Feedly will auto transition Google Reader removes that complaint.

I had a small problem with Google Alerts not working the way I expected them to.  In other words they didn't go over automatically to Feedly.  I changed them to feeds and they started showing up.

I'm going to keep testing in the next couple of weeks and let folks know when I find other problems and solutions.

Note: I am not associated with Feedly in any way.

2013-03-12 12:36:02 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

This isn't breaking news (7 weeks old), but in case you missed it. Google Slides (Google's Powerpoint replacement) can now be shown and EDITED while offline (aka no Internet connection). All you need to do is use the Chrome browser (my favorite browser anyway, and I'm far from unique in that opinion now) and enable offline editing. (A link to the instructions for that is in the article.)

If you haven't given Google Slides a try especially if you are creating a presentation with someone else, I highly recommend it. The ability to work on the slide deck simultaneously on two (or more) different computers is great.

Now pretty much the only reason I need to fire up MS Office (and wait for it finishing loading) is when I need to edit a spreadsheet offline. However, check the last line of the article. Offline spreadsheet editing is officially a work in progress too!more »

2013-02-18 16:31:31 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

This is old news, but I still see a lot of misinformation about.  Does everyone know that Google reversed it's decision (based on user feedback) and that Appointment Slots will STAY for Apps for EDU and Business?

2013-02-16 04:29:31 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

+Andrew Stillman and I have finished gClassFolders version 2 with many new features including a teacher mode and school mode, bulk operations on users and a gClassHub which integrates Doctopus and AutoCrat.  

I want to first say a very big Thank You to Andrew as he has invested many hours into the version 2.

We are looking for serious testers at this point.  The script can be accessed by going here: http://www.gclassfolders.com/

2013-02-07 15:27:17 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Why I Unblocked Social Media Sites - My latest post covers my reasoning for unblocking social media sites in our district.

2013-01-31 06:43:32 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Two NY/NJ/PA Independent School EdTech PD opportunities (and an edACCESS commercial!)
Two professional development opportunities just reappeared on my radar while I was following up on today's #neit13  (neit.wikispaces.com) information and catching up on back email.

NYSAIS Teaching With Technology (TWT) Conference in NYC on Feb 20 - http://www.nysais.org/page.cfm?id=1161&verbose=3345

edCampIS  (IS = Independent School) in Philly on March 2 - http://edcampis.org/

TWT looks to be packed with great hands-on workshops (four time slots per attendee) led by classroom teachers, and I hear it fills up quickly.

edCampIS is an unconference designed for independent school teachers. For those unfamiliar with the unconference model, the basic idea is that everyone shows up for a start of day gathering, anyone who wants to offer apresentation, d... more »

2013-01-22 21:17:11 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

2013-01-21 14:44:40 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

2013-01-16 15:57:35 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

+Google Drive Presentation keeps going offline while I'm working on one this morning in Chrome on a Windows 7 computer.  This reliably happens every time I try to change the font size.

Anyone else having a similar problems?

I have a Google word processing document open in another tab at the same time and it is working fine.

2013-01-11 04:22:43 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Announcing iCon 2013 at Marshall Simonds Middle School on March 22-23  and accepting session proposals. Cost: FREE

2013-01-04 16:26:38 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 0 +1s)

(another) infographic helping the uninitiated to understand (and follow) Creative Commons licenses

2013-01-02 16:23:02 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Here is my project for 2013. I am working on a page with 100 Chrome OS / Chromebook tips. (not just Chrome)

Many of you have already helped me get there, the 34 tips I collected so far. So, thank you!

Now, take a look at them and let me know if you  have more tips to add. Drop a comment on the page, or here :-)

2012-12-13 03:15:15 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

While I've thought the +Livescribe smartpen was interesting, I never though it practical in a student 1:1 computing environment because of the need to connect it to a dock connected to a computer to access the electronic version of the notes.  The new Sky wireless smartpen from Livescribe seems to take care of that issue: Watch how the Sky™ wifi smartpen works

The integration with Evernote for an automatic, wireless sync of notes is promising too: Livescribe Sky Wifi Smartpen Evernote basics
Now it seems the notes are easily available on any platform supported by Evernote.  (At least, I'm hoping the mobile version of Evernote also support accessing the audio and pencasts. The videos seem to suggest that.

I am curious about the battery life though.  Constant syncing via wireless seems like it might draw down the battery quickly especially if coupled withrecording ... more »

2012-12-07 14:11:49 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

The ELD13 Planning Committees are please to announce that the Call for Proposals is now open.

You can find submission information by clicking the CALL FOR PROPOSALS tab in the top navigation bar of our web site at http://eld.montclair.edu/
or by going to http://eld.montclair.edu/call-for-proposals/

ELD13 will be employing a ROLLING SUBMISSION ACCEPTANCE process, which is described in detail on the Call for Proposals page. This means that we are receiving and will be accepting submissions for the conference effective IMMEDIATELY. To that end, there is no DEADLINE date for submissions – once we have filled the conference schedule we will no longer be accepting proposals. Therefore, it is important that you submit your proposal as soon as possible.

2012-12-06 02:32:42 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

New version of Gmail released yesterday for IOS. It now supports multiple Gmail accounts without having to sign out and sign in so I can easily access both my work and personal gmail accounts. Yay! Now I can stop using the default iPad mail app, which isn't great for gmail.

#ipad #gmail

2012-12-05 18:50:44 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

I'm discussing the idea of digital textbooks with a group of teachers tomorrow.  Therefore, I'm looking for a good example of an iBooks middle-school text (for any discipline).  By good I mean something that makes good use of the iPad platform by incorporating simulations or media in a useful way as opposed to just a digital copy of something that would be basically the same on paper.  This doesn't have to be free. Recommendations appreciated.

#ipad   #ibooks   #ebooks  

2012-11-30 14:48:29 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Game-based history instruction for 6th grader -- not video game related.

#gamebasedlearning   #middleschool   #history  

+Benjamin Fleisher 

HT +Samantha Morra 

2012-11-27 14:32:29 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

How Much Tech Is Too Much for Kids - WNYC's New Tech City
This morning's brief New Tech City segment Is Tech Good for Kids on +WNYC+  is interesting. Host Manoush Zomorodi interviewed Dr. Ari Brown +Ari who is the lead author of the +American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) study on media's effect on children.  The short segment on this topic is about 4 minutes. There is also a link to the full,13 minute interview with Dr. Brown.[1]

Dr. Brown (and the AAP) recommends that children under two be completely screen-free [2] and that older children be limited to two hours of screen time (TV and computer) each day. Children spending significant amount of screen time were found to have negative health and developmental effects.  Dr. Brown mentioned that one of the biggest effects is the impact on sleep and also recommended that phones and related devices should "go tobed&... more »

2012-11-26 18:30:37 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

While there is no breaking news here, this is a nice collection of short articles on some of the more popular topics related to computer technology and the business of #education .

2012-11-22 20:47:01 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

Good, quick introduction to using iMovie on the iPad.

One commenter noted that the list of songs that shows up when demonstrating using iTunes audio might make some teachers uncomfortable using this tutorial with students.

2012-11-19 15:37:55 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

I'm glad to hear that access to Google+ is now possible on K12 Apps for Ed domains if the domain admin enables it -- 
http://googleappsupdates.blogspot.com/2012/11/google-available-for-education-and-new.html

One notable feature is that the limit for Hangouts has been raised from 10 to 15 -- http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2012/11/larger-hangouts-in-google-for.html
Although not quite enough to host an entire class, maybe it would suffice for optional online review sessions that some teachers here have hosted in the past. Maybe coupling that with Hangouts on Air is workable if more than 14 students show up for a session although I'd like to see Hangout on Air have a better way to chat/post questions.  Posting the the comment thread for the Hangout is a bit of a kludge when a page refresh is required to update the  thread. I wonder if Google chat will become something thatco... more »

2012-11-08 18:23:50 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Interesting info-graphic on #TED  

I like the bit about the BBC rejecting a TED TV pitch six years ago because it was "too intellectual".

2012-11-06 14:18:57 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Information from the National Association of School Psychologists on helping children after a natural disaster via our middle-school psychologist.

#sandy   #sandynj

2012-10-10 13:22:50 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Close reading and eBooks

"Phillips found that close reading activated unexpected areas: parts of the brain that are involved in movement and touch."

This might be quite a stretch but the following occurred to me while thinking about this NPR story in the context of the debate between when to use electronic books or paper books in school.

So would using a reading device that operates by touch for annotation fit better with close reading than a paper book and a pen? (The best example of this I can think of at the moment is using +Subtext on the iPad although it is not quite there yet as a way to do the same kind of annotation currently taught to 6th grade students at my school.)

This also seems consistent with the instructions I heard given to students during a workshop introducing annotation. The teachers suggested sitting at a table or desk while... more »

2012-09-28 13:09:41 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 0 +1s)

While I think this is little harsh on Blackboard, I did laugh out loud when I read it.  Also, the following quote sums up my intuition about why a change from Blackboard makes sense (in addition to Blackboard's high cost), why it is wise to look to a replacement product with less of a legacy, and why Moodle is probably not a frontrunner.

"My thumbnail impression of Moodle/Moodlerooms is that it is the CMS Blackboard could have been if the company had decided to commit to developing it rather than patching it repeatedly. But fundamentally, Moodle is a better Blackboard rather than something different"

I don't have a complete definition of what I'd like to see for the something different but better facilitation of student-centered teaching seems wise when picking a product that will be used for the next 5 to 10 years.  (We've had Blackboard for about 10y... more »

2012-09-27 19:55:47 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Many (probably all) users on-campus we unable to access Google services via port 443/https using +Google Chrome, but Firefox, IE and Safari are working fine. Taking our iPrism web filter offline seemed to address that problem, but that is not a solution.  Google apparently pushed out a new version (22) of Chrome on Tuesday that included a large number of security fixes. (http://www.pcworld.com/article/2010604/chrome-browser-gets-tuned-for-gaming.html). Campus was closed on Wednesday so the problem not cropping up until today makes sense. Sounds like the new version of Chrome and our web filter are not playing well together.  Our talented network manager is on it.  Until then, using Firefox instead of Chrome to access Google services is the workaround.

2012-09-25 19:56:45 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

I don't know if these are the absolute best of everything available, but there seem to be a few useful extensions on the list.

2012-09-20 10:45:10 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Inspired, at least partially, by an Alfie Cohn presentation and follow-up faculty discussions, a high-school teacher of English and History is pursuing a semester of eliminating assessment grades. Students will partner with him to determine report card grades via self-reflection and private student/teacher conferences.

2012-09-14 14:09:47 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Just spent some time learning about and experimenting with the Docopus Google Apps Script by +Andrew Stillman to meet a need raised by a teacher I support.  Looks like it will fit the bill quite nicely, and I'll be working with the teacher on it later today.  The script expedites setting up shared Google Docs for use with students and provides a mechanism for more easily monitoring and providing feedback. 

Thanks Andrew!

#googleappsscript   #education   #teaching   #googleapps  

2012-09-06 16:07:59 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Every time I get a PDF attachment in Gmail, I'm thinking why can't I just save it to Google Drive/Docs without downloading it first.  The article has a  couple of options.  I just installed the Chrome extension "Gmail Attachments to Drive" so I can give it at try today.

2012-08-31 22:57:39 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Last and (first) trip to Six Flags Wild Safari this morning before it changes from a self-guided drive-thru. The giraffes were a highlight.

2012-08-12 07:49:00 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Many K-12 schools would benefit too if Apple followed these recommendations.