North Idaho EdTech

I've often been asked about an easy way to share out documents that students have worked on in Google Classroom to a whole class for peer reviews, product showcases, virtual gallery walks, etc. without having students share directly with each other or the teacher having to manually share them out student by student. So, here's a way to do this en masse for an entire class worth of documents/files. Start with an assignment that students have already completed in Google Classroom. It won't matter if they've turned them in or not (or if you've returned them or not). Create a new assignment that will share out all of the documents to the entire class. Select all of the documents at one time from the Google Drive attachment icon by holding down the Ctrl button (Command on a Mac) while you select each document to share. Be sure to give specific instructions on what  the students are to do with each other's work once it is shared out. It should be clear how...

So, It's been a long time since my last post. I had a busy summer and the start of this school year has been the busiest that I can remember, which makes things go quickly. But in the spirit of the split lives that teachers live, here is a quick guide on using Chrome profiles to manage the important separation that teachers work to maintain between home and school. Why use Chrome Profiles? Chrome allows a user to create separate browser profiles for each google account. This allows users to keep work, school, and/or personal accounts all separate, but still use them at the same time. They will operate independently with their own settings, bookmarks, extensions and more.  In other words, there is no need to switch between accounts anymore – all of them can be open at the same time. *In addition, Add-Ons in Google Drive work better when profiles are kept separate (like Goobric). Set Up Profiles: Sign in, or see who is signed into Chrome: When Google Chrome is first o...

It's been a while since I posted, especially about Google Classroom updates. The team at Google Classroom has been busy and super responsive to feedback from its user community. Since the last time I wrote about it, they've made a bunch of changes. I just wanted to highlight the ones that I think make the most impact on teachers in my district, I've created the list below: Mobile app updates: Add/Edit assignments - This is big for users who want to be able to manage their Classroom pages from anywhere. Grade student work - This is also great for teachers who like to work via mobile devices or in our 1:1 iPad classrooms. Take a photo to post to the stream or on assignments - This also great for our mobile teachers who want to share products from other students, class notes, or anything else out to the class right from their mobile device. Add other teachers as co-teachers. Not only has the Classroom team worked on making it more mobile friendly, but they've d...

I prepared this Forms walk-through as a source for teachers in my district to learn the basic use of Google Forms. Please feel free to use and share it as you need.

Well, it seems as though the folks behind Google Classroom have been listening and making improvements as we get into the start of the second half of the school year. Wednesday of this week, Google announced the newest updates to Classroom , which include a new iOS and Android app. Today, though, I'm going to specifically mention the things that they've done to boost the teacher experience in Classroom. Assignments for Teachers: In the student version of Classroom, there is an option for students to view all of the pending assignments that they have for all of their classes. For the teacher, however, we used to have to go to each class to see what assignments are pending and how many students have completed them. Now, we have our own Assignments section (actually two of them...one for our teaching classes and one for the classes that we are enrolled in as students). Here, we get to see all the pending assignments for all of our classes and the number of students who have...

One of the many aspects of Google Drive that I enjoy is that they keep track of the history of all of my revisions on Google files. However, I stumbled upon a way (while watching Google's The Apps Show ) that I can also keep track of my non-Google file revisions without having multiple copies of that document in my Drive. I like this because it helps with people who may not want to switch over to Google's document editing and still want to easily manage their drafts of Office documents or PDFs. Here's how to make this happen: Go to your Google Drive  Select the file that is not a Google file Click the menu button (also known as the actions button) or right click Choose "Manage Versions" Here you can see a list of all the versions of that document as well as Upload new versions Delete old versions Download a version (doesn't have to be the current one) Permanently save an older version (Google drive only keeps older versions for 30 days or the ...

Google has responded to may of our user feedback submissions and has updated Classroom with some very handy options. While I'm sure there are still many things that we'd all like to see, it's nice to see some response to many of our requests. Here is my explanation of the changes: Teachers can now control what students are able to do on the Stream. Teachers can allow full access, comment only access or make it so students cannot post at all on the Stream. This is available in the Student section for the teacher. Teachers can also "mute" individual students who may need to be restricted from making comments for one reason or another. This can be done in the Stream on a specific student's comment or from the Actions menu in the Student section. Also in the Student section in Classroom, teachers can now sort the class names by last name or first name. In the Assignments section, teachers can now download grades by each assignment or downloa...

As the school year begins this year, there is much buzz about the new classroom management suite from Google called Classroom. I know I'm as excited about it as anyone could be! Being able to manage student work and your own teacher workflow without knowledge of scripts and Add-ons makes my life as an instructional technology specialist much easier. One of the really great features in Google docs, and how Google Classroom integrates that as part of the assignment work/submission process, is the "Suggesting" mode in docs. While a student is completing an assignment, the teacher has the ability to open student documents and make suggestions. This is very handy during editing and revising periods, before a paper would be turned in. When a teacher makes a suggestion, the student will see the suggestion and the parts that have been changed will show up with a strike-through (see screenshot above). Students can then compare their text with the suggestion and make a d...

One major topic that I've spent a lot of work time on the last few weeks is Digital Citizenship. I've been working on creating a course for students as well as a quick introduction for staff to bring these essential ideas into the forefront of our students' (and teachers') minds as we embark on the implementation of the Idaho Core. Part of my research has led me to an idea that I've taught my students in the past, and work with other teachers on using in the classroom, which is effective search skills with search engines. Whether a person is using Google, Yahoo, Bing, or any other search engine, knowing how to cipher through the list of results and find things that are relevant and useful can be a chore. One thing that I've found through my own searching and through suggestions by others (thanks  +Jeff Utecht /@jutecht and a reminder from a teacher in my district @117rocks) is A Google a Day . This search game can act as a great way to start a class or reinfor...

Previously, I posted about using the SAMR model, developed by Dr. Ruben R. Puentedura, founder of Hippasus, to work on purpose with technology use in the classroom. As I began reflecting, reading posts of others on the topic, as well as talking with practicing teachers in my district about the SAMR model, I realized that there needed to be more discussion around the practical use of the model. Below, I created a stream-of-consciousness line of thinking to show my thoughts. Once I started to really think about the SAMR model and how I would use it to develop professional development, I also started to think about how I could help teachers in my district realistically use the model to guide their own preparation and teaching. I came up with this thought pattern, which mimics some of the examples given by Dr. Puentedura in this slideshow . I am also drawing some ideas from an article in Education Week's Teacher Leader Network (TLN) by Jennie Magiera  and a blog post by Beth Holl...

One of the most handy functions in Google Drive is the sharing settings. This allows me to share any document that I own in my Google Drive with anyone that I want to who also has a Google Drive; but, sometimes I want to share a document with a wider audience (i.e., parents, community members, etc.). So how can I do this and still control how that document in viewed. One great option that is provided in Google Drive is the Publish option. This is available for documents that are part of the Google Apps family (i.e., documents, presentations, spreadsheets and drawings). When you do this, it creates a page where anyone can view your document, presentation, spreadsheet or drawing for informational purposes. This also makes a nice, web-friendly, version of your file that allows for easy embedding into your website, blog, or other online space. I really like to use this when I want students to create something that they are going to share on our website, blogs or wikis. Another reason f...