Google Docs for Grant Writing

I am working with two grant writing teams right now and using Google Docs for both. Using Google Docs to share the documents will make editing and collaborating so much easier and more efficient! The days of emailing ideas and attachments, then merging documents together are gone! Now, all the members of the team can work on their part from anywhere, at any time and add directly to the shared documents. We can easily distribute resources to the entire team just by uploading (or creating them) into the cloud (Google Docs) and sharing them. This makes organization for each individual easier too. All of your documents are in one place versus spread out through your email, computer hard drive and possibly flash drives. All you need is internet access, a Google account and a project and you are ready to go!

Step 1: Create your Google account (you just need an email address)
Click here to get started!
Step 2: Create a document to start your project
Step 3: Select your document, Click 'Share', then 'Invite People'. You can email invitations from here to anyone you would like to share your document with. You can choose if you want them to be able to edit your document or just view it. (Allowing them to edit will make it possible for multiple people to work on the same document, even at the same time!)
Step 4: Get to work on your project!

Google docs is great for working as a team or on your own. You can use it to back up files, organize and access from anywhere online. You can upload any file type now. Store your pictures, movies, PDFs, or any other file type in your own cloud space!

Benefits of using Google Docs: 

Create and share your work online

Upload from and save to your desktop

Edit anytime, from anywhere

Pick who can access your documents

Share changes in real time

Files are stored securely online

It's free 

Resources: Google Docs

iPod Touch for Teaching

I was fortunate enough to go to an iPod Touch training last week. It was fantastic! Not only was the actual training (SOITA-all the resources listed below are from the SOITA workshop) well worth my time but I also learned how helpful these little gadgets can be in education! Teachers can use them to teach, students can use them to learn and teams can use them to work together faster and more efficiently. There are a lot more options then I had first thought to enhance learning and teaching. Some are completely free and some cost a small amount of money. Here are just a few examples:

You Tube Educational Videos: Tired of getting blocked for appropriate, educational videos? Well, now you can convert a You Tube video to a file, save it in your iTunes library and push it out to your iPod (or your students' iPods). Once it is in your iTunes library and on your iPod you don't need internet access to view it. Students can view it from home or you can connect your iPod to a projector and play it for the class. Yes, that's right. You can connect your iPod touch to a projector.

Present with your iPod Touch: You just need the right cord and you can connect it to a projector to show your whole class, at a staff meeting, etc.

Podcasting: You can create your own podcasts for your students to listen to (try recording your lecture!)or download any of the existing podcasts for your topic. There are a ton of podcasts that are great for students are are free!

iTunes U: iTunes U is a free resource bank for educational videos and podcasts housed in the iTunes store. There are a TON of great resources there!

Books: You can download books right onto your iPod Touch (text and audio). There are several free audio book websites out there as well as places you can get free (or almost free) books in text form. Check out:
http://storynory.com/
http://librivox.org/
iTunes Store/Applications/Stanza App/Project Gutenberg

Student Response Systems: If you have wifi in your classrooms your students can use their iPod Touches to vote in answers to questions that you create. Check out:
http://www.polleverywhere.com/

Educational Applications: There are so many! To start, you can use your calculator app. The iPod Touch comes with a standard and scientific calculator. If you go to the iTunes Store and search Applications y0u will find countless options from flash cards, books, the periodic table, math formulas, and so much more!

Share Documents: You can download applications to share your files with other teachers and/or students over wifi. The application will give you a URL to go to where you can upload your files. From there, you can share the URL with anyone you want so they can go there and download the files.

The beauty of so much of the available content is that once you download it to your iPod, you can access it anywhere. You don't need internet access. This is great for those students who don't have internet at home.

Worried about security once your students take the iPod home? You can set restrictions and choose what a user has access to by password protecting individual functions/applications.

This is also a great tool to help you stay organized. You can sync your calendar and email, keep all of your notes in it and manage resources all from one device. There are many more wonderful features for this handy gadget. I just mentioned a few above to get you started. Good luck and have fun!

Google Apps-So many great features!

I attended a training at SOITA last week to learn about Google Apps (free programs from Google). There are so many apps to use and they are all free!

Here are a few of Google's most popular apps:

• Gmail: email with features that help you stay more organized
• Calendar: online calendar integrated with email
• Docs: save and share documents with others via 'the cloud' (save your docs online to be available from any computer online)
• Picasa: Picture management software
• iGoogle: customized home page
• Google Earth-satellite and street views of land and ocean-satellite views of solar system

Just a few highlights:
Calendar:
The Calendar lets you manage your events online. Plus, you can share your calendar with others and control what they are able to do. You can share everything, meaning they can add events. This is great if you are collaborating with other teachers (or family and friends for a personal calendar). You can also create multiple calendars (Personal, Work, etc) and choose which ones to make public or private and who you want to invite.

Docs:
I love that you can save your documents in 'the cloud' so you can get to them from any computer online. Flash drives work great but Google Docs is free and always available! They added a new feature now so you can upload any file type (rather then just .doc, .ppt, and .xls).

Picasa:
My two favorite features of Picasa are the Web Albums and the collage feature. The web albums allow you to save your pics online so you can view them from anywhere as well as link them to blog posts or other websites.
The collage feature makes it so easy to create collages with your favorite pictures!

My favorite thing about all of it is that you only need one username and password to access all of the different Google accounts. I don't know about you, but I have trouble keeping all those logins straight! Feel free to ask me questions! I am happy to share what I learned!

Eno-Great Interactive Whiteboard!

On Tuesday we had a full day of interactive whiteboard presentations to try and find a district standard to move forward with. A lot of teachers are getting grants to purchase interactive whiteboards for classrooms, which is great news! The district is also hoping to purchase a few more for classrooms. The idea is to have one brand throughout the district moving forward. The consistency should make the learning curve faster for students since they won't have to learn a new board in each classroom. Teachers will be able to work together easier since they will all be using the same equipment and software and tech support will be faster as well since there is only one board to learn!

There were 4 companies that presented their products to the group and one stood out above all the others. It was the Eno board made by PolyVision. It is a new product and has only been on the market about a year. There are a few features that make it stand out among the rest. One is the ease of use. The board is simple, quick to learn and smooth to switch from tool to tool. This will make learning how to use it fast and easy. The educational software that goes with the board is also simple. There are tons of great interactive tools to engage and teach students included. The Eno board is also a dry erase board. Teachers no longer have to give up that space on their walls! The board is magnetic, works with dry erase markers and is interactive. Plus, if you have an extra stylus you can have two students using the board at the same time! Or, they can use the markers and you can have as many students write on the board as you have markers!

There were a few other key features about the product and company that we liked as well. Just a few include the precision of the stylus, the professional development offered and the product warranties. The board is very precise so no more clicking two and three times to select the item you want. The group still has a few questions to look into before any official decisions are made. However, the Eno seems like a great product and is definitely worth checking out!

For more information, visit the website:
http://www.polyvision.com/tabid/155/objectid/70/default.aspx