Many of our teachers still use Safari as their browser of choice at our school. There's nothing wrong with this BUT, as a teacher who regularly uses Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Keep & Forms as well as Gmail, there's a lot of advantages for switching to Chrome. Over the next week or so I am going to try to show a number of ways in which Google Chrome consistently proves to be a better choice - for me anyway! - in the classroom. Extensions are little add-ons which make your browser experience better for you. I have several extensions in Google Chrome that I would not - and could not - live without.... For more great extension suggestions check out the awesome Kasey Bell's "Shake Up Learning" post here http://www.shakeuplearning.com/chrome-database/. Tab Scissors and Tab Glue: two awesome extensions that allow you to split your browser so you have 2 windows side by side - a great way to compare sites, work in two windows at once, copy and paste information etc. And, when you're done, you 'glue' them back together with the click of a button.
Session Buddy: This awesome extension allows you to save and share a set of tabs very easily with the click of a button. Think about the times where you're doing research or conferencing with a student or opened up a plethora of flight comparison websites and you need to shut down your computer or go into another meeting. With Session Buddy it is very easy to save or share a 'session'. Black Menu: For Google Apps users, this is a life-changer. From one button, you have instant access to all your Docs AND all your favourite Google Apps. Definitely worth a look! Google Calendar: Easily view and add events to your Google Calendar There are MANY more Extensions that are designed just to make your life easier - just go to the Chrome Web Store and try out a few - you won't regret it...! It is important to note that both Safari & Firefox also have extensions - I just like Chrome better :)
0 Comments
Many of our teachers still use Safari as their browser of choice at our school. There's nothing wrong with this BUT, as a teacher who regularly uses Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Keep & Forms as well as Gmail, there's a lot of advantages for switching to Chrome. Over the next week or so I am going to try to show a number of ways in which Google Chrome consistently proves to be a better choice - for me anyway! - in the classroom. 1. Accessing Google Drive offline I work in a school in the depths of Africa which is currently dealing with 'loadshedding', 8 hours a day of no electricity - which in many cases means no internet. Google Chrome allows you to access - and edit - files offline through Google Chrome - you just have to check a box in settings first... :) For the past two years, this has been the challenge with our 1:1 program: no way of uploading to ManageBac using the student device. This meant that they had to figure out the loooong work-around of emailing it to themselves and then accessing a desktop or laptop from school/home and uploading it from there. Before Christmas, I discovered 'Doc Uploads' an affordable (it was $2 but now I see it is $6!) app that allows you to upload files and upload through its own browser... A life changer for a 1:1 iPad school that uses Managebac! More recently a Grade 8 student showed me a new way too. It is now possible - through ManageBac itself, to upload direct from Google Drive - from the Google Chrome Browser App only. This is an awesome upgrade which is VERY useful for our 1:1 iPad school that uses ManageBac AND Google Apps for Education. Good news all round!
A very brief overview of the steps taken since May:
To access documents & examples referred to in this presentation, please click here
Key successes
Can you think of any other advantages/benefits that I have forgotten? This is a complete draft and I would love some suggestions and feedback. I want it to be a go-to source for all teachers and students from G3+ in our school... Let me know what you think :) Doug Peterson of 'Off the Record' fame created this amazing Symbaloo of loads of creative commons image resources. This is a perfect go-to resource for students who need high quality images. I decided to take these sites and add them to a Google Custom Search to make it easier for students to search for specific images - I hope Doug doesn't mind! I have embedded it below - not perfect but a start - let me know of any suggestions. How can we improve this? There are SO many options and it is very confusing... Here are three of the most common places to store in the cloud - and one recent discovery... :) This post has been a long time coming! Even though I feel that there is a lot of information out there to support teachers and students with this, many of us still get it wrong. We BELIEVE that we are secure and safe but, especially with regular Facebook changes & updates, we are not!
Checking - and rechecking - your Settings As a general guideline, you should only have 'friends' be able to see your updates. A great way to check is to 'view as' so you can see what different people AND the general public can see when they view your timeline. I was shocked to see some extremely inappropriate spam on my timeline when I 'viewed as public' and was able to rectify the situation immediately. I strongly recommend that you 'view as public' regularly just to be sure... Another important note is that if you upload from another device, the settings may differ allowing everyone to see photos that you have uploaded - worth checking! Should I use a FB Page, a FB Group OR a blog? Information summarized from this source and from my own thoughts. Please contact me if you are unsure of what to choose!
For more information, click here
Another successful meeting kindly hosted by Mario and the rest of the team at Winchester School Dubai (Oud Metha) – thanks again for your hospitality! We had 13 attendees in total - an increase in the last meeting…! Minutes:
Syed from The Westminster School, Dubai enthusiastically shared his iBooks Author created interactive 'textbook'. This prompted a lot of discussion about the use of iPads in the classroom especially in a BYOT environment AND the limitations of having device specific resources as opposed to cross-device options like Adobe DPS. Some interesting discussions... :) Google Drive, once again, was a highlight of discussions - from the youngest to the oldest students! We discussed the sharing and collaboration features, auto-save, the ability to access - and edit - from any device and many other positives from our experiences. Tony shared a Process Journal from his school (created as a Google Presentation) where students could add images, videos as well as written work in a format created by the teacher. So basically an online workbook - amazing potential! Any Other Business?
NEXT MEETING: Wednesday 29th January - anyone like to host? Let me know! I have been told that there are over 14,000 apps for Maths in the App Store - and it's a challenge finding the better ones... Here are the constantly updated, go-to sites for great apps for all subjects. Click below to search for apps specific to what YOU (or your child!) are trying to practice: And here are links to some of my favourite educational & FUN Maths iPad apps - in no particular order. Unfortunately - because they are so good, most are paid for... But, by all means, search through the above sites for skill-specific and/or free apps and let me know of YOUR suggestions by commenting on this post!
SecondaryTeachThought and MathsInsider have come up with some great app-lists too - have a look!
Welcome! AGENDA/MINUTES: 1. Introductions: great to see you all. I hope you found it to be a productive and useful first meeting of the year! We had representatives from Winchester-Dubai, Westminster, GWA-Dubai, New Millennium School, Winchester-Jebel Ali... An involved and enthusiastic mix of educators with lots to share! Please leave a comment to share more thoughts, ideas and resources that I may have missed... :) 2. Wishes for the year: - what do YOU want to achieve? - what would you like to get out of the ICT Network Meetings this year? - how should we share our work with the wider community? 3. Sharing: Great job guys! Lots of sharing! 4. Next meeting (Tuesday 26th November) will be held at GEMS Winchester School, Dubai (Oud Metha) AND... one last thing: the easy way to make the GLG work for you!
Thanks again for joining us! Please leave a comment to share more thoughts, ideas and resources that I may have missed from this session... :)
We have a 'Bring Your Own Educational Device' Program at our school and get a lot of questions from students and parents. One of the (many - see here for our FAQ's) most popular questions is 'What device will be best?' This changes every day, and depends on the student, the subject, the usage and MANY other factors. Basically WE tell them that it is really down to personal preference - what works best for them...
However, here is an article from TechRadar (thank you Dan Grabham!) which I believe could be VERY useful for those students/teachers/parents who are out looking for their next device. Let me know if you find it useful - and which one you chose! There are times in your life where a life-changing tool comes along AND as a tech specialist, this is one of those moments! One of our Science teachers (full credit to him - thank you Allan!) showed me the 'users' feature in Google Chrome settings (I am not sure how long it has been there?!) - if like me, you have multiple accounts for different purposes this is going to change YOUR life too! Watch the short tutorial below: This is one of the biggest frustrations in our school - especially at this time of the school year. All the large files and photos have eaten a massive chunk of your inbox space and the dreaded 'INBOX FULL' message appears. The automatic response is to archive but I personally think there is a better way - that helps you manage and organise your emails better: use the 'large mail search' to delete the biggest emails... See below! |
About MeHello, I am Tony Potts, Primary Assistant Principal at the American International School of Lusaka, Zambia. Please feel free to ask me ANY questions...
I was previously a tech integration specialist, ManageBac Coordinator, iPad Coach & ICT/MYP Design Teacher in the same school and before this I was the PK-12 Director of Digital Learning, ICT Coordinator, teacher and technology integration specialist at GEMS World Academy, Dubai. Blog RollHere are some of the sites that I have been involved in creating:
Digital Citizenship Little Bytes GWA Dubai Tony Potts If you would like to receive a notification if this page is updated, please click here
Categories
All
My 'favourites!'This is a Top 5 list of blogs that I follow on my Google Reader - so where I get to know what I know - HIGHLY recommended:
|