Google+ - what is it and how to get started using it

Google+ is Google's social network and it has become my preferred social network. Facebook has gotten too political, although I do use it to keep in touch with friends and family. Twitter is great, but Google+ offers so much more - photos, videos, animations, longer postings and comments.

It is a thriving community, with people and groups for all interests, including education and technology.

If you aren't on Google+, check it out. Here are some resources.

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Google Plus - tips for using in education, facts and data infographic

Social Media Guide and Resources for Educators

Google for Educators Resources

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LiveMinutes - Edit your Evernote notes in real-time with others!

LiveMinutes is a very cool app that integrates with Evernote (my all time favorite and most used app) and allows you to work on the same Evernote note with others, similar to Google Docs.

Evernote is an excellent app, with the ability to share notes with others, but there is not a collaboration piece until this app came along.

You go to LiveMinutes and create a work space and select the notes from your Evernote account that you want to collaborate on, share them with others and off you go. You see multiple users editing the same note. Even if someone edits the note in Evernote, the changes are synced.

Here's a video that shows how this works: http://youtu.be/FOxYa8NqRmc

LiveMinutes is a full collaboration app that also lets you run conference calls, annotate documents and visuals and organize projects by workspaces.

If you use Evernote, this is something to look into. 

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Evernote for Education Resources

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Financial Literacy Resources for Students

Money management and financial literacy are important topics for students. Here are some sites that have some great resources to use with students to learn about money and finances.

http://www.moneyasyougrow.org/ - Money as You Grow – Kids and Money – President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability

Offers 20 essential, age-appropriate financial lessons—with corresponding activities—that kids need to know as they grow. 

http://www.clarkhoward.com/
Personal finance information and tips



http://www.stashcash.org/

financial literacy project aimed at improving access to friendly financial information

http://www.marketplace.org/sites/default/iframes/money/
Personal finance information and tips





http://crec-personalfinance.wikispaces.com/Home
Financial Literacy initiative to identify personal finance management curriculum modules that are aligned with national personal finance standards and relevant state standards. These modules are intended for use by schools and other organizations working with youth in grades 6-12. The initiative will also provide for training of educators and others to further financial literacy thorugh the use of these curriculum.

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Google announces 5 New GAFE Courses for Teachers and Admins

Google has an excellent selection of free courses and training materials for Google Apps and more. (see a bunch here).

They have just announced 5 new online courses for teachers and administrators on Google for Education that were designed by educators.

New Courses include: Internet 101, Apps for Education, Gmail, Drive, Chrome and Chromebooks. They are self paced and well designed.

You can find the new courses here: https://educourses.withgoogle.com/course

This is a great resource for all educators.


Google for Education Resources:
http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/p/google-for-educators_22.html

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Google launches Google Connected Classrooms with Virtual Field Trips

Google just announced Google Connected Classrooms, which allows classes to take virtual field trips using Google+ Hangouts. 

Field Trip locations include the Seattle Aquarium, Minnesota Zoo, American Museum of Natural History, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and more. More trips are coming also. 

The field trips are live hosted events, but past events are archived and can be viewed later. Teachers can also work together on plans and activities. 

This is a great resource for teachers and students to be able to learn and explore without ever leaving the classroom. 

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Free Evernote Training Videos on YouTube

Evernote is one of my favorite and most used apps. I use it for project management, task lists, meeting notes, reference notes, web clippings, personal tasks and more.

I just found out about some great training videos on YouTube that show you how to do different tasks in Evenrote. Check them out here: http://www.youtube.com/user/EvernoteScott?feature=watch

If you don't use Evernote, check it out. It's free, easy to use, and cross platform. I used it for lesson planning, lesson notes, class notes, student notes and logs, and more as a teacher. As a CIO I use it for meeting notes, project management, contacts, web clippings, research and much more.

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Evernote updates Windows version with over 100 new features

Evernote, one of my favorite and most used apps, has recently updated the Windows version of their software.

If you don't use Evernote, check it out. It's free, easy to use, and cross platform. I used it for lesson planning, lesson notes, class notes, student notes and logs, and more as a teacher. As a CIO I use it for meeting notes, project management, contacts, web clippings, research and much more.

There are over 100 new features in it and I really like the new version.

Here is a link to the official announcement and below is an image with the new features.
http://blog.evernote.com/blog/2013/10/17/100-reasons-to-love-evernote-for-windows/

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