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 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. 

Related Articles:

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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Google Apps Experts: Ten time-saving features of Google Apps

http://blog.ditoweb.com/2013/10/ten-time-saving-features-of-google-apps.html?m=1

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Forensic Science Resources for teachers and students

My wife is teaching Forensic Science this year so I was helping her find some resources for the class. I decided to share the resources here.

NCIS - another great show to get students interested in science
http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2011/11/ncis-another-great-show-to-get-students.html

http://mediaspecialistsguide.blogspot.com/2011/12/37-resources-for-teachers-of-forensic.html

Great listing of resources and sites. 

http://shs2.westport.k12.ct.us/forensics/ - high school forensics class site

http://bsapp.com/forensics_illustrated/ High School Forensic Science curriculum and resources

http://www.forensicpage.com/new09.htm Forensic Science for high school students.

http://nrhs.nred.org/www/nred_nrhs/site/hosting/Rubins/main%20page.htm - New Rochelle High School Forensic Science Page. 

http://www.nclark.net/ForensicChem Forensics Science labs and activities.

http://sciencespot.net/Pages/classforscilsn.html - great resources for all sciences too. Lesson Plan links.

Forensics First (from FreeTech4Teachers) http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/08/forensic-firsts-science-of-solving-crime.html

Interactive Games, including forensics (from FreeTech4TEachers) http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/12/16-fun-interactive-games-about-nature.html

Science-Class.net - has an entire section on Forensics http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2011/01/science-classnet-great-science-resource.html

CSI: The Experience Web Adventures (great site!)

http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2011/09/forensic-science-resource-csi.html

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Class Dojo real-time behavior feedback platform Apps get updates

ClassDojo is a free online system that helps teachers promote positive behavior in their classroom by letting them track and share student progress and positive behaviors and areas of concern. It's easy to use and many teachers who use it have seen positive outcomes from using it with their students.

They had launched an iOS app this past September, and an Android app after that, to help teachers be able to use their tool while moving around the room, and even access it when not in the classroom. They have just announced an update to their iOS and Android apps to make them even better and more useful for teachers and students.


The full press release is below:

ClassDojo Mobilizes More Teachers to Build Students’ Character Anywhere with Version 2.0 of its Popular iOS and Android Apps

ClassDojo 2.0 now lets teacher manage, edit, share and sync up their students’ behavior reports from their mobile devices

SAN FRANCISCO – August 15th, 2013 - Today, ClassDojo, the free behavior development platform for teachers, students , and parents, is launching a major update - version 2.0 of its mobile apps for iOS and Android. ClassDojo, already used by over 15 million teachers and students in over 80 countries worldwide, will now offer teachers the full suite of ClassDojo’s web functionality on mobile devices, including setting up and customizing their classes, taking attendance, viewing progress reports, and inviting other teachers.

Download the iOS app here: www.classdojo.com/ios and the Android app here: www.classdojo.com/android

The original ClassDojo app was intended to be a lightweight ‘remote control’ for the website, making it easy for teachers to give students positive feedback on their behavior in real-time within their classroom. There were significant limitations, including the inability to customize classes, view reports or even set up a class. In effect, the app made teachers somewhat dependent on the web application to fully manage their classrooms. ClassDojo’s new iOS and Android apps will offer the full set of ClassDojo’s experience.

Now that roughly two in three teachers have a personal smart device, more teachers can access ClassDojo’s full set of experiences without using a laptop or desktop computer. For many teachers working at underfunded schools with limited school technology resources, this means for the first time they can use ClassDojo with their students to reinforce positive behaviors like persistence, curiosity, and teamwork - and indicates great promise for ClassDojo’s continued ubiquity.

The new version also allows teachers to give behavior feedback without needing to have a Wi-Fi connection (although they still need network coverage). This new feature meets one of teachers’ biggest needs: to be able to use ClassDojo in settings outside of the classroom - for example, in lunchrooms, the playground, on field trips, and even just in classrooms with poor Wi-Fi connections.

Today’s news reflects the company’s continued learnings about the ed-tech market. Classroom adoption of mobile devices is growing quickly, as is evident with the recent news that Apple partnered with the Los Angeles Unified School District to provide students 640,000 iPads. Accordingly, the company has built out its mobile capabilities to allow its mobile development to parallel its web efforts.

“For many teachers and in particular for students, education is now a ‘mobile first’ environment, and we’re excited that ClassDojo is leading the charge,” says Sam Chaudhary, co-founder of ClassDojo. “Our new mobile apps build upon our mission of helping teachers, parents, and students develop the behaviors and character strengths that are essential for lifetime success. Real-time reinforcement of positive behavior, especially when provided consistently across contexts, helps build the character strengths that influence students’ academic and lifetime success.”  

ClassDojo’s mission is to address the ‘other half of education’ that goes beyond just building good test scores, to actually helping students develop the character strengths that are essential for lifetime success. The company is a graduate of the ‘Y-combinator for education’, ImagineK12.

About ClassDojo:

ClassDojo is a real-time behavior feedback platform used by millions of teachers, students and parents to build specific positive behaviors like persistence, curiosity and teamwork at school. It helps teachers solve the most painful problem they face teachers: improving student behavior. It enables teachers to easily conduct their lesson and improve student behavior by providing students with visual and audio feedback triggered using a smartphone, tablet, or computer; it engages parents and students to effect changes in behavior outside of the classroom as well.

About the founders:

Sam Chaudhary worked as a high school teacher and McKinsey & Co education analyst, and has a degree in Economics from the University of Cambridge. Liam Don was an MMO game developer at Runescape (Jagex), and was doing a computer science PhD in Education Technology, which he left to start ClassDojo. ClassDojo was early-stage seed funded by the incubator ImagineK12.

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TechForum Edtech Conferences coming up soon!

California: January 17 Atlanta: March 28 Boston: May 2 Chicago: May 9 Save the Date for Tech Forum 2014 Mark your calendars! Tech & Learning is bringing its groundbreakingTech Forum event back to Atlanta, Boston and Chicago for the winter/spring 2014 tour -- and we're kicking it all off in January with the newly added Tech Forum California, our return to the west coast due to popular demand! • California: January 17, 2014 • Atlanta: Friday March 28, 2014 • Boston: Friday May 2, 2014 • Chicago: Friday May 9, 2014 Don't miss the chance to join T&L magazine for its annual high-end, information-packed one-day event designed especially for district and school administrators and technology leaders like you. This is your chance to network with others who care deeply about the future of education. Share your successes and address challenges in an engaging and intimate setting, and leave with practical tools and key contacts for continued rich communities of practice. Follow us on Twitter for the latest updates, venue announcements, program content and speaker information! Who Should Attend Tech Forum? Tech Forum brings together some of the brightest minds and forward-thinking leaders involved in education technology. Each event is carefully designed for district- and building-level administrators,technology directors, technology coordinators,IT managers, librarians and media specialists,board of education members, mentor teachers and teacher trainers and anyone involved in the planning, decision-making and/or purchasing of technology for schools and districts. Call For Presenters Got a great idea for a session that is engaging and relevant to this audience of ed tech leaders? Know somebody who would make an outstanding presenter?Submit a proposal. BROUGHT TO YOU BY: How To Register Online registration opens soon with a special offer to attend the day at a deep discount. Livestream Archive Take a look at some of the fantastic sessions from previous Tech Forums at our Livestream page. Stay Up to Date

Manage Your Email Preferences/Unsubscribe Change Your Email Address To report abuse, click here. You have received this message because you previously gave your email address to NewBay Media LLC. © 2013 NewBay Media LLC, 28 East 28th Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10016 | 212.378.0400

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Edmodocon is Aug 7th - free online conference on using Digital Tools in the Classroom

Edmodocon is a free online conference on using Digital Tools in the Classroom. It will be held August 7th. It is hosted by Edmodo, a free online classroom management system. Edmodo features a social media section, class files, bulletin boards, and much more.

Edmodocon is a great way to get some free professional development and learn some new things to use in the new school year.

You could even attend while sitting at the beach or pool!

Click HERE to register (for free).


Related:

Edmodo - first year using it with my students - so far, AWESOME!

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22 Great Tips on using Edmodo in the classroom

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Google Reader is Shutting Down July 1st - here's a great replacement

Lots of people use Google Reader as their RSS feed reader, including a few thousand who follow this blog using the RSS feed. Google is shutting down Google Reader as of July 1st. Here's how you can backup your subscriptions and a great replacement you can use.

You can export your Google Reader Data (subscriptions) using Google Takeout. Google Takeout actually lets you export pretty much all your Google account data. You go to Google Takeout, and go to the Reader page and click "Create Archive". This will then download all of your feeds, people you follow, starred items and more. When the file is completed, click download. The subscriptions.xml file in the zip file is your subscriptions that you will need to import into other readers.

The app I am using to replace Google Reader is Feedly. It has a web version, plus an Android and iOS app. It's easy to use, can be setup to look like Google Reader, or even better with some cool views with pictures and preview text. The apps sync with the web so no matter what device you use, your feeds will be up to date. It's also free. I've been using it for about a month and love it.

Feedly even has a one-click Google Reader import to make it easy to switch.

Remember, you need to export your data, or import into Feedly before July 1st!

Related:

Google Takeout - Take your Google Account Data with you (or just back it up)

Google for Educators Resources

Why I Use Google's Products as an Educator

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