Melanie Fessler

Here’s a collection of holiday and winter sites for kids and teachers that should help make your last week of school festive and productive, and give kids some fun places to go on those cold, wintry days.

1. Snow-Line

In this über-popular game from Mini-Clip, your mission is to help Santa Claus collect the presents and get them ready for delivery on Christmas Eve. To do this you need to draw a pathway of least-resistance, collect all the presents, and finish at the checkered flag.  EdTechIdeas: Although mostly fun, the rules of physics play a part here and students must think and plan out a pathway that does not defy gravity. Also a good game if you have students who have not completely mastered the mouse.

2. Video Message from Santa (Portable North Pole)

 

Young children love getting messages from Santa. Here’s a site that sends you kids a personalized video message from Mr. Claus himself! Add in information like, what your child wants for Christmas, what he or she needs to working on to improve, photos, etc. and your child will be blown away with happiness!

3. TheNorthPole.com

Journey to the Northpole.com for loads of great activities for kids. Students can write letters to Santa, read stories, have stories read to them, create personalized stories, and many other activities. EdTechIdeas: Beyond having students explore and learn with this site, there is the Elf Pal Academy, which connects teachers to a plethora of printable Google Docs geared to lower elementary students and English language learners.

4. Ice Breaker RC

Another great game from Miniclip. Your mission is to slice through the ice and save the frozen Vikings by getting them back to their longboat! You really have to contemplate and plan out your moves in this highly challenging game.

5. Ultimate Winter Resources for Teachers

There are tons of ideas, lesson plans, book activities, links tore-printable stories, teacher sharing ideas, and more. EdTechIdeas: The Ultimate Winter Resources for Teachers would be a good place to start if you’re looking for winter inspiration.

6. Winter Mad Libs

Who doesn’t like Mad Libs? Classroomjr.com has a collection of 3 winter Mad Libs, along with 3 Christmas Mad Libs, some winter word puzzles, Christmas math worksheets, and some printable Christmas mazes that’ll keep students productive all winter break.

7. Norad Tracks Santa

Each year, Norad tracks Santa by using four high-tech tracking systems – radar, satellites, Santa Cams and fighter jets. This site allows kids to watch as Santa is tracked as he delivers all of his presents. On Christmas Eve, students can click here to track his flight live in Google Earth.  EdTechIdeas: Norad Tracks Santa is a great site to learn about geography and places around the world. Students could chart the stops in Google Maps, calculate distances and speed required to make all of the stops possible, write a creative story about his adventure, compare and contrast Santa’s trips in the past using population data… I could go on forever!

8. ABC Teach

Great site for teachers, ABC Teach has downloadable bookmarks, border paper, word scrambles, coloring pages, some holiday book comprehension and activity pages, and more.

9. Education Place – Winter Theme

Education Place has a plethora of activities for teachers of grades K-8. Winter memory books, weather studies, seasonal comparisons, winter quizzes, word finds, snow sculptures, and more. If you’re looking for learning activities to do during the winter months, this is a good place to start.

10. Antarctica “Street” View

Google Maps Antarctica allows you to take a walk around parts of the white continent. A very small portion of Antarctica have been covered (for obvious reasons), but the views are amazing! In typical Google subtle humor, the normal yellow street view man in street view Antarctica is replaced by a penguin. EdTechIdeas: I realize it’s not “Christmassy” and Santa lives in the North Pole, not the South; but there’s some great images here not to be missed. Students could write stories about what life would be like if Santa lived in Antarctica. They could pinpoint where his home would be and find a suitable area for a landing strip.

11. Christmas Around the World

Students can learn about different Christmas traditions in several countries. While the title of the site sounds grandiose and all-encompassing, there are only 8 countries highlighted. However, for learning about some different traditions for kids, it’s not a bad place to start.

12. Storynory

Storynory is a site that lets kids listen to free audio stories that are read by storyteller, Natasha Gostwick. The stories can be streamed live, or downloaded to be played anywhere. EdTechIdeas: Storynory would make a great listening center and a place story starting ideas. Students can created their own audio recordings and turn them into podcasts for other students, parents, and teachers to enjoy.

Happy Holidays from EdTechIdeas!

This is a great project for elementary and beyond. Report/bio/non-fiction writing in a Google Doc with an embedded QR code that links to the student reading excepts from their research. You may print out book style when complete, or create on online flip book using sites such as Issuu, Youblisher or Flipsnack.

Learn how to easily record your voice, generate a corresponding QR code and make your Google Doc come alive!

 

Explore this interactive image to take a closer look at my collection of resources for use with these 10 terrific tools. Try them yourself and remember to start with something simple.

Read more on GettingSmart.com

     On Wednesday, the entire secondary staff at Van Meter attended the 2nd Annual Iowa 1:1 Institute. It was a great opportunity for our teachers to learn, collaborate, and share about their experiences teaching and learning in a 1:1 environment.  Over 1,200 educators participated in the conference this year. Many are there to learn what it takes to implement a 1:1 technology initiative.  Many are there to ask questions about different web 2.0 tools, software, and other technologies that will help make them a more effective teacher.  Still others are there to find out what all of the fuss is about when it comes to kids having access to technology.  I have news for you, IT IS NOT ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY!  Though the technology can help teachers more effectively:

• Teach for Understanding
• Provide Rigorous and Relevant Curriculum
• Assess FOR Learning
• Differentiate Instruction
• Center the Classroom Around Students Needs

When thinking about raising your children in the Des Moines area, consider Van Meter. If you want a personalized education for your child with an emphasis on developing creative, innovative, digital, global, citizens who can think critically, Why not Van Meter? Check out the Prezi below and contact me if you have any questions.

I shared this recipe with you a couple of weeks ago in stripped-down, printable form, but I’m just now getting around to doing the step-by-step for you. And everybody knows that a recipe that isn’t accompanied by 10,447 photos of every single step of the preparation and cooking process isn’t even a recipe at all.

So until I took the photos of the process yesterday, these potatoes actually didn’t even exist. I thought they existed all those times I made them for my family and they ate them and told me how much they like them, but little did they know they were just eating air.

I always wondered why these potatoes made them burp so much.

Sorry. I’m in a weird mood this morning.

 
You need red potatoes, onions, garlic, and bell peppers. Any color will do ya.

 
 
 
Slice the potatoes in half.

 
 
 
Lay the potato halves face down…

 
 
 
Slice them in half again…

 
 
 
Then slice them in the other direction into chunks.

 
 
 
Keep going until you have a big ol’ pile of po-ta-toes! (Boil ‘em, mash ‘em, stick ‘em in a stew!)

(Name that movie.)

 
 
 
Throw ‘em in a big bowl.

 
 
 
Now peel a couple of onions and slice them in half.

 
 
 
Slice each of the halves in half…

 
 
 
And slice ‘em in the other direction into chunks.

 
 
 
Lop off the top and bottom of a couple of green bell peppers. Cut chunks of the good stuff around the stem, and pull out the innards.

 
 
 
Slice into big strips, then cut the strips into chunks.

 
 
 
And throw them in.

 
 
 
Do the same with a couple of red bell peppers: Cut into large chunks…

 
 
 
And throw it in.

 
 
 
Then grab a few garlic cloves…

 
 
 
Mince them up…

 
 
 
And throw them in.

I throw a lot when I cook. Have you ever noticed that?

 
 
 
Now, drizzle in a little olive oil…

 
 
 
Then put a half a stick of butter into a microwave-safe dish…

 
 
 
Nuke it till it’s melted…

 
 
 
And drizzle it on in, too. The combo of olive oil and butter is luscious and fabuloso and gives me reason to live.

 
 
 
Next, sprinkle in some salt…

 
 
 
Some seasoned salt…

 
 
 
Black pepper…

 
 
 
And cayenne pepper for a little BADA-BING!

 
 
 
Use your hands to toss it all around until it’s all mixed together.

 
 
 
Then pour it onto two separate rimmed baking sheets.

 
 
 
(Note: You can, like, totally cut this recipe in half if you don’t have a houseful of cowboys and cowgirls to feed.)

 
 
 
Now just throw the pans into a 425-degree oven for 25 minutes.

 
 
 
A couple of times, pull the pan out a bit and use a spatula to toss the potatoes around.

 
 
 
After 25 minutes, crank up the temperature to 500! We’re about to have a little fun here.

 
 
 
Roast the potatoes at 500 for a good 15 to 20 minutes, tossing it a couple of times, until the taters are nice and golden with little dark bits here and there.

 
 
 
Um. Yum?

 
 
 
Serve them up with a big, juicy steak!

Or scrambled eggs and bacon.

Or fried chicken!

Or roasted chicken.

Or pancakes.

Or ham.

 
 
 
Just serve them. Serve them soon!

 
 
 
You’ll love, love, love these. They’re simple, easy, and oh so flavorful.

Here’s the handy dandy printable!

Guest posted by Alex Nagourney

Alex Nagourney is a 2013 graduate of Wellesley College. She was a 2011 Google BOLD intern and a Google Student Ambassador from 2011-2013. She currently lives in New York City.

Summer is coming to an end, which for college students usually means the end of a grueling internship, a road-trip or cross-country flight back to campus, embracing friends you have not seen in months, and, oh yeah, that other tiny detail: the start of classes.

With so much else going on — friends, extracurriculars, sports — students today need to be as efficient and productive as possible when they dedicate time to studying and doing homework. In this age of internet transformation, Gen Y is more tech savvy than ever before, and we expect online education to meet our technology standards.

The purpose (and hope) of this blog post is to give a few examples of how I used — and benefitted from — Google Docs, Slides, and Forms in college.

Example 1: Have a group project? Stay calm, cool, and collected. Docs make collaboration easy!

If you have ever had to work on a group paper or project, you know how cumbersome and inefficient the process can be. There are two ways to go about accomplishing this task: (1) your group sends 173 emails trying to coordinate a time at which everyone is available to meet or (2) each person writes a portion of the paper and the group tries to synthesize uncoordinated chunks of different writing styles into one cohesive paper, which always ends with one Type A student editing the entire thing. Luckily, there is now an option 3, and it’s called Google Docs.

To start using Docs, just open a doc, share it with the group members, and write. It’s that simple. Having the ability to work together in the cloud means no coordinating schedules, no wasting time on multiple revisions, and no unequal division of group member contributions.

For example, when I had to complete a group paper for an Economics class, my two groupmates and I decided we would each write one-third of the paper. We put our respective portions into a single document and then went through each other’s writing, adding comments and correcting errors when necessary.
Example 2: Google Slides. Enough Said.

Presentations are an inevitable college assignment. Whether you are a history or physics major, you cannot escape this task. Before using Slides, the process of creating presentations was inefficient, awkward (so...what should we put on this slide…?) and time-consuming.

For one of my physics laboratory experiments, my partner was an exchange student from France. While we understood each other in the lab by scribbling Greek letters and numbers to solve problems, at times it was difficult to communicate since English wasn’t her first language. So when we had to create our presentation, it sounded like a grueling task for both of us.

We decided to use Slides, divide the work, add notes, and edit together from within the presentation. Our communication was clear and efficient when we typed comments to each other since we could take our time to be articulate, which virtually dissolved our language barrier. In the end, creating the presentation was quite enjoyable; we were proud of the final product and our professors were impressed by how well we worked together.

Example 3: Using Forms to organize information and make it universally accessible and useful...sound familiar?

Being a full-time student and an active member of an extracurricular activity (sport, club, fraternity/sorority, etc.) can sometimes feel like a full-time job. It requires teamwork, organization, time-management, and dedication.

Being the leader of a group demands more: writing agendas, scheduling meetings, organizing fundraisers, and sticking to a budget. Keeping track of all of these items can be difficult, as each task requires different resources — email, documents, spreadsheets, polls, and more.

As the house president of a 165-student residence hall for two years, I struggled to keep track of it all, but after switching to Forms, the whole process became seamless.

For our fundraiser, my house sold over 300 t-shirts to the student body. Because of the high quantity, we utilized a pre-order process in which students could order their size/color and pay in advance. Before we had Google Forms, we used a paper form to collect pre-orders (I still try to block out all those hours spent inputting the paper orders into my computer!).

Not only did using a form make it easier to collect pre-orders, it also made it easier to distribute the order form. As a result, our pre-orders increased by 40% in one year! The form did all of the heavy lifting for me. Orders were seamlessly filed into a spreadsheet, and I simply had to click “Show summary of responses” to place the order, making my job easier and freeing up time so that I could focus on other aspects of my role as a leader.
So there you have it, three examples of how using Docs, Slides, and Forms in college made me more efficient, saved me time, and increased my productivity. For those of you about to begin a new semester, good luck!

Just a few minutes after I published my post about writing blog posts while offline I received an email from someone needing assistance using Google Drive offline. Below you will find written directions along with screenshots for enabling offline use of Google Documents on your laptop.

To enable Google Docs for offline use, sign into your account and click the sprocket icon in the upper-right corner. Then select "set up docs offline." Google Docs will then launch a dialogue box asking you to confirm that you want to enable docs offline. If already have Google Drive installed, you're finished with the set up. If you don't have Google Drive installed, you will be prompted to do so. If you need help setting up Google Drive on your Mac or on your PC, please see the directions that I have included in my guide to Google Drive and Docs for Teachers (page 7 has directions for Mac users, page 14 has directions for Windows users). 

Step 1: In your Google Drive account open the "more" menu.

Click for full size image.

Step 2: Select "enable offline docs." If you don't have the Google Drive Chrome app already installed, you'll be prompted to do that too. Installing the Chrome app takes just one click.

Click for full size image.

A Note for Google Apps for Education Users
If you are using Google Docs within a Google Apps for Education domain your domain administrator will have to enable the option for users to use Google Docs offline. Google's directions for domain administrators can be found here. A screen capture of the Apps Domain settings is included below.

Click for full size image.

This morning on Twitter Steven Anderson shared a link to Edmodo's getting started guide. That guide provides a short run-down of the steps to creating your Edmodo account with your students. Included in the guide are links to additional resources like Edmodo's archived instructional webinars.

Shortly after ReTweeting Steven's link I received a text message from a friend who was wondering what she can do with Edmodo and why she might want to try it this year. That request got me to pull up the following list of things that teachers and students can do with Edmodo.

Here are fifteen things teachers and students can do with Edmodo.
1. Post assignments for students. Edmodo allows teachers to attach files to assignment announcements. If there is a file your students need in order to complete an assignment, they can access it at the same place they view the announcement. Less clicking is good.

2. Create digital libraries. Students and teachers can create digital libraries for housing their important files. No need to keep track of USB drives because you can access your files from any Internet-connected computer.

3. Post messages on the "wall." This allows students to ask questions of each other and their teacher. Teachers, of course, can post messages for all students to read.

4. Create learning groups. Teachers can create groups of their students according to the courses they teach or create groups of students who are supposed to be working together.

5.  Post polls for students. Use the polls to gather informal feedback on a question like, "do you feel prepared for next week's quiz?"

6. Post a quiz for students to take. You can attach links and files to each question and answer choice. This allows you to post a document and ask students to read and respond to it. Quizzes can be in multiple choice, true/ false, fill in the blank, or short answer form. You can allow students to see their scores immediately or you can disable that option.

7. Connect with other teachers. Join discussion groups to share ideas about lesson plans, teaching strategies, and project development. Discuss tools and content that you use. In some cases you can find webinars like this one from Buck Institute for Education about project based learning.

8. Create a calendar of events and assignments.

9. Access Edmodo through the free Android and iPhone apps.

10. Turn in assignments. Students can upload assignments for their teachers to view and grade. Teachers can annotate the assignments directly in Edmodo.

11. Create parent accounts. Teachers can create parent accounts. Parent accounts allow parents to see their children's assignments and grades. Teachers can also send alerts to parents about school events, missed assignments, and other important messages through Edmodo.

12. Generate printable class rosters. If you're going to have a substitute teacher in your classroom who needs a printed roster, you can print one from your Edmodo account.

13. Embed Wallwisher into your Edmodo wall to host a brainstorming session.

14. Embed videos, images, and audio clips into your wall to spark a class discussion online.

15. Use the Google Chrome extension or browser bookmarklet to quickly add content to your Edmodo library. Anytime you find something on the web, click the Edmodo extension or bookmarklet to save it in your Edmodo library.

Russell Stannard offers a 45 minute complete overview of how to use Edmodo. That video is embedded below.

Posted by guest blogger Wendy Gorton

Wendy Gorton is an education consultant for organizations around the world. She’s a former classroom teacher, Google Certified Teacher and Trainer, and is passionate about creating learner-centered environments using tools like Google Apps for Education. 

Follow the Drive Google+ page this and next week for daily tips and suggestions for using Drive in the classroom.

Google Drive is the all-in-one tool I wish I had my first year of teaching. It not only keeps all of your lesson plans, activities, and research organized, but it's an outstanding way to engage your students, give them feedback, and give their writing a real audience—like their peers or classrooms around the world.

Here are 3 tips to help teachers prepare for going back to school with Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms. 

1. Use Slides to get to know your students 
A great first-week introductory activity is to create a single slide deck, and then invite each of your students to share a bit about themselves on their own personal slide. It’s a fantastic get-to-know-you activity for the first week of school and you’ll be amazed by the creativity that comes out of your students! 

The screenshot below shows how Google Student Ambassadors from 9 different countries used Slides to introduce themselves before gathering to meet each other at an event in Indonesia this summer.

Want to get this going with your students? Easy—create a new Slides deck on the first week of school, click the blue Share button to invite your students, and give them a little direction for their individual slide by adding comments.

2. Use Docs to create a classroom “Bill of Rights” 
The first week of class is that precious transition from the “honeymoon” period of angelic children to learning the norms of your classroom culture. Help start the year off right by inviting students to co-create their ideas of citizenship and a happy learning environment, Docs style.

Start by creating a copy of this template and then invite students to join in with you to add their ideas, ratify by adding a comment, and use their editing prowess to come up with a final copy to live by for the coming year.

3. Use Forms to get to know your students (and their prior knowledge!) 
Get to know your classroom as soon as possible, using Forms to gather information about their needs, interests, and abilities beforehand. Consider creating a simple Form for a survey for your students (and for your parents!) and have fun showing the data on your projector and learning about your class as a whole.

Forms can be used as a very quick getting started activity before any lesson as well—take this example from a social studies classroom before talking about population. By placing a quick Form on your classroom site or emailing your students the Form, you can quickly grasp your students' prior knowledge—before you start teaching.

In this case, our team was a bit off, but helped us not only talk about population but estimation and numbers in general (answer? 7.1 billion and counting. My favorite answer? One ‘goggle.’)
One last tip: Google Apps for Education
You know this is way easier when your school has its own Google Apps for education set up, right? It’s free, and no technical expertise is needed to get started.

I hope you give one of these ideas a try and let me know how it goes on my Google+ page.

Active Textbook is an interesting service that you can use to turn your PDFs into multimedia documents. The basic idea behind the service is that you can upload PDFs and add pictures, links, and videos that are displayed when students read your PDF through the Active Textbook viewer. While reading your PDF through Active Textbook students can highlight, draw, and add comments to the document.

The downside to Active Textbook is that you have to create your PDF outside of Active Textbook. You have to have the layout of your PDF set before uploading it because you can't actually change the content of the PDF, you're simply adding links to it through the Active Textbook service.

Applications for Education
Active Textbook could provide a good way to create your own short multimedia texts for students. The most compelling feature is the option for students to highlight and take notes on the document while they're reading it through Active Textbook. Active Textbook also adds a dictionary tool to your document which could be handy for some students. Active Textbook is free to use for up to 500 pages of material.

Since eduClipper launched back in May I have shared it in many of my workshops and presentations. I know that some people will be introducing it to their colleagues and students for the new school year too. If you plan to introduce eduClipper to your students or colleagues, Adam Bellow (founder of eduClipper) has put together a helpful set of slides for you to use. The slidedeck includes step-by-step directions for using eduClipper. The presentation also includes a slide to help you transition from "showing" to "coaching."




Thanks to Lee Kolbert for sharing this on Facebook.

MasteryConnect, a popular Common Core standards assessment tracking service, recently released a couple of helpful new tools. First, the new science standards app (available for iOS and Android) puts all of the new National Science Teachers Association standards on your mobile device. You can search through the standards by topic and or keyword. The app will also provide correlations to Common Core standards. You can get the app on MasteryConnect's resource goodies page.

Resource Pins is a new browser bookmarklet from MasteryConnect. The bookmarklet allows you to pin things to your MasteryConnect account. From there you can quickly add Common Core standards alignments to your pinned resources. You can get the Resource Pins bookmarklet on the MasteryConnect resource goodies page.

Disclosure: MasteyConnect is an advertiser on Free Technology for Teachers.

When I am giving presentations and leading workshops I like to use AirServer to mirror my iPad to my laptop. That allows me to project my iPad’s screen without being tethered to VGA cable. At $14.99 (less with volume pricing) AirServer is a heck of a lot cheaper than Apple TV too. Usually everything works well when I use this system. Today, that wasn’t the case.

Today, during three of presentations that I gave, including the keynote, one or more people accidentally broadcast their iPads to my laptop which in turn meant that their iPad screens were broadcast to the whole audience. The reason that this happened was that I hadn’t set an AirServer password.

The lesson here is if you are going to use AirServer in your classroom or in a presentation as I was today, make sure that you set a password to prevent others from accidentally sharing their screens to your computer.

AirServer works on Macs and on Windows computers. It costs $14.99 for an individual license that you can use on up to five computers. Schools that purchase twenty or more licenses can buy them for $3.99 a piece.

We recently launched Views, a new site that highlights some of our most popular Street View collections and enables you to explore user-contributed photo spheres from around the world. Starting today, to complement the beautiful panoramas you see there, we’re also adding useful information about some of the featured locations, and behind-the-scenes stories about what collecting imagery of these places was like.



From the Street View Special Collections page where you can browse imagery that transports you from the top of Mount Fuji to the top of the Eiffel Tower, simply click on the “Go Behind the Views” icon to access this additional content. The photography, video, audio tours and more provide a deeper understanding and appreciation for some of the most remarkable places on Earth. Want to hear the snow crunch under your feet as you hike the Canadian Arctic, or conquer your fear of heights by standing in the window washing basket on the 80th floor of the world’s tallest building? Now you can.


Our first two multimedia adventures enable you to experience the Canadian Arctic in Iqaluit, Canada, and the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE. We also invite you enjoy photos and videos from our past journeys to the Grand Canyon, the base camp of Mount Everest, the Amazon Basin, the Great Barrier Reef and the NASA Kennedy Space Center -- minus the extreme temperatures and long plane rides! If you’re on the Views page for those specific collections, just click on the “About this place” button on the upper right hand corner.



As we trek around collecting more imagery of interesting places across the globe, we’ll continue to add more content to these sections of the Views site. So come back often to check them out, get behind-the-scenes insight into how Street View imagery is collected, and learn fun facts and details about these select locations.


We hope trekking with Google Maps inspires you to explore unique places and celebrate the beauty of our world. Stay tuned for more interactive experiences to come and happy virtual travels!

Posted by Deanna Yick, Street View Program Manager

Yesterday, I shared a list of 43 educational alternatives to YouTube. At the suggestion of quite a few people, I put all of those sites into a custom search engine and I have embedded it into this page. Give it a try the next time that you're looking for educational videos that are not hosted on YouTube.

Take a look at the Google Slides presentation below to learn how to create your own custom search engine.

There are hundreds of apps and websites being used in classrooms around the world. Here are some of the best web tools teachers will be trying out.

Cyndi Danner-Kuhn's insight:
http://www.edudemic.com/2013/08/best-web-tools-teachers/

Are you a teacher or trainer? Someone involved in a hiring process? Do you need to check somehow that other people have the skills or knowledge that you expect them to? Well, you’re going to love what you can do using Google Forms.

Cyndi Danner-Kuhn's insight:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-use-google-forms-to-create-your-own-self-grading-quiz/?utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_source=2012-08-09

We hope you’ve had a chance to explore the new Google Maps app for Android, iPhone, and iPad (and if you haven’t, download it now from the Play Store or App Store). Within the new simple interface, we’ve added lots of new features and functionalities, so I wanted to share some tips and tricks that can help you get the most out of your new Google Maps app.

You can find a full list here, but some of my favorites are below:

Zoom in and out in more ways than one
In addition to pinching the screen to zoom, you can also double-tap on your map, hold, and then scroll up and down to zoom in and out.

Get offline maps 
To access a map offline, open the map of where you’re headed. Then, tap the search box and scroll up past the search suggestions. Select “Make this map area available offline.”

*Currently only available on Android, but coming soon to iPhone and iPad. 

Find business details
Search for a local business or something you’re craving, like “pizza”. If you’re on your phone, select one of the search results, and swipe up and down the info sheet to find more information about the place. Or, swipe left and right to see more places. If you’re on your tablet, just tap on one of your options to learn more about the place.

Explore local businesses
To find recommendations for hotels, restaurants, and things to do, just tap the search bar and then “Explore”. Browse suggestions by choosing a category: Eat, Drink, Shop, Play, or Sleep.

Drop a pin to see Street View and share the location
Press and hold on the map to drop a pin.  Then learn more information about that place, find directions, check out Street View, and save or share the location by text or email.

Leave reviews and ratings 
Rating and reviewing a local business is easy. Just search for a business or restaurant, pull up its info sheet, and scroll down to the “Rate and Review” section. Tap the number of stars you think the restaurant deserves, write an optional review, and then tap “Publish”. Just remember, you need to be signed into Google Maps and have a Google+ account to write a review.

Check out more tips, and as you get more familiar with your Google Maps app, share your own tips using #googlemaps. Most of all, go out and explore your world!

Posted by Stephanie Zhan, Google Maps Summer Intern

*Some features not available in all countries or on all devices.

On a fairly regular basis I'm asked for suggestions on places to find public domain images. I have a handful of go-to sites that I usually recommend.

Pixabay is currently my first recommendation for a place to find and download quality public domain images. You can search on Pixabay by using keywords or you can simply browse through the library of images. When you find an image you can download it in the size that suits your needs. Registered users do not have to enter a captcha code to download images. Users who do not register can download images, but they do have to enter a captcha code before downloading each picture. 

Every Stock Photo is a search engine for public domain and Creative Commons licensed pictures. When you search on Every Stock Photo it pulls images from dozens of sources across the web. If you click on an image in your search results you will be taken to a larger version of the image, a link to the source, and the attribution requirements for using that picture. 

The Morgue File photo collection contains thousands of images that anyone can use for free in academic or commercial presentations. The image collection can be searched by subject category, image size, color, or rating. You will find a mix of images that don't require attribution along with some that do require attribution so pay attention to the labels that come with each picture. Morgue File is more than just a source for free images. The Morgue File also features a "classroom" where visitors can learn photography techniques and get tips about image editing.

Each time that I visit it the Flickr Commons collection seems to have grown. The Commons contains images that have been contributed by more than five dozen libraries and museums around the world. The images are mostly historical in nature.

Bing has an option for finding public domain images. To access this setting go to Bing Images, enter your search term, then use the "license" menu to select public domain images. One thing to note about using Bing Images with elementary and middle school students is, depending upon what students search for, some of the "related" images and search suggestions might not always be appropriate for classrooms.

On Monday I suggested some widgets to add to your classroom blog for the new school year. One of those suggestions was to add a public Google Calendar. One of the nice things about Google Calendar is that you can add links and attachments to your calendar events. This can be a great way to distribute materials to students and their parents. In the video below I demonstrate a couple of ways that you can do this. (Click here if you cannot see the video).

Earlier this month it was announced that Socrative had received a sizable investment. Part of that announcement included hints of what is to come from Socrative. Today, Socrative announced what a few of those features will be when Socrative 2.0 is released to everyone in September.

Socrative 2.0 will give students the option to work on questions in any order that they like when they are completing student-paced activities.

Socrative 2.0 will include the option to assign Common Core Standards tags to all of the assessments that you create.

Applications for Education
Socrative replaces the need for expensive "clicker" feedback systems. Socrative works on any device that has an Internet connection. Students sign into a virtual classroom in which you can post questions and they can reply either anonymously or with their names depending upon how you want to use the service.

Excellent educational content can be found on YouTube. However, not every teacher can access YouTube in his or her classroom. That's why a few years ago I compiled a big list of alternatives to YouTube. Over the years some of those sites have shut-down, started charging a fee, or have switched into another market. So this evening I went through and eliminated some sites from the list and added a few new ones. My favorite five alternatives to YouTube are listed below. You can see the complete list here. If you have a suggestion for an alternative to YouTube, please let me know.

1. Next Vista is a nonprofit, advertising-free video sharing site run by Google Certified Teacher Rushton Hurley. Next Vista has three video categories. The Light Bulbs category is for videos that teach you how to do something and or provides an explanation of a topic. The Global Views video category contains videos created to promote understanding of cultures around the world. The Seeing Service video category highlights the work of people who are working to make a difference in the lives of others. Watch this interview I did with Rushton to learn more about Next Vista.

2. PBS Video offers videos from the most popular shows including Frontline, NOVA, Nature, and American Experience. For the younger crowd, PBS Kids offers videos as well. If you're not sure what you're looking for, but you think PBS has an appropriate video you can search the PBS Video center by topic.

3. Explore.org produces and hosts high-quality documentary films and photographs. The films and images focus on exploring the world and the work of non-profit organizations around the world. The films and images are organized by location and by charitable and or environmental cause. Explore.org is funded in part by the Annenburg Foundation.

4. The National Film Board of Canada offers many excellent videos that appeal to a broad audience.

5. One of the first things you'll notice about Vimeo is the image quality of the videos. The image and sound quality of the videos on Vimeo is far superior to many of those found on YouTube. Vimeo has all of the sharing options found on YouTube, but in a much cleaner and easier to use interface.

In the app, I also love how it gives you this screen with each class you have set up.  I went to the Van Meter Library Voice class, selected "How To Join" at the bottom of the screen, and it gave me this screen with the information that I needed.
During back-to-school open house with our families and during the first days of school, I will help our school community add the Remind101 app to their devices and get signed up for the Classes that they would like to receive information about.

This is one more way we can all connect to our students, teachers, and library every day.
And not just to the library, but to our school and other teachers as well.  When I was writing this post, our elementary P.E. teacher Bart Jones sent me a tweet saying he wanted to use Remind101 too.  I am so excited that Bart wants to use Remind101 and I know others will want to as well.

Thank you Remind101 for bringing us one more way to come together and connect.
And please join the Van Meter Library Voice Remind101 to connect with us too.
          

While PowerPoint is still the go-to software for many people when creating presentations, it does have its limitations, especially when it comes to editing a PowerPoint presentation on an iPad or collaborating with others. While some of these issues are addressed with Office 365, you do have to pay for the privilege.

There are lots of online alternatives which let you create great looking presentations on any device. Storing them in the cloud means you can work on them wherever you are as well as easily share with others and embed into other websites.

They may not have the flashy animations of PowerPoint, but that’s not a bad thing!

Here are 5 of my favourites.

1. Slid.es
Slides allows allow anyone with a web browser create and share beautiful presentations. It uses HTML 5 and so should work on all devices. You can arrange main slides horizontally, with additional slides running vertically. It’s free to use, with additional paid-for features if you like it.

A big thanks to Mark Allen (@edintheclouds) for making me aware of Slid.es

2. Emaze
Emaze is a another simple to use presentation creation tool. Again it uses HTML5 and so should work well on any browser – including tablets and chromebooks. It’s free, and well worth a look.

3. Prezi
Prezi lets you create very engaging presentations that pan and zoom from page to page. You can create non-linear presentations quite easily. Prezi lets you embed images and video too. You can view the presentations that you have created online, and also download them in a Flash player format to play offline. There’s also a Prezi app for iPad. It looks great, but I do know some teachers who feel seasick when they see a Prezi presentation!

4. Google Presentations
If you use Google Docs (Google Apps/Drive) then you should already be aware that it has a pretty useful presentation tool. You can create a presentation from scratch or upload and convert an existing PowerPoint. The strength of the Google presentation tool is that many users can collaborate on a single presentation, such as these crowd-sourced examples from Ideas to Inspire.

5. Empressr

Empressr is a free online storytelling tool that allows you to create, manage and share rich media presentations online. Upload your video, images and audio to get started creating cool slideshows. If you have your own website, blog, or social networking page, you can either post a link or embed your Empressr. Empressr also has charting and table tools.

 

There are many other tools out there, let me know your favourites in the comments below!

 

 

5 Free Online Alternatives to PowerPoint The Whiteboard Blog - Supporting the use of technology in the classroom

Siri has become one of the iPhone’s defining features, but for many people, it’s not always the most useful. While some of this is due to the limitations of voice recognition, the oddity of using voice to command a device is also partly to blame.