Cute Google Slide Templates

Ed. Tech Resources, , ,

2015-08-14_15-04-08Here’s a little Tech Tidbit about a great site called Slides Carnival.  I learned about Slides Carnival from Liz Castillo when we were collaborating on a presentation for Kukulu Kaiaulu.  She shared her Google Presentation and her slides were so cute!  Here it is:

Adorable, right?  And that’s just a taste!  Slide Carnival has many FREE templates to choose from and within those templates are sample slides and how they can be used to enhance a presentation.  For example:


This sample is from the Quince Presentation Template

and


This sample is from the Trinculo Presentation Template.

What’s nice is when you visit Slides Carnival and click on the template, it gives you what the template is designed for and features for the template.   The Balthasar Presentation Template, for example:

This free presentation template is specifically designed for finance and professional lectures. With its dark style and daring decoration you’ll impress your audience with your slides. Who says finance and economics have to be boring?.

FEATURES

  • Fully editable. Easy to change colors, text and photos
  • 25 different slides
  • Finance themed design with serif typographies.
  • Graphs, icons, tables and maps
  • 16:9 screen layout (Can change to 4:3 with a click on Google Slides, but some graphic assets may not work well)

So check the cool templates Slides Carnival has to offer!

Google Classroom, OH MY!

Ed. Tech Resources,

Itʻs FINALLY here!  We get to use Google Classroom at Kamehameha Schools!  Earlier this month, Google announced Google Classroom is now available across domains.  Lucky us!  Iʻm on an as I need to know basis so I donʻt have a lot of experience with Google Classroom YET, but Iʻm teaching myself.  So why should you have to wait for me when if you want to learn on your own you can too?  Here are some great resources to get you started:

Getting Started With Google Classroom
Learn the basic steps of getting started with Google Classroom inside your district’s Google Apps for Education account

50 Things You Can Do With Google Classroom
By Alice Keeler

Marc Nakayamaʻs Google Classroom Resources

60 Smarter Ways to Use Google Classroom

Whatʻs your favorite Google Classroom resource?  Please share in the comments below.

#ksedtech Reimagine Classrooms Resources

Ed. Tech Resources, , ,

Twitter
#learningspaces
@weverworld
@kleinerin

Campfires in Cyberspace
http://tcpd.org/Thornburg/Handouts/Campfires.pdf

EdSpaces Conference
http://www.ed-spaces.com/

Classroom Design Resources from Mary Wever
http://mrswever.weebly.com/classroom-design.html

My Pinterest Board of Learning Space Resources
https://www.pinterest.com/ellenc808/learning-spaces/

Pinterest Board of Furniture for Common Area
https://www.pinterest.com/ellenc808/common-area/

4Tips to Transform Your Learning Space
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/tips-to-transform-learning-space-beth-holland

An Educators Guide to Design Thinking
https://dschool.stanford.edu/sandbox/groups/k12/wiki/14340/attachments/e55cd/teacher%20takeaway.pdf?sessionID=481b6c30852b927b15f6356d6b784d092a84fbef

Hillbrook School iLab
http://www.hillbrook.org/ilab

The Third Teacher
http://thethirdteacherplus.com/

The School I’d Like
http://www.amazon.com/School-Id-Like-Reflections-Education/dp/0415704871/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415317207&sr=8-1&keywords=The+School+I%27d+Like

Group 70
http://www.group70int.com/

5B Fish Blog
https://blogs.ksbe.edu/kaahhee/

Classroom Cribs
http://classroomcribs.com/

Erin Klein’s Blog
http://www.kleinspiration.com/

 

Tuesday Tech Tidbit is Now Just Tech Tidbit

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-SYYF8

Who says it needs to be a Tuesday for a Tech Tidbit?  Tuesday Tech Tidbits are now just Tech Tidbits!  Since I didn’t post in April, this post is not just one tidbit, but a bunch of tech tidbitS.  And here they are:

Use Edshelf to find the perfect Tech Tool to meet your needs!  Simply visit edshelf.com, click on “Search for perfect tool” and use the filters on the left to find exactly what you’re looking for.  See the video below to learn how.

According to their website, edWeb.net is a professional social and learning network that makes it easy for anyone in the education community to connect with peers, share information and best practices, spread innovative ideas, and provide professional development.  What I like best about edweb are the awesome webinars.  They range from Digital Games & Learning: Theory & Research to Global Professional Development Opportunities for STEM Education.  The webinars are recorded so if you’re not available for the live show, watch them later.  Free professional development!

Change.org is a platform for people to start a petition to create the change they want to see.  This is a great tool to empower students to get support from a global audience about something they’re passionate about and want to see changed.  Read how a 13 year old girl started a petition on Change.org to ban plastic shopping bags in her home town in Illinois.  Can you imagine what your students will change?  Why not find out?
Note – one must be 13 years old to create an account on change.org

Are you looking for a way to organize all your online stuff?  Flipboard to the rescue!  View your Facebook feed, twitter feed, instagram feed, blogs you subscribe too, and more in a beautifully looking magazine.  Flipboard is available on moblie devices as well as on your computer.  Watch the video below by Sue Waters as she shares how she uses Flipboard to curate and share content.

 

Automatically Prompt Students to Make a Copy in Google Docs

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Sometimes there are these little tips that change your life when it comes to efficiency.  For example I still remember the day I learned about the increase indent tool in Microsoft Word and stopped using the tab key!  Yesterday I came across one of those little tips that changed my life via Alice Keeler on Twitter.  She shared her blog post on how to prompt students to automatically make a copy from a view only document which is today’s Tuesday Tech Tidbit!

It’s SO easy!  All you have to do is remove the “edit” from the end of a document url and replace it with “copy”.  For example:

URL to shared document –https://docs.google.com/a/ksbe.edu/document/d/18Icfck_cQBZ0wIh-Za-1kEez-GV9KzpY5N195QkhSro/edit

Change the “edit” to “copy” –
https://docs.google.com/a/ksbe.edu/document/d/18Icfck_cQBZ0wIh-Za-1kEez-GV9KzpY5N195QkhSro/copy

Here’s what your students will see when they open the link that’s been changed –

Screen Shot 2015-03-31 at 11.53.16 AM

(Notice how I increased the indent?  Increase indent tool!)

Would you like to see it in action?  Here’s a quick video:

And that’s today’s

TTTthumbnail

Twitter Chats – #TTTidbit

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TTTthumbnail#edchatHI is about to go down in about an hour and the topic for tonight is PD That Works.  Participating in twitter chats is one form of PD that works for me so while today is not Tuesday, this Tuesday Tech Tidbit is really encouragement to try participating in a twitter chat.

How does one participate?  It quite easy actually.  Twitter chats use a hashtag so all you have to do is follow that hashtag.  How does that work?  You could just go on twitter and search #edchatHI but there are a couple of tools that make it easy to participate.  TweetDeck and twitterfall are great for watching the stream of tweets.  Tweetchat is awesome for engaging because you don’t have to add the hashtag into your tweet which saves time.

I’m going to try to make it home to participate in #edchatHI tonight at 6:00 PM Hawaii time so stay tuned for more information on how to use the tools mentioned above.  If you missed #edchatHI, you can always check out their website for a record of the chat.

But in honor of TUESDAY, check out #GAFEchat every first and third Tuesday!  4:00 PM Hawaii time!

Google Hangouts in the Classroom #TTTidbit

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Google Hangouts are a great way to connect classrooms.  Imagine your class taking with the author of a book you just read, or bringing a voyager from the Malama Honua Voyage you’re studying into your classroom.  The possibilities are endless (check out the end of this post for classroom ideas).  But what exactly is a Google Hangout and how do you even get started?

A Google Hangout, or GHO, a free video conferencing tool with up to 10 participants.  But wait, don’t think polycom, think easy way to talk with someone right from your computer, wherever you are.  No need to book a special room or pay for fancy equipment.  But it’s really WAY better than video conferencing.  You can share your screen, share a Google Doc, chat, wear a party hat, and more!  Ready to get started?  It’s Easy.  All you need is a Google Plus account.  If you’re a teacher at Kamehameha Schools, you have one.  If not, all you need is a gmail account.  Here are instructions for setting up a Google Plus Account.

Here are simple instructions for creating a Google Hangout:

  1. Hover your cursor over Home and scroll down and click on Hangouts

    CLick on hangout

  2. On the bottom right, hover your cursor over Start a Video Hangout and then click on Start a Video Hangout

    start

  3. Invite people to attend via email by entering email addresses into the email field and click on Invite

    invite1

    Or, click on change and copy the link to the hangout to share with participants

    link

Below is an infographic that explains the meaning of the icons that are in the Hangout:

gplus

And here’s an explanation of the icons at the top of your GHO:

icons

I’ve found the best way to collaborate on a Google Doc in GHO is to just paste the link to your document in the chat.

Now, start your Hangout and bring your conversations to life!

Educational Applications

The educational application of Google Hangouts really are limitless.  Here’s a list of some ideas but please feel free to comment on this post to share your ideas:

  • take a virtual field trip
  • invite an author into your classroom
  • connect with another class
  • broadcast a presentation (GHO on air allows for more viewers)
  • create a mystery hangout
  • bring in a guest speaker
  • Here’s a resource with ideas from multiple educators
  • Here are some great tips for using GHO in the classroom

If you’re familiar with Skype in the Classroom you are probably familiar with their robust website for connecting educators with other educators to collaborate globally.  I have not found Google Hangout website that is as good as skypes, but I did find these Google Plus Communities:

G+eduhangout

Google Hangouts in Education

Of course, if you know of some others, please add them in the comments.

Google Tour Builder – #TTTidbit

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This week’s Tuesday Tech Tidbit (#TTTidbit) is using Google Tour Builder.  Google Tour Builder is a Google Earth Plugin that allows you to add images, videos, and text to google earth.  But reading about it just doesn’t demonstrate just how cool this tool actually is.  Here are some examples you should check out:

Seriously.  How cool is that?  Google tour builder is such an awesome tool that both teachers and students can use to share their work.  Speaking of sharing…people always want to know if the tours are public or private.  The tours are shared just like a Google Doc so that’s up to the person creating the tour.  You choose to keep it private or share it with the world.

Can you imagine?  Using Tour Builder to map the migration of the Polynesians?  Or how about a tour of an Ahupua’a including its irrigation and lowland and upland elements?  Studying World History?  Create a tour of the American’s attack on the Nazis.

I’m actually looking at buying a new house so I created a tour of all of the houses I want to look at, included pictures and pros and cons of each house and was able to share the tour with my family.  It was a fun way to get started learning the tool and now I’m hooked!  Hey, this might be an awesome tool for Real Estate Agents…

Our #TTTidbit face to face session will actually be next Monday in Kainoa’s room at 3:00.  If you’re interested in learning more, hope to see you there or just let me know when a good time to meet is.

If you’re reading this blog and have used Google Tour Builder as a teacher or had your students use it, I would love if you would share your projects!  Or, if you have any ideas for a tour, leave me a comment!

Happy Tuesday!

Ellen

Cater Videos to Meet the Needs of Your Learners Using EDpuzzle

Ed. Tech Resources

edpuzzleLast week’s Tuesday Tech Tidbit (#TTTidbit) was a Face to Face session on how to use EDpuzzle to meet the needs of learners. Edpuzzle is one of my favorite teaching tools that allows teachers to keep students ENGAGED while watching videos by adding questions, notes, and more to their own videos, as well as videos created by others.  Additionally, you can browse a bank of teacher created EDpuzzles that you can use and or modify to meet the needs of your class.

But wait!  There’s more!  Once your video/lesson is created, you can track your student’s progress.  Not only can you track which students have watched lessons, but you also have access to haw well each students performed on each question as well as a class.  This is awesome for individualized instruction and also to help you drive your own instruction based on whole class performance on questions.

There are even more awesome features to EDpuzzle, but the one we like best at our school is their customer service.  If you have a question or need assistance, the EDpuzzle team gets back to you right away.  For example, we teach Hawaiian Language at our school and EDpuzzle didn’t support Hawaiian, that is until one of our teachers sent them an email and within a couple hours, Hawaiian was added to their languages.  Seriously.  How awesome is that?  The team is constantly trying to make improvements to their tool and meet the needs of their users.

Oh, and did I mention it’s FREE?

Here’s an example of an EDpuzzle:

Have you used EDpuzzle?  How do you like it?  If you haven’t, be sure to check them out at https://edpuzzle.com!

Using the Green Screen in iMovie 11

Ed. Tech Resources,

Green.001I have to admit, it took me a long time to get back into iMovie after Apple stopped making iMovie HD.  I knew iMovie HD like the back of my hand and refused to learn iMovie ’09 because it was so different.  Apple is constantly making improvements to their products and with improvements come change.  Now here’s the thing…when you’re in the classroom and you’ve done something a certain way for quite a while and then all of a sudden it’s different, it kind of throws a wrench in your lesson, am I right?

This recently happened to one of my favorite teachers who uses the Green Screen feature in iMovie.  Here’s a little video I created for her to use with her students with instructions on how to use the Green Screen Feature in iMovie 11: