Google+Apps+in+the+classroom+Day+1

Advanced Google Search Techniques
During this session we are going to discuss some modifiers that you can use to fine-tune your search results. These tricks and techniques will save you time and provide you with better search results.

Some basic tips for enhancing your searches:
 * **Quotations (“”)**: Allows you to search for an exact phrase.
 * **Dash (-)**: Exclude words from your search. Example: [|Jets -football]. This example would search for pages that included the word “Jets” but not the word “football”. This can be incredibly useful when you know that a term you're searching for has multiple meanings.
 * **Tilde (~)**: Tells Google to not only search for the word you provided, but also any and all synonyms for that word.
 * **OR**: Allows you to define an either/or condition for your search.
 * **Ellipsis (...)**: Allows you to define a numerical range. This is particularly useful when you're searching for a range of dates. Example: [|Red Sox World Series Wins 1919...2003].

Some other useful search operators:
 * **“define:”**: Looks up the definition of a given word.
 * **“site:”**: Searches for results only within a given site. Example: Search for “[|last day of school site:schools.nyc.gov] ” will search for the phrasephrase //last day of school// and only show results on that begin with [|http://schools.nyc.gov] in the URL. You also use this for partial URLs. For example, if you only wanted to search government websites, you could search for “global warming site:gov”. This will pull up pages that mention global warming, but only those who reside on the U.S. Government's servers. This also works for //.edu// domains as well as country-specific domains, such as //.uk//, //.ch//, and //.fr//.
 * **“link:”**: This command will pull up all the pages that link to a certain page. For example, if we wanted to see what pages linked to [|OIT Live], we would give Google the following command: [|link:oitlive.com].

__**You can even use a Google search box for math:**__
 * **Mathematical Equations**: Plus and minus are pretty straight-forward (e.g. + and -). An asterisk (*) can be used for multiplication and a slash (/) can be used for division. More complicated math can also been computed, but not by this author.
 * **Conversions (Example: “cm in feet” or “four gallons in liters”)**: You can convert units of measurement, whether they be metric, standard, currency, or temperature.

**Informational Literacy** In a world of information overload, it is vital for students to not only find information but also determine its validity and appropriateness. Our information literacy material demystifies the process of finding and validating online information. These vital skills are needed as students prepare for our global economy.

iGoogle
Many of us live with the default homepage that came with our browser. [|iGoogle] allows you to take control of that starting page and use it as a dashboard—a virtual desk, if you will. iGoogle is incredibly easy to get the hang of and puts the rest of your Google application at your fingertips.

**What We'll Be Covering**

 * Setting up your iGoogle page.
 * Adding, removing, and customizing gadgets.
 * Adding and removing pages.
 * Creating your own gadget.

**Activity**
You can do this as we're touring iGoogle, if you'd like.
 * 1) Find the Google Docs gadget and add it to your page.
 * 2) Create your own countdown gadget (countdown to your birthday or the next vacation).

Google Reader
Most websites that post content regularly (e.g. blogs, news sites, your school's announcement page, etc) include RSS feeds. You've probably never noticed them, but they are a useful feature designed to save you a bunch of time and a bit of a headache. Google Reader allows you to take feeds from the websites that you visit most frequently and read that content all in one place. On top of that, Google Reader allows you to share articles and posts that you find interesting with your friends, family, and colleagues. This allows you an easy way to develop a professional learning network that helps you grow as a professional.

Google Reader has a lot of moving parts. We're only going to cover a few.

**What We'll Be Covering**

 * We'll discuss how to get comfortable with Google Reader and find your way around.
 * How to subscribe to a feed that you're interested in keeping up to date on.
 * How to unsubscribe to a feed that you don't particularly like anymore.
 * How to discover new feeds that you haven't heard of, but might be right up your alley.
 * How to share posts with other Google Reader users.
 * How to share your page with the world.
 * How to add Google Reader to your iGoogle page.

The one-sentence explaination: //[|Google Docs] is like Microsoft Office but online, accessible from anywhere, and much easier to share//. It should be noted that Google's [|Terms of Service] require that students be at least 13 in order to create their own account.
 * Google Docs**

How Students and Teachers Can Use Google Docs (via Google for Educators )
//Teachers are using Google Docs both to publish announcements about upcoming assignments and to monitor student progress via an interactive process which allows you to give guidance when it might be of maximum benefit – while your student is still working on an assignment. Through the revisions history, you can see clearly who contributed to what assignment and when; if a student says he or she worked on a given project over the last two weeks, it will be documented (no more "dog ate my homework" excuses)//

Some Advantages of Google Docs

 * **They promote student group collaboration**: Multiple users can edit a doc simultaneously. On top of that, each doc is stored online, which means doc participants don't need to be in the same room in order to edit the same document. Group members can work from home.
 * **They are backed-up automatically**: When you store your information on Google Docs, there is no need to worry about emailing yourself a file, losing your flash drive, or forgetting to save the most recent draft.
 * **You can see every revision that's been made**: Not only does Google save your file online, it saves every version of it. If you make a mistake, you can roll back to a previous version. As a teacher, you can scroll the history of revisions and see how a student's draft progressed over time.
 * **Google Forms make data collection much, much easier**: Teachers can create a Google Form that will allow students to enter in information. The form will then save all of this information to a spreadsheet. You can create assessments and collect student information without having to shuffle through a stack of paper.
 * **You can collaborate with your colleagues**: Don't have a lot of common prep time with your co-teacher or other colleagues? Create a doc and share it with them. You can collaborate on lesson plans, section sheets, and student records on your own prep and they'll be able to comment and add to your docs on theirs. You can also use a Google Spreadsheet to maintain a collaborative grade book.

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**What We'll Be Covering**

 * [|Creating and sharing documents]
 * [|Editing your documents]
 * [|Organizing your documents]
 * [|Uploading existing files to Google Docs]
 * [|Publishing your documents online]

**Additional Resources and Examples**

 * [|Google Docs in Plain English] (YouTube Video)
 * [|Google's Tour of Google Docs]

Mini-Project: Create and Share a Google Document
It's time to put your new-found expertise to work.
 * **Create a Google Doc**. It can be either a document or presentation and add some content to it.
 * **Share your document with a partner**. Give them access to edit the document.
 * **Make changes to your partner's google document**.
 * **Review the revision history of your document**.
 * **Insert either an image, a drawing, or an equation**.
 * **Download your document onto your hard drive.**