TL-Oct-2010

Office of Educational Technology **Google Apps To Organize and Collaborate 21st Century Classrooms** How to share google docs, spreadsheets, presentations and forms across building departments, grade levels and classrooms to maximize collaboration amongst teachers and building leaders. Your school's tech liaison can turnkey this information to assist staff in becoming more independent as a technology support service for your school.

**Vendor Showcase**:
 * **10:00 - Tequipment showcase of Smart Tables and Aart Pack.**
 * **1:00 - Promethian**

**Agenda**
 * Greetings & Welcome
 * Review of creating google accounts
 * Google Docs, forms & spreadsheets
 * //Activity//: Create & Google share documents with co-worker
 * Google Squared
 * Google Reader
 * //Activity:// Customize your RSS feed with Google Reader
 * Google groups discussion forum: How can all of these be used in school?
 * //Activity//: Join the OET Google Group
 * Google Calendar
 * //Activity: Create a Google Calendar for your school to collaborate with//

Google Docs
The one-sentence explanation: Google Docs is like Microsoft Office but online, accessable 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.

How Students and Teachers Can Use Google Docs (via Google for Educators) Teachers are using Google Docs both to publish announcement about upcoming assignments and to monitor student progress via an interactive process which allows you to give guidance when it might me 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 aparticipants 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 non 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 teachers, 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 the 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 your docs on theirs. You can also use Google Spreadsheet to maintain a collaborative grade book.

ACTIVITY: Create & Share a Google Document We know that most, if not all of you do this already. Please share best practices of how to utilize Google Docs in school.
 * **Create a Google Doc**. It can be a document, spreadsheet, presentation or form. Add some content to it.
 * **Share your document with other Liaisons**. Check your sharing settings. Your can give them access by invitation or link.
 * **Make changes to someone else's google document**.
 * **Review the revision history of your own document**.
 * **Insert either an image, a drawing, or an equation**.
 * **Download your document onto your hard drive**.
 * **Upload a presentation you have from your personal library.**

Google Squared
Google Squared

Google Squared is a search tool that helps you quickly build a collection of facts from the Web, for any topic you specify  media type="custom" key="6994737"
 * Facts about your topic are organized into a table of items and attributes (we call them "Squares" for fun).
 * Customize these Squares to see just the items and attributes you're interested in.
 * See the websites that served as sources for the information in your Square.
 * Save and share Squares with others.



Google Public Data Explorer
Google Public Data Explorer Click here to review the data sets accessible through Google Data Explorer.  media type="custom" key="6994769"
 * <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: normal;">​The Google Public Data Explorer makes large datasets easy to explore, visualize and communicate.
 * <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: normal;">As the charts and maps animate over time, the changes in the world become easier to understand.
 * <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: normal;">You don't have to be a data expert to navigate between different views, make your own comparisons, and share your findings.

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.

ACTIVITY: Add subscriptions to your Reader
 * From the more dropdown menu choose Reader
 * Add 3 subscriptions of interest to you

Google Groups
Google Groups is a service from Google Inc. that supports discussion groups, based on common interests. Membership in Google Groups is free of charge and many groups are anonymous. Users can find discussion groups related to their interests and participate in threaded conversations, either through a web interface or by e-mail. Users can also start new conversations, either through a web interface or by e-mail. Users create customized school groups.

What We'll Be Covering
 * How to Search Google Groups
 * How to Join Google Groups
 * How to Create a Custom Google Group
 * How to Invite people to your Google Group
 * Managing a Google Group

ACTIVITY: Create a Google Group to use with Students or Colleagues
 * Search and join a Google Group about ePortfolios
 * Create a Google group to use with colleagues
 * Invite others to your Google Group
 * Joint the OET Google Group

Google Calendar
[|Google Calendar] //is an easy way for teachers, administrators and students to share time-related info like team schedules, assignment deadlines and school holidays. Anyone who needs to view a calendar can use it from any Internet-connected computer and access it on existing school web pages or within their own Google Calendar account. Changes made by a calendar organizer are automatically seen by anyone who checks, which makes outdated versions a thing of the past//. (via [|Google for Educators] )

What We'll Be Covering

 * How to create a Google Calendar.
 * How to add events to your Google Calendar.
 * How to share your Google Calendar.
 * How to set up reminders in Google Calendar.
 * How to hide and view multiple Calendars.
 * How to subscribe to a Calendar.
 * How to add your Google Calendar to your iGoogle page.

ACTIVITY: Create and share a Google Calendar for your school to collaborate
 * Navigate to Google Calendar in your Account
 * Create a School Calendar
 * Add an event
 * Set a reminder
 * Share your Calendar
 * Find a School Holiday Calendar

Additional Resources and Examples

 * [|How to Share Your Calendar with Co-Workers] (YouTube Video)
 * [|How to Make a Calendar Public] (YouTube Video)
 * [|How to Schedule Meetings in Google Calendar] (YouTube Video)