Technology Medley

Salem City Schools recently added Google Apps for Education to its list of technology options. Google Apps provides a free alternative to Microsoft Office products for students in the secondary schools to use. Teachers can easily create and share documents and calendars with each other as well.

I have created several files explaining how to use the various features of Google Apps in Salem. The plan is to add gmail this summer to replace our current mail system. Even though some of the information is specific to Salem teachers, others may find it useful. You can access the pdf files from these links:

Your Dashboard

Start Page

Contacts

Google Calendar

Google Docs Overview

Google Documents

Google Presentations

Google Spreadsheets

Google Forms

Google Sites

For all of those folks out there who still think that social media is a fad, take a look at the information in this video! The world is definitely changing!

Have you noticed the new options that show up when you do a Google search? Typically, you search for a term, reach the main Google page, and start clicking. But now you have more information right at your fingertips! First, click on the Show Options link at the top of the search results page.

You’ll notice numerous new options on the left side of the page. Now you can narrow your search by the most recent pages, forums, videos, etc.  Take a look at the Wonder Wheel near the bottom.

When you click here, Google gives you a visual of related links that may help you narrow down your search results. (The actual search links still show up on the right side of the window. If you click on one of the spokes of the wheel, Google will display a new wheel of related topics. Each of the former wheels moves to the bottom of the screen, so you can always return to your original search.

Another interesting option is the Timeline link. Clicking on this option when searching for Salem yields the following results:

So, the next time you’re searching for something in Google, check out all of the options in the left sidebar. Hopefully, these will lead you to your desired results in record time!

Would you like to have a classroom web site without having to learn to use a web editor such as FrontPage or DreamWeaver? Have you considered starting a blog but it just doesn’t seem to exactly fit your needs? Would you like to create pages that your colleagues could also edit if you chose to give them permission? Then you may want to take a look at Google Sites.

Google is providing web space for schools and businesses to use either as web pages or for simple collaboration with others within the organization. Go to Google Sites, enter your school email address, and click the Get Started button. You will need to wait for a confirmation email before you can actually log into the site. (Note: my confirmation came into my junk mail folder, so be sure to check there. Gotta love mail filters!) Click on the link in the email to get started.

A few of us have already been experimenting with sites. Once you’re logged in, click on the Sites link, and you’ll see “Pam’s Pages” which I created just for playing with the features. The direct link URL looks like this: http://sites.google.com/a/salem.k12.va.us/pam-s-stuff/Home Notice that “salem.k12.va.us” appears in the address, but the site is actually stored on Google’s servers.

You may notice that even though you can see all of my pages, you cannot edit anything. However, I set it up so that Tina could edit my pages since we were working together to plan the March 7th inservice. Presently, my site is set up so that anyone in the world can view it. However, if I wanted to, I could make the site completely private by changing the settings, or I could set it up so that only people signing in with a Salem school email address could see it. I can also set up additional sites that I could make public or private as appropriate.

Google makes it easy to add a calendar, countdown timer, videos, and of course, text and pictures. Set your site as public and share the URL with your parents and you have a quick and easy class web page that you can edit from any computer that is connected to the internet.

You might want to set up a site just for your grade level so that everyone could add links and lesson plans to share with each other and/or with students. It’s also a terrific collaboration tool to use when working on budgets, class lists, and other grade level items. Simply share it with the other members of your grade level, your principal, and anyone else who needs the information. Nobody else will even know that the pages exist unless you explicitly share with them or make the site public.

So, add this to your “to do when I have time” list and give Google Sites a test run. I think you’ll like what you see, and as always, don’t hesitate to ask for help!