Posts Tagged: Google

Teaching — No Comments
5
Apr 12

Technology defined as I hope it could be.

Announced by Google this week: Project Glass. That in itself is worth at least a cursory glance for any tech enthusiasts, but it is the tag line that defines their perspective that interests me.

We believe technology should work for you — to be there when you need it and get out of your way when you don’t.

For me, personally and professionally, that is how technology should be for teachers. There when you need it and out of the way when you don’t. I am a tech advocate but I also firmly believe that the use of tech is not a prerequisite for outstanding learning or teaching.

qr code

Popularity: 5% [?]

Digital Learning — No Comments
10
Jan 11

Google Shared Spaces.

Google seem to be offering more and more new tools and over Christmas I stumbled upon Shared Spaces. Courtesy of the Wave APIs a range of gadget / collaborative thingymebobs or tools have been made available. The sort of tools that can make learning fun and a little more interactive. I am not saying that these are ‘amazing’ but fun in 1-2-1 schools in particular.

If you already have a Google, Twitter or Yahoo account you don’t need to sign up for the service, just click on the gadget you’re interested in and simply share the URL, tweet, buzz or email.

I had a look over the polling gadgets and trialled the Yes/No/Maybe Gadget. A very quick way to poll a class, colleagues, anyone and there are plenty more gadgets or spaces. Sadly, 23:50 is not necessarily the best time to trial a collaborative tool so I will look back in the morning.

Use the Waffle gadget to pick the date for a meeting or event, annotate a shared map of where your delegates are from. Yes, collaborating gaming might be a distraction, but there is Sudoku and chess.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Uncategorized — 2 Comments
28
Nov 10

Fedex Day or Google Time

Ask yourself, is there one thing I can do, tomorrow or next week, to inject some more autonomy, to provide a little space for non-commissioned work (in your classroom or your organisation). Daniel Pink

It is an old article, but a good indicator of what non-commissioned or 20% Google work time is all about. If you want more of the Daniel Pink keynote you can find it on the SSAT Conference website or animated, courtesy of RSAnimate.

Popularity: 11% [?]

#Success / ICT — No Comments
9
Sep 10

Learning, Unlearning, and Relearning

Just another reason why the skill of learning, unlearning, and relearning is so important in this fast pace digital world. Jeff Utecht

  • We need to rethink how we teach search skills to kids
  • We need to reteach search skills to kids
  • We need to teach kids to search

Know the answer?

Google Instant Search. Or instant feedback as they type in their query. Students can now correct or continue typing and refine down their search. Through in a few short cuts

1) Tab to Autocomplete
2) Up and Down keys for suggestion navigation
3) Right arrow key for I’m Feeling Lucky

and Lifehacker calculated an average saving of 1.7 seconds per search. Not to mention improved accuracy, multiplied by 40 searches per day. So, 24,820 seconds, 413.67 minutes, and nearly 7 hours per year. Not bad.

Popularity: 3% [?]

ICT — No Comments
1
Jul 10

Google Moderator


I really like the concept of Google Moderator but have yet to use it in one of my lessons….. but I do think there is real potential. Today I read that following President Obama address about the recent oil spill, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs answered questions submitted via Google Moderator. To date 15,836 people have submitted 7,468 suggestions and cast 106,191 votes to, “Gulf Coast Oil Leak: What Are Your Suggestions?”

As Wes Fryer writes

If Google Moderator is “good enough” for the White House to use for a national Q&A forum on the gulf oil spill, it certainly should pass muster as a classroom communication tool.

I wonder if I can work it into my teaching before the end of the year, something extra to the Moodle Choice Module.

Having completed this post, I was looking for a share URL and found you can Tweet it, Facebook it and email it. Handy. So, what ICT training would you attend if given a choice?

Popularity: 4% [?]

← Older Entries