GaggleofGoogle

=Thing 4 (Week 2)- Going Google - Google Apps for Education=

Introduction
One of the "hallmarks" of Web 2.0 technology is the idea of the **Internet becoming not just "a place we go," but an application**, allowing users to perform "software" tasks (such as word processing and image editing) online, inside a web browser. Probably the best example of this trend is the development of several online office suites, including Google Apps for Education, which allow users to create **documents**, **spreadsheets,** **presentations, websites, calendars and more** online, for free.

All of you have been using Google Docs since this course began. You submitted a google form to register and you are adding your info and marking off completed activities to the course tracking spreadsheet. This is a useful tool for 21st century productivity. We have almost 20 people all editing a single spreadsheet online.

**Google Docs in Plain English from our friends at CommonCraft**
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What's all the fuss?
While it doesn't include every advanced feature of traditional desktop office software, Google Apps has many attractive features including **some that traditional desktop software can't match**. They are always [|adding new features]. Here are a few of the highlights.
 * It's **easy**. If you are familiar with the basic toolbar functions in Word, Excel and PowerPoint, you should find Google Docs fairly intuitive to navigate.
 * Documents are **stored online** and accessible from any computer. There is only one copy of each document, and you can never lose it.
 * You can work offline and sync to your desktop, so you never have to save anything again.
 * It's **compatible** with Microsoft Office (and other file formats), allowing importing/uploading of existing documents, spreadsheets and presentations, and downloading/exporting of files to edit in Microsoft Office.
 * It's **collaborative**. Share documents with other users and edit them **simultaneously**! One useful classroom application would be for a teacher to give feedback on a student essay or paper within the Google doc, rather than on a printed version. Also great for peer-editing.
 * It offers built-in **revision history**. Google saves every version of a document with a time stamp and username (like a wiki), allowing users to
 * Compare any two versions of a document, seeing exactly what has changed.
 * Know precisely which content was contributed by each user. (e.g. teachers can evaluate and track student contributions over time).
 * Easily revert to an old version at any time.
 * **Chat feature**: Have a conversation with your collaborators in real time.
 * **Instant forms**: Create a survey, poll or other form and email it to selected respondents, or publish it to the web and send the link to desired participants. Results are instantly stored in a Google spreadsheet. Not to mention spreadsheets can automatically grade a quiz for you.
 * Many **sharing and publishing** options.
 * Files can be public or private (unshared); Collaborators may be invited as editors or only as viewers.
 * Files may be **Published** to the web for **viewing as a web page**. Simply share the URL on a website or in email.
 * Files are **embeddable** in other web pages (such as wikis).
 * When you make changes to a **Published** document, the **Published** version updates automatically when the document is saved.
 * Use Google docs as a simple way to create web pages that share links. (Ex. [|Peek's Page])
 * Track changes to any published document via RSS feed.

Discovery Exercise: Exploring Google Apps
Google Drive: [|http://drive.google.com]


 * [|Advanced Google Users- Go HERE]- Google Training Center- also** Advanced Google Users Should Do All STRETCH ACTIVITIES


 * PART 1:** Log into Google Drive using your Google (Gmail) username and password. Complete this Google Drive Scavenger Hunt. There are links to tutorials along the way. There are also some general resources below. Probably a good idea to bookmark the resources for later reference.


 * ‡ HELP Video: ** **-** Intro to Google Docs Interface
 * ‡ HELP Resources: ** Getting Started with Google Docs, Getting Started with Google Sheets, Getting Started with Google Slides


 * PART 2 - Upload, Download**, **Forms** **and Publishing**
 * Upload **[[image:d113learning20/Upload.PNG width="37" height="42"]]one** or more existing documents from your computer to Google Docs. See how they "look" when uploaded.
 * Download **(File --> Download)** a Google document, spreadsheet or presentation from your Google Drive to your computer.
 * **Check out a sample form**. Complete this brief form created using Google spreadsheets. (Instead of sending an email invitation, I simply linked it here). To create your own form, go to your drive, click "New" > "More" > "Google Form". I can think of a hundred ways to use this with students and for administrative tasks!
 * **(OPTIONAL) Publish** a document as a web page (obviously, make it something you don't mind the world seeing). Share the URL for your published document as part of your blog post for this task.

Google Calendar allows you to organize your life. Google Calendar will sync with all of your devices. What I love about Google Calendars is that they can be turned on and off with a click and it allows me to layer my personal and professional calendar in one place, accessible from anywhere.
 * PART 3 - Google Calendar**
 * Create a couple of calendars- one for after school activities for you or a family member and one for a student/department or colleague that could be shared.
 * Play with [|Appointment slots]- how do you think you could use this in your professional life?
 * Want to see if someone is available for a meeting? Use [|"find a time"] feature of Google Calendar. (The person has to have shared their calendar with you).

A calendar I've created that I rely on is my Birthday/Anniversary calendar. I put in every family, friend or co-worker's birthday, set it to repeat yearly and set a reminder to notify me a week before via email and 2 days before via text. Here are my calendars:
 * Set up an event and invite a person from the class
 * Set up a second event, but change the color of this event (think about color coding events for tests, quizzes, homework, meetings)
 * Explore the public calendars, maybe you want to add US Holidays, favorite sports teams, google webinars...

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 * ‡ HELP Video: ** Google Calendar Help Videos
 * ‡ HELP Resources: ** Google Apps Training Center- Calendar

Write a blog post reflecting on your Google Apps for Education experience. Include at least **three ideas** for using Google Apps in your classroom and/or your own professional learning and productivity. At least one idea should reflect a **collaborative** use for you and your students. Please include "**Thing 4**" in your post title. As always, be sure to read and reflect on the blogs of your classmates. You need to comment on at least three blogs per week..
 * Task- Thing 4 **

**Stretch** Beyond Google Docs- More useful tools- **REMEMBER, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN LEARNING, i**f you are already comfortable with Google, extend yourself by trying some of the activities below.
 * [|Google Slides Q & A]
 * Create a Google Custom Search
 * Personalize your Google News
 * Install Boomerang for your gmail
 * Explore Google Scripts and add one (Flubaroo and Mail Merge are good for beginners) to a document or spreadsheet
 * Explore more of what [|google] has to offer.
 * Create a document with a [|TABLE OF CONTENTS] -
 * Game changer- importing multiple events at once into Google Calendar - [|click here]

=Going Google (Week 2 Continued) - On to Google Chrome- click here=