To Learn Twice

I have been gathering a list of educational institutions in Illinois using Google Apps for Education. Here is what I have found: The map and list can all be seen in a larger format here . Please let me know in the comments if your school or district is missing. Illinois Seal Image from: http://www2.illinois.gov/about/PublishingImages/seal.gif

This is a question that comes up quite often when looking at Google Apps for Education: How do I block students from adding gadgets in Sites in Google Apps? The FAQ and Google Code Resources that answer this question makes it seem pretty simple, and it is, once you know the step by step instructions. First of all there are 2 main options of blocking gadgets in sites or on iGoogle pages: Blacklist Gadgets One at a Time:  I would only use this option for a domain that is for staff or adults only where I have a particular person complaining about a specific gadget Blacklist everything and then Whitelist Gagets One at a Time:  I would use this option if you want to protect students from any possible inappropriate gadget Either Option Starts out by creating a simple interface in a Google Site for Whitelisting and Blacklisting. Step 1 : Sign into Google Sites with an account that is an Administrator of Google Apps for Education and create a new site.  Step 2 :...

This is a question that came up in the Illinois Google EDU user's group this morning. Let me start off with the disclaimer that I am not a Lawyer Referencing this from the State of Illinois (where I work): http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/records_management/electrecs.html Effective January 1, 2001, the  Local Records Act (50 ILCS 205)  is amended to allow Local Government agencies to reproduce existing public records in a digitized electronic format with the intent to dispose of the original records. This practice is only allowable if the electronic records are reproduced on a "durable medium that accurately and legibly reproduces the original record in all details," and "that does not permit additions, deletions, or changes to the original document images." In addition, the digital records must be "retained in a trustworthy manner so that the records, and the information contained in the records, are accessible and usable for su...

Most of us know the power that immediate feedback offers students. If in doubt, check out McREL's materials on Classroom Instruction that Works . However, offering this is often difficult to do in our classrooms. We have turned to "clickers" and quick forms to provide feedback, but in the last 24 hours I have found another tool for our Feedback toolbox: Self Grading/Scoring/Reporting Quiz Using Google Forms and Spreadsheets Through Matthew Peskay in  the Google Certified Trainer's group I came across an example of a Self Grading/Scoring/Reporting Quiz. Where he posted: To see an example of the solution we're using now you can watch this YouTube  tutorial we made for our staff.  To make things as easy as possible we  actually published a form template with the script already installed so the  staff member just needs to add the trigger (shown in the video).  Near the  end of the video are some examples of the e-mails the student receives wit...

A couple of weeks ago I took a look at our district's twitter feed and it said that "school would be closed today". That was a post put up 2 weeks before because of a snow day. Our facebook page had the same news. If I was still in school I would have totally shown that to my parents to stay home. It got me thinking about what would be the best information to post to our social network sites in a timely fashion. I ended up with events because we have stuff going on across the district all the time, which could provide a steady stream of status updates and tweets. The problem is: "how do you get this stuff posted without handing out login credentials to everyone?" So this is what I came up with to solve the problem: Google Form To Google Spreadsheet To Google Calendar Via Google Script To Gmail Via Google Calendar Reminders To Facebook Via Gmail Filters and Forwarding To Twitter Via Facebook It actually works and now we just have to provide access to a Google fo...

Over my years as a teacher, and as an educator that spends a lot of time looking at technology, I have continually tried to come up with a simple model of how students should use the Internet to help themselves learn through researching. I guess the current model I have ended up with will work for anyone, not just students. In putting this together I have tried to reflect each of the steps in the learning/research process, included traits of information literacy, considered the effects of social networking, and mixed in the power of the read/write process. I feel the need to document this model and try to find a model that outlines the process of learning from online sources because the Internet is a dynamic system where new information is being created at a rate never seen before in history and existing content continues to change and mature. This rapid proliferation of free information is lowering the value of factual information and is putting more of a priority on the speed at whic...

This is the second in a series of posts about roadblocks organizations face in deploying Google Apps for Education (GAFE) . In the last post I went into depth about the FUD that circulates around Google Apps Deployments. In this post I will discuss CRUD, which are the reasonable Concerns, Reservations, Unknowns, and Decisions (along with some of the “ ilities ”) that emerge when choosing to use Google Apps for Education. As the person that feels the heat for anything that goes wrong with educational technology in our district, from PEBKAC errors to full network meltdowns, there is CRUD that goes along with any hardware, software, or cloud based deployment. A big part of my job is to be paranoid and critical about technology until I can be reasonably assured that it will work reliably, to the point of invisibility, to my schools. Although few products are actually invisible, to the level of a classroom chalkboard, my goal is that they all end up there. With that in mind I am alway...