Google Keep

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Do you have stickies all over your desktop? Do you see your students with stickies all over their desktops?

Google Keep is an much better alternative to using stickies because:

  • Keep notes are accessible via any device (including phones)
  • Keep notes can easily be shared with others, making them ideal for group planning
  • Keep notes can be time specific with the ability to set reminders and deadlines

I Do Not Like Green Eggs and SPAM

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Nobody likes SPAM, dealing with it is tricky, and there certainly is a lot of it!

Global spam trends
By now you should know:

  1. Where your messages go in gmail,
  2. How to find an email using Gmail’s search (*pay particular attention to this video at 1:06 where it explains how to include spam and trash in searches),
  3. How to block unwanted messages.
  4. How to access your spam folder and help your Gmail learn what legitimate mail is not spam.
  5. How to identify a message that is SPAM
    Click on the quiz below and see if you can identify all the markers of a spam message.
    Capture

Because this is different for every individual, please continue to periodically check your spam folder. Check out this resource to learn why certain type of messages end of in your spam folder and what you can do about it.

 

 

Citation and Research Transformed w/ Easybib

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All students and staff now have access to the upgraded school edition of EasyBib.  This program is not a cure all for all of our citing needs, but it may well be a good tool to initiate more conversation around research and citation skills.  Currently, we are exploring the program, but feel free to help students sign in right away.  The new edition allows students to cite in a variety of citation styles free of charge.  -Kevin

This tool can help you transform what Kasman and Boyer (2015) refer to as the “iterative, social, collaborative—and messy” process of inquiry in their article in this months issue of Educational Leadership titled Research Untethered.

Kevin is curating more information that will help you and your students use Easybib on the US Library Moodle site (under the US Other category), but for now here is some basic access information.

There are five main ways to access this tool, all with your normal ZIS username and password: (a) as a Google App, (b) a Google Add on, (c) extension, (d) through mobile device apps, or (e) directly through the easybib.com website.

Please access any one of these first ON CAMPUS to ensure you receive the Pro version. 

 

(a) Google App
To access this resource sign into your google drive online (no additional sign in necessary for students or faculty) and select the grid icon in the upper right hand corner to view your apps

easybibeasybib access from drive  Easybib icon in drive

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(b) Add-on w/in Google Docs 
Easybib can also be accessed from within a document by clicking Add-ons too:)

get add on 1addon get

 

(c) Extension  
Get the Easybib extension 

get easy bib extension
Add easybib extension
extension
(d) Mobile app 
Through mobile devices (iTunes app or Android app) which has added features such as scanning bar codes of books

IMG_2235

 

 

 

(e) Easybib.com

4 Things You Can Do NOW to Organize Your Google Drive

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All of us organize our Google Drive a bit differently, however there are four simple methods we can embrace to make our Drives easier to navigate.

  1. Clean, Clear Folder Structure:
    *This facet of organization is very specific to each individual.  Here are three very different examples of how faculty members approach folder structures:The first example showcases a topic as the top level folder.  Subfolders are then broken down into specific type of resources: (1) student work, and (2) teacher “work” broken down by file type (docs, slides and in this teachers case a specific software used for this course).
    Example of organization from Keri
    The second example showcases the use of  numbers associated with units.  This method also allows you to order items when Googles alphabetized method is working against you:
    unit exampleThe third example showcases the power of a folder structure that embraces top level folders that are shared with students. This individual has clearly structured top level folders for each class to share work with students in an organized fashion.  In addition, clearly labeling folders with the word Moodle let’s both the student and teacher know that the folder structure is linked into their Moodle course.
    Shared with student online viewshared with students desktop app view

 

2. Use different colors  to quickly distinguish folders from each other.
 color changecolor

 

 

3. Standardize your naming conventions and embrace numbers to best view items sequentially.
Standardize file namesrename

4. Organize items shared with you

Items shared with you can be difficult to locate because these items are not automatically added to your My Drive folder. Using the Add to My Drive function allows you to organize items shared with you.  If the naming conventions of the items shared with you conflict with your own approach to organization consider creating a folder that does and adding the shared file to this folder.

Add to My Drive

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leverage Vocab.com

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Esther, Mary Ann and our English colleagues are using Vocab.com with students, and you can too!

To access vocab.com, make sure you are signed in to your school Google account  (Chrome works best) and go to vocab.com in any of the following three ways:

 Through Moodle’s left navigation bar

 Screen Shot 2015-03-17 at 6.01.02 AM

Directly in Google Apps
2015-03-17_0559

 Straight through the url vocab.com

Screen Shot 2015-03-17 at 6.01.29 AM

 

You can make your own vocabulary lists based on subject specific vocabulary and share them with your students. Talk to Esther, Liz or Ian if you want a brief tutorial, or read the instructions on the website itself.