Tech Snacks
Byte-Sized Treats to Transform Learning
Innovations for Learning
Want more? Browse the session list from the day where many presenters have linked their resources and examples. You can also search #IFLLEX on Twitter. This edition of Tech Snacks will highlight a few events from the day that we think you might enjoy perusing during your Summer Break. Enjoy!
Broaden Your Students Viewpoint with Google Earth
Google recently launched a brand new Google Earth experience that is web-based (not an install) and will even work on Chromebooks! See the world like never before and broaden your students’ world view by encouraging them to use this amazing resource. Just visit https://earth.google.com/web to get started.
Take advantage of the Voyager button to see guided tours curated from BBC Earth, Sesame Street and others. Use the “This is Home” Voyager tour to let your students experience many types of homes from around the world or tour the Grand Canyon to see the highlights of the geography in 3D.
Of course you can also visit any place on your own! Want to visit Paris? Take students to the Eiffel Tower which displays in 3D and then switch to street view to walk below the tower as well as get the experience from the observation deck.
You can visit almost anywhere! You can even let Google surprise you by clicking on the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button which will take you to one of over 20,000 different places that Google has curated.
Google Earth on the web is a resource you want to add to your toolkit. What better way to let kids experience the world, even when they can’t be there? To find out more, check out this article from the Google Blog.
Extend Learning Beyond the Four Walls of Your Classroom
Hatching chickens? Want to spice up biography reports? Host a Poetry Live event or stream your class to a class around the world? Take student presentations to a whole new level by exploring YouTube Live (formerly known as Google Hangouts On Air) in your school and classroom. With live stream and archiving, students become creators of content and have the ability to share to a larger audience across other cities, states, and around the world in seconds. All you have to do is create a Hangout, share the link with your families, and viola! Check out this presentation for examples, step by step directions, and a multitude of ways to use this for the upcoming year.
Office Plug in for Google Drive
At IFL 2017, Kaci Cohn shared to a packed room the Google Drive plug-in for Microsoft® Office. This plug-in allows users working in Word®, Excel®, PowerPoint®, and Outlook® to open documents directly from Google Drive, and save to Google Drive, without leaving their Office programs. A wonderful convenience! Thanks for sharing Kaci!
Bring Stories to Life with Scratch Jr.
Scratch Jr. is a free Chromebook, iPad or Android App designed for primary students to create their own stories, animations or games. Students can use images provided by Scratch Jr. or draw their own! Click here to find links to ideas, lessons and helpful resources to get started!
Summer PD & Blogs
Upcoming Technology Related Professional Development
KET Multimedia Days - July 19th ($50)
On Your Own
With all of your free time this summer, we thought you might enjoy perusing a few incredible "ed tech" blogs. These are a few of our favorite to stay up to date with current trends, classroom ideas, and inspiration. These blogs, along with our Tech Snacks, were named as part of the 2017 Honor Roll: EdTech’s Must-Read K–12 IT Blogs:FCPS Office Of Instructional Technology
Email: fcps.oit@fayette.kyschools.us
Website: blogs.fcps.net
Location: 701 East Main Street, Lexington, KY, United States
Twitter: @FCPSOIT