miGoogle Top 9 Take Aways
A Quick Look at Some Awesome Tech
Thanks for Your Input
I chose my sessions based on the feedback you provided in the survey, so thank you very much! I really do appreciate you taking the time out of your day to help me out.
The top sessions you chose were about formative assessment, distractions, Google Drive, Google Slides, and Google Cardboard. While this isn't an exhaustive list of everything I picked up at the conference, I wanted to quickly get back to you with a brief highlight of topics you may be interested in.
If you want to learn more about any of these topics (or the sessions from the survey), please feel free to contact me. I'd love to stop over sometime and talk tech! :)
ReadWrite Extension for Chrome
Teachers get access to the extension for free. Add it to your Google Account here. I'm looking into the cost of getting it for the Chromebooks. It reads text, highlights, provides lighting changes, and so much more. Special education teachers were raving about it.
Free Chromebook Classroom Email Course
John Sowash, a Michigan educator, has created this free online course to help teachers set up their CHromebook Classrooms.
Google Cardboard: Virtual Reality
All attendees received a Google Cardboard viewer, which allows you to view virtual reality (360) videos on your phone. If you would like demo, let me know! It's a lot of fun to play with.
Managing Distractions
This presentation offered many good tips to manage distractions with technology. (Click on the link for the slides.) The main advice was to set up procedures and expectations for the students to follow.
Using Google Forms as Formative Quizzes
A lot of formative assessment was focused on using Google form's new "Quiz" feature. The options allow you to provide automatic feedback to students. This video gives a good overview of the new features.
Adobe Spark
Adobe has a new--and free--product that many teachers are using for presentations, portfolios, student showcases, etc. Adobe Spark seems easy to use and a good tool for students and teachers. This video gives an overview how Spark can be used, including classroom use.
Goosechase: A Scavenger Hunt
Teachers and administrators are using this fun tool to host scavenger hunts for students and staff. Goosechase is free (up to 25 users) and can be set up to get students moving and using technology at the same time.
Formative Assesments During Presentations
Google Slides now offers a new option when you click on "Present" By clicking the arrow next to this option, you can select "Presenter View" which allows for the audience to submit questions. It also allows the audience to vote up questions they also have. I haven't used it yet, but several presentations did and it was awesome!
Alice Keeler: A Google Classroom Guru
Anytime Google Classroom came up, Alice Keeler's name was mentioned. Her website has a ton of resources for Google Classroom and Chromebook users. There's a book for sale, but several people said most of the information is on her website for free.