Showing posts with label #gafesummit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #gafesummit. Show all posts

10 Must-Shares from the Ever-Inspiring Hawaii #GAFEsummit --- YES!


See #10 below to learn about BitMojis.

BOOM!  --- Here's myYES! list of 10 Must-Shares from the 2016 Hawaii GAFE Summit held in March at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. I hope you find something new that you'd like to try right away. 

1. SoundTrap for Education - "Make music and podcasts online. A collaborative tool for the modern classroom." Looks so easy to set up, and it works with Google Classroom! (You can add the app to Chrome.)

 2. Daring Greatly, an inspiring book about courage I purchased for our faculty. Recommended by #leytonpride principal (and GTANY friend) +Jason Markey.
3. YTTM.tv.

4. Constitute.
5. HSTRY. (You can add app to Chrome)
6. A Polaroid sticker printer! Snap came out last year, and already the new Snap+ is on the scene. Read about it HERE. So great to see an old-school company find success in an interesting new way! I love my sticker that +Tanya Avrith (also a GTANY buddy) made for me!

A photo posted by Linda Lindsay (@mauilibrarian2) on

7. Flat, a collaborative music notation app. (you can connect with Google and add the app to Chrome)
8. Learning to BREATHE, a mindfulness curriculum for adolescents.

9. The Phoenix Coding Academy, for high school students.
"Phoenix Coding Academy will focus on computer coding and technology in an inquiry-based environment that values student curiosity, collaboration, critical thinking, engagement and relevance. Students will learn software development, including game design, web and app  development, networking, information security, engineering, automation and other skills in an innovative and creative setting. Technology will be integrated into a full high school curricula, and students will select career pathways.  Partnerships with the local tech industry will afford  opportunities for guest instructors, internships and industry exploration, while  preparing a more diverse future workforce for the high-demand jobs within the technology sector." PCA website
Google is an Advisory Council Partner of the Academy, and Google education evangelist +Jaime Casap is helping to build this specialized school within the Phoenix Union High School system. The school opens with a Freshman class in August 2016. I can't wait to see how the school develops. Read more about the Academy HERE.

10. +Molly Schroeder  won the Demo Slam with her 3-minute BitMoji demo. BitMoji is a web-based app, and is now a Chrome extension that's available in Gmail! (BTW Snapchat just bought the mobile app, so expect lots of BitMoji action by Snapchatters).

 I was so impressed by how much detail I could add to my BitMoji avatar (even face wrinkles!). What sealed the deal? I could add a flower to my hair, just as I do in real life. So cool!

Add the BitMoji extension to your Gmail and you have a whole array of BitMojis emotions to add to your emails. Like this:
You gotta check out the in-your-face choices, like this one:
Get the idea that I'm charged up about BitMojis? Ummm, ... YES!

Stay tuned for my next blog post: a more in-depth look at this FUN tool. Mahalo, Molly, for the inspiration!

And that, folks, should be enough of a teaser to get you started exploring one or more of these gems.

Have fun! (and let me know how it goes)

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P. S. A big MAHALO to the EdTech Team 
for organizing a learningful GAFE Summit. Per usual, fantastic job. I'm already looking forward to next year!
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3 #GR8Finds at the Hawaii Google for Education Summit

"How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse with Google" huddle
Better late than never right?

 I wrote two posts about the March 2015 Hawaii GAFE Summit: How about those Chrome Extensions! and The #FunFactor ＼(＾▽＾)／ at the Third Hawaii Google Summit!

 And I promised a "What Did I Learn" article. It's #summertime #andthelivingiseasy. I'm finally getting around to it, and I'm making this post part of my #GR8Finds #ThisWeek. [ #twobirds ]

 1. I got a lot out of Michael Morrison's presentation An Invitation to Inspiring Learning Spaces 4c's Learning Environments. I love that Michael added my answer to the question: "What Plant Should I Buy?" to his presentation. (Slide 49).



 2. James Sanders' "How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse with Google" session demonstrated beautifully how to use theme-based activities to introduce Google Apps to students (and teachers). 

 James presented the complete session on Google's Education on Air on May 9:

Check out the Zombie Apocalypse project on James' Classroom in the Future website, complete with an escape plan template and top escape plans. You can submit one!

Hawaii educators +Mia Beatty, +Yvette Santos and +Nikki Kay submitted an escape plan that made the website. So very cool!


3. Along the same line of theme-based activities, the Iron Chef Google Challenge, patterned after the original at ISTE in 2013, was a rousing success!

Four teams created projects based on the ingredients they were given. I voted for Team Equinox, with a little bit of encouragement from +Sean Connors both online, 

 and off☺. (Yes, Team Equinox won.)

 Here are all of the presentations:

and a very informative website here. 

Congratulations to +Michael Fricano II and +Megan Cummings, who did a fantastic job putting the Hawaii Iron Chef Google Challenge together!

I absolutely love the idea of problem-solving, theme-based activities, with that added fun factor of friendly competition and bragging rights! Anyone out there know of any other projects similar to Zombie and Iron Chef?

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All in all, the Google for Education Hawaii Summit put on by the +EdTechTeam is very worth your while, whether you consider yourself a total newbie or a super guru, or anywhere in between. Hope to see you there next year!



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The #FunFactor ＼(＾▽＾)／ at the Third Hawaii Google Summit!


There's no doubt about it. Laughter makes everything Brighter and Better! And there was plenty of laughter at the 2015 Google for Education Hawaii Summit sponsored by the +EdTechTeam.

 I cherish these four #FunFactor moments in particular:

 1.  +Jennie Magiera's keynote was The. Best. Ever! #takearisk

 I said it: 
But @aims11 said it better, with a fist bump and a clip:


Jennie literally got us all out of our seats to dance to "Uptown Funk". Here's  +Michael Fricano II's 30-second clip of it.
We laughed!

  2. +Ally Wlazlo of WeVideo was a HOOT! She easily won the Google Slam!



h/t +Pete Hansen 

 I was happy Ally agreed to a photo with me!


3. +James Sanders offered in his keynote the dung ball as a metaphor for failure. ... 'Nuff said. ☺
IC: +EdTechTeam 

 4. A spontaneous librarian convention happened at my session, the last time slot of the conference! 

A photo posted by Linda Lindsay (@mauilibrarian2) on

... Complete with precious Maui rose lei from +Elizabeth Kaneshiro. #365grateful


So much fun!
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What did I learn at the GAFE summit? Blog post coming soon! ...


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How about those (33) Chrome extensions! A Google Sheet, a Thinglink, and 4 Observations (my preso at the 2015 Hawaii GAFE Summit)



I'm happy to share my research on Chrome extensions for my presentation at Hawaii's Third Google for Education Summit this weekend!
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Check out the QUICKVIEW Spreadsheet of the 33 Chrome extensions I picked, with the following info:
  • Who developed the extension?
  • Why for school? (color-coded)
  • Ratings as of March 19, 2015
  • Similar 4★+ extensions to try (in progress, please recommend)
Click here to get to the spreadsheet.

Feel free to share the Thinglink collage below. Hover over the color-coded tags to get a description of the extension, mostly copied and pasted from the description in the CWS, but some with personal notes.



Here's the color code key of the Thinglink tags and the spreadsheet: 

blue = assistive (10) 
black = productivity (11)
yellow = creativity (4)
red = communication, sharing (6)
green = balance, health (2) (okay I know I need more in this category ☺. Suggest some!)

Click here to share Thinglink link (say "Thinglink link" 10x fast, I dare you ☺).

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Observations:

 1. I would ❤ for the Chrome Web Store people to consider adding the date the extension was uploaded. This would help extension shoppers interpret the numbers much better, I think.

 2. This was the first time I presented without a slide presentation (scary). Instead, I used OneTab. The link bit.ly/extensionshare leads to the share. OneTab is an extension, of course ☺. 

 3. I was pleasantly surprised to see other Summit presenters using the bit.ly URL shortener. It's definitely my favorite. There's a Chrome extension for it, naturally.

 4. I was thrilled to hear two mentions of Chrome extensions on my list of 33, at the Summit. (I'm sure there were others)

 Last Pass was Matt North's contribution to the Demo Slam

  And (#SuperEduStar) +Jennie Magiera mentioned KeyRocket in her "Find Extra Hours in Your Week" session.
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 I'll be writing at least two more articles about the Summit itself (awesome, as usual!). One will be my impressions, and the other will be about new tools, just as I did last year [ impressions 2014 | tools 2014 ] . Stay tuned!



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Five #GR8Finds #This Week 3.13.15 -- #Googleonthebrain: Calendar, CFO Resignation, Search Ranking, Red Alert, and a Conference



[I blog every Friday about my #GR8Finds #ThisWeek. My list is very v-e-r-r-r-y selective
--my own crème de la crème curation. Generally, three to five #GR8Finds.]

March 13, 2015


I did not intentionally aim for this list to be exclusively Google. ☺ The first three presented themselves, #4 was in today's Maui News, and yes, I am so looking forward to the +EdTechTeam Google For Education Hawaii Summit next week!


1. Introducing Google Calendar on iPhone




Wired says "Finally!" and MacWorld weighs in.

 2. Google's Chief Financial Officer +Patrick Pichette Resigning



This unusual farewell touched my heart and made me look at my own priorities.

 3. The huge implications of Google’s idea to rank sites based on their accuracy

 This op-ed from the Washington Post Energy and Environment department caught my attention.

 Here's Google official page on how search works.

 4. Red alert: Google's safe browsing system targets 'unwanted software'


Love it!

 5. Google for Education Hawaii Summit, March 20 - 21




Sooo looking forward to this conference!



Happy Spring Break for those of you who have one!





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5 Tech Tools, Innumerable Possibilities -- from the Hawaii #GafeSummit




Five tech tools -- innumerable possibilities.

 I think our teachers and students will absolutely love these tech tools!

 I learned about them at the Hawaii #gafesummit, which was a delightfully surprising experience.

 Have you had any experience with these tools?
1. PearDeck

I learned about this very promising now-in-private-beta tool from +Chris Bell's demo slam.

PearDeck is "an interactive presentation system for active classrooms". It's made especially for 1:1 Chromebook classrooms.

 It's a start-up by 3 Iowa City teachers whose web-based gradebook ActiveGrade, LLC, was acquired by Haiku Learning. A talented trio indeed!

 According to the web site, "Pear Deck makes it easy to plan and build interactive lessons directly from your Google Drive that promote active learning in the classroom. As students interact with the lesson, real-time data provides instructors the feedback they need to adapt teaching on-the-fly."

 This video gives a nice overview of the product.
.
Here's a review: ActiveGrade founders create new education startup Pear Deck, Silicon Prairie News, March 3, 2014.

 I installed the Pear Deck Beta Preview app and since PearDeck is not yet available, I applied to join the Beta ASAP. :)

I hope to hear from PearDeck soon!

 2. Photo Sphere

I learned about Photo Sphere for Google Maps 'Up, down, and all around. Immersive 360º views', from Googler +Evan Rapoport. Photo Sphere is an Android camera app. (Hopefully an iOS version will be available soon.) 

You can explore the gorgeous photospheres in Google Maps | Views and also join the Google Maps View G+ community. The official hashtag throughout the social networks is #photosphere. Check out this 360º photo of Kula, Maui, by Ed White. So peaceful.




Photo Sphere would be perfect for any place-based student project, as would Tour Builder and Google Map Engine.


 3. Tour Builder

Tour Builder, also in Google Maps, is a browser-based tool to 'put your story on the map'. This would be an engaging way for our students to document and share their Maui field trips, as +Pete Hansen and his seventh graders have done with Waihe'e Ridge Hike. Great photos!

 Tour Builder looks simple to use and is recommended by Google Lit Trips founder Jerome Burg.
4.  Google Maps Engine

 I was blown away by +Molly Schroeder's "Pack Your Bags" Demo Slam. She had asked participants to fill out a Google Form describing their favorite vacation spot.

 Molly compiled the data into a map, using Google Maps Engine. Impressive!
Molly describes the process of importing data into Google Maps Engine, in this tutorial.




Google Maps Engine is a fantastic tool for making all kinds of crowdsourcing comparisons, across the curriculum and across the globe. So powerful!
5. Eye-Fi

 Eye-Fi for Android is an SD card for instantaneous wireless transfer of photos. The card creates its own WiFi signal!

I first heard about Eye-Fi via  +Veronica Partida's tweet during the Summit.


 Then coincidentally, +Chad Nacapuy described Eye-Fi in detail in our weekly Google Rocks! Hawaii hangout. Bonus: +Michelle Carlson Colte and +Sean Connors chimed in with how they would use Eye-Fi in their classrooms. Check it out:
Eye-Fi would be fantastic for our students' photo projects, again, across the curriculum. What a timesaver!


Yes, 5 tech tools, innumerable possibilities.

... Google is so bright, I gotta wear shades. :)
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