OverDrive for Homestead!

The Homestead Library is happy to report that we have e-books and audiobooks on offer for students and teachers through our new OverDrive service! It's very easy to use on a variety of devices, like Kindles, smartphones, computers or Chromebooks, just by logging in with the same username and password combination we use for most other on-campus services.

 Right now we have a mixed selection of curriculum titles (like To Kill a Mockingbird, Beowulf and 1984) along with popular titles like Throne of Glass and An Ember in the Ashes. There are also audio and audio-supported curriculum titles in our collection. Please check it out and recommend it to students who might benefit or prefer a e-book version of text. Right now these are single titles while we see what the demand looks like. Explore and let us know what you think!

Google Forms new quiz feature

Google Forms has a new "quiz" feature that allows you to quickly gather and grade data using multiple choice, drop-down or check-box questions. It also gives a really quick snapshot of student results, including frequently missed questions and answer distribution, and has the ability to send immediate responses to students as well.

To use it, create a form as you normally would, then use the Settings icon to make it a quiz. You can add various points values and create an answer key at that point. It's not as robust as using Flubaroo to create and grade online quizzes, but its quick and easy interface makes it a good choice for speedy formative assessments at the beginning or end of classes. For Google's instructions on how to do this, click here.

Setting up a secure password

We often give our students advice on making wise decisions with their passwords (not sharing it, not writing it down, keeping it safe) but often we as teachers do not take the same care with our own password. Here are some guidelines we offer to students in creating their passwords:

1. It should be secure (hard to guess or hack but easy to remember). Most passwords are one or the other.\
2. It should be at least 8 characters in length (more is better).
3. It should have at least 1 number and 1 symbol in addition to letters
4. It should use both upper and lower case letters

One method is to take a word or phrase you can remember and substitute symbols and numbers (such as "0neR1ng2rul$" or "U$Ag0ld-R1O2o16". You can also take the first letters of a memorable phrase or quote and do the same thing (for instance, "Two out of three dentists prefer Crest for whiter teeth" becomes "2oo3DpC4wt"). Extra symbols or letters at the beginning or end can always be added as well (so, #2oo3DpC4wt@@). Some people choose a base password and then add different prefixes or suffixes depending on where the password is being used. Passwords like these are hard to guess or hack but easy to remember.

You may also be interested in a password vault or password manager, which can store, generate and manage multiple passwords for various sites ... but you still need one password to get in, so the above tips should still help.

Taking your Google work with you

For graduating seniors, work that has accumulated in their Google Apps for Education accounts will go away after graduation when their accounts are de-activated. This is also true for teachers who may be leaving the district. But you can take just a few steps to make sure you can hold on to any work you have created. There are two main ways to do it:

By individual document (share and copy)

If you only have a few projects, presentations or papers you’d like to keep, this is the best choice. You can share the document with an outside (personal) Google account, and make a copy of the shared document that will be owned by you. Make sure you make a NEW copy -- if you just share it with your personal account, when the original document goes, so does your shared access.

BENEFITS: You keep the documents in Google format exactly as you created them.

DRAWBACKS: The process must be repeated for every document you want to keep. A short video explaining the process for students (but which applies to teachers as well) can be found here:

http://screencast.com/t/8j4BjdROn

By entire account (Google Takeout)

If you have lots of data, many documents or just want to have an archive of the work you’ve done at Homestead, you can download your entire account using Google Takeout. More information about downloading your data can be found here: https://support.google.com/accounts/ answer/3024190?hl=en

BENEFITS: You can download your entire account with a few clicks.

DRAWBACKS:  The process converts your files to Word, PowerPoint, etc. (it does not keep your documents in Google Docs format). If you want to continue to use your documents with Google Apps, you will need to re-import them to a personal Google account.

To use Google Takeout, go to https://www.google.com/settings/takeout. A short video explaining the process can be found here: https://youtu.be/Xi4NfudYhLo (again, the video explains the process for students but the same applies for teacher accounts).  Ask at the library with any questions.

Tagul.com -- Word Clouds for Chromebooks

Many teachers like to use word clouds either as a teaching tool themselves or as a tool for students to look at and analyze the content or themes of their reading and writing. Unfortunately, many of the most popular tools are not compatible with Chromebooks, which has limited their use in classrooms where most devices are Chromebooks.

Tagul.com is a tool that allows you to create very customized word clouds with ease. It allows single log-on with Google, so it's very compatible with our Google Apps for Education environment. It also lets you customize word choices; choose shapes, colors, fonts and layouts; and download or share in a variety of ways.

Control Alt Achieve has a review of other Chromebook-compatible word cloud generation tools as well as Tagul.

Tech integration training from and with Google

With spring break just moments away and summer around the corner when we return, you may be thinking about some opportunities for professional growth and development. One easy way to both learn and be recognized for how you are currently integrating technology into your curriculum and classroom is through Google for Education training. Google offers free online courses in both Fundamentals and Advanced use of Google Apps specifically in education, from the basics of using Google Drive and Google Classroom to using conditional formatting, charts and pivot tables in Forms to analyze academic trends in student data.

You can complete the entire course, check your skills by "testing out" of subject areas you are already adept in, or just select the specific skill you want to focus on to improve your classroom workflow. If you really get motivated, you can take a certification exam to become a Google Certified Educator at either level (fundamentals or advanced). Have fun exploring!

Chrome extension that supports good digital citizenship

Reword is a new Chrome extension that may help prevent online bullying behavior by drawing a red line through hateful or insulting words or phrases and asking users to reconsider their choices, almost like spell-check. It's a very simple idea but might be the thing that causes a potential harasser to rethink the words and actions they are using. I've tested it on Twitter and Instagram and while it is still in its infancy and doesn't work on all insulting language everywhere, I could see this having a very positive impact.

Here's a link to an NPR article on the subject.