Cheating is Sometimes Okay: This Cheat Sheet is Awesome!

Here's a big shout-out to Kasey Bell, whose blog Shake Up Learning has some of the best technology tutorials on the web! I am currently teaching our new 9th graders how to use Google Docs and Drive, and found this cheat-sheet which Kasey created. It is easy to follow and I love the design! (What is that handwriting font? Love it!)

All About Google Classroom in 22 Clicks!

If you already have Google Apps for Education at your school, you are one step closer to using Google Classroom. Google Apps for Education (GAFE) has been such a wonderful addition to our school district, and now that Google Classroom has been added, teachers have so many ways to manage their students and assignments. Just go HERE and choose "teacher". You must use your school Gmail account and Chrome as your browser for this to work.

APPS
Google For Classroom Android App

Google for Classroom iPhone App- also works on the iPad


BLOG POSTS
10 Additional Things You Can Do With Google Classroom- Alice Keeler

Google Classroom Adds Five New Improvements for Teachers- Education World

Google Classroom iPad App User Guide for Teachers- EdTechnocation.com

How to Integrate iPads With the New Google Classroom- Edudemic

Star Wars Guide to Google Classroom


OFFICIAL GOOGLE STUFF
Google Classroom Help Center

Official Google Classroom Page


VIDEO TUTORIALS

Unlimited Storage is Coming to GAFE!!

It's coming soon. This is incredible. Google Apps for Education recently announced that they will be providing UNLIMITED storage for their accounts! You can read the full post HERE.

Google Drive Arrives Today

I've always loved Google Apps and have used the Google Docs with my colleagues and students. Storage space is limited to 2GB, so when I read about the new Google Drive which was introduced today, I was very happy. Here's some of its great features:

• 5GB storage (Free account)
• Upload and share your files, which can include videos, photos, PDF's etc.
• Google Docs are built into Google Drive, so accessing your files is easy
• Share and collaborate with others
• Google Drive can be installed on your PC or Mac at home
• Download the app for your Android phone (iPhone app is in the works...)
• Google drive is able to identify OCR, (optical character recognition) which means any scanned text can be recognized in a search. (You can't edit the text)
• If you are looking for increased storage space, you can upgrade to  25GB/month, ($2.49) 100GB, ($4.99/month) or 1TB for $49.99/month.

Here's a video overview of Google Drive:

Google Apps For Education: Is Your School Connected?

Since last year, I have been trying to get my district to make the transition to Google Apps for Education.With free Gmail account for every student, access to Google Docs for all, collaboration is easy. Relying on Google's server, (ours crashed a month ago and had to be replaced-$$) schools have their files automatically backed up and protected from viruses. Google support is excellent, and these are just a few of the schools using Google Apps: Brown University, Wesleyan University, Oregon Public Schools, Boston University, Vanderbuilt University and Notre Dame University. If you would like to see more information or attend a webinar, Google has a treasure-trove of tutorials for you here.

Just remember: you need a functioning network with adequate bandwidth. Otherwise, you will never get to the cloud.