How to Sell Items on Watercooler and Make Your Buyers Love You

Being part of the watercooler group is somewhat of a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, you can find things for sale that you never even knew you needed until you saw it posted for such a good deal! But, on the other hand, there are so many emails that clog your inbox. Even if you filter the messages or even ask them to skip your Inbox, it can get overwhelming. Then, as if that isn't enough, you get follow-up emails from people that say when things have been sold. And, yet, there are still about 400 people on watercooler, including me! So, I have some suggestions on how to sell multiple items on watercooler, while also decreasing the impact on people's inboxes and making buyers love you!

First, we can leverage the power of Google to set up a virtual thrift sale. Just create a new folder and set the sharing settings to "anyone with the link can view." People will be able to open your folder and look at all of your goodies. You can right click on the image to enter the name of the item and a price. You can also put a Google document in that folder that provides descriptions and prices. As people purchase your wares, simply delete the photo from the folder and it will not appear to your shoppers.

To start a new folder, use the red "New" (Or "Create") button on the left side of your Google Drive Screen and choose "Folder." A new folder will be created in your Google Drive. You can single-click on that folder and then use the image of the person with the plus by it to change the sharing settings of the folder. You will need to do this in order for people to be able to open your folder. You will likely want to set it so that people with the link can view the folder so that no one except you can delete images from the folder.

Then, begin dragging and dropping or uploading your photos to the new folder. You will want to probably set the folder to thumbnail view so that people see a gallery of photos in the folders.

Once you try this once, you'll see that the setup is pretty easy and then you'll have it all set to go next time you have things to sell. Once your shared folder is set up, then you can share it in your email with the watercooler group. When you compose an email, click the Google Drive symbol near the "Send" button and you can choose your shared folder. That folder will appear as a clickable link in the email.

This way, you can send one email to the watercooler group with information about the types of things you have for sale, and a linked folder of images and/or descriptions. As you sell your items, delete them from the folder and they will no longer be available for viewing. If you need help setting this up, just get in contact with me. You'll make the other 399 members of watercooler so much happier to decrease their watercooler emails by about 75% while still being able to shop for things you never even knew you wanted because it is such a good deal!

For an example, feel free to see my shared folder "Items For Sale" by clicking the link below.

Items For Sale

Folders for shared images work really well for other things also. If you have photos from a field trip, you can upload them to a folder and set it so that anyone with the link can view and send the link to parents. Parents can see and download images of their own students without worrying about attachment limits. You can share a folder of images with students to help further illustrate certain concepts in your classroom. What other things have you used shared folders for?

Reading Paper vs Reading Screens

As our high school has transitioned into becoming a high school 1:1 with mobile computing, teachers have had discussions of the impacts of technology right at the fingertips of high school students. Discussions sometimes hinge on whether or not students should utilize online text; and the differences between reading online and reading offline.

There is research trickling out that supports teachers' instincts to question the difference between reading online and reading offline. First, to define the difference. There are some tasks that take offline reading, say reading a novel, and put them on a device in text format. Researchers are suggesting that there isn't much difference in the reading skills needed to read a novel on paper and read a novel on a device. In fact, often times, applications have built-in dictionary and highlighting options that could enhance the reading of novels. Putting a textbook online doesn't change the skills needed to actually read that textbook.

However, our approach to materials on screens and to materials on paper can differ greatly. According to Dr. Donald Leu, a University of Connecticut - Storrs researcher, there is an overlap in the skills needed to read materials online or offline. Skills such as sounding out words, developing vocabulary and building background knowledge are important to both types of reading.

Where reading online becomes a different exercise than reading offline is when students (or adults) are using the internet to find information. Our approach to reading becomes different on the internet. We are skimming, scanning, looking at a large number of sources to find answers. If students begin to take this same approach to reading a textbook on a laptop, they are no longer gaining a deep understanding of the text. Placing informational text (such as a textbook) that contains the answers, conclusions and outcomes the teacher expects students to gain in front of them requires completely different skills than seeking desired information from a myriad of sources.

Dr. Leu explained that "online reading almost always involves trying to solve a question or problem you've got" and for teachers this means teaching the "reading skill of evaluating the reliability of a web source..., effective email communication or how to synthesize information from multiple sources to draw a conclusion." In a textbook, students are looking for an answer that is already there and has been deemed reliable; on the internet, they are searching for an answer and need to ensure it is from a reliable source.

There seem to be two things going on here: our psychological approach to screens versus paper, and the skills needed to filter online information for reliability. No matter your opinion or nostalgia for feeling and smelling the pages of a paperback novel in your hand or cracking open a new textbook your first week of college, the truth is that both types of reading - online and offline - are important skills for students to know. Students can search for answers with Google at home in their bedrooms much more quickly than consulting Encyclopedia Britannica, but are we setting them up to become fountains of mis-information if we don't ask them to evaluate the millions of results rendered from their query? What can we do to help students become purveyors of web research?




Quotes based on transcripted interview from Education Week, "Growth of Online Reading Fuels New Achievement Gap, Researchers Say."  Sep 2013

Education, In 30 Seconds

George Couros is the Division Principal for Parkland School Division and an Innovative Teaching, Learning, and Leadership consultant. He presents all over the world and extensively uses social media to connect with other educators and leaders. According to his blog, The Principal of Change, he believes that teachers should inspire kids to follow their passions, and to allow them to inspire us to follow ours.

George recently started a new project called EDU in 30, or #EDUin30. It is a Twitter project whereby people use the new 30-second video feature of Twitter to record a response to an question prompt. Each week he will post a new question. 

The rules for participation are simple:

1. Post a video answering the question.

2. Tag the post with #EDUin30 and #EDUin30w1 (for week 1, then w2 for week 2 and so on).

This got me thinking. We have some pretty amazing and innovative teachers here in Chippewa Falls and I think we should give George Couros a run for his Canadian dollar (and that's only about $.79 US)... 

My challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to flood Mr. Couros's Twitter feed with our totally amazing #EDUin30 posts. Make sure you also tag #cfausdrocks. And mention @gcouros if you're feeling daring...

The question for week 1 is: What is one practice in your classroom that you would like to share? So, what is something amazing you do with your students? Share it with the world in 30 seconds or less!

If you've never used Twitter before, sign up for an account at www.twitter.com. Start by following Cara (@caramcs) and myself (@thinkbigmuch) and we will help you from there. If you're not comfortable posting yet, use the Twitter search bar to search #EDUin30 to get some ideas for your classroom!

Where Did My Chrome Bookmarks Go?

One of the biggest differences from using Internet Explorer and Chrome, from a user standpoint, is that preferences and bookmarks can be saved in the cloud, meaning that you can access them from any computer on the internet. But in order to take advantage of having your Chrome bookmarks wherever you log in, you must be signed in to Chrome before you save a bookmark.

To sign in to Chrome, look to the top right corner of your Chrome screen. If there is a silhouette image of a person, then you are not signed in to Chrome. If it says your name, you are. Click on the image of the silhouette and choose "Sign in to Chrome."

Once you are signed in, your bookmarks will save to the Google cloud and be available for you anywhere you sign in. Some teachers have been experiencing loss of their Chrome bookmarks when their machine is reset or rebuilt. If you are not signed in to Chrome, your bookmarks are saved on the computer and when the computer is wiped and rebuilt, those bookmarks are lost.

Signing into Chrome has other benefits as well. If you explore Google Apps or Extensions, these will also be available to you when you are logged into Chrome on your machine. Also, when you click on the link to open your Gmail or Google Drive, you will already be signed in.

To easily add bookmarks, click the star icon in the address bar when you're on your favorite website. You can also click the chrome menu (three lines in the top right corner of the window), click Bookmarks -> Bookmark This Page or just drag the lock or page icon in front of the URL in the address bar down to your bookmarks bar. If you are signed into Chrome and can't see your bookmarks under the address bar, try clicking the chrome menu, then Bookmarks -> Show Bookmarks Bar. 

For more information on managing and organizing your bookmarks, visit Google Supprt at: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/188842?rd=1

Google Add-Ons for Everyone!

Google Docs was born through the acquisition of a smaller company in 2005 and was officially made available to Google Apps users with its current name in 2007. If you have used Google Docs for more than a month in your life, you know that it is updated and changed frequently. Features are added; layouts are changed; updates are made. As frustrating as this can be sometimes, there is no argument that Google Docs has come a long way in the last few years. It will probably never rival the power of other paid word processors, but for a free application, built with all of the collaboration and sharing features it boasts, it definitely is still up there as far as usefulness in education goes.

Sometimes releases of new features come in Google Labs, written by creative little Google minions, based on need and customer feedback. Often times these Labs, if popular and effective enough, become part of the regular Google Suite. Most often Labs are seen in Google Mail and Google Calendar. In the realm of Google Docs, additional features are called Add-Ons. It used to be somewhat cumbersome and complicated to link Add-Ons with your Google Docs, but Google has made that more seamless as well, offering Add-Ons right from the Google File menu.

To browse Add-Ons, click Add-Ons on the File menu in a Google Docs, then choose "Get add-ons...". Below are descriptions of some Add-Ons that may be useful in the classroom.

Easy Bib - Provides citation, note-taking, and research tools within a Google Doc. This is a quick and easy way to cite sources to help promote ethical use of others' works and increase good digital citizenship skills.

Thesaurus - Dictionary, Spelling check and a Research function are built in to the Tools menu of Google Docs. There are a number of thesauruses available as extensions or add-ons. Students can make their word choice more interesting and avoid redundancies using this add-on feature.

TextHelp - This includes free highlighting features which are part of a powerful paid extension Read & Write for Google. Summarizing, identifying main idea, locating thesis statements, and citing evidence in written text are just some of the ways teachers can leverage the power of this 4-highlighter system, which allows highlights to be easily extracted to a separate document to share or turn in.

gMath - Can be used in Docs and Google (spread)Sheets. Utilizes LaTeX syntax, but also includes clickable, editable shortcuts to common expressions. Works with other Add-ons to quickly create quizzes using Google Forms, and using QuizNinja to differentiate quizzes and set up automatic grading features, with advanced features for validating mathematical responses.

Table Formatter - Sometimes what separates Google Doc capabilities from those of other word processing applications is the presentation of the information. This add-on allows you to easily format tables with colors and heading features similar to those available in Microsoft Word without having to format rows individually. You can even create your own custom templates for colors/arrangements you use most often.

Easy Accents - Writing in a foreign language is a complicated cognitive function. This add-on has made adding appropriate accents to your writing much easier. Open the add-on, click on the accent you'd like and it is automatically added to your document wherever the cursor is.

Kaizena Mini - Ever get tired of typing? Give your fingers a rest and let your voice give the feedback. With the Kaizena add-on, you can highlight words, sentences, paragraphs or portions of text and give voice feedback to your students. (Kaizena is also available as an extension, with a slightly different format).

Mapping Sheets - Google spreadsheets also promote a number of add-on features. Mapping Sheets allows you to plot your own data on a google map - easily. When you add mapping sheets to a spreadsheet, click Start Mapping. The Add-On creates a customized spreadsheet with headings. Fill in the information and click the build button. A Google map will be created with tags that include the information entered on the spreadsheet. Use to visualize historic events, plot geographical events from novels, write notes about geographical features, etc.

Allowing students to choose multiple ways to show what they know and identifying tools that are appropriate and helpful are skills students will need in this 21st century job market. There are many more add-ons available, and new ones being created all the time. If you need help adding or using any of these Add-Ons, or want help with ideas on incorporating them with your curriculum, contact Sarah Radcliffe or Cara Schueller.

Technology Skills for Online Standardized Tests

In recent years, there have been quite a few changes in education. That is an understatement. Perhaps one of the more significant changes has been in the way our students are assessed. State assessments have moved from the fall to the spring; students are assessed based on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS); results will be available much more quickly; assessments are completed on the computer rather than on paper.

This last change should be the least significant change for students. Students use technology often in their personal lives and, for the most part, are comfortable with computers and even enjoy using them. However, what would be somewhat detrimental to demonstration of our student achievement is if students' technology skills (or lack thereof) got in the way of the student demonstrating what they know. And for that reason, teachers are worried about now assessing new standards, the increased rigor and change in the types and formats of questions on the assessment and the technology skills needed to complete the assessment.

Below, I have attached a checklist created by Middletown Public Schools Technology Department. They used other published technology skills checklists as well as observations during the Smarter Balanced field test last spring. Theirs is a very comprehensive list, and a bit overwhelming at first. But, students may already possess many of these skills. Observations of students on keyboarding devices may begin to narrow down skills they've mastered and ones they still need to work on.

These skills apply not only to the SBAC (now called the Badger exam) but also to other online assessments such as the ACT Aspire for 9th and 10th graders. At this time, the ACT Plus Writing and ACT WorkKeys, now required for all 11th grade students, are still on paper for 2015, but it would not be surprising to see them transferred online in the future.

As teachers utilize mobile devices, such as Chromebooks, in their classrooms and take advantage of time in the computer lab, keep these skills in mind. Pick a few skills to concentrate on each week and talk about with students. And know, that while you are doing that, you are working on assessment skills, life skills, and job skills all at one time.

http://www.middletownschools.org/uploaded/Curriculum/Educational_Technology/SBACTech/SBAC_Tech_Skills_Checklist.pdf

Those Pesky "Request to Access" Emails from Google Docs...

Many of the participants at Google Summer Camp this summer, and Google After Hours last spring, took time to create or improve their Google website. One of the things that makes Google Sites appealing is how easy it is to embed or link Google documents, calendars spreadsheets, etc on your webpage. Teachers use this feature to link their course syllabus or lesson plans that can be quickly updated in Google Drive and live synced with your Google webpage.

Since starting or improving your Google Site this summer, you may have received emails like this requesting access to a document:

These emails are most likely coming from students or parents, but may also be coming from other teachers wishing to view your lesson plans or posted assignments. What this means is that you skipped a step. Even when your website is public on the web, all of the documents retain their sharing settings, so if you have the document set to "private" then no one can access the link or open the embedded document. Simply changing the sharing settings in Google Drive will stop these emails from clogging up your inbox. 

Follow these steps to ensure that your documents are viewable, but cannot be edited by people visiting your website.

1. Click the Share button in the top right corner of your screen. Click Advanced in the Share with Others box that pops up.

2. In the Advanced Sharing Settings Window, click "Change"

3. Click the radio button next to "Anyone with the link" and then make sure it says "can view" at the bottom. Hit save and you are on your way to less email clogging up your Inbox.

As always, if you have questions or concerns about this process, give Sarah (x2216) or Cara (x2587) a call in the Tech Coach office.

Browser History, Cache and Cookies, Oh My!

You may have heard of cache and cookies related to web-browsing and thought, while craving a sleeve of thin mints and a glass of cold milk, what in the world does that mean? Put simply, when a web browser is used to access the internet, that web browser, such as Google Chrome or Internet Explorer, saves a little bit of the information from the website you are visiting. For example, if you frequently visit a webpage that contains a lot of images, your browser may save some of the images so that the webpage can load faster. Cookies and cache are also what are used to autofill your username and password on some websites.

What happens when you visit the same sites over and over again is that your web browser may try to access cached data that has timed out. That makes your browser think that you are signed in already, but the website things that you need to sign in again. This can cause a multitude of problems with the access to the site that can cause problems like blank pages, pages that look like a bunch of colored text, etc.

Periodically clearing your cache and cookies can help with this. Honestly, this is not something that I remember to do on a regular basis on its own, but it is one of the things that I try when troubleshooting a problem accessing a web page. The instructions are below, inserted from: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95582

Delete all your data

1. Click the Chrome menu  on the browser toolbar.
2. Select Tools.
3. Select Clear browsing data.
4. In the dialog that appears, select the checkboxes for the types of information that you want to remove.
5. Use the menu at the top to select the amount of data that you want to delete. Select beginning of time to delete everything.
6. Click Clear browsing data.

You can choose any timeframe for deleting cache and cookies, but generally I choose "the beginning of time." You will also have options for what types of browsing history to clear. I generally choose the top 4 boxes and that solves the problem most of the time.

Chromebook Troubleshooting 101

Below is a document that Cara sent out to students in the past couple of weeks. It is a good document to refer students to when they are having trouble with their Chromebooks. These troubleshooting tips can solve  most problems students would encounter.


Chromebook Troubleshooting Tips for Students 

Check wireless connection.  It should be connected to CFSDStudents.  Password  gocardinals The password must be spelled correctly in all lowercase.  If you have to do this more than one time, please check with the library.

At least once a day you must authenticate on the Lightspeed filter with network username and password. This is a white page with the district logo and a username and password entry field.

Log in to the Chromebook browser with Google account credentials.  username@chipfalls.org and network password.

If the Chromebook is repeatedly connecting to a wireless network other than the CFSDStudent, please check with the library.

If an app, the sound or keyboard is acting quirky, or not working at all, try closing all the tabs and the browser.  If that does not work, try shutting it down using the shutdown icon from the lower right system menu or pressing the power button for at least 10 seconds.

Check for updates by choosing the Settings menu from the system tray then clicking on Help.  You may need to restart after it finishes.

Disable extensions and see how things work.  Re-enable one at a time to see if the problem re-appears.

Check accessibility features in the Settings menu to turn of spoken feedback or modify mouse and display settings.

If camera does not work, check Settings, Help to update to the latest version of Chrome.

If you are successfully connected to the Internet, but cannot login to a particular website that you have used in the past, go to the Chrome menu (3 lines in upper right corner), click History, click “Clear browsing data...”, make sure at least the top 4 boxes are checked. Click the “Clear browsing data” button.

Power off Chromebook nightly using the Power Off icon.

Student Presentations in Google Drive

"A day late and a dollar short" or "Better late than never" however you look at it, this week's Tuesday Tech Tip is coming to you on Thursday. I think we'd all agree that "Thursday Tech Tip" just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Many teachers have been asking for ways to easily display student work on the SMART Board or via the projector in the classroom. It is exciting to utilize technology to allow students to create and share. In our district, we have tried wireless projection methods like Apple TV and Chromecast (the Chrome version of the Apple TV) and we still have a lot of configuration and work to do in order to make these options effective. We are going to continue to look at easy ways to share student work in the classroom, however for now the best way to share student work is to use the desktop in the classroom that is connected to a projector.  

The best way to display student work from Google Drive is to use your desktop computer that is already connected to the projector or SMARTBoard and open an incognito window for the student as they come up to present.

Incognito windows are meant to not track web traffic. Therefore, it is not connected with your account and allows you to have the student log in without you logging out or adding users to your account.

To open an incognito window in Chrome:

When you open a new incognito window you will get a warning like this indicating that your web traffic can still be monitored but will not be stored in your history or cookies:

In your web search bar, you can type "drive" and you will get a log in prompt for the student to log into Google Drive. You can close that window and open a new incognito window for the next student presenter.

Copy/Paste on Your Desktop Computer with Google Docs

If you have started using Chrome as your main web browser and continued to explore Google Docs as a way of creating and sharing documents, you have probably noticed that there are some difficulties with copying and pasting between documents, particularly actions such as copying from Microsoft Word and pasting into Google Docs. I have inserted Google's instructions for using the Google Web Clipboard below. These should help you. It is just as easy as 'normal' copying and pasting, but has a few advantages also.

Firstly, it works on a desktop computer to paste between applications. Functioning properly is definitely a benefit! Secondly, you are able to copy/paste multiple strands of text, images, charts, etc without the web clipboard erasing your last entry. For instance, if I have an image and a strand of text, I can use Edit->Copy to Web Clipboard for each item and then use Edit -> Web Clipboard and select the text or image you want to paste. Third, you can access the Web Clipboard on multiple devices as the clips are saved in the cloud. As long as you sign into the same account, you should be able to copy something on one computer and paste it using another.

You can clear your copied items whenever you choose, otherwise, they will stay available in the Web Clipboard for 30 days. Below are the instructions from the Google Help pages.

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There are a few cases in which the best way to copy and paste is using the web clipboard tool. With the web clipboard tool, you can copy more than one selection and then choose which one to paste later; it also lets you copy something on one computer and then paste it on another.
Select what you'd like to copy.
Click the Edit menu and select Web clipboard.

Click Copy selection to web clipboard.
In the destination file, click the Edit menu and select Web clipboard again; you'll see the selection that you previously copied. If you copied multiple things, you'll see a list of the items you've recently copied.
Place the cursor where you want to paste the content.
Select Web clipboard from the Edit menu.
Select what you want to paste. Depending on your selection, you'll see different formats that you can choose from to paste what you've copied (for example, HTML or plain text).
Select a format.

Drawings

You can use the web clipboard to copy shapes from drawings and paste shapes into drawings embedded in Google spreadsheets, documents and presentations, or to copy and paste a drawing from a doc into the standalone drawing editor.

Click the Edit menu, select Web clipboard, and then select Copy shapes to web clipboard. Then, open the document that you want to paste the drawing into. Select Web clipboard from the Edit menu, and then select the drawing you want to paste from the menu.

Presentations

You can't use the web clipboard to copy and paste regular text and images in Google Slides yet. You can select entire shapes on a single slide, and if the shape is a text shape, then the text will be copied to the server clipboard.

Charts

You can use the web clipboard to copy and paste charts from a spreadsheet into a document or drawing.
How content on the server clipboard is stored and protected

You can access the content copied to the server clipboard only by signing in to the same Google Account you used to copy the content originally.

Content you copy to the web clipboard is stored on Google's servers and remains there until 30 days have passed since you last took action on (for example, copied) a given content selection. Even if a document is deleted, anything you copied from that document to the server clipboard will still exist on Google's servers for that 30-day period. You can delete all items stored on the server clipboard by clicking the drop-down menu and selecting Clear all items.