Stardate 2/28/2021, Final Blog of the Starship GoogleTools: I have heretofore been reluctant to enter the cyber universe due to fear of website construction difficulties, known as cyberwthphobia. However, I have seen the glory of the ease of construction with Google Sites. Decades ago I recall having to write out the html code to build a site and it never looked like I wanted, and it took hours to build an ugly site. Google Sites is a simple click and type and move and imbed way to build a site, and I predict a new planet will soon form from preplanetary protoplasm in the Google Galaxy. Its illustrious potentate will be Mr. Jenney and it will be inhabited by Whistle Pigs. 

Numerous tools made a rapid move from EDU5325 to RMS329 (this class to my classes). One that I now use daily is Jamboard. I also have used Google forms for feedback on a regular basis, and my students have recently completed models of ecosystems, many of which were built using Google Drawing, Google Slides, andGoogle Docs. The timing of this class, during remote and then hybrid learning models at my school, has resulted in it having an immediate and profound positive impact on my teaching. The tools I have collected will build a better experience for my students.

 

Charlie's blog, stardate 2/21/2021: This week the continuing adventures of the starship Charlielearning brought us back to Earth, exploring and learning about this planet with the bold new Google Earth, and Maps, and other apps.

Google Earth is much more than a mapping program. There are embedded Wikipedia articles about locations, photographs, entire exploration activities about important sites and events. The application has a function where the user can collect resources of a variety of types and present them to others (like students) in one location to further understanding of topics and their locations.

For me at home, Google Earth was ponderous and slow to respond to interfaces. Google Maps on the other hand can handle scrolling and zooming much better. The satellite image function can place a great deal of information at the hands of our students.

I tried out Auto Draw and plan on using it imminently in class for students to model concepts and show relationships. It is much easier in ways than Google Drawing but does not have features like grids and rulers like other drawing applications. The auto draw feature makes much cleaner drawings than other drawing apps, especially when using a mouse to draw, as the app looks at what you are drawing and suggests a clip art image to insert.

Toontastic is an application that I will experiment with to see how easily my students pick up how to use it. It appears to allow the user to create and animate drawings and images which has many possible uses in science class. The Next Generation Science Standards regularly call for students to model concepts and show relationships between components and movement of energy and matter. Toontastic seems to be able to do these things in a compelling and effective way. Cartoon animation is still engaging to middle school students and this app could make science learning more effective.

Charlie's blog, stardate 2/14/2021: the journey into the Google galaxy continued this week with stops on the planet Google Photos, YouTube, and Google Search Engines.

This is my first experience with Google Photos and I discovered the Google assistant and search functions. Up till now, I saw no purpose in using a cloud photo application, as I use very few images. However, the functionality of uploading images to an online location will allow me to work more efficiently from home when needed. I can also both share photos with students and have them share them with me through the application. As our district rolls ponderously towards every student having a device, the opportunities to share scientific information and findings, and evidence through an online photo application is apparent.

I have used YouTube videos more and more with our transition to remote and hybrid learning, and I have discovered that the video subscription services the district provides are woefully inadequate. Learning this week included learning basic use of the YouTube library and playlists. I learned how to upload a video to YouTube and share a video with a start time that is not the beginning of the video. YouTube has many more resources for teachers than I ever knew, including "Channels" for many topic areas and most importantly, many for science.

The use of custom Google search engines will allow me to guide my students to resources more efficiently. I have used specific websites for my students to use to do learning, and I have turned them loose into the vastness of the cyber universe. Both scenarios are less efficient than if I could gather a number of sites and have students limit their search to those sites. They have more resources than a single site can provide, and the massive number of sites on the web will not get in the way of efficient learning. Here is an example of a custom search engine for climate change. 

I had watched a Crash Course website video on reverse image searches, but I had not done them until this week's journey. Using the images.google.com site to track down the origin and context of images will make me and my students better consumers of digital information. 

Cyberspace, the final frontier. This is the virtual voyage of the Starship CharlieEducation. Its multi-year mission: to explore strange new apps; to seek out new functions of Google products; to boldly go where many have gone before. 

Captains blog, stardate 2/7/2021: Planet Pear Deck and the orbiting moons of Google Forms and Google Classroom. Pear Deck allows many of the functions of Nearpod, but with an easier interface and smooth integration with Google Slides. I was able to add formative questions and responses right into a Slides presentation I have used for years. Similarly, my away team discovered uses of Google Forms well beyond the simple testing format. I could add pictures and graphs. Though Google Classroom has been part of my regular learning environment, I discovered numerous functions I had not used prior, such as posting materials, websites, and videos. The Topics function is especially useful for organizing information for students and I have never used the assignments calendar. Although I discovered no Melkotians

like Kirk did during the Spectre of the Gun episode, I did discover a great deal that I will incorporate into my classroom.

 Google Drive is only a part of the Google universe of opportunities.

The most exciting application from this week's learning is Explore. This tool on Google docs, sheets and slides allows you to search using the Google right within the document. The ease of use is tremendous. Instead of navigating to a new or different tab, the students can search or fact-check right within the Google document. I found it somewhat difficult to work at first, but with practice, it was much smoother.

The other time-saving and enriching addition to the digital classroom I found was the variety of free templates available to teachers. The choice board template was especially helpful and will make my student's experiences richer. This is a free Teachers Pay Teachers product, but it was visually interesting and well constructed.

 An extension/app that could be beneficial for students to use for note-taking, especially during remote and hybrid learning models, is Google Keep. It can be used by students to take notes during class, for annotating information from websites, and many other ways. Keep can be used to organize learning, create reminders, and even has a collaboration feature. 

Google calendar is much more than just a place to record events. You can set up reminders, take notes, and organize tasks.

Toby is an extension for Chrome that allows you to open multiple tabs at one time. Every morning I log into our district rapid identity portal and then open our online textbook, google classroom, and google drive. Instead of opening each one individually, I can use Toby to open all at once. It is easy to add to the list of tabs by clicking and dragging.

Text Blaze will allow users to insert regularly used snippets of text using a shortcut. There are many times when educators are inserting feedback that is identical for dozens of students. Saving thirty seconds on each of dozens of feedback opportunities will add up greatly.

Google Chrome Extensions and Blogger

 There are a huge number of extensions that can be added to Chrome, making it easier and more efficient for teachers and students to use. This is especially important as so many districts shifted to remote learning and now to a hybrid model of learning. The extensions are found in the Chrome Web Store and are extremely easy to install and use. The ones I found most useful are ScreenShot Capture & Edit Tool, Alice Keeler Class roster, and Random Student Generator. 

The screenshot capture and edit tool can be used to take an image of a website and add notes and things like circles around important information. I plan on using this extension to both collect information to share with students and also to have them collect information and share it with each other and me.

Randomly choosing a student to share during a remote class meeting can be easily achieved using the Random Student Generator designed especially for use with a Google Classroom.

There are numerous tutorials on how to maximize the applications in Chrome and some good ones are located here: https://skillshop.exceedlms.com/student/path/61209-fundamentals-training