It's Your Turn to Change the World - Google Science Fair 2014

On February 12th Google along with Lego, Scientific American, Virgin Galactic and National Geographic launched their 4th annual international online science & technology competition for teens ages 13-18. Past winners have tackled some of today’s greatest challenges, like an anti-flu medicine, more effective ways to beat cancer, an exoskeletal glove, a battery-free flashlight, banana bioplastics and more efficient ways of farming.  What is your idea to change the world?

There are resources for parents and teachers to help kids get involved and ideas and guidance for students to get their creative juices flowing.  

If the desire to do great things doesn't motivate you perhaps the prizes will!  Scholarships of $25,000 and $50,000 plus trips to the Galapagos Islands, the Lego Factory and more...

Students have until May 12th to finalize their submissions.  But don't wait till then to start building your project site and get started.  Here is a short video overview of the submission process and and here is a link to the Google Science Fair site - Just click on the Get Started Icon at the bottom of the page.  Good Luck!

Doodle For Google Art Contest 2014

If you are an avid Googler, you know that the giant search engine frequently surprises the world by doodling the Google logo based on famous birthdays, holidays or events. What you may not know is that Google launches an annual contest which invites k-12 students in the U.S. to use their artistic talents to redesign Google's logo. 

This year, the theme is "If I Could Invent One Thing to Make the World a Better Place...". The winning artist will see his or her own artwork on the Google homepage for 24 hours, win a $30,000 scholarship, a trip to San Francisco, and $50,000 technology grant for his or her own school.

All submissions must be received by Thursday, March 20, 2014. Visit the Doodle for Google homepage for contest details.

Details and Rules
• All submissions must be received by March 20, 2014.
• You can mail in applications or upload right on the website.
• Submissions must be accompanied by a completed Entry Form.
• Instructions, mailing addresses, official entry form, and official Contest Rules are all available at
www.google.com/doodle4google 

We highly encourage you to share this opportunity with teachers and students in your schools. We hope to share their doodles here on the Orange-Ulster BOCES Model Schools blog after the winner is announced. 

Happy Doodling!! 

Getting Started with Animoto

One of the great opportunities provided educators with the cornucopia of technology tools available today is more easily moving from students as consumers of knowledge products such as worksheets, videos, lectures from their teachers and others, to producers of their own knowledge by creating videos, animations, concept maps and more.  This is an important 21st Century Learning Skill and enables students to become more active participants in their own learning.

Animoto is a useful tool for students and teachers to create videos that demonstrate their understanding of a concept and communicate their ideas from pictures and/or video clips.  What we would like to do here is help you get started using this awesome site.  When you first set up your account you will have a free account that only allows you to create web quality videos up to 30 seconds long and have access to a limited number of video styles and 300 music tracks to choose from.  As an educator you can have access to an Animoto Pro account for 6 months and for up to 50 students.  Below are the steps to get signed up and create your first video.

1.  Sign up for Animoto

2.  Click on the Education link at the bottom of the page.

3.  Click on the Learn More button where it asks if you are a teacher.

4. Select the Apply Now button and fill out the form.

5.  While it says it may take weeks to get you a code, we have found that you get it automatically.  This is the code that the students need to also get a pro account.  One suggestion, since it is a long code, either create a google doc with the code on it as well as the directions for signing up that you share with them, share it on your LMS like Edmodo or Schoology,  or simply email the code and directions to them.   You may use this sample directions Google Doc for sharing with your students on how to get set up and get started.  Simply past your promo code on the line.  Here is an example of a confirmation page with the code:

Here are the steps in none other than an Animoto Video:

If you want to learn more, attend Christine's Workshop on Tuesday February 18th.  Find out more and sign up on MyLearningPlan.Com

Hiding Apps on iOS devices

As shared staff members, we often find that the teachers we work with have technology questions we never thought to ask. Many of these questions are things we didn't know needed answering until they put them in our path. These same questions often come from classroom experiences, but more often come from teachers who are also parents. This recently happened in a faculty lounge at the Elementary level.


During a discussion regarding Social Media in the classroom, it came to my attention that children/students have found a way to hide information on both personal and school issued devices, specifically apps. That being said, and with a multitude of devices in classrooms, it's important to know how to access all apps, at all times, to keep students on the right track.  It might actually be helpful to hide apps as the teacher if you don't wish for your students to be distracted by outside sources while using the required apps for a lesson.


Here are the steps to hide apps, as well as how to search for them once hidden on the device.

• Fill up your home screen with apps. Keep one folder on the home screen.
• Place all the apps you want to hide away in a folder in the dock.
• Tap and hold that folder while double-pressing the home button to open up the app switcher.
• Switch back the home screen.
• Tap the folder on the home screen (the one you don't want to hide).
• Back out to the home screen again. Press the home button.

All of those apps are hidden away, and you can still find them by searching through the Spotlight. Unfortunately, if you reboot your device, the apps you've hidden will reappear.
http://lifehacker.com/hide-apps-in-ios-7-with-this-trick-1349955784

Tech Tip - Adding Languages to Your Chrome(book) Keyboard

Choose keyboard input methods for Chrome

If there’s more than one standard way to type in your language, you’ll want to make sure you choose the keyboard input method that works best for you. By adjusting your keyboard input method, you can also add accent marks, insert currency symbols, and use other special characters. You'll also be able to specify multiple language preferences in order to type in multiple languages. Once you’ve set your preferences, you can easily switch between languages for your keyboard via the status area.
Set your keyboard input methods
1. If you haven’t already, sign in to your Chromebook or into chrome (on another computer).
2. On your chromebook, click the status area in the lower-right corner, where your account picture appears.  On your computer, click on the Chrome menu icon 
   
3. Select Settings.
4. Click the Show advanced settings... link.
5. In the “Languages” section, click Language and input settings.
6. If the language you want to use isn't already listed, click Add and select the language you want to use.
   
7. Select the checkboxes next to the input methods you want to use.
8. Click OK.
To quickly see the list of input methods you’ve enabled, click the status area in the lower-right corner and select the keyboard language from the menu that appears.
Switch between input methods
1. Click the status area in the lower-right corner of the screen.
2. Select the keyboard language from the menu that appears.
3. Choose the input method you want to use from the list that appears.
If you have more than one input method enabled, then the keyboard language you’re using will appear in the status area. That way, you can always tell which language you’re using.
Tip: Use the following keyboard shortcuts to quickly switch between different input methods:

• Press Alt+Shift to switch between different input methods.
• Press Ctrl and space to switch to your previous input method.

You Can Now Listen to iTunes Podcasts on Your Chromebook

Till now, the only way to download an iTunes podcast was through iTunes itself, which you cannot get on a Chromebook. Whether you are already using podcasts from iTunes in your classroom or would like to start and your students are using Chromebooks, here is a great workaround that we learned about from Bryan Weinert on Leyden Techies.  

Normally what you would see when you go to a listing for podcasts that are in iTunes would be this:

Just have your students install the iTunes Audio Prevgiew/Podcast Downloader extension from the Chrome web store

Now, when you go to your chosen podcast page, the extension will add a Download link next to each audio file that the students can click on and listen to or download to their chromebook or Google Drive.  This will also work on your laptop when using the Chrome Browser.

Once on the new tab, you can get the url for that specific podcast to share with your students...  Check out the iTunes podcast listing page, for thousands of free podcasts organized into dozens of searchable categories.  Once you find a podcast you'd like your students to listen to, you can share the URL with them by posting it on your website, in your LMS (Moodle, Edmodo, Schoology), or just email it to them. Unfortunately this extension only works for audio podcasts and not video podcasts.

Update - 10-10-14

Aside from iTunes, there are many Chrome apps for listening to Podcasts.  There are too many to mention them all, but just based on ratings in the Chrome web store, here are 3 you may want to consider

Cloud Caster is a podcast player for Chrome that keeps track of all your podcasts in the cloud.Cloud Caster can be used on your Chromebook, PC and Mac as well as on almost all mobile devices running iOS, Android, Windows Phone or Blackberry. This means you will always have access to your podcasts and have a playlist in sync. Cloud Caster remembers where you left off on one device and lets you resume from that position if you continue to listen on another device. You can start listening to a podcast at home on your desktop computer, keep listening on the bus with your mobile device and finish the podcast on your computer at work/school when you get there.

Airing Pods as a Chrome web App is a shortcut to launch airingpods.com.

Airing Pods give you various ways of finding Podcasts (Shows). Comes with an easy to use Podcast Player, which plays your podcasts all in the browser. No plugin/software to install, and it make this a well suited podcast manager for your Chromebook as well.

ShortOrange is a cloud-based cross-platform podcast player with which you can listen to your favorite podcasts via the ShortOrange Chrome app, online via our web application, or with our iOS app (android coming soon!). In addition, ShortOrange syncs your podcast data between all platforms via the cloud to enable a seamless transition between devices. ShortOrange is the ultimate app to listen, subscribe, and manage all your favorite podcasts in the cloud. 

What Did you Create Today

There is a message from Jamie Casup's Keynote address at this years NYSCATE Conference that continues to resonate with us.  It is is a variation of a message many of us have been haranguing our own children with for years (usually when they have parked themselves in front of the TV or a video game for too long).  That message is that we need to move from being consumers of information and consumers of entertainment, to be creators of content and leaders in this world of technology. Advances in Technology for the last 30 years have put devices in the hands of more people than ever.  In fact, a"Cisco report says number of smartphones, tablets, laptops and internet-capable phones will exceed number of humans in 2013" enabling more people to consume more media than ever before.  If we are going to succeed in preparing our students to be "College and Career Ready," we need to teach them (and model for them) how to use this technology to create content and be true leaders with technology.

This explosion in technological advances that has created an ease of media consumption has also created devices and software tools that enable everyday people to be published authors, software developers, web-masters, video directors and more, putting their ideas and creations out there for world to see (and to buy).  As educators, we need to not only embrace the use of these tools in the classroom, but use them in a way that puts the students as creators of unique and meaningful content.  As tech coaches, we have the privilege of working with many talented teachers who want to use more technology or use it more effectively in the classroom.  Many of them are just beginning with using these tools such as Edmodo, Google Apps for Education, and Screencast-O-Matic. The first step in using these tools is for teachers to become more familiar with using them, learning how to efficiently use them in the classroom, and to better engage students in each lesson.  The next step is allow students to create their own content and be leaders of their own Learning.  Free tools like Google Sites, Voki, WeVideo, Animoto, and Pixton make it easy for teachers to turn a simple class project into opportunities for students to truly be creators and collaborators.

When we speak of College and Career Ready, we need to be mindful of what kind of careers we are preparing students for.  The Department Of Labor has determined that 65% of the jobs that our grade school children will have when they graduate haven't been created yet, so what is the career/job that we are preparing them for?  In order for students to be successful, they need to have solid set of academic skills, as well as problem solving and teamwork skills, but they also need to know how to be producers using digital tools. Over this same time period of major growth in technology, there has been a 49% increase in the number of small businesses.  Many of our students will be the architects of not only their own job, but their own business!  This will only happen if we move our trend from traditional methods of teaching, through the paradigm of teachers using technology to create lessons, to the future where students are actively engaged in using technology to create and not merely consume.