Making Google Chrome Work for Your ICT Classroom

How long have you been using Google Chrome as your personal browser? Do you sync across all your devices? No? Then you should! It makes sense for all those frequently accessed tabs and link we always open.

If you're a teacher in the primary school then you can utilise that functionality to help your students access the link you need really easily and quickly without having to go through a convoluted file system on the local network. 

Making Google Chrome work for you in your classroom isn't really difficult at all. Just a little time consuming at the beginning. Make sure your class computers, laptops or library computers are all signed in on one account. Then, all you have to do is see this quick video on how it works. Add a link to the bookmarks bar (or a folder on that bar) and immediately it's there for all your students. Also, you can make a little 'Help' Folder for all those pesky hiccups that happen during ICT like "How do I make my google doc open for all to view?"

The great advantage to this is that you don't have to clog up your folders on the network. Simply add a URL to the folder of choice and the students can see and use it. If you have a library then it's ideal as you can, if your assistant takes them, add links ad-hoc and remotely to the computers in another part of the school .

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CuXmMpQlvs...

Gmail, Google Docs(Drive) and Google Sites Video Help for Students

There are now several Video help pages, and more to be added, for Gmail and the suite of apps we use in school. The children from year 2 (soon to be year 3) will have their portfolios for sharing and displaying work they have done via ICT.

All Video help is available here:

Gmail first time log in (only really apporopriate for our school although you could use it if you downloand and edit yourselves).

Google Docs, soon to be Google Drive.

Google Sites- online portfolios for children with personal pages too.

There will be a series for Google calendar as we will be arranging home work and other events the children need to subsribe to in Year 5 and 6. 

Making Art Galleries in SketchUp and Google Earth

The Year 5 Children have been following up on their work we began at the beginning of the year in our Image Manipulation strand. The children loosely follow the lessons set out by the Newham ICT scheme and the art work done by Patrick Caulfield. The images are good and have a clear use in the learning of layering. I suppose you could do this in regular MS Paint, Tux or MS Word but Paint.Net is our Favourite.

The Children followed my lesson introductions (a two Parter that culminated in them adding Gausian Blurs and Skewing the images to suit their experimentation) and then added their own finishing touches to their layers.

The classes were split into 3 levels with 3 separate set of images. Each image contains or requires more layers and layer management. You will notice from the video in the middle group below that I have deliberatley cut and paste the goblet from the 'Background' with the solid white still attached. The reason for this is to force the children to discuss the use of the Magic Wand tool before they can fill with colour.

Top Group

Middle Group

Lower Group

The follow-up to this lesson is to 'Mash' the final product with another aplication. We always require the older children in KS2 to take their work into another program if they can. This can be a somehting as simple as inserting into a Word Document and adding a Word Art Title and decorative border or as you can see here SketchUp and Google Earth. 

SketchUp offers Photo textures and the possibility to make materials out of images found via Google Search or ones that we have made ourselves. 

N.B. Play around with this yourself first as the breaking of the apsect ratios isn't always as straight forward as it should be.

 So, onto the mashing. The chidlren followed my lead with the video above (I anotated with the IWB) and they made their own materials. While they were doing this I assigned two lead children to apply the Art Work to the gallery I had prepared uing the 'make new material' skills in this session. The final piece looks like this:

B5CM Added theirs first. This is the result:

Then B5MF added theirs.

B5LW are yet to add their work and will be posted here once they have completed it.

The next task is to add to Google Earth correctly and share the KMZ file.

Download the Galleries here, here and here 

Design Thinking: Workshops by Ewan McIntosh and Tom Barrett

On November the 8th we invited over Ewan McIntosh and Tom Barrett two of the leading specialists in ICT in education from the company NoTosh. They were here to work with all staff in Primary and Nursery plus a few from our Bi Lingual section too. They were here for 3 days and were structured so that year groups could work together in their teams and produce new and exciting resources to teach with. They also learned new methods to try and be more experimental with the ICT equipment we have in school.

The days began with our staff learning to use the Google suite of applications that mostly come with a Gmail account. Many people do not realise the potential that these applications have for education. Tom, who specialises in this field was the first teacher in the UK to become a certified Google Educator and leads the way in its use with his ideas called "Interesting Ways". If you should do a Google search for this you will see the variety of uses that have been put together from teachers all over the world.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Ewan, who has a media background working for Channel 4 in the UK, compliments this use of online tools by introducing teachers to new possibilities in story telling. His workshops teach us to how to add video, mobile devices, online games and digital stills to enhance the language children produce in their stories. This approach will lead us to become more creative in our approach to teaching with these devices. It also allows our students to take more control of their learning and to lead their own learning via collaboration - a key part that links both Ewan and Tom's ethos of Design Thinking. 

Design Thinking was the focus for our final day on the Friday. Both Tom and Ewan introduced the idea to us that 'letting go of the reins' and allowing students to take more control of their learning is fundamental to success in the modern classroom. So the key to us as teachers is to adapt and change and lead through use of the tools we have been introduced to this week; collaborate with our students and teach them with the creative opportunities these technologies provide.

This week has been great fun for me and I hope it has been too for all involved - Tom and Ewan were fabulous speakers and really encouraged those of us who, in light of change, can be nervous for the unexpected journey ahead. But, the teachers who attended this is just the beginning as we will have to share our creative ideas with them as part of our pledge to send the outcome to them in 4 - 6 months!

QR codes for School Newsletters and Google Chrome Web App Store for Schools and Educators

Tis post is from the most recent newsletter sent out to teachers at my school, The Taipei European School.

You might be here from the QR code in the newsletter - if you are then great! If not then why not check out the links below to see how the QR code can help you out.

A QR code is a type of bar code without the bars. Instead they are squares and allow text and other data to be interpreted where a object needs to access digital data. Google Goggles (Android), Pic2shop, Red Laser (iPhone) or Shopsavvy (both) are good applications to use to access other QR codes and bar codes on packaging. The bar codes can then give a slew of information appearing on your phone's browser.

So, the Newsletter info that can't be linked directly is below.

Reception

The Reception children have been enjoying using  games to learn about control and logical thinking in a program we use at school. They have also been using paint to control shapes and tools that are the basis for transferrable skills.

Year 1

The children have been making books as part of their typing and word processing. To make this a fun way to type and with purpose we use ArtisanCam.co.uk to make books. This time we tied it in with their trips to the Temple and the Museum. To make a book go to: goo.gl/Np6Z

Year 2

The Children have been making comics as part of their word processing and transferable skills—copying and pasting. They too used Artisancam.co.uk to make an online comic. Want to make a comic too? Go here: goo.gl/g2TMf

What you can do at home

Install the Google Chrome Browser (that we are using in Primary instead of Internet Explorer) now has a Web App Store. What this means is it allows other web-based applications to be installed directly to the browser and run from inside it. How does this benefit students? There are lots of Educational applications, books and tools either free or to buy—a little bit like you do on your phones. Go to

chrome.google.com/webstore

Reception and Nursery Children

Sesame Street ‘Sounds Around Town’ application gets children to use the keyboard and control the mouse in any way they want. goo.gl/GE4Gq 

The PBS app for kids. Find this at goo.gl/9CQau 

Year 1 and Year 2 Children

Meegenius is a great place to listen and interact with books. Use it at the Chrome store too go here to enjoy them with your child. chrome.meegenius.com/

ICT in the Juniors has been as busy as ever with lots of projects taking place. Most notably the introduction of two laptop trolleys each with 25 laptops. The second has just arrived 

Year 3

In Year 3 the children have been loading, editing and creating sound using the laptops and the portable microphones. They have been making melodies on thing called a ’Tone Matrix’ then recording them through the headphones, editing them in Audacity. Tone matrix online here: goo.gl/meHr or the iPhone/ iPodTouch app here using this QR Code:

Year 4

More great work in Year 4 this coming month in the style of Julian Opie; a famous artist in the UK. He draws in a cartoon style. So we’re using Artisancam.co.uk, print screen on the keyboard and editing in Paint.Net.

Year 5

Year 5 have begun their Word Processing topic combined with a DTP project. They are writing stories in the style of Paul Jennings at www.storybird.com and using the new DTP (creately) web apps on Google Chrome. To make their book covers. Eventually they’ll read them aloud and we’ll post them to the Vimeo.com/taipeieuropeanschool channel.

Year 6

Year 6 are working on Scratch from MIT. It’s a free programming program for kids. Instead on controlling stuff we’re using it slightly differently this time. We’re making animations of explorers and adventurers past and present. 

What you can do at home

You’ll need Google Chrome for these applications. Very good and fun! Parents read this: 20thingsilearned.com/

Year 3: To help your children further understand that they can make music online: goo.gl/L63oW

Year 4: go to www.psykopaint.com to turn photos into art

Year 5: Online Museum only in Google Chrome: chrome.fraboom.com/

Year 6: Kodu from Microsoft. Possibly the greatest game maker ever made. goo.gl/L85b (need xbox controller)

Tips on Making Google Mail, Sites for Primary School Children, their Parents and Class Teachers

The downloads here are the spoken ideas and what I would probably changeif I was to set up the Gmail accounts again. If you're a teacher and wish to set up Gmail accounts for your class then the advice I talk about here could come in handy.

1. Gmail and Google sites part 1 - setting up, templates, owners and invites

2. Gmail and Google sites part 1 - settings, web links

3. Gmail for Parents and Teachers - ownership

4. Gmail for Students - settings, chat, contacts, policing

5. Gmail for the Teacher - settings, homework, interaction