100,000 Teachers Can't Be Wrong!

Over 100,000 teachers use Blendspace to help them organize their resources.

As you plan your units for the upcoming school year, take a look at Blendspace (formerly called Edcanvas). This neat site can be used by teachers to help organize resources for a unit. For example, I created a page (called a canvas) for a unit on drawing underwater portraits. The canvas contains links to videos, Wikipedia pages, art images, photos of scuba gear, and an closeup picture of a child wearing a dive mask.  All of these links were found by using the search tool within the Blendspace site. It took me less than 5 minutes to find these resources! When teaching the unit, I just pull up my canvas and all of my resources are shown on one page.

Students over 13 can also use Blendspace to create their own canvases to help them organize resources. Their Google accounts will work as their log-in.

If you haven't tried it out, try it today! You can log in with your Google account, a Facebook account (if you have one for school - please don't use your personal Facebook account for school), or create an account with Blendspace.

http://www.blendspace.com/

Google Hangouts

Google Hangouts can be used to video chat with up to 9 people at once. Anyone with a Google account, a webcam and microphone can use the hangouts with just a few simple steps. Educators have found a variety of ways that Google Hangouts can enhance their student learning experiences. Mary Beth Hertz recently wrote about How Educators and Schools Can Make the Most of Google Hangouts at Edutopia.com. A film school uses hangout to broadcast their classes online so that absent students can catch up on what they missed.

If you want to learn more about Google Hangouts, visit http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/hangouts/

If you want to watch a video that details setting up a hangout for the first time, view Account Setup for Google Plus Hangouts & HOA (Hangouts on Air).

The easiest way to try out Google Hangout is by going into your Gmail and click on the hangout button near your contacts list.

Try Chrome for your Classroom

Google's browser, Chrome, recently became the number one most used internet browser in the world - surpassing Internet Explorer.  If you haven't tried out Chrome yet here are some reasons why you just might want to give it a shot:

It's Fast! Chrome is faster when browsing some websites. I have found this to be true when using Google Maps here at school.

Access to Apps! When you use Chrome and log into your Google account you can download apps from the Chrome Store.  Then you can access those apps when you use Chrome.  Many of the apps are free but some are only free to demo - so be sure to read the details about each app.  Some are educational and work great when used with a SMARTboard.

Signing In! If you use Chrome and log into your Google account, everything you bookmark, your settings, and history will be transferred to other computers or devices you use that have Chrome too.  This means, when you log into Google (with your school account) at home, school, or computer lab, Chrome will look the same and have the same bookmarks in all locations.

Omnibox! Chrome was the first browser to implement the Omnibox, which just means the address bar at the top of the browser where you'd normally type your web site addresses is also a search bar now. Just type in whatever you would normally type into a Google search, hit your enter key, and it will take you to the search results! Easy!

Stability! When you open new webpages Chrome will put them into tabs on the top of the page.  Each tab is  separate so that if one site crashes, it shouldn't crash or lock up the computer. Just that one site will crash and can be closed down, leaving the rest of your browsing session running smoothly.

Click here to learn more about Chrome