The President has an assignment for you!

 http://www.whitehouse.gov/filmfestival

Have you checked out the refreshed Learning Center? Chock-full of #GoogleEdu trainings

Have you checked out the refreshed Learning Center? Chock-full of #GoogleEdu trainings http://goo.gl/oKgjn2 

Google Classroom

RePost from iDevice in the Mountains: PhotMath

Photomath - Mobile Device Solves Math Problems Posted: 18 Dec 2014 04:01 PM PST   I remember teaching Advanced Math in High School, and often times I would randomly write down a few Algebra problems for students to solve.  However, I also needed to solve them to generate a key.  Even though that isn't a huge hurdle, there is an app for that. Photomath, available for most any mobile device.  Yes, using the camera you get the problem into your viewfinder, and the expression is either simplified or the equation is solved.  You don't even have to key in the problem.   You can examine the steps taken to solve the problem.   The app also contains a history of all the equations or expressions you've scanned. This would be a nice tool for students to use in order to check that they complete practice problems correctly.  At this time the app can simplify arithmetic expressions, interpret fractions, decimals, powers, and roots, and solve linear equations.  It can't comprehend higher level math like Trigonometry or Calculus, yet.  Hopefully in the future, as the app was released just a couple months ago.

Repost from SHI: Software Audit

IT time wasters: Failing to prepare for a software audit

December 18

Jay Tilak

If you’re like most organizations, it’s been a while since your last self-audit. A survey we conducted found that out of 102 IT admins and executives, 56 percent said their company hadn’t completed a self-audit in the past year.

That doesn’t mean they’re more confident they’ll never see an audit. Almost two-thirds said they believe software audits are becoming more prevalent. And a 2013 Express Metrix survey of 178 senior IT managers in North America about audit activity found that more than half had been audited in the last two years.

The most frequent auditors cited in the Express Metrix survey were Microsoft, Adobe, Autodesk, Oracle, and SAP, in that order. Does your organization license software from any of those publishers? Most companies use software from at least one, so you should be expecting an audit request in the mail soon, if it hasn’t come already.

While some might see IT asset management and other ongoing maintenance as a time waster, the true time drain is responding to a simple audit when you’re not ready. A prepared organization could potentially respond to a request in days, while those that are unprepared could spend months gathering the necessary information.

I got an audit letter — now what?

When you have a few PCs and servers, the effort to plan for an audit is minimal. But as your IT environment grows, to perhaps hundreds of thousands of end points, responding to an audit request can be labor intensive and expensive, particularly for unprepared organizations.

IT administrators basically have three options after receiving an audit letter:

1. Ignore the request. And hope it doesn’t resurface. It’s an option, but one that won’t end well for your organization when the auditor returns with less patience and an exacting eye to detail.

2. Hand over your raw data to the auditor. Permit the auditor to perform a compliance analysis for you. This option is better than doing nothing, but companies lose control over the interpretation of their data, and leave themselves at the mercy of the publisher’s auditing team.

3. Plan ahead, and prepare for the audit. Start by proactively managing your software estate, and reinforce your efforts with assistance from an organization that offers data collection, licensing expertise, and reconciliation services.

The third option is your best choice, of course. Many audits include a timeline for response, which can be as little as 30 days. Depending on the scope of the request, a well-prepared organization may be able to respond to an audit request in a few days, while unprepared organizations can take weeks or months to address the data collection and analysis requirements.

Let’s take a look at an example of a Microsoft audit request and how much time it takes the prepared and unprepared to complete:

The prepared customer might complete all of those tasks in a day. In the best-case scenario for an unprepared customer, it takes at least four weeks — 20 business days — to respond. In this scenario, the unprepared customer has already taken 20 times longer than the prepared customer.

In the worst case scenario, it could take the prepared customer four days to complete those tasks. The unprepared customer could spend up to 10 weeks responding to an audit, nearly 13 times longer than the prepared customer. IT administrators would be spending more than a tenth of their year responding to the audit.

Start your audit planning now

SHI advocates a focused, objective-based strategy that actively addresses your top risk or spend areas, and to create a risk mitigation strategy that passively addresses financial or process risk.

By developing ITAM strategies and practices ahead of time, organizations can reduce and sometimes completely do away with the fire drill an audit request so often sparks. Preparing for an audit allows IT administrators to respond to any request in days and focus their valuable time on fulfilling business objectives and improving IT.

Source: http://blog.shi.com/2014/12/18/it-time-wasters-failing-to-prepare-for-a-software-audit/

Fantastic Resources for Teaching Digital Citizenship Education in Your Classroom

Common Sense Media Student Video Library

The Common Sense Media Student Video Library is a video gallery that provides twenty videos of 2-4 minutes long. Teachers can use these videos with their corresponding lesson plans. Teachers can even start these videos to start a conversation with their students in the classroom.

Digital Citizenship Classroom Posters

Infographics and posters play a crucial role in educating and informing about digital citizenship. You can easily download informative posters from Common Sense Media for your students. Posters available on Common Sense Media are the best addition to your classroom.

Digital Citizenship Scope and Sequence

Common Sense Media’s Scope & Sequence tool helps you to find the lessons that are right for your classroom. Common Sense Media’s Scope & Sequence address digital citizenship topics in the most appropriate manner. Here teachers can browse by category to focus on the lessons that talk about the topic. PDF file of Scope and Sequence can be downloaded from here.

Free Cyber-bullying Tool Kits For all levels of teachers

Today Cyber-bullying is hurting students as well as interrupts classrooms. It also influences school’s culture. So it is very much important to protect students from it. Different measures should be taken towards this side protect students from this pitfall. Tool kit available at Common Sense Media will help you to deal with cyber-bullying. Using Common Sense Media tool kit teachers can take effective stand against Cyber-bullying. So what are you waiting for, use this resource today and take your students against cyber-bullying.

Netsmartz Teens

NSTeens.org is a result of partnership between Sprint® and NetSmartz®. NSTeens teaches students about making better and safe choices online via interactive comics, short films, animated videos, and games. A lot of teaching materials are accessible for middle and high school teachers. So they can bring interactive and engaging lessons in their classroom. Resources at NSTeens.org are free of cost.

Netzsmarts Workshop

Check out this website to for workshop page to get material for various groups. NetSmartz Workshop is an engaging, educational program that offers best resources to assist demonstrate children about digital citizenship specifically how to go safe online. The educational program at NetSmartz Workshop is intended for kids ages 5-17, teachers and parents. Resources are available in the form of videos, cards, games, and presentations.

Media Education Lab

The Media Education Lab is among the prominent sources of multimedia curriculum resources digital citizenship. Teachers can take benefit of huge collection of free resources available on Media Education Lab. You will be astonished to see the digital and media education possibilities available here.

Repost from http://edtechreview.in/e-learning/1220-fantastic-resources-for-teaching-digital-citizenship-education-in-your-classroom

Image Source: 

AWW: Free web based whiteboard to foster creativity

https://awwapp.com/

Have you gone Google in your classroom? Why Not?

Why Google Apps for Education?

Meet the New Google  Drive

Google Classroom 101

Does this look like your classroom?

Retweetfrom @johnccarver

URL shortener and QR Code Generator

Repost from Tammy Worcester Tang

This works well for students using computers, and is especially handy for students using mobile devices with QR scanners. You can easily resize the page so that even students in the back of the room can scan the code!

---

☞ URL Shortener & QR Code Generator

1. Make sure you are logged in to your Google account.
   . 
2. Click the link above and make a copy of the template.
   This will put the spreadsheet into your Google Drive. Once it’s there, you can use it over and over!
   . 
3. Follow the on-screen prompts!
   . . 

Google Calendar Attachments

Are you using Kahoot?....You should

Videolicious

Videolicious is a free app that allows students to use 10 pictures and audio to tell a 60 second story.  This app is perfect for K-12 students that need to summarize, compare/contract, or simple tell a short story.

ClassFlow

Imagine presenting to your students a typical PowerPoint or Prezi.  You have a great presentation planned with images illustrating key ideas instead of a screen filled with text.  However, this presentation is still in the form students watch while teachers present. 




What if you can push individual slides of a presentation to student devices, so those sitting in the back row who forgot their glasses aren't squinting to see the slide?  Those that are losing attention because they are looking over a half dozen other students, can now maintain focus because the material is 6-12 inches in front of them.

And what if students could respond back by adding content to an existing slide, in which the instructor obtains x number of alternative results from students and can select which slide or slides to display in front of the class. 

Classflow is a free online tool allowing teachers to have engaging presentations with their students.



Some of you are asking, but "Nearpod" does that already.  Correct, this is very similar to Nearpod.  One difference isClassflow also integrates with an existing Interactive Whiteboard, the Active Inspire or Promethean environment.

First step is to create your free online teacher account at Classflow. 

If you are an Active Inspire user, give your students the class code and have them join your Classflow session.  Students can join using the Classflow Student app or connecting through classflow.com/student. 

Start by pushing out flipchart pages to student devices with a click of a button inside the software.

When you want the two way engagement piece you'll need to toggle over to the Classflow website.  Send students a slide in "Ad-hoc mode", which keeps your students in the same class as they are when you're using Classflow inside Inspire.

With the Classflow Student app, students can use pens, shapes, text, and even add images from the camera or their photo album.

As a teacher, you also have the traditional student response opportunities like multiple choice, text, numeric, and true false for questioning the class.

Another nice student response feature is the Word Seed.  Great for brainstorming ideas with your students as they enter in their text response, and words are placed in a circle around the slide as they send in their results.


Once you begin using Classflow, look into more advanced features like integrating Active Expression or assessment activities, or individualizing content by providing students with web links and videos during a lesson.

If you do choose to use the web based Classflow presentation platform, you can upload existing Promethean Flipchart or SmartBoard Notebook presentations. 

Classflow is a program that may take some time learning, so be sure to check out the Classflow Youtube Channel.

RePost from iDevice in the Mountains

WeVideo

Check out WeVideo! WeVideo is a web-based video editing tool that can be used on a whole host of devices including iPads, tablets, mobile, laptops, desktops and Chromebooks. Students and/or teachers could create from computers both at home and/or school. WeVideo integrates with a Google Drive environment that students may already be familiar with and gives access to files in one place. Any help and tutorials you may need to get started on your storytelling journey may be found in the WeVideo Academy. Happy digital storytelling!

Do you use Pinterest?

http://www.pinterest.com/twahlert/using-pinterest-in-education/

Theme of the Month for Harney County--Sentence Starters

SlideShark...Repost from pjimison

As an instructor at the university level, I often need to use presentations to guide my own lecture as I share information with my students. A presentation can help keep me on a straight path.  I have battled how to view my own notes. I can't write notes into the PowerPoint section because our projector system mirrors our podium computers so if they show on the computer, they will show on the projector. Of course, I could bring my own laptop and choose the projector as a secondary source that I could use for the presentation view, but I don't like to do that either. I can print off notes - but I feel like carrying around a stack of papers and trying to give a quick glance down at my notes is tacky.

I've tried using my iPad for notes and using a clicker to change slides because I like to walk around the room. That's just too much to hold and I fumble around trying to figure out which one I'm clicking. Then, I talked to GLEN and he shared with me SlideShark. Thanks, Glen!

First, load your presentation, with notes, into the FREE SlideShark app. Next, click "broadcast" in the app and send the broadcast URL to your email. On the podium computer, pull up the email and open the link.  The presentation will show to the class via the projector and you can control the slides from your iPad. The nicest thing? I can see my notes in the app while I control the presentation. It even has an annotation tool and laser pointer controlled through the app. I can easily walk around the room, talk, control the presentation, and see my notes without trying to hook up to the Apple TV. That's right, Jessup instructors! It doesn't matter which room you are in.You don't need Apple TV!

Student view on the screen - They see the presentation!

Teacher can choose to just see and control the slides on the iPad.

Here it is on the teacher/iPad view with notes. Just tap the slides to advance to the next one.

Look closely and you'll see the choice to write on the presentation with annotation tools!

Learn more by watching this quick video:

 https://app.brainshark.com/brainshark/viewer/getplayer.ashx

Do you Snip? If not, you should!

I was checking my mail the other day and a blogpost from Frank Buck came up about snipping. I thought...c'mon, everybody does that...waste of time!  I was sitting with a group of folks who were snooping as I read the e-mail from Dr. Buck and sure enough they thought it was pretty cool. I showed them the ins and outs of the snipping tool and we now have another group of snippers. Here is a repost from Dr. Buck and here is hoping you become a snipper.

Do You Know About the "Snipping Tool"?

Today's newsletter is all about the "Snipping Tool" in Windows. I am sharing it with you for two reasons:

1. As I work with educators in various locations, few know about this feature.
2. The Snipping Tool is so valuable, I use it multiple times every day.

Most people are familiar with the concept of "Print Screen." Pressing that button copies the entire screen to the clipboard, where it can now be pasted into a document or PowerPoint presentation. Some people know about Alt + Print Screen, which copies the active window.

What if you don't need the entire screen or even an entire window? What if you only need one image or want to take a snapshot of one paragraph of text? That's where the Snipping Tool becomes gold.

The Snipping Tool made its debut in Windows Vista, and is alive and well in Windows 7 and Windows 8. To find it, click "Start" and key the words "Snipping Tool" into the search window. Your result will appear.

  

Once you realize the value of this little tool, you will likely use it regularly. Pin it to either the Start menu or the Task Bar so that it is close at hand. Right-click on "Snipping Tool" and choose the desired location.

 

Click the Snipping Tool. The screen will dim and a small dialogue will appear which says, "Drag the cursor around the area you wish to capture." Release the mouse button, and a window containing the snipped image appears . Below is an example.

 

 

 

The most common continuation is to save the snip, probably to the desktop. It now operates just like any picture. You can drag it into a Word document or PowerPoint presentation. You can email it as an attachment. Windows immediately copies the snip to the clipboard. Because it's on the clipboard, even before saving the snip, you may paste the snip into a document.

 

Where Could You Use the "Snipping Tool"?

1. Do you compose reports which require graphs? If the graph has already been created and you can bring it to the screen, you can snip it and paste it into your document.
2. Do you use screen shots from your computer in PowerPoint slides? You rarely need the entire screen. Instead of having to crop the tool bars and other extraneous matter, snip only the part you need.
3. Do you need to capture small pictures from the screen? What about the need to capture only a portion of the picture? The Snipping Tool is the answer.
4. Do you find yourself viewing a set of directions on-screen, but those directions involve moving away from that screen, meaning you no longer see those instructions. Instead of printing it all on paper, snip those directions. The set is now safe and sound in its own window.
5. Do you make airlines reservations, hotel reservations, or order goods online? Your screen will display your confirmation number. While an email of that confirmation will be forthcoming, why not snip the confirmation right off the screen in the mean time. Save it to the desktop and then trash it once the email confirmation arrives.

Are you reading this newsletter on your desktop or laptop computer? If so, why not give the Snipping Tool a try. Snip a paragraph and try saving it on your desktop. Open a Word document and use the "Paste" command to add the snip. Try dragging a snip from your desktop into a Word document.

I would like to hear how you are using the Snipping Tool. Come on over to my Facebook page and let me know.

If you learned something new, why not share it with others? Below, you will see a link where you can forward newsletter to a friend.

 

Students can be better Googlers

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2014/10/a-must-see-poster-featuring-7-google.html

Number Line

Number Line

Integrating Math Manipulatives into a classroom can provide a rich experience for kids learning about math concepts and number sense.  One manipulative that is most likely under utilized is the number line.


Clarity Innovations has created a free Number Line App for the iPad.  This app can be used to help students visualize the four major mathematical operations.


Options in the app allow you to change the tic marks for several different common increments, or you can even enter in your own custom numbering.  There is a setting for tic mark spacing, and a setting to cover up the tic mark labels. 



















 Once you adjust your settings, you can use the text tool to type in numeric expressions or equations.

 

Finally there is a jump tool where you can bring in your jumps, as many as you like, both forward and backwards for addition and subtraction.  The jump interval can be manipulated to be as long or short as you wish, with the interval visible or not. 

 

An annotation tool allows you to add free hand items for additional clarity.

 

Currently this app is limited to just positive numbers. Several people have posted comments requesting to have the number line extend into negative numbers.  The app also does not provide a way to share your work, so if you want students to create images they would need to take a screen shot of their iPad using Home - ON/OFF sequence.

The Number Line App is a great resource for elementary students learning the concepts of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division while also strengthening their number sense.

 Repost from Joe Buglione @ http://ideviceinthemtns.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2014-09-05T11:36:00-07:00&max-results=7

Great day for those using Google for EDU...which includes Harney ESD schools!

Announcing Drive for Education: The 21st century backpack for students

Posted: Tuesday, September 30, 2014

  

Posted by Ben Schrom, PM Google Apps for Education

(Cross-posted on the Google for Work Blog)

In a little over two years, Drive has become the cloud storage and sharing solution for more than 190 million people worldwide who use it regularly at home, work and school. For many of the 30 million students and educators using Google Apps for Education, Drive has even replaced their bookbags. Why lug around piles of paper or overstuffed binders when every type of document or file can be retrieved from the nearest Chromebook, tablet, smartphone or browser?

Earlier this year, we introduced Drive for Work—a premium version of Google Apps for Work—and now we’re bringing that same power to schools. Today we’re announcing Drive for Education, an infinitely large, ultra-secure and entirely free bookbag for the 21st century.

Drive for Education will be available to all Google Apps for Education customers at no charge and will include:

• Unlimited storage: No more worrying about how much space you have left or about which user needs more gigabytes. Drive for Education supports individual files up to 5TB in size and will be available in coming weeks. 
• Vault: Google Apps Vault, our solution for search and discovery for compliance needs, will be coming free to all Apps for Education users by the end of the year. 
• Enhanced Auditing: Reporting and auditing tools and an Audit API easily let you see the activity of a file, are also on the way. 

All of this comes with the same world-class security that protects all Drive users. Every file uploaded to Google Drive is encrypted, not only from your device to Google and in transit between Google data centers, but also at rest on Google servers. As always, the data that schools and students put into our systems is theirs. Classroom, which recently launched to Google Apps for Education users, makes using Drive in school even better by automatically organizing all Classroom assignments into Drive folders. And Google Apps for Education remains free to nonprofit educational institutions with no ads or ads-related scanning.

We want educators and students who use Google Apps for Education to be able to focus on the learning experience—not the technology that supports it. With Drive for Education, users can put an end to worries about storage limits and more easily maintain a safe, effective and compliant learning environment.

Repost from http://googleforeducation.blogspot.com/2014/09/announcing-drive-for-education-21st.html

Windows 10?

--repost from http://lifehacker.com/all-the-new-stuff-in-windows-10-1640838152?utm_content=buffer63cf8&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer.

All the New Stuff Coming to Windows 10

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Microsoft gave us a small peek at the next version of Windows today, confusingly dubbed Windows 10. Here's what you can expect to see.

Today's event was just a small introduction, with Microsoft noting that Windows 10 is still in the early stages, and a lot of stuff is subject to change—not to mention there are tons of consumer features they haven't talked about yet. But they gave us a short look into some of the new stuff, most of which looks quite good. Here's what you'll find.

Windows' Next Version Is Called Windows 10

EXPAND

Let's just get this out of our systems now. Windows skipped Windows 9 completely for no apparent reason. Make your jokes. Everybody's doing it. Okay, now let's move on.

The Start Menu Is Back

EXPAND

Microsoft previewed this all the way back in April, and it looks like we won't be seeing it on our desktops until Windows 10. The new Start menu will look familiar, with some hints of Windows 8, including live tiles that you can resize and move around yourself. You can even resize the entire Start menu to your liking. Microsoft says their goal here is personalization, so you can make the Start menu work for you. It will also include universal search, just like the old Start menu—but with the addition of web results.

Microsoft Is Bringing the Start Menu Back to Windows

Windows 8.1 is getting some upgrades really soon, but Microsoft also announced a future upgrade to…Read more

Modern Apps Come to the Desktop, in Windowed Form

EXPAND

Again, we saw this back in April, but Microsoft is officially bringing "Modern" apps to the desktop, just like ModernMix currently does on Windows 8. They'll be called "universal apps," and work like pretty much any other windowed app on the desktop.

The Best Windows 8 Apps You Can Run on Your Desktop

Even if you bypass Windows 8's "modern" UI entirely using a tool like Start8 or…Read more

Improved Multitasking and Multiple Desktops

EXPAND

Taking a cue from OS X and Linux, Microsoft is finally adding two very popular features to Windows: an Exposé-like multitasking feature called "Task View", where you can see all your open windows at once, and the ability to create multiple desktops for better Window organization (known as Spaces on the Mac). You can launch this multitasking view from a new "Task View" button in the taskbar.

Aero Snap is also getting a little update, letting you snap up to four windows at once. It'll show window previews for other open windows in any empty spaces so you can easily drag them into view.

An Updated Command Prompt

Microsoft actually updated the command prompt in Windows 10.

I will give you a moment to let that sink in.

Actually, they only previewed one specific update: the ability to paste a directory into the Command Prompt with Ctrl+V (instead of right-clicking, which you currently have to do). Okay, it seems like a silly little update, but if you ever use the Command Prompt, you know how awesome this is. Hopefully they'll add a few other goodies to the terminal before launch.

Updates to the Touch Interface

Microsoft's big goal with Windows 10 is to create a more unified experience across devices, including tablets and PCs. That sounds an awful lot like their goal with Windows 8, but it looks like they're trying a different, less fractured approach with Windows 10. There's a swipe gesture for Task View, for example, and the windows have enlarged buttons to make them easier to touch. Windows will automatically switch to this more touch-friendly view when it detects that you're using a touch screen.

This Is Just the Beginning

Microsoft made it very clear that Windows 10 is still in the very early stages. They'll be releasing a preview build tomorrow (which we'll be on top of), but there are likely many new features to come—and many improvements to the interface beyond what we've seen today (the Charms bar, for example, will likely change, according to Microsoft).

We'll see more of Windows 10 at Microsoft's BUILD conference in April, and Windows 10 will launch in "later 2015." No word on pricing yet, but we'll continue to update this post when we learn more about Windows 10. So stay tuned!