Just Give Up. You will never learn it all!

Here is a list of what one school district uses in their classroom. I hear teachers complain about technology being 1 more thing... More like the 40 to 50 things below.

► Adobe Voice
► Answer Garden
► Apple TV
► audioBoom
► Blabberize
► Blackboard
► BookFlix, TrueFlix, and ScienceFlix
► Capstone Interactive
► ChatterPix Kids
► Explain Everything
► Flipgrid
► Glogster
► Google Classroom
► iBooks
► iMovie
► iPads
► Khan Academy
► Kidblog
► LearnZillion
► LessonPaths
► Little Bird Tales
► MacBook Airs
► Mac minis
► Microsoft Publisher
► Padlet
► PebbleGo
► Popplet
► SafeShare
► Screencast-O-Matic
► Seesaw
► Smore
► Story Creator
► Vimeo
► WatchKnowLearn
► Weebly
► YouTube

So just give up, don't learn it. Make your students learn it. In fact, give them chances to explore and create with these tools and let your students evaluate the effectiveness of them. Thats actually a part of the Digital Literacy skills embedded in the Common Core.

Even by being a self-proclaimed incompetent techy, you can still teach the digital literacy skills.

Get to it.

Add a worksheet to Google Classroom as you finish it

Have you added the "Share to Classroom" extension?  If you haven't, visit the Chrome Webstore and add it to your browser.

The power is that you can grab things that you are seeing online and share it to your classes.  Most people have done this with websites and online text.  Have you ever done it with a Google Doc?

Next time you are on a Google Doc that you want your class to work on, click the "Share to Classroom" extension.  You can add the document to your classroom and still choose how your students can interact with the document.

Students can view
Students can edit
Make a copy for each student

Try it out and save yourself a few seconds.

Create your own microcredential program for free

I have been in conversations with the Professional Development (PD) department to allow online courses as considered for credit towards column advancement (pay raise).  The department was not hard to convince, barring that the online PD had some type of task that required teachers show that they have achieved competency.  We have gone through several presentations of companies who offer micro-credentials, but they are prohibitively expensive.  How can you create a homegrown micro-credentialing set of courses that teachers can take on their own time?

Ingredients:
- Live Google Doc as a menu of courses (make sure each course has a google classroom class code).
- Google classroom set up with training materials and a performance task.
- Google Form - How teachers notify you when they complete a course.
- Someone to verify the quality of the performance task
- Badge - a picture for the teacher/staff member to display digitally (webpage, signature line)

1. Put the topic, tools, course description, amount of time allotted for credit, and any other information on the Google Doc and post this to your webpage, so teachers and staff can view it.

2. Create a Google Classroom course for each training.  For each course you will need descripions, teaching, videos, pictures, The GOOGLE CLASSROOM CODE, and a performance task.

3. Make sure there is a contact form for teachers to contact the staff when they are finished. Google Form and Form Mule or AutoCrat.  That way the person verifying quality gets an email.  If you can get them to agree, have each schools principal be the quality control person.
NOTE: If the person verifying the quality is not at the district office, make sure verification instructions are embedded in the email that they get.

4. Get a picture online that you are free to use share or modify, add the name of the badge to the picture using your favorite photo editor.  Once teachers are verified, send them a digital copy of the badge for them to add to their email signature line.  If you really want, send them a certificate.

Find things Faster on the Internet

I often use and have seen people use different symbols for including or getting rid of different results.  Essentially refining your search to make sure your results are more relevant to what you are doing.  I use it with students to make sure they find what they are looking for.  Found a more comprehensive list, for those who do not want to use advanced search, try this link.  Or, CLICK HERE if you like a little sarcasm in your life.

#OCCUE Presentations

This way you can play during the session.  Here are the sessions I am doing at OCCUE.  They are geared towards altering instruction through the use of chromebooks in the classroom.

Chromebook 101

There's More to Google than Drive

Chromebook AppSmashing

If you have a question, please let me know.