Currently I am into creating infographics using Google Drawing.  This is an activity that students can do that is fun, forces them to think critically about how to best represent information, is collaborative, is free and does not require an additional account beyond their Google account. Previously I blogged about how to create opacity with a shape in Google Drawing.  By bringing in a background texture and placing a shape with reduced translucency on the texture the infographic can really look sharp.

In addition to having nice background images, students can create text that stands out by creating a shape on the page and reducing the opacity of the shape dramatically.  This helps to highlight the text on the page and draw the eye to the information.

Another text trick is to click on the text box and duplicate the text.  Change the font color in the copied text box.  Hold down the shift key as you use the arrow keys to nudge the copied text on top of the original text.  Having a slight offset of the text creates the illusion of depth in the text.

Link to the presentation

Pivot tables are an incredibly powerful tool for summarizing information.  When looking at data oftentimes there are repeats in the information.  Multiple times a students name is listed.  Multiple times an assignment title is listed.  Multiple times a disciplinary action was taken.  To make sense of a spreadsheet with many rows of information a pivot table can make sense of the chaos.

Click Here for the sample pivot table

In Google Docs there is an equation editor that allows for users to insert math symbols into the document.  Unfortunately there is not an equation editor for Google Presentation.

A work around is Daum Equation Editor, a Chrome App that will launch in the Chrome web browser.

The Daum Equation editor works like most equation editors, a variety of templates for fractions, radicals, symbols and more.  After creating your equation, in the bottom right hand corner is an option to Save as Image.

On my Mac the Save as Image option does not add the .jpg file extension which is necessary to make the image file work.  Simply type .jpg at the end of the file name.

I save the image files onto my desktop so that I can drag the images directly from the desktop into the Google Presentation.

This is a relatively easy way to get math expressions into my Google Presentation.  The downside is that the expressions are images, thus not interactive.  If you need to make a change you will need to go back to the equation editor and create a new one.  But this is a relatively easy, and free, way for students to get math symbols in their Google Presentations.

I created a Google document to demonstrate how you can spot some instances of plagarism in student documents.

Currently I am working on my Leading Edge Certification for the Online and Blended Teacher.  This certification is also available through the online 18 unit certificate program through CUE and Fresno Pacific University.  Innovative Educator Advanced Studies Certificate: http://cue.org/ieasc

As part of module 4 I am to write a blog post about social networks.

I am an active participant on twitter.  Twitter is very important to me as an educator as it   provides me with access to innovative educators around the globe.  At a single school site, the staff has a general exposure to the same PD opportunities and cultural vision.  To learn what is going on at other schools, to find new ideas, to have a team of educators who can lend ideas and lesson plans, to encourage me to be excited about teaching… twitter is essential.  Twitter is a community of educators who care about teaching and learning and who help me to be better.

The internet helps my learning by providing free resources, blog posts, research, social connections and a way for me to share my own resources that I create.  One can not expect to get if one does not give.

I definitely find myself distracted by the internet.  What is great about twitter is I follow educators I respect, so when they post an article I know that it is good.  I can get lost in reading articles about education, but they are all good.  So my work may be a little delayed but I’m brimming with new ideas of how I can address student learning.

When I encounter educators and try to sell them on twitter, many times their expression of horror let’s me know that their exposure to twitter is one in which their students and friends use it to post what they are eating.  Rule: Do not use twitter like facebook and do not follow people who do.  This is not about following your friends, it is about creating a network of people who help inspire you and make you a better educator.  So we do not use twitter like our students use twitter, as educators we may get some tips from students on what a hashtag is, but in general students use it differently.  Twitter is a professional network where we socialize about education on our terms, not what is prescribed by the district.

Who teaches students how to use the internet and to be responsible adults?  It is easy to say that is the job of the parents, however, realistically the majority of their waking hours are at school or doing school work.  Students will be on the web, and like us can be distracted by social networks and fun things they can do on the internet.  Using Web 2.0 tools and doing research on the web opens up many possibilities for how the students can become creators and innovators in their education rather than just consumers, but first they have to learn how to be wise consumers.  Built into every lesson, every assignment, every day we need to be discussing responsible use.  www.commonsensemedia.org is a great starting place for lesson plans, posters and resources to help teachers start  guiding the conversation and teaching students how the web can enrich them professionally and not just be a place to show what you’re having for lunch.

Think about how the Internet has impacted your own personal learning, communication, and sense of community.

Write a new post that includes:

1. A screenshot showing your participation in a social or professional network

2. A summary of how you use that network for personal or professional connections or for new learning.

In your post reflect on the following:

3. When does the Internet help your learning?

4. When does it distract from good learning for you?

5. How might your answers to these questions be similar to or different from the answers your students might give?

6. How might you support your students in using the Internet as their own personal learning space?

A picture is worth 1000 words right?  Inserting images into our webpages and documents helps the information be more interesting and important.

On the web everything has an “address.”  Each element that loads on a webpage is saved on a server somewhere and there needs to be directions to tell the computer where to go find that element.

If you right click on a picture on the internet you can find the address of where that image is located.

Each browser has different verbiage, I primarily use Chrome so I am given the option of “Copy Image URL”

Safari gives the option of “Copy Image Address”

and FireFox words it “Copy Image Location.”

Why Copy Image URL?

There are many web 2.0 tools that let you insert HTML.  For example using www.quia.com I am able to make games and quizzes, but I can also insert HTML code.  There is no WYSIWYG toolbar to let me insert an image so I need to learn a few simple HTML tags to accomplish this.  This takes my quizzes from being boring to being exciting. For this Quia quiz (http://www.quia.com/quiz/309168.html) I added pictures of footballs to the questions and when the student got the question correct a referee is giving the touchdown sign.  This is a worksheet, or as I call it a “playsheet,” so it should not be fun, yet I have students popping up all over class like wack-a-mole announcing “touchdown” when they get the question correct.

To insert the HTML code for an image you need to be in HTML editing mode.  Usually there is a link for HTML or “source” or you might just see a button with the symbol <>.
In the case of Quia the question boxes are ready to accept HTML tags, although I need to select the option in the game settings that I have HTML.

<img src=”URL”>

All HTML tags are flanked by the less than and greater than symbol.
Image source is abbreviated to  img src.
The image location needs to be between quotation marks.

Right click on an image
Copy the Image URL
Type <img src=”
Paste (control V)
End the quotation
End with >

Example: <img src=”http://sanfrancisco.journalismconvention.org/files/2013/03/keeler-150×150.jpg”>

There are other websites, such as Google Docs, where you can use the WYSIWYG toolbar to insert images.  Instead of browsing for the image on your computer you can supply the image URL.

In Google Docs go to insert->image and choose “By URL”

Some Cautions

When you take a picture it is copyrighted. Period.  Any images on the internet or anywhere else are under copyright whether it says so or not.  We must teach our students that they can not steal other peoples intellectual property.  www.commonsensemedia.com is a great resource for teaching students about digital responsibility and safety.

Just because we can right click and save the image or copy the image URL does not make it okay to do so.

When you right click on the image you get a lot more options than to save or copy the image location.  It is very easy to accidentally choose “Copy Link Address” which usually is different than the image address.  When you click on a picture it probably links you to another web page, so if you are looking to copy the address of the image itself double check the wording that it includes the word image in it.

I was asked to take it down about 1000 notches and just answer how to get started with spreadsheets.

Why do spreadsheets?

• It will make you more organized
• It will save you hours of time
• It will help you to better manage your classroom
• For students it can be an excellent application of math and algebra

At it’s basic level a spreadsheet is just a grid or table that you organize information into.  Once you get into it, you can harness the super power of spreadsheets to do all kinds of amazing things.

So lets start simple, there are many different spreadsheet programs.  I will use Google Sheets for this because it is free and web based so everyone should be able to access.  You will need a Google Account.  I recommend making a Gmail if you do not have one.  If you prefer not to make a Gmail, you can link your current email address to a Google account: https://accounts.google.com/SignUp

Step 1: Go to drive.google.com

Step 2: Click on the create button and choose spreadsheet

Step 3: Click on where it says “untitled spreadsheet” in the upper left and rename it.  We are just getting started so name it “delete me” if you want.

Step 4: It is not necessary, but I highly recommend clicking on the blue share button and checking your sharing settings.  My work flow with ALL Google Docs is to rename and blue share button before I do anything else.

By default the spreadsheet is private so any student information or grades you put on the spreadsheet is not accessible by anyone other than you.

Click on the word “Change” in order to change it from being private to being publicly viewable.  This is how I share my spreadsheets on twitter and with colleagues and students.

At the bottom you can enter the email addresses of anyone you want to share with.  This will give them the ability to edit the spreadsheet with you AT THE SAME TIME.  This collaboration piece is particularly exciting about Google Sheets.

Again, this is optional, you can leave the blue share button alone if you prefer.

Step 5: Treat this like a text document, just put text in the boxes (called cells).
Get use to using a spreadsheet, type things in the cells, see what ways you an create classroom documents and lists just by having the ability to easily put information anywhere on the sheet.  You are not constrained to go line by line like you are in a text document.

Try making a list of your students, this is a great place to start.

Next steps: 5 things everyone should know about spreadsheets

One of the best skills you can learn is how to utilize a spreadsheet.  Once you become proficient with this amazing tool, you will be able to more easily and quickly complete tasks.

If you have a Google Account you can create a new spreadsheet by going to http://drive.google.com and clicking create->spreadsheet

1) A spreadsheet can be used to enter text

While you may think a spreadsheet is only good for calculating numbers and data, you can use it just to organize your text.  A spreadsheet is just a large table.  You are able to put any text in any cell.

If you are wanting to organize information such as a list of parents volunteering for the field trip, listing which students are assigned to which project, dividing up work tasks for a project, then a spreadsheet is perfect for this.  Organizing information into a table on a document is not as flexible and easy to use as a spreadsheet.  Unless you are specifically wanting to make a worksheet or write an essay you may want to consider a spreadsheet to be your default document rather than a text document.

2) Spreadsheets are great for lists and copying

Spreadsheets have the ability to copy and paste easily by “filling down” or “filling across.”
Type text or a number into a cell and push enter. Click back on the cell and notice there is a small box in the bottom right hand corner of the cell.  If you click on this box and drag it down or across it will fill in the cells with a copy of info in the cell.

If you highlight 2 cells that have a number pattern or a pattern for dates or days of the week you will notice the box in the bottom right hand corner of the highlighted selection. Clicking on the box and pulling it down or across will continue the pattern.  This allows you to quickly make a numbered list.

A list of 1, 2 quickly becomes a sequential list of 1 to 100 as you fill down.

3) Tabs allow you to be more organized

Any project or collaboration group you are organizing may benefit from a spreadsheet.  Not only can you put text or even images* on a spreadsheet, but you can have multiple workspaces to organize each part of the project.

At the bottom of the grid you will notice what are called tabs.  Each tab is it’s own independent worksheet.  In Google Sheets you can click on the plus button in the bottom left to add additional tabs.  Notice you had a tab labeled “Sheet1″ and now there is a second tab labeled “Sheet 2.”  By simply clicking on the tabs you can jump from tab to tab.  This is more efficient than a text document since you do not have to scroll to find where the information is.

You will want to rename the tabs so that they act like a table of contents. Allowing you and team members to quickly jump to the information that is needed.  In Excel you double click on the tab and it will allow you to rename the tab.  In Google Sheets you would click on the arrow on the right side of the tab and choose “rename.”

4) Sorting and alphabetizing is kind of a big deal

Alphabetizing a list of student names is something I find I need to do frequently.  Spreadsheets allow you to sort alphabetically or numerically easily.  In Google Sheets hover over the top of the columns and you will notice an arrow shows up.  Click on that arrow and choose to sort A->Z to alphabetize.

5) If you want to calculate anything, use a spreadsheet

Forget the calculator.  How many times have you entered in several student scores and then realized that you forgot one or typed the decimal place in the wrong area and have to start over.  Simply organize the numbers into a spreadsheet and write a simple formula.  A formula starts with an equals sign.  In a blank cell type an equals sign and click on one of the numbers you want to add.  Use + to add to another number and click on the other number you want to add.  =A3+A4 will add what is in cell A3 to what is in cell A4.  You can repeat this for many numbers.  =A3+A4+A5+A6+A7 will add up the 5 numbers in those 5 cells.  If you made a mistake on one of the numbers you simply change the number and your calculation will be corrected.

As a teacher I am always needing to add or average or do something with some numbers. I typically leave a spreadsheet open all of the time.  I do not save the spreadsheet, I just use it as a calculator.  If you do not want to write formulas you can simply start with an equals sign and type in your math problem.  typing =6+7+5 and pushing enter will yield you an answer of 23.

More advanced formulas are =sum(B2:B5) which adds everything from cell B2 to cell B5 or even better =average(B2:B5) will yield the average of those numbers.

*Insert images on a Google Spreadsheet by using the Insert menu and choosing to insert an image.  You can browse for an image on your computer. 

There are many things I am excited about in relation to the new Google Forms.  However, it has added a layer of complexity by making the spreadsheet of data separate from the form itself.

I just created a sample Form in my delete folder*, but the response destination spreadsheet was created in My Drive.  So the form and the connected spreadsheet do not live in the same folder.
*My delete folder is just a folder I created so that I can make sample documents when I do trainings or presentations.

First when you make a Google Form you will want to choose a response destination which is an option in the grey bar right above the Google Form.

I have marked the check box to always create a new Spreadsheet so that I will not have to choose a response destination each time I create a Google Form.

What gets confusing is you are looking at the spreadsheet but want to view the form.  However, since you are logged in you see the editing view of the form and not the live view.  So you will want to be familiar with how to jump from one to the other.

In the form edit view there is a button to view responses and a button to view the live form.  Clicking view responses allows you to jump to the spreadsheet.

Once you are in the spreadsheet, click on the file folder next to the spreadsheet title so you can file the spreadsheet in the same folder as your Google Form.

In the spreadsheet view there is a Form menu next to the Help menu.  The Form menu allows you to jump to the live form or to edit the form.

My workflow is then to open either the form or the spreadsheet, no sense in digging around Google Drive to find the view I am looking for and then to use the navigation within there to get to the view that I am desiring.

I use Google Forms a lot.  They are extremely useful for collecting information and having students submit work.  Anything I make that is working for me I like to share on my blog or twitter with other teachers who may want to try it out.  With the legacy Google Forms there was only one document to share, however, with the new Google Forms there is the Form which is separate from the spreadsheet of data.

Unfortunately there is not an option to share the form without giving editing rights.  Ideally I would like to share the form with view only rights so that strangers or colleagues could make a copy for themselves and use it as is appropriate for them.  Clearly I do not want the teacher next door to have her students quiz scores or project submissions mixed in with mine.

The workaround is detailed in the presentation embedded above.  You want to make sure you make a copy of your destination spreadsheet so that you are not accidentally sharing confidential student information or results with others.

Basically you make a copy of the destination spreadsheet, make sure the copy does not have data in the spreadsheet.  Share the copy.  Others make a copy of the spreadsheet and then use the Forms menu in the spreadsheet to view or edit the Form.

The advantage to doing this is if your response destination has formulas or is organized with multiple tabs the people who make copies of your Form will not only have the Form but how the spreadsheet is set up.  You also only have to share one document even though Google Forms now has the Form separate from the spreadsheet.