Drive and Microsoft Office - Finally a Match!

Today I heard about the Google Drive plug in for Microsoft Office. (I want to thank the Google Guru for pointing this out on his blog) I was anxious to see what new functionality this would bring. As a Tech Coach, I'm always hearing how difficult it is to "switch" between Google and MS Office and I was looking for that perfect match. I think we've got it.

Before I continue, I'd like to point out all the other excellent ways in which these two ecosystems actually do work in tandem. Any Word, Excel or Powerpoint file can be almost accurately converted to a Google file by uploading to Drive and then choosing to "open in Drive."  The conversion is getting so good, that most documents look the same and are ready to go or be revised. I know how hard Google has worked to achieve this fidelity and from what I understand about the coding behind it, they have done marvelously well.

The Drive App has always acted just like a file folder and when saving Office files, I can just point to the folder and it will be magically in the cloud.

I have been using for some time the Chrome extension for Office editing. That seemed like the easiest way to quickly make edits in a Word or Powerpoint without the conversion to the Google file type. I never was thrilled with converting because you end up with 2 files in your Drive, one .docx and the other a Google file. So the extension was fine but would only edit text.

Now we have the Google Drive Plug In for Microsoft Office. First I downloaded the .exe file and installed the program. It is an extremely quick and simple install.  When finished, nothing appears or gives any direction so I went on and just opened up Word. That is where you'll find the short tutorial from Google that always helps to walk you through and log into your Drive account. Honestly, after that, nothing needs explanation. There is now a Save to Drive menu.

You may see the button Open from Google Drive above. I was thinking this would automatically open any document but in fact, it will only open a .doc or .docx file within Word that you have stored in Drive. If you click on a document that is actually a Google Document, your browser will open and you'll be back in Drive. At that point, you can of course download the document as a Word file. I started to see lists of recent files and those are easy to retrieve straight from the list. Very convenient.

The settings gear offers you a chance to log out of your Google account and switch to another one if needed. For all of us with multiple accounts it's a feature that is highly needed. 

Sadly, there is not a Mac download yet. I am hoping this will be soon to follow as I want a seamless world since flash drives do NOT go straight from PC to Mac. 

Tips and Tricks Gallore

I'm a fan of tips and tricks and have lots of subscriptions to get them directly in my mailbox. However, Google has just started a page that actually is a better delivery design. Currently, there are 88 ideas to try but I foresee this tally going up. I could spend the next month or more trying these out. https://get.google.com/intl/en/tips/#!/

Review Time

I'm a huge fan of all review games and they are a blast for students. I've seen some great uses of Kahoot, Quizlet, and Socrative in the last few years. However, one thing that makes these a bit tedious is the creation of the questions and the saving of a new game each time.

But why not try Flippity?  This uses a very simple Google spreadsheet to feed into a Jeopardy style board. I think there are awesome versions of Jeopardy using Smart and PowerPoint but the best part of a Google Spreadsheet is collaboration. The whole team of teachers can edit the questions, taking the burden off of just you.

And for those in FCPS, it works in our domain! The URL created in the spreadsheet generates a very slick, full screen, online game that tallies team points for up to four teams. No hassles trying to keep track on ye ole chalkboard.

Google Classroom App - Overview

I wanted to show a quick view of the Google Classroom on the iPhone from the student perspective. I've been doing a bit of experimenting to see exactly what students can and can't do. In the end, there is very little in the can't category when you realize that photos can take the place of nearly anything.

So go ahead, take a quick tour as though you are a student and see what the app can do. Also, as a teacher, you will be able to add Announcements into the stream directly from your mobile device. I'm sure you'll be able to add assignments soon but as of this video, not yet.

Newsela and Adobe Reader

Since we are trying to focus much more on reading skills and I am watching those approved web apps carefully, the moon and stars have just come together. Last year we  learned about Rewordify, a website to function as a leveled reading/activity site. Now FCPS has approved another site called Newsela. I'm linking here to one of Newsela's articles on Walrus populations in the arctic. If you play around with this article, you will see that you can adjust the lexile on the right hand side. See the blue bar on the right. Now that you have a an appropriate reading level for you students, you can make this a digital reading activity. 


And now for Adobe Reader. By saving this article as a pdf, students can open the article in Acrobat Reader. And the tools there are amazing. Students can highlight, comment and type on any pdf. The image below shows a small snippet of the walrus article with highlighting and student typing their own notes.  Newsela does require an account, but if you choose the "Sign in with Google+" you will be able to create an account with your Google Apps credentials. There are many other features such as quizes and the ability to create classes and assign reading. But maybe the best part of the website is that it is always current, linking concepts from STEAM into your curriculum. 

Embed a Google Calendar in Blackboard

"Thinking" Enhanced Assessments with Google Forms and Flubaroo

In the state of Virginia we are seeing a big change in the Standards of Learning (SOLs) that are administered via computer to students. Because they are on computer, the technology is there to create more challenging questions that require students to give more than one answer. In order to create these analysis questions and deliver them to students, Google Forms has an option for this. These assessments can also be graded or used as personal study, with the script Flubaroo. So the following video should help you get started creating these forms. Remember, you don't have to invent these questions on your own. Since sharing the creation of a form is possible, you may want to find other teachers willing to add a question or two.