Folders and sub-folders
What: With the Create New button in the upper left, you can create folders to organize your content. Click on your newly created folder on the left hand side of your document list. While you’re there, you can click Create New again to make a sub-folder within the first folder.
Tip: To minimize how many folders I see on the left hand side, I create general folder titles like Bills and Photos. I then use sub-folders for clearer classification like Electricity and Cell Phone under my ‘Bills’ folder. When I’m uploading a scanned document I’m able select the appropriate sub-folder right away.

Shared folders
What: Once you’ve created a folder, you can keep it for yourself, or share it with anyone. Right click on a folder, select Share, and choose the sharing option that best fits your need.
Tip: My husband and I compiled all of our immigration paperwork into one folder. Recently my brother took the plunge and also had to work his way through this process. By sharing my folder with him, it made it easier for him to see what was needed and simplified the process a bit (at least that’s what he told me…).

Managing document versions
What: Click on any file and select ‘Add or manage versions’ in order to upload and group different versions of the same document together.
Tip: While this is an ideal tool for a designer that wants to keep iterations of the same graphic in one place, I found my own everyday use for this feature. I keep track of items where the most recent has more importance than past ones. For example, I scan my taxes, and upload the oldest ones first so the newest one is visible, but I have the option to download past copies.

Exporting your files
What: Someone you know doesn’t live in the cloud? Gasp! No worries, I can easily export all the files in a folder. Just right-click the folder, choose Export, and click the Download button.
Tip: Taking this action will save a .zip file to my computer’s hard drive that I can then email to anyone who’s not as tech-savvy (though, I might have to unzip the file for them too!).

If you’re in the mood to give your filing cabinet the boot, chime in here with your own tips for moving your files to the cloud.

Originally Posted by: Rebecca Steelman, Consumer Operations, from Google Apps Blog Update
]]> http://cslayton.wordpress.com/2010/11/19/google-tip-unclutter-by-moving-your-files-to-the-cloud/feed/ 0 carrieslayton http://cslayton.wordpress.com/2010/11/05/create-and-publish-a-quiz-with-google-docs/ http://cslayton.wordpress.com/2010/11/05/create-and-publish-a-quiz-with-google-docs/#comments Fri, 05 Nov 2010 20:21:41 +0000 carrieslayton http://cslayton.wordpress.com/?p=384 Read more]]> Tired of typical pen and paper quizzes?  Follow these simple instructions and let Google Docs make your quizzes quick, interactive and available on the go.

1.  Create a new form in Google Docs.  Always make your first question “student name” so you can link the students with the answers that were submitted.

2.  Select which type of questions you wold like on your quiz.  Multiple choice, short answer and paragraph are available, but the spreadsheet become difficult to manage when too many different types/students become involved.

3.  If you wish to embed your form into a blog, make sure you edit the width to fit within your blog’s main column.

Adapted from http://www.freetech4teachers.com.

Creating a school or classroom website has never been easier with Google Sites.  This format allows users to incorporate video, slide shows, presentations and calendars into their site.  Users can control access to their site, as well, which is useful for educators.

Here are just a few of the benefits of a Google Site:

• Ability to customize your site
• Adjust privacy settings, making your site as public or private as you desire
• Organize content through sub-pages
• Choose from 3 page types:  file cabinet, announcements, or webpage
• Maintain a central location for both web-based content and offline files
• Excellent repository of online guides, manuals, and tutorials at Google Sites Help

Ready to take the leap into 21st century communication?  Log into Google Sites at https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount?service=jotspot&continue.  Click the “Create Site” button and with a few clicks your site will be off and running!

If you haven’t had a chance to look at this versatile Google App, you are missing out!  Google Earth incorporates features such as maps, 3D terrain and buildings and satellite imagery into a “virtual globe,” allowing students to explore the world from their computer.  Students can examine content from organizations such as NASA and Discover Education, or examine various aspects of the ocean, moon and even the sky.

Here are some ideas to get you going with Google Earth:

• Use Google Sky to map and research celestial objects
• Create a tour of your home, school, or neighborhood
• Study climate change and global warming
• Create a multimedia presentation of presidential homes
• Track earthquakes
• Explore the animal kingdom through National Geographic content
• Research food chains and create a food pyramid
• Set the scene for various lessons, including geography, history or even literature
• Track and graph with real-time data on subjects such as weather or earthquakes
• Invite students to participate in Google Outreach projects
• Calculate the volume of the great pyramids
• Have a scavenger hunt for North American landmarks or capital cities
• Estimate the area of the Amazon forest destroyed by deforestation
• Have students compile an international cookbook by virtually visiting foreign countries
• Create Google “Lit Trips” by following and visiting sites mentioned in famous works, such as Gulliver’s Travels

Google Earth even offers detailed lesson plans, and tips and tutorials for educators at http://sitescontent.google.com/google-earth-for-educators/tutorials-and-tips. So spice up the day with activities using Google Earth!

The Google Apps Education Resource Center (http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/lesson_plans.html) even offers a premade lesson plan repository that can be queried by Google product, lesson subject, or grade level.  The Google Apps Education Community site offers tutorials and tips on how to incorporate Google Apps into your classroom, Google blog subscription opportunities, a community forum, and the ability to network with other educators and students around the globe.  If you are interested in beginning or enhancing your journey to technology integration in the classroom, this would be great place to start for resources, collaboration and great, creative ideas.

Creating your blog is easy with Blogger’s premade templates.  You can choose from a variety of attractive site layouts and colors without having to learn any HTML.  Or, you can customize your templates with custom colors and fonts, and simply drag and drop the various elements of your blog wherever you want them on the page.  Posting photos is also a cinch.  Just click the photo button to upload a picture from your computer, or send camera phone photos straight to your blog site while you are on the go. 

Blogger also allows you to engage your friends, colleagues, or even students, while still maintaining control of who view and comment on your blog.  You can also use th Blogger Profile feature to find other bloggers with similar interests.

To get started, all you need is a Google account.  Select Blogger from the More Google Products Menu and in three east steps, you, too, will be a Blogger!

General

These are just some of the advantages that Google apps have to offer for educators.

1. You can save money for other uses: Google’s services are free or extremely cheap, which offers a financial savings over most other educational software.
2. Students enjoy using Google: Many students are already familiar with Google products and are happy to use them.
3. Apps can be used without support: Support is rarely needed for using Google apps.
4. Google apps are easy to deploy: Google Apps work easily with what you already have.
5. Google offers centralized storage: Instead of keeping information on a single computer or network, you can keep it available through Google systems.
6. Inspire students with posters: Improve search results with tips and inspiration in these posters from Google.
7. Google offers lesson plans: Use these classroom-ready lesson plans that make use of Google apps.
8. Your privacy is protected: Google secures data and offers privacy settings for apps.
9. Create bulk accounts: Google will allow you to create student accounts with a .csv export.
10. You can access any time: Google offers 24/7 access, instead of having to wait until you are at school.
11. Google offers support: You can find help for Google apps with the help center, groups, and more.
12. Google has good filters: You can benefit from Google’s excellent security, spam and virus filters.
13. You’ll find compatibility: Google apps import and export traditional file formats.
14. Google offers freedom: With Google, you can get freedom from desktop applications.
15. You can take Google mobile: Google is accessible using any web-enabled mobile device.

Collaboration

Here’s how Google will help your students, other teachers, and more collaborate and share with each other.

1. You can collaborate easily: Google makes it easy to collaborate on documents and information.
2. Buzz makes collaboration simple: Buzz allows you to carry on conversations in a variety of subjects, as well as share files and information.
3. Securely share videos: Google Video allows you to securely share videos that can be commented on, tagged, and rated.
4. Manage projects: Science fair and group research projects can be worked on together using Google sites.
5. Discuss documents in chat: Google Docs has an onscreen chat window that allows you to discuss additions and changes in real time.
6. Create your own moderated forums: Google Groups will allow you to create moderated forums and mailing lists for discussion and more.
7. Share resources on Google Notebook: You can collaborate with colleagues, sharing resources in your subject area.
8. Collaborative note taking: Google Wave can be used to put together notes among your students.
9. Electronic documents are easy to access and edit: With Google Docs, you and your students can create documents and spreadsheets that can be accessed and edited by others.
10. Update with Blogger: Use Blogger to create your own blog where you can share assignments, information, and tips for tests.
11. You can learn and share using Google Knol: Share, publish, and collaborate on knowledge documents.
12. Share media: Use Google Buzz and other tools to share media like text, links, and photos.
13. Plan parent conferences: Schedule parent conferences with teachers and multiple schedules.
14. Share lesson plans: You can share lesson plans with substitutes, administrators, and other teachers using Google Wave.
15. Set privacy levels: Restrict who can edit or view documents with privacy levels.
16. CloudCourse for scheduling: Schedule your courses using this app for Google Calendar.
17. Education groups: You’ll be able to create education groups using Google Buzz.
18. Share feeds: Add and share feeds from social sites with Google Buzz.
19. Embed documents: You can embed documents into emails and more.
20. You can create private blogs: Your students can create their own classroom blogs and set them to private.
21. Content can be shared easily: Using various applications from Google, you can share information online.

News

Google News has great applications in the classroom.

1. Stay on top of current events: Your students can use Google News to find the top news stories.
2. Get alerts: Set up alerts for Google News to find updates on what you’re studying in the classroom.

Search

These are a few of the ways Google’s Search can be put to good use.

1. Get around blocked websites: Use Google’s cache to find blocked websites.
2. Search classroom keywords: With certain keywords, you can find great classroom keywords.
3. Set up a custom search engine: Help point your students in the right direction using Google’s custom search.
4. Search videos: You can find Google educational videos easily.
5. Find a timeline search: Type view:timeline and your search to find a timeline of the topic.
6. Get definitions: Type definition:word to find the definition of a desired word.
7. Spellchecking: Type a word into Google’s search, and you’ll find the corrected spelling.

Communication

These ideas will help you better use Google for communication.

1. Communicate within your department: Use Google Wave to discuss communications in your department.
2. You can use free voice tools: Google Talk has free IM, VoIP, voicemail, file transfers, and more.
3. Use Google Voice as a personal secretary: Google Voice can transcribe your messages and listen as messages are being left.
4. Share links: You can share links to web resources with Google Wave.
5. Publish the school calendar: Share the school’s calendar to your website so everyone’s informed.
6. Administer class discussions: Materials can be uploaded and discussed easily with the help of Google Buzz.
7. School admin sites: With a Google site, you can help teachers and administrators stay on top of events, policies, and progress.
8. Help students in Groups: Make students more effective at learning and helping each other by creating a Google Group for your classroom or school.
9. Share private conversations: Set Google Buzz conversations to private to share only within your classroom.
10. Send quick updates: Use Google Buzz to send out assignment and course updates to let your class know right away.
11. Create a class site: Use your class site to keep track of events, assignments, deadlines, projects, photos, and more.
12. Make class groups: Keep your communication organized by creating groups for different classes.
13. Collaborate for group work: Google Groups offers online discussions that allow students to work together, even in different locations.
14. Gmail has excellent storage: Gmail has 7GB of storage, and is great for sharing or storing large files.
15. Keep parents in the loop: With a classroom site, you can let parents know what their children are learning about and doing in school.
16. Gmail can be customized: Your school’s branding can be customized on your Gmail and Google Calendar.
17. You’ll be able to stay connected: Gmail offers a built in IM, chat, and more.
18. Record conversations: You can record conversations with experts for archiving.
19. Share voice recordings: Leave messages for students through email, links, and more.
20. Record tutorials: You can set up mini tutorials by leaving yourself a Google voicemail.
21. Forward messages: You can share messages with administrators and more via email.
22. Protect your phone number: You can be contacted using Google Voice widgets without having to post your number.

Organization

Use Google to get organized with these tips.

1. Messages are easy to find: You’ll be able to easily find the messages you’re looking for in Gmail.
2. Create teacher appraisals: You can create teacher appraisal sign-ups using Google Wave.
3. Share schedules and events: Keep students, administrators, and parents in the loop with shared calendars.
4. You can share calendars: With Google Calendar, you’ll be able to schedule resources, rooms, and groups online and with your mobile device.
5. Work on to-do lists: Set up to-do lists within Google Wave.
6. Enable timestamps: Keep track of student work using timestamps.
7. Revising student work is easy to follow: Google Docs helps you track changes, save revisions, and collaborate.
8. Take notes: Google Notebook allows teachers, students, and even entire classrooms to record notes, links, and more, and go back to edit them later.
9. Make use of templates: With the Google Docs template gallery, you can save time with pre-made documents.
10. Encourage comments: You can encourage peer feedback with the use of comments.
11. Publish documents for parents: Through Google Documents, you can publish documents for parents and others.

Maps

Here are some great ways to use Google Maps and Earth for education.

1. Compare views: You can compare what streets and cities look like with Google Maps.
2. Find pen pals: Use Google Maps to locate school pen pals.
3. Study field trip areas: Before a field trip, your students can study the area using street, terrain, and satellite views.
4. Compute the area of a region: Have students estimate the area of a region and figure things out with Google Planimeter.
5. Create personalized maps: Google Maps makes it easy to create personalized maps with your route, adding fact balloons, photos, videos, and more.
6. Create a place in time: Google Tools will allow you to explore images, geography, and more from a specific place and time.
7. Make tours: Identify locations with comments, images, and more.
8. Share a 3D model of the world: With Google Earth, students will have access to a 3D model that can be grabbed, spun or zoomed in on.
9. Set up science projects: Science projects like global warming can be done using Google Earth.
10. Create a Google Earth tour: You can create a quick Google tour of any location.
11. Work on Google Earth models: Using Google Earth and SketchUp, you can create models of a location.
12. Scavenger hunt: Use Google Earth to create a scavenger hunt for students.
13. Travel the real earth: Use Google Earth to travel explorations, migrations, history, and more.
14. Make placemarks: Include live pictures and more with placemarks.
15. Share heritage: Students can use Google Earth and other tools to show where they and their families are from.

Books & Literature

Here you’ll find out how to use Google to get more out of books.

1. You’ll be able to search books: Books in the public domain can be fully searched.
2. Create literature trips: You can use Google Earth to discover where literature took place.
3. Browse books like a library: Find books for your class with Google’s Book search tools.
4. Create your own online library: Add books to your library with Google Book’s “Add to my library” feature.
5. Find scholarly works: Google Books results for books offer links to scholarly works on the literary piece.

Images

Find photos, create models, and more with Google Images.

1. You’ll be able to find a plethora of photos: Find photos easily on Google.
2. Create 3D models: SketchUp allows students to create 3D models of buildings and environments.

Reposted from http://www.techlearning.com/article/33036

Additionally, site owners now have more control over the search box (Manage site -> Site layout -> Configure search). It can be configured to search across multiple sites, making it easier to unify related sites. Businesses and schools using Google Apps can configure it to search across all sites in their domains, which is useful for an intranet site. External search providers can also be used such as a Custom Search Engine or a Google Search Appliance. (Learn more about search options.)

Posted by Russ Vrolyk, Software Engineer

originally posted at http://www.techlearning.com/article/32300

1. The word “And” is assumed… Example: red and white and blue is a search for  red white blue

2. Compound Words, Phrases, and Names; use a String (in other words put the words in quotes  “  “…   Example: “George Washington”“Fort Wayne” “to be or not to be” “United States of America” “Star Wars” “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”

3. Want to eliminate a word: use the Not Command which is a – (minus sign)… Example:  Looking for the country Turkey, but not the bird…  Turkey -bird

4. Capital Letters and articles of speech are ignored unless put  in quotes…  Example: United States of America is treated as united states america but “United States of America” is treated as United States of America

5. The root form of a word looks for all forms of the word… Example: walk = walks, walker, walking, walked

6. Use a tilde (~) to search with other word of similar meaning… Example ~happy searches for happy and synonyms of happy ~large planet large could be: big, vast, giant, enormous

7. Putting a plus (+) in front of word to keep it exactly as is. This dismisses adding other options to root word… Example:  +walk (only walk: does not include walker, walks, walking, walked)

8. Wild Card (*) allows for missing words in a phrase (not missing letters). Forget a word in a title or quote, try a wildcard… Example: “Obama voted on the * on the * bill” Note this is mixed with the string concept.

9. The word OR (in caps) allows two ideas to be reported together… Example: “Indianapolis Colts” 2010 OR 2009

10. Get to know the Google Command Lines. These are useful for quick references in a Basic Google Search. Give them a try and experience the power in narrowing down a search. The list of over twenty starts with some real power suggestions and ends with some everyday useful ideas.

INTITLE – To narrow search by finding web sites that have key word in title you may type the words intitle: followed by word you are searching for (Note no spaces) … Example: intitle:ipad …  Return example

INTEXT – Same as above only it narrows search to only keywords found in text (Note no spaces)… Example intext:ipad … Return example

LINK – This command determines who is linking to a site. Great command to determine credibility and popularity of a site. To use the link command there are no spaces. Type word link: and follow with complete URL (Note if you remember to put no space after the colon you will get true account of active hyper-links, if you use a space you will get hyper-links and text mentions which will be a higher number)…Example link:www.apple.com … Return example

SITE – Found a great site, but you want to then just search in that site.  Perhaps you just want to search government sites or you want to see the Race For The Moon in perspective from Russia. Type in site and with no space follow with web address, domain, or country code. After the address, domain, or country code put in a space and the key word. Perhaps you want iPad information only from apple… Site Example: site:www.apple.com ipad … Return example … Domain Example: site:gov earthquake … Return Example …  County Example: site:ru “moon race“… Return Example

FILETYPE – Looking for a great power point, pdf, or word doc. Perhaps a spreadsheet would be helpful. You may need to look up some suffixes to use. Type in the word filetype: and with no spaces put the suffix (in my example I used xls for excel), put in  space and follow with a search term. I have a list for suffixes linked here… Example: filetype:xls h1n1 … Return example

RELATED – Ever find a great site and you want to see if there is more like it. Just type in the word related: and follow with no space and then the web address. You will find an assortment of related pages… Example: related:www.apple.com … Return Example

INFO – Want more information about a site that you like. Interested in cached versions, links to the site, links from the site, other web pages that are similar to, and other places the web site is mentioned on the internet. A great tool for evaluating a web site. All you do is type in the word info: and then follow it with no space, and the web address of the site you wish to know more about… Example: info:www.ted.org … Return Example

CALCULATOR – To use Google’s built-in calculator function, simply enter the calculation you’d like done into the search box. It even follows the order of operation… Example: 10+9*10 (It multiplies first the adds) … Return Example

SYNONYMS – As mentioned earlier, if you want to search  for your search term and  also for its synonyms, place the tilde sign (~) immediately in front of your search term (no space)… Example: ~city … Return example

DEFINITIONS – To see a definition for a word or phrase,  type the word “define” then a space, then the word(s) you want defined. To see a list of different definitions from various online sources, you can type “define:” followed by a word or phrase. Note that the results will define the entire phrase… Example: define: computer … Return example

SPELL – Google’s spell checking software automatically checks whether your submission uses the most common spelling of a given word. If Google  thinks you’re likely to generate better results with an alternative spelling, it will ask “Did you mean: (more common spelling)?”. Click the suggested spelling to launch a Google search for that term. Example: pikture … Return example

MEASUREMENT – To use measurement converter put in the measurement you want to convert followed by word to, and then enter desired unit… Example: convert 5280 ft to mi … Return example.

WEATHER – To see the weather for many U.S. and worldwide cities, type “weather” followed by the city and state, U.S. zip code, or city and country… Example: weather “fort wayne” in or weather 46814 or weather “fort wayne” usa … Return Example

STOCKS – To see current market data for a given company or fund, type the ticker symbol into the search box. On the results page, you can click the link to see more data from Google Finance… Example: aapl … Return Example

TIME – To see the time in many cities around the world, type in “time” and the name of the city(Note also sunrise/sunset)… Example:  time “fort wayne” …  Return Example

SPORTS – To see scores and schedules for sports teams type the team name or league name into the search box. This is enabled for many leagues including the National Basketball Association, National Football League, National Hockey League, and Major League Baseball… Example: national basketball association … Return Example

LOCAL – When  looking for a store, restaurant, or other local business search for the category of business and the location and Google will  return results right on that page, along with a map, reviews, and contact information. You may have to scroll down to find the local listings in the search returns… Example walmart… Return example

MOVIES – To find reviews and showtimes for movies playing near you, type “movies” or the name of a current film into the Google search box. If you’ve already saved your location on previous search, the top search result will display showtimes for nearby theaters for the movie you’ve chosen, if not enter new location… Example: movie: “diary of a wimpy kid” … Return example

DISEASE  – To see information about a common disease or symptom, enter it into the search box and Google will return the beginning of an expert summary. Click through and read the entire article in Google Health… Example: measles… Return example

FLIGHTS – To see flight status for arriving and departing U.S. flights, type in the name of the airline (abrv work) and the flight number into the search box. You can also see delays at a specific airport by typing in the name of the city or three-letter airport code followed by the word “airport”… Example: austin airport … Return example

PATENTS To get information on patents – enter the word “patent” followed by the patent number into the Google search box and hit the Enter key or click the Google Search button… Example: patent 1773980 … Return example

AREA CODE LOCATION – to see the geographical location for any U.S. telephone area code, just type the three-digit area code into the Google search box and hit the Enter key or click the Google Search button… Example 260… Return example