In the marketplace: Google’s G Suite for Education, coding, grants, and more

Remaining a tech-savvy educator means keeping on top of the myriad changes and trends in education, how technology can support those trends, and how teaching and learning can best benefit from near-constant change.

Below, we’ve gathered some of the latest and most relevant marketplace news to keep you up-to-date on product developments, teaching and learning initiatives, and new trends in education.

On Oct. 1, CenturyLink Inc. opened the application process for The CenturyLink Clarke M. Williams Foundation Teachers and Technology grant program. Full-time and PreK-12 teachers in public, private and/or charter schools in CenturyLink local service areas in the U.S. are eligible to apply for a grant of up to $5,000 to innovatively implement technology in their classrooms to increase student achievement. To apply, teachers should visit www.centurylink.com/teachersandtechnology. The deadline for applications is midnight (Eastern), Jan. 12, 2017. Read more.…Read More

14 classroom management strategies to increase student learning

When the right classroom management tools are in place, students are able to learn more as their engagement increases.

Focusing on physical classroom management, behavioral management, resources for effective instruction, attendance and gradebook tools, and tools for a school-home connection can help students master classroom lessons.

During an edWeb webinar, Eileen Lennon, a technology teacher at Nathaniel Hawthorne Middle School 74 in Queens, New York led an exploration of tools to help teachers establish an engaging and productive classroom environment.…Read More

Google adds new features to Classroom, Forms, and more

As back-to-school approaches, Google has just released a grab-bag of new features aimed at K-12 educators—mostly upgrades to existing Google products like Classroom and Expeditions—announced in a new blog post.

For Classroom, Google’s still relatively new LMS, the company is adding summaries of student work that can be automatically shared with parents by teachers, who can send the summaries (or classroom announcements) daily or weekly as they choose.

Classroom’s mobile app is also getting some tweaks, namely the new ability to annotate documents, turning them into whiteboard-like screens. Teachers, too, can use the annotations to grade assignments, highlight passages, or demonstrate concepts. To help organize classrooms, teachers can now also add topics to posts and students can filter their streams for specific topics.…Read More

zSpace creating virtual field trips for Google Expeditions

zSpace announced they are working with Google to create an end-to-end virtual reality classroom experience that combines the power of zSpace’s interactive Screen VR technology with the Google Expeditions Pioneer Program. Students will be introduced to learning content through the vivid photo and video Expeditions followed by in-depth exploration opportunities in zSpace.

Google and zSpace will begin the program for back-to-school 2016 and showcase the virtual reality classroom experience at conferences and tradeshows in the United States. Through the partnership, zSpace and Google aim to reach and inspire hundreds of thousands of students during the 2016-2017 school year and beyond.

“zSpace is thrilled to collaborate with Google to bring more virtual reality content to our customers and, more importantly, to work together to define and understand the ways that experience virtual reality can transform learning.” said Paul Kellenberger, zSpace CEO.…Read More

3 Google Fiber programs that could help ease the digital divide

Google’s affordable broadband service is already impacting some communities and schools

The latest Digital Equity report from the Consortium of School Networking paints a picture of an educational environment where schools are at least on the right path to providing access to high-speed wi-fi within their walls (though there is still plenty of work to be done). An equally pressing problem is the fact that the number of pupils with fast connectivity dwindles as they move away from their K-12 hubs—and the divide deepens even further when issues like socioeconomic status, income, and race are taken into account.

According to The Pew Research Center, 82.5 percent of American households with school-age children currently have broadband access at home. This is approximately 9 percentage points higher than the broadband adoption rates across all households, CoSN reports, but there are still 5 million households with school-age children which lack broadband in the home.

“Students in these households experience what is being labeled the ‘homework gap,’” reported CoSN, pointing out that more than 75 percent of school district technology leaders have no strategy for addressing off-campus access.…Read More

Why Google Vault is the essential backup tool for every Google district

Google Vault can help GAFE districts search and retain important data — even if it’s been deleted

Ever get nostalgic for the simpler days, where the most subversive ways students could communicate was via bathroom graffiti and passing notes in class? These days, those almost quaint forms of communication have given way to dozens of forms of electronic message passing that can be used for good — and bad.

The real question is whether your district has a good grasp on the communications flowing through your network. As schools have migrated their systems and services to the web, maintaining good oversight and archiving control over district communication has become more challenging and much more important.

Does your district have a plan in place for dealing with a worst case scenario, such as a lawsuit or questions from police or the media? How do you investigate issues of cyber bullying, sexting, staff impropriety, and fulfill freedom of information (FOIA) requests? While no one wants to think about these things, not having a plan can be costly.…Read More

6 reasons why Chromebooks are the device of the moment

What makes Chromebooks popular, and will they outlast their buzz?

google-devicesAs the familiar refrain goes, “It’s not about the device,” but even so schools need to choose one to advance their digital instruction goals. And by all accounts, Chromebooks are the device of the moment, with 2.5 million shipped to schools in the first half of this year alone. There’s no doubt they’re trendy, but is there any deeper reasons for the sales surge beyond appearance and affordability? Recently, I joined host Larry Jacobs and Google Certified Innovator and trainer Chris Scott for an episode of Education Talk Radio in which we talked through these issues at length and came up with a handful of reasons for the Chromebook’s trendsetting status. Here’s the CliffsNotes of that discussion, but be sure to check out the full conversation available online.

Google’s name has staying power. We’ve been Googling for more than a decade by this point, and with the near ubiquity of Google Apps for Education in the nation’s classrooms, educators and students feel comfortable with the Google ecosystem. Branding helps, but at the end of the day, educators do realize that Google is just the conduit for students to advance their learning, not the first and last steps.

Chromebooks have some surface-level advantages. First, they’re cheap, with models often starting around $200. And while the cheaper cost can mean lower quality, it also means cheap replacement parts, too. IT management is simple — and there are few horror stories equaling what schools went through with iPads. They’re easy to share among students, and at a time when online high-stakes testing is still very much a part of the conversation, Chromebooks have the all-important built-in keyboard. None of these things necessarily makes the Chromebook the ideal or superior device for education, but they certainly don’t hurt.…Read More

This software turns old laptops into new Chromebooks

Using device-agnostic software called Neverware, districts are breathing new life into old laptops

neverware-laptopsWhen Waller Independent School District of Waller, Texas, decided to start upgrading its laptops and desktops to Windows 7 in 2014, the district had one big concern: time. After years of using Chromebooks alongside its traditional laptops, school leaders were anticipating lightning-fast boot up times from their new investments.

What they found was less than encouraging—even newer laptops, they learned, require a good 60 to 90 seconds to boot up. “In education, that just doesn’t work,” says Rosa Ojeda, technology director for the 8-school, 6,700-student district. “When a teacher is working with 30 students, and when each needs a minute-and-a-half to boot up, you’ve lost that educational moment.”

In addition to its hardware challenges, Waller ISD also faced funding issues. “Our teachers are at the innovative state and ready to start using technology in the classroom,” Ojeda explains, “but our current budget doesn’t support that. We’re buying computers, but it’s still difficult to purchase as many as we really need.” She adds that the district has been able to leverage grants and support from programs like Computers for Learning and federal agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security.…Read More

Nearpod now integrates with Google Classroom

Collaboration is designed to make sharing easier on both platforms

nearpod-googleSlide sharing platform Nearpod, is now working directly with Google Classroom, allowing teachers to instantly assign and share their interactive lessons with their students. This works both for the teacher-paced or student-paced lesson modalities on the Nearpod Platform.

Typically when teachers create a lesson in Nearpod, the platform assigns them a short, random code that they can share with students. Now, teachers can select a button below that code and share to their Google Classroom page.

“In the last year, we’ve been impressed by the explosive growth of Google Apps for Education (GAFE) and Google Classroom in particular. With this integration, Nearpod is one step closer to providing teachers a seamless way to easily leverage the benefits of both Nearpod and GAFE.” said Guido Kovalskys, CEO of Nearpod. “We are excited to deepen our integration with Google with today’s announcement and allow teachers to share interactive lessons seamlessly with their students, and get immediate formative assessment through the Nearpod platform.…Read More

12 ways to adopt Google Apps for Education

A new digital resource offers tips to safely use Google Apps for Education

google-appsA new resource from Gaggle and Amplified IT offers technology facilitators 12 tips to help ensure that Google Apps for Education safe for teachers and students to use.

In any implementation, it’s important that school and technology leaders identify benefits and value associated with the implementation.

“Without the right strategies in place, most software and web-based tools–whether free or paid–are under-used in education,” according to the guide.…Read More