Folder sharing in google docs

Google Docs has always been a decent solution for collaborating on individual documents, but users have been frustrated for some time by the lack of support for sharing multiple files at once. Google recently heard their demands – delivered via the Google Docs product ideas page – and added folder sharing. Now you can not only set the same sharing permissions for a whole folder full of docs at once, but also upload multiple files simulataneously.

I started using the new features today – huge improvement!

Will the Kindle Change Education?

kindle

kindle

From Scholastic Administr@tor:

Some educators say they are already convinced that e-book readers are what schools need. “For the longest time, distribution of reading materials has been highly inefficient in getting the right material to the right student at the right moment,” says Daniel Witz, a language arts teacher at Lake Bluff Middle School, near Chicago. “You have maybe four books of a fiction title; if a fifth kid wants to be part of that circle, you don’t have that copy,” he says.

Students provided with Kindles, which can hold some 1,500 digital books, can simply download the copies they need, without burdening a school’s media center, Witz says.

With access to the vast bookshelf of titles, teachers could tempt reluctant readers with high-interest magazines and nonfiction, or they could feed their voracious readers with popular series.

Kindles stocked with well-chosen e-books would also allow teachers to flex new teaching strategies, according to Cornelia Brunner, the deputy  director at the Center for Children and Technology in New York City. “You could have a very nicely selected group of readings. . . . Kids could read, annotate, and actually clip and be asked to make connections among those clippings,” says Brunner.

Other possible benefits include providing students with more books electronically than is practical in print, reducing photocopying, relieving the unhealthy weight of student backpacks, and—though this case is far from proven—saving school districts money on textbooks.

Read the entire article here.

Game Classroom

Game Classroom is a one-stop web destination for accessing high-quality educational games, and homework help for K-6 students:

  • We scoured the web for the best and most trustworthy games, and conveniently sorted them according to skill, topic and grade level.
  • We spent thousands of hours creating an abundance of interactive content for parents to better understand the building blocks behind their child’s development.
  • We created a comprehensive, free homework help section for parents/teachers to provide to children including learning tips, online resources and sample problems.

All of Game Classroom’s educational content has been created by professional educators with over 200 years of teaching experience, and has been outlined using state educational standards. We hope you (and your kids) enjoy Game Classroom and find it a fun place to learn and play games!

Fun with iPhone …

iphoneI attended NECC in DC this week, armed only with my iPhone (previously, I never would have attended a conference without my laptop). I decided to go for lightweight convenience over the ability to type my notes. Amazingly, I had absolutely no need for a laptop. I was connected via the free wireless 100% of the time. Took my notes in Evernote and checked websites during the presentations. Worked really well.

Of course, my daughter snagged my phone to check out the new voice control and we had an uproarious time trying to get it to work. She was only interested in playing music … and several of her requests were hilariously misinterpreted. She told the phone to, “Play songs by Frank Zappa” and we immediately heard Ring Ring by ABBA. A request for songs by Aerosmith resulted in a call to my former Superintendent (she hung up immediately, thank goodness). We finally got pretty goofy and requested the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. Apparently that brings up ABBA as well. Maybe the phone knows something …

Siftables

“MIT grad student David Merrill demos Siftables — cookie-sized, computerized tiles you can stack and shuffle in your hands. These future-toys can do math, play music, and talk to their friends, too. Is this the next thing in hands-on learning?”

Amazing new user interface … stick with the video until the 2:30 mark, then say, “wow.”

Map of the Fallen

Map of the Fallen “… uses Google Earth to honor the more than 5,700 American and Coalition servicemen and women that have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan … So please take a look at this map, and explore the stories of heroism and sacrifice made across this nation and across the world. Although this map only shows the hometowns and places of death for these soldiers, it’s important to remember that each of these servicemen and women have a rich story in between …”

Map of the Fallen

ShareTabs

sharetabsA cool tool, one that might come in handy during workshops/lessons when you want all the participants to easily navigate to several websites. ShareTabs allows you to list several URLs, personalize a single link and then create a single web page with thumbnails of the collected sites and easy-to-navigate tabs across the top.

The interface is pretty simple to use. I easily copied a few URLs and created a page of streaming video sites: http://sharetabs.com/?streamingvideo.