Making Good Use of Google

1. Type in your search and the open the panel using the Show options link above your top result. Then use Google’s Wonder Wheel to find related searches and potential keywords to target during your keyword discovery. The Wonder Wheel can be found on the results page under “Show Options” and then “Standard View”.
2. You can also narrow a search by using the timeline in the options panel. Try sf earthquakes, and click on the timeline.
3. Also in the options panel, search images by color.
4. Use the Similar images link under image search results to narrow down your image
searches.
5. Use Google Squared www.google.com/squared to build a table of information about a topic. You can add a column if there's a dimension missing. You can drill into a cell to see where the information comes from. Great for fact checking.
6. Use Street View in Google Maps to answer questions we can't answer with
conventional Web Search or conventional maps. Questions like
"what does the entrance to this store look like?"
Or
"When can I and cant I park on that side of the street?"
(To use street view, open a Google Maps map, and then drag the little yellow stick figure onto the street you'd like to view.)
7. Visit Google.com/educators for
teacher resources
prepared lesson plans on how to search like an expert and how to spot reliablesites (developed with help from librarians!)
prepared lesson plans that leverage Google Docs and Spreadsheets

21st Century Reading

Time Magazine Article - http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1568480,00.html




http://www.21stcenturyskills.org

The Mile Guide – for school districts help give guidelines on how to implement


Suggested Reads
The Last Lecture – Randy Pausch

The World is Flat - Thomas L. Friedman

A Whole New Mind – Daniel Pink

This Wisdom of Crowds - James Surowiecki

The Element – Sir Ted Robinson

Engage Me or Enrage Me – Mark Prensky

Did You Know 4.0

Students Today

A Thought

"Imagine a school with children that can read or write, but teachers who
cannot, and you have a metaphor of the Information Age in which we live."
-Peter Cochrane

Comic Creators

http://www.bitstrips.com

This is a web based tool.

Students can create a comic strip based on curriculum topic.
Example: Show your understanding of the skeletal system by creating a comic strip.

Recommendation: Work on the dialogue first. The content or dialogue is most important. Then have the students add the characters.

Google Docs Rocks

Go to docs.google.com

Students can collaborate on spreadsheets and documents.

Teachers can create presentations, websites, and surveys.

To create a survey:
Click on Forms. Create a form. You will be given a URL at the bottom of the form for the survey. Copy the URL. Post this on your blog, wiki, or website. Data from the survey is automatically added to google docs.