EST430

"If you've been using Google Forms for the occasional survey, you may already know a few great reasons to use Google Forms over the competition. However, you may still be unaware of some of the most powerful tools it offers. Here's how you can do some of the more interesting things with Google Forms."

"I recently stumbled across this handy infographic from Oakdome that shows a step by step guide to using your iPad for a paperless workflow/classroom. Since its no secret that paper is no longer the staple of the classroom, and since we've been looking recently at a few ways to make your classroom greener this year, we thought this step-by-step guide would be particularly useful! It tells you what you need and how to distribute, submit, grade, and return assignments using Google Drive. So whether you're just starting on a paperless journey or have been doing things a different way, this should help you on your way!"

"The evolving relationship between humans and machines is the key theme of Gartner, Inc.'s "Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2013." Gartner has chosen to feature the relationship between humans and machines due to the increased hype around smart machines, cognitive computing and the Internet of Things. Analysts believe that the relationship is being redefined through emerging technologies, narrowing the divide between humans and machines. "

"Australian Classrooms that Tweet"

"by rgesthuizen Small screencast I made for teachers to introduce Evernote on web and mobile devices #acceln #vicpln"

Google Gooru is an information resource where you can learn everything you need to know about using Google Apps. Whether you are new to Google Apps or an experienced user looking to keep up with the latest updates, Google Gooru can help.

"Published on Aug 7, 2013 Some pretty big changes are going on at Google Gooru! The first of which was our brand new logo which we introduced yesterday (8/6), and today we're giving our newsletter subscribers and followers a sneak preview of our new website."

Google Gooru is an information resource where you can learn everything you need to know about using Google Apps. Whether you are new to Google Apps or an experienced user looking to keep up with the latest updates, Google Gooru can help.

"It seems like every other month, Evernote gets additional upgrades. A few are quietly released, while others are highly anticipated by heavy Evernote users. Since I wrote my last article about Evernote's new design and file storage upgrades, the popular notebook has gotten important new features, including Reminders, a highlighter and tighter security for subscribers, among others."

"There are certain advantages to using Google Drive for your research work. It's free and available from everywhere of course. Everyone with a Google account has it by default. Tied to your Google account, it gives you a range of collaboration options. It only gets better from here as you can use the Research tool to power all your probes and quests."

"Helpouts isn't available yet, but we're currently inviting people with expertise across a number of topics to be able to offer Helpouts when we go live - and to make money sharing their skills and knowledge with the world. If you haven't received an invitation, but are interested in Helpouts, tell us. We'll let you know when we're live and accepting more applications to give help."

"This summer was a relatively slow time for Google Apps updates, especially compared to all the changes centered around I/O '13. But for those of you who were away for the summer (or maybe you just needed a break from technology), you missed a few important updates to Gmail and Google Drive. Here's a recap of our five favorite updates you may have missed over the summer in animated gifs."

"On August 7th I was lucky enough to present at this year's Edmodocon.  While I was not able to fly out there due to pregnancy complications, I was able to  be a part of this incredible event that reached more than 27,000 educators around the world. My presentation is now live on Edmodo and I will say it turned out alright.  So if you would like to hear more about the Global Read Aloud and how to do global collaboration in general view it here"

"Here are a few of our favorite ways that kids can learn with Minecraft.  For even more ideas, be sure to check out our previous post - Transforming the Way We Learn: Why Minecraft is an Amazing Learning Tool."

Thanks for tagging this post John. Minecraft has taken over at my house and also at my kids school, to learn that there are educational benefits behind it is fantastic. I must admit that I have my own world on Minecraft as do my kids and we love building and exploring. To be ablt to use Minecraft within a teaching environment at the moment would be awesome as it is current and the kids would get very enthusiastic.

Hapara optimizes Google Apps for schools by structuring Google Apps around classes and students. With Hapara's tools, Google Apps becomes both easier to use and more effective. Teachers get the visibility they need to improve student outcomes in the moment, students get the full benefits of a safe, collaborative, digital learning environment, and schools save money. With customers in over 30 countries, Hapara is the management platform of choice for Google Apps for Education.

"People complain that they want privacy, and then they put all their information up on Facebook. Thus, hacking is ultra-easy. I have seen teenagers post pictures of their first credit card, then a month later their new college student I.D. These kids are so excited to have signs of growing up, but as we grow up our lives need to be more private to guard from hackers. Now I am a culprit of being very relaxed about my online privacy, meaning, I have the same password for multiple sites, I use my high school name as my clue, and the name of my high school is on Facebook somewhere. So hack away, I look forward to meeting the person who decides to take up my identity!"

This is a great article. I never thought about fraud or being hacked on the internet, until I uploaded a picture of my working with children check for in the Northern Territory onto Facebook. Straight away, my mum called me and told me to take it off! even though my Facebook is set to private, she made me realise that anyone can still find it and use it! I've always been one to be super careful of these things and now am even more careful when I hear about people's email passwords and Facebook passwords being changed without them knowing! I think if my students were to have online accounts such as blogs etc. I would make sure they had them all set onto private so that they can't get hacked, especially of their identity.

A neat infographic exploring the stages of blogging in the classroom

This is awesome John, love how it informs you on everything you meed to know about blogging in the classroom.

"With the launch of Google Hangouts, the world just got a lot more social! As +Vic Gundotra puts it, Google is now connecting people in new ways, with one of the new ways being Hangouts. Never heard of Google Plus Hangouts? Read on and discover one of the most useful tools for global socializing and collaboration."

"Here I am at 365 days, my last post in a year of daily blogging about the science in my life. True to my usual form, it's been a jam-packed day and I've spent it doing a multitude of activities, all the while turning over in my head what I might write. I started the morning with a long run through the Adelaide's inner western suburbs and along the River Torrens."

""You are a mashup of what you let into your life," artist Austin Kleon recently proclaimed. This encapsulates the founding philosophy behind Brain Pickings - a filtration mechanism that lets into your life things that are interesting, meaningful, creatively and intellectually stimulating, memorable. Naturally, I was thrilled for the release of Clay Johnson's The Information Diet: A Case for Conscious Consumption - an intelligent manifesto for optimizing the 11 hours we spend consuming information on any given day (a number that, for some of us, might be frighteningly higher) in a way that serves our intellectual, creative, and psychological well-being."