Using Revision History in GAFE

Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Drawings have a really great feature called Revision History.  Revision History allows the editors of the document to see all changes made in the history of the document, and who made those changes and when.  You can also go back and restore previous versions of the document.  In order to see revision history on a document, you must have editing rights.

Here, you can see on May 22 at 3:55pm, a student made the changes in orange. (Student names have been blurred.)  

Why would you use Revision History?

• If you are using a document as a part of your lesson, and make changes during the class period, revert back to an earlier version to "reset" it for the next period.
• Check if students followed suggestions from peer or teacher editing - You can go back and see if students made changes that were suggested.  (You can also always see all comments and suggested edits, even if a student resolved them, by clicking on "Comments" at the top of the screen, next to the "Share" button.)
• Plagiarism check - if a huge segment of text gets added at one time, a student copied/pasted it into the doc.  (Be sure to click "Show more detailed revisions" at the bottom of the revision history window to check this.)
• Accidents - sometimes when working in groups, a student may accidentally change something.  Anyone who has editing rights can go back and see the previous version, or copy something from a previous version and then go back to the most recent version and paste in "old" text/images.
• Sabotage - sometimes students don't behave as they should in a document that is shared with multiple people.  You will always have a history of who did what, and can restore previous versions.  (The document must be shared w/ specific people, not "anyone with a link" to see the names of who did what.)

How do you access Revision History?

There are two ways to access Revision History.

1. Click on "All changes saved in Drive" at the top of any document.
   
2. Go to "File" and then choose "See Revision History."
   

Lesson Crashers Episode 1: Psychology - Functions of the Brain

I must admit, sometimes I watch a little too much TV, especially when I should be cleaning my house, preparing a lesson, etc.

But some TV can be a good thing - educators can get some great ideas for lessons based on TV shows.  There are hundreds of Jeopardy style review games and templates on the web.  The Exploratorium Teacher Institute runs an "Iron Science Teacher" web show each summer based on Iron Chef where teachers create science lessons using a secret "ingredient."  Jennifer Kloczko, an administrator from Natomas, got inspiration for the Professional Development she leads from Food Network's "Chopped."

Yard Crashers
This summer, I watched a lot of HGTV and one of my favorites was Yard Crashers.  The main premise of the show is that some home owners are shopping at a Home Depot type store, in the garden section, and the host sneaks up on them, volunteering to design and landscape their yard.  The show provides the designer, supplies, and a construction/landscaping crew, and the home owners pitch in too.

Lesson Crashers
This gave me the idea to create my own spin on the show called "Lesson Crashers."  The idea behind "Lesson Crashers" is that I would help a teacher reinvent a lesson, integrating technology.  I'd meet with the teacher, we'd discuss a lesson or project that they have used before, and figure out what new goals they have or hopes for improvement.  Working together, we'd then brainstorm some ideas on how we can meaningfully integrate technology to enhance the lesson.  When the teacher then teaches the lesson, I can provide support if needed (ex. coteach, observe, etc.).  Then, we'd debrief the lesson, and come up with next steps.

Here is the first Lesson Crasher lesson.  Michelle McKee, a psychology teacher at Carlmont, graciously volunteered to test this out with me, and we wrote up a description of the process.  I am hoping that this lesson will spark some ideas that you can use in your own classes.  If you would like to be on the "next episode" of "Lesson Crashers", please book an appointment with me and I'd be happy to help you integrate instructional technology in your curriculum.

Short Time Fillers with Hidden Benefits

Sometimes the timing of a lesson doesn't go as planned, and you have a few extra minutes of class.  Some Google search tools can provide a few minutes of activity to fill the time, but also provide some skills practice that will help your students when they are doing research for your class.

A Google A Day

Have you ever had a hard time finding exactly what you are looking for when searching the web?  It is really hard to learn how to Google Search effectively, especially for our high school students.  Google has a fun game, called "A Google A Day" which allows students to practice their search skills.  It asks three questions, that generally are multipart questions, and it has a search bar on the same page to practice.  They also have a great tip section and can provide hints.  I used this with my classes frequently, and they had a blast.  I let them use their cell phones and the student who solved it first had to explain to the class exactly how they found the answer.  Through the year, I noticed their search skills greatly improved.  (Many times I'd allow students to use their cell phones, because we didn't have the cart that day.)

Geoguesser

Geoguesser is a fun game that allows students to use their critical thinking skills. They will see short sections of Google Streetview maps, and using context clues from the maps, they need to determine where in the world the map is located.  This would be such a great tool to use in World Language or Social Science courses, as students will see different parts of the world.  

If you want to create your own Geoguesser game, with your own locations, you can do that with Geosettr.  If you are introducing a new unit, reviewing locations in a novel or a historical event, or locations that it's inhabitants speak the language you teach, this would be an amazing tool to use.

Smarty Pins

Play some trivia with Smarty Pins, where you can choose the category, such as science and geography, arts and culture, or history and current events, and then find the locations on a map.  

Just For Fun:  Fun Fact

Sometimes I would write famous quotes or fun facts on the board to change things up for my students.  If you type "fun fact" into the Google Omnibox (search bar), you will find  fun facts with links to more information.  You can also click "ask another question" for more fun facts!

Mute Unwanted Email Chains

Sometimes people get a little carried away with "Reply All", and an important email announcement quickly becomes an email thread that you just don't want or need to see.  

Did you know you can "Mute" an email thread/chain in Gmail?  Muting means the future replies to this thread will not enter your "Inbox".  These emails aren't deleted or blocked, you can still find them and all future replies in your "All Mail" folder.  By muting these emails, you won't be bothered by all of the responses to the email.

Here's how I might use it....  an email was sent about a social event that I can not attend.  Soon, everyone on campus is replying to this email with what potluck items they are bringing.  I don't want to keep getting new messages for this thread in my inbox.  If I mute the email, I will still get the emails, but they won't show up in my inbox, instead, they will be automatically archived, and I can find them in my "All Mail" folder.  (Note:  You may want to check out your muted threads every once in a while, because sometimes people use the same thread to change the subject of the email.)

To mute an email, click on "More".  Then choose "Mute".  

Google Classroom

Google Docs vs. Microsoft Office 

Having your students use Google Docs instead of Microsoft Office products can save you a bunch of headaches.  Before Google Docs, I would get tons of excuses when papers were due....  "My printer is broken," "I don't have Office at home," students would email me files that weren't compatible with the school computer, bring in empty flash drives where "I saved my document here, I swear," or bring in a file that was an earlier draft.  It was a nightmare!  

Google Docs are amazing, because they work on ANY device with internet connection, even phones.  Work is automatically saved, and it is really easy for students to share their files.  All of the above excuses have gone away.

Even though Google Docs made things much easier, when I first started using them, there were still some hiccups in the process.  When I'd have my students create documents and share them with me, students would still make mistakes.  They wouldn't name the document in the way I wanted, they wouldn't share it correctly, and I would end up with hundreds of "This Document has been shared with you" emails and a mess of files appearing in my Drive.  Things were better with Google Docs, but, I had to find some solutions to help with the work flow.

Over the last few years there have been a few work arounds to deal with these problems:  shared folders, Doctopus, and gClassFolders to name a few.  My new favorite option is Google Classroom.  It allows you create a seamless workflow, that solves all of the headaches you may have had.

Organized Way of Assigning and Collecting Google Docs

Google Classroom is a free tool that looks a little like a Facebook stream (so it's really easy for student and teachers to use).  Teachers can set up classes and assign and collect work, send announcements, and start class discussions. When you create an assignment, you can choose to share a copy of a document with students (like a lab report template) or students can create the document on their own, and submit it.  Either way, when a student submits their work, the sharing rights are set, the document is named properly, and it is placed in a class/assignment folder for you in your drive.  You won't get a million emails and you wont have to sort the files and organize them.  You can then access the document from your drive, or, directly (and easily) from Google Classroom.  

And best of all, since Google released a Google Classroom API this summer, our district was able to automatically create classes for you in Google Classroom (this weekend), and your students are already enrolled in your Google Classroom classes!  Just go to classroom.google.com and "accept" each of your courses.

**This was a one time set up of Classroom.  It will not autosync if you have students move into or out of your courses.  If new students join your class throughout the year, you will need to manually add them to your class.  If you happen to have two courses the same period, and if you want to merge them, you will need to add "members" to one of the classes, and archive the unused class, to get them all in one place.  If you have already set up classes this year and had students join them, you can "Decline" the new courses and they will disappear.

You may be thinking... "Wait, why would I use this if we are using School Loop?"  The answer - it will solve your Google Doc issues.  And, it has some extra features, like a real threaded discussion, which School Loop lacks.  So I would use School Loop to post the assignment with directions and a link in the School Loop assignment to go to Classroom.  In Classroom, students would access the Google Doc for that assignment, and submit their assignment.  I'd then use School Loop to post the grade.  Classroom is the best way to manage the workflow when using Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, Drawings, etc.

Google Classroom Resources

If you want to use Google Classroom, here are some resources that will help you get started.

• Google Classroom Help Center
• Alice Keeler's Google Classroom Tutorial Blog Posts
• Lisa Nowakoski's Google Classroom Tutorial Blog Posts
• 50 Things You Can Do With Google Classroom by Alice Keeler and Libbi Miller

Clear your Cookies

Sometimes Chrome (or other internet browsers like Internet Explorer or Firefox) can act a little funny.  Things may not load correctly, or something just doesn't seem to work.  The first thing I do to try to solve the problem is clear my cookies.  

Support.google.com defines cookies as "a small file containing a string of characters that is sent to your computer when you visit a website. At Google we use cookies to improve the quality of our service and to better understand how people interact with us".  

Sometimes, these cookies can cause some problems with how your browser works.

 Fernandez Gegen Den Strich
http://picchore.com/comics/delete-cook

Follow the steps below to clear your cookies.  After doing so, refresh the page you were having problems with.  Hopefully, the problem is solved.  If there are still problems, this would be the time to put in a ticket at support.seq.org.  

Clear your Cookies

1. Click on the three bars on the top right of your Chrome window.
2. Click on "History".
3. Click "Clear Browsing Data".
4. Change the time to "the beginning of time". 
5. Check "Cookies and other site and plug-in data. (And it doesn't hurt to add "cached images and files.)
6. Press "Clear browsing data".  

Tips to Keep your Passwords Safe & Strong, and Remember Them Too!

Today is "Safer Internet Day", a day to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile devices.  I had been planning on writing up a tech tip on safe password use for this week, and just this morning found out it was Safer Internet Day.  Perfect Timing!

Over the last week, I have had more than a few people email me their usernames and passwords to different accounts.  So I wanted to address a few things about passwords.

1. Never, EVER, share password, especially over the internet or through your email.
2. Make sure your password is strong.  Many passwords I have seen (from people who have shared them with me - ACK! Don't do that - see number 1), have not been strong passwords.
3. Don't use the same password for all of your accounts.  Change them up, each account should have it's own unique password.
4. Keep your passwords safe, using something like Last Pass or mSecure.  
• You only need to remember your one password to get into the app, and it will keep track of all of the rest of your passwords for you.  
• Both are added apps or internet browser extensions that keep track of all of your passwords, and even generate strong passwords for you.
5. If you want to change your district password (for GAFE, School Loop, etc.) click here.

Google has a quick, 2 minute security checkup that you can do to check your internet security.  And, they are adding 2GB of data to your Google account if you do this checkup by February 17.  We have unlimited storage in our GAFE (@seq) Google accounts, but 2 GB would sure be a great addition to your personal Gmail account!