Noel Erskine, Technology Coordinator Norris Schools

Welcome to my technology blog.
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Showing posts with label Google Search. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google Search. Show all posts

💥 tech tools - Killer deal on Amazon Echos, free music, free app, some great tech tools!

Thursday, September 7, 2017


Misc: Web sites and tools
Do you want to be a Google search pro? - 41 Pro Google Search Tips for Research, Marketing, and Fun

How to Add Filters to Your Images in Google Slides 

The iPevo Whiteboard Chrome app is worth taking a look at!  The awwapp site is still great too, but this one may add a few things to your tool belt as well. 



Customize Google Drive With Drive Apps - Short 2 minute video.  (This video shows Pixlr Express... I love the PicMonkey add-on for Drive as well.) 

Killer Deal on the Amazon Echo! 
AMAZING deal on Amazon Echo - $75 and 3 free audio books. j  I LOVE these things! Ordered 1 more for my place. (I have way too many of these already, LOL.)  

6 Android Apps to Try on a Chromebook - Check it out
New Staff - HS and MS staff - your Acer Spin units already support Android!  More Chromebooks will be supporting Android soon.  
The Google Classroom app allows easy markup/drawing on assignments, 

Google Sheets -

Create Dynamic Dropdown Menus in Google Sheets - 3-minute how-to video

Free Music
Nature Sounds Collection: Sea Waves, Vol. 1 (Ocean Coast) -Not sure this is music, but it may be relaxing.  On Amazon  and also Google Play 

Free App - IOS and Android:

Runtastic Mountain Bike Pro (Android )
Both were free for a while... the Android onestill is!  

Free eBook - PDF 
Not sure if this thing work a cent... but hey it's free so I tossed it in our list! 

The free PDF eBook (a direct download, no registration required) is now available in English or Spanish. The Kindle version (English only) is now even cheaper (only a $1). Thumbup

FREE - Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4/Day [leannebrown.com] (PDF, 1st Edition, ENGLISH)

GRATIS - Bueno y Barato: Aliméntate Bien a $4 al Día [leannebrown.com] (PDF, ESPAÑOL)
Posted by Noel Erskine at 3:03 PM 0 comments
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💥 Free apps, tech tools, free tool for the Alexa, tips and more in this weeks tech tips.

Tuesday, August 1, 2017


QR & Barcode Scanner PRO for Android is FREE for a limited time. https://goo.gl/j6taJk  Reg $3.99 

Web sites and tools:
iOS 11 will render older iPhones, iPads and apps obsolete  - Just like the older iPad 2 units will not update beyond IOS 9.3 .. some devices will now be stuck at IOS 10.x ... But it also means that for users of Apple’s newer smartphones and tablet computers, including the latest iPhone 7 and iPad, some apps that are 32-bit-only and not coded to operate in a 64-bit system will cease to work once their devices are updated to iOS 11. (Hopefully most developers will update their apps to work!) 

How to search Google: 10 advanced tips and tricks 



How Many Words Can You Type Per Minute?  Via Ratatype | Test your typing skills and learn how to type faster.

Create Fillable Text Boxes in Google Docs - How to article here. 

2 handy yet hidden Chromebook security features - Unlock with a Pin or even with your Android phone automatically when you are close! 

Optimize Your Chrome Browsing Experience With These 13 Extensions  There are several of my favorites in this list... LastPass, OneTab, Magic Actions for YouTube, and more... 

Explore in Docs, Sheets, and Slides makes work a breeze — and makes you look good, too -Not a new feature... but one many do not know about or use!

NEW - Smarter Google Forms to save you time -  Google Forms makes it easy to collect information, plan events, solicit feedback, and more. Today, we’re adding new features and using machine learning to make Forms work better for your business. Read on for more details.

MindMup 2.0 Includes Vertical Mind Mapping - MindMup is a nice mind mapping tool that can be integrated into your Google Drive account.

Google tools for Kindergarten and young learners: 
On this episode of the TechEducator Podcast, we welcome Kindergarten teacher Christine Pinto on the program to discuss tips, tricks, and strategies for helping our youngest learners master Google Apps and other G-Suite tools. (Check out the links to resources on this podcast on the page above - Some great templates for the elementary teachers!)   Visit her website for templates, inspiration and more! 

Do you have an Echo or dot - Then you may be interested in this:

Google Sheets -
5 Tricks to Boost Your Productivity in Google Sheets - an AWESOME 5-minute video is a must for some great Google Sheet tips. 

Apps:
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has created Spacecraft 3D, an augmented reality (AR) app for iOS - Free.  (This is a cool app!) 

Some great sites built on the top of Google Maps:

Smarty Pins - A great educational and fun game! 


Goolge\s own Tour Builder is awesome! 

Amazon - Inspire Beta -  New program from Amazon for free teacher resources.


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Hey- it' a beta, so it will be getting better... but it's from Amazon!  Check it out here. 

Remember - If the resources are in Microsoft format - just upload to Google Drive and Convert!

Here are a few ways to start exploring the Amazon Inspire Beta: 

  • Discover: Easily find helpful resources from other educators and organizations, such as The National Science Foundation and Buck Institute for Education. Try searching by title, subjects, grade levels, resource types, publishers, standards, or keywords.
  • Download: When you find a resource you like, download it to your desktop to use in your classroom or read later.
  • Share: Find a lesson plan a colleague might find helpful on the Amazon Inspire Beta? Share links to the content you love so that other educators may benefit from them.
  • Give Feedback: You’re the classroom expert and we want to hear your thoughts! Click on the support icon in the upper right-hand corner to share your ideas with us.

Have you been Smished???  (No not phished... but similar!) 

‘Smishing’ Is Internet Scammers’ New Favorite Trick.  

"Bad guys are increasingly targeting you through your smartphone. They send texts that trick you into doing something against your own best interest. At the moment, there is a mystery shopping scam going on, starting out with a text invitation, asking you to send an email for more info which then gets you roped into the scam. 
Always, when you get a text, remember to "Think Before You Tap", because more and more, texts are used for identity theft, bank account take-overs and to pressure you into giving out personal or company confidential information.  Here is a short video made by USA Today that shows how this works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffck9C4vqEM
Obviously, an end-user who was trained to spot social engineering red flags <-- Check it out. (PDF) would think twice before falling for these scams.
Posted by Noel Erskine at 8:24 AM 0 comments
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Some free Christmas Music... a free subway sandwich.... and a few tech tips for the week! Happy Holidays!

Wednesday, December 2, 2015


Free Christmas Music:

Google Play has Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas (Google Play Exclusive Version MP3 Digital Album Download) for Free. 

Google Play also has Blake Shelton: Cheers, it's Christmas. (MP3 Digital Album Download) for Free. 

Joy to the World - A Fanfare for Christmas Day

Respighi: Pines of Rome (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pines_of_Rome) 


Free 6" sub with purchase of a 30 oz. drink:

Get a free 6inch sub with purchase of 30 oz drink. subway sms program

TXT OFFERS to 782 929 

The 12 days of Twitter!

It's fun Nebraska Twitter challenge...and you can pickup some really great tools, ideas, and more...   Here's the info to get started!   You can view the tweets here.  Here's a nice resource for those of you that are new to Twitter.--10 Things to Know about Twitter Hashtags

Google Apps tips and tricks: 

20 Google Apps activities for classroom innovation 

5 super useful Chrome extensions & add-ons for educators

Google Apps Script Spotlight: Share Flubaroo Grades with Students in Drive (If you have not tried Flubaroo for automatically quizzing and grading those quizzes - via a Google Form ... Now 
is the time!) 

5 Creative Ways Schools Can Use Google Forms (That Aren’t Surveys) 

Google Sheets: Managing Students Names for Group Work Great little tip, from a great website to follow! 

Great site with a lot of Google Apps tutorials for you and the students. - SPARCC

A few Google Search tricks: 


Google Classroom:
Export your entire grade book out of Google Classroom. 

IOS Apps:

Looking for free apps... these sites are worth watching:
App Chronicles is an iOS app review website, but they have a great “gone free” page.
Appshopper is a great site to visit to look for previously paid apps that have gone free. 
Swoosh - Basketball Stats By DelMar IT is Free for a limited time! Reg. $20.

Web tools and more:

29 Free Online Design Tools for Creating Stunning Visual Content for the Web 

Great website for classes to use when designing is Color Scheme Designer 

Looking for some good Kindergarten ideas? The Kindergarten smiles site might be for you! 

Posted by Noel Erskine at 9:55 PM 0 comments
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Tech Tools, FREE music, Apps and more!

Monday, October 12, 2015

Web tools and sites:

Easily create MP3 recordings on any device with SpeakPipe (speakpipe.com/voice-recorder)

Are you doing a blog instead of a website for your students? (I know several of you do!)  Create a Physical Record of Your Blog With BlogBooker. This is a pretty cool way of keeping a record of your past year's postings to parents, etc...

Audience Interaction Made Easy - Live Q&A, Polls  and more.  Similar to Today's Meet, Sli.do gives you ways for students to ask questions and for you to take polls free. 

Free Music - Grab it while you can!  (FYI - I grab these with both my gmail and nsdtitans school email addresses.) Thanks to slickdeals for this one!



I recently had an elementary teacher ask about timers, so you know us tech guys... we find some technology that may work!  Thought I would share this within this posting as well:

Online Timers (Use with your computer and projector) 
With the online timers, you can always use the zoom feature in your browser to enlarge them... or the zoom-it tool that starts each time with your computer. 

This online timer is like your grandmother's old timer: http://timerrr.com/
Online Egg Timer - http://my.online-eggtimer.com/ 
Online Stopwatch is a free website that gives you the choice of a stopwatch function or a countdown function. http://www.online-stopwatch.com/full-screen-stopwatch/

The Zoom-it tool is on every computer within our District.  This allows you to zoom in on the screen... but also has a built-in timer.  This doc should help with that program. 

Timer Apps for your iPad (Use with iPad or mirror it to your Apple TV.) 
Red Light, Green Light - Free App
Best Sand Timer - Free App
With the iOS 7 update and above, the iPad clock has a timer with a great visual that shows how much time has passed.  You can even change the sounds to ringtones or other cool sounds. 
There are many other apps... you may have to do a Google search to find the right app for you needs. 

Google tips and tricks:
Practical Ed Tech Tip of the Week – Take Advantage of the Google Drive Template Gallery

10 Google Docs Tips that Take Seconds & Save You Time

12 Google Search Tricks You Probably Didn’t Know

Video Blog (Short 4 minute video): Google Apps for Drawing and Artwork in the Classroom - Via Synergyse -Some great apps in this one! 

Google Apps Script & Add-on Feature: g(Math) - Via Synergyse

Google Draw:
How to Use Google Drawings to Create Mind Maps

Gmail:
If you are looking for an advanced email signature... WiseStamp - Email Signatures for Gmail is a nice option that has gotten good reviews.

Google Classroom:

WOW - Google calendar integration comes to Google Classroom! 

NEW! Forms integration in Google Classroom! -  Nice 1 Minute video

Classroom overview with 2015 updates. Nice, quick overview if you are not using Google Classroom. 
Posted by Noel Erskine at 6:15 AM 0 comments
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Tech tips, free apps, free jazz music albums and more in this weeks posting.

Friday, May 22, 2015


A few more house cleaning notes for our Norris Teachers: 
This is a list of our Google Groups in nsdtitans.org with no members.  If you own any of these groups and no longer use them... please delete the group. 

Remember - If you have any files to delete on your Z drive, now is a great time to do it!  I would upload anything you want to Google Drive.  (Teh Z drive is not going away next year, but you never know in the future.)

Still room in the tech classes - So we would love you have you.  (If you are sitting in on the class for non-credit, make sure you let me know so I can plan on you!) 

Web tools and sites:

Got a list of text in the wrong format? Tell Transformy  how you want it and it'll do the rest.


You can give your classroom learning centers or stations a makeover with technology! The collection of activities teachers provide their students at a center can be enhanced with technology, even if there’s only one computer or tablet available. Nice downloadable PDF graphic.

Google Search: 
12 Google Search Tricks You Probably Didn’t Know 

I am now using the Tab key to enhance my Google Searches, here is why -- http://goo.gl/De2jOP 

Google Apps:




Send a link to any student in your classroom running this Chrome Extention via sound. Kind of cool.  (I still recommned using Google Classroom for this, but this is a quick alterative too!) 

6 Futuristic Google Tools That Feel Like Science Fiction

Google Classroom:
Add Multiple Teachers to a Class in Google Classroom

Android Apps:


IOS Apps:
The free iPad app Paper by FiftyThree now includes ThinkKit for creating diagrams and mind maps: 

Stay up to date with all of the new features and additions to Google Apps:

Google Apps updates alerts feed is a nice place to start with the latest updates listed in a short feed.

What's new in Google Apps siteWhat's new in Google Apps site and newsletter -  You can sign up to receive the monthly newsletter here. 

Sign up for the Google Apps for Education newsletter. 

The Google for Education blog has all of the latest announcements concerning


A little free Jazz music:

Google Play Store is offering few Digital MP3 Albums listed below for Free.

Note, must be logged into your Google Account to take advantage of these offers. (You can log into your nsdtitans.org account and grab them, and then log into your personal gmail account to grab them there as well.) 
Posted by Noel Erskine at 8:58 AM 0 comments
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These tools ROCK -Lucid Chart updates, Google Apps, 5 minute Assessment tools and more!

Friday, May 1, 2015


Web tools and sites:

Interesting infographic covering some handy Google search tips.

From our very out Matt Clemens - Authors Who Skype with Classes & Book Clubs (for free!)

MindMup - A Mind Mapping Tool That Saves to Google Drive


Get lost on those historic trails that Lewis & Clark navigated in the 1800s via@googlemaps goo.gl/3h5rKQ




















Kids can turn off your TV, Projector, and more... with this app.

Some of the Android phones/devices include IR (infrared) (I so they can act like your TV/projector remote.) Apple devices currently do not support this.

So the bad news is... kids with certain Android devices and apps installed can turn your TV on or off, change channels, control your projector, etc...
 
The Peel app is one app that does this.  Android App OR  IOS App (As noted above, IOS does not have IR built in, so they would need an extra device to make that work.)  This peel app is pretty cool, even includes TV Guide like features.

What can you do about it... not much.  Just have good classroom management and be aware of what can be done in case your TV/Projector/ etc... starts behaving like it has a mind of its own.  (It will probably be a middle school kid playing tricks on you!) 

Quick 5-minute Classroom assessments - Use these tools:
Quizizz - http://quizizz.com/ 


Lucid Charts:

If you have not looked at this tool you are missing out.  The pro features are free for education, and we have it added to our Google Apps.

Now with this great feature... it's even better!
Turn Your Mind Maps Into Presentations With LucidChart's New Presentation Mode ow.ly/MmpHs









Google Apps:
Have you used the collaboration feature in Google Docs? If not... you are missing out, when you need to collaborate on a doc. In the upper right-hand corner of the doc, you will find the following drop-down menu: 


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Or use comments, to draw attention to things but not suggesting an edit:


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Want some more great tips like above... Watch this short 5 minute video - Collaborative Editing | Docs, Sheets, Slides | The Apps Show for more including notification rules, bookmarks in docs, and more!

The Apps Show by Google is a nice YouTube channel with a great short series of videos introducing many Google Apps features and uses. 

4 Things You Can Do Right Now To Create A Perfectly Organized Google Drive

Google For Education (@GoogleForEdu) - Check out these handy add-ons for access to even more creative features with goo.gl/nYAbQt


Google Drive:
5 great Google Drive tips: Keyboard shortcuts, saving options, templates and more.

Google Drawing:
Quick Intro to Google Drawing with Included Graphic Organizer Templates - This short 4 1/2 Min. Video will get you started.  it rocks!  This is a great K-12 tool, that few teachers have explored! 

Google Forms:
Practical Ed Tech Tip of the Week – Create a Check In/ Out System in Google Forms


Free Images, sounds and more - a Tip from our Norris HS Media Center specialist - Mrs. Huenemann 

It's close to the end of the year and I see many students working hard on papers and presentations. Don't forget to tell students any images, video or audio content they use needs to be cited and often needs permission.

I have compiled some great sites that have images, audio, and video in the public domain for students to use in their presentations. Go to the HS library website and you will find a  Copyright Free link on the left-hand side. Direct your students to use these sites instead of just google, so they need not live in fear of copyright infringement!
Posted by Noel Erskine at 7:09 AM 0 comments
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Free Disney Short films, apps, web tools and more in this week's tech roundup.

Friday, April 10, 2015

Web Tools:

Great Video tool - especially for flipping your classroom.  Turn online videos into interactive learning experiences that engage students and deepen understanding: zaption.com

Clipart - Background images- 
128 free to use 1024x1024 textures http://goo.gl/ZMEvn2

Your students will pay attention to these Google Search tips!


And a couple other tips:




Google Apps and Tools:
Google Doc and Sheet add-ons:
If you have not looked at the many Google Sheets and Doc add-ons, now is the time.  My quick how-to doc will assist you in getting started with these great add-ons. 

Need to map addresses from a Google sheet to Google maps - This add-on is slick!  (Demo video here.)

Google Sheets:
A data heat map highlights each data cell with a different color along a spectrum based on its distance from the statistical mean. As an example, you could use heat maps to quickly identify trends in expense reports, like which days you spend the most money.

6 things That You Didn’t Know You Could Do In Google Sheets 

How To Make The Perfect Budget In Google Sheets  - Nice 3 minute how-To video.  (Nice demo on a few Google sheet features, including conditional formatting for cell colors, etc...) 

IOS apps and tools:
iTunes U for educators has a wealth of info. iBooks, lessons and more!  Educators could spend HOURS exploring the wealth of rich education resources here. (Must have iTunes on your computer, or visit this link form an iPad for it to open up iTunes U.

Norris Google Apps growing!

#norristitans staff and students have almost 1/2 million files in GoogleDrive with 54% of them being GoogleDocs

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Edit video on the iPads:

Animoto- use small clips and pictures to edit together. Great for quick videos.  (Educators can get the pro features for free - Longer videos.) Educators - First join Animoto as a regular user.  Then visit this site, and apply as an educator. 

Loopster - this one is a little more complicated but is great for video editing. I layered it with small clips of music from my iPad (I chose some random tunes), I incorporated a slow motion clip, and some text so you can see how much can be done with this app. You then upload the video to the loopster site and can publish it to youtube.   Thanks to @MeganHuenemann for sharing this great resource with our staff!   Here is a sample from her: I layered it with small clips of music from her iPad (and chose some random tunes), I incorporated a slow motion clip, and some text so you can see how much can be done with this app. You then upload the video to the loopster site and can publish it to youtube. 

Adobe Voice: Show your story. In minutes.  Download the free app here. 

Free Disney Short Films: 
Apple iTunes.com is offering various Disney's Winnie The Pooh Short Films (HD) for Free listed below. (Fresh from SlickDeals!)
Note:  in iTunes, these are normally $1.99. (By getting them, it does allow you to download them as well for offline use.)  These short films are also normally free on YouTube along with other's their Jr. Channel. 

Posted by Noel Erskine at 11:24 AM 0 comments
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