Free web storage, apps, amazing websites and more. -This weeks gems for EDU!

Free Cloud storage, and awesome app, form a top-notch company... BOX: 

Get your 50 gig of free online storage from a top-notch

Want 50GB Free storage? Box gives you just that with Version 3.0 of iOS App ow.ly/sD7py  Their new app is pretty awesome too!   IOS App or Android App  (Tip -- If you do not have an iPad, you could borrow someone's that has the new app installed, and log into your Box Account from that app... and BAM... you get your 50 Gig free.) If you do not have a Box account - Now is the time.

Great educational web sites and tools:

If you aren’t using Edmodo yet, what are you waiting for? Great resource outlining features and why you should be using this resource. 

Augment Reality: Ideas for Teaching in the 1 Tablet Classroom http://bit.ly/1ayZ7EZ

15 places with fun and engaging social studies games http://goo.gl/MrcYHq

Websites to use for each level of Bloom's 

One for the K-8 teachers: Top Ten Websites of 2013 http://goo.gl/jx19If 

Did you know that over 1200 courses are available through MOOCs? Learn more from this handy cheatsheet on MOOCs! goo.gl/Gl7ESH

Make the web tell a story... with Storify  Collect media from across the web... Publish on Storify, embed anywhere... Share and notify sources. 

Digital Citizenship... STOPiT Class.  Some nice resources, and a great idea from Nebraska's GINW and Cozad Schools. 

Great free educational apps:

A simple app to share files from any device - Check out @get_flick getflick.io

Here is the iMums list of free apps for today (1-21-14). Follow them daily, to find some great apps. (You can get a daily email as well.) <--- Sign up! 

Google Chrome:

Shut those noisy tabs up with Chrome's latest update.http://pcwrld.us/1m27td1

And Chromeboook...

Chromebooks in Education - Awesome Resources! Mostly about Chromebook and Chrome, with some Android spice thrown in.

Google tools, tips and more: 

AWESOME update to Google Drive coming... Keep track of changes in Google Drive with new Activity Stream 

Google Improves Image Search Tools Menu via Free Technology for Teachers - http://goo.gl/xw9g7U

GE Teach Version 5 - A Good Resource for Teaching With Google Earth via Free Technology for ... http://goo.gl/yNmo2I

Using Google as a Timer - you can really do this!

Great tip for printing GoogleDocs with comments... Save/view as a html file. The comments are then placed as footnotes

Bring some amazing resources right into your classroom with Google Hangouts. 

How to Use Hangouts in the Classroom - EdTechReview™ 

More about the Google+ Connected classroom, with links to some sample hangouts that have already occurred. 

Google's Connected Classroom website.

This app rocks for managing your cloud storage right from your computer like a local hard drive.

In several of my articles, I have mentioned the Gladinet product and how you really need to look at it for managing many of your online free (or purchased) cloud storage services. In this short article, I will let you know a little bit about the product and how you can easily have over 30+ gig of storage on the cloud, all accessible by clicking on a drive letter from within your computer.

Once this product is installed, it maps a drive letter (default is Y drive) to your computer where you can click on the drive, just like it was a local drive on your computer, and get to many of your online services and manage them by just dragging and dropping files.

Online services that you will want to have that are free, and are supported by this product:

• Microsoft's Sky Drive. (25 Gig Free) See my January 17th 2012 article on this one: http://goo.gl/Q1JyE
• Amazon's Cloud drive.   (5 Gig Free) (If you have an Amazon account, you already have this and may not even know it.)  https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/learnmore
• Box.net (5 Gig Free)  http://box.com/
• It will also connect to your Picasa site for pictures (1 Gig Free). (Works for regular Gmail accounts and Google Apps accounts.) 
• It will connect to your Google Docs. If you have Google Apps for Business or Schools, then it will only connect to that account if you buy the full version and not the free version.

These services are free, and offer their own sync software, etc... but are not supported by Gladinet. I wanted to mention these because they are great services that you will want to have for their service, mobile apps, software, etc...

• Dropbox (2 Gig free and more for friend recomendations.) https://www.dropbox.com/ 
• SugarSync (5 Gig free)  https://www.sugarsync.com/

I am using the free version of Gladinet and love it.  If you buy the product, you can connect to your Google Apps account as well as setup folders locally to automatically sync to your cloud services. (Similar to what the DropBox and SugarSync software packages do for you.) You are given all of the pro features for a few days, so you can try them out to see if you want to keep those services.

After the product is installed, you add your cloud storage services and then go to your Y drive and you see them all there! If you need to add more services or delete services you will start the Gladinet Cloud Desktop Console program found on your start menu. The install adds the Gladinet Cloud Desktop program to your start up, so when you reboot your computer it starts automatically.  (If you are in a school that controls your start up and start menu, you may need to start this program each time manually for your Y drive to show up.)


Enjoy, this is a great product and an easy way to manage all of your files on the cloud.

A Windows 7 Desktop and MS office all on the cloud, all free, with this cool app for your iPad!

• Imagine an app where you can run a Windows 7 desktop right from your iPad.  
• Imagine having Office 2010, media player and other apps on that desktop.  
• Imagine 2 gig of free storage on that virtual Windows 7 machine. 
• And one more thing... can it be free?

Wow, that's a long list, but that day has arrived!

onlive.com offers this and more.  I heard about this app a couple days ago, but did not get a chance to try it out, so this morning I took a few minutes, setup my account, downloaded the app, and kicked the tires on this baby. Being in the tech business, I keep current with technology and trends. I see a lot of things that would of given us cardiac arrest five years ago... but this app may just do that anyway.  It' amazing what can be done virtually anymore and all from the cloud... and the heart stopper.... the free plan has some great features.

A couple days ago, I tried the CloudOn product, which has a few similarities with it's own pro's and Con's.  Right now, that product is free, but they do not have their pricing structure and plans in place, so that scares me a little bit. There are some things I really like about this product too, so you will want to check it out on your own. (The online keyboard is much better.)

In short, you have a  Windows 7 desktop on your iPad that has Microsoft Office, Media Player, and a few other tools all on the start menu for you to use.  (Make sure you try out the Microsoft Surface Collage program on this desktop as well, it pretty cool. ) You save your files to the "My Documents" folder, and then those files are also available on a website (Similar to DropBox and other cloud services) where you can upload or download files from. With the free plan, you have 2 give of free space.

Right now, tablets are awesome media consumption devices, but can be a little cumbersome with media creation.  (Maybe an external keyboard would help with this, but I do not lug one around.) Right now, this is the only downside to using the onlive.com product.  The problem is compounded a little because they do not use the iPad on-screen keyboard, but instead you have to use the on-screen pop-up Microsoft keyboard, that I find even more cumbersome. (Maybe an external Bluetooth keyboard would be a must for using this product all the time.)

It's not perfect.  Just like any tech guy, I have a wish list, but for now it's a short one:

• Offer a desktop app that will sync a folder locally from your computer to the onlive.com storage space on the cloud. (Similar to Dropbox's program.)
• Offer the capability to use the iPad's on-screen keyboard instead of the Microsoft one. 
• Keep it free for the 2 gig, so I can continue to promote the product. (Dropbox, Sugar Sync, and others have... so hopefully these guys will too.)

Visit this site to learn more.  Signup for your account, download the app, and get started. http://desktop.onlive.com/

Remember... Keep in mind, there are many Cloud products and services that are offering some great free features, but proceed with caution. This time in the tech world reminds me of the 90's and all of the free services and new tech innovations that we see coming out daily.  When I went to Comdex in the late 90's I saw a lot of cool tech start-up and a lot of great vaporware that never made it to market.  Wow did they give away the t-shirts, pens, and more, but the the Bubble burst.  So... what is my point? Some of these services are here to stay. (Dropbox, Evernote, Google Docs, etc...)  But some of these companies may not make it, so always keep backups of your files in another location when working with some of these "start-up" companies and products. Use them, they have great features that you can put to use today, but I would not create my only resume on one of these new services and never have a copy somewhere else. 

Techy note:  For those of you managing a network, you need Port 443 open as well as ports 16384-16640 for UDP traffic out.  

Over all... 4.5 stars for this one.  Amazing technology and amazing feature set in the free product.  Thanks onlive.com!

The SkyDrive IOS app and 25 Gig of free storage make this app a winner for everyone.

I have mentioned a lot of Cloud Services that offer free space, but sometimes it comes down to the convenience of the app and service.  Back in April, I talked about keeping all of your files in the cloud, and mentioned Microsoft's Sky Drive.  Today, I want to expand on that service, and tout it's 25 Gig of free storage (Yes, 25 Gig!) that comes with Microsoft's SkyDrive. There are no services or products that you must own, all you need is a free account.

With the release of Microsoft's IOS app for the iPhone (And you can use it on the iPad), the SkyDrive and it's 25 Gig of free storage just became that much more usable. This app allows you to easily upload and download files from your iPad or iPhone right from this 25 gig of storage in the cloud. The app itself is allows you to easily add a photo or video from your device to the SkyDrive.  You can also play any music or videos that you have on your SkyDrive right from your IOS device. I even clicked on a text file in my SkyDrive and it opened up on my iPad for viewing. I like the way DropBox integrates it's IOS app right from your camera, but with 25 gig of space and it's integration with the Gladinet program... the Microsoft SkyDrive product has it's benefits as well.

Many people do not realize, that if they already have a Microsoft Live account (If you have a HotMail account... you have one!) you already have a SkyDrive and your 25 Gig of space is waiting for you. I am hoping that they come out with an app specifically designed for the iPad, but the iPhone app running on my iPad is not bad either. If you really want to add more functionality from your computer, Gladinet has you covered.  If you have not used the Gladinet product http://gladinet.com/, it's worth looking at especially if you have a lot of Cloud storage services and want to access them easily from your computer.  (Look for an upcoming blog article about this program in the future.)

Learn more about Skydrive, and signup if you do not have an account: http://explore.live.com/skydrive-get-started
Get the IOS apps for SkyDrive here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skydrive/id477537958?mt=8