Don't overlook KMZ files for turning Google Earth into a great tool for your classroom.

If you do not know what KMZ files are, you are not alone... but maybe now is the time to learn what you are missing for you and your students.  In short, KMZ files are data files opened by Google Earth. KMZ files can contain placemarks featuring a custom name; the latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates for the location, and 3D model data.


Here are just a few sites and ideas to wet your appetite: 


Track Weather, Hungriness and more:  Visit from this site for more info: http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/weather/  


Take virtual field trips with Google Earth, by downloading KMZ files:
http://geology.utah.gov/geo_guides/st_george/index.htm

How to create a virtual field trip: http://www.bridge.edu.au/verve/_resources/GoogleEarthHowToVFT.pdf

Identify key elements of what human life on the Moon would be like bu taking a Lunar Field Trip: http://www.realworldmath.org/Real_World_Math/Lunar_Field_Trip.html 

Useful Google Earth Layers

• impact craters
• population density

Hopefully this has sparked your interest and opened up some ideas and ways you can use this within your classroom. A simple Google search for "kmz field trip"or "download kmz files" will turn up more resources and get you on your way to adding this resource within your classroom lessons.

Backup your Gmail with this tool.

You may never need this tool, but it's great to know that there is a tool like this. This tool allows you to backup your Gmail or even transfer your Gmail from one account to another. http://goo.gl/qcecx  This could come in handy if you ever want to backup your email from the cloud, or simply transfer to another account.

The most overlooked feature of the new Google Chromebooks.

I have used both the CR48 beta and now the Samsung Chromebook Models and there are a lot of things to love about the new Google ChromebooIks.  Battery life, quick boot up, low maintenance, light weight, and more... But the best feature and use may be easily over looked.  This is the perfect laptop for an older parent, tech-challenged person, or simply anyone who seems to break computers.  There are no programs that can be installed to break the system.  There are no settings to change. There is no need for anti-virus or anti-malware software to load.  This thing just runs, and runs for a long time between electrical fill ups.  This is the perfect notebook to give someone and not expect them to be asking you to reformat it six months later.  And as the saying might go.... price of a Chomebook - $430.  Not having to fix it later - PRICELESS.

Some nice desktop sharing tools.

I just ran across this tool, and it's great for sharing your desktop to a bunch of people at once... and the good news is that they do not have to install anything!  All they do is go to a web site to see your desktop.   With Join.me  you download a single program, run the program and then give your colleagues the URL you’re given. When they follow it, they see your desktop. Live. It’s as simple as that. Awesome for doing a webinar type presentation.


If you are doing a one-on-one computer support session, I still recommend Team Viewer. http://www.teamviewer.com But this program requires more installs and downloads and is designed for only peer to peer connections, unlike the Join.me product which is more for the one to many presentations. 

Update- Turn your Nook eReader into an awesome Android tablet.

This is an update from my blog column in March 2011: http://noelnerskine.blogspot.com/2011/03/make-your-own-android-tabletfor-less.html
That was great, but it turned out to be a little slow,  this build is awesome and easy to do by using Nook Cyanogen.  Follow the steps on this website to have a speedy Android tablet running from a simple micros SD card on a Nook: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1000957
If you do not want your android tablet, you just pop out the micros SD card and boot to the Nook eReader!

Great tool for finding out what is taking up your hard drive space!

Often, old video projects, class slide shows, memory book projects, etc... are hanging out in folders on your computer or network drive and you forgot they were still there.  Sometimes it is really tough to figure out what is taking up your file storage space and where those old files are hanging out.

Fear no more Kimosabe.  (For those of you to old to remember the friend of the masked man.... I am envious, because you probably still have a full set of hair too. )

The Windirstat program (http://windirstat.info/) (Windows only tool.) is a great tool for finding those files.  It is a free program, that is easy to run. It is a small utility that is easy to install and can even be dragged to a pen drive or a network drive and ran from there as well!

Just yesterday, we found one folder in a teachers network drive that they no longer needed from 2003.  This folder was taking up 250 meg of network space.

Give it a try, and start deleting!

A way to eliminate textbook costs?

Can we get rid of textbooks and their associated costs in education? I know, this topic may open a can of worms for many in education, and especially for the text book and publishing companies!  As school districts adopt more 1-to-1 initiatives or BYOD (Bring your own device) initiatives, schools will need to provide more electronic resources for those devices.


Until the publishers and text-book companies come up with a reasonable price, as well as finding the best format and delivery mechanism .... we must look at developing our own materials.  


Here are just a couple resources to start with: 


The Khan Academy is a non-profit that is working on providing open-source distance learning curriculum. This institute provides user-paced lessons via hosted videos providing a free resource for students and teachers as well as supplemental exercises for the ck12.org flexbooks (mentioned below).


Currently high school level math and science digital textbooks are available through the CK12 non-profit organization and I envision that the more topics will be added over time. The interactive student and teacher edition FlexBooks content is vetted, reviewed, core standards-based and also customizable. These books can be customized (Flexed) to meet your needs.  Check out their site for more information: http://www.ck12.org/flexbook/

With these two resources alone, you would have a great start to customizing your math and science curriculum and optomizing it for the digital devices that are coming our way in education.