💥 This week's tech tools - Free Music, Free Apps, and more.

Misc. Web and Tech Tools:

10 Amazing Google Geo Tools for Your Classroom 

minutephysics - A really nice YouTube Channel with some cool short videos that.... well... involve physics.  pretty cool! 

4 ways you can bring CAD to your Chromebook

New Google forms visually explained for teachers. 

21 Chrome Extensions for Struggling Students and Special Needs 

Two New Google Forms Features for Teachers just released.

Google Templates for Students - K-12!

Practical Ed Tech Tip of the Week – A Summer of G Suite Updates – A Handout

Google for Education Training Center. FREE resources from Google. Check out the tutorials, downloadable guides, tips, tricks, and more!

4 Ways to Teach Digital Citizenship with Adobe Spark

How to Annotate Images on a Chromebook

10 Good Options for Creating Digital Portfolios

10 Tips for Creating a Class Website with Spark Page

Looking for a new way to share information with families? You can create a class website using the free, easy-to-use Spark Page. Perfect for teachers on Chromebooks, laptops, iPads, and iPhones, this simple website creation tool is a fantastic choice for creating a classroom website.

Free IOS App:

Stage Pro: Interactive Whiteboard/Document Cam - Free (Reg. $4.99) https://goo.gl/zANBUh   

Free Music from Amazon:

Amazon Music via Amazon.com has Garth Brooks: The Chase/In Pieces (Digital MP3 Album) for Free.

Wow - Phishing and ransomware at it's worst! 

This is why we are wanting users to always be careful on what they click on in emails! (Phishing) - CBS report - Inside the New York Hospital That Was Down for 6 Weeks Due to Ransomware 

Lynne Herr's tech resources from our Bootcamp sessions:

@lherr 

Youtube in the Classroom

Tech Roundtables (all ideas collected in one file, K-4 and 5-12)

Add-ons, Extensions and More!

Google Classroom

Welcome to your first day of Classroom Google Classroom saves you time, keeps you organized and helps you communicate with your students.  Great resource from Google! 

New August 1, 2017 - 6 New Google Classroom Features to Note.

10 ways Google is making Classroom and Forms easier for teachers this school year - Yesterday, Google announced 10 updates to Google Classroom and Google Forms to help teachers save time and stay organized. Some updates include a new single view of student work and the ability to reorder classes.

3 Chrome Extensions that Make Google Classroom Even More Awesome! 

💥 Free apps, tech tools, free tool for the Alexa, tips and more in this weeks tech tips.

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 

Three Ways for Students to Create Digital Flashcards

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:

Right Now Get a $20 Amazon Dash Wand With Alexa For Free - Deal Alert

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:

Exploration of the Solar System Through Augmented Reality

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! 

Explore the world with Geo Guessr 

Goolge\s own Tour Builder is awesome! 

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

​

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.