Android Apps on Chromebooks and How to Set Up in your Edu Domain

Android coming to Chromebook has been talked about for over a year now.  It is now here and ready for you to use in your Edu Domain!  It is in BETA mode but it is VERY FUNCTIONAL and if you have a compatible Chromebook (running Chrome 53 or later) you can configure your domain to put a 'PLAY' store of APPS available to your teachers and students.

Here are the steps to set up Android in Admin Domain for Chromebooks.

In short, you need to login to admin.google.com.  Go to Device Management > Chrome Devices and then select Android Applications.  Next, accept the Android for Work Agreement.  When that is enabled you can select and configure Android Apps.  

Click to Configure the Apps.  Click on the + sign to shop for the apps.  Select an app you want to make available to your students.  Once you APPROVE it you need to CONFIGURE IT!  If you don't configure it then it won't show up in their SCHOOL PLAY STORE as an option.

When you configure the app you have a choice to Force Installation, Pin to Taskbar (which I recommend for Google Classroom, for example) BUT you can simply make a tool like Toontastic, WeVideo, etc as an install option.  

Once you set up your store, you probably want to know what the user experience looks like.  I've created a video below to show you how the student experiences the play store accessing and using apps.

With the PLAY store app pinned to the student task bar they can open and see what is available in the store and install as needed:

I would LOVE to hear your feedback!  Are you as excited about the potential as I am?  What will be your first apps to send out and how will this change how you are DBA at your school?

Forms for Learning with Flubaroo in Classroom

Chrome Accounts ~ Train your Peeps! Parents! Students!

Hi everyone

As usual, I am on the run but wanted to give a shout out to MULTIPLE CHROME ACCOUNTS!  It is an essential skill (managing multiple accounts) if you have more than one Google account.  However, many are still unaware how this works and are still logging into several Google accounts through one Chrome browser.  

There is NO EASY WAY to show a group of 50 beginner to seasoned Googlers how to sign into a separate Chrome account.  Why?  Well, so many are still signing into multiple 'gmail' accounts in a single Chrome account.  Sounds confusing?  It is.

Well, here is a quick tip.

1.  You want to sign into 'CHROME' for every gMail or Google account you have.
2.  Before you do that for the first time, make sure you are only signed into one account.

Quick check:

If you click on your avatar in the top right, and see only one account, that is GOOD.

If you click on the avatar and you are signed into two accounts, BAD.

If you checked and the result is BAD.  

Select each account and sign out.  Then close Chrome.

Open Chrome.

Then, on the right hand side click on the Menu and go to Settings.  Scroll down to Create Users.

At this point you can begin adding different users to Chrome.

If you need more help, visit:  https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/185277?hl=en 

Split Names Add On for Google Sheets

I created this quick how to after I stumbled upon it searching for the function.  I know many of you would say... duh, the function is a no brainer but I seem to have trouble with recall of these things if I don't use them often enough.  This is an excellent add~on for Google Sheets if you need to split the text in columns (especially first name, last name) but not often enough to remember the function. :) 

Google Tools in the Bartlett School Week Extravaganza!

Last week I had the opportunity to work at the Josiah Bartlett Elementary School for 4 days. It was a hands on deck Google Apps for Education training for all grade levels K-8.  The agenda  included classroom integration, teacher and administration training, website development and more.   Each day was a small tornado of activity and I am just beginning to feel grounded and able to reflect on everything we did.  

I will highlight some of the Google Apps experiences we had but first I want to give a shout out to the Bernerhof Inn (http://www.bernerhofinn.com/), absolutely the nicest place I have stayed on my Google adventures and Margarita Grill (http://margaritagrillnh.com), most definitely the best flavored food I have eaten anywhere since I can remember.  If you are within driving distance and looking for a 'getaway', stay at the Bernerhof and eat at the Margarita Grill.  You cannot go wrong!

Josiah Bartlett Elementary School &
Town Library Under One Roof.  Brilliant!

The Josiah Bartlett Elementary School culture is everything I would have wanted for my own children (who unfortunately attended a less than adequate school in their formative years).  I found happiness and peace each day among all the students and staff.  The level of respect and contentment is phenomenal.  Learning happens naturally in a positive and supportive environment.  There is fun and laughter.  The administration is clearly supportive and encouraging.  I couldn't help but think how wonderful it must be to attend that school and work with such an amazing group of people.  

In four days, here are some of the great Googly things we did with the staff and students.  If you are looking for ideas for using Google with specific grade levels you might find something interesting here.

• 8th Grade:  Google Sites for Mount Washington Hike ~ Site Template.  We were short on time with these kids but had enough time to have them create their own sites and start thinking about what their project focus would be.  They would be going on a hike up Mount Washington and are asked to compare/contrast the Mountain to the Valley and/or identify how skills, equipment and information could improve a wilderness trip. 
• 7th Grade:  Lucid Press Designing Brochures on Web Evaluation & Greek Mythology
• 6th Grade:  Google Sites for Trip to Ferry Beach ~ Site Template.  We had enough time working with these students to show them how to change the header and background images in the site and add images to their pages.  We also gave them a prompt to create a page and write what they are wondering about.  They are leaving on a three day 'science & nature trip' and they learned site development while prompting them to think about their future experience!  
• 5th Grade:  Book Creator & Asus Transformer Tablets ~ 1 for every student in grade 5.  We used the Google Edu Device Setup App and the 'bump' technology to deploy the tablets for students.  Once that was in place we pushed out Google Slides, Sheets, Docs and Drive to the students and the Book Creator App.  The next day, students crafted the content of an 'About Me' story in Google Docs and then began developing their book using the Book Creator App.  This was a great way to get them acclimated with their new devices by engaging them in a topic they love most ~ themselves!  They are also conducting Biome research using Google Documents, Research Tool and the Easy Bib Add on.  Once this is complete they will create and publish their Biome Books to Google Books using the Book Creator App.
• 4th Grade:  Google Classroom Writing Prompt ~ The teachers set up their classrooms in the morning and learned how to create a document and send it out to the students.  These teachers were generally 'new' to using Google documents in the first place.  Classroom is so easy they were using it with students in class that morning.  The students accessed the writing prompt and started working and we showed the teacher how to access all the documents through classroom and provide formative feedback throughout the class period.  Students were fired up about getting those comments in their documents and they were provoked to dig deeper or consider things they might not have otherwise.  I am always amazed at how powerful the comment tool is in Google Docs and could see that both the students and teachers were as equally impressed!  
• 3rd Grade:  Google Classroom Writing Prompt ~ Like fourth grade, the 3rd grade teachers set up the writing prompt and pushed it out through Classroom.  Piece of cake!  When the students had to leave for UA and the teachers said they could leave their laptops in place as they would continue writing more when they returned a big 'yay' was heard in the room.  One student said that Google Docs makes writing fun!  I agree!
• 1-2 Grade:  Google Draw of Coniferous and Deciduous Trees ~ This was their first time using Google at all and we were short on time so we created a Draw document and pushed it out to all of the students using Doctopus.  Then while they conducted their morning meeting, Jimi logged them in and opened their Drive so they would be ready to get started.  Draw is not like paint so they had to quickly learn some techniques to get what they needed on the paper without the flexibility of paintbrush for example.  They were just beginning a unit on trees so they started with the Coniferous tree.  We learned later that you could use the callout tool as a 'leaf' and with copy/paste they could make dozens of leaves and then place them around the page.  
• Kindergarten:  Google Draw (Patterns) & Caterpillars.  We used a 'caterpillar' drawing that we used as a template and used 'circles' to create the caterpillar body and we asked the kindergarten students to use the 'fill' tool to create a color 'pattern' on the caterpillar.  Perfect setup for the curriculum topic and ability.  Again, we used Doctopus to push it out.  

With staff we further developed sites, calendars, use of Chrome and more.  

I am amazed at everyone's energy, openness and willingness to work together and try new things.  I'm in awe at what we all accomplished in four days.

Hat's off to the Josiah Bartlett Elementary School staff and students. You ARE the change we want to see in education and the world.

Sincerely,

'Ms. M'

Classroom Notes & Tips for Getting Started....

Here are some quick 'tips' for managing and using Classroom. Please note that there will be changes in classroom in the future so some of the things you are noticing or wishing for are being worked on.  This post is based on classroom as of today, August 25, 2014! :)

Don't Delete the Classroom Group

Admins Beware ~ Do NOT delete the group in the admin panel for teachers.  Several have done this and it there is no easy fix.  You need this group so that teachers can create classrooms.

ReNaming a Class

Once you create a class in classroom it will create a Classroom folder in your Drive and a folder inside that with the name of your class.  Students will have the same setup.  If you 'rename' your class, it will not 'rename' the class folder in Drive (for now).

Using Forms

Yes you can post your 'Getting to Know You Survey's in Classroom.'  You may want to post it as a link in your About Page, this way when new students arrive you can refer them to that easily without them having to scroll down the Stream to find it.

Using the About Page

The About Page is a great place to post all your related course resources ~ Link to your website, add your syllabus, Getting to Know You Survey, portfolio or project site templates and more.  For the creative folks, if you have not already done so, consider creating a 'course trailer' and post to you Tube.  Then you can add that as well!  As of today you cannot sort or move around what you post on the About Page but I have found that you can create one post for Course Resources and add everything to that one post (as an 'option' for now).

Assigning to more than one Classroom 
If you have several classrooms set up for the same course (example Biology Period 1, Biology Period 4), you can assign to all of the classrooms at the same time.  Be sure to do this when you create the assignment as that option doesn't exist if you forget to do this and go into 'edit.'  (again, I see this changing).

Comment Stream ~ Icebreaker/prompt
Starting a new topic or unit?  Post a related YouTube video in the comment stream and post a question / prompt to get students thinking and provide some schema. 

Classroom as a Solution
Many seasoned Google for Education users are quick to note the 'flaws' in Classroom and 'want more.'  Just know that the feedback being provided is being monitored and you can expect 'upgrades' in the future.  

Classroom is an excellent workflow solution, especially for teachers that have had a difficult time managing sharing and accessing documents in Drive.  Please show them 

a.  How to set up Class
b.  How to 'push' a document out to each student.
c.  How to access those documents once students begin to work on them.
d.  How students submit them.
e.  How they grade and return the assignment.

Focus on getting a consistent use of Google Documents (show the research tool and easy bib add on for research projects).  

With classroom, the ease of assigning, providing formative assessment and feedback as well as a final grade is great!  

Also, consider placing all assignment instructions on the document you push out to students and tell them to simply delete the instructions as they no longer need them and build their document.  This way they work within only one document.  You can consider showing them page break (to move the directions to the last page) or revision history (to restore the directions if they need to review).

If you focus on what you CAN do with classroom you will have plenty to do with your students while those additional features are being developed!  

Here is a quick video I created that explains the newer features and demos the workflow in Classroom:  

Google Classroom Update

To All the Google Apps Schools, Teachers & Administrators ~

Google announced that Classroom would be rolled out this week and many are chomping at the bit to have it fully enabled in their domain.  From my last check this morning, the majority of domains have not received the full roll out.  Be patient!  Many are confused because Classroom shows up in the admin panel and is turned on for everyone.  This doesn't mean that you have it full access yet.

If only the folks who signed up and received the BETA can created classes right now that means you have not received the full roll out yet.

Keep in mind that the announcement said they would begin roll out the week of August 11th.  There is no 'end date' to the roll out.  When the BETA was announced to roll out the first week of June it was almost the third week before I received BETA access.

If you have started school and want to get teachers ready, I suggest that you tell them to have a folder designated for each class with assignments they want to push out to students (even if it is a blank document).  What I have found is that the quickest way to get access to a document assignment that you assign through classroom is to attach a document to it and give the students each a copy to work on.  The minute they begin working on it teachers can access.

Classroom is also a great place to post forms.  So get your teachers creating pre and post assessment surveys that they can link in the classroom or quizzes.

There is loads of things that you can do while waiting for the full launch! :)

Sincerely,
Allison