Tech Tips for Lions

Google Forms has a new feature that was introduced last month. Now you can create an item (question) in a Google Form that will allow your respondents (students) to upload a file to answer the question. When you are creating questions in your form, click on the little “down arrow” to choose an item type. One of the choices is now “File upload”. See the graphic below. By choosing this option, your students will be able to upload a file (PDF, graphic, or document) that is no larger than 10 MB and submit it to you. This file will become a file in your Google Drive.

This would be a great way for students to turn in assignments electronically if you are not using Google Classroom.

Most people are already familiar with Google Maps, but I don’t think teachers and students are aware of all the things you can do with Google My Maps that would enhance lessons in a wide variety of subjects.

You can access Google My Maps in two ways….with this link https://www.google.com/maps/d/ or from your Google Drive. When you are in Google Drive, click on the New button. Then choose More at the bottom of the menu. Google My Maps should be one of the options listed there. See the screenshot below.

Google My Maps lets you create a custom map and add Pins for specific locations on that map. But the amazing part of this is what you can put into those pins. When students click on a pin, they can add informational text, pictures, videos, and links to online resources.

Students could create maps for novels, short stories, historical events, or historical figures. This type of activity is a rather low on Bloom’s Taxonomy. We want to design activities that will push our students farther up the higher order thinking skills, so we can have them add links, videos, text, or graphics that help explain or make connections about the specific location pins on the map.

Not only can you make your map interactive through the use of the pins, but you can also add layers to the map which would be great for studying content over time….a different layer for each time period.

Matt Miller of Ditch That Textbook has some great ideas for how the interactive maps could be used in many classrooms/subject areas. Check out his blog posts here and here.

If you are not familiar with Infotopia, I think you’ll want to explore this resource. The basis of the site is that it offers an alternative to Google search. This academic search engine is safe for students to use. It accesses only trusted website previously selected by librarians, teachers, and educational consortia. It was created by, and is maintained by Dr. Michael Bell, former chair, Texas Association of School Librarians, and Carol Bell, former middle school librarian and director of libraries.

A feature of Infotopia that I want to show you today is the Primary Resources page. The use of primary resources is a key skill that is required in TEKS. This page provides students with over 20 sites that are great collections of primary resource documents and artifacts. These include sites such as Library of Congress Digital Collections, National Archives Digital Vaults, and The Authentic History Center among others. Or if you are looking for a good way to introduce or explore the concept of Primary Resources, Infotopia has created a YouTube video that takes students on a time travel adventure to explore history and discover at least ten types of primary resources. The video is embedded below.

Show your students Infotopia and have them use this search engine. I think you will find that your students will come up with more reliable information from authentic sources. I You will see an improvement in the the quality of their research.

This week, December 5-11, 2016, is Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek). It is an annual program designed to encourage students to take an interest in Computer Science.

In conjunction with CSEdWeek, the Hour of Code promoted by www.code.org is a way for teachers to introduce their students to coding. You can check out the info here.

Kasey Bell of Shake Up Learning has a great article with tons of resources for teachers or anyone new to coding. Check it out here. She includes coding resources and lessons as well as tips for running your own Hour of Code with your students.