Google Here, Google There - Google, Google Everywhere!

KySTE 2008 had a fantastic session called Google Here, Google There - Google, Google Everywhere! This had to be my favorite session of the summer. First of all, everything is free. Second of all, it's all accessible through Google. And, of course, our schools don't block Google, and again - it's free!!!

A big Thank You goes out to Diana McGhee, Director of Technology and Information for the Ft. Thomas Ind. School District in Kentucky, who presented this fast-paced session. She skillfully covered so many great tools for educators, I got cramped fingers as I typed this post.

Diana's Tip of the day: Did you know that you could add "/microsoft" to the google URL, as in http://www.google.com/microsoft to search JUST about microsoft topics. Go ahead and try add a forward slash and a different word to see if it also works. There's no telling what Google has created but has decided not to advertise.

Google for Educators - Diana made an important note of mentioning that "your eye will most likely travel immediately to the middle of the page. The tools you will use most often on this site are found in the left margin.

The links in the middle of the page are simply links regarding recent projects and news within the Google organization." this was a VERY important point. Most educators would have missed this main idea. We spent our time in that most important left margin, beginning with Tools for your classroom and Classroom Activities.

These activities are divided into K-5 & 6-12 categories.

There are too many other Google Tools to go through in this blog. You realize how long-winded I can get. With that said, be sure to check these out. There are some great Search tools. For instance, Geo Education is where you would find Google Earth.

Under the Communicate, Show & Share heading, you will find Blogger useful for journal writing, among other things.

I'm sure you will eventually find your way to Google Docs and scream with joy when you find Revision History under the Tools. What a great way to check the changes a student makes to the documents they produce. Also, this tool is an important when the idea is all about collaboration. It's really simple to check who made the revisions and compare them to another generation of the document.

I can't tell you how great Picasa, SketchUp, and the rest can be in you classroom. Just make to time to really check these out. I haven't had time to check everything out. I don't know anyone who has taken the time. Some of the new products are just so cool, you don't want to stop using them.

During our session, we did take time to look at one of the cool tools that I decided would be great for use in the ESL classroom will be on the main Google page. You can use Google Language Tools to:

• translate from one language to another
• translate entire web sites from one language to another, or
• choose from over 160 different languages in which to display your Google web page.

The site includes a load of Google homepages in a variety of languages:

Scrolling down a little, and you will arrive at an A to Z listing of Maps of these countries and more:

A couple of other useful resources include a selection of greats lessons that you can use. Hey, you may get inspired to create your own. As a former Humanities teacher, I was really impressed by the Postcards from the Past with Google Tools lesson. And, if you're a teacher who stills fears the word 'spreadsheet', fear no more. A super lesson can be had with Charting with Google Spreadsheets. If you are as impressed as I was, see the rest of the Digital Teaching group files at http://groups.google.com/group/digital-teaching/files.

I saved the best for last. I really did. You're so lucky you scanned to the end.

The link below is not a Google page. It is a resource page from Shifted Learning Archives that you can use to train yourself to make the most of the topics discussed above plus oodles of other Google for Educators applications.

http://www.shiftedlearning.org/wiki/Google_for_Educators#Word_Processing