Weekly Tech Tip - Countdown Timers

I'm always trying to find quick and easy tech tips that I think might be useful to those working with students as well as those of us who work with teachers. One of the items that I use for some of my workshops are countdown timers. When I give folks five or ten minutes to work on a website or talk about a particular strategy, I want to give them the full five or ten minutes. Countdown timers come in handy for that very purpose.



If you go to Google and you type "timer 1 minute" where the 1 can fluctuate to any number, you will automatically get a countdown timer. Give it a try!

If you want some timers that have a little more flare, those that include graphical representations, then you might search youtube for a specific timer. There, you can find tons of timers to suite your needs.

Enjoy,
Gregg

Weekly Tech Tip - "Ok, Google"

This week's tech tip comes from the Official Google Blog. I was reading an entry about teen's use of voice search. Google has found that teens use the voice search more than adults. Why? If you read entry below, the entry shows statistics and reasons why teens use this option.

After I read this, I thought about how I relate to my own kids. We use google a lot to find things for us - directions in the car, the hours of a particular store, to text each other, etc. As we talk with our kids, it also brings home the point of searching with a purpose. Use the voice commands necessary and efficiently to get your desired search outcome.

Here is the entry should you choose to read it:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/10/omg-mobile-voice-survey-reveals-teens.html

If you are not sure how to use Google's voice search, here is the help page to get you started:
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2940021?hl=en

Happy Thursday,
Gregg

Mobile Printing - Technology Tip #2

A question has come up many times to me about printing from the iPad/iPhone. While I am not a big fan of printing from these devices, there have been improvements to iPad printing. First of all, not all apps support printing from the iPad, but most of the office documents, google documents, pdf's, and web pages will work.

So, if you need to print to a network printer inside your district and you have Canon Networked Printers or Samsung Printers, then below are some steps for you to print to a network printer. If you have other networked printers in your district from a different vendor, then you may want to search the Apple Store to see if they have a mobile printing app.

Here is how it works.

1. Go to the App Store
2. Search for Samsung Mobile Printing or Canon Mobile Printing
   
3. Find and install the correct app
4. Set up the printer - it should search the network and find the printer - note that you must be on the same network as the printer is on. If not, then the app will not be able to find your printer.
5. Try to print a document - I did print to both printers using the app. 

For more reading, here is the Canon help page for mobile printing:
http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/office/products/software/mobile_solutions/canon_mobile_printing_app_for_iphone_and_ipad

Here is the Samsung help page for mobile printing:
http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile-print-app/

Until next time,
Gregg

Welcome to 2014 - Technology tip #1

I'm back at it again and I hope you are too! Here is the first technology tip for this year.

One of the things that I mentioned last year was that the ESU's across the state are working to implement a content management system called Safari Montage.

ESU 4 does have it's server ready and I've been training other districts on how to use it. I am slowly getting more comfortable with this system and will gladly show you how to get started with Safari Montage.

So, what exactly is Safari Montage? It is several things, but what I like most about it is that you can manage all your content in one place. For example, it has all the Learn360 videos tied to it, it has other video series tied to it, and you can add your own content such as youtube video links, pdf's, word and/or powerpoint files.

Here is a short introduction to Safari Montage. If you are ready to try it, please let me know and I will get you set up with an account. I will also take some time to walk you through some of the screens that you may see while inside Safari Montage.

 Enjoy, Gregg

Technology Tip - May 1, 2014

Happy May Day to all of you!

This week's tech tip comes from the google enterprise blog. Just this week, Google announced native versions of Docs and Sheets that will run on any device - iOS and Android.



So, what this means is that you can now download the Google Docs App and Google Sheets app right to your iPad, iPhone, or Android device. Since most of the folks inside the ESU use iOS, I have linked the Apps to the iTunes store.

So, get your copy of Docs and Sheets today. If you are a Google Presentation user, Slides will be announced soon.

Google Docs via itunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-docs/id842842640?mt=8

Google Sheets via itunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-sheets/id842849113?mt=8

Enjoy,
Gregg

Technology Tip - April 16, 2014

This week tip comes from two resources that I subscribe to and find very useful - Free Tech for Teachers and iPad Apps for Schools.

Both are blog pages that I follow, but instead of me going to those sites each day to read what has been posted, I get a daily email from the site and the post is feed and read directly in my email client.

If you go to each of those websites, you can find the subscribe button for email. It will look like the screen shot below. Click on the "mail" button icon and then you can add your email address to the feed. Once your email address is submitted, you will get a daily email from the site.

So, you can learn about new web sites and new technologies every day. For example, for today, the iPad email read "5 free iPad apps to help students learn to spell." So, if spelling is something you work on, then there might be an app that you might like.

Enjoy,
Gregg

Weekly Tech Tip - April 8, 2014

This week's tech tip comes from Learn360 (online video collections) and from Washington, D.C. Learn360 announced some new content as well as links to resources happening in the month of April. I always get excited to read what they are up to. Every teacher within ESU 4 can get a free account to these resources. You can view the online newsletter by clicking the link below.

http://click1.email.infobaselearning.com/ViewMessage.do?m=rnwwvkcl&r=yqklqmqvmc&s=yvcmqywybcrqzlzfczqcmsyftvpmpfgykkz&a=view

Secondly, the museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. has a virtual tour available via a desktop link. Click on the link below to see the museum.

http://www.mnh.si.edu/vtp/1-desktop/

Until next time...enjoy,

Gregg