April 1, 2011: What Stunt Will Google Pull Off?

Okay folks, April Fool's day is just around the corner. Google has become notorious for its April 1st shenanigans. Here's a list of their pranks from the past few years:

2000: Google Mental Plex (search using mental telepathy)
2002: Pigeon Rank (the secret to Google's search algorithm is trained pigeons)
2004: Google Copernicus Center (apply for a job at Google's newest office-- on the moon!)
2005: Google Gulp (Google enters the beverage market)
2006: Google Romance (Find your soulmate)
2007 (Google was very ambitions in 2007, creating many April Fools jokes)

• Gmail Paper Archive (distrust digital? Google will print all of your emails and archive them)
• Google TiSP (wireless internet through your toilet)

2009: Google Chrome 3D (this actually works, kind of)

2010: Google Changes its name to "Topeka"

This is only a partial list. The fine folks at Wikipedia have put together a much more exhaustive list. 

What are your predictions for this year? What will Google try to pull off? 

Here are a few ideas: 

• Google Tax-- move over Turbo Tax!
• Google Auto-- in a move to compete with Ford, GM integrates Google into all 2012 vehicles. 
• Google Homework-- A new program that will fill in homework worksheets for students. 

Rapportive, A Gmail Plugin

My Rapportive Profile

I am absolutely enthralled with Rapportive, a Gmail add-on that replaces the typical Adsense sidebar with information about the person you are emailing.

The information that Rapportive pulls is from social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. If you have an account on one of these sites Rapportive will display your profile image, latest status update, and links to your blog or other web content that you have created.

There are a lot of people I communicate with regularly that I have never met. Being able to see a picture of them while I am typing up an email to them makes email a little more personal. Give it a try!

Teaching is Hard Work

Helping students with a lab

If I'm absolutely exhausted at the end of the day I know that I have been truly teaching. Standing in front of a class and lecturing for five hours isn't that big of a deal. Constantly walking around the room, from group to group, student to student and answering specific questions, troubleshooting problems, and mediating student conflict is exhausting.

Truly teaching someone take personal time, attention, and effort. Anyone who says otherwise hasn't truly taught. 

What They Should Teach in School

I'm reading Linchpin by Seth Godin.

Godin argues that only two things should be taught in school:

1. How to solve problems.
2. How to lead. [source]

I tend to agree with him. Learning facts does not set you apart in today's information driven culture. It's what you do with what you know and how you can lead others to use what you know that is important.

Employers are looking for problem solvers and leaders.

Now to figure out how to actually teach these two skills effectively...

The Search for the Killer App

Everywhere I turn people are recommending and looking for the "killer app" that will make their mobile device more productive, fun, useful, and efficient.

Educators are also looking for the "killer app" that will enable their students to communicate, collaborate, and connect with one another

The search for the "killer app" is like a debate over the greatest athlete or movie; it will always continue, but without any consensus.

At last week's MACUL conference I appreciated this advice from Steve Dembo:

"Instead of looking for the killer app, educators should be asking, what do we want our students be be able to do with their mobile devices. Once you answer that question, you'll know what apps you're looking for." 

Here's my short list of things students should be able to do with their mobile devices:

1. Communicate with their teachers. 
2. Collaborate with other students.
3. Create things to demonstrate their learning. 
4. Find information

There are a lot of apps that enable these activities. Now that I've got my end goal in mind, I can begin selecting the apps that will best meet these needs. 

Google Growing Pains

There are quite a few people who aren't happy with Google right now. A lot of them are school administrators and teachers. The primary reason are the willy-nilly product updates that take everyone by surprise. The most recent example is the February 15 update to the Google Docs viewer. The backlash against the update reminds me of the crazy Facebookers who complain when Facebook updates their profile designs. The only major difference is that most people use Google Docs to things that are significant. Many of these complaints are well-warranted, especially for classroom teachers who have thousands of documents to sort through.

In Google's defense, they quickly responded to the outcry in several ways:

1. Users can revert back to the old docs view with a single click (see screen shot at left). This feature will probably be phased out in the future. 
2. Google launches "What New in Google Apps", a site that provides a central location for product update notifications. This is a great resource for system administrators and school technology specialists, allowing them to stay on top of future product updates.
3. On Tuesday, March 22, 2011, Google will roll out an update to the updated Google Docs view. The updated will address some of the concerns from the original update. Google has already published a detailed user guide for the new interface which can be viewed here (PDF).

What does this situation say about Google's ability to attract schools and corporate customers to their cloud based platform? Apple is destroying all competition in their market because of the polish and finesse that underlies everything that they release. I wouldn't use the words "polish" or "finesse" to describe Google. There are still a lot of inconsistencies within Google Apps:

• Gmail has labels, Docs has collections, Picasa has tags. Tags, folders, and collections do the same thing, but the terminology can be very confusing for new users.
• Groups created within Gmail cannot be used to share documents, sites, calendars, etc. 
• Inconsistent menus and toolbars.

While there are fairly minor issues that certainly wouldn't prevent me from encouraging schools or businesses to "Go  Google," they do  point to the need for Google to work towards a more cohesive design and inter-operability between their products, something I feel that they are currently working on.

While Google is going through some growing pains, Google Apps for Education continues to be the hot tool for schools around the country: Google sessions at various educational technology conferences I attend are always filled to capacity; I am regularly receiving emails and Tweets from educators around the country asking for assistance as their school or district migrates to Google; and the screen casts tutorials that I have posted on YouTube and iTunesU K-12 [iTunes link] continue to receive lots of views and downloads.

Google's "Beta" model has worked well in the past, but it may not now that there are corporate customers to please. Hopefully the complaints and hiccups won't deter Google from doing what they do best- engineering great products that help us communicate, connect, collaborate, and search. Just give us a little more advanced notice before you roll out the "next big thing."

How to Make Free Calls Through Gmail

Did you know that you can call US based phones within  Gmail for free? It's a really neat feature that I have been taking full advantage of! If you have Google Voice, you can also receive calls placed to your Google Voice number within Gmail.

Google will be offering free phone calls within Gmail until the end of 2011. You can also place calls to international numbers for very reasonable rates. This feature is only available for US based Gmail accounts.

Afternoon Update from #macul11

MACUL 2011 Conference Notes

I've started a collaborative notes document for keynote and break out sessions from the 2011 MACUL conference (Michigan Association of Computer Users in Learning) . This year the conference is being held in Detroit, Michigan. If you'd like to view the live document, click here.

Insert a Threaded Discussions in A Google Site

One of my great disappointments with Google Sites is the fact that it doesn't have a threaded discussion feature. I have been told that this feature will be added in the future, but for now, it's only a dream. For classroom teachers this is a problem because discussion forums are a great way to encouraged discussion and debate outside of class.

My initial disappointment gave way to excitement when I discovered the Tal.ki Sites Gadget. This third-party Gadget allows you to embed a threaded discussion into your Google Site.

The downside to Tal.ki is that it does require authentication. The good news is that you can use one of numerous login credentials (Google, Yahoo, Facebook, etc) to do so. Chances are good that you and your students already have at least one of these. Google Apps accounts will work as well.

Here's how to embed a Tal.ki forum into your Google Site.

2011 MACUL Conference Selections

This week marks the 35th annual conference of the Michigan Association of Computer Users in Learning (MACUL). I've been in attendance since my junior  year of college at the invitation of my college Ed. Tech. professor, Rubin Rubio, a MACUL board member. Ever since that first introduction I have found the MACUL organization to be a wonderful way to connect with brilliant Michigan educators. 

This year I need to cut out a little bit early on Friday to help my students submit the final section of our 2011 yearbook. Below you can see the sessions that I plan on attending. There were a couple that I had trouble picking, hence a few overlapping sessions. 

If you're attending, perhaps I'll see you in the Social Media Cafe. Stop by and say hello!

Cool Google Spreadsheet Trick

I think I learned this cool trick from Ron Ho, the Google Spreadsheet PM. It's a lot of fun!

Introduction to Google Apps for Education

The video below is a basic introduction to Google Apps for Education. It explains the difference between a regular Google account and a Google Apps account. Hopefully this will help clarify some common misunderstandings and emphasize the additional benefits of integrating Google Apps for Education into your school.

If you are interesting in "Going Google" you might find this post on Google Apps Training Resources helpful. You can also browse through the certified trainer directory where you will find great people to help you setup your domain and train your staff on how to effectively use Google Apps in a school setting.

This Week: Google Spreadsheets for Beginners

This week I am joining forces with Derrick Wlodarz as we lead a session on Google Spreadsheets for Beginners, part of the Google Apps for Education PD Series. The webinar will begin at 8pm EST. To register for the webinar, click here.

Here's a quick outline of what we will be covering:

Spreadsheet/Form Overview of basic menu options

• Create a new spreadsheet (Derrick)
• Freezing panes
• Sorting data
• Adding new rows/columns
• Creating multiple workbooks (Derrick)

Printing and exporting and sharing spreadsheets (Derrick) 5-10 minutes

• Permissions: View/edit/owner
• Publish to web
• Revision history
• live demo

Using Data:

• Creating and Using Forms
• Creating Charts
• Using Widgets
• Using Functions
• Template Gallery

Resources for further learning

To register for the webinar, click here. 

Save time with the Gmail "Canned Response" Lab

If you find yourself writing the same thing to reply to multiple email messages then you should take advantage of the "canned response" lab from Gmail. Use it to format a pre-written response and then quickly insert it into an email message. For complete instructions, view the video below.