Ed just shared this interesting article from a group we know well EdTechTeacher. Think back to our Wayland RISES training. It is stating the obvious, but sometimes we loose sight of our common sense. I thought it might make you feel like you are in good company.
Last Thursday, we experienced two incidents where people could not find their google documents. It was discovered that these users did not have the latest version of Google Drive loaded on their computer. We were going to ask all teachers to upgrade to the latest version through “Self-Service”, but instead pushed it out to all computers, to avoid any mishaps.
To keep your software up to date without having to depend on a support password, we have initiated “Self-Service”. Most of you are familiar with it for student use and as a means for you to make sure your students have the licensed software that you need for your class. But you can also use if for your computer upgrades.
Self- Service is accessible through Launch Pad. Open it and “log in anonymously”. You access Launch Pad on your Dock, and you can scroll through the windows until you see the Self Service Icon:
Launch Pad on your dock, and Self Service Icon
Once you select “Self Service”, log in anonymously,
and then select “Self Service” on the right hand side. There you will see the latest version of most software. You will also see a Browser category, which you can use to upgrade browser software.
Click on Install for any application you see and it will install the latest version for you.
Check back into self service often for any update that you are looking for. This is the procedure to follow if you wish to get updates without requiring an administrators password. The downside is you have to be at school to access it, and we don’t want you to do updates during school hours 7:30 – 2, unless of course it is an emergency.
Perhaps do an update when you come in to school in the morning and another before you go home.
Excerpted from OS X Mountain Lion: Peachpit Learning Series by Lynn Beighley
You can create a PDF from Mac OS X Mountain Lion applications by choosing File > Print > Save as PDF, saving the file to your Mac with a name you assign. Graphics are at full resolution and fonts are embedded. Then you can send that PDF file as an email attachment to someone else, who should be able to read the PDF regardless of the kind of computer or operating system he or she uses. So you might think that choosing File > Print > Mail PDF would save you a step, attaching the PDF directly to the email message and sending it to the recipient, without having to save the PDF to disk as a file first. In most cases, you would be right. This option creates a PDF of the fle, opens Mail, creates a new message, and puts the PDF into the message, ready to send. However, we’ve noticed that people using AOL or PCs often can’t read the files created this way.
If you are interested in converting the documents that you have scanned 
with your department copier to a document that students can annotate, please make an appointment with Troy to have CS5/CS6 installed on your computer.
As you are aware, the documents that are scanned in through the copier actually create an image which students cannot highlight or annotate easily. The CS5/CS6 package includes Adobe Pro which will allow you to convert these documents to OCR capability. Once converted, you can upload to itslearning and students will be able to annotate with either Adobe or Preview.
Understanding that it requires a lot of work to convert all documents that are already up in itslearning, you may wish to use this tool moving forward right now. You can convert your legacy documents at a later date.
Here is a link to the steps to convert a document to OCR with Adobe Pro. Please come see us for one on one instruction on how to do this and to get the software loaded onto your mac.
Here is a link to a video tutorial that Troy created.
Looking for a way to assess what your students learned from watching the video you assigned last night?
Looking for a way to add an assessment to a video you just created?
You should check this out, ed.ted.com
I have to be honest – I have not done one yet myself, but I am looking to help anyone who wishes to give it a try. It looks great! Of course the proof is in the pudding – or the lesson.
Here is a video overview – watch the whole thing for some ideas on “flipping the classroom”.
Through a WSPF grant, Ed was able to get the high school a trial run of a campus license for Edublogs. It has been set up and there are unlimited blogs for students to use.
I have discovered many resources on the Help site (help.edublogs.or). There is a lot here, and I recommend the following:
There are many resources here. Take advantage and let Ed know if you are interested in using Edublog. We can get you set up in no time.
There are three learning webinars to explore more about blogging:
Note the dates: you have to act now! Check times at the above link.
Last March I introduced the Chrome Web Store.
At the Google Summit I was introduced to Read&Write for Google. This is a fantastic Chrome extension for anyone who struggles with reading. It is a good alternative to Kurzweil, and is available on all students computers!
To access it: You open your Chrome Browser
You select a new tab and you will see Chrome Web Store. Select that and on the left hand margin you will see apps. Under apps, scroll to the bottom of the list to where it lists
the word “Extensions”
Open “Extensions” and put “read write” in the search box. You will see “Read&Write for Google”, select “Add to Chrome”.
Watch this video for an introduction of how to use. A new option will appear in your Google Doc.
