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 * OCTOBER 2012 **


 * Dear colleagues, **


 * Recently, I went to a great workshop organised by the International School of Prague with Google on using the Google apps for Education tools. These include Google docs, spreadsheets, presentations, calendars and websites. I will be organising sessions to introduce these to colleagues, but in the meantime, here is an overview of some of the many things Google is currently doing in education. I hope you can find half an hour to explore. **

//** Steve **//

There are too many great ideas for using computers in education for any one teacher to know and use more than a small fraction. Do not worry about what you're missing, just find a few great tools which work for you.
 * SOME ADVICE MEANT TO REASSURE **

As colleagues who met Alan November learned, there are many ways in which to search powerfully. Google has a lot of educational resources to help students and teachers be the best searchers we can be.
 * === 1 GOOGLE POWER SEARCH TRAINING ===

@http://www.google.com/insidesearch/landing/powersearching.html || ===media type="youtube" key="v9yZco8bwI8" height="315" width="560"=== || YouTube has gathered together a lot of great educational content here so that you don't have to sort through videos of cute cats to find some gems. @http://www.youtube.com/t/education || media type="youtube" key="Bs7QvMFXXXw" height="315" width="560" || If you are a user of Google documents, you will know how useful it is to have your work in the cloud so that you can access it on any machine at any time (though others can't unless you permit them). Now, in any document, you can open the new Research Pane in the Tools menu. This allows you to find supporting material for your writing on Google without leaving the page. It will automatically generate footnotes with citations for the material which you choose to use. See the example on the right. || media type="custom" key="21228472" || You know that ** Google Earth ** is an amazing resource on which are not only all the places on Earth and elsewhere, but also 3D models of well known structures. Did you know that you can visit the Titanic? Just type it into the ** Search ** box on Google Earth and take the ** Sightseeing tour, ** making sure that ** 3D buildings ** are enabled.
 * === 2 YOUTUBE EDUCATION CHANNEL ===
 * === 3 GOOGLE DOCS RESEARCH PANEL ===
 * === 4 GOOGLE EARTH ===

You may enjoy the [|Heroes of Google Earth] videos (see right for an example).

You can find out what's new at Google Earth by visiting the Showcase. || media type="youtube" key="kf9W3VDf9Bk" height="315" width="560" || If you have a few hours on your hand, waiting for a plane for example, put together your own Art Gallery at the Google Art Project
 * === 5 GOOGLE ART PROJECT ===

Can you see what that picture on the right is? I went to one of the famous paintings on the Art Project and zoomed in and in. This is one of van Gogh's tiniest stars. Go to the link and double click repeatedly on a spot to zoom way in. || || This is a very motley and growing collection of online archives. The Anne Frank archive is very interesting with the only film of Anne (about 7 seconds). There are also archives of Steve Biko and Nelson Mandela. There is a 3D trip around the Palace of Versailles. @http://www.google.com/intl/en-GB/culturalinstitute/about/ || media type="youtube" key="mpplbJMj-No" height="315" width="560" || Here's a podcast for the auditory learners (start at 35 minutes for the relevant section). Jerome Berg describes his award-winning Google Lit Trips. @http://www.googlelittrips.org/ is the link. || media type="custom" key="21227604" ||
 * ===6 GOOGLE CULTURAL INSTITUTE===
 * ===7 GOOGLE LIT TRIPS===