Google Cultural Institute - explore and learn about history in a new way

This week Google announced 42 new exhibitions in the Google Cultural Institute. They are a collection of online historical exhibitions, that tell the stories behind major events of the last 100 years. Events include D-Day, the Holocaust, Apartheid, and the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

There are 42 exhibitions on here and they were all created by Google, museums, and cultural foundations. There are letters, manuscripts, video interviews and much more.

The thing that sets these apart from other historical collections is that they include more of the human side of the events and dive into different perspectives. This is a great resource for history classes.

Each exhibition features a narrative which links the archive material together to unlock the different perspectives, nuances and tales behind these events. Among others you’ll see:
Tragic love at Auschwitz - the story of Edek & Mala, a couple in love who try to escape Auschwitz
Jan Karski, Humanity’s hero - first-hand video testimony from the man who attempted to inform the world about the existence of the Holocaust
Faith in the Human Spirit is not Lost - tracing the history of Yad Vashem’s efforts to honor courageous individuals who attempted to rescue Jews during the Holocaust
Steve Biko - a 15-year-old’s political awakening in the midst of the Apartheid movement featuring nine documents never released in the public domain before
D-Day - details of the famous landings including color photographs, personal letters and the D-Day order itself from Admiral Ramsay
The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II - an account of the 1953 Coronation including color photographs
Years of the Dolce Vita - a look at the era of the “good life” in Italy including the fashion, food, cars and culture

The Google Cultural institute also includes the Art Project and World Wonders collections. These collections all help to preserve historical material and make it more accessible to the world.

These are excellent resources for educators to use with their students.

What Engineering, the E in STEM, means to K-12 education

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) is a term used to describe having these four topics integrated into K-12 education. It is an important topic and integrating STEM topics into any class can help students learn and explore. However, many educators aren't sure what this means or how to incorporate STEM topics into their classrooms, especially the "engineering" part.

The Opportunity Equation has a great article, "The “E” in STEM: Clarifying What Engineering Education Means for K-12". This article helps to explain what engineering would look like in K-12 education. Engineering and education experts shared their thoughts about the following questions:  What is engineering and what are the essential components that you feel ought to be included in K-12 education? What is the value of engineering education at the K-12 level? What are some examples of promising practices in K-12 engineering education?

This is a great resource to help explain the concept of engineering in K-12 education and how to implement it.

As a former engineer, I use engineering concepts in my classes on a regular basis and I see how it helps my students. I also use engineering concepts in my daily life, showing how important and useful this topic is to anyone.


Related:

STEM Resources for Education

Gmail adds great features for multiple language support and use

Google has just announced some great new features to Gmail that can help teachers communicate with people around the world, as well as help English Language Learners.

The new features include over 100 virtual keyboards and transliteration tools to allow you to type in the language and keyboard layout that you want to, no matter what computer you are on. It is available in Settings > Language > Enable input tools. 75 Languages are now supported.

Once enabled, the Input Tools icon will appear next to the Settings button in the toolbar.

Input Tools are also available in Chrome extension, the Windows desktop client or the Android app.


Related:

Google for Education Resources

Still time to register and get discount for TechForum NY Oct 19th

TechForum NY, sponsored by Tech&Learning Magazine, is Friday, October 19th at the Westchester Marriott in Tarrytown, NY (670 White Plains Rd., Tarrytown, NY 10591). Registration and continental breakfast begin at 7 am with the opening keynote starting at 8:15.

Join us for a day of learning, sharing, collaboration and more. There will be a keynote address, breakout sessions, and round table sessions where everyone contributes in a discussion on the topic at hand.

Some of the topics: technology in the classroom, Social Media in Education, New Tools for Educators, meeting the needs of students, assessment, educational use of iPads, Evernote, Google for education, technology and special education, STEM resources and much more. I'm presenting on Evernote and Social Media in Education.

Breakfast and lunch are included in the registration fee. There are also two refreshment breaks in the morning (included) which gives you time to network with other educators and check out the vendor displays. At the end of the day, there is a reception (included) hosted by the vendors with food and drink and time to network some more.

Get a discount using the code below.

cloudHQ - sync Google Drive, Dropbox, Evernote and more

cloudHQ is a unique service that, while not free, offers a very useful service. It allows you to backup and sync files between Google Drive, Dropbox, Sugarsync, Box, Basecamp, and Evernote. You can sync your notes and files between Basecamp, Dropbox and Evernote, back up your cloud data, and even synchronize docs and notes between Google Drive and Evernote in real time.

       

cloudHQ continuously syncs all of your files between your different cloud services in real-time. 

This is very useful for backup and security, along with making files more accessible to others who need to use them, and even turning your Evernote notes into collaborative Docs in Google Drive. 

The personal plan is $4.90 per month, or $49 per year. There are also premium and enterprise accounts for higher fees, with more features. 

While not free, this could be a very useful service for many people who use a variety of cloud services. 

Google Docs is excellent for collaboration. Evernote is perfect for note taking, web clips, etc.

Sync all your Evernote notes and Google Docs documents. So all your Evernote notes can be Google Docs and all your Google Docs documents can be in Evernote. It really simplified everything - because you can start something as a note and migrate into Google Docs for collaboration. Or you can think about this setup as a backup: Google Docs is backup of Evernote and Evernote is backup of Google Docs.

Disclosure: I was not compensated in any way for this post. I just feel that this could be a useful tool for many people. 

Wolfram Alpha has a great contest for educators

Wolfram, the company behind Wolfram Alpha and other educational services and apps, has a great contest for educators. They are looking for educators --primary or secondary school teachers, university professors, tutors, and homeschooling parents--to tell us about the fun and exciting ways they use Wolfram|Alpha to engage students. Their favorite entries will be highlighted in a future blog post, and will win all kinds of neat prizes, like Wolfram|Alpha T-shirts or Wolfram|Alpha Spikey Paper Sculpture Kits. One lucky grand prize winner will take home an iPad, loaded with Wolfram|Alpha-powered apps, plus a year's subscription to Wolfram|Alpha Pro.

The contest is open to anyone in the world who self-identifies as an educator, but submissions close on October 15. If you're interested in learning more, please visit their blog: http://url.wolfram.com/2Fczwqm4/

Center for Digital Education - great, free resource on education and technology

The Center for Digital Education, formerly known as Converge, is a great site with lots of information about education and technology, including news, grants, product reviews, case studies, examples of digital education and much more.

You can subscribe to the site RSS feed and/or to email newsletters to keep up to date. There is always good  information and resources that can be of use to educators.