Hereis a nice little list of apps from eSchool News to help you gear up for the fall: http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/06/05/graphite-apps-023/

Edtech Conferences

This list was shared early in June from the Educational Technology and Mobile Learning website. If you have an online Personal Learning Network (PLN) this site is a great addition. Here is the orignal link: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2015/06/top-40-edtech-conferences-for-teachers.html?m=1

Conferences are a great way to get fresh ideas for your classroom and also an excellent motivator. Over time most educators get overwhelmed and even a little defeated by the day to day of their jobs. Working with children, after all can be very challenging. Conferences allow you to meet with other educators to share common and uncommon ideas and experiences.

If you are an educator in Virginia, or a nearby state, the Virginia Society for Technology in Education (VSTE) annual conference is a great event: http://www.vsteconference.org/. VSTE also offers other learning events throughout the year: http://vste.org/learn-with-us/.

King George County Schools has also hosted a free, one-day conference, for the past few years. This year's conference is on Aug. 12: https://docs.google.com/a/kgcs.k12.va.us/forms/d/1kuANEnX8JP0OzpwpdV84YBB_43OvsFvb6iBi--ZaxRY/viewform

The University of Mary Washington has also hosted an annual conference in recent years. Whether they will host one in 2016 remains to be seen, but here is a link to last year's site: http://2015umwedtechconference.umwblogs.org/

Edtech conferences aren't the only options either. My wife just got back from the Longwood Summer Literacy Institute, http://www.longwood.edu/cehs/Summer_Literacy_Institute.htm, and she is very excited to get back into the classroom this fall to put ideas from several sessions into action.

Keep an eye out and expand your PLN to include VSTE, UMW and other likely resources where nearby conference may be announced. One or two a year is probably enough for most people, but if you haven't attended a conference recently, put it on your to do list for the 2015-16 school year.

Backup Your Old Google Account

If you have a Google account that you haven't used in awhile, read this.
http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/07/29/psa-google-is-apparently-deleting-old-unused-accounts-without-warning-time-to-back-up/

Save Word Documents to Google Drive, but Keep Using Word to Edit Them

This has been out for about a week, so you may have already heard, but if you haven't, this is pretty cool. Microsoft and Google have a history of not playing well together, but they do both seem to realize that being two of the biggest players in the software world they can't totally lock each other out. Google Drive has allowed in app editing of some MS Office files for some time now in what they call Office Compatibility Mode https://support.google.com/docs/answer/6055139?hl=en, but it isn't great especially if you are an Office power user. Now you can edit documents in Office and save them back to drive without the hassle of downloading and re-uploading. This may seem like a small thing, but anyone who has gone through the process knows that the extra time it takes might just make someone create and edit their document in Google Docs instead of Microsoft Word. As far as I can tell, you still can make your changes in real time or work collaboratively (in fairness Microsoft does have their own product to do this without Google) when using the Drive plugin for Office, although it is still pretty interesting.
http://googleappsupdates.blogspot.com/2015/07/google-drive-plug-in-for-microsoft.html?m=1

Virtual Building and Exploration

Virtual building and exploration can be a great addition to any curriculum. Many teachers have had great success using world builders like Minecraft in the classroom. In some instances it is appropriate for a teachers to set up a foundation, or to give directions to students on what or how they should create something, at other times it may be more appropriate to simply allow exploration and interaction. Later the class or groups of students can reflect, make comparisons, or complete other activities which help them to process the experience. Minecraft isn't the only world builder out there and some of them are more accessible (you need purchased software and a tablet, computer, or gaming system to play Minecraft).
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/07/20/minecraft-world-builders-777/

Here is a site to help you get started. As of this posting the lessons are all grades k-5, but many can easily be adapted to suit the needs of secondary teachers and the author of the site is looking to expand into upper grade levels.
http://lessons4minecraft.com/

Google Hangouts Vulnerability

So I use Google constantly and when someone shared this article I was alarmed. However, I read the comments and one poster mentioned that there was a way to close it. http://gizmodo.com/oh-great-new-android-flaw-lets-hackers-into-your-phone-1720381448

The vulnerability is that Google Hangouts automatically downloads MMS messages which include things like videos. That means that someone can embed malware into images and videos and since Hangouts retrieves them automatically, you are exposed to the malware. Now, first I want to say that most anti-virus/anti-malware apps will scan images and videos from MMS, so if you have one of these apps installed (and you should), then you aren't really vulnerable to the exploit in the first place, but even if you don't, or in the event that your anti-malware misses the malicious file there is another way you can help secure your device. Uncheck the box. That's right. It is a little less convenient, since your phone won't just download the MMS on it's own, but that will give you the opportunity to recognize that you are getting an MMS from a number you aren't familiar with and delete it before it is retrieved. Go into the settings in Hangouts, select SMS, and uncheck the box. This is what it should look like:

Staying Organized with Google Chrome

What do you do when you find a really great website that you want to use with your class or an interesting article to share with your colleagues or you vaguely remember something that caught your eye a few days ago, but now you can't find the link? I often create bookmarks for these situations, but if you switch computers or are using a phone or tablet it can quickly get pretty confusing remember which device you used to save a particular link. If you're using Chrome, you can sign in and link data across computers and other devices. I should note here that you can do the same with several other browsers.

Another advantage to signing into Chrome is that you can sync extensions which are in browser applications that can be used to do everything from capture notes like with Evernote to edit pictures with extensions like Picmonkey or Pixlr. That means that no matter where you access Chrome, you will have all your synced data (bookmarks, extension, etc.) You have the option to choose which data to sync, so you can include passwords if you want, and you can also set up a sync password which is separate from your regular account password for added security.

Here is a support link with more information: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/165139?hl=en

Updates to Google Drive and Classroom

If you follow Google Apps closely or are a Google Apps administrator, you probably already know about these things; if not, check out these links. There are some really cool updates Google Drive and Google classroom in the past week or two.

Google Drive http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2015/07/3-important-google-drive-updates.html?m=1

Google Classroom http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2015/07/some-new-interesting-updates-to-google-classroom.html

Google, like many other tech companies, is constantly updating its products. Some updates don't really mean much, but if you use Google Apps in your classroom or for work, many of these updates can help with productivity and can make your life easier. If you are interested in following updates to Google App, you can do it here: http://googleappsupdates.blogspot.com/

My wife, Amanda, sent me this link a couple of days ago.  http://pulptastic.com/17-awesome-things-didnt-know-google/ While a couple of these are pretty inane, most are very cool, and I can tell you from personal experience that this is by no means a comprehensive list. You can also do things like look up definitions, graph equations, play six degrees of Kevin Bacon, check things like sunrise/sunset times, or the status of a flight, perform measurement and monetary conversions, or even flip a virtual coin. Many of these things can be useful for making lessons and your life easier, and some of them are just fun.

Creativity and problem solving are oft referenced twenty first century skills, but can be very difficult to teach and learn. Computation thinking is one way to increase one's ability to think creatively and problem solve. This computational thinking course from Google can help teachers work with students using these skills. http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2015/07/google-offers-free-online-computational-thinking-course-for-educators.html

Pax Makerspace Open House

A makerspace is exactly what is sounds like. A place where you make things. Sometimes they are referred to as hackerspaces or fablabs, but generally they are places where people can get together to build, experiment, and collaborate. Some teachers are even setting up makerspaces or making time for "life hacking" in their classrooms. This is a great opportunity if you want to learn more about makerspaces or get invloved with other makers:

https://paxspace.org/events/summer-open-house-2015/

Mechanical Marvels

In an age of digital technology we often forget just how amazing mechanical technology really is. While this sort of technology sees less and less practical application, it is still pretty impressive. This short video is a really good, easy to understand explanation of how a mechanical film projector works. This could be a great lesson starter too.

http://gizmodo.com/how-a-film-projector-works-and-why-theyre-still-mechan-1716191193