Google Chrome in Education

I have been meaning to write a blog post on Google Chrome for a while now, and after seeing @MrRobbo‘s post on Google Chrome for PE Teachers earlier today, I feel like I should publish this now.

I recommend that you read MrRobbo‘s post as I will not repeat, in detail, the features he highlights in this blog post – but I would like to bring your attention to the user features of the web browser.

The browser is a fantastic tool to personalise your online experience using the Apps and Extensions. I personally use Gmail, Evernote, GoogleDrive, Dropbox, TweetDeck and Google+ extensions to . I can imagine that there are a number of other extensions/apps that I am still to come across.

But, the feature I feel is the most useful is the ability to have different user accounts to personalise/privatise your browser. For me, this enables me to have a private, professional and student web browser with separate bookmarks, apps and extensions. As an educator, this is essential!

This feature allows me to bookmark my social life (Facebook, Twitter, iPlayer, SkyBet (ssshhhh), Sky Sports News, eBay etc) and keep it completely separate from web pages I bookmark for use in planning, lessons and PLN. I have also created an account for when students may use my laptop in the classroom, where I have bookmarked the websites I feel will be most useful/user friendly for students.

This feature has bought that extra security to my browsing experience.

Google have created a video:

 

To add additional accounts, click on the top left of the browser (usually an icon like a face/football etc) and click on ‘new user’. You will need to create a new Google account, but as I already have a Google account for professional (mrwickenspe@gmail.com), personal and student interactions, this was not a problem.

If the icon is not in the top left, click on ‘customise and control Google Chrome’, and then ‘Settings’. Scroll down to the ‘User’ tab and then add additional users.

Here is some additional support from the Google forum.

 

Another great feature of Chrome
If you have Chrome downloaded onto your handheld device (eg. iPhone/iPad); your bookmarks, history, and even your open tabs sync to have a completely fluid user experience across device and platform.

 

How do you use additional users in Chrome?

Guided Access on iOS in Education

Since the release of the IOS 6.1 operating system from Apple, I have heard about locking your device with an App open to prevent users from exiting. Over the last few months I had not found out how to do this, until Matt Hulley (@MrHulleyPE) shared this with me.

Through ‘guided access’ on an Apple device you can prevent students/other users from leaving an App and disable specific areas of the screen.

Here is an ‘How to’ guide…

1) Open the ‘Settings’ app, go to ‘General’ and ‘Accessibility’. Under ‘Learning’ you will see you can select ‘Guided Access’ to turn it on.

2) Once in ‘Guided Access’, turn it ‘on’ and set a passcode that you will be required to input to exit guided access (see picture below).

3) When you have an App open that you would like to lock, triple click the ‘Home’ button and you will see this –>

4) Here you can select part of the screen to disable by drawing around the area. The device will then prevent the user from interacting with this area of the screen (see below) – then press ‘Start’ to use the App in guided access mode.

5) To exit ‘guided access’, again triple click the Home button and input the passcode you had created earlier.

This has so many uses in education.

Using the guided access function on the iPad/iPhone I feel much more confident in allowing students to use my personal devices within the classroom. This feature can also ensure students remain on activity and not become distracted by other application on the device.

#PEBible to #GCSEPE

What a great idea, a bible for PE resources shared by a number of PE teachers around the globe. This shared folder is on the ever popular online ‘cloud’ called Dropbox.

I wish I could claim responsibility for this, but it was created by Peter Gamble (@coachpvg) in early 2012.

Now I have joined #PEBible, I have access to hundreds of resources that have been developed, tried and tested by other PE teachers globally. Not all resources will be for you and I would recommend you always adapt the file you will use to your style, but it is a great base to develop a resource from. A group of 74 educators collaborating and sharing within a rich resource!

From this idea, Mark Kerr (@eezipezi) started the Dropbox GCSE PE folder. With 40 educators now sharing resources across all PE exam boards (Edexcel, AQA and OCR).

Give it a go: Collaboration is changing education!

The Gmail Trick

To start, what is Gmail? Gmail is a free email service provided by Google to competes with other online email services like Hotmail, AOL and Yahoo etc.

This is not a huge secret these days, but the ‘Google Mail’ and a little trick up it’s sleeve; it has a great tool to allow multiple accounts on one host with the ‘same’ email address (e.g. multiple accounts on Twitter).

It is a great tool to use in school with students. Today educators are using the thousands of online resources to engage students and improve their school experience. To prevent students having to sign up to multiple websites with their own personal email address (that I am sure parents will not be happy with) or through their school accounts, you can adapt your own Gmail email address so that students can use your account.

So, how is this done?

Original: mrwickenspe@gmail.com
Example 1: mrwickenspe+georgeb@gmail.com
Example 2: mr.wickenspe@gmail.com

Example 1
With the Gmail trick you can add anything to your email address proceeding a ‘+’ sign (e.g. mrwickenspe+georgeb@gmail.com). Personally I would use this ‘trick’ to sign students up to third party websites by including the students name in the email address.

or…

Example 2
You can also add a ‘dot’ within the original  email address (e.g. mr.wickenspe@gmail.com). This allows you the account user to hold multiple accounts with the same host address. I do this with my two Twitter accounts – @MrWickensPE and @PEWickens