Mandy Pabon's Histology Slides: Google Presentation

Please watch a videowith Ms. Pabon explaining how she incorporated Google Presentations with her Anatomy & Physiology (Forms V and VI)
students. The hardest part about teaching a lab-based science is to figure out whether students are looking at the right specimen in the microscope. To make sure that students are looking at the human tissues, instead of observing air bubbles, dust and eyelashes and thinking that these are the specimens, Ms. Pabon put together the histology slides. She took pictures with a digital camera, uploaded them into a Google presentation and shared with her students. The students had an assignment to look at several tissues in the microscope and answer questions about these tissues.

How to Create a Google Presentation?

Go to faculty.polyprep.org and log into your account. Select My Docs from the Menu.



Click on Create > Presentation

How to Insert Images?

There are a few ways to insert an image into your presentation.

You can Drag-and-drop an image from your computer directly into a slide or click the Insert image icon in your presentation toolbar.




You can use your webcam to take a snapshot or enter the URL of a publicly available image from the Internet.



You can also upload an image that’s saved to your computer.

How to Add Text and Draw Lines or Shapes?

You can type text, draw lines, shapes and other objects in Google presentation.

Chat and Comments

Google Drive lets multiple students in classroom or at home collaborate simultaneously on the same file from any computer with Internet access. When someone is viewing or editing something at the same time as you, you’ll see a colored tile with their name in the top right of your screen.



Click on the colored tile and start to chat with your collaborators.



Click on Insert comment button and type your comment in a window.

Additional Resources

Mr. Adam's Schedule in Google Spreadsheet

Last month, I wanted to meet with our new Debate Coach and English teacher, and, to my surprise, he suggested to signup using his online schedule, a Google spreadsheet file shared with our faculty and students. I found this schedule very useful and decided to create the Technology Integration spreadsheet for our faculty as a convenient and easy way to signup for training sessions with us. 

Please watch a video with Mr. Adams. 

According to Mr. Adams, "students (and the faculty) have 24-hour access to my schedule, so they don't need to track me down. Students sign up themselves so no questions about whether the time or date is right. I offer them the chance to sign up in class during writing assignments, etc. You have to monitor the schedule and keep it up-to-date."

How to Create a Google Spreadsheet?

Click on Create and select Spreadsheet




To change the cell color:



Click on the cell that you wish to change the color of, then click on the paint bucket tool to alter the color of your cell.

To change the font size:



Click on the cell you wish to alter the font size in, then click on the box shown above with a number in it, then select your desired font size.

Copying Columns

To avoid having to re-enter your class schedule and having to re-color the cells, copy and past the columns from week to week.

Notifications

You can set notifications to find out when your collaborators have modified your spreadsheets, and learn what sheets or cells they've modified. You can also choose how often you'd like to be notified. Here's how you can enable notifications:

1. Go to the Tools menu and select "Notification rules."
2. In the window that appears, select when and how often you want to receive notifications.
3. Click Save.
   

To see the additional resources on Google spreadsheet, please visit our wiki.

What are Infographics?

What are Infographics?   

Infographics (information graphics, data visualization, information design, or information architecture) are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present complex information quickly and clearly.

Many teachers are using infographics in their classrooms.  Check the following links from the New York Times' blog the Learning Network:

The best Times infographics for social studies, history, civics and economics

Immigration Explorer

The best Times infographics for science and health

The best Times inforaphics for English language arts, fine arts and entertainment

Check these links to see more infographics:

Infographics on Technology and STEM Education

Great Infographics of 2012 on Visualy.ly Blog

Cool Infographics Gallery
Infographics as a Creative Assessment  I hope all these links inspired you to create your own infographics and you would like to know how to create them.

How to Create Infographics?

it's time-consuming to create infographics in Illustrator and Photoshop. In this fifteen minute video below Linda Braun explains how to create an infographic with these free online tools.

Creating infographics | screencast tutorial from School Library Journal on Vimeo.

Three Free Tools for Creating infographics

Easel.ly provides a canvas on which you can build your own infographic by dragging and dropping pre-made design elements.

This is Easel.ly tutorial for educator:

Infogr.am is an online tool for creating interactive charts and graphs.

infogr.am comes with many templates, so you can just pick one that suites your infographic and start adding your data:

• pictures from your computer
• data from your Excel sheet
• quotes
• publish and share your infographics via twitter, facebook, pinterest or embed in your website.

Visual.ly allows you to see the best infographics on the web all in one place and submit your designs to get exposure and feedback.