I, of course, wanted to learn how I would be using the chromebooks in my own English and Bible classes (not to mention my computer classes), but I also entered with the perspective to watch out for other subject area ideas that I could bring back to my colleagues for use once school starts in the fall. Suffice it to say, I came back with chromebook overload, but I'm going to attempt to unpack it for others' benefit. Grab it if you want.
C-R-C-D Framework (collect-relate-create-donate)
We didn't dive into philosophy much, but this was a helpful framework to organzie my thoughts into what I want my students to accomplish with their devices. From Professor Ben Shneiderman - Leonardo's Laptop, it focuses in on what we want students to DO. That's one thing I always try to push in my classes - get the students to create something and then share it out.
Evernote
I've used this before to archive information, especially from workshops or other meetings. I think the best description for Evernote would be a digital form of traditional spiral notebooks, except that you can save websites, photos, and even video along with your notes. It's powerful, and I can see students using Evernote to organize their school lives. It can be used across all devices, too. The free basic service works well (unless you want to keep multiple videos which need more storage than the free service provides). Other archiving options given at the ETT workshop were Google Docs and Google Keep.
Google Docs
We spent a significant amount of time, especially on day 1 of the workshop, exploring Google Docs. Not only can students type their "papers" in Google Docs, but they can research while in the document, cite information in different formats, and even edit PDFs. Of course, the collaboration aspect of Google Docs is, in my opinion, the coolest. Being in the same document as somebody else has many advantages, and commenting back and forth is so valuable when it comes to peer (or teacher) editing.
Vocaroo
This is a registration-free space for you to record your voice. Have students record for each other and share the link. It is saved as a link and can get pasted or embedded anywhere. Teachers can share feedback right on a student's Google Doc. I'm definitely using Vocaroo for end of paper summation comments this year.
Thinglink
This one has so many options. Use a photo and tag it with links to other locations. Lisa Johnson @techchef4u is a whiz with Thinglink. Spend some time reading her stuff and be inspired. Get some ideas on how to get started with Thinglink here - make sure to scroll down and see the teacher who used a class picture to create ePortfolios for her students. I've got to study more of her stuff.
Padlet
You can use Padlet in your classroom when you want to gather student input. Imagine having students place thoughts or answers on your whiteboard in front of the classroom, but that whiteboard is on their own chromebook screen and it holds every student's contribution on a collaborative "wall". What could you use this for?
Tackk
Tackk.com is an online space that I would consider a mini-website. Students can use this as an online flyer to share information about a book they've read as a kind of book report. They can link other web pages or videos to it. It scrolls like a web page and can include multiple headings. They can easily change the theme, colors, and fonts. I use something similar as an online home for my soccer team. It's called smore.com and varies just slightly from tackk.com.
Google Classroom
If your school has Google Apps For Education (GAFE), then I would highly advise setting up Google Classroom for your self-contained classroom or for each of the classes you teach. Students can sign up using your class code. You post assignments and resources here, and then students use Google Apps to complete the assigned work. They create and turn in their documents (or forms or drawings, etc.) within your Google Classroom, which transfers ownership to you, then you can give feedback and return their work, which transfers ownership back to them. If you've thought of going "paperless" at your site, then this is the place for you.
PrintFriendly
Sometimes teachers may want to assign an online article or other Internet reading to their students, but they want to adjust it slightly or simply keep it in a more secure location like your own Google Drive. A handy way to do this is to use PrintFriendly to turn the web page into a pdf and then edit some of it down. Using DocHub in conjunction with PrintFriendly allows further editing and even export into Google Drive. Once it's in your Google Drive, you can place it almost anywhere online, but I would suggest putting it in your Google Classroom as an assigned reading.
Google Forms
Google Forms are a super cool way to poll students. If you do it right, students could even poll each other. Creating a form and sending it also creates a spreadsheet with responses, which then allows you to evaluate the responses given. Another way you can use a form is to simply collect links from students. If they have edited their website and you'd like to see it (or grade it), then you could create a quick form for students to post their website page link. Any online work the student completes can be turned into a link that can then be handed in using a quick form you create.
And there you have it, my 10 takeaways from the EdTechTeacher chromebook workshop I attended in Menlo Park in June. Special thanks to Avra Robinson and Brenda Doucette who led a very engaging 3 days!
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