Filechat - collaborate on documents, pictures and videos in GDrive and Dropbox

Filechat is a new, free service that allows you to collaborate on documents, photos and videos in Dropbox or Google Drive. Instead of just commenting on a document or file, users can chat, like and vote on any of their files in Drive or Dropbox. You can even have multiple conversations with different teams or groups. It adds more "social" features to collaborate with others in a tailored caht room that is based in a file or folder.

Users can store their files in their preferred platform and use Filechat to collaborate with anyone. It also includes a search tool.

The "owner" of the Filechat discussion invites others to view and collaborate on the files and controls access. They can also give participants the ability to add files, vote and chat.

The mobile app allows you to get notifications, preview and edit files and participate in the conversations.

 

  

It is free, with premium levels coming shortly. It is available online and for Android and iOS. Support for OneDrive, Box and Amazon Cloud Drive are coming soon too.





Related:

Samepage - app to get more done with contextual collaboration

Slack - free, easy to use, communications/collaboration platform - great for teams and schools
Google for Education Resources





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Using Google Drive as a Course Organizer

I am creating a curriculum for an Aircraft Design course for the high school level. Since it will be shared with many other people, I decided to do the organization in Google Drive, instead of Evernote like I usually do my course organization. I have not created official "lesson plans" yet, this is just the curricular materials and order of instruction.

I started by creating a top level folder for the course and then sub folders for each unit. Inside each folder are the materials - lecture slides, links, assignments and other resources and files.

The really cool thing I did was to create a single Google Doc that has the entire course outline on it and each section/item is a link to a folder/document/file in Google Drive. All the teacher has to do is bookmark that one Doc and everything links from there. To create the links, just go to the item (folder, doc/sheet/slides, or file) in Drive, right click on it and click "get link". Since there is a heirarchy in Drive, you only have to share the top level folder to someone else and they get access to everything in that folder and subfolder.

Here are some screenshots of the Drive layout and the main file. Try it out yourself.

Course Outline File:
(the links to files and folders will not work as they are private, but this is just for example use)



Related:

Google for Education Resources

Examples of using Evernote as: teacher, student, admin
Evernote for Education Resources




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Two Apps for Scanning Documents with your Smartphone

 

I'm one of those people who loves to be paperless and scan in any paper documents I have. I have an Evernote scanner in my office, but what about when I'm out-and-about? I scan documents, posters, memos, receipts, business cards and more. Here are two apps that you can use for document scanning on your Smartphone, and they are both free. 

Google Drive (Android) - most people don't even know that Google Drive has a scanning feature. Google Drive's apps for Android allows you to scan documents and even perform OCR (optical character recognition) on text in the documents you're scanning. Open Drive, tap "Add New," and select "Scan." It then is saved into your Drive account. This feature is not in the iOS version yet.

Evernote (Android/iOS) - There is a separate app, called Scanable, available on iOS, but Evernote has scanning built in to the native app. On the mobile app, click on new note, then Camera and select Document, Camera, Post-It or Business Card. Get the item you want to scan in the box on the screen, click capture and you are all set.

I wrote more about scanning in Evernote here: Evernote Tips and Tricks Series - #10 - scanning documents and business cards

With these apps you can make going paperless even easier. I hate lugging things around so I love making all of my documents and resources digital. That way, I only need my smartphone to access materials. 

Related:

Great Tips, Resources and Ideas for Going Paperless

Unfettered by Stuff - or "Why I don't lug stuff home every night"

Lots of Resources to Help You Go Paperless

Evernote for Education Resources

Google for Education Resources

My Workflow as CIO - includes heavy use of Evernote

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Google Drive and Docs, Sheets and Slides Resources for Educators

Google Drive and Docs, Sheets and Slides
File storage, Word processing, Spreadsheets, Presentations and more


Google Drive and Docs, Sheets and Slides now support Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) files! (and edit directly from Gmail)
http://googledrive.blogspot.com/2014/06/newdocssheetsslides.html
https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/2481498

Docs, Sheets and Slides work with any file, anywhere (with Suggest Edits too)

http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2014/07/docs-sheets-and-slides-work-with-any.html

Google Drive and Docs

For Group projects, teachers can look at the revision history of a doc/slide/sheet to see which students worked on it to check for participation.

Getting Started with Google Drive

https://support.google.com/drive/?hl=en#topic=14940 

 

Google Drive - updates to working with images in Docs, Slides and Images https://plus.google.com/+GoogleDrive/posts/acCDweSyKrA 

Google Drive - updates, including The ability to edit and share Office files without having to convert them https://plus.google.com/112893701314508522131/posts/NqNwDeTbiD7 

https://plus.google.com/112893701314508522131/posts/2L9XupeVLVP 

How to Insert Special Characters in Google docs

https://support.google.com/docs/answer/3371015

 

Dedicated desktop home pages for Google Docs, Sheets & Slides - access your relevant and recently edited documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, no matter what device you’re using. So we created new home screens to help you do that with direct access points for Docs, Sheets & Slides.
To access these home screens, use the following urls:
http://google.com/docs
http://google.com/sheets
http://google.com/slides

10 Things Every Teacher Should Know How to Do with Google Docs - http://www.edudemic.com/10-things-every-teacher-know-google-docs/

 

Comprehensive Google Drive Guide for Students and Teachers http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2014/01/the-comprehensive-google-drive-guide.html 

Back to School With Google Docs - great tips: http://d97cooltools.blogspot.com/2012/08/back-to-school-with-google-docs.html

5 Unusual Ways to Use Google Slides in the classroom: http://www.edudemic.com/5-ways-google-presentations-presentations/ 

5 Ways to Use Google Docs in the Classroom: http://gettingsmart.com/2012/12/5-ways-to-use-google-docs-in-the-classroom/

(includes creating self-grading quizzes)

9 Things Every Student should be able to do with Google Drive: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2014/03/9-things-every-student-should-be-able.html

Using Word Files in Google Drive http://practicaledtech.com/2014/04/21/practical-ed-tech-tip-of-the-week-templates-in-google-drive/

How to Insert Videos Into Google Forms http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2013/09/how-to-insert-videos-into-google-forms.html

80 Ways to use Google Forms to support Learning http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2014/03/80-ways-to-use-google-forms-to-support.html

Use Google Drawings to Start Image-based Conversations: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2014/03/use-google-drawings-to-start-image.html#.Ux22KD9dWN0

Five Essential Google Drive Skills For Teachers http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2013/01/five-essential-google-drive-skills-for.html#.UiXU-tLktzV

5 Tips to turn Yourself into a Google Drive Gooru http://www.googlegooru.com/5-tips-to-turn-yourself-into-a-google-drive-gooru/

5 Ideas for Using Google Presentations with Students (*Bonus Videos Included)
http://catlintucker.com/2013/09/5-ideas-for-using-google-presentations-with-students-bonus-videos-included/

How to View and Work on Google Drive Files When You’re Offline http://www.guidingtech.com/24186/google-drive-offline/

12 Effective Ways To Use Google Drive In Education http://www.edudemic.com/12-effective-ways-use-google-drive-education/

How to Open and Edit Word Files in Google Drive: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/12/how-to-open-and-edit-word-files-in.html#.Ud8XRju1FJQ

The Best 10 Google Docs Tips For Teachers As They Go Back To School http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-google-docs-tips-for-teachers-go-back-to-school/

Google Drive for Educators: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKJ9KzGQq0w

Explore Google Docs and Drive in this interactive video: http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/testing_dandt/gman/WTGA_ASL/story.html

Google Drive also has Google Drawings:

Guide to Google Draw http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/10/great-guide-on-google-draw-tips-and.html

Google Forms

80 Interesting Ways To Use Google Forms In The Classroom http://www.teachthought.com/technology/80-interesting-ways-to-use-google-forms-in-the-classroom/

Google Forms for Beginners - Handy Visual Guide for Teachers http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/10/google-forms-for-beginners-handy-visual.html

5 Time-Saving Ways Teachers Can Use Google Forms http://www.edudemic.com/5-great-ways-use-google-forms/ 

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My most used/favorite Apps and how I use them

I have a few apps and resources that I use on a daily basis. I thought this might be a nice way to end the year.

Here they are and how I use them:


Email - I use Google's Inbox for most email, and Outlook at work. In Outlook, the Evernote Clipper is my main tool to get things out of Outlook and into Evernote where I can use it. I love Inbox for email as I can create reminders, add reminders to emails, more easily categorize and organize them.

Evernote - I use this for everything. Here are some examples:
 http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2014/12/examples-of-using-evernote-as-teacher.html

Google Apps, especially Drive, Classroom, Chrome browser, Calendar, Blogger, and Sites - use Drive for all of my files that I use with classes and all of my legacy files (most new things are in Evernote). Classroom for assignments and communicating with students, Calendar for organizing, Blogger for this blog, Sites for technology resource sites and classroom sites.



Social Media - Google+, Twitter, and Facebook - Google+ is my go to for education and technology resources, connections and sharing. I love that you can have longer posts and discussions than on Twitter. I also use Twitter for education and technology resource finding. Facebook is just for personal connections.
Google+ is a thriving community and I find some great discussions and resources on it.


Feedly - I subscribe to a lot of sites and blogs and use Feedly to organize and read them, as well as easily share them to Google+, Twitter and even Evernote. This is where I find a lot of resources for use in my job, life and for this blog.



Pocket - I use this to save articles and blog posts for later reading/action, including reading them offline later.



Tech & Learning - great resource for educators and administrators on educational technology. I go subscribe to the site and blogs and magazine.



Hardware- HTC One Android Smartphone, Nexus 7 tablet, Chromebook
-- access every app and piece of data on any of my devices, anywhere.
My smartphone comes with me everywhere. I use my tablet for browsing social media and watching Netflix and my Chromebook is my main work horse.




Related:


My Favorite Resources for Teachers and Students

Technology I'm using daily as a School District CIO

Technology I use on a Daily Basis - updated for 2011

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2014 was a banner year for Google Docs, Slides, Forms and Sheets

Google is known for providing constant updates to it's products. In a post on the Google Drive Blog, Google summarizes some of the updates that they did to Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and Forms over the last year. It's pretty impressive and made these products much more useful, especially for Google Apps and Chromebooks users.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Work with any file - this was huge - now you can open and edit Office Files in Docs, Sheets and Slides which was great for Chromebook users.
• Editing images directly in Docs, Slides and Drawings - great for people like me who insert images a lot. Now I don't need a separate image editor for basic edits. 
• Updated mobile apps to make working with your files easier while on the go
• Tables in Docs and updates features in Slides
• Improved screen reader, text-to-voice and keyboard navigation across all the products. 
• Improvements in the backend to make the apps work better and faster.

Read more here: http://googledrive.blogspot.com/2014/12/2014-cheers-for-docs-sheets-slides-and.html

Google Slides now available offline!

Google Docs/Drive is a great, free resource that allows you to create, edit, share, collaborate on, and comment on Documents (Docs), Spreadsheets (Sheets), and Presentations (Slides), all online. Think Microsoft Office in the cloud with some other great features.

I use Google Slides (Presentations), the equivalent of PowerPoint, for all of my presentations. I like the features it has and like that I can easily share it online and people will always be able to see the newest version. One downside was that you needed an internet connection and some conferences I have presented at can have WiFi issues due to all of the devices being used. I would always save a copy of my presentation as a PDF file to my laptop in case I didn't have a good internet connection. That is no longer necessary.

Google has announced that Google Slides will now be available with offline support. You can now create, edit, comment, and present your Slides presentation without an internet connection. When you get an internet connection, your new presentations or changes will be automatically updated online. Docs has had this for a while already.

This is a great feature that makes Slides even more useful, along with Chromebooks, for people who need to work on, or present, their presentations where they may not have WiFi. It's also great for schools who issue Chromebooks to students that may not have internet at home. Our district is going with Chromebooks and student internet access at home is a concern. That is less of a concern now.

To enable offline Docs/Sheets/Slides, follow these instructions. If you already have offline enabled for Docs, you are all set. In order to use the offline feature, you will have to use Chrome browser or Chrome OS.

Google is currently working on offline support for Sheets as well.

Offline support has been the one reason I see many people stating as why they won't or can't go with Google Drive/Docs and Chromebooks. That reason is disappearing.


Related:

Google for Educators Resources

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. 

Google Drive comes in handy during Power Outage

Google Drive is Google's online file storage system and the way you access your Google Docs, Spreadsheets and Presentations.

One of the really great features it brought was syncing of your docs and files onto your computer for offline access. This came in really handy for me last night.

I came home to find that our condo building had no power due to an underground power line failure. I had a few things I still needed to work on and there was no WiFi. I could have used my smartphone as a hotspot, but I wanted to save my phone battery for an emergency. My Chromebook, with built in 3G, was at school. Luckily, I have Google Drive on my laptop at home and was able to access all of my Google Docs offline. Once the power came back on, the changes I made synced with my Google Drive account and were available to me later.

Thanks Google Drive!

Google Spreadsheets adds Discussions for easier collaboration

Google Spreadsheets, Google's online, collaborative spreadsheet system in Google Drive has just added an awesome feature - discussions. This feature is already in Documents and Presentations. 

It allows you, and the other users of a spreadsheet, to add comments, which can be replied to, to any cell on a sheet. You can even +1 someone to add them to the discussion and send them a notification via email. Another cool feature is that they can reply to the comment directly from their inbox. 

This is another great feature that makes Drive and Spreadsheets even more useful.