Techie Tuesday: Geaux Google

Techie Tuesday is coming to you a day early, because I’ll be spending the rest of the week at the lake. It is my second favorite place to relax; the beach is number one!

Google is so much more than a search engine! There are numerous tools you could use daily, some of which will save you time. A gmail account IS NOT required for a Google account.  You can register with Google using any email address!

If Google is one of your favorite search engines, you have probably been to the site numerous times, but have you looked at more than the search engine?  Though we wont cover ALL things Google, look along the top bar and follow the “more” and then “even more” link.  WOW and this list doesn’t even touch all the tools in the lab!

The full Geaux Google online professional development is located at eTechie.  For this blog post we will just look at a few highlights from the PD:  Advanced Search, Books, iGoogle, Scholar, and Voice.

The Advanced Search option can tremendously cut down flipping through pages of Google results.  When I search “digital citizenship,” I get over 1.5 million results, but I’m actually looking for a PowerPoint.  By using the advanced feature, I can just view the PowerPoint files, and I quickly get my list narrowed down to less than 1000.  Believe it or not, I can narrow it down further by only looking at .edu domains.  Now I have right at 100 results!

Google Books is basically a huge source to preview books/magazines or even access full books/magazines. When you search for a topic, you will get the results similar to a typical Google Search. On the left nav bar you can limit your findings such as Full View and time period! Do a sample search and see what you find!  Would you believe there are over 10,000 free full view algebra books on Google Books? I could take up a small manuscript with ways to incorporate this into your classroom, so I better stop here;)

iGoogle is our next stop! take a look at the introduction video.

How is your Voice? Do you have friends trying to track you down on different phone numbers between home, work, and your cell? How about annoying phone calls that you answer on accident? Google Voice is now open for everyone for free (other than international calls)!

Scholar is a great option to search for professional articles. One of the best features is the advanced search in which you can really narrow down your results. Most of these articles are free and you can even sign up for an email alert when new items are added on your search topic.

I searched what would be a relatively new topic, “iPads in the Classroom” and still found over 400 results. When searching “IPads in Education,” there were over 10,000 results. This is a very powerful tool that most of us would have loved when writing research papers.

If you want to access the full Geaux Google online professional development just follow the Geaux Google PD link!

What are some of your favorite Google Tools?

It's always nice to share:)