Templates???

It is commonly described throughout the web that Google's been doing some spring "killing" lately, and a false impression has been made about their product stability.

The term came about when Google made a second round of what they consider to be spring cleaning.  Google has a variety of motives, from an entire mobile OS to a self driving car, and it is no surprise that this can get slightly overwhelming.  As much as we hear at the geek squad would like to believe that Google is perfect, they must give their full attention to the products that they feel most important.  This new spring cleaning involved the death of a cherished service: Google Reader.  Moment of silence, if you wish.

But today we're talking about something perhaps more important to those under our domain: templates.

Long story short, they were not murdered, though they are hidden.  For those of you who haven't noticed, this is what the new "create" menu looks like:

New Create Menu

Templates are now what is considered to be an "app." Here's what to do:

1) First click the "connect more apps" (shown above)

2) Search for the word "template"

3) Choose the first one.  After clicking connect, you're set.  The last thing you need to know is that when you use it for the first time, you'll be presented with the following window.

These windows are generally harmless.  Before any service is allowed to use your Google account, Google asks you if you're okay with it.  

Lastly: some of you might be wondering: why?

The answer is a little tricky: Google Drive is different from Google Docs in a few ways.  Mainly, minor, and since most of the ET users haven't been around during the Docs days, I won't make a big deal about it.  I will say this: the push is for an open market: offering collaboration, universal web-access, and online-saving to many services.  That's why it's a Drive.  It stores your files, but also allows you to edit and work with them, whether they be documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, drawings, videos, charts...you get the idea.

Fakebook

Hello fellow tech enthusiastic!  Today I will be showing you a little overview of Fakebook.  It is a learning tool where you create a fake Facebook profile for a person, country, or anything else.

This is where you start when you go to the site.  You can change the name, edit the profile, change the picture, add friends, and write posts.  

After I clicked on "*CLICK HERE TO ENTER NAME*", I was able to change the name and select a picture to go along with it.  For the picture, as default, it uses the first image on Google that goes along with the given name.  You also have the option to select a saved image.  

On the left side, you can add friends.  Like with the profile picture, you have the option to use the first image on Google, or to select a saved image.

Next I submitted and went to "Edit Profile" in the right corner.  By using the format as shown, you can create an intricate profile showing various thing about the person.  For example, if you want to say the their favorite food is pizza, all you need to write is "Favorite Food=Pizza"

I then created a post.  If you want to make it seam like the holder of the profile is posting it, then you must re                                                                                                                           select their profile picture.  

After doing that, you can add comments to your post.  It is nearly the same as creating a post but it just shows up as a comment under a post instead.  After you page is done, you can save it by clicking "Save" on the right side.  You will be prompted for a password so that you can edit it later.  Then you can take the link and send it to others.  Here is the one I made.

Overall, Fakebook seams like a very useful and fun way to learn.  The adds are slightly intrusive but it's hard to expect more for it being free.  

Geek Dream: The Perfect Day Of Integration

    A laptop was handed to me as I turned in my rental form.  The school had finally decided to let us rent laptops throughout the year that were "ours".  We could use them around the building, but we could also take them home.  Taking them home was optional, and you had to pay extra for it, but it was well worth it.  These laptops weren't the chinsy Dell ones that we used to have; these were top of the line Dell Latitudes.  With reasonable processing speed, 4 gigabytes of memory, and a 300 gigabyte hard drive this thing-although it wasn't an HP- was a monster of a laptop.
     By this time in my high school career the school had finally figured out the wi-fi system and it was fully prospering.  It could fully reach all corners of the school without having issues connecting.  There weren't anymore complicated passwords to get into the network, and the firewall that once reigned supreme throughout the high school was abolished.  Seeing as we're "adults" at this age, the district finally realized that we could have the self control from looking up inappropriate things.  They set up a system where the user would be flagged if they searched key words into search engines or went to sites that were explicitly for adult users.
     I frolicked down the hallway with my laptop firmly clasped to my chest and made my way toward my first hour class.  Our first assignment of the day was to write an essay on someone who had influenced our lives and share it with the teacher at the end of the class period.  This was now an easy task to do.  All we (the class) had to do was pull out our laptops and write: instead of the normal rampage down the hall to get to the library and get a computer.  We now worked more quietly in class because everyone was focused on the assignment.
     Having the laptops gave more order, and also gave stricter deadlines; it's something I noticed throughout all of my classes.  Although some sneered at the stricter deadlines, I thought they were nice.  They gave you less time to procrastinate, and were followed by a lot of class work time.
     Despite all the fears of the school officials, having all of the technology and access to the full internet didn't make us less social and disconnected from the rest of our peers.  Lunch was perfectly normal.  We didn't act like zombies staring at our laptop screens; everyone ate lunch, talked, checked their phones occasionally, and just acted like average teenagers.



     The end of the school day wasn't much different from the beginning, except the fact that I was now placing my laptop in my backpack and heading on my way home.  I had robotics later that night so I had to hurry home and get my homework done, the majority of which was now saved on my laptop.  There was barely a need for my many folders because a few of my teachers had learned over the summer how to turn worksheets into PDF forms that could be filled out.  They then put the PDFs on their websites and we could download them from there.  It was convenient because my homework could now travel everywhere with me without me having to carry my big, bulky backpack around.
     My robotics team had gone pretty far last year; we were ranked pretty high considering last year was our first year, but this put a lot of pressure on us.  I was in charge of marketing, and a major part of programming and design.  I was getting ready to leave my apartment, but I didn't get a chance to finish up all of my homework.  My coach told me it was ok if I brought it along to work on during some down time in the practice.
     We had started brainstorming our robot design, but still didn't have our ideas organized.  I got to practice about thirty minutes early so I could talk to my coach about some ideas I had, but when I walked in the door he smiled at me and told me he had a surprise.  He was really excited about the laptops at the school because I now had a laptop to work on.  He handed me two disks: one for RobotC programming and one for a CAD program.  These would be the keys to my success within the team!  I quickly installed them in my computer, and started inputting our design ideas into the the CAD program.  It was a good practice.
     Later that night, after practice, I finished up my homework and edited my college application essays.  I decided that this was going to be a good school year, without a doubt.  This laptop was going to be a key asset for my success.

In the eyes of some people this may be a senseless piece of drabble, but to me it's really important.  There are ideas in here that I feel could be really important to the learning process of students, and I hope that they will be seriously considered.
   

Off Topic: The Educational Benefits of Foreign Music

     My recent obsession with K-Pop has inspired me.  I'm well versed in the J-Pop/Rock/Metal scene and after years of watching different anime I've come to a conclusion: I'm secretly learning.  This may sound like a weird thing to say, but it's true.

     When you get transfixed by music that's in a different language, you start slowly learning the language.  This is with the aid of subtitles of course, but you can connect those subtitles with small phrases and words and you will eventually learn how to use some of those phrases.  You, of course, won't learn the proper grammar and format of speaking the language, but it's still something.  For example, the Japanese word for "I" is "ore", but there are different forms depending on who you're talking to or your age.    

     Not only are there benefits of learning a new language, but there's an opportunity of learning a whole new culture.  A popular music video can show what's important in society and when you become immersed in a foreign artist you like you'll research them.  When you research them you'll find out that their culture is much different than here in the states.  A lot of foreign artists have to fight to become musicians because of the focus on education in other countries and this is an eye-opener.  We're constantly told we can be anything we want, but these kids are forced to go to school for a whole day and then when they're done with that, they have to go to more specialized classes to learn their "trade".  It really shows that we should be thankful for what we have.
This is my inspiration for doing this post.  They have such a revolutionary sound and their lyrics are amazing.
They have a stereotypical boy band look, but it's so much deeper than just that.  Purely wonderful, educational, and motivational.

EasyBib: A Great Way to Keep Track of your Sources

Good News for Scholars of all shapes and sizes:

Google Chrome now has a new Chrome Extension which helps you write, collect, and save your sources right from your internet browser.

You may recall researching on the web and then forgetting where you got the information from when it was time for your Works Cited Page?

Well, never again, if you become adept at this handy little extension.

It's called EasyBib for obvious reasons: it provides you with an Easy way to create a Bibliography, or as we call it in the 21st century, a Works Cited Page.

Here it is in the Chromestore: EasyBib.  Here it is on the Web: EasyBib.

EasyBib has two handy functions:

1. It can give you a snapshot overview of the credibility of the site you're on (credible, not credible, or no record).
2. It can walk you through citing that page and then collect your citations in your account for later use. 

Nice. 

Unemployed Geeks

Every student probably experiences the following phrase at least one point during their academic career:

"I'm sure you're all just talking because you 'get it' and we can do homework, right?"

Um, no.  Usually.  I just thought that what I had to say took precedence over what you were saying.  (Of course, kidding.)

But as I gave a quick presentation to my fellow Accelerated Chemistry students on using Google Drive, I received blank stares, and little attention.  I feel your pain, now.  

I quickly (well, I tried to) finished up, saying that you have to share the document with each other and Mr. B., work on it anywhere, even at the same time, and even share an entire folder.  Still nothing.  I faced an educator's nightmare: half of the students had already known exactly what I was talking about for over a year and some of them haven't heard of it.  Ever.  They were bored.  Most of them, anyway.  I smiled later realizing that this is my job, isn't it?  To get technology to a point where it's sublime with everything they do.  We geeks wish to run ourselves out of a job, make everything just work.

So, for the future:

I believe that it is necessary when teaching technology to only collect the students who need the information, I was wasting their time, and time's a valuable commodity.  

Let's not waste your time.

How To Teach Grandma

Yes people it really is that easy.  I don't understand how so many people can bad mouth chrome books when they don't even take the time to pay attention.  There have been many opportunities for fellow classmates to learn how to use them, but they don't utilize them.  It disappoints me very much.