Art Teachers, You Have to See This!

Art Project powered by Google is a site that I learned about from Larry Ferlazzo. If you're an art teacher, you have to go check it out! The Art Project powered by Google features interior tours of seventeen world famous art museums.

Select a museum from the list on the homepage and you can virtually tour it using the same interface style you experience in Google Maps Streetview. Inside the museum just double click to zoom to a location. You can also open a floor plan overview and click on a room to navigate to that part of the museum.

The best part of the Art Project powered by Google is the option to create your own artwork collection while visiting each museum. As you're touring a museum click on the "+" symbol on any work of art see it in greater detail, to add it to your collection, and to open background information about that work of art. To create a collection you must be signed into your Google account.

Watch the video below to learn more about the Art Project powered by Google.


Applications for Education
The Art Project powered by Google looks to be a fantastic reference for students and teachers of art. When I was a middle school student I remember having to endure looking at art and listening to my teacher lecture about artwork that was of no interest to me. If I had been given the opportunity to explore a reference like the Art Project powered by Google, I may have been a little interested in the class and perhaps have learned something about the art I discovered on my own.

New Google Docs Tools to Try

Over the last two days Google has unveiled some useful enhancements to Google Docs. The first enhancement is to the Google Docs file list. The new Google Docs file list offers new filters for locating files by file type and file content. The best part of the new file list interface is the sidebar preview. Now when you click on file in your list you can see a small preview of it before opening it. If the file you select in your list is a video, the video can be played within the file list interface. Read about all of the other changes to the file list interface here.

Today, Google announced an enhancement to their Web Clipboard Chrome Extension. The Web Clipboard Extension allows you to highlight text on any webpage, right click on it, and send it to your Google Docs account where you can save it and use it in your documents, presentations, and forms.

Fridge - Create Cool Private Social Networks

In the past I've written about some good services teachers can use to create private social networks for their classrooms and schools. This afternoon I found another  service that makes it easy to set up your own private social network, it's called Fridge. Signing up and creating your first private social network on Fridge takes just a couple of minutes. Once you've created your account and network you can invite people to join your network. You can create multiple separate groups within your Fridge account. The video below explains the benefits of Fridge.


Applications for Education
The option to create and control multiple groups within your Fridge account could be useful for teachers like me that teach multiple sections of the same course. That feature enables us to monitor and participate in the online conversations taking place in each section without having to create and manage multiple log-ins.

January's Most Popular Posts

Image Credit:
jasonbolonski

January is gone, but the snow is still here for many of us. If you're looking for something to read or something new to try on your next snowday, take a look at this month's most popular posts on Free Technology for Teachers.

1. 11 Mathematics Resources to Try in 2011
2. 11 Language Arts Resources to Try in 2011
3. 11 Science Resources to Try in 2011
4. What's In a Surname? - A Map of Names
5. 11 Social Studies Resources to Try in 2011
6. Forgotten Books - Free Copies of Classic Books
7. SnipSnip.it - Easily Clip & Share a Video
8. Nine Ways to Find Teachers on Twitter - Updated
9. 11 Things You Should Know About Blogging
10. 11 Art & Music Resources to Try in 2011