New Options for Filtering YouTube in Schools

As I Tweeted earlier today, Google has introduced some new options for filtering YouTube in schools. If your school uses Google Apps for Education you can now whitelist (approve for viewing) an entire YouTube channel instead of just individual videos. This means that if I want all of my history students to be able to access Tom Richey's and Keith Hughes' videos, I can  approve the whole channel which includes current videos and any future videos that are added to it. That should be a lot less time-consuming than whitelisting each video as it becomes available.

Another new option is to give logged-in users access to YouTube on a strict, moderate, or unrestricted level. Google Apps administrators can change those settings for user groups or individuals.

You can learn how to enable any of these new settings in the YouTube settings support documentation offered by Google.

Google Calendar Now Helps You Find Mutual Meeting Times

Parts of this post originally appeared on my other blog, Android4Schools. 

A couple of weeks ago Google added a goal setting feature to Google Calendar that helps you identify times to work on personal goals like exercising or reading for pleasure. Today, Google put some of that same technology into a new Google Calendar for Android feature that helps you identify meeting times with colleagues.

The new scheduling feature works with shared Google Calendars created within Google Apps for Education or Google Apps for Work. When you need to schedule a meeting with colleagues with whom you have shared a calendar, simply tap the new “find a time” option that appears when you create the meeting event in your Google Calendar. When you tap “find a time” Google Calendar will identify potential meeting times for spaces that are open on your shared calendars.

Applications for Education
The new “find a time” feature in Google Calendar for Android could be a great tool for teachers who work on teams. It could also be useful to guidance counselors and other specialists who need to coordinate times for meeting with teachers and students.

“Find a time” is currently available only through Google Calendar for Android, but could soon be available on iPhones too.

How to Enable Google Drive Desktop Notifications

Earlier this week Google launched a new notifications feature for Google Drive users. You can now get an alert on your desktop whenever someone shares an item with you or when someone requests that you share an item with him or her. There have been third-party apps that did this in the past. This is the first time that Google has offered it as a native feature. Watch the video below to learn how to enable desktop notifications for Google Drive.

Teaching History With Technology - An Online Course Starting Monday

Next week I'm starting a new version of an online course that I've offered a few times in the past. Teaching History With Technology is an online course designed to help you learn and develop new ideas for using technology in your history, civics, or geography lessons. Some of the things that you can learn through this three week course include how to use online mapping tools, how to help students become better researchers, build interactive timelines, and how to create engaging flipped video lessons.

When?

Teaching History With Technology begins on Monday, May 2nd at 7pm EST.

Discount

Subscribers to any of my blogs can use the discount code "subscriber" during registration.

Recordings available

Everyone who completes the registration will be able to participate in the live sessions which include Q&A and access recordings of the live sessions.

PD Certificates

Participants who attend the live sessions will be given certificates for three hours of professional development. Contact your local licensing/ certification authority to determine whether or not you can use those hours toward license/ certificate renewal. 

Questions?

Send me an email richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com

PBS LearningMedia Introduces New Curriculum-based iBooks

PBS LearningMedia has released a new series of iBooks for K-8 teachers. The series promises to provide teachers with iBooks on topics in math, English language arts, social studies, and Spanish language and culture. Each iBook will include lesson plans, videos, games, and other activities aligned to NCSS, ACTFL, and Common Core standards.

Two iBooks are available now and two more will be released by the end of this month. The two that are available now are All About the Holidays and Beginning Spanish.

All About the Holidays offers lesson plans for 61 holidays. Beginning Spanish is a mapped curriculum for teaching Spanish to students in third through fifth grade.