Just learned about the new Google Docs Research tool via @moniamaro59

I’m collaborating with 6th grade Social Studies teacher Monica Amaro (@moniamaro59)  on an iMovie project where here students will research topics about the culture, religion, architecture, medicine, food, language, politics, etc. of Tenochtitlan, Mexico. They’ll be gathering their research in Google Docs. Monica just showed me something that one of her 6th graders showed her: Google Docs now has a Research Tool that allows embeds a right-side column for you to google websites, images, quotes, and scholarly writings about the topic.

The most satisfying feature for us so far is that when you located images, they are embedded into your Google Doc and their location is cited in a footnote at the bottom of the page. There is no excuse for forgetting to cite your sources anymore!

I found the article below about using the embedded Google Doc’s new Research Tool here:

How to use Google Docs’ new Research tool: New feature automates research process, making it easier for everyone

By Leslie Meredith

Whether you’re a student facing final papers or a parent helping kids with research assignments, Google has just made the process a lot easier with a new tool that automates the research process.

Simply called “Research,” the tool lets you conduct searches for terms related to your document or search for just quotes or images from a panel that appears to the right of your document.

Searching for a location automatically brings up a Google map that you can insert as is or edit by zooming in or out. Photos can be filtered to include only those that are licensed for free use — a good idea to avoid copyright problems.

For Web page results, hover over the link to see a preview of the page. Like what you see? Click “insert link” to add it to your text.

Further, the Research tool lets you insert a citation, automatically formatted, into your document.

Here’s how it works: After you’ve inserted a link, click “cite.” Google will add a superscript footnote number to the link in your text and generate a properly constructed footnote at the bottom of the page.

There are three ways to activate the research panel. Within an open document, go to the “Tools” menu at the top of the page and select “Research.” You can also use a keyboard shortcut, Ctrl+Alt+R on a PC and Command+Option+R on a Mac. To jumpstart the process, you can right-click on a word or highlight a phrase to launch a search for your term.

Copyright 2012 TechNewsDaily, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

5th graders are recording narrations for their “Day of the Dead” altars created with Inspiration

Yesterday, I worked with the 5th grade Spanish teacher, Nicole Haleen, to help her students search and cite online images for their Day of the Dead (Día de Los Muertos) altars. They built their altar in Inspiration, as it allowed them to quickly create tiers in order to populate with images and text. Their three tiers represented what the person they were commemorating liked to eat, drink, and do.

After gathering and citing all the images, kids were told to write brief descriptions (in Spanish) for why they chose each image for their altar. To record their voices in Inspiration, students highlighted each image, went up to Tools in the menu bar, scrolled down to Insert video or sound and then over to Record sound. For this recording step, students were told to grab a pair of our Logitech USB microphone headsets. We previously used a different Logitech model that was not as kid-friendly, and the earpieces kept snapping off. Having a microphone headset is a huge advantage as they drastically cut down on ambient noise. Students will probably need to change their input/output sound settings in System Preferences. They will also probably need frequent reminders to do this.

Free yolink, SweetSearch, EasyBib lessons licensed under CreativeCommons

http://www.yolinkeducation.com/education/iste/teacher.jsp

While ISTE10 was a whirlwind of networking, socializing, learning, presenting, and stockpiling Google schwag, my stint at the yolink booth was a total highlight. I was impressed by everyone on the yolink team and their partners sites, SweetSearch and EasyBib.

I was part of a group of educators who created lesson plans incorporating yolink, SweetSearch, and EasyBib. My lesson, License to Cull with Creative Commons, is meant to initiate conversations with students about Creative Commons and teach how to search/cite fair-use media. (I am still patting myself on the back for that title, by the way.)

We demo’d these lessons at the yolink booth at ISTE, and the lesson plans and slide decks were shared on USB drives handed out to people that came to our booth. The lessons are also all licensed under Creative Commons and shared via this awesome link: http://www.yolinkeducation.com/education/iste/teacher.jsp

Below are my lesson plan and slides for License to Cull with Creative Commons:

KarenBlumberg_CreativeCommons.pdf
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yolink_presentation.pdf
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