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[Open music]
>> Jeff Bond: Hello and welcome to another episode of PATINS
TV. I am your host Jeff Bond and this is Episode 57. Today I have one of our site coordinators,
Sandi Mahl. She is our Southeast PATINS Site coordinator. She is here to talk to us and
show us some things about Chrome, Chromebooks.
>> Sandi Mahl: Chromebooks. Chrome. Yes.
>> Jeff Bond: Chrome. Chromebooks. So let’s go into it
because I know a lot of schools have really started looking at Chromebooks as a viable
option to replace laptops and that sort of thing. From a price standpoint it seems to
be you know a nice choice as far as getting technology to the hands of all students. We
have two different ones here and we will take a peek at that a little bit later.
>> Sandi Mahl: Okay.
>> Jeff Bond: So tell us about Chromebooks.
>> Sandi Mahl: Okay. It is like you said Chrome, Chromebooks.
It is almost impossible to distinguish them from each other. When you talk about a Chromebook
you are really talking about just a vehicle that you can access the web on by the Chrome
operating system. So don’t think of it as a computer because it is not really a computer.
Everything that this device or that device can do is totally internet driven or in the
Cloud.
>> Jeff Bond: Okay.
>> Sandi Mahl: So these schools that are going Google with
Chromebooks are buying these devices and then they come to PATINS or anybody else and saying
what can we do with these. So the first thing like I said earlier was that the only native
program inside of a Chromebook is the Google Chrome operating system. I keep saying Chrome
and down here on the computer many people have used the Chrome browser before. Right
down here in the bottom left-hand corner is the little symbol for Google Chrome. So it
is a web browser and it is also the search engine that we know. So kind of try and tie
these up…this Chromebook, Chrome is the actual software operating system.
>> Jeff Bond: Operating system so to speak.
>> Sandi Mahl: Yes.
>> Jeff Bond: So the fact that you have to be on the internet
then means obviously you have to have Wi-Fi capabilities when you are using it.
>> Sandi Mahl: Yes.
>> Jeff Bond: There has been some discussion about having
that be sort of a handicap, as far as, not being able to access the kinds of things when
you don’t have Wi-Fi. There are still some things that you can access without being on
the internet and having Wi-Fi access, but it is primarily driven.
>> Sandi Mahl: Yes, this is where it gets tricky. I have,
in fact, I want to…I have a document up for you and if you are out there watching
and you would like to also be on this document up on the upper right-hand corner, http://goo.gl/AVGzBV
...I almost got my letter wrong…that is a shortened URL from Google and that would
give you electronic access to this document. We would see you pop in here. One of the great
things is you can share these documents. I wanted to make sure that I pointed out this
is a sharable document. So let’s get to that conundrum of how the Chromebook needs
the internet to run, but when I say it is not a computer one of the best things it does
as a computer is run off of the internet.
>> Jeff Bond: Okay.
>> Sandi Mahl: So down in this document I have posted the
main basic apps that will run offline. Then what they do is you can use them without having
internet access, but when you get back on to internet access they automatically go ahead
and refresh and add everything you did online. So it is the good things. It is like Gmail
and Google calendar and Google spreadsheets and Google Docs and Presentation and Drawing.
So those are all the things that when we talk about basic creating on a computer that you
think about using. So while the Chromebook isn’t as functional for like maybe making…I
don’t know…making a movie while it is offline you can still do things where you
have to create things without the online thing. I just got surprised. See we have this little
anonymous…I don’t even know what that animal is…but that is somebody who has joined
us on their computer using that shortened link.
>> Jeff Bond: Oh okay.
>> Sandi Mahl: They are following us around right now. If
I gave them the opportunity they could actually type in stuff which would be very funny on
live TV wouldn’t it…
>> Jeff Bond: …wouldn’t it…I don’t think we will
go there.
>> Sandi Mahl: Alright, so let’s talk about some of the
resources that I have out here for you. I have found this resource from Peter Vogel
by EdTech and Learning and I am going to click on it in the doc and just go ahead and head
out there. Go right here. He has lots of people looking at that one right now. Another Google
Doc. This is a great site to go to if you want to know what to use on a Chromebook with
your students. I want to…I want students to create a document. Well there is Docs and
Google Drive. Presentation. We have slides. We have Prezi because again once we are attached
to the internet this works like any other computer attached to the internet. Audio responses.
Take pictures. Create and edit a movie. So I can edit movies with WiVideo and Animoto.
Lots and lots of different things. He has seven pages of this Wi-Fi and I just link
that to the document that I am putting out there for today.
>> Jeff Bond: Sure are a lot of good resources and ones
that I am familiar with.
>> Sandi Mahl: Yes.
>> Jeff Bond: As well as, I am sure other people.
>> Sandi Mahl: Right and Google is doing really well at unifying
all the different platforms. People who have written apps for Apple, who have written apps
for Microsoft Word they are now writing for Google and the Google app writers are writing
for Apple. It is nice. It is a nice mix-up now. Another thing I wanted to show you was
the official tour of your Chromebook. Now since we are in Google Docs I wanted to show
a little piece of what Google Docs can do. So let’s say I want to make this into a
link. I am going to highlight it. This is just Google Docs. This kind of speaks to what
Google has always done really well. I am going to come up here to my little link and say
insert link. Now not only I could have pasted…I could have gone someplace and pasted this,
but because it is Google and because they search for a living here is Tour of your Chromebook,
support at Google. That is the one I wanted so it puts it right in there.
>> Jeff Bond: Okay.
>> Sandi Mahl: Applies it. Now this is a hotlink too.
>> Jeff Bond: That is pretty slick.
>> Sandi Mahl: I like it.
>> Jeff Bond: And pretty quick.
>> Sandi Mahl: I don’t have to search for those things
anymore. I don’t have to copy and paste and have all sorts of things open. So let’s
go ahead to that since I got us there.
>> Jeff Bond: While you did that I am also on the Chromebook
here and it actually popped up and refreshed as a link.
>> Sandi Mahl: Oh cool. That is true. It will do that. So
in real-time you have my new link.
>> Jeff Bond: Right.
>> Sandi Mahl: Okay. So it starts with this, but then it
goes on…you know what, I may have put in the wrong one…this is the one. Chromebooks…there
we go. I have put in the wrong link.
>> Jeff Bond: Well it is something I am sure we can correct.
>> Sandi Mahl: I will. I will correct that link. So that
will be easy also. Okay, let me just show you how to do that. So I am going to hit the
link again and I think I have to change it…later.
>> Jeff Bond: Okay.
>> Sandi Mahl: Okay.
>> Jeff Bond: What I am also noticing is that as you are
typing and doing your editing your name actually comes up and I can see that you are actually
making changes and that sort of thing. So if we had people that come in at any given
time and we give them permission and they can go in and make the editing and those kinds
of things as if you were going to use with Google Docs.
>> Sandi Mahl: Exactly and then just different ways we could…the
teacher could give Jeff and I a homework assignment and we could each be at home and working together.
I would see his little name pop up there on the side.
>> Jeff Bond: We have Chadd…Chadd joined us.
>> Sandi Mahl: Chadd joined us.
>> Jeff Bond: Sure. Great.
>> Sandi Mahl: How fun. Okay. Chadd from the ICAM just joined
us. Another thing if we were both deaf working on a project we could open up a chat bar off
to the side and be typing at each other and typing in our document. How easy would that
be instead of anything new?
>> Jeff Bond: Instant message….
>> Sandi Mahl: You could use message. You can use Hangouts…this
is what I am thinking of…Google Hangouts for that off to the side. I think there are
other ways we could add things and actually do it while we are on the document. Very handy.
>> Jeff Bond: Pretty cool.
>> Sandi Mahl: Okay, one thing I did want to mention you
know what can you do with Chromebook? Things can be read to you and this little blue and
yellow flag is TextHELP’s Read&Write for Google. What you are seeing here up in the
menu bar is the full suite. You can get it for free. A little less of this…hi Chadd.
Chadd is showing us how to use that. This is hilarious. Okay. If I go here and I use
this…I am just going to go for a little bit. You can also have it read to you...(reading
text: Don’t think of the Chromebook as a computer. It is a device whose purpose when
you turn it on is to find an internet connection and run on Google’s Chrome operating system.)
Okay.
>> Jeff Bond: That is a really nice program or a nice app.
>> Sandi Mahl: Yes. Nice app.
>> Jeff Bond: It is well worth getting especially for teacher’s
that can actually get if for…
>> Sandi Mahl: …free…
>> Jeff Bond: …free. You don’t get that very often.
>> Sandi Mahl: No, but you can get it for free just the minimal
version or you can get for teachers the premium version. I will show you where that is…if
I find the right one. Okay. This is from the Chrome Store. That link that I was showing
you will take you here. It looks like this on the top from TextHELP. You have to go down
and find the little green circle or oval and press that. Then you get the free subscription
for teachers for a year. I am told that the teachers can re-up at the end. Totally worth
it though program wise.
>> Jeff Bond: So the other thing that is a little different
with the Chromebook and Chrome are apps and extensions.
>> Sandi Mahl: Apps and extensions. Yes.
>> Jeff Bond: The differences are?
>> Sandi Mahl: An app is an actual program. It does something
on its own. An extension just adds to an app. It makes an app do more things. Which this…let’s
go to…similar sites I have on here. If I can pull one up really fast…Lincoln Park
Zoo. I want to go to Lincoln Park Zoo. There we go.
>> Jeff Bond: Then again it looks like our regular browser.
>> Sandi Mahl: Yes.
>> Jeff Bond: Using on any other device.
>> Sandi Mahl: Exactly. So here we are at the Lincoln Park
Zoo and I have assigned an assignment to students to do…I don’t know what, but I know it
is an assignment that is going to use a similar site. Similar Sites is something I picked
up from the Chrome Store and this would be an extension or no this would be an app. Oh
for goodness sake. You push it and they are going to give me different places and it takes
a little while for the pictures to load up…the Shedd Aquarium, also in Chicago. Chicago Zoological
Society. Just a whole bunch of places where if I am somebody looking at this and I need
more information it is going to suggest a whole bunch of great places.
>> Jeff Bond: That is nice that you also have a thumbnail
of them.
>> Sandi Mahl: Yes. It doesn’t block everything. Another
app that I use is TLDR for our students who struggle to read. It will give me a synopsis.
>> Jeff Bond: Nice.
>> Sandi Mahl: Just a nice little summary. I can have a really
short one or a short one.
>> Jeff Bond: So you can adjust the reading level or the
content.
>> Sandi Mahl: Content, yes. More content, more reading level
of that. Then they can go to several different sites. Now one of the things you will find
is while Read&Write for Google is really good it doesn’t like this overlapping business.
It doesn’t know which one to read. So there are a lot of different text-to-speech options
on there. You can find them in the Chrome Store. Let me go back to my here…the Chrome
Web Store and you just search different things and you find them. One of the things when
we were talking about…this is where that is…one of the things we were talking about
what you could use offline. If you go to the Chrome Web Store and you search…put it right
in here…you would search it right here for offline apps. So here is a whole bunch, more
than just solitaire. These are just all apps that you can download and the Chromebook has
enough memory to run those offline. It doesn’t have a whole bunch of things, but it can do
a lot.
>> Jeff Bond: One thing that we have found out today was
that unlike the Apple devices where the hardware is all the same and pretty standard with Chromebooks
it is different.
>> Sandi Mahl: Yes.
>> Jeff Bond: You are running the Samsung and I have the
HP.
>> Sandi Mahl: HP.
>> Jeff Bond: Yes. Even though they are similar sizes there
are some unique differences. One that we found was the one that Sandi is using actually has
a built-in HDMI connection and that is how we are running it through this. The HP does
not have an HDMI and we have to actually use the dongle in order to get that working and
so there are just some subtleties in the different models. There are also subtleties in just
the way they are manufactured, as far as, weight, size and that sort of thing.
>> Sandi Mahl: Yes, durability.
>> Jeff Bond: I have a clam shell on this one so it is really
not blue, but it pops off. Anyway, you know those are the kinds of things if people are
looking for something like that they might want to…
>> Sandi Mahl: …exactly…
>> Jeff Bond: …try them out and see what the feel is like
because it is really important to test drive technology.
>> Sandi Mahl: Especially with the projection issues.
>> Jeff Bond: Right.
>> Sandi Mahl: That has been a thing also with Chromebooks
and getting it to project either through a screen…
>> Jeff Bond: …and with the way apps are being developed
hard to say that maybe somebody will have an app that will actually will do that projection
similar to a reflector…
>> Sandi Mahl: …reflector, yes…
>> Jeff Bond: …for the Mac and for the Windows environment.
>> Sandi Mahl: Yes.
>> Jeff Bond: Okay. Well, thank you Sandi.
>> Sandi Mahl: You are welcome.
>> Jeff Bond: I appreciate your time and instruction on
Chromebook. It is one of those things that I need to play around with a little bit more.
I haven’t really delved into…
>> Sandi Mahl: …I like knowing more than you on something.
You just stay there.
>> Jeff Bond: And you do and I can honestly admit that.
In two weeks we are going to have our featured vendor presentation. Our feature vendor is
going to be Cadan Assistive Technology. They have a product called the SmartEdPad. It is
a hardware device. It looks really kind of interesting. I have yet to really see that.
>> Sandi Mahl: Yes, I haven’t seen it yet too much. Just
quick.
>> Jeff Bond: I think it is a pretty new product. With that,
again Sandi thank you very much for coming.
>> Sandi Mahl: No problem.
>> Jeff Bond: We will wrap it up. So until two weeks with
our vendor presentation we will see you then.
>> Sandi Mahl: Bye.
[Closing music]