Neeah: The Simplest Way to UNkeep Notes

How often do you bookmark a webpage while surfing around the internet? If you are like many of us, that function on your browser goes relatively untouched. With apps such as Evernote, and social bookmarking sites like Pinterest and Diigo, there are plenty of resources out there to help you keep track of pages that you may want to access later.

But what if you forget to save the page?

What happens when you’re browsing the internet, clicking from one page to the next as so many of us do, but you don’t record any of the site information? Later on if you want to go back and find a particular page you really only have a few options. You can try a search engine to relocate it, but those rabbit trails often end up with you riffling through page after page of distractions and click-bait, and by the end of the search you are no closer than you were to start with. The other option is trying to look up the site on your browser history, but that list is difficult to wade through when the information is only a few hours old, let alone if you want to find something you saw last week.

Neeah.com, a new web archiving service, has got you covered. Neeah is a plugin that works automatically, recording your browsing history and organizing previously viewed content categorically to make the recovery of visited pages a painless activity. The program organizes your history into blocks that are easy to navigate, making your previous pages just a few quick clicks away. Neeah gives you control over your web archive, allowing you to keep your content private or to share it with anyone you choose. Additionally, the program can be deactivated when not in use, or just leave it running and never lose a page again. There are other bookmarking services and online research tools currently available, both on private and social platforms, but Neeah is the only one that is completely free to the user. Not only that, but Neeah gives you control over your history. Use Neeah to keep yourself organized, share research with a friend or colleague, or just to make sure you never lose a website again.

So be productive while online. Visit as many sites as you wish. Stop worrying that you’re hoarding web addresses you will never again use. With Neeah.com, you can forget worrying about your browsing history and focus on why you were online in the first place.

~~~
Bruce has worked in educational technology for over 18 years and has implemented several 1:1/BYOD programs.  He also has served as a classroom teacher in Computer Science, History and English classes.  Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of Time, Towering Pines Volume One:Room 509, The Star of Christmas, Philadelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel.  Follow Bruce's Novel releases by subscribing to his FREE newsletter!

Be sure to check out Bruce's Allentown Education Examiner Page, his Twitter and his Facebook!

Create digital learning platforms with Time to Know

Time is elusive for all of us.  You always have the best intentions to find the time to do that professional development... but then things just kind of come up, don't they?  And what about that digital content that you need for your students?  You have looked high and low for something that fit your curriculum, but it just isn't there!  What if you could build a library of digital classroom tools that you could use over and over?  And then edit when you need to?

Now you can with Time to Know.

Time to Know is an online platform that allows you to create, manage and publish digital classroom material whether it is for History 101 or How to Use Your Interactive Whiteboard!  It doesn't matter -- these tools are powerful enough to illustrate just about ay concept.  

If you want to check it out, take a look at the video below.  If you want to know more -- check out their website and see all the awesome things you can create with Time to Know -- and all the people who are already doing it!

~~~~~
Bruce has worked in educational technology for over 18 years and has implemented several 1:1/BYOD programs.  He also has served as a classroom teacher in Computer Science, History and English classes.  Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of Time, Towering Pines Volume One:Room 509, The Star of Christmas, Philadelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel.  Follow Bruce's Novel releases by subscribing to his FREE newsletter!

Be sure to check out Bruce's Allentown Education Examiner Page, his Twitter and his Facebook!

Google Announces Date for Google Classroom!

Teachers and administrators alike have been awaiting the news that Google just dropped --- a launch date for Google Classroom!   That date is August 11th, 2014!

Beginning on August 11th, all Google Apps for Education customers (it's free kids - why don't you have it?) will have full access to the Google Classroom environment.  This means that any teacher in your Google Apps for Education domain will be able to create or join a class, invite students and post assignments!

The Google Classroom is designed as an integrated part of Google Apps for Education that will allow teachers to create, interact and collect assignments all online -- and in the familiar Google Apps environment.  It does this by interacting directly with Google Drive and creating Google Drive folders for each assignment and class automatically for you when you create assignments.

Administrators can enable or disable Google Classroom in their Google Apps Administrative Console for the entire school or even specific departments -- just like any other Google App.  Google says they are continuing to grow and develop the product, and that input from teachers and administrators is key to the growth of Google Classroom.

To get started, users would go to the Google Classroom URL (http://classroom.google.com) and tell Google if you are a student or a teacher.  The Classroom Help Center is a great resource that Google will continue to develop for students and teachers to go to get help and answers when needed.  In addition to that, Google has launched the Classroom Forum for peer-to-peer question and answers!

~~~
Bruce has worked in educational technology for over 18 years and has implemented several 1:1/BYOD programs.  He also has been a classroom teacher for various subjects.  Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of Time, Towering Pines Volume One:Room 509, The Star of Christmas, Philadelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel.  Follow Bruce's Novel releases by subscribing to his FREE newsletter!

Saving Classes from Year to Year in Haiku Learning Management System

Learning Management System is a big buzzword in educational technology these days.  And there are certainly a lot of ways to go if you are considering implementing one.  One of the best "bang for your buck" solutions is the Haiku Learning Management System.  One of the beautiful things about this system is that it allows teachers to sign up and run their classes for free on an individual basis, but Haiku also has a really affordable school wide licensing model -- as low as $5 per teacher.

But, even with a great learning management system like Haiku, there are always questions about how to do certain things... and one of the biggest I see from year-to-year (in any system) is "Can I save my classes from last year or do I have to re-do everything next year?"

More often than not these days, the answer is: you can save it!  And here's how you do that in Haiku!

1. Wait until the next year's classes appear in Haiku.

• Last year's classes display in Inactive Classes.

• At the end of the year, these classes may be accessed in My Classes > select: Jump to Inactive

• When your new classes arrive from PowerSchool, you may copy the content from your inactive classes to your new classes.

2. Save as Templates

• You can save current class content to templates

• Select a class

• Click on: Manage Class > and select: Save As  > select: Template, and follow the instructions

• When your new classes arrive in Haiku, you may copy the content from your inactive classes to your new classes.

• Go to: My Classes  > select: Jump to Inactive Classes  > click on: Templates tab, and select: Share Class...

3. Share Class to the Library (where you and other teachers may copy it later)

• Select a class

• Click on: Manage Class > and select: Share Class

• Select: Library, and check the following: Grade level, subject, and add any tags

• Click: Copy  (you may then close the screen)

I hope this helps alleviate some of that "End of Year Stress"!

~~~~
Bruce has worked in educational technology for over 17 years and has implemented several 1:1/BYOD programs.  He also has been a classroom teacher for various subjects.  Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of Time, Towering Pines Volume One:Room 509, The Star of Christmas, Philadelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel.  He also has a new novel coming out in June 2014, The Kill Commission.  Follow Bruce's Novel releases by subscribing to his FREE newsletter!