Sync Multiple Google Drives

Wednesday 30th April 2014 If you have a Gmail account for personal use, and a Google Apps account for school, then you have probably already felt the pain of not being able to sync multiple Google Drive accounts to your computer. Insync is a utility that allows you to sync multiple Google Drive accounts to your computer, along with several other neat … Read More

NAPLAN online – is everybody ready?

Tuesday 29th April 2014 The Australian Government is planning to conduct NAPLAN online from 2016. While the Government is to be commended on the move to take advantage of the efficiencies and the opportunities opened by going digital and online, will all parties critical to the success of conducting NAPLAN online be ready for a 2016 test? Will all Australia’s … Read More

Google codifies crawling your email

On Monday, Google updated Gmail’s terms of service to spell out its relationship with users in no uncertain terms: “Our automated systems analyse your content (including emails) to provide you personally relevant product features, such as customised search results, tailored advertising, and spam and malware detection. This analysis occurs as the content is sent, received, and when it is stored.” … Read More

Configurator – Course update

Due to popular demand, an additional course has been added to Scott Barnham’s Configurator roadshow workshops…. at Bodalla PS on Friday 30th May. Maybe tack the Friday on to a long weekend away on the sunny NSW South Coast!   Learn how to manage your school’s iPads using Apple Configurator, at this one-day hands-on workshop. You will learn about….. Apple Volume Purchase Program … Read More

Google Sheets – Convert old to new

If you are using Google Sheets to create your spreadsheets, you are probably already using the recently-released new version of Sheets. But what about your existing spreadsheets? How do you convert a spreadsheet created in the original version to the new format? While Google doesn’t provide a simple one-click conversion tool yet, there is a quick workaround… Open the a … Read More

School ICT Planning – Curriculum Focus?

All school planning should be undertaken with a clear vision of how the implementation of a particular initiative will improve learning outcomes. However, some school planning procedures – ICT planning in particular – seem to be structured around a debate centred on hardware platforms, budget allocations, and the knowledge and personal preferences of technical support staff with no pedagogical experience. How … Read More

Managing iPads with Configurator

Learn how to manage your school’s iPads using Apple Configurator, at this one-day hands-on workshop. You will learn about….. Apple Volume Purchase Program (VPP) for apps; Creating & Managing Apple IDs; Installing Apple Configurator; Using Configurator to prepare iPads with the latest iOS;  Supervised Mode; Installing free apps, and paid apps purchased through VPP; Creating and installing Profiles to manage settings. Wollongong workshop … Read More

Office for iPad is free – but it will cost you!

Increasingly, large software vendors like Microsoft are making their iPad apps exclusive to subscribers of their main software package. It’s a troubling trend.  Microsoft launched Office for iPad last week.  The good news is that the new apps are free – the bad news is that they’re read-only runtimes unless you pony up for an Office 365 subscription.  Read more … Read More

Cloud providers – Policy statements

How private is your data (and your students’ data) when it is stored with a commercial cloud provider? Will you and your students be targeted with advertising, based on the content of emails and documents stored in the cloud? Who owns ‘your’ data, once it is stored on a remote server, possibly in another country? Links to privacy statements from … Read More

Essential Guide to Innovation in TPL

The Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership’s (AITSL) Essential Guide to Professional Learning series examines the research behind key themes of the Professional Learning Charter. This latest issue expands on the importance of innovation and adaptability in professional learning. How will you know when your school’s professional learning culture is innovative? Learn more (pdf) >>>

Google slashes paid Drive prices

Google has announced huge reductions in the costs of their paid Drive storage plans. Google offers 15Gb of storage for free – if you want 100 Gb of online storage the cost has dropped from $US4.99 per month to $US1.99 per month. (Google Apps files don’t count towards your storage). Read more at the Google Drive blog >>> 

Which cloud storage service is right for you?

Microsoft have rebranded their SkyDrive and Web Apps, replacing them with OneDrive and Office Online respectively. How does the new Microsoft service compare to Dropbox, Google Drive and Box? Read More at cnet >>> 

New Google Sheets

Have you activated the new version of Google Sheets yet? There are plenty of new features in the latest update, including Filter views, enhanced function help, new functions, advanced conditional formatting, coloured sheet tabs and new find-and-replace features Watch this short video to learn more…