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The GagglerVolume VI • Issue VIII • May 2011

Ready or Not, Summer’s Almost Here!

Curriculum Corner

If your weather has been anything like what we’ve had in Bloomington, Illinois (Gaggle’s headquarters), it’s hard to believe that summer will actually come. But if you take a look at the calendar instead of out the window, you’ll see that Memorial Day and another summer vacation is just around the corner! While teachers and students alike will be more than ready for the break from school, learning happens even when students aren’t in the classroom. Summer can provide opportunities for all kinds of experiential learning, and Gaggle’s tools can be used from home, Grandma’s house, and even summer camp. So this summer, instead of shutting down your students’ Gaggle accounts, encourage them to continue communicating, collaborating, and creating throughout their vacation.

Our Social Wall provides a great way for kids to stay in touch and share what they are doing during the break. They can post updates on where they are, links to interesting websites, and photos. They can even text updates and photos from their mobile phones, making it easy to stay connected while they are on the go. Another great use of the Social Wall during summer would be to create a Social Group for the students transitioning from one school to another. Kids moving from the elementary school to the middle school could have a district-wide social group where they connect with students from the other elementary schools. This gives them a chance to get to know each other before their new school starts in the fall. Additionally, you can create Social Wall Groups for specific summer activities, such as bike riding, dance, or fishing. It’s a great way to encourage students to get together and get active!

You can also encourage students to keep a summer blog. They can blog about what they are doing, post pictures and comments on places they visit, or keep up with current events. A blog is also a great way to share personal reading responses or book reviews. Maybe you can support the local library’s summer reading program, or offer some kind of incentive or reward when they return to school.

Finally, don’t lose the important relationships you’ve developed with your students over the last year. Think about sending out an occasional email to your former class, keeping in touch and encouraging them to read or take advantage osummer classes or camps. One more suggestion is to get a head start with next year’s students by emailing them or sharing your own summer blog. Take advantage of your Gaggle accounts and promote summer learning!

Need a quick Gaggle training? Register for one of our many free webinars. Visit our Webinars blog at www.gaggle.net/webinars, or use the convenient Portal Link on the panel in your account to see all of our upcoming offerings. The webinars run about 45 minutes and are offered at multiple times so you are sure to find one that fits your schedule. If your school gives credit for attending these trainings, please email us after participating and we can provide documentation of your attendance. In May and June, we are offering our regular sessions: “Gaggle Administrative Training,” “Gaggle Apps-Learn what the hype is all about!” and “The Gaggle Basics.”

Free Webinars

Finish up the school year with a look back. Have your students collect photos, quotes, and assignment or project samples from the school year to create a photo collage or slide show. Use Gaggle’s Zoho Presentations to create the slide show, or our image editors, either Fotoflexer or Sumo Paint, for editing pictures. Once their project(s) are done, you can share them with the entire school through the Digital Locker, and link them to your blog so parents can view them too!

With the new GaggleTube uploads, you can share the video just within Gaggle, or share it with the entire world on YouTube! It’s a fun project that helps review everything they’ve learned during the school year.

Going To ISTE?Be sure to visit Gaggle

in booth #1225!

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School SpotlightMemphis City Schools, Got Tech? Summer Camp

Memphis City is a large, urban school district, with over 100,000 students. They became a part of the Gaggle family in 2008 as part of a collection of technology initiatives begun by their then new Assistant Superintendent, Dr. Irving Hamer. MCS needed student email, but Dr. Hamer also believed strongly that middle school students need opportunities to form connections with other students across the district to ensure a successful transition to high school, and a strong start on the path to graduation. When MCS first started with Gaggle, district wide message boards were going to be created for a multitude of different interests so students could join these groups and make new connections. But with social networking becoming so popular, Gaggle was inspired to create our Social Wall, giving Memphis City and other schools a forum for creating true social groups in a safe environment. Not only is MCS taking advantage of social networking, they are increasing usage of other Gaggle tools, as they embrace technology. Their “Got Tech?” summer camp started a few years ago and offers students entering 4th-8th grade a chance to focus on exciting technology for a week in June. About 500 students attend each year, and choose a track focusing on animation, video production, blogging, or podcasting/music. They generally work in small groups to create a final product around a theme. Last

year, the week started with a field trip to the zoo to generate the content they needed. However, this year they are focusing on what makes Memphis great. They are bringing in local artists, business people, and government officials for interviews and photos to create the project content.Cindy Putnam-McMillion is an Instructional Technology Specialist for the district and works on the camp. She said in the past, kids used flash drives to store their files, and it was a bit of a nightmare. But once MCS got Gaggle, she realized the Digital Lockers would really simplify things! Now, Gaggle is introduced on the first day of camp. Cindy stated they have a number of older computers that don’t have the creativity software they need, but can be used for internet searches. The kids find content on those machines, save it to their Digital Locker, and then download and use it when it’s their turn on the fully-loaded computers. It’s a great way to maximize the hardware they have available. The Got Tech Summer Camp has a huge impact on the students. Last year, one boy forgot his Gaggle password after the camp was over, and walked all the way to the school the next week; just to get back into Gaggle! The camp students form friendships across the district, which they continue throughout the summer and beyond using Gaggle’s Social Wall and Social Groups.

Tech TalkPerformance Tip - Submitting a Speed Test Ask Admin…

Question: I’d like to be able to post assignment dates, test dates, and important events to my students’ calendars. How do I do that?

Answer: You can create a calendar from your Gaggle account and share it with your students! They will then be able to see any important dates you have posted for them. To do this, you’ll need to follow these steps:

• Click the “Create New Calendar” button from your calendar.

• Name the calendar and click save. The new calendar will load on the left side of your calendar screen.

• Click on the new calendar name on the left side of the screen.

• Select the “users” tab at the top.

• Select “add users”

• To share a calendar with a specific class, click the View Menu and select the option Classes.

• Add any events or dates to remember to your new calendar.

When teachers notice performance issues with Gaggle, we often ask them to submit a speed test. The Gaggle speed test is used to determine the overall health and quality of the connection between your computer and the Gaggle servers. The results of a speed test can be used to determine if there are base-level networking factors that might be the cause of the reported issues.

You must have School Admin access or higher in order to perform a speed test. You’ll want to run it from a computer in the building reporting the issues, especially if your school or district has filters or permissions that are different for the schools than they are for the district office. You should also test at the same time of the day that your problems are occurring and when students are present.

On the School Setup page look under the More Settings menu and choose the Speed Test option. The speed test performs both ping and trace route tests, which can sometimes be blocked by your network. If it’s blocked, ask your Network Admin to allow ICMP traffic during the time of the test. After the tests have completed, the results will automatically be sent to Gaggle, where we will analyze the data and determine the next steps in troubleshooting.

The Gaggler Volume VI • Issue VIII • May 2011

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Gaggle.Net, Inc.1-800-288-7750P.O. Box 1352, Bloomington, IL 61702Copyright © 2010

New in Gaggle

Gaggle’s latest release (May 4th) was chock full of new features and enhancements!GaggleTube Enhancements:

• GaggleTube Widget - For your Home page or integration with Moodle or Blackboard.

• Teacher Upload - Teachers can upload videos to GaggleTube or YouTube, and students can request uploading after teacher-approval. Uploaded videos can be semi-private (searchable through GaggleTube only) or public on YouTube.

• Video searches will display the number of results returned along with page numbers to easily navigate your results.

• Video tags will display the number of videos corresponding to each tag.

Scheduled Emails and SMS Texts: Teachers can create email messages and text messages to be sent at a specified day and time. They’ll be saved in your Drafts folder with a clock icon, and also display as an event on your calendar.

Class and User Group Owners: If you assign an owner to a Class or User Group, only that teacher (or a higher level user, like a School Master) can edit or delete that class.

Locker Folder Sharing: You can now share an entire folder with its contents.

Social Wall: A new Like feature lets you “like” someone’s post. It will display the top three people who have liked the post, with a link to see the full list.

Homework Drop Box Enhancements:

• Specified User Drop Boxes now appear at the top since they are the most frequently used Drop Boxes.• When a Drop Box is opened, it will automatically highlight and display the most recent assignment.• A new Distribution Date allows teachers to pre-populate assignment folders and schedule when they will appear for students.• Duplicate Assignments lets you create an assignment folder, then duplicate it for multiple class drop boxes.

iCal Syncing: If you are using an iPhone or Macintosh computer, you can now sync multiple Gaggle calendars to your phone or Mac mail client.

Email Signature: You will now see your email signature displayed at the bottom of the Compose screen. Previously, the system appended it after you clicked Send.

Auto Save Draft: Gaggle will automatically save a draft of an email you are composing every 90 seconds. If your browser crashes or your power goes out, your message will be saved in the Drafts folder.

The Gaggler Volume VI • Issue VIII • May 2011

We believe every district should be using our Data Integration service. Data Integration (DI) is a crucial first step to getting the most out of your Gaggle subscription. This process simplifies and automates the creation and management of user accounts, and can also automatically create every teacher’s classes and homework drop boxes! Imagine starting the school year able to immediately assign and collect homework electronically without doing any setup work. Not only will our system automatically create the initial setup, nightly updates can create accounts for new students and move them when they drop or change classes. It really is like magic, letting teachers get right to the business of teaching, instead of constantly updating accounts and class lists.

If your district isn’t using DI, summer is a great time to get it started. Setup is handled by your IT department in coordination with our experienced DI Specialists, and can be done quickly and easily, then automated for the entire school year. Contact us at sales@gaggle.net for more information.

Get the Most From Gaggle with Data Integration!