Mapping with Google - Maps and Earth

Just completed the Mapping with Google Course with Maps and Earth.

System requirements to participate/complete the course:

1. Completion of the Google Maps and Google Earth activities and projects for certificate credit requires an Internet-enabled device.
2. For Google Earth, ensure your computer is able to run the current version of Google Earth by reviewing the related system requirements. Download the current version of Google Earth.
3. Mapping with Google includes some components, such as video and text lessons, that are accessible from most smartphones and tablets.
4. Participation in the optional Google+ hangouts requires a webcam-enabled device.

Some takeaways from the course:

• You could add the city closest to you for a world view of students in the MOOC.
• As part of this course, we had access to a new version of Google Maps not yet available to all users.
• Google invites educators to apply for a free Pro version of Google Earth year round, and would like to extend a discount to Mapping with Google students completing the course. Upon submission of a Google Maps or Google Earth project in advance of the June 24, 2013 deadline, students will receive a coupon code for 50% off a Google Earth Pro license. Coupons will be viewable from the My Profile page once the certificate project has been received. The coupon is valid through June 29, 2013.
• There are some awesome tours available in Google Earth. Visit a place that you want to visit but otherwise not doable. Just tinker...you may even discover an interest that you thought was boring and buried from your school days.
• Visit some place you have been and enable the Historic views.
• Many classroom ideas that can be used as family learning projects.
• Don't forget to check out Sky, Moon, and Mars - Too cool and much improved since I did a blog post about Google Moon and Sky in 2008.

There are many things about this experience that I could write about, but the 3 year old Gbaby takes priority.

Thanks Google for the MOOC.

What I discovered during the Advanced Power Searching with Google online course

No spoilers in this blog post...keep searching Advanced Power Searching participants.
Last month I did a post recommending registration for the upcoming Advanced Power Searching with Google two week course. The course started January 23 and you have until February 8, 2013 to submit your final assignment.

In the "How the Course Works" information one of the additional tips is listed as:

Do not post challenge solutions publicly (on blogs, Google+, etc.), since Google may pick these up and spoil the surprise for others solving the challenges.

Since the course is still on going I won't post any challenge solutions but random bits of  information that I learned during my assignments. I opted for an assignment to learn more about my name and history. While I have blogged and share information that I share a name with a convicted sex offender, there are some prominent Winebrenners in history, quite a few authors, and even the Winebrenner Theology Seminary in Findlay Ohio.

What does your name mean?

Family Education
http://genealogy.familyeducation.com/surname-origin/winebrenner

1. Partly Americanized spelling of the German occupational name Weinbrenner ‘distiller’ (literally, ‘wine burner’). The original function of the distiller, attested from the 8th century, seems to have been to extract alcohol for medicinal purposes from wine; the modern sense of someone who prepared spirituous liquor for drinking is first recorded in the 14th century.
2.American bearers of this surname are descended from Johann Christian Weinbrenner, who came from the Rhineland Palatinate to Hagerstown, MD, in 1753–54.

Ancestry surname search
http://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=winebrenner

Winebrenner Name Meaning Partly Americanized spelling of the German occupational name Weinbrenner ‘distiller’ (literally, ‘wine burner’). The original function of the distiller, attested from the 8th century, seems to have been to extract alcohol for medicinal purposes from wine; the modern sense of someone who prepared spirituous liquor for drinking is first recorded in the 14th century.

Using multiple sources and validating domain names through WHO IS supports those who tend to use triangulation in research or have a tendency to do a root cause analysis when resolving projects and problems.

You can always participate in the Power Searching with Google self paced course. I think everyone can learn something or revisit some skill sets you haven't used in awhile. Have fun! and feed your autodidacticism.

Register Now! Advanced Power Searching course with Google begins...

Register now!
Feed your autodidact needs
Advanced Power Searching begins January 23, 2013

Hone your searching skills by solving complex search challenges alongside peers from around the world in this two week online class and receive an Advanced Power Searching certificate upon completion.

Power Searching - Self Paced Course start anytime

Check out the Syllabus for the Advanced Power Searching course
Intro

• How the Course Works
• Sample Challenge
• Research Process
• Solving the Sample Challenge

Practice

• Challenge 1 - Mimicking presidential voices
• Challenge 2 - Turtle fossils
• Challenge 3 - Festival challenge
• Challenge 4 - Humongous fungus
• Challenge 5 - Salman Khan
• Challenge 6 - Scrapbook enthusiast
• Challenge 7 - Mystery music
• Challenge 8 - Climate graph
• Challenge 9 - Name that notebook
• Challenge 10 - Who done it?
• Challenge 11 - Feather identification
• Challenge 12 - Where in the world?

Assignments

• Assignment 1
• Assignment 2

Certificate

• How It Works

Piqued your interest? Register now! Google search passionistas

Power Searching with Google

While completing EDTC 7030 Web Teaching: Design and Development online with ECU, I also took the Power Searching with Google class. If you visit the Power Searching with Google site before July 25, 2012 you will see this message display:

Thank you for your interest in the Power Searching with Google class! The class is now closed. Although you will no longer be able to earn a certificate, you'll still be able to view the videos and do the online activities on your own starting July 25, 2012.

The month of July was full of learning activities, formally and informally. It was cool to revisit some operators that I haven't used in quite awhile and I enjoyed all the classes but my favorite was Class 5 on credibility. Thanks Google!

You can always visit Search Playground or Search Tips and Tricks while you wait on the course to open again for self development purposes. Comments, recommendations, reaction box checks, and +1s are always welcome.

Heart Graph, Google search features and geeks are cool

Google search features are used for more than searching for the answers you are looking for and during Valentine's Day all types of things flow your social stream.

Heart hacks or graphing cardioids are popular and Google Students showed some love to math lovers http://googleforstudents.blogspot.com/2011/12/showing-some-love-to-math-lovers.html and shared this: (sqrt(cos(x))*cos(200x)+sqrt(abs(x))-0.7)*(4-x*x)^0.01, sqrt(9-x^2), -sqrt(9-x^2) from -4.5 to 4.5 (copy and paste into Google search box or Wolfram if you are a member), then some one started sharing this: sqrt(​1-​(abs(​x)-​1)^​2), arccos(​1-​abs(​x))-​π

Graph for sqrt(​1-​(abs(​x)-​1)^​2), arccos(​1-​abs(​x))-​π produces this version:

Keep tinkering and demonstrating that Geeks are cool!
So what else do you use Google Search for with so many options available?
Various categories of popular features range from Everyday Essentials, Reference Tools, Choosing Keywords, Local Search, Health Search, Trip Planning, Query Refinements, and Search by Numbers ...What is your favorite?

Synonym Search - If you want to search not only for your search term but also for its synonyms, place the tilde sign (~) immediately in front of your search term.
Currency Conversion - To use our built-in currency converter, enter the conversion you’d like done into the Google search box and your answer will display directly on the results page.
Fill in the Blank - Sometimes the best way to ask a question is to get Google to ‘fill in the blank’ by adding an asterisk (*) at the part of the sentence or question that you want finished into the Google search box.
Related Search - To search for web pages that have similar content to a given site, type “related:” followed by the website address into the Google search box.


As always, comments, recommendations +1s, and reaction check boxes are always appreciated.

What a difference a generation makes with gadgets

We acquired our first networked computer in the house when my daughter started Kindergarten. Now her daughter, at 20 months, in this multigenerational household is exposed to a wireless network, gadgets and terminology such as smartphones, tablets, mobile devices, and laptops.


GGMa Flo who used a beeper during her career days and experienced Atari as the family game console, who didn't grow up with the Internet is now an Internet addict. My daughter who grew up with the technology as we shared many lessons learned from online school to teens tinkering with social media, implements security and privacy measures while sharing select information with her designated Internet connections. And the G-daughter who is growing up with everything Google and is the next generation gadget girl is exposing us all to the wonders of tech through a toddler's eyes.


And me...well I get to be the Network Manager, technogeek, still attempting to educate the end users to be mindful of the information they release and how to hit the F1 key to help themselves, and to tinker.


We use ebooks, multimedia books, Sesame Street and Disney Junior channels on YouTube, a shared Picasa album, Android and iPad apps for children, shared Google calendar for appointments, medicine, milestones, and special events.


The Department of Defense attempts to educate family members on OPSEC as they realized education was better than banning, so the Social Media hub was developed for all services to share Internet based capabilities policies, training and education sources. How are you influencing the family social media policy? How do you educate family users on security topics such as computer security, information security, operation security, personal security?

Some sites that may be of interest:
Free OPSEC training material from the OPSEC Professional's Association
US Army Social Media 
US Army Online and Social Media Division Slideshare 

Download your Google+ Circles, Contacts and Data Liberation

Google lets you save a backup of your photos, profile information, contacts, circles, stream posts, and Buzz posts to your computer.

– An important note about the Google+ Field Trial –
You're a part of a small group of people who are helping to test Google+. When you share something with people who are not yet able to use Google+, they will receive it via email but won't be able to comment or engage with the content like other Google+ users. They'll be able to join Google+ as we let more users in over time.



Data Liberation - New to you?

Why did you start The Data Liberation Front?
For a couple of reasons.  The first reason is that we heard our CEO, Eric Schmidt, speak out against lock-in time and time again, "How do you be big without being evil?  We don't trap end users. So if you don't like Google, if for whatever reason we do a bad job for you, we make it easy for you to move to our competitor."


We started looking at our products and discovered that while the door to leave wasn't locked, in some cases it was a bit "stuck" and we thought that we could do better. Google products that have been liberated

Do you have a personal data recovery/transition plan? Have you ever implemented the plan? How do you know what you are maintaining or backing up is functional?


Why wait until World Backup Day March 31, 2012? If you consider your data valuable or precious, develop and maintain a personal data recovery and/or transition plan.

Searching yourself?

One of the first tasks we do in the workshops I facilitate at the library is to have participants search themselves so they are aware of the information that is associated with their name, aliases, and screen names.


We use Google, cvgadget, iSearch, Googlism and some participants are surprised what they discover. While we can talk about the importance of a digital footprint we discover the importance of searching yourself online. I let them Google my name. Explaining the importance of verifying sources makes an impact when the entries that appear show my name, with a different middle initial, a different state, different age but a convicted sex offender. How do they know it is not me? We compare details and images but for those who do not know me they are only going what they learn about me from previous participants, follow me on Twitter, connected through Linkedin or through my blog how do they really know who I am?


I encourage them to take ownership of their digital footprint before they apply for a job, scholarship, volunteer opportunities, or any other possibility where they can connect with others. While I have background checks conducted by the various organizations that I apply for as a volunteer and different states requirements for substitute teaching, I have a security clearance because of my career with the military. So I assure them that I am safe and another reason for us to meet in the library where everyone can look, listen, and learn from everything we do in the workshops. Trust but verify is just another step as we challenge individuals to become self aware and empowered.


This blog post was engendered by a retweet I did of EdTechSandyK 's tweet, "Student Googles Himself, Finds Out He is Wanted for Murder". 

Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project published a report on May 26, 2010 by Mary Madden and Aaron Smith, titled:  Research Reputation Management and Social Media: How people monitor their identity and search for others online. This article addresses several major trends have indicated growth in activities related to online reputation management.

What is your favorite search tool when seeking information about yourself? Do you have a story like the young man in the story that discovered his name associated with a murder warrant? How do you manage your digital footprint when a search produces information about your name but not necessarily you? 

Tinkering with ShootMe App and Google Mobile

Google Mobile provides so many opportunities for those with a mobile device and access to the Internet, from learning new techniques, collaboration, self development and discovery, to participating in tech and tell events. The ShootMe app is back without rooting and users can shake or shout at their phone to capture a screen shot from their Android.

Screen capture using ShootMe app.

You can subscribe to the Google Mobile blog and/or connect with Google Mobile via Facebook, Twitter, and/or YouTube.

Visit this link using your phone's browser: m.google.com or visit the Google Mobile site. Select your phone: 

What are you doing with Google mobile?