Last week, we gave you an introduction to Google Apps for Education.  Google Apps for Education was created to allow for easier streamlining and management of a variety of school systems, as well as to actually be used by teachers in the classroom to better help students learn.  Just another of Google’s breakthroughs in website development, this relatively new software can be used in a number of ways.  Today, we will outline some ideas on how Google Apps for Education can be fully taken advantage of by students, teachers, and administrators.  The variety of uses Google Apps for Education can offer are meant to allow for better teacher and student relations, and easier administrative and teaching techniques.  We think Google Apps for Education has a great likelihood for success in these areas, and hopefully, you will agree after reading the following ideas!

1. Google Docs for streamlining lessons by multiple teachers

A basic idea, but an important one nonetheless, Google Docs can be used by a number of teachers to coordinate lesson plan subject matter, timing, and more.

2. Google Docs for student response use

This idea could be especially effective in an English class, for example.  After reading a chapter of an assigned book, students can chart ideas and reactions to the chapter in a Google Doc file, where they can read other students’ reactions and give input to one another.  A little bit like each person in the class having a blog, except that all of the “blogs” can be in one very accessible location.

3. Google forms to record information

We’re thinking in terms of science here: using Google’s excellent variety of spreadsheets and chart-building abilities to record experimental data and statistics.  As in #1, another basic idea, but quite effective!

4. Google forms to create quizzes

Think about all the trees you can save this way…put quizzes and tests online!  Online quizzes and tests (assuming they are of multiple choice format) are also much easier to grade.  This idea certainly offers great strides in terms of efficiency.

5. Google forms for teacher evaluations

Especially in higher levels of schooling, students are often asked to give feedback on teachers and classes.  Anonymous feedback can be easily gathered with Google forms, and just as easily transferred onto an online spreadsheet.

6. Google Calendars for “check out” schedules

A great way to track which teacher has what books, overhead project, collection of microscope, etc. in a large public school (or a small private school) is to use Google Calendars.  The collaborative aspect of Google Calendars makes it possible for all parties involved to see a full schedule of book and equipment check outs.

7. Google Calendars to put administrators, teachers, and parents on the same page

How many school calendars that get sent out end up stuck behind a million other pieces of paper on the fridge?  Or in the trash after an accident involving spilt milk and Cheerios?  Google Calendars can allow administrators, teachers, and parents to always be on the same page schedule-wise.

8. Google Chat for direct communication

Sure, parents will still probably want a face-to-face parent-teacher conference.  However, Chat is a great way to get in some fast discussions.  Google Chat could also be great for student and professor use at a university, a much easier way to fit “office hours” into both schedules!

9. Class presentations and websites

Put yourself in the mind of a 8, 9, or 10 year old child.  Having a class website would be pretty exciting…a page about the class pet, a student of the week who gives an interview, a mention about the latest science experiment.  Google Apps for Education makes creating a class website easy!

10. Hosting student portfolios

For writing, art, any subject really…a database for each and every student to upload their own portfolio so that it can be accessed by each and every teacher.  Now, that’s an efficient dream come true!

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In case you have missed it, we’ve been looking into HTML5 for a few weeks now.  First, we gave you an overview, then we did a little bit of brainstorming and showcasing the many faces of HTML5 for use in website design and internet marketing.  As we discussed previously, HTML5 is up-and-coming (and already seen in action around the web).  HTML5 is a tool that you, as a web developer, should be (at the very least) thinking about using.  To help get you started, today we will go over some valuable HTML5 resources to help you gain the HTML5 knowledge you need to make your website great!

Let’s get started…

HTML5 Cheat Sheet by Smashing Magazine: This downloadable .pdf includes all of the HTML5 tags and information on them, including compatible HTML versions, the tag attributes, and a little information on the tag’s purpose and capabilities.

Simple HTML5 Demos: We have shown you some pretty fancy things that HTML5 can do, but these demos are on the simpler (though still quite impressive) side.  These demos include things such as editable content, drag and drop features, video, and geolocation features of HTML5.

W3 Schools HTML5 Tutorial: A chapter-by-chapter guide of the history, elements, and applications of HTML5.  This tutorial is great for those who want the basics laid out step by step.

The HTML5 Doctor: A blog designed to help developers with HTML5 troubleshooting.  Posts are catered around mistakes commonly made in HTML5 and how to fix them, as well as focuses on certain attributes of HTML5.

HTML5 Gallery:  Pretty self-explanatory, this site is an online display of various sites using HTML5.  All the sites are pretty visually pleasing and should give you some good ideas for your own website!

HTML5 Infographic: Another “cheat sheet”-like page, this infographic gives you a quick run-down on the capabilities of HTML in terms of elements, browsers, and in comparison to Adobe Flash.

Coding an HTML5 Tutorial from Scratch by Scratching Magazine: A very simple, to-the-point tutorial on building a basic webpage with HTML5.  Yet another great way to get acquainted with HTML5!

HTML Living Standard: If you’ve got the time to get in-depth, this frequently updated “living standard” of HTML has all the ins, outs, and in-betweens of the latest version of the language.

Canvas Element by Dev.Opera: An excellent explanation of how HTML5 works to create Javascript graphics with the canvas element.  This is one element of HMTL5 that offers a great array of creative possibilities for spicing up your website design!

The WHATWG Blog: Need to stay up-to-date?  This blog offers frequent updates on the going-ons of the web world and the newest breakthroughs with HTML5.

In conclusion, we hope we have given you a good toolbox to begin your HTML5 adventure with!  Get started, and we hope to see you soon around the HTML5 Gallery!

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A couple of weeks ago, we gave you an overview of HTML 5.  Today, we want to give you some more big ideas to help you use HMTL 5 in conjunction with CSS3 and Javascript techniques for catering Denver Website Design to your advantage!  In turn, this should help you optimize your Denver marketing tactics.

So, let’s talk ideas and capabilites.

First off, panoramic imaging.  That’s right, with CSS3, Javascript, and HTML5, you can build your own panoramic VR screen.  What this means is that you can stitch together a series of images to create a panoramic image that can be scrolled through as though you were spinning around in a circle.  If you’re confused, see this Safari Technology Demo.  Now, let us note that CSS3 is the main coding language used to help build a VR on your webpage.  However, HTML5 helps make it possible to upload and exist!  Normally, software to create Quicktime VRs of panoramic stitched images can cost hundreds of dollars.  However, with some research on coding, and some trial and error, you can create VRs for free.  VRs are great for any sort of visual marketing.  Being that a VR image is very interactive, especially if your image creates interesting content, viewers will be drawn in to navigating around an eye-catching VR image.  VR images are great for real estate sales (a virtual tour around a house), and would also make an excellent addition to marketing for restaurants, hotels, etc. (i.e. “here you can see our restaurant’s beautiful mountainside view, and private dining room.”)

Secondly, the capability to build iPhone apps with HMTL5.  According to some, digital marketing is moving more and more towards the great realm of mobile marketing.  We think that’s good news: new opportunities, new mediums, new technology platforms.  However, to make our classic marketing techniques effective, we are going to have to adapt a little bit.  A great example of HTML5 use for a webpage that works on an iPad is the Every Time Zone app.  This app is designed to convert your current time zone to another time zone of your choice.  Pretty handy when you’re traveling back and forth with two, three, or eight hour time differences.  The developers also released an article on the app, which you can view here.  The article explains some problems that the developers ran into and how they ran about encountering them and using HTML5′s features to the iPad’s advantage, including:

• using a ‘touch’ event whenever possible, and ensuring that these events could apply to iPad touch capabilities as well as a desktop or laptop browser mouse.
• not using images
• avoiding some CSS3 add-ons such as text-shadow and box-shadow

Lastly, we would like to point out that HTML5 can offer a whole new realm of animation capabilities.  For a great example, see this project: CanvasMol.  This is an interactive HTML5 animation that builds molecules, which is incredibly intricate and cool!  Normally, we would assume that to make something of this magnitude you need Flash or Processing.  However, with HTML, it is possible to build projects like CanvasMol and The Attractor.

So, what are our main points that you can brainstorm ideas around today?  HTML5 can go mobile, can be interactive, and can animate without an imaging program.  If you haven’t started using HTML5 yet…what are you waiting for?!

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HTML, introduced to the world wide web in the early 1990s, has continued to change with the times.  Features and compatibility have been added with each version; tweaking and simplification has taken place.

Let’s get down to the basics: HTML5 is a web language that is an upgrade from HTML4 and XHTML1, which have been the previous and current languages of choice for website pages.  HTML5 also offers much more in the realm of device compatibility than previous HTML versions: that is, HTML5 works better on mobile devices than its predecessors.  HTML5 documents can also include XML syntax when XML elements and media types are defined in the coding.

Now, what does HTML5 have to offer for you in terms of Denver website development?  Let’s go over some of the changes from HTML4, as well as brand-new features of HTML5:

• new tags such as <video> and <audio>, which allow for better graphic and multimedia content handling
• in addition to video capabilities…the ability to load videos prior to page loading
• the elimination of some HTML4 elements such as <font> and <center> that are easily definable with the use of CSS3
• new attributes of the input element that allow for the listing of time, date, number, range, color, etc.
• the elimination of frame and frameset tags that have (in the past) hindered usability across online platforms
• several APIs, including one that allows for the use of offline web applications
• cool new features for elements, such as the ability for viewers to add their own content to an element
• an output element that allows viewers to do things such as math equations, or allows for the identification of the viewer’s mouse coordinate points on the screen
• features for the use of web storage, and storage-mapping capabilities

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Lately, we’ve been talking a lot about web fonts.  Since you now have some background on this great new tool that Google has developed for web designers everywhere, it’s time to apply that knowledge to meet your Denver marketing needs.  To be a little more specific, we’re honing in on the key aspects of successful e-marketing techniques.  With so many tools and transactions available via the world wide web, it’s important to realize that online marketing is valuable, or even vital, to business.  Now, you are probably wondering how can web fonts help you successfully add value to your product or service when incorporated into your online marketing plan.  Luckily, we have a few ideas to help get you started!

First, let’s talk subscriptions.

In terms of subscriptions over the internet: email newsletters, blog RSS feeds, and more, it’s important to be able to differentiate your material from the countless number of other emails and syndicated material your customers are receiving on a daily basis.  Obviously content is important.  However, another differentiation technique lies in the aesthetic aspects of your newsletter or blog feed.  Photographs, or graphics of any sort, add interest.  Web Fonts could also be extremely useful in helping your company stand out.  A unique font could really help with brand awareness if the font helps build a visual identity for your company that makes it memorable to both first-time and fifty-eigth time customers, as well as any potential customers out there.

Second, let’s talk versatility with mobile devices.

If your current Denver internet marketing plan does not include an extension to mobile devices (smart phones in particular), it might be time to consider incorporating this into your plan-of-action.  Last week, we touched on the versatility of Web Fonts to transfer over to mobile devices, and discussed that Web Fonts are able to optimize typeface appearance in accordance with the user’s device.  This means Web Fonts are very versatile or all aspects of your e-marketing plan.  You can choose a token web font not only for your visual identity and parts of your website, but also to use on a particular smart phone app that you have created to encourage business.

Lastly, going global.

As we mentioned before, Web Fonts is available in quite a few languages.  The reaches for online marketing are truly limitless, and that is what’s so great about it!  Billboards and advertisements can be posted around various cities, but online advertisements and newsletters can reach people worldwide quickly and easily.  Sticking with our previously discussed theme of versatility (in terms of consistency), Web Fonts are versatile in that they can be translated into multiple languages.  So, visual identity and website aesthetic appeal do not have to be compensated for when you are trying to reach users residing on another continent (not if you are using Web Fonts, that is).

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