Friday, March 31, 2017

Weekly Tech Tips and News for March 31, 2017

Relaxing in St. Maarten, 2017
Wishing safe travels to all of you who are heading out of town for Spring Break. If you are headed to a warmer climate, soak up the warm sun (and please bring some back with you)! If you are not heading south, hopefully you'll find some adventures or tackle some great projects during your week away. For those few of us still at school next week, hopefully we will have very quiet and productive days. In any case, hopefully everyone will return recharged and ready for the last few months of the school year. If you are an iCloud user you will want to read the post about changing your password due to a threat Apple has received. Just in time for Spring Break, you can share your map with others and they can track your trip progress in real time. There are some practical tips for Docs, Slides, forms and photos, as well as some new features in Docs, and more April Fools fun.



iCloud Users - Change Your Password

There has been a lot of buzz lately about a hacker group that is threatening to wipe millions of Apple devices unless Apple pays a ransom by next week. Whether or not they are able to follow through with the threat, it doesn't hurt to be cautious. If you use iCloud to back up your devices, you will want to change your Apple ID password. Here's how.

G Suite Updates:  Change Case in Docs

This is definitely a feature I'm happy to see. By simply highlighting your text in Docs, you can easily switch the letter case to UPPER CASE, lower case, or Title Case. I used this feature often in Word and have missed it in Docs. This option will appear in the Format menu in the next two weeks. Get full details here from the G Suite Updates blog.

How to Add Spoken Audio to Google Slides

How to Add Spoken Audio to Google Slides, from Free Technology for Teachers by Richard Byrne
Using a screen cast Chrome app, such as Nimbus or Screencastify (or any screencast program of your choice), to record your voice and presentation. You could just stop right there and run it as a YouTube video. But if you'd like to run it as a Slides presentation, you can add the video to your presentation, similarly to last week's post about adding music to slides.

Organize, Edit and Create in Google Photos

commons.wikimedia.com
from Badiner Bytes & Tech Tidbits by Jeremy Badiner
Jeremy Badiner, Technologist for Gull Lake Schools, loves Google Photos. (Actually so do I.) He loves it so much he recently published 3 blog posts about it. I use Google photos for all my photos - from my phone, tablet and digital camera, and my husband, who is not comfortable with technology, has started using it as well. It is so easy and practical to edit my photos, apply filters, and create collages or animations. Check out Jeremy's posts (linked below) and you'll see what I mean.
Organize your Google Photos
Edit your Google Photos
Create with Google Photos

The Easier Way to Freeze Rows/Columns in Google Sheets

The Easier Way to Freeze Rows/Columns in Google Sheets, from Better Cloud Monitor
Don't you hate it when  you scroll down in a spreadsheet and you can no longer see the column headings? Here are two ways to freeze those headings so you can always see them.

Equatio:  Yes You Can Type Math and Science in Google Docs and Forms!

Equatio:  Yes You Can Type Math and Science in Google Docs and Forms! from Control Alt Achieve by Eric Curts
The g(Math) add on is getting an upgrade to Chrome extension Equatio. This allows you to insert math and science symbols into Docs and Forms.

Share Your Trips and Real-Time Location from Google Maps

Share Your Trips and Real-Time Location from Google Maps, from The Keyword by Daniel Resnick
Just in time for Spring Break! There are many ways to use this new feature. If you want to let someone know you've arrived safely to your destination, you can share your trip with them and they can check your progress. If you are visiting someone, share your trip and they'll know when to expect your arrival.

Class Tech Tips: 6 Ways to Use Adobe Spark with Google Classroom

Class Tech Tips: 6 Ways to Use Adobe Spark with Google Classroom, from Tech & Learning by Monica Burns
Adobe Spark's own Guide for Schools and Educators suggests using Spark in Grades K-12. While students under the age of 13 cannot create their own Adobe account, they can use their current Google account to use Spark. Spark is easy to use to create social graphics (memes), web stories, and animated video.

Best Google April Fools Videos

maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com
Best Google April Fools Videos, from Control Alt Achieve by Eric Curts
Here's an entertaining way to kill time while on the way to your Spring Break destination. Eric has curated 20 of his favorite Google April Fools videos. Take a look at these greatest hits while waiting to see what Google does this year. (Yes, these are ads for fake Google products.)
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Friday, March 24, 2017

Weekly Tech Tips and News for March 24, 2017

pixabay.com
Hang in there, my friends, only one more week until Spring Break. Many of you are counting down the days, hours, minutes...until you have a week-long break. Whether you are going to a warmer climate, enjoying a staycation, or are part of the year-round crew who are working through break, hopefully you can find ways to relax and recharge your batteries. Of course, your students are looking forward to their break as well and will probably be bouncing off the walls the closer we get to next Friday. In today's post there's a tool to help with noise levels in your classroom as the students' excitement grows, as well as a way for you to make a preemptive April Fools strike, since April 1 is on a Saturday. There are also more tips for a variety of tech tools that I hope you find useful on a day to day basis.


Have Some Fun With Your Students This April Fool's Day

Ah, sweet revenge. We all know how much students LOVE to play April Fool's Day jokes on their teachers. Well, now teachers can play too! There are several Chromebook related pranks you can pull on the students. Since April 1st falls on a Saturday, you can really surprise your students by pranking them on March 31st. If you'd like to play, please let me know, I can make it happen for you. 

32 Genius Google Tips and Tricks That Most People Don't Know About

32 Genius Google Tips and Tricks That Most People Don't Know About, from Distractify by Mark Pygas
Some of these Google search tips are new and some are a review from several of our training sessions. It never hurts to have a refresher, but there are some interesting tips I hadn't heard of before, such as ways of filtering recipes, searching 100 years of digitized newspapers, song searches, and more. It's always a good idea to hone our search skills.

How to Add Music to Google Slides

How to Add Music to Google Slides, From Free Technology for Teachers by Richard Byrne
Unfortunately, Google has not yet added this much requested feature, but there is a work around. 

How to Differentiate Questions with Google Forms

How to Differentiate Questions with Google Forms, from Shake Up Learning by Kasey Bell
You can "branch" your questions in Forms, meaning you can send the user to a different form sections based upon their answer to a question. It's easy to do, you just need to map it out to stay organized. We use several of these types of forms to gather information from our ASA parents, such as the Family Information Change form, and the Faith Formation Updates form. (I definitely created a flow chart when building the Family Info Change form!) Both forms take parents to different sections based on the type of information being updated. In this blog post. Kasey Bell demonstrates how she uses form branching with a review quiz, and also suggests other variations. It sounds more complicated than it really is. If you'd like help or a demo, please let me know.

How to Use Zero Noise Classroom

How to Use Zero Noise Classroom, from Free Technology for Teachers by Richard Byrne
Zero Noise Classroom is a Chrome app that lets you display a timer and a noise meter at the same time. What a great way for your students to visualize the class noise level.

Real News, Fake News or Opinion? Teaching Our Students to Discern the Difference

Real News, Fake News or Opinion? Teaching Our Students to Discern the Difference, from KQED Learning by Alice Chen
It is becoming increasingly difficult for students to tell factual news from opinion or sensationalism. This is a terrific resource with practical application in the classroom, lesson plans and more, to help your students learn how to tell the difference.

5 Ways to Show YouTube Videos Without Related Content

5 Ways to Show YouTube Videos Without Related Content, from Free Technology for Teachers by Richard Byrne
There are several approaches here:  embed the video in Google Slides, use a web tool, or a Chrome extension. Pick your favorite to make showing videos less distracting for your students.
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Friday, March 17, 2017

Weekly Tech Tips and News for March 17, 2017


flickr.com
Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone. May the road rise to meet you, and the wind be always at your back. There has been quite a bit of significant tech news in the last week, such as the new Team Drives, which we will be using at ASA. If you have an iPad or iPhone, you will definitely want to read about how you can prepare for the upcoming 10.3 update, which is not your average update. There is also an interesting study on what kids think about the news, as well as several helpful tips in several different areas, including MAP test reports, flashcards, creating screenshots, and removing backgrounds from pics or clipart. Hopefully one of these tips will be your pot o' gold.


New Team Drives in Google Drive

With the addition of Team Drives in Google Drive last week, we are finally able to create a shared file structure in Google Drive, where you can go to find commonly shared files. (Like we used to use in Windows.) No longer do we need to share files with everyone, who then are unable to locate them in the next they are needed. In your Google Drive you should see a new folder right below My Drive, called Team Drives. Inside the Team Drives folder are sub-folders to which you have access. One of the best features of team drives, is that files in the team drives files are owned by the team drive - not by the file owner. This means if you were to win the lottery tomorrow and retire, any files you had placed in a team drive would remain there after your account is deleted.

You can also see who else has access to a team drive folder by clicking on the folder, then clicking the i on the upper right and selecting Details. Hovering over each initial or avatar will tell you the other members of this folder are and what kind of rights they have. You may have different levels of permissions in each of your drive folders, for example, everyone has view only rights (can see all the files, but cannot make changes) to the Staff (View) folder, but the office staff and administration have full editing rights (add/delete/edit files) to it. So while you may be able to see the files, you won't be able to edit, add, or remove files in that folder. Contrast that with the Staff (Interactive) team drive, to which all employees have editing rights. Any files you place in the Staff (Interactive) team drive will be fully editable by everyone else at ASA. So, think of team folders as the place to share files with a specific group of people. The permissions you have in each folder depend upon your role in that group. You can still share files with individuals or smaller groups of people who don't fit one of the team drive categories. A full list of ASA team drives and members will be sent in a separate email.

Prepare for Upcoming iPad/iPhone Update

If your iPad is running iOS 10, you will be receiving the upgrade to iOS 10.3 later this month. This is a different kind of update because Apple is converting all devices (Macs, iPhones, iPads and Apple TVs) to a new format - Apple File System. What you really need to watch out for is that once it updates to this new platform by way of version 10.3, you will not be able to restore your previous version if your device doesn't work correctly after the update. Well, you will be able to return to the previous version, but all data stored on your device will be wiped out. Apple is strongly recommending you back up all of your devices soon - prior to the update. You can either back up your data using iCloud or connect your device to a Mac or PC and do the back up through iTunes. This will also be a good time to get rid of any apps you don't use, and update all the apps you do use.

G Suite Updates:  Gmail Video File Attachments

Previously, in order to view a video attachment you received in your email, you had to download the file and watch it through your media viewer. With this latest update, you can now simply click on the attachment and watch it right in Gmail.

Highlights Module for Simple MAP Data Explanations
MAP newsletter mar 17

It's unfortunate that I didn't receive this information a few weeks ago - before conferences. In the Student Profile Report on the NWEA site, there is a Highlights module below the Subjects tab. This will help you explain MAP data in parent friendly language. Click here for free training to use the Student Profile Report.

10 Ways Google Keep Can Help Streamline Life at School

10 Ways Google Keep Can Help Streamline Life at School, from Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller
I know, I know, enough on Google Keep already! I had to include this one because it is specifically about how to use it in school to make your life easier. Love sticky notes? Digitize them and carry them with you everywhere. Inspired by a great idea? Record a note. Need to sketch an idea? Use the pencil tool in Keep. Color code your notes. Set a reminder for certain times or locations. There's a handy, dandy video tutorial in this post as well.

What Kids Think About the News

What Kids Think About the News, from Common Sense Media by Michael Robb
Common Sense Media conducted a large-scale study of how kids get their news, engage with it, and feel about it. Kids are so much more connected than ever before, and news now comes through all forms of social media. There are some interesting findings in the study, which definitely highlights the importance of educating our students in media literacy.

Duolingo Tinycards - Quick Review Activities

Duolingo Tinycards - Quick Review Activities, from Free Technology for Teachers by Richard Byrne
There are numerous subject areas of flashcards to use, and you can also create your own. This also takes flashcards one step further, by combining flash cards with fill in the blanks to make sure students know the content.

Three Good Tools for Creating Screenshots on Chromebooks

Three Good Tools for Creating Screenshots on Chromebooks from Free Technology for Teachers by Richard Byrne
Why would you want to be able to create screenshots? There are countless uses in education for not only taking a screen shot of something, but also annotating it. Screen shots are not just for instruction steps. You may want students to label a map or diagram, or point out a specific point of interest in a photo or blur our a portion of it. I'm sure you can think of many more opportunities to use screenshots and mark them up. Keep in mind, if you would like students to use one of these, please let me know and I will push it out to them.

Top 3 Apps to Remove Backgrounds from Pics on a Chromebook

Top 3 Apps to Remove Backgrounds from Pics on a Chromebook, from edTechify by Bob Petitto
One of these ways, which is also the easiest, is available via a website, not an app, so it is accessible now for all students. The other two involve the apps Pixlr and PicMonkey. Both are easily obtainable apps in the Chrome Web Store that you can install in Chrome on either a Chromebook, PC or Mac. PicMonkey is an app and extension that is already pushed out to student Chromebooks. If you would like them to have Pixlr as well, please let me know and I'll push it out.
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Friday, March 10, 2017

Weekly Tech Tips and News for March 10, 2017

There is a lot of information for every grade level this week. Now that Google Keep has been included in the G Suite apps, there are a few suggestions on how to use it. I can tell you I personally use it to bookmark web sites and give them labels so I can easily find them again by topic. I also use a shared Keep checklist with my husband for our grocery list. He is not very technology comfortable, but even he uses it on his phone! Keep makes my shopping list easier because I can reuse previously checked off items and quickly rearrange this list in the order items appear in the store. I've even taken photos of presentation boards and converted them to notes in Keep, and now can pull them into Docs as well. There are so many ways you and your students can use Keep, both at school and in your personal lives. In addition to Keep tips, there are several other tips for your consideration that can save you time, help communications, and activities to use with your students.


Using Google Keep for Grading Comments in Docs

Using Google Keep for Grading Comments in Docs, from Control Alt Achieve by Eric Curts
Create a list of often used comments to use when grading student work in Google Docs, or maybe you already have a list? Now that Keep has been integrated with Docs, put your comments in Keep, and pull it up in a panel in Docs, and copy and paste the ones you need. There's a short tutorial in the linked article.

The G Suite Show:  Update Your To-Dos with Keep

With Google Keep's recent inclusion in the core G Suite products there seems to be no end to the tutorials. This short and sweet video sums up most of the Keep features. Use it to organize bookmarks, keep list, take spoken notes on the fly, etc.


5 Neat Things Students Can Do With Google Drawings

5 Neat Things Students Can Do With Google Drawings, from Practical Ed Tech by Richard Byrne
Google Drawings is one of those overlooked G Suite apps that many don't know how to use. Here are five common tasks that can be easily accomplished in Drawings:  image cropping, image filtering, image labeling and commenting, word art and charts/graphs. The blog post also includes an instructional video.

Customized Email Newsletters for Every Kid with Google Forms

Customized Email Newsletters for Every Kid with Google Forms, from Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller
Aside from the initial set up, which doesn't take that long, sending personalized newsletters, with information specific to each student, won't take much longer than a generic newsletter. I have used Autocrat and can easily help you with setting it up. You can either use Forms or Sheets to enter the personalized info. Think of the impact this would make on your students' parents with very little effort on your part. Please let me know if you'd like help setting this up.

How to Use Speaker Notes in Google Slides

How to Use Speaker Notes in Google Slides, from BetterCloud Monitor
Speaker notes hold all the details for each slide, which the presenter can see, but the audience cannot. You can view speaker notes when giving your presentation, while the audience sees only the slides. This is a great way to make sure you don't miss any details.

How to Automatically Alternate Row (or Column) Colors in Google Sheets

How to Automatically Alternate Row (or Column) Colors in Google Sheets, by BetterCloud Monitor
This is a tip I wish I'd found much sooner. We all know it's much easier to read a spreadsheet when every other row or column is shaded or colored. Here is an easy way to accomplish that in Sheets using conditional formatting.

"One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" Sorting with Google Slides

"One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" Sorting with Google Slides, from Control Alt Achieve by Eric Curts
Not only is this a good activity for our younger students, it also fits in with March is Reading Month, Dr. Seuss's birthday last week, and the fish I've seen displayed in the K-1 hallway at the elementary. Get the free template in the linked blog post to recreate this sorting activity, using a graphic organizer in Google Slides.

Find Fun Math Challenges on Would You Rather

Find Fun Math Challenges on Would You Rather, from Practical Ed Tech by Richard Byrne
Would You Rather is a site that shares quick and fun math challenges for students.

5 Great Online News Sources for Kids

Common Sense Media presents this list of news resources for kids.


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Friday, March 3, 2017

Weekly Tech Tips and News for March 3, 2017

K.Szczytko, Little Traverse Wheelway 2016
No this photo is not from my recent visit to the Caribbean. It was taken last summer in Petoskey from the Little Traverse Wheelway, the bike path that runs along beautiful Lake Michigan. Over the course of a couple summers, Mark and I have ridden the entire 26 miles from Charlevoix to Harbor Springs. I recommend the stretch near Petoskey to anyone who happens to be in the area. Why am I sharing this lovely summer photo now, while the weather keeps bouncing between winter and premature spring? It's to spotlight our Great Lakes and the TED-Ed Lesson, A Short Lesson About the Great Lakes, which appears later in this post. (Did you know the inter-connected Great Lakes contain 20% of the worlds fresh water?) There are TED-Ed lessons about a wide range of topics, check them out as an additional resource for your class.  Other topics in this week's post include the latest G Suite updates, simple search lessons, how to use Genius Hour and Hyperdocs in your class, providing instant student feedback, and more.


G Suite Updates:  

Unread Message Indicators in Hangouts

gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com
Google Hangouts on both desktop and Android has received a time-saving update. Now when you enter a very active conversation, you'll see a Jump to Last Read button, which takes you to the last unread message in the thread. Here's the full explanation from the G Suite Update Blog. For those of you who have not yet embraced the convenience of Hangouts, in Gmail it allows you to instant message your Google contacts (either with or without video) - one at a time, or a group. Think about how handy it would be to instant message the office staff when sending a student there. In addition to instant messaging, in Hangouts you can hold meetings with up to 150 people and share your screens with those who are at different locations. In other words,  you do not have to be in the same room to hold a meeting. Hangouts is one of the apps available in G Suite. Just click on the Hangouts icon to try it out. Click here for Hangouts instructions or ask me for a tutorial session.

Google Keep Now a G Suite Core Service

Google Keep is a note taking service, like Evernote or One Note, that now integrates with Google  Docs. You can save information from Docs to Keep and vice versa. Want to convert a photo of your whiteboard into editable notes? Snap a photo of it in Google Keep. Now that it is part of the core G Suite apps, it means you will find the icon for it in your app switcher (waffle) next to your avatar or name in Google. You can also share Keep notes, checklists, reminders, etc., with other users for further collaboration. Last fall, I posted an article on what Keep can do. You may want to review it to see how useful Keep can be for you and your students. Click here for a full explanation of the Google Keep update from from Free Tech for Teachers by Richard Byrne

Larger Attachments in Gmail

Starting this week, you can now receive up to 50MB attachments in Gmail. This doubles the size of the attached files you can receive. While that's good news, you are still limited to attachments of 25MB when sending email.

Create a Shared Checklist With Google Keep

Create a Shared Checklist With Google Keep, from Better Cloud Monitor
Here's a quick tutorial on how to share a checklist with co-workers or students for tracking progress on a group project. What else can you use a shared checklist for?

10 Strategies for Lightning-Quick Feedback Students can REALLY Use 

How often do you provide feedback on student homework, only to find it in the trash? Here are some strategies for providing that feedback while they are working on the assignment.

Simple, Effective Search Challenge Lessons

Simple, Effective Search Challenge Lessons, from Free Technology for Teachers by Richard Byrne
The argument can be made that proper internet search skills are nearly as important in today's world as good reading or math skills. Here are some resources and lesson ideas to use when teaching your students how to efficiently and effectively search the internet.

12 Ways to Really make Genius Hour Work in Your Class

12 Ways to Really Make Genius Hour Work in Your Class, from Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller
Give kids the opportunity to be innovative and creative in their approach to learning. They'll learn how to learn for the sake of learning - not for the grade. Allow them to view attempts that don't work not as mistakes or failures, but as true learning experiences. There's also an 18 minute TED talk included that debunks the carrot and stick method as effective motivation.

A Short Lesson About the Great Lakes

A Short Lesson About the Great Lakes from Free Technology for Teachers by Richard Byrne
Not only is this a great science lesson, which is near and dear to our hearts as Michiganders, (or is it Michiganians?) but it also includes a TED-Ed lesson. These lessons are based on TED-Ed talks and/or YouTube videos, which are created by other educators. You can also create your own lessons and share them with others. Search for lessons by subject, content type, student level, and video length. Students watch the video, then proceed to the Think section which comprises of questions to answer about the topic. The next section, Dig Deeper provides additional resources to explore, followed by Discuss, where the students can contribute to a guided discussion. Teachers can also customize the lessons to better fit their needs.

Hyperdocs & Self-Paced Learning

Hyperdocs & Self-Paced Learning, by Catlin Tucker
As you may recall from a post last January, a Hyperdoc is a document containing links to many resources that guide students through a self-paced lesson. Here is a post about how this teacher uses them in her class.

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