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
• G Suite Updates:  Change Case in Docs
• How to Add Spoken Audio to Google Slides
• Organize, Edit and Create in Google Photos
• The Easier Way to Freeze Rows/Columns in Google Sheets
• Equatio: Yes You Can Type Math and Science in Google Docs and Forms!
• Share Your Trips and Real-Time Location from Google Maps
• Class Tech Tips: 6 Ways to Use Adobe Spark with Google Classroom
• Best Google April Fools Videos

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

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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

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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.)