Tech Tips and News for July 17, 2020

We Are Teachers

Although we are still in the middle of summer, I'm sure many of you are already thinking about what will happen next school year? Of course, all that is still getting figured out, so we need to be ready for any eventuality, including the possibility of quickly pivoting from in-person instruction to remote learning, or possibly needing to do both simultaneously. There are so many resources available, and you still have plenty of time to try some new things out or refine the familiar, with your new-found background in remote learning from last Spring. Google Meet is getting some new features that were developed with education in mind. Maybe consider the need to record lessons by familiarizing yourself with the video camera on your phone, using Canvas Studio, or Loom, or any other screencasting solution, and figuring out now how to upload it with Canvas or Drive. Teachers are some of the most creative and innovative professionals, so I'm sure you will make any eventuality work with your teaching style. You can always reach out for help as well, I'm happy to work through a process with you. Be sure to check out the school reopening memes at the end of the blog - when we can do anything else, we might as well laugh.

• What's Inside Your Computer - Three Introductory Lessons from TED-Ed
• How the New App Library Works on iPhone
• How to Make Google Auto-Delete Your Web and Location History
• G Suite Updates:  Anonymous Users Blocked from Google Meet by Default, Improved Google Calendar Event Creation on the Web
• EDU in 90:  Time Saving G Suite Tips
• EDU in 90:  More Time Saving G Suite Tips
• 8 Tips and Tricks to Speed Up Gmail
• 7 New Google Meet Features for Teachers
• How to Use Loom to Make a Whiteboard Video
• 20 Add-ons and Extensions to Supercharge Your Google Slides Presentations
• 11 Accurate Teacher Memes About School Reopening This Fall

What's Inside Your Computer - Three Introductory Lessons from TED-Ed

What's Inside Your Computer - Three Introductory Lessons from TED-Ed, from Free Technology for Teachers by Richard Byrne
Do you feel like technology is a mystery? Well here's a chance to understand a little more about how computers work. As with any other tool you use on a daily basis, it's helpful to have a basic understanding of how they work to use them properly or purchase new technology with knowledge.

How the New App Library Works on iPhone

How the New App Library Works on iPhone, from How-To Geek by Khamosh Pathak
When your iPhone updates to iOS 14, it will roll out with the App Library. Here's how it works.

How to Make Google Auto-Delete Your Web and Location History

How to Make Google Auto-Delete Your Web and Location History, from How-To Geek by Chris Hoffman
Google has recently started deleting your web and location history after 18 months, but only for new users. Existing users will need to manually turn this on.

G Suite Updates:  

Anonymous Users Blocked from Google Meet by Default

Many teachers have struggled with students or other users outside their schools trying to join a class Google Meet. Even if the teacher doesn't let them in, their continuous join requests are a huge distraction for the teacher and the flow of the class. To combat this Google Meet for education accounts will be automatically set to not allow users outside the school domain to join the Meet. They won't even be able to request to join. This means, for younger students, if the parents are joining the Meet, they will need to do so through the child's student account.

Improved Google Calendar Event Creation on the Web

Google has added settings to the initial event setup pop-up window. You will no longer need to click More Tools to grant guest permissions, add attachments, choose an event color, customize notifications, and set how an event is viewed. Full details with instructions can be found here. 

EDU in 90:  Time Saving G Suite Tips

EDU in 90:  More Time Saving G Suite Tips

The first few tips are for Classroom, but there are more useful tips after those.

8 Tips and Tricks to Speed Up Gmail

8 Tips and Tricks to Speed Up Gmail, from How-To Geek by Howard Wen
Does Gmail seem to take a long time to load after each message? Try these tips to speed it back up.

7 New Google Meet Features for Teachers

7 New Google Meet Features for Teachers, from Free Technology for Teachers by Richard Byrne
These new features will be coming soon to Google Meet for G Suite for Education users. They will be so helpful for teachers if we need to return to remote learning at some point next school year. They include the ability to mute all participants, a hand raising function, teacher ability to end the meeting and prevent students from rejoining, after ejecting a participant they will not be able to automatically rejoin and their requests to rejoin are limited, an integrated whiteboard, and the ability to change the background. This will eliminate the need for several Chrome extension that we use for Meet.

How to Use Loom to Make a Whiteboard Video

How to Use Loom to Make a Whiteboard Video, from Free Technology for Teachers by Richard Byrne
Loom is free and works from any device. It's also an easy screencast service to use. Jamboard is built in to G Suite for Education, and works interactively like all other Google apps.

20 Add-ons and Extensions to Supercharge Your Google Slides Presentations

20 Add-ons and Extensions to Supercharge Your Google Slides Presentations, from Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller
Looking for icons? They have millions. Want to make your slide deck interactive? It's there! Need flashcards? You can do that too! So many more, as well.

11 Accurate Teacher Memes About School Reopening This Fall

11 Accurate Teacher Memes About School Reopening This Fall, from We Are Teachers by Nikki Katz
When we can do nothing else, we can always laugh.

Tech Tips & News For July 3, 2020

flickr.com

Doesn't it seem as if the last school year just ended, and here we are halfway through summer already! As you relax and enjoy the holiday weekend, yet unable to sleep due to the constant fireworks, here are some tech tips and news to help you out. There are several for the care and feeding of your laptop or desktop computer, and also numerous Google updates. A couple of the updates will need your intervention. In addition, take a moment to look at why it's so important to protect children's personal information, and teach them to do the same. Children are attractive targets to those who specialize in identity theft. Enjoy the holiday and drink in the warm, sunny weather.

• It's Important to Run Windows Updates
• How to Quickly Show Your Desktop on Windows 10
• 10 Awesome Windows 10 Desktop Tips and Tricks
• What To Do If You Spilled Water or Coffee On Your Laptop
• Why K-12 Students Need to Be Taught to Guard Their Data Online
• G Suite Updates:  Strengthening 2-Step Verification With Phone Prompts, Update Your G Suite Apps on Desktop, Android and iOS by August 12, Filter Out Disruptive Noise in Google Meet
• How to Create an Approved Senders List in Gmail
• Sharing vs. Publishing Google Docs
• Five Overlooked Features of Google Forms Quizzes
• How to Use Pictures in Google Forms
• 5 Ways to Support Parents During Remote Learning

It's Important to Run Windows Updates Regularl

Windows pushes out security updates once each month. Big feature updates are pushed out twice each year, in the fall and spring. It is important to run all updates when they are available to keep your laptop updated and secure. Windows is doing a better job of not making updates available to devices that may experience issues with them. How do you know when updates are ready? You'll see an icon in the lower right section of the taskbar that runs along the bottom of your desktop. It looks like a rectangle with an orange dot on it. (See image above.) Windows will automatically restart your laptop during your off hours, as long as you leave your Windows device on, or you can click on that icon and tap/click the Restart Now button. What happens if you ignore the update restart prompt? After several days of seeing the prompt and not restarting, you'll begin to have trouble printing or connecting to WiFi to prompt you to restart.

How to Quickly Show Your Desktop on Windows 10

How to Quickly Show Your Desktop on Windows 10, from How-To Geek by Benj Edwards
When you find yourself busily working along with many tabs and windows open, and suddenly to access a shortcut on your desktop, what do you do? Well there's a handy shortcut that's MUCH faster than closing all the windows you have open.

10 Awesome Windows 10 Desktop Tips and Tricks

10 Awesome Windows 10 Desktop Tips and Tricks, from How-To Geek by Benj Edwards
Some of these tips are a little silly, such as turning your desktop into a meadow, or creating invisible folders. Others are much more helpful, such as grouping your desktop icons, changing the size of your icons, or syncing to a Mac.

What To Do If You Spilled Water or Coffee On Your Laptop

What To Do If You Spilled Water or Coffee On Your Laptop, from How-To Geek by Tim Brookes
The best way to try to save that laptop!

Why K-12 Students Need to Be Taught to Guard Their Data Online

Why K-12 Students Need to Be Taught to Guard Their Data Online, from Ed Tech by Shailaja Neelakantan
Who would ever be interested in student data? Well, it turns out pristine social security numbers, birth dates, names, etc., are VERY lucrative to those who market stolen identities. It's imperative we teach students to be protective of their personal information. It's bad enough for adults to have their identities stolen, it's even worse for a young adult to apply for credit for the first time, only to find their credit history has been abused for years.

G Suite Updates:  

Strengthening 2-Step Verification With Phone Prompts

Currently if you've turned on 2-factor verification, unless you use a security key, when you login to your Google account you'll receive a text on your smartphone to confirm it's really you. To make this more secure, in early July Google will make this process more secure by sending a phone prompt instead of a text. Here's how it will work:  after you sign in to your Google account, Google will send a "Trying to sign in?' prompt on eligible mobile phones. This prompt will tell you when and where your password was entered. You just simply tap the appropriate response on your phone. Here are all the details.

Update Your G Suite Apps on Desktop, Android and iOS by August 12

If you use G Suite for Education apps on Android or iOS, or the Drive File Stream on your desktop, be sure to update the apps by August 12 or they will stop working. Full details can be found here.

Filter Out Disruptive Noise in Google Meet

Google Meet now can filter out background noises on the desktop version. The feature will be added to Meet on mobile devices in the coming months. This new feature is not on by default, you will need to turn in on in Meet settings. I don't yet see this setting, but it should be available within the next week or so. Read all about it here.

How to Create an Approved Senders List in Gmail

How to Create an Approved Senders List in Gmail, from Free Technology for Teachers by Richard Byrne
If you'd like to be proactive about receiving certain emails, and not have to go find them in the spam folder and then mark them as "not spam", you can easily create a filter.

Sharing vs. Publishing Google Docs

You can either share a doc, and give someone else the ability to just view, view and comment or edit it, or you can publish it to the web. Publishing the doc to the web is an alternative to creating a static PDF. Anyone with any device can view it, but not make changes. Best of all, you can continue to update the doc after it's been published.

Five Overlooked Features of Google Forms Quizzes

Five Overlooked Features of Google Forms Quizzes, from Free Technology for Teachers by Richard Byrne
These are great tips for customizing your quizzes, such as point values, defining the format or length of an answer, shuffling the order of questions and even answers, and more.

How to Use Pictures in Google Forms

How to Use Pictures in Google Forms, from Free Technology for Teachers by Richard Byrne
If you prefer giving tests and quizzes in Google Forms as opposed to the Quiz feature in Canvas, here are good instructions for embedding photos into your questions. This method will allow you to still be able to shuffle questions, and the photos will stay with the appropriate questions.

5 Ways to Support Parents During Remote Learning

5 Ways to Support Parents During Remote Learning, from Tech & Learning by Carl Hooker
We learned so much during three months of remote learning, so have other teachers. For remote learning to really work, it's just as important to consider it from a parent's perspective.