Tech Tips & News For July 3, 2020

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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.