Thursday, September 23, 2021

ASA Tech Tips and News for September 2021

I finally feel like I'm coming up for air after the annual start of the school year storm. I hope you are too! The school year now seems to be underway, routines have been established, and MAP testing is behind us. Even the weather seems to be leaving summer behind and heading into more fall-like temps. This post is lighter on tips and focuses more on catching everyone up on the latest Canvas and Google udpate news. There will be more tips and ideas for using tech in your classroom in upcoming posts.  Enjoy getting to know your students and igniting the fire of learning within them. 


How to Wipe (Securely Erase) Your Devices Before Disposing of or Selling Them

Replacing your phone or laptop? Don't let your personal information fall into the wrong hands! Learn how to safely remove your information from it before recycling or selling it. 

Infinite Campus Maintenance October 2

Be advised that Infinite Campus will be udergoing network maintenance on October 2nd from 11:00 am until 5:00 pm for network maintenance. If you are hard at work during this time you may experience intermittent outages or slowness.

Canvas Updates

These updates are scheduled to be available on October 16th.

Edit Submission Status Labels in SpeedGrader

You'll now be able to edit assignment submission labels (late, missing, excused) from within SpeedGrader. Watch this demonstration video for instructions. 

Search for Assignments in Gradebook

An assignment search field will be added to Gradebook to make it easier to locate assignments. Here is a video demonstration. 

Google Workspace Updates:


Google Calendar:  Share Where You're Working From

You can now inidicate where you're working from directly on your calendar. You can add this information weekly, and update it if things change. Your location choices include:  Office, Home, Unspecified and Somewhere Else. Anyone with Free/Busy access to your calendar can view your working locations. The feature is off by default. Learn how to turn it on and use it here. 

Google Drive:  Easily Make All File Types Available Offline in Google Drive



Now you can make ALL types of files available offline in Google Drive, not just Google files. This means you can access those files even when you don't have an internet connection. For chromebook users, you can now use the Files app to select Docs, Sheets and Slides files to be available offline. Here are the details. If you are completely unfamiliar with using files offline, use this help article for Macs, iOS and Windows laptops, and this article for Chromebook users.

Google Drive:  Preventing Users from Blocking Trusted Domain Users

Last month, Google began allowing users to block other users from sharing files with them in Google Drive. This is a security feature designed to allow you to block files being shared with you from unwanted or dangerous users outside our domain (DOGR, ASAGR, etc.). This setting has now been refined so some outside domains can be identified as trusted domains, and users will be unable to block sending users from those trusted domains. Not sure how this works? Here are a couple Google Help articles:  Block & Unblock People in Google Drive and Block or Unblock People's Accounts. 

Google Meet:  It's easier to prevent and troubleshoot an Echo



Now when other Meet participants can hear an echo from your device, you won't have to rely on them to inform you. The More menu (three dots/snowman) will have a red dot when your device is causing feedback. When you click on it, an audio and video troubleshooting card will appear, with troubleshooting tips. Full details are available here. 

Google Meet:  Improved Visibility on the Web

When joining a Meet, do you look like you're in a 60 Minutes interview where they are hiding your identity? It's time to step into the light! When you are participating in a Google Meet, on a laptop, in a low light situation, Meet will now prompt you to adjust the video light. Low light could be either insufficient light in the room, or bright light behind you, leaving you in shadow. On some devices Meet will automatically recommend you adjust the light. On others you will need to turn on this feature yourself. The Turn On Automatic Video Lighting Adjustment section of this help article will show you how to turn on the prompt. I'm not seeing this feature yet, but it should be available within the next two weeks. 

Google Sheets:  Intelligent Suggestions for Formulas and Functions



I'm happy to see this update as I've missed this feature from Excel. When entering a function, such as =sum, Sheets will automatically fill in the most obvious cell range to complete the function. Of course you can edit if Google guesses incorrectly.

New Way to Learn, Explore & Discover Chromebooks

If you are new to chromebooks, or you would like to help your students become more familiar with how a chromebook works, here's a game to play while you learn. This gamified version of Chromebook training is described in detail here. If you'd just like to get started playing and learning, you can find the game here. You'll definitely learn some new tricks, I know I did!

How to Make Chrome Run a Little Faster




How to Edit, Restart, or Continue a Numbered List in Google Docs

What to do when you need to go to a new line in a numbered list, but you don't want it to advance a number? Then how do you resume the numbers? It's actually pretty easy.

Screencastify Makes Video Quizzes Easier with Interactive Questions Feature

Another tool for assessing your students understanding of a video as they are watching it. 
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