Friday, January 20, 2023

Tech Tips and News for January 20, 2023

Peek-a-boo Sun by Dall-E 2
I know, I flooded you with information about ChatGPT last week, but I couldn't resist the video at the end of this post, in which Ryan Reynolds asks ChatGPT to write an ad for Mint Mobile. It's pretty funny, but it's also quite a good example of the ability and power of this AI tool. Because of all the buzz Open AI's ChatGPT is getting, I decided to highlight their other AI product, Dall-E 2. Dall-E 2 will create an image of anything you can imagine. Just enter the description of the image you want. The more descriptive you are, the better the results. Since we've had so little sunshine, I asked it to create an illustration of the sun playing peek-a-boo. I had to keep refining my search until I got something close to what I was after. The final search term for this image ended up as:  Klimt style painting of a friendly sun with eyes hiding behind a gloomy cloud and peeking around it. It's certainly an option for those times when you can't find an image to illustrate your point. Incidentally, if you created an OpenAI account for ChatGPT, you can use that same account to sign in to Dall-E 2. 

Google Workspace Updates


Google Docs:  New Option to View Non-Printing Characters

I've missed this feature from Microsoft Office, and am very happy to see it finally added to Docs. This is very helpful when proofreading a document for formatting errors. When turned on you can immediately see any extra spaces or paragraphs and remove them. When this update becomes available sometime in the month of January, you'll be able to turn it on in a Doc by clicking View > Show non-printing characters. Full details for this update can be found here. 

Docs and Slides:  Voice Feature Improvements

Voice typing features have been improved to allow you to more accurately verbally dictate your text and punctuation in Google Docs, and in the captions for Google Slides. The new improvements will reduce transcription errors and lost audio, as well as automatically punctuating captions in Slides. If you are not already seeing these improvments you will see them by early February. Not only will you be able to voice type and add punctuation as you go, but you will also have the ability to make edits verbally. Not sure how to use voice typing? Here are the voice typing instructions, and the guide to presenting slides with captions. 

Google Meet:  Emojis are Coming 😃


With this update, you'll be able to share reactions with emojis during Google Meets. The emoji will float up the left side of the screen to appear as a small badge in each participant's video tile. This is an easy way to show your reaction to the topic being presented without interrupting the speaker. The emoji button will appear for users along the bottom of the screen with the rest of your Meet tool buttons, such as microphone/camera controls, raising your hand, captions, and sharing your screen. We should see this update before the end of January. Read all the details about this feature here.

Google Meet:  See Speaker Notes While Presenting Google Slides



With the October update, it became possible to present Google Slides directly in Google Meet. With this new update, you'll now be able to see your speaker notes while presenting your Google Slide deck. While presenting a tab, and selecting Google Slide Presentation, you'll havve a speaker notes button in the bottom controls. Learn more about controlling Sides presentations in Google Meet here.  This update should appear by mid to late January.

How to Use Voice Typing in Google Slides

This demonstrates the update above. 


27 Google Drive Tips and Tricks

27 Google Drive Tips and Tricks, from Free Technology for Teachers by Richard Byrne
Are you not quite sure what Google Drive is? Do you have trouble finding or organizing your Google files, or files that have been shared with you? This is the playlist for you! Even if you are familiar with Drive, I'll bet there are features and tricks you didn't know existed.

New Google Sheets Timeline Creator

New Google Sheets Timeline Creator, from Control Alt Achieve by Eric Curts
A free template you can use with your students is available as well to give you and your students a shortcut. 

ChatGPT Writes a Mint Mobile Ad

Pretty funny example of using ChatGPT.


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