Noel Erskine, Technology Coordinator Norris Schools

Welcome to my technology blog.
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πŸ’₯ Tech tools - Some great new Gsuite features, Google Drawing tips, tech tools and more... in this edition.

Thursday, April 18, 2019



✔️Finally - they added it!  Enhance presentations in Slides with audio. 
Google is adding the ability for users to embed MP3 and WAV audio files from Drive into Slides. It will be rolling out soon.  More details here. 
Another Slides update - Easily Customize Theme Colors in Slides

Gmail Smart Compose Subject Suggestions

Schedule your Gmail - It's here for Norris users already!
In the past few weeks, Google has been rolling out the capability to schedule when your email is sent.  (In the past, this required an extension like Boomerang for Gmail)  


Note: You must enable Gmail offline for this feature to be present on your Chromebook or desktop computer. (These settings are specific to each device you log into.) 



Take action faster with customizable swipe actions in Gmail on iOS
This feature was already in Android... but If you have an iPhone it's a nice addition!  Check out how to do it here.  (I loved this update for my iPhone! - Swipe one way I delete the message and swipe the other way and it' archived. Customizable!) 

Google Classroom update - NEW (Students/Staff will want to update their apps!)
Note - This will only affect new classes created after 4-17-19.
What do I need to know?
From April 17, 2019, any new classes created in Classroom will experience new ordering rules on the Classwork page. New topics or items posted to the Classwork page in these new classes will start to appear at the top of the page instead of the bottom. We have made this change to improve the user experience of Classroom based on teacher and professor feedback. This feature will not be supported by versions of the mobile app which are older than 2.2019.06301 on iOS and 5.2.102.04xx on Android.

What do I need to do?
To enable your users to view the new ordering on mobile, please update your devices (via the Play and App Stores) so that they are running the latest versions of the Android and iOS apps.

✍🏾 The Google Classroom iOS and Android apps have the ability to markup assignments. A teacher can use a finger or a stylus to add colorful annotations, handwriting, and highlighting.
Note: The K-2 Chromebooks and 9-12 Chromebooks are set to run the Android Google Classroom app- so this works great! Make an assignment and students can mark it up and turn it back in via the Android Classroom app! 


πŸ’° Remember - It's easy to give a percent of your Amazon purchases to the Norris Foundation! At no cost to you! 
This document will get you started.  Only takes a couple of minutes - and at Norris, you are always taken to smile.amazon.com so once you set your charity, it will go to the foundation.

πŸ“ŒGreat reminders from our Norris Staff - Limit the "reply all" emails.
  • If you want to avoid people doing a reply all to an email you send - send it out with the BCC instead fo using the C or CC. Great tip!
  • You can also change Gmails default reply behavior - I recommend doing this! Here is a how-to article, or here is a screenshot courtesy of Andrew Carlson:







Pretty cool: 
From Charlie Hutzler - @CAHutzler Mr. Applegate led his #NorrisTitans through a virtual tour of #Auschwitz utilizing #Chromebooks and http://panorama.auschwitz.org .

Misc. Tech:
Several from via Richard Byrne @rmbyrne 
31 of My Favorite Ed Tech Tools - video (54 Min. but great tools!)


The following resource is from Matt Millers DitchThatTextbook email.  Check out his great website for a ton of resources and subscribe to his email list for more goodies. 

More Google Drawings goodness



(PS: That Tony Vincent Ditch Summit video presentation is only available for a few more weeks, and then it'll go offline until the summit in December. Don't wait!)

Today, the #DitchBook Twitter community has shared in a big way! In addition to the resources listed above, they shared 35 MORE ideas for using Google Drawings in the classroom!  


πŸ—“ NETA 2019 Session resources
Didn't make it to NETA - you can still view the session resources here. (Some great ideas and resources for K-12 classrooms.)

πŸ”‚Updates to Stream in Google Classroom
From Google - Thanks to your feedback, we brought back the ability to move posts to the top of the Stream, just like in classic Classroom. We also introduced a setting for controlling how notifications appear in the Stream.  To stay on top of what's new in classroom - Checkout out this site. 

✅IT IS BACK!! To-Do in Google Classroom 
To Do List in Google Classroom is Back - learn more here.

πŸ“§Write now, send later with Schedule send in Gmail!  
Yes, Boomerang has been a great extension that gave us this functionality in the past... But coming in the next few weeks... It will be built into Gmail! More info here. 



πŸ“ŒWhere on Google Earth is Carmen Sandiego?
The world's greatest super thief has struck again! Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Google have created an interactive quiz that takes your students across the globe to find clues and solve the mystery of the Crown Jewels caper.

Build and share your own VR experience
You and your students can now view and guide your own VR tours in Google Expeditions on both iOS and Android! Start by visiting https://vr.google.com/tourcreator/ 

CHROME MUSIC LAB - Check it out!
Pretty cool site for teaching some music concepts - Rhythm, Chords, and more. You will love it... and kids will love it too!
Here is a NETA 2019 presentation and a few resources on the subject.  

Google Trends?
Want to see what's trending in search - https://trends.google.com/trends/ 
Here is a 5x5 grid of what's being searched - Pretty cool! 

 Hipster Google - Google Tools You Probably Never Heard Of
You will find some pretty cool ones in this slide deck by Eric Curtis of Control Alt Achieve. 

Some great resources from... Eric Curtis of Control Alt Achieve

Note- Tony presented at NETA 2019 - so the topics above were all presented live.  His tips and resources rock.  Special thanks to @tonyvincent for allowing me to use his graphics in my posts! 

How To Share Pictures of Student Work with Spark Page. If you are not using the Spark tools... you are missing out.  Check out our help article on how to log in and more about these great tools. 

Google help is great - and the help adapts to what Gsuite product you are in and what you are doing! 


If you want others to only view your Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, or Drawings document, you can cut the clutter by making a Preview link.




πŸ“† How about adding visual cues to your digital calendar with emojis? Since emojis can be entered anywhere you can enter text, you can add emojis to calendars and lesson plans!





Posted by Noel Erskine at 11:50 AM 0 comments
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πŸ’₯ Tech tools - Hyperdocs, free templates, free AR app, make Google rock, and more in this weeks tech tips

Friday, March 22, 2019



New feature in GoGuardian product- Quick Links.

I toss this out there, since our district uses GoGuardian. 

In a Teacher Session, teachers may create and apply a Scene to limit student browsing.

In a Scene, teachers may block or allow specific websites.  Many popular educational websites sometimes redirect to other websites in different domains -- Quick Lists accommodates this. Quick Lists are groups of URLs that can be quickly added or removed to a Scene's exceptions list. They can be added to block or allow mode scenes.  More info on quick links can be found here.

If you need help with GoGuardian or have never even started with this great tool - Give Jason a call. If you have not worked with Jason yet... you are in for a treat! HE ROCKS! 

Hyperdocs - Have you jumped on this tool yet?


Learn more about them in this Ditch that Textbook Digital Summit presentation. Hyperdocs are not just a doc with links.  Are students creating and not just consuming with your Hyperdoc? Video here.

Free web tools and sites:

PDF Candy - Awesome free/online FPD tool - Convert, save, rotate, cut, etc... the list goes on,  This is a great site!

Mozilla launches Firefox Send, a free self-destructing file-sharing service - Free, simple password-protect options, private file link, encrypted, ... and more!  





This free online tool uses AI to quickly remove the background from images- A handy utility if you don’t have access to Photoshop! (Works great!) 

Free AR app and tools!
My Very Hungry Caterpillar AR is free for a limited time. (IOS app)   If you have not played around with AR - grab this app, your kids will love it too! 


Free Audible News:
Audible: News Digests from NYT, WSJ & The Washington Post are free for  Amazon Prime Members. Details here. 

Make Google Suite rock with these tools/tips:

25 Good G Suite Add-ons & Chrome Extensions  CHECK IT OUT! - Great list from one of my favorites -   


Google Slides interactive notebooks + 20 activities to fill them CHECK IT OUT! Think out of the box on how to use slides! 



Google Classroom:

 
Can AI help you make your quiz questions for you? 
Give it a try! Automate question creation with Quillionz.  Check out the 5-minute video to see how it works.  So if you’re excited about automating question creation, you’ll want to check out this AI-powered tool. Get started with Quillionz for free!   If you try this, let me know... it looks pretty cool! 

Some great tips from @tonyvincent: Follow him for more great stuff!

Create a QR code that links to a shared Google Drive folder with images you've selected. 


Set a Google Form to give instructions and a clickable link after the form is submitted using the Presentation setting. 


Did you know that you can change the background color of a Google Doc?  


 
 
Posted by Noel Erskine at 6:13 AM 0 comments
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πŸ’₯ Tech tools - Form add-ons, make your own GIF's, Cool brush tool and more in this weeks tech tips!

Monday, March 4, 2019




If you in the Elementary and not using SeeSaw... you are missing out!
Jason has been working with a lot of teachers in the elementary getting Seesaw up and rolling. The feedback from staff and parents have been great!  If you have not tried it out yet... make an appointment with Jason to check it out!  SeeSaw's home page. -- 2-minute video overview. 


You can now access the side panel while using Drive on the web. That means you can access Calendar, Keep, and Task while using Drive, Gmail, Calendar, or Editor products (Docs, Sheets, and Slides).

Organize Your Browsing with This Chrome Dashboard Extension 

Record a 3-second reaction video with your computer's webcam and share as an animated GIF with the free website http://andtheniwaslike.co  COOL!

How to Make and Use Your Own VR Tours in Google Expeditions  -Remember we have a couple of VR carts available for Google Expeditions! 





How to Create & Use Canned Responses in Gmail - This has been one of my favorites for a long time now! - Give it a try. I love this Gmail feature! 

How to Use and How to Disable Gmail's Smart Replies - Short 2 minute video, (If you are not using these... you are missing out. 












✂️ Upload a photo to http://online.photoscissors.com. Mark what to keep with green and what to remove with red. See the results instantly, and download as a PNG with a transparent background.


Gdocs and Forms add-ons:

πŸ–Œ Head over to http://brush.ninja . Draw a series of frames and export as an animated GIF. COOL!
Classroomtools.net has added another tool! 
Animated Cube Creator -  What is it?
Create an animated 3D cube with text, images, and media. 
Save your work for future editing and embed it in your own website. 

If you have not looked at any of their other resources... now may be a good time! https://www.classtools.net/  


Some great resources from Ditch That Textbook:

Google Slides for interactive notebooks - Google Slides interactive notebooks + 20 activities to fill them.  Think out of the box using slides- it's the best-kept secret for teachers! 


Taking notes can be a drag. - Creating notes into something special -- something very visual that actually represents your personality and learning preferences -- is magical. 10 tips for creating awesome diginotes with Canva



Posted by Noel Erskine at 2:35 PM 0 comments
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πŸ’₯ Tech tools - New gmail right-click, add-ons, Googel slide tools, YouTube tricks and more!

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Can You Spot When You’re Being Phished? (Hey - A hacker just tried phishing a lot of school employees via our retirement plan, so be careful!) 

-Take Google's test to test out your phishing chops. To make this quiz, the team drew from materials they've used to train thousands of journalists, political figures, and activists. Can you tell what's fake?  

Another great resource to avoid Phishing:  social engineering red
flags  


Khan Academy Kids - a free award-winning app for ages 2-6! 
If you have brothers, sisters, friends, or neighbors who are ages two to six, be sure to share Khan Academy Kids with them. Khan Academy Kids makes learning engaging and fun. Thousands of activities, aligned to the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework and Common Core, delve deep into topics ranging from math to language arts and socio-emotional learning.
It’s now available on Google Play, AmazonFire, and the iTunes App Store.   

10 YouTube URL Tricks You Should Know About. 
Some pretty neat tricks in this article... link to a specific spot, create a Gif, download, etc... 

How will technology affect jobs in the future? 
(JD.com opened a completely automated warehouse near Shanghai, that employes four people.)  See what their automated warehouse looks like today  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFV8IkY52iY  (Amazing Video.) 

Teach Coding with CS First
Google's free, video-based computer science curriculum is designed for teachers with no prior CS knowledge and for students in grades 4-8 (ages 9-14). Explore the getting started videos and check out how teachers like you are using CS First in their classrooms.

Free ebooks, audiobooks, movies, K-12 resources and more...


A Soft Murmur - If you like background sounds!
A Soft Murmur allows you to simply play around with the sliders to create your very own background noise.

Google Docs add-ons:
The 10 Best Google Docs Add-Ons for More Professional Documents 

5 New Google-Made Apps That Are Cool, Useful, and Fun.
One of these (Password Checker) we have deployed to all staff and students already.) - Check them out! 

Google Slides - Pretty Cool! 


Misc. Resources:
The Library of Congress has lesson plans for elementary, middle, and high school students easily searchable and organized by collection. From African American History to World War II the choices are fantastic. Check out their Primary source sets too! 

Shadow Puppet EDU (IOS App)  has partnered with the Library of Congress to give students access to a collection of images. Students can create narrated slideshows using images to record their understanding of different topics in history.  With Shadow Puppet EDU videos creations can now be up to 30 minutes long and include 100 slides of pictures.  Users have the ability to add images from NASA, Flickr Creative Commons, and the Library of Congress’ archive without leaving the app. It's a great free storytelling app worth checking out for the iPads. 

Photo Resource - “Remove Background” - https://www.remove.bg   Great resource for teachers and students to remove background images from photos. Thanks to Lisa Harrington who found out about this resource at a conference, and shared it with our high school staff.





Password Managers: A great tip from our amazing network admin - Thanks @bryancwilliams 

The last I checked, I personally have over 100 online accounts.  Each account has a unique password that I don't even have to remember.  Wait...  What???  You don't know the passwords to over 100 accounts.  That is correct.  Am I crazy?  Yes and No, depending on who you ask.  Regardless, I am able to pull this off using a password manager and I highly recommend you start using one.

A password manager is pretty self-explanatory.  It manages all of your passwords in one central location utilizing one master password to secure all of your credentials and information.  Putting all of your eggs in one basket can be a little unsettling for some people but the advantages of doing so far outweigh the disadvantages of not having one.  There are two password managers I would recommend. 1Password (which I use) and LastPass (which Noel uses).  These are the two of the most popular PM's that we can provide basic guidance on.  There are others out there but a person needs to do their research to make sure they are repeatable.  Here are just some of the benefits that might entice you to move into a password management product.
  • One Password.  One strong password or passphrase gets you access to all of your accounts.
  • Greater Security - If one of your passwords is ever breached, all other accounts remain secure due to each having a different password.
  • Faster Logins - Using autofill or keystroke combinations,  passwords are automatically filled in in less than a second.  No thinking about what username or password to use.
  • Shared Logins - Share logins with family members.  Give access to family members on a regular basis or in case of an emergency.
  • Encryption -  All passwords and information is encrypted and stored securely on 1Password and LastPass servers.
When implementing a PM, remember you now have one password that holds all the keys to the kingdom.  Make it strong!  Don't forget it!  Make a backup copy of any recovery process or keys provided!  Side Note: The current industry trend is to use a passphrase rather than a password.  Both 1Password and LastPass both support passphrases.  I would suggest your master password be a passphrase.






Posted by Noel Erskine at 9:58 AM 0 comments
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