💥 Tech tools - New Google activity dashboard! SAY YES to this!!! , Tech tools, Download YouTube Videos, Chrome extensions for EDU and more in this weeks tech post.

NEW - Activity dashboard in Google Docs, Sheets and Slides!

Great new feature:

See who has viewed a file:

1. On your computer, open a file in Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides that you can edit.
2. At the top, click Tools  Activity Dashboard.

Note: You can only view activity on files owned by a Google Account that can use Activity Dashboard.

You may be presented with the following agreement/warning: 

Some great websites and tech tools:

Google Hacks for the Educator - Great tips!   - A slide deck presented at a recent Google Summit.  

Going Further with Google Photos 2.0 - A slide deck presented at a recent Google Summit. 

Around the World with Google Geo  - A slide deck presented at a recent Google Summit. 

Video Playlist of strategies for students around using images in Google Docs - Nice short tutorials - worth the watch! 

25 Tech Tools, Tricks, and Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Chromebook. 

More info from Google on this new feature:

Improve collaboration in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides with Activity dashboard

G Suite makes it easier for users to collaborate efficiently and effectively. An important part of collaboration is deciding how and when to follow up with others. To help inform these decisions, we're introducing Activity dashboard in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. It’s a feature that lets users with edit access see who has viewed the file and when they viewed it.

Google Forms:

10 Google Forms Tricks! 

If you are new to using Google forms - check this out!  Google Forms for Educators - Introduction/tutorial. 

Several free Chrome apps for the classroom:

Create stop-motion animation with Clap Motion: EDU Review on this product: This is a new Chrome App I recently discovered. Free to use, works offline, super simple.

LabCamera - Real-time video analysis in your classroom- Track and graph horizontal and vertical movement of objects with Intellisense LabCamera Kinematics module. The webcam based natural science exploration and data logging laboratory for STEM education. LabCamera allows students and teachers to carry out substantial scientific observations and measurements by using our software and a simple everyday webcam. Conducting physics, biology and chemistry experiments with LabCamera - both in the classroom and at home - brings natural science education to a new level.

The CleanPrint extension is pretty nice!  Here is a short 2 min. video on how to use it.  

Use Yout.com to Download Videos from YouTube

• Find a YouTube video you want to download
• In the URL, take the ‘ube’ out of youtube.com and then hit ENTER
• Pick to download the file as an MP3 (sound) or MP4 (video) file
• Great if you need to get a video to play offline for an educational reason or to store in your Google Drive. 

Google Docs - Image Annotation with Drawings  Great Tip!

• Take an image into a GDoc
• Click on the image and COPY it
• Find an open space in the doc and click so the cursor is there
• Go to INSERT > DRAWING
• Drawing window opens. PASTE your image
• Use the shapes, arrows, lines, text tools to do whatever editing is needed over the image and then 
• Click SAVE AND CLOSE when done and the ‘drawing’ is in the doc. Can double click on the drawing to go back in and edit if needed. 
• Great way to MARK-UP images right in the doc!