Student Created Infographics

In Tech Integration class my students used Infogram to create basic infographics to demonstrate their learning of a TedEd video.  By using infographics as a final product my students were able to demonstrate their knowledge of a topic in a much more varied and interesting way than by typical means.  For more information watch this short video tutorial on using Infogram.  Let us know if we can help support this project in your classroom.

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UDL through Screencasting

By creating short informative videos on your chromebook teachers can help students access information in a variety of ways. Whether you are flipping classroom instruction or simply providing students another pathway to content, screencasting is simple and can be reused in the future.

Watch this short video to learn about how to use Nimbus to create screencasts which are videos of what is on your computer screen narrated by you. Screencasts can also be student-created to demonstrate knowledge and understanding and then shared with future classes.

Screencastify is another App that can be used for this purpose as well. Let us know if we can help!

 

Removing Extensions and Apps

Apps and extensions in Google Drive can be simple to install but tricky to delete.

Here are a couple of suggestions for getting rid of those pesky apps or extensions that you tried out and no longer want to use:

1.  If the new app or extension is automatically opening your file you can:  Right click on a google drive file and choose open with…  then choose the app or extension you want to open the file.  In most cases you will want to change it back to google docs or whatever used to be the default.

2.  To completely get rid of an app or extension click the gear icon in the top right of your google drive.  Click settings and choose manage apps.  From there you should be able to uncheck the use as default for the app or extension OR click options and remove completely.

Hope this helps and as always leave feedback so we know if this tip was useful.

Watch CTS Jeopardy LIVE

Watch this replay of our CTS Jeopardy Live Twitter Game Show.  The purpose of this show was to help educate students on the use and care of their chromebooks. We are working on the restricted mode issue so for now students might have to watch from home or another account.

Congrats to Parker on winning our first CTS Jeopardy Game.

Make sure you follow us on Twitter @CaneTechSquad to join us LIVE next time.

Teachers – Would you like CTS members to host a Live Jeopardy event with your class?  Maybe you can challenge another class in your content area?  Let us know!

Get More Done with Action Items in Google

Sharing Google files with other students and teachers has made collaboration here at WHS the norm.  Now Google allows us to assign Action Items to collaborators in the comments section of Google files.  Give it a try and let us know if you find this tool useful.

1. Open a Google file.
2. Highlight the text, images, cells, or slides you want to comment on.
3. To add a comment, go to the format toolbar and click Comment .
4. Type your comment.
5. Somewhere in your comment, add the email address, with @ or + in front of it, of the person you want to assign it to.
6. Click the box next to “Assign to [name].”
7. Click Assign. The person you assigned the action item to will get an email.

Communicating with Parents in Classroom

Teachers – Now more than ever there is an expectation to communicate with not only our students but their parents in a timely and detailed manner. Communicating with the  parents and guardians of your students just got easier with Google Classroom’s Guardian Email Summaries.  Don Sutton just turned on our access to this important feature so you can now  use it.

Simply go to the ‘students’ tab in Classroom and then turn on Guardian Email Summaries on the left-hand side.  You will then “Invite Guardians” by adding the email addresses or adding from your contacts.  Parents/guardians will have the option to see a daily or weekly summary of posts from your classroom.  This will also allow you to email the guardian directly from Google Classroom.

Try it out tonight as you meet with parents at Report Card Fair.  As always give us feedback so we know if this becomes an effective way of communicating with your parents.

Printing from Chromebooks

Printing is now working from the chromebooks.  The directions are easier to show than to tell so please follow this link for the instructions.

Quiz feature in Google Forms

Mr. Wallingford turned me on to the Quiz feature in Google Forms.  If you are looking for a way to give quick feedback to students give this a try as an alternative to Flubaroo.

Getting started with Quizzes in Google Forms is simple.  Open a new form from Google Drive and click on settings.

Choose the Quizzes tab and follow the prompts.

It appears that while Flubaroo might be a bit more powerful, Google Forms is simpler.  Mr. Wallingford also told me that he found it was more accurate in grading student responses.

Give it a try and send feedback.

“What do we do when we’re done???”

Teachers –

Try keyboarding or typing apps as a quick filler activity or when using the chromebooks.  Cane Tech Squad will provide a full review of keyboarding apps soon but here are a couple to try out in the meantime:

Typesy

Typing Club

If you try these or know of any other keyboarding apps or websites let us know!

Working Offline with Chromebooks

There are two ways you can use your Chromebooks offine.  The first is to go in to Google Drive and enable OFFLINE MODE.  The directions for this are here: CTSBasicsOfflineMode

The other way is to download webpages using the Pocket App.  This will allow you to view certain webpages when you dont have wifi.  This app has been installed for you.  It will prompt you to make an account.  If you need to access a webpage while away from wifi make sure you add it to your pocket while you still have wifi.  Give the app time to download the pages and then you should be able to access it through the pocket app later.

Here is a video that explains Pocket App further: Pocket

Let us know how it goes and good luck!