Category: Ed Tech
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Fonts and Readability
As I discussed in my previous post, I am on a quest to design Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides in a way that they are more engaging, readable, and easy to consume. As part of this, I looked at an update that Kindle books made a few years ago that changed how I read. Before…
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How to add more fonts to Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc
With the last year being largely online can creating more Google-based documents than ever before, I have found a need to make my Google-based items more readable and have a bit more “design” put in them. Typically, I use the standard fonts, preset formatting options, and colors and go from there. It makes creating items…
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Screencastify Part 1
I’ve been doing screen recordings for over a decade now as a daily part of my instruction. In that time, I’ve been amazed by how easy it has become and the drop in overall costs associated with screen recording. If you aren’t sure, screen recording or screen capture can be defined by recording your computer…
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8 Suggestions for New Online Educators
Introduction As I sit here in the middle of March 2020, I am faced with not being able to go back to my school tomorrow. In fact, I will not be able to go back to my building, students, and co-workers for the next two weeks at a minimum. We are dealing with something that…
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Wanted Google Classroom Grading Enhancements
I previously talked about Google Classroom’s new gradebook and it got me to thinking about other things that I would like to see done with Google Classroom. By and large, it’s an outstanding tool, but there are a few tweaks that could really make it more usable and efficient for me on a daily basis.…
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Read Text from an Image with Google Keep
I’ve been trying to write down more things recently in an attempt to better keep track of things and to make sure that ideas that I have, don’t leave my head permanently. As part of that, I’ve been using Google Keep a great deal more in the past few weeks. One of the features buried…
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Google Classroom Grade(book) Beta is here!
Yesterday was interim day, so I opened up Google Classroom and went in to grade any assignments that I may have missed or that were recently submitted. To my surprise, there was a new tab at the top of my Google Classroom called “Grades.” Obviously, I stopped any thought of grading and went into the…
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Screencastify: A software-free screen recording option
Over the past few years I have really increased the amount of video content that I create for my students. Most of the videos that I make are done to re-teach a process that I covered in group instruction. Students find it easier to have me available on demand for help or they don’t miss…
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Reducing video file size
I have come to really value the use of video in the classroom. I started teaching nine years ago and I have always embraced video, but it’s so much easier now than what it was when I started. I hope to always make high quality content, and with that content comes some massive file sizes.…
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Google Classroom January 2019 Updates
I was greeted with a small window on my Google Classroom during the school week that informed me of several updates available in Google Classroom. After spending some time with it, these are the four most important updates to Google Classroom. 1. Drag and Drop You can now drag and drop anything in the “Classwork”…