How-To's & Tips n' Tricks

DIGITAL STORYTELLING

Add some fun to regular storytelling and go digital, collaboratively. Start a new Google Slides project and insert the Digital Storytelling Guide photo on the first slide.

Go to the URL of your slides and go towards the end where it says edit followed by some more characters.  Delete from the word edit till the end. Now copy the edited URL and send link to your students via email. This will force them to make copies so that your original Google Slides project won't be edited. Please see the two pictures below that illustrates these tips:

After doing all of the above, the students can start their collaborative Digital Storytelling activity by referring to the guide you pasted on the first slide.  Have fun!

                                  

   

PERSONALIZED URL SHORTENER

If you use a lot of tech to collaborate with your students, you probably share with them a lot of links. Nothing is more unsightly than a link that is 2 lines long and is composed of numbers, letters and characters that don't mean a thing. Here's an awesome site that lets you not only shorten your link but personalise as well to make links more relatable/relevant to your students. Let's get started...

Go to gg.gg and here's where your browser will take you to.

Paste the link you wish to shorten here and click on Customise Link.

Personalise the link, using a name your students will be able to identify quickly.  If you share a lot of websites for research, you can name them site1, site2...or for shared docs, you can name them docplants, docanimals, docrainforest etc.  Then click on Shorten URL.

Voila...here's your personalised link!  Just click on Copy Shortened Link and you are ready to paste and share this with your students. 

GOOGLE SLIDES:  INSERTING IMAGES & INSERTING LINK TO IMAGE SOURCE WITHOUT LEAVING THE APP

As I have mentioned in previous "take aways", Google Docs, Slides, Drawings and Sheets now lets you search and insert an image straight from the app.  This feature works best for students as the images they select have already been preselected and approved by sources like Creative Commons, Wikipedia, etc. Once you have selected an image you wish to insert, the link of its source is visible at the left hand corner and if you right click on it, you may copy and paste on the image to link its' source.  I learned all these cool tricks from the workshop given by +Sean Thompson. Let's get started.

Go to Insert and click on Image.

Search for an image and make your selection. Note the link to source of image comes out on the left bottom corner.

Right click on your mouse and copy link address, the source of image.  Click on the blue button, to Select and insert image to your slide.

After inserting image, go to Insert and click on Link.

Paste link here and click on the blue button, Apply.

Here's the cited source of your image.  When clicked, it will take you to the website where the image was taken from.

GOOGLE DOCS:  HOW TO ADD A "BACK TO TOP" LINK ON REALLY LONG DOCUMENTS

Have you ever shared really long documents with your students or colleagues and struggle scrolling back to the top? Even better, after students or colleagues read your really long document you may want them to: go back to a particular section of your document so you can further emphasise the key message of your doc or have your students or colleagues go "Back to Top" so that they may refer back to sections of your document to help them with the next activity. This 'take away #5' was part of +Davis Apas' talk on "Google Docs in It's New Skin".

Place your cursor on the title/heading of the paragraph you want them to refer back to. Click on Bookmark under insert.

Click on Link.

Go to the portion where you want students to go 'Back to Top' or to a particular paragraph.  Type 'Back to Top' or 'Back to Paragraph 1' or 'Back to (name of paragraph/section)'.  Then click on Link under Insert.

This will pop up, now click on Bookmarks.

Click on the link you bookmarked at the beginning.

Finally, click on Apply.  

You will now see the once black and still font in blue, underlined and once you hover over it, you will be shown the link to click that will take you back to your bookmarked section.

TOOLS FOR A FLIPPED CLASSROOM

Below are some great tools to further enhance your Flipped Classroom that +Lee Webster presented on at the summit.  Just click on the titles of each tool, it's the link to take you directly to the site or Chrome Web Store extension.

Here's tool #1...

https://www.youtube.com/editor

Use videos you have already uploaded to YouTube.

Use Creative Commons Licensed Videos.

Add more photos straight from your Google Photos account or upload new ones.

Add music and search by Genre.

Add transitions.

Add a title to your video project.

Here's tool #2...

https://edpuzzle.com/

Turn your chosen video into a truly interactive lesson with this tool. Edpuzzle lets you crop videos, add your own voice to sections of the videos you want to highlight to students and embed quizzes at anytime.

Here's tool #3...

http://gg.gg/videonoteslink

This is a free extension that you may download from the chrome web store. Check out the picture below to see the features it offers.

Here's tool #4...

https://gg.gg/movenotelink

Movenote is another Chrome Web Store extension that lets you take any content from a source of your choice and video record alongside that content to further illustrate the points you want to share with your students. Check out what Movenote is all about...

Feature of Movenote

And if you think what has been shared above isn't enough...the last picture illustrates what Movenote can also help you do in your flipped classrooms...

And finally, here's tool #5...

http://gg.gg/snagitlink

Snagit by TechSmith is a great Chrome Web Store extension that lets you take screenshots or screen recordings of anything on your screen. Best part is they may be easily shared with your students.

GOOGLE KEEP:  BENEFITS AND FEATURES

Google Keep takes it a couple of steps further as compared to Google Tasks -> no sharing.  First, follow the steps below to access Google Keep:

Once you are able to access, enjoy the great features of Google Keep as illustrated below:

Share your notes via Gmail, great for collaboration. 

You may set alarms to remind you of a task/to do list. 

Create a Google Document straight from your notes through the option Copy to Google Doc

App is available on mobile devices.

Label your notes by using tags. When tag is searched, all notes that were labelled as such 

will be seen on one page.

Color code your notes, there are 8 available colors. I have labelled mine according to the 

Google App the note corresponds with. 

Add an image to your notes, great for the visual learners. Add a "To-Do" list as well with check boxes that you make tick of as you complete tasks.

GOOGLE DRAWING:  CHECK OUT 

THE NEW FEATURES

Take Away #2: How to Insert Images Right on 

Google Drawing (without leaving the app, can't beat that!)

Click on Insert, then click on Image

Next, click on Search and type in the key words
for the image you wish to search for

Click on the Search icon (highlighted in blue)

Click on preferred image and click on Select

Once image is inserted, adjust the size from the sides

*Insert Image is a Tool now available in the following Google Apps:  Google Docs,Google Slides, Google Drawing, Google Sheets and Google Forms

GOOGLE DOCS:  NEW FEATURES - COMMENTS, RESEARCH RIGHT FROM APP, VOICE TYPING

Comments

• highlight specific text you wish to comment on in Google Docs
• click on Insert, click on Comment, a box will appear on the right hand side
  

Research right on the Doc

• go to Tools, click on Research, the research box will appear on the right hand side of your document, you can do research without ever leaving your document
  

• you may Preview, Insert Link, or Cite
  

  

*Research is now a Tool that may be used in the following Google Apps:  Google Docs, Google Slides and Google Drawing

Voice Typing

• now Google Docs offers a hands free typing tool using Voice Typing
• this is perfect for reluctant writers, those who need to practice fluency, students who concentrate more on the errors they may make rather than the flow of their stories instead
• go to Tools, click on Voice Typing, a box will appear that will prompt you to "Click to Speak"

PREVIEW:  HOW TO INSERT YOUR SIGNATURE

YOUR LOGO OR WATERMARK

Do you create documents, posters, collages etc.? Then it's probably a good idea to put your mark/stamp on it. If you have your own logo, you can further personalise it by adding your signature/initials on it. Furthermore, this tip n' trick will surely help in checking those digital documents submitted by your students, put your personalised watermark in to save time in noting the assignments you have checked. I have previously created my own watermark/personalised logo and here's a how-to insert your signature.  First up, write your signature/initial on a blank sheet of paper and lets get started...

Open the your logo (usually a jpeg or png) format. Preview will open this on your Mac and it will look like this.

Click on the Toolbox icon and click on Create Signature.

Click on Camera and get your paper ready where you wrote your signature/initial. Put your initialed paper in front of the camera and Click Here to Begin.

Once camera is on, hold your initialed paper still till it captures your signature.

Your captured signature will appear on the screen. Click on Done if you are happy with what the camera has captured.

You may now drag the signature onto your logo. As you can see on the logo, I have previously placed my initial on it. You may resize and change the color as well by clicking on the black square.

Below are some more samples I created to give you ideas on signature/initials placement.