Tech Tip for August 2015 - Google Voice Typing

Google announced, yesterday, a new feature for Google Docs. Actually, they announced many new features. Here is one that I think can be useful for many students - Google Voice Typing. To enable the voice typing feature, you would open a new document, then select the "Tools" menu. From there, you will have an option to use the "Voice Typing" feature. Once that is enabled, you will press the microphone that pops up and you can talk into your computer and it will translate your speech to text for you. Give it a try today and read more from the official Google blog about this and other new features.

Enjoy,

Gregg

Weekly Tech Tip - Update to Google Docs and Slides for mobile devices

A nice little feature that was released today for Google Docs and Slides for mobile apps. 

You can now insert images into Google Docs and Slides on mobile devices. It is pretty simple to do. Below is a graphic from Google that shows how this works

To read more about this feature, please click here.

Enjoy,
Gregg

Weekly Tech Tip

We have been working more and more with the Google platform, and we think it offers a lot of positives for the ESU and for the schools that we serve. The collaboration feature is simply amazing. To be able to share a document, slide show, form, spreadsheet with others via a link or email address is phenomenal.

Some things to try:

• Google allows handwriting tools in a document. You would use the "Add-on" feature and find the "gMath" add-on. This allows you to create handwritten notes on a google document. And, for math nerds like me, I can create formulas in a google document or form. (see screen shot below) For more information on this tool, check out the detailed instructions here.
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• Google Slides - just added new transitions. So, again, if working on a presentation and presenting with someone else, how easy to share that presentation with your co-presenters without having to send a separate attachment each time.
• Google Forms - we've been using this more and more. Use forms to catch data you want and need to end the year. Then, keep that data year after year for evaluation.

Thank you and enjoy the end of the year,

Gregg

Weekly Tech Tip - Google Calendar Invite

This weekly tech tip comes from Google Calendar. I hope you are all finding ways to use google calendar, both on a personal level as well as a professional level. One feature of the calendar that I really like to use are "calendar invite". A calendar invite lets you invite someone to a specific event on your calendar. When you send the invitation, you get a response on whether or not that person can attend. It is a great way to plan for meetings. In addition, you can attach a google document to a calendar invite such as an agenda.

Here is a video of how it works:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEQaKad1cic

Here are specific directions:

https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37161

Happy Friday,

Gregg

Weekly Tech Tip - Feb. 24, 2015

When posting things online or to a webpage, or even an image on a letter, we need to make sure that we are trying our best to use copyright free images. By doing so, we keep ourselves free from any misuse of copyright policies.

 I spent a morning last semester listening to this very topic of copyright from the American Library Association. The speaker was very informative on copyright issues and also gave some thought as to what constitutes fair use. I want to specifically focus on finding copyright free images today.

Go to http://images.google.com and type in something that you want to find an image for, such as 'horses.' When the image bar loads, you will see a button for "Search tools" on the right. From there you can choose "Labeled for noncommercial use" under "Usage Rights." See the screen shot below for your reference.

I hope this helps,
Have a great week,
Gregg

Happy Valentines Day - Tech Tip

It has been awhile since I posted a technology tip. However, you are not forgotten as Valentine's day is just around the corner. For this post, I turned to my tried and true webpage from CybraryMan. Here is a list of resources for Valentine's day. There are quite a few links on this page, so take some time, and find some resources to fit your classroom when you study Valentine's day. Or, maybe you just want to find an activity to use with a student you work with or maybe during a workshop. From the history of Valentines day to math problems to art and crafts, there is something for every grade level and curriculum on this page.

Weekly Tech Tip - backup

Happy Holidays! This tech tip comes from a conversation that I had with another colleague the other day and it is one which happens at least once a year. The question: "Does the organization back up our computers off site?" Simply stated, do we have a way of backing up every computer off the main site where you work. For example, if you work in Auburn, do we back up your computer to a server at NCECBVI and vice versa? The answer is no. We do, however, have backs up in place for most of you, if not all of you. Those external drives on your desk serve as a back up. In case of a tragic event, where your computer and your external drive is gone, then nothing would be available for you to retrieve.

So, how can this be resolved? There is no simple way to make sure that all your data is valid even if you do back up. We cannot, with 100%, guarantee that your backups will work should you lose your hard drive on your computer. However, I would suggest that you back up your important documents to Google Drive. We have been using Google for a few years and Google for Education just announced that all accounts get unlimited storage. You can check out your google drive settings to see your results (your result will be unlimited storage if signed into your domain account). So, my suggestion would be to create a folder on Google drive and call it 'Important'. Then, simply make copies of your important documents and drag them to google drive. If you download the google drive app, and sync your documents to your hard-drive, it will be even easier.

My suggestion always has and always will be to make sure your important files are safe somewhere. We rely on software to perform scheduled backups and that does not always work.

Until next time,
Gregg