Easy Accents add-on for Docs and Slides

The Easy Accents add-on for Google Documents and Slides enables an easy-to-use panel that allows a very visible process of inserting characters with accents.

To install the add-on follow these steps →

• Open a Google Document
• → Extensions
• → Add-ons
• → Get add-ons
• → Search for Easy Accents
• You will then see a choice of 'Easy Accents - Docs' or 'Easy Accents - Slides'.
• Choose Easy Accents - Docs
• → Install
• Allow permissions etc
• Once back in the document → Extensions → Easy Accents - Docs → Easy Accents - Start
• You should see a side panel open → choose the language you wish to use.

Read more here →

easyaccents.world

Stars and recurring tasks in Google Tasks

In Google Tasks, you can mark important tasks with a star. You can view or sort your starred items across various task lists in the starred view.

You can directly set the end option for a recurring task (never, on a certain date, or after a number of occurrences) in Google Tasks.

Easily assign Google Tasks from Google Docs

In Google Docs, you can assign a checklist item to yourself, a student or a colleague that will appear in the assignee’s Tasks list. When edits are made to an assigned item in Google Tasks, such as a change to the title, due date or completion state, those updates will show in the Doc, and vice versa.

Read more here → support.google.com - Assign tasks from Google Docs

Turn a Padlet into a slideshow

You can now create a slideshow from the content of a Padlet.

Every post becomes a slide. The fonts are sized automatically. The colors are determined by your chosen wallpaper. You can navigate with your cursor or your keyboard. The presentation will be updated live when you edit the padlet it references.

padlet.blog - Introducing Slideshow: beautiful, auto-designed presentations [9 Februrary 2023]

Read more here →

padlet.help - Padlet Slideshow

What is BeReal?

Have you heard the students discussing BeReal? Has a student asked you to be in their BeReal because the notification occurred during lesson time?

If you would like to know more about BeReal check out the two resources below →

childnet.com - BeReal – a guide to the new social media app [29 July 2022]

Using the Lenovo C13 Yoga Chromebook to make a video

Most International School of Geneva - Campus des Nations staff have a Lenovo C13 Yoga Chromebook. These devices are capable of quickly and easily capturing video. As the devices are 'Yogas, ' the hinge can be bent both ways. This is the recommended way for capturing a quick video using a Lenovo C13 Yoga Chromebook →

1. Press the search key (the one with the magnifying glass icon).
2. Either search for 'Camera' or press the blue camera icon if you see it.
3. Push the screen over so the device is like a tent - with you looking at the screen and the keyboard pointing away from you.
4. You can now change the camera mode to 'Video' and use the circular on-screen button in the bottom right-hand corner to start and stop the recording.
5. The video file is saved to a folder called 'Camera', which you can find in the Files app. Files can be easily uploaded to your Drive and shared.

Read more here → support.google.com - Use camera features on your Chromebook

Dealing with WebP files

You may have noticed that sometimes when you right-click → 'Save image as' to download an image, you end up with a WebP file. You probably wanted a jpg or png file. What can you do about this?

Several Chrome extensions are available in the Chrome Web Store that can help. I recommend → WebP / Avif image converter, which adds a 'Convert and save image as' option to the right-click menu.

Alternatively, you can download the WebP file and then use an online converter service, such as convertio.co, to convert the file into a more friendly file format.

Viewing non-printing characters in Google Docs

You can (now) display non-printing characters to see how a document is laid out. When turned on, you will see symbols or text to represent the following →

• Paragraph/Hard break 
• Line/Soft break 
• Section break 
• Page break 
• Column break 
• Tab 
• Space

To reveal the non-printing characters → View → Show non-printing characters to display.

Read more here → Google Workspace Updates - New option to view non-printing characters in Google Docs [9 January 2023]

Annotating text with Lucidspark

Educators and students (currently) have access to Lucidspark at the International School of Geneva - Campus des Nations.

Lucidspark is an excellent whiteboarding app worth exploring if you haven't yet.

If you would like support using Lucidspark in your teaching, please get in touch with me.

Staying Safe on Instagram and other Meta Platforms

This video is worth 8 minutes and 34 seconds of your time.

Adding a keyboard shortcut or hotkey for a Chrome Extension

I use a range of Chrome extensions to add links/articles/resources to services such as Trello, Pocket and Raindrop.

Aiming your cursor at a tiny 16-by-16 pixel Chrome extension button amidst possibly 20 others in the extension tray can feel like trying to win a carnival game with the odds firmly stacked against you.

[Source]

It is possible to assign keyboard shortcuts to Chrome extensions.

Here are the steps for adding your own personalized shortcuts for Chrome extensions.

• In the top right corner of Google Chrome, click the 3-dot expansion menu
• Expand the More Tools menu
• Click Extensions
• Click on the 'burger' in the top left hand corner of the screen and choose 'Keyboard shortcuts'
• Scroll to the extension of interest and choose a combination of keys with either “Ctrl” or “Ctrl + Shift” and any available key

The extension developer may have added shortcut functionality for more actions within the app. 

Read more here → obie.ai - How to add and remove custom keyboard shortcuts and hotkeys for a Chrome Extension in 5 seconds flat [20 July 2020]

Heading charts from Google Form responses into Docs, Slides and Drawings

You can now embed linked response charts from Google Forms into a Google Doc, Google Slides presentation, or a Google Drawing. When new form responses are received, anyone with the proper permissions can refresh an embedded chart by simply clicking the "Update" button. This eliminates the need to re-copy the chart from the form.

Read more here → Google Workspace Updates - Embed linked Google Forms charts into Google Docs, Google Slides, and Google Drawings [1 March 2022]

Padlet - moderating posts

Padlet allows you to moderate all posts on padlet so they must be reviewed by the owner/teacher before they can be published.

Thinking about tags and hashtag literacy

Digital curation is a topic that really engages me at the minute. The effective organisation of all the things we find online that may (or may not) be useful in the future is a challenge and the tools available to help evolve.

Tags and Hashtag Literacy [14 February 2022], by Wesley Fryer, is worth a read to get you thinking about such things and how we should be integrating hashtags and tags into the research skills we teach.

Chrome Extension suggestion - Remote for Slides

This is a really interesting find by a colleague of mine.

Install the Chrome Extension, open a Google Slides deck, visit remoteforslides.com on your phone and then enter a 6 digit code. Now you have a remote for Google Slides. What I really like is that you can see your 'speaker notes' on your phone.

Google Documents - Pageless page setup

If you have no plans to print a Google Document you are creating - why do you need to have it set up with a page like appearance?

Google has recently introduced the ability to change the page setup to 'Pageless'.

Set up your Google Doc so that it continuously scrolls without page breaks. In this setting, images will adjust to your screen size, and you can create wide tables and view them by scrolling left and right. Line breaks for text will also adjust to your screen size, and as you zoom in and out.

support.google.com

1. On your computer, open a document in Google Docs.
2. Go to File  Page setup.
3. At the top of the dialog window, select Pages or Pageless.
4. Click OK to confirm.

Read more here → support.google.com - Change a document’s page setup: pages or pageless

Turn an old laptop into a Chromebook

If you have an old computer that is struggling it may be possible to turn this device into a Chromebook using Chrome OS Flex.

If you have an old laptop and would like to give this a try - please let me know and we can explore the possibilities together.

Using Mote with Google Forms

Mote gives us the ability to easily leave audio based feedback. This ability isn't confined to Google Documents. Mote has capabilities in Google Slides, Gmail, Google Sites, Google Classroom and Google Forms.

Check out the video above for some ideas on how to use Mote with Google Forms. Basically you can use Mote to record audio questions and then any user, with Mote enabled, will be able to record an audio response.

If you are interested in using Mote as an educator or even broader with your class - please get in contact.

Read more here → support.mote.com - Help! How do I use Mote for Google Forms? Troubleshooting tips

Calendar

Google Calendar is all that is needed here! I use a handful of different calendars - school, family etc - but all scheduled lessons, meetings and my daughter's football practices are here.

I use Fantastical on my iPhone and iPad to display my Google Calendar as I prefer the layout - but the Google Calendar iOS app is also very capable.

Task manager

I'm going to say it - your email inbox should not be your 'job list'. An app where you can 'capture' and then organise all the things that you need to do can be hugely beneficial for your well-being.

There is no shortage of task manager apps available! Within the Google Workspace sphere you have Google Tasks and Google Keep. These apps also display scheduled tasks in your Google Calendar. A recent update allows you to manage overdue tasks in Google Calendar.

Personally I use todoist - and have done for a number of years now. I particularly like how the Gmail add-on allows me to quickly turn emails into tasks, the web and iOS apps and the integration with Google Calendar, Fantastical etc.

Notes

Notes in that nice notebook you got for your birthday, others on the back of an envelope and even some in an email you sent to yourself. One place (app) is needed where you make, organise and can quickly find your notes and thoughts.

In Google Workspace you could use a Google Doc. Utilising H1, H2 to give things structure and the document outline to quickly move around. Smart chips will also help you tie various things together.

I have tried GoodNotes on my iPad, various physical Moleskine type notebooks, Bear, Notion and Trello and more. All of them have good bits - but not the coverage that I was looking for.

I am about two weeks into using Roam Research as my note taking app of choice. It is a little geekier than some of the other options and maybe not as pretty. The speed of use and the automatic generation of connections between notes, topics, ideas is what is making it the app I keep going back to. There are 'task manager' options here too - but I am sticking with todoist for that side of things, at the minute.

Read it later

You need somewhere to store links. That article that was shared by a colleague that you want to digest at a later date. The website you want to use next time to teach a certain topic to one of your classes. The website of that new restaurant you would like to try. All these links need to be stored and organised.

In Google Workspace you could use Chrome bookmarks and then use the Chrome Bookmark Manager to ensure links are organised into folders. Google Keep, and it's Chrome extension, can also be useful here.

I prefer a dedicated app for such things. I want an app that is 'cross platform' - I can use it on my school Chromebook, my personal iPad, my phone etc.

I use Pocket. There is a Chrome extension so that I can quickly add websites that I am viewing to Pocket - so that later on I can read them and sort them out. With tags etc you can use Pocket as an organised store of your links. I do not tend to do this. For me links get added to Pocket and then every so often I sort them out. Sites that I want to integrate into my teaching resources get added to Trello and things I want to read (in depth) are added to the iOS app Matter.

Accept 'knocks' in bulk

You can now accept all pending 'knocks' in bulk into your Google Meet. Admitting students all at once helps limit interruptions during the video call.

Read more here → Accept knocks in bulk in Google Meet

Editing Office files from your Drive

Google have changing the default editing mode for Microsoft Office files in Google Drive on the web. Now, when you double-click on an Office file, it will open directly in Office editing mode.

Read more about 'Office editing mode' here.

New study modes in the Kahoot app

Study modes in the Kahoot app for iOS and Android a brings a new, self-paced study experience to learners with four different ways to review content, get more practice with difficult topics and prepare for tests. These modes can be used with both previously played kahoots as well as new kahoots.

Read more here → Study with Kahoot!: New modes in the Kahoot! app empower learners to self-study

Linking to a text fragment

This rather useful Chrome extension allows for easily creating a special link to the currently selected text on a page via the context (right-click) menu. When opening such a special link, the browser will scroll the selected text into view and highlight it.

Install the Chrome extension from here → Link to Text Fragment

ManageBac Mobile Push Notifications

We are excited to introduce advanced Push Notifications for both the ManageBac Android and iOS mobile apps. All important messages and notifications can now be sent directly to your mobile device via the Push Notifications.

Read more here → ManageBac Mobile Push Notifications

Anonymous users are now blocked from Google Meet for G Suite for Education meetings by default

Anonymous users (users not signed into a Google account) can no longer join meetings organized by anyone with a G Suite for Education or G Suite Enterprise for Education license

Read more here → Anonymous users will be blocked from Google Meet for G Suite for Education meetings by default

Block Google Meet participants from knocking again

If a meeting moderator rejects a knock twice from the same participant, the participant will be blocked from knocking again. This means the moderator won’t see any additional knocks from that user for the duration of the existing meeting.

Read more here → Block Google Meet participants from knocking again

The Google Meet Grid View Extension has broken

The Chrome extension we have been using to give the grid view in Google Meet is a 'hack'. It's not an official release from Google but is it from a respected source. Google have changed some of the magic sauce they use and therefore the extension no longer works. If you are signed into Chrome with your school Google account the next time to turn off-on your laptop in school the broken extension should be removed. I recommend that you remove the broken extension if it doesn't happen automatically. Google have announced a 7 by 7 (49 participants) grid view in Google Meet from September (but they didn't say from when in September).

Filter out disruptive noise in Google Meet

To help limit interruptions to your meeting, Google Meet can now intelligently filter out background noise like keyboard typing, doors opening and closing, and construction outside your window.

Read more here → Filter out disruptive noise in Google Meet

An integrated workspace in G Suite to help you make the most of your time

A new integrated workspace experience that brings Chat, Meet, and Gmail together on desktop and mobile

Read more here → Coming soon: An integrated workspace in G Suite to help you make the most of your time

Signing into your Chrome profile

Being signed into Chrome (and not just into your Google account) allows you to choose to sync password, histories, settings etc. Being signed into your @ecolint.ch account allows the school to 'push' various useful Chrome extensions to you. The school currently 'pushes' Google Docs Offline, Google Meet Grid View, Nod, Office Editing for Docs, Sheets & Slides and Screencastify to staff.

All students should be signed into Chrome using their @learning.ecolint.ch accounts as we also 'push' extensions to them.

Managing Chrome extensions

Another video from the talented Richard Byrne from Free Technology for Teachers. His site and social media feeds are well worth following for educational technology ideas, reviews and support.

This short clip explains how to find and manage the extensions you have installed in Chrome.

Nod - Reactions for Google Meet

Nod has been 'pushed' out to all staff and students in Secondary.

Nod allows the members of a Meet to react with a limited set of 'reactions'. One of the most useful is the ability to 'raise your hand'.

You need to be logged into Chrome with your @ecolint.ch (or students with their @learning.ecolint.ch account) for the extension to appear.

In order to see or send reactions, each user will need to have the extension installed.

Dualless - Chrome extension

Dualless is a useful Chrome extension if you do not have the luxury of a two monitor setup. It helps split your screen so you can see the Meet and what you may be presenting. The video above shows how it can be used to make your life a little easier when presenting during a Meet.