Tech Tip Tuesday: Make Your Own Google Substitutions

Here is another quick Google tip! You can make your own substitutions, which will help a lot during writing. Google docs make a list of auto substitutions, but you can also customize it as you like. To do this: Go to Tools –> Preference –> make a change in your requirement. You’ll notice a list with two columns, Replace and With. The text in Replace is what you type and the text/symbols in With is what will be substituted when the corresponding Replace strand is entered. When you are done click OK.

You can also click to turn off all automatic substitutions by unchecking the Automatic substitutions box, or you can turn off specific substitutions individually by unchecking the box next to that entry.

Hope this helps!

Tech Tip Tuesday: Insert Your Learning into Any Website

Have you heard of Insert Learning? Insert Learning is a simple yet effective program that can turn any website into an interactive lesson. Here’s how it works: first you go to Insert Learning’s website or the Chrome Webstore and download the Chrome extension.

Next, go to any website, say, for example, cnn.com–> and select an article. Once on the webpage, click on the insert learning Chrome Extension and the toolbar will appear on the left side of the screen. From here you can: insert a question, highlight text, insert a discussion, add a sticky note, embed a video, embed various other tools such as Padlet boards, Thinglinks, Quizlets, NPR radio broadcasts and so on. Once complete, you can assign this activity/lesson to your class (which you do at the beginning by creating a class in Insert Learning). Even cooler? You can copy the url to this lesson just by copying it and adding  #insertlearning to the end of the url, then pasting this code/inserting it into Schoology. If you are a Google Classroom user, you can just select Google Classroom from the Insert Learning toolbar, and assign it there.

This is a simple and effective way to turn any passive article or website into something interactive and more engaging!

Tech Tip Tuesday: Search Gmail Like a Pro

Gmail includes a pretty simple feature that allows you to search for specific emails using some clever operators. You can type in that search bar, add in some words, and hope to locate the specific email you are looking for. But sometimes, you get back way too many or you can’t locate what it is you seek. I put together a Gmail Crib Sheet that covers the Gmail Operators and how to use them. You can access the document here!

Hope this helps!

 

Tech Tip Tuesday: Free Open Source Images

Looking to spice up your presentation or activity with an engaging image? Looking to add something different to your web page or flyer, but are tired of using the same pictures found on the web? Looking to teach your students about copyright and digital intellectual property rights?

Here are a few of my “go-to” websites for out-of-the-box, engaging, high-definition images. Most of the site images are free of copyrights under Creative Commons. But be sure to check each image individually just to make sure.

Every Tuesday I will be posting a quick “Tech Tip.” These will be short, straight to the point, tips that you can utilize.

Our first “Tech Tip” of the school year features a way to convert tests and/or quizzes from a Word or Google Doc, directly to a Schoology assessment. Here’s how…