Tech Tip Tuesday #25

  

This past weekend, several ECHS staff members had the opportunity to attend EdTechTeam's annual summit. It was an amazing experience! Today's tech tips are bite-sized pieces of what we learned in various sessions over the weekend. 

Link to Slides

Which one will you try?

Tech Tip Tuesday #24

Today's Tip:

Add fancy text in Schoology assignments or updates.

The rich-text editor in Schoology is good, but it's not great. Don't let that stop you from putting fancy text in Schoology assignments and updates! I've got 3 workarounds included below, ordered from "beginner" to "advanced."

1. Copy and paste from Google Docs. (Or Microsoft Word if you must and then read this Tech Tip again.)

Instructions: 

- Prepare your text how you would like it to look, feel free to include tables and/or pictures.

- Copy and paste (crtl + c and crtl + v) into Schoology.

2. Use the "Cool Fancy Text Generator." 

Instructions:

- Go to the Cool Fancy Text Generator website. https://coolsymbol.com/cool-fancy-text-generator.html 

- Scroll through the styles to find the one you want and click the "Decorate button next to it.

- Type your text into the "Input Text" field.

- Use the copy button above it for pasting into Schoology.

(I got this tip from Matt Miller who got it from Tony Vincent, both great follows on Twitter.)

3. Use Google Drawings. 

Instructions:

- Use Google Drawings to prepare your text or graphic to look however you want.

- Download the Drawing as a jpeg.

- Insert the image into Schoology. 

- Or for an update or to create a more "inline" look, insert the image into a Google Doc and then copy and paste the image into Schoology.

What will you be adding fancy text to in Schoology?

Tech Tip Tuesday #23

Today's Tip:

Use Intelligent Search in Google Drive to find your files! 

February brought lots of Google updates! My favorite was the new Intelligent Search in Google Drive. "Google-ly experts" are saying to not worry about folders or organizing anything in Google because it is so easy to use the search options to find whatever you need. (See 18 Google Tools and Tips To Be a More Organized Educator.) This is a great tip to model for our students as many of them don't know how to find what they need in Drive too.

Now, when you click in the search box you’ll see a range of options, including:

Suggested search queries: Click on a term to search for it. 

Your top collaborators: Click on a person to search for files that you’ve collaborated with them on. 

File types, edit history, priority items, and more: Click to show files that match the highlighted criteria.

You can still click the down arrow for advanced search options too.

Image Source

One of the most awesome things about Google apps is that they are constantly being updated. This can also be very frustrating, they look one way one day and totally different the next day. Stay on top of the latest changes to Google by checking out the G Suite Updates blog.

Do you organize your Google Drive? What searching tricks have you discovered to find what you're looking for?