Tech Tip Tuesday #9

 

Last week was Digital Citizenship Week and this month is Cybersecurity Awareness Month! It's the perfect opportunity to take some time to talk about digital citizenship. Below are some resources to give you some ideas on how to get started discussing digital citizenship with your students. 

Digital Citizenship Curriculum -- These are "ready-to-go" lesson plans and activities. You can speed up your search by filtering by grade and by topic. 

Teaching Digital Citizenship -- A series of short videos that will teach you the core concepts of digital citizenship.

Stay Safe Online -- A collection of resources to help you navigate the digital world safely.

How do you discuss digital citizenship with students?

Tech Tip Tuesday #8

Today's Tip:

Learn some of Google Docs' best features to save you time!

According to How Many People Use Google Docs In 2022? "There are nearly 25 million people worldwide using Google Docs" and Google Docs "has now surpassed the classic favorite Microsoft Word by a five-to-one ratio." But most of us don't know its best features. 

Here are a few Google Docs Tips that will save you time adapted from a Twitter thread of 11 Google Docs Tips:

Create a new document from your browser.
In your Chrome browser and want to start a new Google Doc? No need to navigate to your Google Drive and create a new doc from scratch. Just type into the search box doc.new and a new Google Doc will open.

Change your default font.
• Type some text in a Google Doc.

• Select the text and change the style to what you want your default to be.
• Click the Text Styles drop-down menu, go to Normal text and click "Update Normal text to match."
• Click the Text Styles drop menu again, go to options and click "Save my default styles." 

​Use shortcuts to share with specific access.

In your ​Google Doc URL, change ​"​/edit​"​ at the end to:
• ​"​/copy​"​ - they will be able to make a copy of the doc
• ​"​/export?format=pdf​"​ - they will automatically download a pdf

A simple way to share without it affecting your original document.​

​Add footnote​​s​ and​​​ images. ​Want to add images or reference articles?

Use the mystery Explore button:
• Click Explore
• Search ​and​ insert images or sites
• Click on the 3 dots ​and​ choose the citation format

You can add footnotes, links, ​and​ images without leaving the doc.​

​Use Voice Typing.​

In a Google Doc, click on Tools and select Voice Typing.
Choose your language and click the microphone to start speaking.

Use phrases like "period" and "next line."

What​ are your favorite Google Doc timesavers?

Tech Tip Tuesday #7

 

Today's Tip:

Use the "Advisor Dashboard" feature in Schoology to check on ALL grades and missing assignments for any students. This is a great way to check on your advisory students. This is also a great way to see how others are utilizing Schoology in their courses and get some ideas!

Here are the directions from the Schoology Handbook:

Advisor Dashboard

Schoology allows staff the ability to check on student progress in all courses. This is especially helpful for advisory, case managers, study hall teachers, and coaches.

• While in Schoology, click on Tools in the top menu.

• Then click on Advisor Dashboard.

• Begin typing a few letters of the student’s first or last name and wait for students to show up below.

• Select the student.

• Click on the Grades tab.

• Click on a course title to expand the course to view grades.

• Click on categories to expand or shrink the view.

Click on the course name or on an assignment to see more.

What tips/tricks for Schoology do you have?

Tech Tip Tuesday #6

 

Today's Tip:

Pick one Gmail feature "new-to-you" to experiment with this week.

Gmail (email with the Google Workspace app collection) is the most popular email service provider. Since it has become one of the essential apps of Google Workspace, Google has made it more robust. Below are my favorite three features of Gmail.

Schedule Send

Schedule an email to send later. Click the drop-down arrow next to send and select "Schedule send." Select the date and time you would like the email to be sent. I use this feature to send out these Tech Tip Tuesday emails on Tuesdays when I finish them up on Monday.

Snooze

Snooze emails until later.  If you have an email that contains information you need, but maybe not right now, you can snooze it to arrive at the perfect time for you. For example: Maybe you're reading all these Gmail tips and thinking this is great but I'm a little overwhelmed this week. You can snooze this email until Thursday, October 20th at 8 am and make trying the features one of your projects for the long weekend. 

Gmail Labels

Labels are sort of like folders in Gmail. Labels can help you organize and condense your inbox. Watch this short (~90 seconds) video to learn more: How to Create and Use Gmail Labels. Or check out this Tech Tip Tuesday from the archive.

What are your favorite Gmail features?