Center Text Vertically in Google Apps
It’s really a very easy thing to do. Maybe I’m a little obsessive but, to me, it makes a difference.
Google’s Research Tool Gets Personal
I was in a fabulous session, Revolutionary Research in Google Drive, at this past weekend’s TN Google in Education Summit. In the midst of showing the Research Tool to the group, Adam Seipel got almost as excited as Joe Cantore got hearing thunder snow.
When using the Research Tool, in addition to having access to everything on Google Search, Imanges, Scholar, Quotes, and Dictionary results, you now have access to PERSONAL results. It searches items in your Google Photos, Drive, and more. Awesomesauce!
“Personal results include documents, presentations, and spreadsheets from Docs, Sheets, and Slides, as well as images from Picasa and posts from your Google+ stream. By clicking Preview you can quickly glance at the content, and for presentations you can click Import Slides to choose slides to insert into the current presentation. You can also click Insert Link to insert the item’s URL and title. In documents only, you can insert a footnote citation with the link by clicking the Cite button.” (Source)
Check it out!
Have a Mac and No Ethernet Port?
When I purchased my latest Macbook Pro many months ago, I wasn’t happy that it had no Ethernet port. Sometimes, you just need to get the speed a network cable provides. So, if you have a Macbook Pro or Macbook Air that doesn’t have an Ethernet port BUT you have a USB port, consider doing what I did. I purchased an iLuv USB Ethernet Adapter. I got the one with two USB ports built in so I wouldn’t lose out on USB options. Here is the one I purchased (not an affiliate link – I make nothing off directing you to their site). They have other products but I haven’t tried them. I am, however, very pleased with this adapter. It allows me to wire up when needed (like my room at work that doesn’t get good WiFi) and the quality of the product is very good. I highly recommend it.
Turn Off Safety Mode in YouTube
If you ever run into a YouTube video that won’t play because you are in Safety Mode, here is how to change that setting.
Google+ Love on Valentine’s Day
Isn’t that sweet!
Verizon, Lollipop, and My Samsung Galaxy S5
While not directly related to education, this situation is affecting my workflow and me so here I go.
My wireless provider is Verizon Wireless. Several months ago I made the switch from being a long-time iPhone user to the Android OS on a Samsung Galaxy S5. Until recently I found the switch to be good for me. The device plays better with my Google Apps workflow. The cost was reasonable. I added additional storage and know I can change my own battery if needed. I still use iOS on my iPad so apps purchased were not done in vain.
Last week the upgrade to Android Lollipop was released to Verizon Galaxy S5 devices. I had been watching the reviews other users have had over the last many weeks. It seemed fairly stable and so I upgraded with little hesitancy. The upgrade process was fairly quick compared to some iOS updates I’ve had in the past. Sadly, the problems became evident just as quickly.
Suddenly my phone was always hot. Not just warm. HOT. I am honestly surprised it hasn’t burst into flames.
The charge on my battery (which usually gets close to empty around 3 pm since I work in a building that blocks cell signals like crazy) ran down at an incredible rate. For a recent example, I sit at Starbucks typing this post and entered less than one hour ago with a fully charged phone. It’s now at 68%. The last several days my phone was completely drained by about 10 AM. Not acceptable.
When the problem first showed up, I hit the Verizon forums and found that other, many others, were having the same issues. I was reassured it was not all in my imagination but am not happy at all that, after 6500+ views, Verizon still hasn’t addressed the issue. If they would just come out and say they have discovered the problem and are expecting to have a fix soon, I would not be so frustrated.
The consensus is that a significant part of the problem is the Wi-Fi. The phone is constantly dropping and reconnecting to the Wi-Fi resulting in apps quitting and restarting which contributes to the heat and battery drain. However, even with Wi-Fi turned off, my phone is still experiencing the high battery drain so I tend to believe that the Wi-Fi issue may be increasing the heat which would, in turn, contribute to the battery drain (and eventual battery damage). I have noticed that as long as I have the phone on me and I’m moving about, the situation is worse. Whether that is from the pedometer (which is now turned off even though I like to use my phone as a pedometer) or if it is an issue with the accelerometer, I don’t know.
All I know is that Verizon needs to let their customers know what it going on. I shouldn’t have to have the Wi-Fi and pedometer turned off OR fear that my phone will spontaneously combust. Verizon certainly doesn’t hesitate to contact customers when they want to sell us something. Let’s see the same veracity from the customer service department as we do from sales team!
Southern Summit and My Dissertation
I’m about to go to day 2 of the Google in Education Southern Summit. This summit in 2013 was my first ever and it became my latest addiction. If I were to win the lottery, after taking care of my family and bills, I would go to every GAFE Summit I could get to. It’s like getting innoculated to the drag that the educational system has become. Being around all these folks who are excited about learning and getting fired up about new and interesting ways to help kids is refreshing.
Dissertation Getting Closer
I started grad school (EdD in Instructional Design and Technology at The University of Memphis) this past August and they start us early narrowing down topics for our dissertation. Still in the preparing the proposal stage but here is what I am considering. I would LOVE comments and opinions from anyone as I continue to focus on the final proposal.
Being a degree in IDT, I will be designing an instructional unit, implementing it to gather data, and then use that data to address my research questions. The unit I have in mind would explain how exploring all kinds of informal learning (especially the building of a PLE/PLN) and guide them through getting started.
Informal Professional Development: An Antidote to Teacher Burnout?
The Problem – Teacher burnout is a serious issue. Formal professional development (PD) is often focused on the latest mandates (e.g., evaluations, standards, testing) and is not differentiated for varying teacher needs and interests. Emerging technologies have led to an increasing number of methods for informal teacher PD and learning. Educating teachers about the different methods of informal PD could contribute to a more focused and productive personal learning environment (PLE). Learning methods for managing the flow of information may lessen the overwhelming nature of an active personal learning network (PLN).
Research Questions:
- How do participants currently utilize various methods of informal professional development?
- How are participants currently impacted by teacher burnout?
- When comparing participant understanding of informal PD before and after unit completion, in which areas was the greatest and least improvement demonstrated?
- What are the current participant perceptions of informal professional development?
- How did participants’ perceptions about informal professional development change, if at all, upon completion of the unit?
- In what ways, if any, are participants considering using knowledge gained through completion the unit to impact their own informal professional development?
What do you think? I’d love feedback on either side of the discussion. Still very early in the construction of the proposal.
Slam: Form from a Sheet
Check out John McGowan’s two new Add-ons (currently in beta testing and still has some bugs): formIngester and formCreator.
To install formCreator:
- Join the formCreator trusted tester group (join the formIngester tester group as well).
- Use the link to get to the download the add-on link – Actually titled “QuickQuizCreatorDev ver. 2”
- Click the “Free” button to install. Authorize as prompted.
To use QuickQuizCreatorDev ver. 2 after installing:
Open a Google Sheet- Use Add-ons menu to choose “QuickQuizCreatorDev ver. 2” and “Create quiz”
- Click “Setup Sheet” to add a template sheet
- Fill in with your questions:
- Question Type (preset list)
- Question Title (the question)
- Question Help Text (optional)
- Begin Choices (possible answers to questions)
- In side panel, enter a “Form Title” and click “Create Form.”
- Wait a few seconds.
- Form gets created.
If you don’t want to deal with beta, try out the template Sheet that John started this with.
Here is a quick video of the steps above.
Extract Text from Images and PDFs with Google Drive
There may be any variety of reasons you may need to copy the text from a image file or PDF. Google Docs can help you with that process if you don’t have access to an application like Adobe Acrobat Pro or an OCR conversion application. Here is how.
FIRST – Upload the image file or PDF to your Google Drive account and select it.
Here I am using a PDF shared by Richard Byrne on his blog Free Technoogy for Teachers.
NEXT – With the file selected in your Google Drive (not when it is opened in preview mode), click on the the three vertical dots that represent the “More Actions” menu. Choose “Open with” and select “Google Docs.”
FINALLY – Google Drive’s optical character recognition (OCR) jumps into action. Google Drive scans the file and uses its magic algorithms to convert the file into a Google Document. It’s not perfect but it can certainly help in a pinch.
Note: Video has no sound
The conversion will be most accurate if:
- the image is high resolution
- line height is at least 10 pixels (larger is even better)
- text is horizontal and left-to-right (you can use Google Drawings to rotate the image if needed)
- common fonts like Arial and Times New Roman get the best results (from my experience sans-serif fonts like Arial work best).
- image should be sharp and free of blurring
There are limitations. The file size cannot be over 2 MB. If you are working with a PDF, only the first 10 pages are scanned and converted.
Some of the formatting may carry over into the converted text but don’t be surprised if you need to do some clean-up. Still, this process can be a big time-saver when the clock is ticking.
Picmonic provides mnemonic illustrations
I’ve been busy gathering sponsors for our upcoming EdCamp Memphis and am pleased to list Picmonic among them. Before yesterday, didn’t about them and that’s a shame. Another sponsor, BirdBrain Science, shared a link with me to the article 7 EdTech Startups Revolutionizing STEM. Both Picmonic and BirdBrain Science are listed in the article and both deserve a moment of your time.
Picmonic is a web-based application that delivers audiovisual mnemonics designed to improve memory retention.
Homozygous vs. Heterozygous Picmonic
They offer lots of resources for medical students (by subscription) but are offering free resources as well. Right now they have picmonics covering topics in Inquiry as well as Reproduction & Heredity for 8th grade Science. Current picmonics include:
- Bias
- Experimental Group vs. Control Group
- Measurements and Tools
- Mice and Cheese Experiment
- Observation and Inference – Blue Hair
- Observation and Inference – Green Egg
- Observation and Inference – Green Stalk
- Plant Growth Experiment
- Quantitative vs. Qualitative
- Question and Hypothesis – Distance
- Question and Hypothesis – Heat
- Question and Hypothesis – Height
- Roller Coaster Cart Experiment
- Validity vs. Reliability
- Blood Types
- Cells and the Nucleus
- Charles Darwin
- Chromosome and DNA
- Dominant vs. Recessive
- Genes and Alleles
- Genotype vs. Phenotype
- Heredity
- Homozygous vs. Heterozygous
- Hybrid Punnett Square
- Purpose of Cell Division
This technique could certainly be used by teachers of other subjects. I can envision teachers utilizing blended learning creating their own mnemonic illustrations (maybe combined with the concept of sketchnoting) to help students with memory and making deeper connections with what they are learning.