I put this module together for one of my graduate school classes and am sharing it here in case it can be helpful for anyone else. I intend to share with the teachers at my school as a flipped element for a PD session on creating screencasts. Not only does it have helpful info about screencasting but it also includes some Visible Thinking routines AND shows how you can push Google Sites a bit.
GO TO:
I decided to check out one of the sample courses on teach for Google and thought I would share something that I’ve used before but some of you may not have thought about. A simple formatting adjustment can make a world of difference.
You can do a good bit on image editing in Google Docs as well as Google Slides. You can add borders, mask an image with a shape, crop, and resize.
You can also perform these adjustments to animated GIFs.
If you have Location History turned on for your Google account and Location Services (Android – iOS) turned on for the device running your Google account, try this and be prepared to be a little creeped out.
Go to https://maps.google.com/locationhistory.
It’s not 100% accurate but spooky close.
Makes you really think about what apps you’ve given access to your GPS data!
I’ve been spending lots of time in Google Scholar since I began work on my EdD last August. Today, I spotted a new extension for Google Chrome, the Google Scholar Button.
From the extension overview, when you click the Scholar button, you can:
Library links work best when you’re on your campus but you can configure them for off-campus use by visiting Google Scholar Settings. You can even search the US case law by clicking the gear icon at the bottom of the popup, and configure your preferred collection in Google Scholar Settings.
I’m looking forward to the time this handy extension will save me as I complete my degree!
I don’t even want to think about what this, my first year at my school, would have been like without Symbaloo. Last summer, I set all the student computers to start up to a specific page on our district server and that page holds an embedded Symbaloo mix.
The main mix we use is here – http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/lessymbaloo1 – but we embed it into our own HTML page to make it look like this – http://lakelandk12.org/les/start.html.
When we need to add a link to a computer, I add it to the Symbaloo and sync it. Job done.
I added grade-level tiles that link to grade-level mixes (also embedded in our own HTML pages) and those are managed by teachers in that grade-level. While that part hasn’t really taken off this year, I expect it will next year because we are going to be moving much of the “practice games” off the main Symbaloo as we add some structure to the computer lab rotation.
FYI – We have a link to it on the school website so students and parents can easily access from home as well.
If you have to manage links on lots of computers, consider moving to this kind of setup. It sure has made my year better!
Once a month I assemble and distribute a Technology Newsletter to the teachers at my school. I shared the recent edition on Twitter, Google+, and Facebook and it was so well-received that I’ve decided to post them on this blog as well. Some have been edited to remove school-specific login information but most are exactly the same.
All the newsletters are posted on a page under the Resources menu on the navigation bar of this site. I hope you find these, and the information they contain, helpful.
I’m a big fan of SnagIt for Chrome (extension with app) for many reasons. One of which is the ability to record up to 20 seconds of video and save it as an animated GIF directly into my Google Drive while immediately getting a short URL to share. However, sometimes what I need to record is not inside of Chrome or it takes me longer than 20 seconds to perform the steps.
If you are in the same boat, give LICEcap a look. It is a free download and is available for Mac and Windows. I will still use SnagIt when on my Chromebook but, when I’m on my Mac, I expect to make use of this handy application.
Crank up LICEcap and you will see a screen capture frame that can be resized to desired dimensions. Click the record button on the bottom of the frame and start working. You can move the frame around even while recording but I suggest you first use the handy-dandy pause button to avoid including the screen capture frame in the GIF.
Bonus:
It’s settled: How to pronounce ‘GIF’
Free up valuable real estate on your browser’s bookmark bar with this handy tip!
Video made with SnagIt and Camtasia. Animated GIF made with LICEcap for Mac.
UPDATE (10-30-2015): Sadly, malware has been added to this extension. Know that if you install it, you will begin to see Offers4U pop up at the bottom of many webpages. So, while I will leave this post up for now, understand that is this price you will pay for the convenience.
You can use websites like KeepVid or SaveFrom to download videos from YouTube and other video sites. You can even add a bookmarklet for some of those websites to your web browser.
I recently installed a download button extension for SaveFrom to my Google Chrome and am finding it very convenient so I thought I would share the steps here.
WARNING: This does require installing an extension from a location outside of the Chrome Web Store so if you aren’t willing to take that risk, this is not for you. I take no responsibility for anything that may happen to your computer by installing this extension. All I can say is that I installed it and my Mac has had no problems. I have NOT tested this on a Chromebook or the Windows OS.
Step 1: Get the extension file.
Go to http://en.savefrom.net/user.php and click the INSTALL button. This is going to (eventually) download a file to your computer that you will manually install.
You will get an ominous warning screen. Take it seriously when Chrome gives you this. Sometimes it doesn’t let you bypass the warning but here it does. Click on the link labeled “Details” and you will see the screen below. Click the “visit this site” link and then close the warning at the top of the screen.
If this warning opened up in a new tab for you, you can now just close the tab. If not, you may need to reload the http://en.savefrom.net/user.php page again and may need to click the “Install” button again as well.
At some point you will see a screen like this one. It shows the steps for installing (which I’m going to explain next) and you can see the file has been downloaded to my computer.
Step 2: Manually install the extension.
Open up the “Customize” icon and choose Tools > Extensions.
This process requires that Google Chrome be in Developer Mode. To turn on Developer Mode, look to the top right of the Extensions page to see a check box labeled “Developer mode.” If it is not already checked, click the box to set Chrome in Developer Mode.
Open up a window on your computer and find the downloaded file. As of the writing of this post, the file is called “helper_last.crx”.
To install the extension, drag the CRX file onto the Extensions window and release.
An alert window will drop down. Click the “Add” button.
You should now see a message that the installation was successful.
Step 3: Adjust extension options.
Find the extension on the Extensions page and click the “Options” link.
Here you can modify which sites have access to the extension. You could leave the default settings but I don’t use some of these sites and the least amount of access I give an independent extension, the better (IMHO).
Here are the preference options I currently have set.
Step 4: Test the extension.
Go to a website you have given access to the extension. In my case, that would either be YouTube or Vimeo.
Want to find legal downloads on YouTube? Here is a video explaining how to find Creative Commons videos on YouTube.
Need one? Try this video by the talented Kyle Pearce: Solving Linear Equations Visually.
You should now see a green download button under the video. To the right of the download button is a small drop-down menu which allows you to select a different quality for downloading (the higher the number, the better the quality).
Why download videos?
There could be any number of reason you may choose to download a video but here are some.
Looking for more ideas for original video projects? Check out some of these links: