Machine Learning sounds complicated, and it kind of is, but the basic principle of how it works is pretty easy to understand.
This video unpacks the essential ideas behind machine learning.
Saturday 8 August 2020
Thursday 21 May 2020
How's your Form? Find out with these handy Form Question examples!
Sometimes you don't know what you don't know, and just seeing some examples of what's possible is a big help. To help you see the possibilities of Google Forms, here are two different examples that I hope you'll find useful.
Did you know that there are actually 11 different types of questions you can ask with a Google Form? It's not all just about Multiple Choice!
This first one is a Form that has examples of every type of question that you can create with a Google Form, as well as some additional variations. As you can see, there are LOTS of ways you can ask questions in Forms, and the real skill is making sure you are selecting the most appropriate question type for the type of information you want to collect.
Of the 11 different question types, 7 of them can be set to automatically check the responses, making them ideal for creating self marking quizzes. This second example is a Form that shows as many variations of self marking quizzes as I could think of. As you'll see, there are quite a few different possibilities!
Monday 4 May 2020
What's in your Extension List, Part 2
It seems that yesterday's post where I listed some of my favourite extensions was quite well received, as I had a number of people contact me to say they found it useful. So I thought I'd add a Part 2 list with a few more. Remember, there are literally thousands of amazing extensions available in the Chrome Webstore, so do take the time to have a browse.
In the meantime, here are a few more, again in no particular order...
PixelBlock - Sending an email which includes a graphic is a technique that some companies use to track whether you open their email or not. Sometimes they do this sneaky thing where they hide an invisible single pixel in an email - you can't see it, but it helps them track you. PixelBlock does exactly what it says, and blocks that invisible pixel.
Google Calendar - Gives you a nice glanceable preview of your Google Calendar, from any webpage, without needing to open your actual Google Calendar. But if you do want to open your actual Google Calendar, then here's a pro tip, just click on the words "Google Calendar" at the top and it will open - you guessed it - your Google Calendar.
Google Calendar Scroll Disabler - Just in case I didn't say "Google Calendar" enough in that last tip, here is a neat little extension that fixes one of Google Calendar's most annoying traits - accidentally scrolling back and forward from month to month. This extension stops that behaviour and lets you scroll using the forward and back buttons in Google Calendar, making your Google Calendar behave the way normal people would expect it to.
Draftback - Takes the revision history of a Google Doc and turns it into a replayable "movie" of the document being created so you can watch how the Doc was written. Draftback adds a button to the top of every Google Doc and makes your students' thinking more visible be letting you see their writing process unfold in front of your eyes.
1-Click Timer - For all those times when you need to give your students 5 minutes to complete a task, or get a reminder about something in 30 minutes, or cook the perfect three-minute egg. Whatever it is you're timing, 1-Click Timer is a neat way to do it, right from the comfort of your Chrome Browser.
ColorZilla - There are a ton of colour picker extensions out there, but I have always kind of liked this one. Like most of these other extensions, this one lets you select any colour on your screen and sample it to find its RGB or hex code value. Especially useful for web design work, or anywhere you need to match exact colours.
Undo Closed Tabs Button - We all do it. You accidentally close a tab you didn't mean to close. Damn it! You probably know you can just use CRTL+SHIFT+T to reopen a closed tab (What? You didn't know that? You do now.) But what if you want to reopen a tab that you closed 12 tabs ago? You could just use CTRL+SHIFT+T another 12 times I suppose and go back through them all. Or, better yet, you could just use the Undo Closed Tabs Button extension and reopen the exact tab you want.
Share with Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Email - Despite the somewhat unwieldy title for this extension, (and the fact that Google+ is basically dead) it does exactly what is says and lets you share your current browser page to Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or email (or your Kindle too). Great for sharing that hilarious thing you just found on the internet with your friends, simply and easily.
Mercury Reader - Remove the clutter on a webpage and improve accessibility and readability so you can focus on the actual content. It's particularly great for reading articles on cluttered news pages. You know the ones, surrounded with ads, links to other stories, promotions and so on. Mercury Reader removes all of that crap and just leaves you with the actual page content. You can also adjust text size, font and colour contrast for readability.
Authy - If you don't use 2FA, or 2 Factor Authentication, then you need to go back and read this or this, and then stop being so bloody obstinate and go turn it on. Now. I'll wait... OK, now you've got it turned on*, you'll need something to generate the 2FA codes. You could use something like Google Authenticator but that only works on one device at a time and is a pain if you need to move it to another device. So check out Authy, it does the same thing but syncs across multiple devices, including your Chrome Browser using this handy extension.
Kami - If you need to work on PDFs, especially if you want to comment on them, annotate them with pen or voice notes, then check out Kami. It has a lot of features for working with PDF files, although there are limits on what you can do with the free version. Still, it's worth looking into if PDFs are your thing. It also has some nice direct integrations with Google Classroom.
Noisli - Some people like a little background noise when they work. Not necessarily music, as that can be distracting to some people, but just some ambient noise, like the sound of a coffee shop, or the sound of a crackling campfire, or wind in the trees, or a rainy thunderstorm. Noisli allows you to generate a gentle soundscape of your choice so you can immerse yourself in ambient sounds that help you focus. It also has a customisable timer that, by default, conforms to the timings of the Pomodoro Technique.
Session Buddy - I mentioned OneTab before as a way to manage your tabs in Chrome, but you might also like to check out Session Buddy. It doesn't gather your tabs together in the same way that OneTab does, but I do like the way it gathers sets of tabs into collections for later retrieval. Check it out and and see what you think.
Asyou can see, there are a ton of great extenstions for Chrome and I hope you find some of these useful. What other extensions do you like? Please share them in the comments below.
*You did turn 2FA on right?
In the meantime, here are a few more, again in no particular order...
PixelBlock - Sending an email which includes a graphic is a technique that some companies use to track whether you open their email or not. Sometimes they do this sneaky thing where they hide an invisible single pixel in an email - you can't see it, but it helps them track you. PixelBlock does exactly what it says, and blocks that invisible pixel.
Google Calendar - Gives you a nice glanceable preview of your Google Calendar, from any webpage, without needing to open your actual Google Calendar. But if you do want to open your actual Google Calendar, then here's a pro tip, just click on the words "Google Calendar" at the top and it will open - you guessed it - your Google Calendar.
Google Calendar Scroll Disabler - Just in case I didn't say "Google Calendar" enough in that last tip, here is a neat little extension that fixes one of Google Calendar's most annoying traits - accidentally scrolling back and forward from month to month. This extension stops that behaviour and lets you scroll using the forward and back buttons in Google Calendar, making your Google Calendar behave the way normal people would expect it to.
Draftback - Takes the revision history of a Google Doc and turns it into a replayable "movie" of the document being created so you can watch how the Doc was written. Draftback adds a button to the top of every Google Doc and makes your students' thinking more visible be letting you see their writing process unfold in front of your eyes.
1-Click Timer - For all those times when you need to give your students 5 minutes to complete a task, or get a reminder about something in 30 minutes, or cook the perfect three-minute egg. Whatever it is you're timing, 1-Click Timer is a neat way to do it, right from the comfort of your Chrome Browser.
ColorZilla - There are a ton of colour picker extensions out there, but I have always kind of liked this one. Like most of these other extensions, this one lets you select any colour on your screen and sample it to find its RGB or hex code value. Especially useful for web design work, or anywhere you need to match exact colours.
Undo Closed Tabs Button - We all do it. You accidentally close a tab you didn't mean to close. Damn it! You probably know you can just use CRTL+SHIFT+T to reopen a closed tab (What? You didn't know that? You do now.) But what if you want to reopen a tab that you closed 12 tabs ago? You could just use CTRL+SHIFT+T another 12 times I suppose and go back through them all. Or, better yet, you could just use the Undo Closed Tabs Button extension and reopen the exact tab you want.
Share with Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Email - Despite the somewhat unwieldy title for this extension, (and the fact that Google+ is basically dead) it does exactly what is says and lets you share your current browser page to Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or email (or your Kindle too). Great for sharing that hilarious thing you just found on the internet with your friends, simply and easily.
Mercury Reader - Remove the clutter on a webpage and improve accessibility and readability so you can focus on the actual content. It's particularly great for reading articles on cluttered news pages. You know the ones, surrounded with ads, links to other stories, promotions and so on. Mercury Reader removes all of that crap and just leaves you with the actual page content. You can also adjust text size, font and colour contrast for readability.
Authy - If you don't use 2FA, or 2 Factor Authentication, then you need to go back and read this or this, and then stop being so bloody obstinate and go turn it on. Now. I'll wait... OK, now you've got it turned on*, you'll need something to generate the 2FA codes. You could use something like Google Authenticator but that only works on one device at a time and is a pain if you need to move it to another device. So check out Authy, it does the same thing but syncs across multiple devices, including your Chrome Browser using this handy extension.
Kami - If you need to work on PDFs, especially if you want to comment on them, annotate them with pen or voice notes, then check out Kami. It has a lot of features for working with PDF files, although there are limits on what you can do with the free version. Still, it's worth looking into if PDFs are your thing. It also has some nice direct integrations with Google Classroom.
Noisli - Some people like a little background noise when they work. Not necessarily music, as that can be distracting to some people, but just some ambient noise, like the sound of a coffee shop, or the sound of a crackling campfire, or wind in the trees, or a rainy thunderstorm. Noisli allows you to generate a gentle soundscape of your choice so you can immerse yourself in ambient sounds that help you focus. It also has a customisable timer that, by default, conforms to the timings of the Pomodoro Technique.
Session Buddy - I mentioned OneTab before as a way to manage your tabs in Chrome, but you might also like to check out Session Buddy. It doesn't gather your tabs together in the same way that OneTab does, but I do like the way it gathers sets of tabs into collections for later retrieval. Check it out and and see what you think.
Asyou can see, there are a ton of great extenstions for Chrome and I hope you find some of these useful. What other extensions do you like? Please share them in the comments below.
*You did turn 2FA on right?
Sunday 3 May 2020
What's in your Extension list?
One of the nice things about Chrome is how easily it can be enhanced with powerful and useful extensions. Extensions give the Chrome browser additional "superpowers" that it doesn't have by default, giving you the ability to add some really useful extra features to Chrome to suit the way you use your computer.
Here are some of my favourite extensions, in no particular order...
Extensity - The one extension to rule them all, Extensity is an extension manager that gives you the ability to easily enable or disable your extensions. I find myself installing far more extensions than I really need to use at any one time, so I like to turn off any that I don't need to use right now. It's as easy as clicking on their name. Extensity also has a "master switch" to turn them all off, which is handy for those few times when you might need to troubleshoot some rogue extension that could be causing trouble.
Text Blaze - A amazingly useful text expander that can take a few keystrokes and expand them out to a full word, phrase, sentence or more. You decide on your shortcut and it magically expands it in full whenever you type it. Great for emails, or any documents where you find yourself typing the same things over and over.
Clipboard History Pro - You know those times when you're doing a lot of cutting and pasting, and wish you could go back and retrieve the second last, third last (or more) thing that was on your clipboard? With Clipboard History Pro you can. It remembers everything you cut (or copy) and you can easily retrieve it from the list. You can even create a favourites list of things you commonly need to paste.
Screencastify - A really handy and easy to use screen recorder for Chrome. It's great because it integrates so well with Google Drive, and because it works directly in Chrome it is perfect for Chromebooks. The premium version is affordable and even has a built in video editor tool.
Be Awake - A simple utility that prevents your Chromebook from going to sleep. Just toggle it off or on as needed. Really basic but very useful.
OneTab - It's too easy to accumulate lots and lots of open tabs in Chrome. OneTab can help reduce tab clutter by gathering all open tabs into a handy list, which then be saved, shared or restored. I like to save my open tabs at the end of a busy day so I can revisit anything important later.
The Great Suspender - Another neat tab mangement tool that puts unused tabs to sleep after a predetermined time to help save memory and system resources. As soon as you return to the tab it instantly wakes again. There are lots of these kinds of extensions in the WebStore, but this was one of the first to do this.
Full Page Screen Capture - Most operating systems have built in keyboard shortcuts for taking screenshots, and most give you the option of grabbing the full screen or just a specific region. But things get trickier when I want to capture a long page that goes "below the fold" such as a long scrolling webpage. This extension solves that.
Marinara - If you use the Pomodoro Technique to stay focused on tasks, this Chrome based Pomodoro timer is very nice. It has the standard Pomodoro timings by default, but you can customise it it you want to. I like the way it keeps a full history of completed units. If you don't know about the Pomodoro Technique, check it out.
Mote - Mote lets you add voice recordings to comments in Google Docs. It adds simple one-click recording to add a voice comment. There are other ways to do this, but Mote is by far the simplest.
Bitly - I find myself making a lot of short URLs, and I quite like using bit.ly to do that. This extension makes it really simply to create a bitly address (which can be fully customised) in just a few clicks.
AdBlockPlus - Because ads can be really annoying! I whitelist a lot of sites where ads are not too intrusive, but it's good to be able to block the really annoying ones. Also blocks ads on Facebook and YouTube too.
Emoji Keyboard - Sometimes you want to add an emoji to your text and this extension makes it really easy. Just search, choose and paste. Super fun and easy! 😉👍
QR Code Generator - A really quick and simple no-frills way to generate a QR code from the current webpage as a PNG file. Just click and save to your Chromebook
Share to Classroom - If you are a Google Classroom user you should definitely have this one installed on all school machines. Push webpages to all classroom computers in just a couple of clicks, and turn any webpage into an assignment, question or material simply and immediately.
Speedtest - Because sometimes I just need to know how fast the network is.
That's just a few of my favourites but there are, literally, thousands to choose from. As you can see, many of the ones I like are focused on improving productivity and efficiency, but take some time to browse or search through the Chrome Webstore and you are sure to find extensions ideally suited to the way you work or to meet your specific needs.
What extensions do you llike? Let me know in the comments!
Here are some of my favourite extensions, in no particular order...
Extensity - The one extension to rule them all, Extensity is an extension manager that gives you the ability to easily enable or disable your extensions. I find myself installing far more extensions than I really need to use at any one time, so I like to turn off any that I don't need to use right now. It's as easy as clicking on their name. Extensity also has a "master switch" to turn them all off, which is handy for those few times when you might need to troubleshoot some rogue extension that could be causing trouble.
Text Blaze - A amazingly useful text expander that can take a few keystrokes and expand them out to a full word, phrase, sentence or more. You decide on your shortcut and it magically expands it in full whenever you type it. Great for emails, or any documents where you find yourself typing the same things over and over.
Clipboard History Pro - You know those times when you're doing a lot of cutting and pasting, and wish you could go back and retrieve the second last, third last (or more) thing that was on your clipboard? With Clipboard History Pro you can. It remembers everything you cut (or copy) and you can easily retrieve it from the list. You can even create a favourites list of things you commonly need to paste.
Screencastify - A really handy and easy to use screen recorder for Chrome. It's great because it integrates so well with Google Drive, and because it works directly in Chrome it is perfect for Chromebooks. The premium version is affordable and even has a built in video editor tool.
Be Awake - A simple utility that prevents your Chromebook from going to sleep. Just toggle it off or on as needed. Really basic but very useful.
OneTab - It's too easy to accumulate lots and lots of open tabs in Chrome. OneTab can help reduce tab clutter by gathering all open tabs into a handy list, which then be saved, shared or restored. I like to save my open tabs at the end of a busy day so I can revisit anything important later.
The Great Suspender - Another neat tab mangement tool that puts unused tabs to sleep after a predetermined time to help save memory and system resources. As soon as you return to the tab it instantly wakes again. There are lots of these kinds of extensions in the WebStore, but this was one of the first to do this.
Full Page Screen Capture - Most operating systems have built in keyboard shortcuts for taking screenshots, and most give you the option of grabbing the full screen or just a specific region. But things get trickier when I want to capture a long page that goes "below the fold" such as a long scrolling webpage. This extension solves that.
Marinara - If you use the Pomodoro Technique to stay focused on tasks, this Chrome based Pomodoro timer is very nice. It has the standard Pomodoro timings by default, but you can customise it it you want to. I like the way it keeps a full history of completed units. If you don't know about the Pomodoro Technique, check it out.
Mote - Mote lets you add voice recordings to comments in Google Docs. It adds simple one-click recording to add a voice comment. There are other ways to do this, but Mote is by far the simplest.
Bitly - I find myself making a lot of short URLs, and I quite like using bit.ly to do that. This extension makes it really simply to create a bitly address (which can be fully customised) in just a few clicks.
AdBlockPlus - Because ads can be really annoying! I whitelist a lot of sites where ads are not too intrusive, but it's good to be able to block the really annoying ones. Also blocks ads on Facebook and YouTube too.
Emoji Keyboard - Sometimes you want to add an emoji to your text and this extension makes it really easy. Just search, choose and paste. Super fun and easy! 😉👍
QR Code Generator - A really quick and simple no-frills way to generate a QR code from the current webpage as a PNG file. Just click and save to your Chromebook
Share to Classroom - If you are a Google Classroom user you should definitely have this one installed on all school machines. Push webpages to all classroom computers in just a couple of clicks, and turn any webpage into an assignment, question or material simply and immediately.
Speedtest - Because sometimes I just need to know how fast the network is.
That's just a few of my favourites but there are, literally, thousands to choose from. As you can see, many of the ones I like are focused on improving productivity and efficiency, but take some time to browse or search through the Chrome Webstore and you are sure to find extensions ideally suited to the way you work or to meet your specific needs.
What extensions do you llike? Let me know in the comments!
Sunday 26 April 2020
Working with Organisational Units
In this video you will learn about working with Organisational Units, one of the most important and foundational features of the G Suite Administration Console. Getting your OU structure right will affect almost every other aspect of managing your school's G Suite service so it's worth understanding how it works.
This video will show you how to set it up in a way that will make it easy to control and manage the user experience.
This video will show you how to set it up in a way that will make it easy to control and manage the user experience.
Understanding Google Classroom and Google Meet Integration
Google recently created an integration between Classroom and Meet designed to solve the biggest issue that educators were experiencing with Meet, that students could enter a Meet room unsupervised. This new update fixes that problem, and this video will explain how it works.
The Magic of Google Slides
Google Slides is one of my favourite G Suite tools. Its versatility and ease of use offers lots of amazing visual possibilities for students to present their learning in creative and interesting ways.
Here are 10 tips for becoming a Google Slides wizard…
What if you want an even bigger choice of images? There are several Add-ons for Google Slides that offer some stunningly beautiful high-res image collections, and many of them are free! Go to Add-ons > Get Add-ons and search for Unsplash Images. Or Pixabay Free Images. Or Adobe Stock images. There are lots to choose from, and having just the right image can really enhance your next presentation.
And yes, you read that right! You can now insert an audio file directly into a Google Slide! So students can now add voice notes, annotations, music, sound effects, pronunciations, and more.
To learn more about Google Slides, check out the First Day of Slides series in the Google Teacher Centre. Or if you already feel pretty good about your ability to conjure up an impressive Slides presentation, why not show what you know and take the Google Educator Level 1 or 2 Certification.
Here are 10 tips for becoming a Google Slides wizard…
10. Master your design with Master Slides
Did you know that you can make a single change in one place that then changes on every slide? Whether you want to add a graphic to every slide, reposition a textbox on every page, or change the font through your entire presentation, you can do it on the master and it will update on every slide. Click on Slide >Edit Master, then make your change to whatever type of slide you want changed. It’s like magic!9. Voice Type your speaker notes
Typing is so 2019! So instead of typing all your speaker notes why not just talk to your computer and have the words magically appear in the notes section below the slide? No special microphone or training required, just select Tools > Voice Type Speaker Notes, allow your microphone, then click and start speaking. And if you like this idea, you can find Voice Typing in Google Docs as well! Boom!8. Stay focused when you need to insert an image
There’s no need to leave Google Slides just to find a great image to add to your presentation. Just go to Insert > Image and you’ll find options to add an image from your computer, from the Web, from your Google Photos, from a URL, or even directly from your webcam! All without leaving your slides so you can stay focused on making a great presentation! As a bonus, if you insert an image from the web this way, it’s also copyright free!What if you want an even bigger choice of images? There are several Add-ons for Google Slides that offer some stunningly beautiful high-res image collections, and many of them are free! Go to Add-ons > Get Add-ons and search for Unsplash Images. Or Pixabay Free Images. Or Adobe Stock images. There are lots to choose from, and having just the right image can really enhance your next presentation.
7. Add almost anything to a slide
Tucked away under the Insert menu is a treasure trove of options for objects you can add to your slides. As well as images, you can also add text boxes, audio, video, shapes, lines, charts, tables, diagrams and wordart. So get creative and add whatever you need to build a compelling presentation for your audience. Don’t overdo it though! Remember, when it comes to slide design, less is usually more!And yes, you read that right! You can now insert an audio file directly into a Google Slide! So students can now add voice notes, annotations, music, sound effects, pronunciations, and more.
6. Explore better design
Want some creative ideas for the design of your presentation? Check out the Explore feature built into Slides! It uses the power of artificial intelligence to magically suggest ways to improve the look of your slides. After you add your words and images to a slide, go to Tools > Explore to open the side panel and browse the suggested designs! When you see one you like, just click to apply it to your slide, and you’re done. It’s that easy.5. Publish to the Web
You can easily share your beautiful presentation by publishing it to the web. After you share your slides simply go to File > Publish to the Web and choose the settings you want for the published product. Share the URL and your slides will be visible through any web browser. What a great way to share your presentation with colleagues, parents or conference attendees. If you continue to make changes, the web version will automatically update so your published Slides always have the right content. And if you no longer need to share your slides, you can unpublish to remove them from view. You have complete control! It’s the cloud, baby!4. Slides as Pages
Google Slides is a great presentation tool, but did you know it’s also an impressive desktop publishing tool! All you need to do is go to File > Page Setup and change the standard 16:9 slide format to whatever shape and size you’d like. Just choose Custom and enter your desired dimensions, such as 21cm x 29.7cm (aka A4). Then you can use all of the design tricks of Slides to create published documents like newsletters, posters, flyers, business cards, etc! In fact, you could even resize to the size of a mobile phone screen and create prototypes for app designs. So many possibilities! Using the File > Download As menu you can export directly to PDF if you’d like to print your finished product. This little trick of changing the page size probably makes Slides the most versatile tool in the whole Suite!3. Questions and Answers
When the time finally comes to stand in front of an audience and present your slides, why not give the Q&A feature a go? After you hit the Present button to begin your presentation, click the Q&A button in the floating black toolbar at the bottom of the screen. Depending on how the projection is set up, you may need to rearrange the windows on the screens a bit, but once you turn on the feature, the audience will see a URL at the top of the presentation screen, which they can go to to ask questions or make comments as you present. Audience questions will appear on your screen so you can monitor their feedback, or even present one of their great questions to the whole group. What kind of sorcery is this!?2. Closed captions while presenting
There’s a ton of research that supports the positive impact that closed captioning has on literacy simply by having the words appear on the screen as you speak. The same magic that allows Voice Typing can also add closed captions to your presentation, automatically as you present! Just click the CC button from the black toolbar when presenting and your words will flow along the bottom of the screen as you speak. You can even move the words to the top of the screen or change their size if you wish.1. Collaboration is the real magic
Like all G Suite tools, the real magic happens when people can work together to share and build their ideas. Using Google Slides people can work together, on the same document at the same time, so work gets done faster, more easily and more collaboratively. Just click the yellow Share button, add your collaborators and then get busy together! Whether it’s a group project for a small group of students, a class project where everyone is able to contribute, or a staff presentation that requires input from multiple people, the collaboration feature of Google Slides will forever change the way you think about building presentations.To learn more about Google Slides, check out the First Day of Slides series in the Google Teacher Centre. Or if you already feel pretty good about your ability to conjure up an impressive Slides presentation, why not show what you know and take the Google Educator Level 1 or 2 Certification.
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