Lemon Tech Tidbits

ESSENTIAL PRIVACY TIPS FOR TEACHER USING CHROME From Educational Technology and Mobile Learning comes an article titled  7 Essential Privacy Tips for Teachers Using Chrome. The tips include: Clear Browser History See Your Saved Passwords Stop Chrome from Saving Passwords Delete Saved Passwords Allow or Block Cookies from Sites Change Site Permissions Check to See If A Site’s Connection is Secure. If you would like the detailed instructions on how to do one of these tips, check out the blog post: http://bit.ly/2qYXsWn . Bonus: From the ISTE blog is an article titled 6 ways busy teachers can be more efficient using Google Tools. Check it out: http://bit.ly/2qYco7j

GOOGLE SHEETS UPDATE: Checkmarks! With the end of the year fast approaching, the need to create and manage lists of items is more important than ever. If you have a lot of information or data, a Google Sheet that can be shared with multiple people is ideal. To help make things easier, you can now make check marks in Google Sheets to help keep track of your data. In this blog post by Alice Keeler, http://bit.ly/2qX0r1u , she walks you through step-by-step on how to use this new feature. Be sure to check it out! Image from Alice Keeler

PLAY MYSTERY ANIMAL WITH GOOGLE This information comes from a blog post by Control Alt Achieve written by Eric Curtis. Google has introduced a new game you can do with students called Mystery Animal developed for Google Home devices and app on Android Phones. But you can play a game or two from your own laptop device with your students! To play: Go to https://mysteryanimal.withgoogle.com/ Click on Preview It Here in the bottom right-hand corner Allow access to your Microphone. Google will then introduce to you the game and a small introduction. You get 20 questions to try to guess the animal. To ask a question, you simply hold down on the microphone icon. Google will then tell you the answer.  This is a simple game to play and since there is no typing involved, it can be used by all age groups. The students will need to put on their deduction caps and work together to solve who the mystery animal is. Perfect for teaching students how to ask good questions to narrow down th

GOOGLE SITES UPDATE! Yes, Google Sites will have another update in about two weeks. This one involves the navigation bar. Before, your navigation bar had links to different pages within your Google Site. Now, you can link to sites outside of the current Google Site. For example, you can now add a navigation button to: A Classroom Blog Facebook, Twitter or Instagram account Any Other Website A Google Drive folder A Youtube Channel A nother Google Site: with different access permissions! It will be very easy to add an outside link by following these steps: On your computer, open a site in New Google Sites . At the right, click Pages. Click the page with the menu you want to update. At the right, point to Add . Click New link . Add a link name. Add a web address or choose a page from your site and click done.

ALTERNATIVES TO PADLET As you probably have already heard, Padlet is changing its price structure. You can still use it for free but only to create 3 Padlets. On Richard Byrne’s blog, Free Technology for Teachers , he has a post over 5 alternatives to Padlet you might want to check out. He even listed the order by which ones he prefers. Lino : “A free sticky and canvas service that only requires a website.” Wakelet : “Save, organize and tell stories with content from around the web.” Dotstorming : “share ideas with sticky notes and then vote on which idea they like the best.” Scrumblr : “create an online space and share sticky notes.” Pinside : “virtual sticky notes to share.” (I can’t open this site at my school due to filter). Due to the popularity of his post, R ichard Byrne wrote another one titled 5 More Alternatives to Padlet.

LET’S BE GRIDPALS! Previously, I have mentioned how much I love Flipgrids and can see many educational uses for this new tech tool. Flipgrid is a free/paid website that allows a teacher to create a “grid” of short discussion questions for students to answer with a short recorded video. It is very easy to use for both teachers and students in a variety of different ways. Earlier this year, someone had the great idea of creating a Flipgrid and then sharing it with another school making a connection across state lines. Soon, this idea was expanded and international connections were made called GridPals thanks to the power of a single Twitter hashtag - #GridPals If you would like to sign up to participate, all you need to do is fill out a simple form on this blog . You can use the free or paid version of Flipgrid. Happy Matching!

5 CLASSIC TED-TALKS EVERY TEACHER SHOULD WATCH It is getting to be that time of the year when all teachers can see the end of the school year and enthusiasm can start to wane. This is especially true with all of the days of testing, student apathy is on the rise, and senioritis quickly spreading down the halls. To help keep up the moral, watch one of these 5 classic TED talks for teachers recommended by Educational Technology and Mobile Learning.  Every Kid Needs A Champion : Rita Pearson shares how important it is to believe in your students. How To Escape Education’s Death Valley : Ken Robinson explains with humor 3 principles needed for young minds today to achieve greatness. Key to Success Is Grit : A video over perseverance and to never give up. Puzzle of Motivation: Dan Pink explains how traditional awards are really not the best to motivate others. How Great Leaders Inspire Action : Describes a powerful model for inspirational leadership based on other great leaders fr

Goo.gl Is Going Away Google has recently announced plans to shut down the Goo.gl url shortener. According to Google, this move was needed as more people rely on apps and content available on phones than on websites. They would like everyone to move to Firebase Dynamic Links . After April 13th, you will no longer be able to create any new url short links and any link you have used with Goo.gl will no longer work after May 30, 2019. What can you do?: You can continue to use Bitly or Ow.ly . Or you can be brave and start using Firebase Dynamic Links . (hopefully, there will soon be a chrome extension) Next, take a look at your websites and documents and see if you have any Goo.gl redirections. If you do, you will need to mitigate them to another url shortener service. Read The Original Article