Xtramath - How students can link their account to Google or Clever account

Xtramath is a useful site for students to use as one way to help learn basic facts. The site works with the user and works with the facts that they need to work on and all for about 5 minutes a day.

To learn more about Xtramath - click here for a collections of blog posts I created revolving around the site - https://wke.lt/w/s/2CgAKA

If you are just starting the new school year and would like your students to use their Google (or Clever)
account to log on follow the following steps:

• As a teacher create or log on to your account
• Make sure to click on the Blue Parent or Teacher Tab
• Follow the class checklist for creating your class
• Once the students have their account name and number make sure they log on to their Google or Clever account.
• Once logged on have them click on the green student tab
• Choose to log on with Google or Clever
• They will have to put in the teacher email
• Their user name
• 4 digit Xtramath number
• They should then have a linked account to xtramath

Embedded below is a 40 second YouTube tutorial explaining the above steps.

Take care,

Brad

Webjets - a great platform to curate content and share that content in an organized way with others

If you are looking for a way to present curated content with others in an organized fashion - try Wejets.

Embedded below is a 2 minute 24 second YouTube tutorial. In this tutorial I show a simple way to add links (from Wakelet), organize them in a board, share them, as well as add a YouTube video of Brad Lidge winning the World Series in 2008.

Take care,
Brad

Immersive Reader is available in your Outlook.com email

Immersive Reader is available in your Outlook.com email. This is my personal account, not my school account. The school where I work uses OWA and I do not see it yet available.

Embedded below is a 1 minute and 22 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,
Brad

Reminder to check your extensions - there was a data breach

Reported a little over a week ago on Lifehacker there was a data breach that stole data from millions.- Uninstall These Eight Browser Extensions That Stole Data from Millions.

SpeakIt! (with the exclamation point) not to be confused with the extension SpeakIt (without the exclamation point) was one. The moral of the story is to be careful of what extensions you add. Make sure you check with others about extensions, look for reviews, and maybe limit yourself to 5 or 6.

Take care,
Brad

10 Social Media Stats Infographic as well as 126 more interesting facts

Oberlo shared 10 Social Media Stats  along with some interesting statistics.

Brandwatch has also shared 126 amazing facts about social media. 

Some interesting facts are below.

• As of May 2019, total worldwide population is 7.7 billion
• The internet has 4.4 billion users
• There are 3.499 billion active social media users
• On average, people have 7.6 social media accounts
• The average daily time spent on social is 142 minutes a day
• Social media users grew by 202 million between April 2018 and April 2019.
• That works out at a new social media user every 6.4 seconds.

Take care,

Brad 

Office Lens - how to capture text and use Immersive Reader's capabilities

Office Lens by Microsoft is an amazing app that has so many capabilities (numerous blog posts in the future).

The one feature I want to look at today is the ability to take a picture of a page from a book and have Immersive Reader at my fingertips.

This is awesome for everyone; however, I am thinking of the students who need to read some pages from a text. Why not take some pictures of text and have the students just listen to the text be read aloud as they follow the written text.

There are numerous capabilities that I am really excited to share in the future. However, for right now- take a look at the 1 minute and 27 second YouTube tutorial below.

Take care,
Brad

Enable Dark Mode on web version of Google Keep

When you are in Google Keep you can now select the settings gear and enable dark mode.

Try it out - it may make it easier to read and protect your eyes.

Brad

How to get started in Wakelet in about 30 seconds

If you are interested in learning all about Wakelet - make sure to do these few quick things.

1. Sign up for an account at https://wakelet.com/home
2. Add the app
1. IOS 
2. Google Play 
3. Check out how easy it is to save items such as Tweets
4. Add the extension in Google Chrome or Firefox

Embedded below is a 36 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

How companies got started - their failures and successes (shared by Jay Shetty)

Ever wanted to know some of the back story to Angry Birds, AIRBNB, Instagram, Alibaba, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Uber? Check out Jay Shetty's post below.

This is great to share with students, faculty, friends, or maybe it inspires you to go out there and try something that you want to.

Take care,
Brad

Twitter - customize your view- change font size, change color of font, as well as set background to dim or lights out.

 You can easily change your display on Twitter's desktop version. You can change font size, color of font, and set background to dim or lights out.

To make changes select:

• More (bottom left)
• Display

You will then see the embedded picture below.

Embedded below is a 43 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

Locked Mode in Google Forms available on District managed Chromebooks - what it looks like from a teacher and student point of view

In the district where I work (as well as the neighboring school district where my wife works) locked mode for Google Forms is now available on District managed Chromebooks.

When respondents access the Form (on a school managed Chromebook) they will not be able to open up other tabs until the form has been completed.

Embedded below is a 2 minute YouTube tutorial showing what it looks like from a teacher and student point of view. I created the form within Google Classroom; however, please know that you can create this directly in Google Forms within Drive.

Take care,

Brad

🌕🚀👨‍🚀 50th anniversary of the Moon landing - Google created a 4 minute video Google Doodle narrated by astronaut Michael Collins

On the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing - Google created a 4 minute video Google Doodle narrated by astronaut Michael Collins. While he didn't land on the moon like Neil Armstrong or Buzz Aldrin he did have hot coffee. Embedded below is the 4 minute and 37 second YouTube video.

Here is also a link about the moon landing as well as other information shared by IBM.

Take care,

Brad

Google Lens for translating, copying text, quick search in text - plus a tip calculator

On Tuesday I Tweeted about using Google Lens as a tip calculator:

Use Google Lens in Google's app for a tip calculator. @Google #tipcalculatorhttps://t.co/215LjDUgkr pic.twitter.com/pXEjWstSaw

— Brad Dale (@bradjdale) July 16, 2019

Today I show how you can use the Google Lens for translating, copying text, plus searching directly within text.

Embedded below is a 1 minute and 9 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,
Brad

In Twitter - new followers show up as a notification and is easy to re-follow

In Twitter - new followers show up as a notification. This is great as there is also a place for re-following.

Make sure to keep your profile up-to-date as this will show up.

Embedded below is a 16 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,
Brad

Happy World Emoji Day (😊🌎😎☀️!!) the most popular new emoji of 2019 is....

smiling face with hearts! Embedded below is a chart brought to you by Emojipedia.

One that I use the most is Emojicopy.com

Embedded below is a collection I created in Wakelet revolving around emojis. They include 

• Emojicopy.com - makes it easy to find emojis
• How to make pixel and emoji paintings in Google Sheets
• Name a folder in Google Drive as an emoji
• Use random emojis to tell a story - great for brain breaks.
• Time-saving emoji keyboard trick for iPhone
• Want an emoji search engine? You can browse every one by name, category, or platform.
• Emoji Random Writing Prompt Generator
• This is what happens on the internet in one minute as well as real-time emoji use on Twitter and real-time twitter activity
• See realtime emoji use on Twitter
• Halloween🎃👻🦇 Rebus Stories📖. Thank you🙌 Eric Curts for creating and sharing!
• Wintertime Rebus Story using emojis in Google Docs

Use Google Lens in Google's app for a tip calculator

If you would like access to a tip calculator

• Open your Google app
• select the Google Lens - upper right
• scan your receipt
• once the circle appears on the total - tap the circle
• a tip calculator will come up where you can
• see the bill total
• change % for tip
• Check to include or not include taxes
• Split the bill among the number on the party
• See total tip as well as the split
• See total amount plus how much each person pays

Embedded below is a GIF as well as a 21 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

Gnotes.io creates a transcript of a YouTube video in a Google doc complete with a screenshot.

Tony Vincent tweeted the other day about Gnotes.io

📝 Enter a YouTube URL into https://t.co/7tOJkspYJA. Play the video and and press M. Enter the number of seconds of transcript you want, and Gnotes generates a Google doc with a screenshot and the transcript snippet. #ClassyVideos https://t.co/V1Jm4TMBoj

— Tony Vincent (@tonyvincent) July 6, 2019

As Tony stated,

• you simply enter in the URL
• choose Chrome Tab and Google script when prompted
• Play the video
• press M
• enter number of second of transcript
• Google Doc is created complete with a screenshot
• You can continue adding to the doc as needed

Embedded below is a GIF followed by a 2 minute and 26 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

Floating for YouTube - App that allows you to watch a YouTube video while taking notes or anything else!

Ever wish you could watch a YouTube video while surfing the web - or taking notes at the same time? Well with the Chrome app Floating for YouTube, you can!

All you need to do is

• add the app 
• open the app
• copy and paste the url from YouTube
• the video will autoplay and you can mute the video, make it smaller or larger, as well as pause

What a great app for assigning videos for students to watch and take notes at the same time! Of course there are many other uses as well!

Embedded below is a GIF followed by a 1 minute and 8 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

See tweets in a wordcloud with the app Tweetroot

If you would like to see Tweets represented in a Wordcloud, try using the iOS app Tweetroot. Tweetroot pulls in recent tweets and analyzes what words are used most frequently.

You see what a @user tweets about as well as what reactions a #hashtag generates.

Tweetroot lets you analyze 3 types of Twitter feeds:

- User tweets: A user's 1,000 most recent tweets.

- Hashtags:Recent tweets using a certain #hashtag.

Embedded below is a GIF showing Flipgrid's wordcloud followed by a 1 minute and 37 second YouTube tutorial.

via GIPHY

Take care,
Brad

Wakelet is now more accessible and inclusive for everyone with the integration of Microsoft's Immersive Reader.

Wakelet 's latest update is one of the biggest - the integration of Microsoft's Immersive Reader. If you do not know much about Immersive Reader - watch Microsoft's 1 minute video below.

In Wakelet, when you add text in your collection this text can now be read-a-loud as well as change

• text preferences
• text size
• spacing
• font
• themes
• grammar preferences
• syllables
• parts of speech
• reading preferences
• line focus
• picture dictionary
• TRANSLATE
• By word
• Whole document

To see Immersive Reader in action, watch the GIF as well as the 1 minute and 38 second YouTube tutorial below.

Take care,

Brad

TweetReality - Enjoy Twitter in Augmented Reality

TweetReality allows you to see Twitter in a whole way - Augmented Reality.

Once you login with your Twitter account you will need to simply scan the floor for AR and once the AR is ready - you will see your Twitter feed appear right in front of you. You can do everything you do in Twitter (retweet, favorite, comment, etc.) as you would in regular Twitter.

This is a fun way to show Augmented Reality (AR) to people as it has that WOW factor as well as a familiarity. It isn't an app that one would use everyday, but it is one that will grab other's attention.

Embedded below is a 1 minute and 44 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,
Brad

In need of Royalty Free Music for a project? Try Bensound.com

If you, or your students, are in need of royalty free music for a project at school, be sure to check out Bensound.com. After searching through a number of sites (Google search) Bensound offers the music with a Free Creative Commons License (see pic below).

Once downloaded (MP3) be sure to grab the information needed to attribute it to the creator by selecting the i. Of course you can copy the URL as well.

Embedded below is a 1 minute and 7 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

How to force Google to automatically delete information it saves about you online

Google has recently rolled out a feature that will automatically delete data it can save from all of your Google services on your account after either 18 months or 3 months (the default is manually delete).

Below are the steps necessary to change your preferences.

• Log on to myaccount.google.com
• Choose data and presonalization
• Web and App activity (select the arrow or "carrot")
• Choose Manage Activity
• Select Choose to delete automatically
• Choose 18 or 3 months

Embedded below is a GIF followed by a 54 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

Wakelet - New bookmarks areas with 3 different layouts and ability to add a bookmark to a collection!

Wakelet continues to update their site. This update is one that will help you easily see your bookmarks as well as add a bookmark to a collection as well as share!

Embedded below is a 34 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,
Brad

Kahoot - faster & easier to create games + new question bank, autosave + drag and drop + extended timer

Kahoot has some new features to check out. (Also available by clicking here)

• New Kahoot creator - faster and easier to create games
• 25% higher character limit
• Autosave feature
• Drag and drop + duplication
• All new community-powered question bank
• auto-suggest questions, answers, and images from over 600 million questions
• True or false questions type
• Extended timer to 4 minutes (twice what it was before)

Embedded below is a 59 second YouTube tutorial created by Kahoot!

Take care,

Brad

Great new feature in Google Sheets - Remove duplicates

That's right! No more searching to see if you have duplicates in your Google Sheets!!

Embedded below is a GIF as well as a 29 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,
Brad

Want to clean-up your Google Sheet? Try Data > Trim Whitespace

I think we have all had some data in a spreadsheet that is off and there is too much whitespace. Well, Google has made it so simple to correct that situation. 

• Select your row or column of data
• Data
• Trim Whitespace

Embedded below is a GIF followed by a 33 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

Google Site that has all Google Expeditions in an easy searchable format. Includes both AR and VR

Below you will see a GIF that shows how to search Google Expeditions (by Jon Neale). The GIF shows results when typing in American Revolution. What is awesome is that it allows you to search for both AR or VR.

Brad

Flipgrid - all videos now available in Augmented Reality

Awesome update in Flipgrid! You can now print out response QR codes, scan them using the app, and see the video in augmented reality! This works with all response QR codes as long as you use the app and a supported device.

So, place them on a poster, a desk, a wall, you name it!

So, go ahead and scan the QR code (using Flipgrid's app) below for a 25 second YouTube tutorial showing you what it looks like, or you could  watch the YouTube video below that.

Take care,

Brad

Google has added augmented reality to search (with many more coming)

Google has added 3D augmented reality to its search results if you have an AR-enabled phone. You can bring animals right into your living room, office, backyard, etc with a simple search. I even placed an augmented bear with real bears in the zoo in Hershey, PA (see pic below).

The future will be fascinating!

Just used Google’s Augmented Reality (built into image search) to search for a bear🐻 to see it with real ones! 🐻🐾(Hershey zoo). @Hersheypark @Google @GoogleForEdu #AugmentedReality pic.twitter.com/ZpzpgG540Y

— Brad Dale (@bradjdale) July 1, 2019

Embedded below is a 1 minute and 34 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,
Brad

Bookcreator Update: Autodraw and emojis are now available!!

Awesome update in Bookcreator (especially for those of use who are not as talented as others with drawing) - the addition of Autodraw!

Once you select the plus and pen you will then see the option of multiple tools, the last one is autodraw. Once selected you can then draw what you would like and you will see options as to what is thought you are drawing.

Once finished select the x in the upper right and then you will see more options. The one to point out is the ability to add emojis!

Embedded below is a 1 minute and 9 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,
Brad