Did You Know? How to Make the Most of Your Learning Management System (Canvas)

Your LMS or Learning Management System is your digital home for your class.  You and your students spend a lot of time here.  What's the best way to make this an efficient and effective home for your class?  Read on!

10 Ways to make the most of your LMS

Remember that you can find previous Did You Know posts on our blog.  Enjoy the rest of your day!

Did You Know? Gmail Playlist from KATE

 

Here at MSU we use Gmail, also known as RacerMail every day.  If you are a new or experienced user, you may find a video in our new playlist that will help you use Gmail more efficiently.  They are not in any specific order.  My favorite features are scheduling and snoozing.  What are yours?

KATE Gmail Playlist

Want to learn more about Google?  Check out our other videos on our YouTube Channel.  Need to find previous Did You Know posts?  Don't search your email!  Go to the KATE blog.

Did You Know? You can create a collaborative playlist in YouTube

 

There may be a time that you might want your students to create a YouTube playlist as a group and turn it in as part of an assignment.  It's really easy to do.  Remember that all of our MSU accounts are Google accounts, which gives us access to a YouTube channel.  Watch the video to find out how to create a playlist with contributions from multiple people.

Did You Know? You can lock a Google Sheet tab

 

You can control who can edit individual sheets (tabs) within your Google Sheets? Protected sheets are marked with a small padlock symbol. Others can see the sheets but not edit them. Follow @benlcollins on Twitter for more great tips like this one.  

Did You Know? Send from Gmail Extension for Chrome

This extension (Send from Gmail) when added to Google Chrome makes Gmail your default email application and provides a button to compose a Gmail message to quickly share a link via email.  The extension will open a compose window in Gmail when you click an email address on a webpage.  It will create a message when clicked, using the page title as the subject and the selected page text and link address as the message.

Let us know what you think!

Did You Know? ISTE TEN's 10 Things in About 10 Minutes

ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) has various focus groups and one is the Teacher Education Network (TEN).  This group has started a podcast in the last 6 months that is "TEN's 10 Things in About 10 Minutes" and they include downloadable podcast notes on their website.  Some of their topics have been very interesting, so I thought I would share the site with you,

TEN's 10 Things in About 10 Minutes

We're all teachers and I know you'll find some great insights and ideas from the various guests on each podcast. 

Did You Know? 5 Ways to Keep Chat in Face-to-Face Classes

Many faculty and students may not have liked getting on Zoom and turning on their cameras, but they did like the engagement of participating in Zoom chats which allows every student's voice to be heard.  Here are some ways to keep that going in your face-to-face classes.

Love Zoom chat? 5 ways to keep it in face-to-face classes

Other ways to keep the conversation going can be found here on our Remote Learning Resources page on Discussion Ideas.  We'll be adding other ideas over the summer months so check back.  While you are there, check out our other web pages for more ideas as well.

Did You Know? How to Organize Shared With Me in Google Drive

In Google Drive there is a section called Shared With Me and this is where files that are not owned by you and have been shared with you by others reside.  When you look at it, it seems to be an unorganized mess and I know I just want to get in there and organize it.  But I have to resist because these are not my files and I can't organize them like I do my own.  Here's a video on how to link these files with a shortcut into folders where you can find them.

How to Organize Shared With Me in Google Drive

Want to learn more about Google Drive?  Check out these resources from KATE.

Hope you're having a great day! 

Did You Know? Zoom Has a New Display Format

Zoom has introduced a new display format that you can use to display all of your students in a neat virtual background.  It's called Immersive View.  The backgrounds include art galleries, fireside chats, portrait walls and more adding novelty and fun to your class meeting.

Here's how to use Zoom's New Immersive View 

Introducing Immersive View, A Fun New Way to Meet

Immersive view does not work on iPads and Chromebooks or other devices that don't currently support using virtual backgrounds.  Students on these devices will remain in the normal Zoom meeting view.

Did You Know? Mote Enables Voice Notes in Google

Inserting audio feedback or notes into Google apps is easy to do with the Mote extension. Add it to your Chrome profile and it will show up in your extensions bar, as well as inside Slides and your comment box in Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Classroom.  You can easily record your voice to leave notes for your students. 

Mote has a free and premium service.  Check out Easy Audio You Can Do and get a 60 day free trial to Mote Unlimited.  Sarah Kiefer has also created a Wakelet on Mote. 

Here's a video from Kasey Bell on using Mote to record and insert audio into Google Slides.

Did You Know? Must-Have Google Docs/Slides Skills

Google Docs and Slides are 2 of the most used Google apps.  Once you learn to do many things in these 2 apps, you'll find they work with other Google apps as well.  Kasey Bell from Shake Up Learning takes you through how to use both of these fantastic apps that are used by most school districts in Kentucky.  

Must-have Google Skills for Teachers (Part 4 Google Docs and Slides)

Google Docs Playlist from KATE

Google Slides Playlist from KATE

Do you want to become more proficient with Google?  Our Google for Education Level 1 Study Guide has videos and resources to help you build your skills at your own pace.  Whether you want to take the certification test or not, if you are working with Google, these skills are essential.  Ready to go beyond the basics?  Here's our Google for Education Level 2 Study Guide.  

Any time you have questions, KATE is here to help.

Did You Know? Must-Have Google Drive Skills

Google Drive is an essential part of working with Google. And it's more than just cloud storage.  It's imperative that you know and understand Google Drive as you use the Google tools with your students.  Kasey Bell from Shake Up Learning takes you to the next level with your Google Drive skills and you'll learn a few tips and tricks along the way.

Must-have Google Skills for Teachers (Part 3 Google Drive)

Link to the KATE Playlist about Google Drive

Want to learn more about Google?  Our Google for Level 1 Study Guide has videos and resources to help you build your Google skills at your own pace.  Whether you want to take the certification test or not, if you are working with Google, these skills are essential.  Any time you have questions, KATE is here to help.

Did You Know? Must-Have Google Chrome Skills

Kasey Bell from Shake Up Learning has begun a series of blog posts on Must-Have Google Skills for Teachers with her first post focusing on Google Chrome.  Chrome is more than just a browser and it allows you to customize it in a number of ways.  Check out her blog post to learn more about Google Chrome.

Do you have a Chrome tip, favorite extension, or way you customize Chrome that is helpful?  Please share!

If you need help with customizing or using Chrome, just let KATE know.  We'll be glad to help! 

Did You Know? - Add more fonts to Google!

In recent years, fonts and sayings on signs have become very popular, along with cutout words to add to walls.  When looking at your choice of fonts in Google Doc, Slides, and other Google apps, you might be disappointed.  Don't be!  Here's how to add more fonts!!

Have fun playing with fonts!

Did You Know? 13 Tips to Organize Your Google Drive

I really hope that your Google Drive doesn't look like mine!  If it does, then this article is for you!  Learn how to organize your Google Drive like a pro.  And be sure to check out workspaces.  They help you organize files that you are using for a specific project you are working on.  They are mentioned in the attached article, but I've included the KATE video on how to use them as well.

13 Tips to Organize Your Google Drive

Priority Page and Workspaces in Google Drive

Did You Know? Autofit Text in Textboxes and Shapes in Google Slides

Have you ever gotten frustrated trying to make your text fit inside a textbox or shape in Slides?  It won't happen again!  Slides will now autofit your text for you.  Check out this tip from Kasey Bell.

Need help with Slides or other edtech tools?  Just let a member of the KATE team know and we'll be there to help!

Did You Know: Engaging Your Students with Interactive Activities

Are you looking to engage your students with some interactive activities?  Here are 2 links to some great ideas to use in either Google Slides or MS PowerPoint.

30 interactive Google Slides activities for classroom excitement

20 interactive PowerPoint activities to add awesome to classes

Most of these are easily adaptable to the college classroom.  Need help?  KATE is here to help.

Did You Know? Official Guide to Wakelet is HERE! 😎

Wakelet is an amazing FREE app that allows you to curate information and more!  According to Holly Clark:

“It is the newest, hippest curation tool out there and it can help change the collaboration, creation and organization of learning in a classroom. Wakelet makes it ‘easy to capture, organize and share multimedia resources’ for both the teacher and student."

You can save any link on the web to Wakelet, organize multiple links into beautiful collections,
and then share those collections with whoever you want!What's more, it is super easy to use.

Here's Wakelet's new eBook that will help you and your students quickly become Wakelet superstars ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ !  Be sure to follow @Wakelet on Twitter too.

Need help?  Let me know and I'll be glad to help.

Did You Know? You can now use automatic closed captioning in Zoom!

 

In order to use automatic closed captioning in English in Zoom, you need to enable it in your Zoom settings.  Log into Zoom on the web (murraystate.zoom.us) and go to settings.  Search or find "closed captioning"

Turn Closed Captioning on in settings.  When you open Zoom the next time, you will see Live Transcript next to the record button.  When you click on it, it will look like this:

Click Enable Auto-Transcription.   You will see the live transcription at the bottom of your screen.  For students to see it, your participants must enable it as well.  For your students, it will look like this:

Most students should click on "Show Subtitles''.  View Full Transcript pops opens a side panel with the captions in real time.

You can access the subtitle settings by opening the Subtitle Settings and increasing the font size.

Did You Know? You Can Retrieve Deleted Calendar Events!

If you are like me, you have probably accidentally deleted more than one event in your calendar and panicked! Luckily, deleted events go to the trash bin and can be restored.  Here's how:

How to undo accidental deletion of Google Calendar events?

The good news is that they stay in the bin for 30 days!

On that same site, there are lots of other great tips about Google Calendar as well.  Need help?  Ask KATE!