Chad's Instructional Tech Update

Brought to you by your friendly neighborhood ITC

May 2022

Introduction

After looking through this month's newsletter I realized it's primarily about Google. That's not really that out of the ordinary since we're a GSuite (I still hate that name) district. And that's alright. There always seems to be something new to learn. That statement isn't just for Google either. I've recently been learning more about instructional technology in general and have learned a lot about early examples of this that go back decades. For instance, some of the earliest computer programs for schools were developed in the 60's. It was thought then that reaching students on computer terminals 90 miles away was a major achievement. Which it was at the time. But compared to 60 years later when I can easily send an email to someone in another country it isn't as amazing. The point of all of this is to bring up the need to find something you're interested in and pursue it. Whether that is gardening, cooking, cars, or instructional technology in my case. Take some time where you can to find your own topic to learn and act on it. Who knows, maybe I'll start trying to play my ukelele again.

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Information you should know

It's that time of year again. The time where I need to share the directions for backing up your Google information. This especially pertains to those leaving the district. There are three different options to choose from. Each one is listed on this document. If you have any questions, please let us know in IT and we'll be happy to help. If you are leaving, please do this well in advance of the last day of school for teachers because you'll lose access to your account on your last official day of work even if you plan on coming in after this.
Any staff member who is leaving will lose access to their school accounts on the evening of their last assigned workday.
IMPORTANT- Due to changes in Google's policies, school systems will no longer have unlimited space. This will mean that teachers and students will have limited space on their Drive's. It's recommended that you go through your Google Drive and remove any personal files or other files that you no longer need. All files stored in the Drive of every student and employee of FCPS now count towards an overall pool of data. Please be aware of this moving forward.
A new tool in Google Classroom will give your students the ability to practice some of their work right on the site rather than going to another service. Practice Sets will be arriving soon for you to test out. See the Google Blog post here.

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This month's Tech Tip

I've known about a certain Google application for a year or two now but didn't realize it's now part of Google Chrome until recently. I've always used it on my phone. That product is called Google Lens. It works by scanning an image and finding results based on what it picks up. Results may vary but it can find options related to the image in questions, translate languages in the image, or even scan the text and find results based on that information as well.

To use this option, go to a webpage that has an image and right-click. You should see an option to "Search images with Google Lens". Choose this option. You may need to then draw a box around the image you want to search which will trigger a new tab to open with the information you want. If it doesn't work, try the menu option again but focus on the important part of the image which may result in better results.

This may come in handy for students when reading more about a specific topic in class or even those ELL students who need more context in their own primary language. Give it a try.

Technology Highlight

I may have highlighted or talked about this site before, but it's always going through changes, and sometimes a reminder can be helpful.

The site for this month contains VR for Social Studies and Science, tours of other countries, Google Streetview tours, museums from around the world, fun little coding experiments, and more. Don't let the name fool you. Google Arts & Culture contains so much beyond just artwork. Yes, I can't and won't deny that it does promote this aspect of the site but there is so much more to consider. For instance, did you know that Nigeria is one of the largest producers of Irish potatoes in Africa? Neither did I. But there is a page exploring a Nigerian market that goes into the common crops of Nigeria on Google Arts & Culture.

The Play option allows students to test their knowledge a little on varied subjects and the Explore tab can be used to look at historic events or figures.

So while the site may have Art in the title, it's much more than that. Check out Google Arts & Culture to see more.

EdTech under 5

Google's Smart Chips are a newer feature available in Google Docs. Often, as you open a new Doc the @ appears. You can also trigger this by typing the symbol yourself. This will open a menu with several features. One of the newest is the ability to create a draft email right in a Doc that you can then share with others to add to, preview, or change prior to sending the actual email right from Docs.