Edmonds Digital Learning

Tidying up can feel awfully good. We all know what to do when it comes to cleaning a desk, countertop, or bookshelf, but when it comes to digital cleaning it can be hard to know where to start. One great place to begin is with your bookmarks in Google Chrome. So grab the nearest feather duster and follow these steps! First, every student and staff member in the Edmonds School District should have the 'Edmonds Bookmarks' folder. This gives quick access to some commonly used websites (see below). If you don't see the 'Edmonds Bookmarks' folder, right-click on the gray 'Bookmarks bar' and select 'Show Edmonds Bookmarks'. As you can see, it's great to have bookmarks organized in folders. Here's how you can organize the rest of your bookmarks. 1. Right-click on the bookmarks bar and select 'Add folder...' 2. Name the folder something that makes sense to you. Could be 'Instructional Resources' or 'Edu Blog...

It's finally here! It's now possible to insert audio files into Google Slides so that music can accompany your presentations. Here's how to do it... 1. Open a Google Slides presentation. This could be a new one or one you've created in the past. 2. Click on the slide where you want the audio to begin playing. It can play through the entire slide show if you'd like. 3. Click on the 'Insert' menu and select 'Audio'. 4. Browse to find the audio file you'd like to insert. Google should show your audio files automatically. Click the file and then click 'Select'. 5. The audio track will display as a little speaker icon on the slide. 6. By default, the audio track will start playing once you click the slide and will stop playing once you move to the next slide. To change these settings, click on the speaker icon so it is surrounded by a blue rectangle and click 'Format options' near the top of the screen. 7. A me...

Scheduling meetings with multiple people can be hard. We're all busy and finding a time to get four or five people together can be a complete nightmare. The good news? You can use Google Calendar's 'Find a Time' feature to make scheduling a little easier. Here's how it works. 1. Go to calendar.google.com 2. Near the top left-hand corner, click the  '+ Create' button 3. Title your meeting, but don't worry about filling anything else out yet, just click 'More options' 4. Add all the guests you'd like to invite to your meeting 5. At the bottom of the guest list, Google will offer some suggested times. Cool! 6. If you want a better visual or to see more options, toward the left-middle part of the screen, you'll see 'Find a Time'. Click it! 7. Here, you'll see a side-by-side comparison of everyone's calendar! When you find a common time when everyone is available, click the white space and a gra...

Using Google Calendar can be handy for keeping yourself organized. On a day-to-day basis, I wouldn't be able to function without it. The problem is unwanted calendars can really start to accumulate making every day look like an impossible checkerboard of irrelevant meetings. Here's how to clean up your calendar! Hide Calendars Sometimes it's nice to see what your colleagues are up to or at least when they're busy, but knowing what others are up to all the time is overwhelming and probably a little intrusive, too. By default, any calendar you add will display, but you can easily hide them. 1. Go to calendar.google.com 2. If your calendar looks like the one shown below, it's probably time to hide some stuff! 3. The menu on the left will show all the calendars you're subscribed to, they are checked by default which means they will be on display. Click the checkmarks to deselect all but the most important calendars to you. Below, I have WAY too ma...

Need to pick a random student fast? You can create a class list in Google Sheets and then use the Randomize range feature to mix them up! Here's how it works: 1. Start by creating a new Google Sheets document 2. Copy and paste the names of your students into Column A 3. Highlight all the names in Column A 4. While the names are highlighted, click on the 'Data' menu and select 'Randomize range' 5. The names will reorganize randomly and you can choose whoever shows up in cell A1 (or any other cell, for that matter)! 6. If you're looking to assign random study topics, you could create a list of topics in Column B and follow the steps above to randomize that range, then assign the topics!

Ever have multiple appointments with the same people but at different times and days? Happens all the time, right? Save time in Google Calendar by duplicating your appointments and adjusting the date and time instead of having to input all that other information. Here's how to do it...  1. Create your first appointment with the date, time, location, and guests. 2. Click 'Save' 3. Double-click on the appointment in your calendar to re-open it 4. Near the top right-hand side of the page (just to the right of the 'Save button), click 'More actions' 5. Select 'Duplicate' 6. Enter the date and time for your next meeting and then click 'Save' 7. Now your next appointment is all set up without having to enter any info except for the new time! Yay!

Sometimes, try as we might, there is no way to achieve a goal without a little help. Sometimes this can be the case for computer programs, too! Here's how to curve text around an image in Google Slides with a little -- okay, a lot -- of help from Word. 1. Open a new Word document 2. Click on the 'Insert' tab 3. Toward the right-hand side, click 'WordArt' 4. Select your favorite design! Changing the size, font, and colors are all possible, but in this post, we'll be focused on curving the text. 5. After you select the design, it will show up in the text field. Click on it and then write your message. 6. To get the curve, click the 'Text Effects' icon that looks like a white letter 'A' with a blue border 7. Move your cursor to the bottom of the menu and hover over 'Transform' 8. There are four options to curve the text. In this post, I'm choosing 'Arch Up', but choose whichever makes your text look bes...