Edmonds Digital Learning

This week’s technology tip: Skyward:  Cool Home Page Widget for Teachers.    Click here for Cool Teacher Widget Info

YouTube is a great resource for finding videos to make your lessons visual and engaging for students.  However, there can be a lot of clutter on the page, and sometimes those "related videos" can be inappropriate and distracting for students: I know all this!  It's annoying!  What can I do about it? The Quietube Chrome Extension  or the Bookmarklet on the Quietube site will allow you to silence all the extraneous links, videos, comments on YouTube and just leave you with the content that you want your students to see: Breathe in all that lovely white space...

Have you seen this? This is a new feature that YouTube has enabled that keeps certain videos hidden, and disables embedding of certain other videos.  It's all in the name of keeping YouTube a safe place for students to browse, and for teachers to display without any inappropriate content cropping up inadvertently. But what if I know the video is appropriate and I want to see it? Simple -- scroll down to the bottom of the page and you should see this toolbar: Click the "Safety" button to turn this feature off (or back on again later).  This needs to be done through the YouTube website, and is currently unavailable through embedded videos or the mobile app.

Full answer after the jump...

Teachers are always looking for quick and easy ways to assess student work.  Google Forms might be the perfect tool for you.   Don't people use Google Forms for surveys?  Yes, but it can do a lot more.  Create a quiz, assignment turn in sheet, or a grading rubric all within Google Forms.   Take a few minutes out of your day to watch at least 1 or more of these videos and it may just change the way you approach grading. Create a Rubric:  (4:55) Create a Quiz and Grade it in Seconds:   (3:13) Collect and Manage Student Work:  (4:03)

Create a contact group in Outlook 2013 Use a contact group to send an email to multiple people without having to add each name each time you want to write them. To create contact group: Open Outlook On the Navigation bar, click People. Click Home > New Contact Group.  (Top left) On the Contact Group tab, in the Name box, type a name for the group.  (Example:  Journalism Class) Click Add Members. Select from Address Book and then pick which option meets your need: Search district emails by name and click on the correct name. (It should now appear in the bottom line titled “Members.”   Type nondistrict email address in the bottom line titled “Members.”  (Place a semicolon ; between different email addresses.) Export email addresses into Excel from Skyward OR create a list of email addresses in Excel or Google Sheets.  Copy all of the addresses on the spreadsheet and paste into the bottom line titled “Members.” ...

Full answer after the jump...

Google Docs is more than just an online word processor.  It's a tool for online collaboration, formative assessment, reflection, and grading.  To really unlock the power of Google Apps in your classroom, here are 10 important features of Google Docs that you should know. Full article after the jump.

This week’s technology tip: 1.     DO shut down your Yoga computer! Shut down or Restart once a week. Do this from the power icon (located on your Start/Tiles screen) , not by pressing the physical power button on the side of the computer.

One of the benefits of using the Google Chrome browser are the many different extensions that can be added.  What are extensions you ask?  They are features that can be added to the browser allowing you to customize it to fit your needs.  Once an extension is added, it is simple to access from any webpage.  A right click on the mouse, a left click on an icon next to the URL, or a simple left click on the double arrows (>>) at the top right corner of the page will provide access to the extensions that have been added. How do you know which extensions are the best?  You are probably thinking that there are numerous options available in the Chrome Web Store and I do not have the time to search them all.  Do not fret!  Here is a list of some extensions that you might find useful. goo.gl URL Shortener Want an easier way to provide a link to a website or document?  This extension is a MUST have for the classroom teacher.  Instead ...