Super Shortcuts for Chromebooks

This Tech Tip is about using shortcuts to be more effective.  I'm not talking about cutting corners or taking the easy way out.  This is a blog about technology after all.  I'm talking about keyboard shortcuts.  And since this blog is geared toward technology in education, I'll be explaining keyboard shortcuts for Chromebooks, which are being increasingly used by teachers and students every year.

Allow me to digress for a moment to offer some interesting statistics about Chromebook usage in American classrooms.  According to a 2016 survey conducted by Front Row Education of over 2,500 teachers and administrators in the United States, over 60% of classrooms have access to Chromebooks, which is up 15% from the previous year.  Even 54% of Kindergarten through Grade 2 classrooms use Chromebooks.  Finally, 67% of teachers on the West Coast have access to Chromebooks while 62% of East Coast teachers have access to them.

Using keyboard shortcuts is an easy way to be more productive and efficient.  I created a PDF with the top ten keyboard shortcuts for Chromebooks, which you can download below.  Or you can use the Save to Google Drive Chrome Extension I wrote about earlier to save it directly to your Drive.

In the PDF, you'll find the classics of copy, cut, and paste.  You'll also find some other interesting shortcuts you may not have known.  To search for a word, phrase, or any other text, press Ctrl and f to open the find bar in the upper right.  From there, you can quickly find what you're looking for, which is very helpful when researching something.  If something you find on the Internet is too small or too large to comfortably see, press Ctrl + or Ctrl - to zoom in and out.  The percentage of the zoom will appear in the upper right when you do so.

You can quickly open a new tab without having to use the mouse by pressing Ctrl and t.  If you accidentally close a tab you still want, press Ctrl, Shift, and t to reopen the last closed tab.  Taking screenshots has many great uses from creating instructions to presentations.  To take a whole screenshot, press Ctrl and the screenshot key.  To take a screenshot of only a particular area of the screen, press Ctrl, Shift, and the screenshot key.  The screenshot key looks like this:

Here is the PDF with the top ten keyboard shortcuts for Chromebooks.  With these, you and your students will be productivity pros in no time!

An Extension to Extend Vocabulary

Learning and understanding words are essential life skills that help both children and adults.  In the past, if we came across words we didn't understand, we had to interrupt our reading flow by finding a dictionary, looking up the word, reading the definition, figuring out how to pronounce it, checking synonyms to gain context, and then go back to whatever we were reading.  Now, there is a tool that doesn't interrupt reading flow and provides comprehensive information about a word instantaneously.

Meet the Google Dictionary Chrome Extension.  Once it is installed, if you double-click on any word while browsing in Chrome, a bubble appears above the word with its definition and an audio file with its proper pronunciation.  If you click the "More" link in that bubble, a new tab in Chrome opens with more information about the word, including part of speech, other forms, alternate definitions, and more.

Finally, you can store words to your own personal dictionary to study later by clicking the Google Dictionary extension icon (a red book) in the upper right of Chrome.  Click "Options", and then check the box next to "Store words I look up, including definitions."  You can return to this "Options" screen to download a history of your stored words.  This is an effective tool to help both children and adults learn and understand any word they come across in Chrome as it makes almost anything they read accessible.  Here's how to install it in Chrome:

1.  Open Chrome and click this link.
2.  Click the blue "Add to Chrome" button in the upper right.
3.  The extension will install, and you'll be good to go!

Now, you'll be able to understand this sentence:  In a few days, I can't wait to be absolutely farctate!  Thank goodness for Thanksgiving!

   

How to Get Better Google Search Results

Google Search has become so ubiquitous that it generated a new verb:  Google.  Don't know something?  Google it!

Google's search engine is arguably the best; yet, we sometimes get less-than-the-best search results.  Or we can't even find what we're searching for altogether!  There are some tips and tricks to using Google Search to refine the results and find exactly what you want.

Here is a PDF that you and your students can use to become a Google super searcher:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxCFzzS4E07-WEhZZlBuUC1mSm8/view?usp=sharing

Just use the modifiers in this PDF when you search for something in Google, and the results will be much better.  You could also print this PDF and post it in your classroom, so your students can use these Google search tips anytime.

If you're like me, your Google Drive is filled with documents, PDFs, spreadsheets, presentations, and a plethora of other things I know I have, but can't always find.  As with Google Search, there are some tricks you can use to help find what you want in Drive.  Check out this great infographic on Google Drive search tips.

Now, we can finally find what we're searching for!  I just wish it worked for finding my earbuds!

Keep It Simple

Isaac Newton wisely said, "Truth is ever to be found in simplicity."  Quite right, Mr. Newton.  With Internet access at our fingertips, we now have the collective knowledge of the history of the world on demand.  Although we have access to all that information, it isn't always accessible - especially for students.  Wikipedia isn't perfect; yet, it really is an excellent source of information.  However, it's not always simple.  Here's a quick and easy way to simplify any Wikipedia article, so it is more understandable and accessible.

Let's say you want your students to read about volcanoes.  Here is the Wikipedia article about volcanoes.  As you can see, even the introduction is complex:

Yet, we can make a change to its URL address to simplify it.  In that long, white box at the top of the browser where the website's address is (the URL), you will see "en." before "wikipedia".  Take these steps to simplify this and any other Wikipedia article:

1.  Highlight the "en" in the address.
2.  Type "simple" in its place.  The address will now be https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcano.
3.  Press enter or return.  And that's it!  It's been simplified!

Here's what the simple version looks like:

To make this even simpler, just go to https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page to search for any topic.  Everything you search for there will automatically be in simple form.

Enjoy the simple things in life - including this Tech Tip!