Tag: gSuite for Edu

Padlet Embed on New Google Sites

With it’s recent addition of different wall formats, Padlet has become one of my favorite edtech tools – there’s just so many possibilities for its uses!  And embedding it in a Google Site opens up so many additional possibilities!  Just think of the open lines of communication, collaboration and sharing that this can open up! Got a great idea for how it could be used?  Share it in the comments below – or share this post with your idea on social media.  Below, an animated GIF to show you how to embed a Padlet board onto a New Google Site:

Padlet Embed on New Google Sites Animation

Paint Roller Tool in Google Slides

One of the more underutilized tools within Google Docs, Slides, Drawings & Sheets is the Paint Roller (Paint Format) Tool.  It’s purpose is simple – when you want some text or an object to be formatted just like another set of text or an object, the Paint Roller is the tool that you need.  Click once on the already-formatted object/text, then on the Paint Roller and then on the to-be-formatted object/text.

I’ve posted before about how it works in Google Docs, but I wanted to share an animated GIF about how it works in Google Slides!  Notice that it works on text boxes, as well as on shapes, lines and images!  With text boxes, you can even apply it to certain words in the box rather than the entire box.

Paint Roller in Google Slides Animation

Inserting Videos in Google Drawings

Most people wouldn’t see a need for videos in Google Drawings, but a teacher – especially one that uses HyperDocs – could probably think of thousands of reasons it’d be useful.  That’s why I was excited when I heard Joli Boucher share about it during a recent episode of the Google Teacher Tribe podcast (You can hear it here as well, all cued up to her part).  It’s a super slick, simple hack and when doing HyperDrawings it’s super useful too.  I just had to capture this in a GIF . . . so, here it is:

Video in Google Drawings Animation

Joli also shares about this in her post here and her video here. For proof that it works, here’s a link to the Drawing that I show in the GIF.

 

Embed Twitter Timeline in Google Sites

**Oops. As of 2/21/19, you cannot embed a “stream” of tweets with a certain hashtag.  I believe it was a future at the time of this original post that has been removed.  Alternatives include (but are not limited to) adding tweets manually to a Twitter moment & embedding that, adding tweets to a Wakelet wake and embedding that, use other tools (TweetDeck’s Stories, possibly HootSuite’s hootfeed tool).**

Whether you’re a teacher communicating with your class, a school communicating with your community or an educator sharing with other educators around the world, embedding Twitter in Google Sites is a good tool.  It was missing from the new Google Sites initially, but now they’ve added it in.

The animated GIF below demonstrates how to do it.  I’m not the first to share this process, but I wanted to create a GIF to demonstrate it.  I looked at Alice Keeler’s post about it to make sure I knew the steps before I started.  If you need the step-by-step (or info about the other Twitter-Google Sites embeds), check out her post.

Embed Twitter Timeline in Google Sites Animation

Top 5 Posts of 2017

Happy New Year! Before we look forward to all of the awesome learning that 2018 holds for us, I’m going to get all nostalgic for a quick sec…. here are my 5 most viewed posts from 2017:

  1. Adding Captions to Images in Google Docs
  2. Recreating Pop Hits as Content-Related Lyrics Videos 
  3. Change Your Default Font in Google Docs 
  4. Screencastify to FlipGrid 
  5. Adding Audio in Google Slides (hack)

Equations in Google Docs

Math & Chemistry teachers use Google Docs, too!  And so do other content areas and teachers who integrate math and sophisticated science across content areas.  And, for those peeps, there is the ability to add equations and other “mathy” symbols to Google Docs.  Just click Insert > Equation.

A quick note, before we get to the GIF: Some educators will tell you that this tool could be better.  And for people looking to use this functionality regularly, they’re probably right. In that case you may want to consider other tools (equatIO is a great one).  But for people who just use it occasionally, I think the Equation Editor is a’okay.

Equations in Docs Animation