Tips and Tricks April 2017

This month is a pretty big list full of super useful tips and tricks.

First off, a huge update to Goole Apps happened during March Break, here are the a few new things.

New Google updates

1) Team Drives, you may have noticed team drives appearing in your Google Drive, these are brand new and the major difference is that instead of someone owning the folder and files, its the Team Drive that has ownership. In an environment with a large turnover of employees this could be useful but at Selwyn House its not a necessity.

2) Google Hangout is now Google Meet, awesome upgrade allowing easy meetings (up to 25 people), screen sharing, auto generated links right from Google Calendar (every event with invited guests has a link attached automatically). https://gsuite.google.com/products/meet/

3) Google Calendar now looks awesome on iPad.

20 Instant Google Searches, if typed correctly the answer appears above the results. http://www.controlaltachieve.com/2016/05/google-search-cards.html

Online Quiz Platforms

Their has been talk around about web based quiz systems, even if a plethora of systems exists I decided to highlight 5 of them, and they are all FREE.

1) Kahoot : Very popular, allows the whole class to answer a quiz in a gameshow sort of rapid fire way. Thousands of already made quizzes but you anyone can make them so some have been made by students and are not correct, you can check the ratings. Here is a tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mREu1WpDfDM

2) Quizizz: Similiar to Kahoot but individuallized so students go at their own pace. Here si a tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9f2_A6bNDA

3) Socrative: A quick quiz program, with individual assessment. Google Sign-in for easy access. Here is a tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upY8uG3NFfY

4) Go Formative: More complex but very powerful, allows you to upload existing quizes and add questions, also allows writing, drawing, etc... See the students work live as the quiz is happening, is compatible with Google Classroom and student Logins. Here is a tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIO1CmMjDQA

5) Google Forms: Most people don't know about the Quiz feature and you can actually invite students to collaborate and build the quiz. Here is a tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKIU5zcwS4A

Scale of the Universe http://scaleofuniverse.com/ a neat little Flash app, allows you to explore items by size from atoms all the way to galaxies. Thanks to Bob Bouskill for this Tip.