Tech Tuesday Tips

April Fools Day is coming up! Do you want to try something fun with your students or other teachers? Click on the below link to try it out, or simply do a google search on "Google Gravity." Your search will list various links for Google Gravity.  The below link, directions, and image is just one example of Gravity.  The site will look like a normal Google page when you get there, but as soon as you move your mouse, all the text falls to the bottom of the page. You can then click and hold on any word to continue to bounce the text boxes around.  Google always does great April Fools stuff each year .  Wonder what they have in store for us this year?

Some of our NWOCA INS Staff attended a great workshop last week from Code.org .   I'm sure many of you have heard of Code.org , or used them for your own Hour of Code activities. But did you know that Code.org has a full Computer Science curriculum for students in grades K-12?  This is all free for teachers, and the best part is that for a lot of it, you don't even need devices! The Code.org curriculum includes many Unplugged activities that use simple supplies to teach computer science concepts.  From building a binary bracelet to learning through making paper airplanes, these lessons are engaging and fun for the students! Why add coding into your classroom?  In Ohio, for example, there are currently 14,811 open computing jobs, and 92% of those jobs won't be filled by computer science graduates from our state.  Yet Ohio has no dedicated state funding for computer science, and does not require all high schools to offer computer science. There are also no K-12 com

I'm sure you've seen those funky goo.gl URLs when you've shared a Google Form or used the Q&A feature in Slides.  But did you know that goo.gl is a full-fledged URL shortener that you can leverage for your own needs? It's true... the goo.gl URL shortener is available for anyone to use.  Simply go to goo.gl, add your long, messy URL and get a shorter link.  If you log in, you can even see all the URLs you've used in the past. So why use goo.gl over some of the others such as tinyurl.com or bit.ly?  Our NWOCA team has found that while many URL shorteners are blocked by filtering at the districts in which we work, generally the goo.gl shortener works in most every case.  It's used by many of the G Suite apps, and it will make your life easier. What can you shorten with goo.gl?  How about that long Google Doc URL?  Maybe a link to a folder of resources in Drive?  The possibilities are endless... so give it a try! Happy Goo.gl-ing!

Did you know that Google Chrome offers extensions to enhance Google Classroom?   An extension called Share to Classroom will allow you to take any website, video, etc and share it to your Google Classroom class with just a couple clicks. Make sure you are signed into Google Chrome and head out to the Chrome Web Store. Search for the Extension called Share to Classroom and install it. Mine has a green button with Rate it on it because I already have the extension. If you are trying to install it, it will have a blue Add to Chrome button.  Once you install this extension, it will appear in your top URL bar.  Now, if you go to a website, youtube video, etc, you can very easily share this with your class using this extension.  If I want to share this blogger article with my class, I can click on the Share to Classroom Extension and (as long as I am signed into Drive/Classroom) it will load up my Classroom classes.  Click on the class you want the article to g