Monday, February 20, 2017

Google Arts & Culture

I stumbled across the Google Arts & Culture site today. It features content from many museums-- both fine art and history/culture (nearby contributors include the Marsh-Billings in Woodstock and Pointe-à-Callière and McCord museums in Montreal).

You can learn about different art movements and historical events, browse the collections of one of the participating museums, take 360 degree tours of historical buildings, and more.

There are also "projects" that pull together content around a theme.  Here, for example is the Black History & Culture project, featuring history, art, music, and more.

The site is still in beta, but there's a lot to explore here.







Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Solving Chromebook/Chrome problems

I just helped a student who was having a problem with the Screencastify extension in Chrome. The solution ended up being the same thing that's worked over and over for others-- and it's a simple one...

...update Chrome!

Many apps and extensions require Chrome to be up to date.  Updating Chrome is simple to do.

Here's how:

On your Chromebook, Chrome should update automatically, but you need to restart the Chromebook in order for the update to apply. The cue for this is when you see an up-arrow icon in your status area (down in the lower right where you see your profile pic/icon).  Click that arrow, then "Restart to update." Here are Google's instructions for this.

On other computers (or on your Chromebook), you can update Chrome manually by clicking on the 3 vertical dots icon on the upper right, then Settings, then About.  In particular, if you notice that those dots have changed color, that's an indication that Chrome is out of date.  Again, here are instructions from Google.

Thursday, February 9, 2017

Insert videos from Google Drive into Google Slides

Up until now, Google Slides only allowed YouTube videos. But many of us store videos in Google Drive. You can now insert those videos into Slides. Like so:

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

PBS Digital Innovators



Teachers,

Have you heard of the PBS Digital Innovator program?

From the PBS description: The PBS Digital Innovator program brings together a community of pre-K-12 educators, who are thought-leaders and classroom changemakers, for ongoing professional development and opportunities to share strategies, empower peers and inspire students.

Sound interesting? The deadline to apply is coming up soon-- Feb 13th
More information is here.