Google Slides Background

From Kelly Fitzgerald comes a great tutorial on some of the issues of a picture background on Google slides and how you can use the Slides master slide to help.

Make sure to check out Kelly's blog at http://edtechnut.blogspot.com/ . You wont be disappointed! She is a wonderful Google trainer and leader in the EdTech community. 

Chromebook Tutorials

I really like my Chromebook. I use it almost exclusively during meetings and travel. I can access pretty much everything I need to access on the web including my various work and personal email, my work and personal Google Drive, and my Microsoft account for my OneNote notebook where I do the majority of my note taking. Yes, you pretty much have to have Wi-Fi to use the Chromebook, but at work, at home, and traveling that doesn't seem to be to much on an issue.

More and more of our campuses are purchasing Chromebooks for student use. I recently came across the following blog post with videos of basic things you should know how to do to use your Chromebook. Some good stuff. Take a look.

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2015/03/10-must-watch-video-tutorials-for-chromebook-users.html


You can also access these from their YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5aqr5w5fRe58vnBat8-O6lBB2lreLG0C

How to take a Screen Shot

Many people ask how to make screen shots of their computer screen for various reasons. Here are some solutions I have used.

1.  TechSmith just came out with a free extension for the Chrome browser. Easy to use and a great option for those with ChromeBooks. After capturing your image in Chrome the image is saved in your Google Drive. Make sure to download the App and Extension, and of course the Chrome Browser.
http://www.techsmith.com/snagit-google-chrome.html

2. Purchase SnagIt for your computer. Works everywhere on your computer. http://www.techsmith.com/snagit.html

3.  Greenshot is a free and open source screenshot tool. It utilizes the print screen key on your keyboard to create the screen shot. Download from http://getgreenshot.org/

4.  SmartNotebook has a camera icon that will allow for screen shots to be entered directly into SmartNotebook.

5.  Go old school and just press the PrtScn Key (Print Screen) on your keyboard to take a snapshot of the entire screen and then use a photo editor (easy as using the paint program on your computer) to edit your image.

6.  With our Windows 7 computers we have in district you can also use the Snipping Tool that is built into Windows 7. Just go to your Start button, All Programs, the Accessories folder, and choose Snipping Tool. Now you can create a free form snip, a rectangular snip, a window snip, or a full screen snip.

If you have others you like to use, let me know in the comments section.