Vol. 3, Issue 1 October 7, 2014
Tech News Tuesday online eNewsletter IN THIS ISSUE
Focus On – Schoology Cool Tool – Zaption For the Rookie – How to use a USB Flash Drive Google Apps for Education – New Features in Google Docs and Forms Microsoft Tip – Combo Charts in Excel Presentation Tip – Using the Media Cart
TECH NEWS TUESDAY | Vol. 3, Issue 1 – OCTOBER 7, 2014 3
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Table of Contents
Focus On page 1
Cool Tool page 2
For the Rookie ONLINE ENEWSLETTER PROVIDING INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY STAFF RESOURCES
Focus On: Schoology Top 5 Ways to Get Started
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MCS Welcome to Schoology Video
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MCS Schoology Website
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MCS YouTube Schoology Playlist
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MCS Pinterest Schoology Board
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Schoology Trainer and Resource Support (STAR) for your school site
Schoology is a great online website that allows you to share materials and resources with your students, share assignments and allows students to submit them online to the teacher, and has a quiz and test creator. In addition it has a shared calendar, a parent portal, and mobile apps for both Android and Apple. Schoology is great to complement or take the place of a teacher website and fantastic solution to receiving students’ homework from Google Apps or Microsoft Office digitally on the computer. http://mcs.schoology.com
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Google Apps for Education page 3
Microsoft Tip page 4
Presentation Tip page 4
Visit the Tech News Tuesday feedback page Current and Past Editions How to use TNT Issuu
Modesto City Schools | Office of Instructional Technology www.mcs4kids.com/it
TECH NEWS TUESDAY | Vol. 3, Issue 1 – OCTOBER 7, 2014
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www.zaption.com
Cool website you can add questions, multiple choice, polls and discussions within the timeline of videos you would like to share with your class. All responses are viewable by the teacher. A great tool to make videos online more interactive and engaging with your students. Upload your own videos or use videos from YouTube, Vimeo, PBS, National Geographic, TED, Discovery, NASA, Edutopia, and SciShow. Zaption calls its projects you create with them “Tours”.
How-to use video:
If your organization blocks YouTube, this does NOT mean you cannot use Zaption. In many cases, YouTube.com is blocked but watching embedded YouTube videos on other websites may still be allowed. You can test if embedded YouTube videos will work on this page. If the embedded video in the middle of the page loads and plays, then YouTube videos should also play inside Zaption.
Modesto City Schools | Office of Instructional Technology www.mcs4kids.com/it
TECH NEWS TUESDAY | Vol. 3, Issue 1 – OCTOBER 7, 2014
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For the Rookie: How to use a USB Flash Drive
The Cloud makes storing and accessing your files convenient but you have to worry about Internet access and mindful of proper security options. The USB Flash Drive is still around and is an easy and inexpensive way for storing, backing up, and accessing your files on the go. This video will show you how to use them.
Google Apps for Education
One of the top requests for Google Forms is the ability to add your own personal touch to the forms. Now you can with the Change Themes option within Google Forms!
Suggested Edits now in Google Docs! Make suggestions that you can accept or reject later. Instead of giving collaborators ability to edit away now you can track and approve changes as the owner of the document. The new Suggested Edits button is under the Comments button.
Modesto City Schools | Office of Instructional Technology www.mcs4kids.com/it
TECH NEWS TUESDAY | Vol. 3, Issue 1 – OCTOBER 7, 2014
Microsoft Tip
COMBO CHARTS - To emphasize different types of information in a chart, you can combine two or more chart types in that chart. For example, you can combine a column chart with a line chart for an instant visual effect that might make the chart easier to understand.
Learn how with this video
Update your skills in Microsoft Office! Sign up today for the free online training for MCS Employees to take self-paced lessons on courses you choose in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and more. Your account is good for the full calendar year. > Click here to view courses and register
Presentation Tip Here is a neat video and handout for using a media cart in the classroom. Even if you don’t have a media cart the video is still valuable as it showcases how to use features on a document camera, projector, and options you have on the laptop. Have fun presenting! Video: http://bit.ly/mediacarttour Handout: http://bit.ly/mediacarthandout
Modesto City Schools | Office of Instructional Technology www.mcs4kids.com/it
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