The One-Five - SoundSage

Hello and welcome to episode number twenty-six of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you weekly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks.

In this week’s episode, I will be talking about the Use Immersive Reader Chrome Extension. Immersive Reader is a reading enhancement tool that was invented by Microsoft and is widely available in the edge browser as well as in Microsoft 365 products. But, what if your school is a google school? Can you access all of the great functions of Immersive reader on a chromebook? With the Use Immersive Reader Chrome Extension, the answer is a resounding YES!

Simply install the extension in google chrome and then goto some text on a website. Then, highlight a portion of text and right-click on it (or a two-finger tap on a trackpad on a chromebook). Then in the secondary menu that appears, choose “help me read this” and in a few moments your text will be transported to the immersive reader.

When you enter the immersive reader interface, you will notice some menus in the upper right corner. In the text options menu, you can change the text size, change letter spacing, change the font (it only has 4 font choices - which in my book is great for kids so they don’t spend too much time trying to pick a font), and you can also change the background color.

In the next menu that looks like lines with a magic wand, you can utilize the parts of speech option where immersive reader will show the syllables of words and you can change the color of the words to match the different parts of speech: like nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. In the final menu, which looks like a book, you can change your reading preferences. The reading preferences include line focus, picture dictionary options, & translation options.

Once you have those settings adjusted, you can listen to your text by pressing the play button at the bottom of the screen. Note, there is one other menu next to the play button that has voice settings - there you can change the voice speed and if you prefer a male or female voice.

What I find most useful about the immersive reader is the translation function and that it also reads aloud the translated text. You have a choice of over 120 language options in the immersive reader. Now, we all know that all digital translation is not perfect, but this goes a long way in helping students be able to access content that they might not have been able to in the past.

If you want to leave the Immersive Reader view, simply click the arrow in the upper left corner and you will return to the regular web content.

The Use Immersive Reader Chrome Extension is super powerful and I highly recommend you add this chrome extension to your collection!

Do you want to learn more about edtech in your learning environment? Check out my website - tricialouis.com. There you can explore my resources, subscribe to my weekly email newsletter, and contact me. And if you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast and it is available and/or correct on the date the podcast is originally published. But, remember that services, sites, or products can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice. Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode of the one five!

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SHOW NOTES:

Chrome Canvas: https://canvas.apps.chrome/

Additional Services for Google Workspace Administrators: https://support.google.com/a/answer/181865?hl=en#zippy=%2Cturn-services-on-or-off-for-users

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

TRANSCRIPT: (full transcript link)

Hello and welcome to episode number twenty-five of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you weekly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks.

In this week’s episode, I will be talking about Chrome Canvas. Chrome canvas is a simple way for you to use drawing tools on your chrome device or in your chrome browser.

Before I start talking about Chrome Canvas, I want to provide a disclaimer that in order for this product to work in your institution's google environment, your Google Administrator must enable it, as it is not part of the core workspace apps. Please have your google administrator consult the support article in the show notes about adding additional services to your Google Workspace. If you have your own private google account, you can certainly demo this app for yourself or your school administrators so that they can authorize its use in your institution account.

In order to use Chrome Canvas, simply goto canvas.apps.chrome on your chromebook or in google chrome on your mac or PC and sign in to your google account - that way your drawings are auto-saved and they will sync across your devices.

Once you are signed in, you will notice that the interface is very simple for Chrome Canvas. You can start from a blank page with the “new drawing button” or start with an image in the background with the “new from image button”. Once you have made your choice, you will enter the drawing space.

Across the top you will notice the home icon - that is where all your drawings are located. Then you have undo and redo buttons. Then the most interesting button for a barebones drawing app like this is the ability to use layers! The more menu (three vertical dots in the upper right) allows you to download an image or share your drawing with a variety of sharing options. Along the left hand side, you will see your drawing tools. You can choose from the color palette or refine your color choice by using hex codes. You can also change the size and opacity of your drawing tool with the icon that looks like a pencil that is tipped on a triangle. Then you have a pencil, pen, marker, chalk and an eraser for your core drawing tools. And that is pretty much it. It is a very simple interface and sometimes that is better because you don’t get bogged down in so many choices.

Now this tool works best on a touch-enabled chromebook or if you have a wacom or other drawing tablet attached to your mac or PC. You can even use this in the chrome browser of your ipad or iphone. Drawing with a regular trackpad or mouse is kind of difficult, but did you know that if you hold down the lower left corner of a trackpad with your non-dominant hand, you can use a stylus with your dominant hand and draw with it. So the trackpad becomes a mini drawing tablet - like a wacom tablet!

One thing I must point out is that Chrome Canvas is NOT a collaborative drawing tool like other google apps - if you are looking for something like that, I would recommend google jamboard for classroom use.

Overall, Chrome Canvas is a fun way to be able to draw on a chrome device or in your chrome browser…I encourage you to give it a try!

Do you want to learn more about edtech in your learning environment? Check out my website - tricialouis.com. There you can explore my resources, subscribe to my weekly email newsletter, and contact me. And if you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast and it is available and/or correct on the date the podcast is originally published. But, remember that services, sites, or products can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice.

Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode of the one five!

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SHOW NOTES:

Make It Big App Store Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/make-it-big/id479282584

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

TRANSCRIPT: (full transcript link)

Hello and welcome to episode number twenty-four of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you weekly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks.

In this week’s episode, I will be talking about the iOS app called “Make It Big” - this is a quirky little iPhone or iPad app that might fill a few needs in your personal and professional life!

Once you install the free app - there are no ads or in-app purchases. You simply type text and the app will make it big. The text will fill the size of the screen it goes on in landscape or portrait modes.

Now you may be thinking to yourself, how would I use an app like this? Well, for your personal life you could put it on your phone or ipad and use it to communicate with people that are a little distance from you – you can even shake your device and the screen will flash. This is a great tool for accessibility as well - if you happen upon someone with a hearing impairment, you can communicate quickly with this app in a pinch.

In the classroom, you can install this app on iPads and then students can use it to answer questions silently. They can type their text and then show the ipad screen to the teacher and you can visually see right/wrong answers. This would be a fun review game or even use it for a silent spelling bee! The app remembers your messages so you can even bring them back from the menu without retyping! Use this app in conjunction with Apple Classroom or other screen management tools and you can lock students into this app and they cannot utilize the other resources (web, etc.) on the device.

You can do a little customizing of your big message by changing the font and the text & background colors. There is even a widget for the app, so it will display your latest message in that widget and now even in lock screen widgets on your iPhone with iOS 16.

This app does not have a lot of bells and whistles, but it is a fun little app that you can utilize in your personal life and in unique ways in your learning environment!

Do you want to learn more about edtech in your learning environment? Check out my website - tricialouis.com. There you can explore my resources, subscribe to my weekly email newsletter, and contact me. And if you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast and it is available and/or correct on the date the podcast is originally published. But, remember that services, sites, or products can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice.

Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode of the one five!

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SHOW NOTES:

Text Blaze Website: https://blaze.today/

Text Blaze Extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/text-blaze/idgadaccgipmpannjkmfddolnnhmeklj

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

TRANSCRIPT: (full transcript link)

Hello and welcome to episode number twenty-three of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you weekly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks.

In this week’s episode, I will be talking about Text Blaze.

With Text Blaze, users can create templates for commonly used phrases, email signatures, and other text snippets, and then use keyboard shortcuts or custom commands to insert them into any web form or document. This can significantly speed up tasks like filling out forms, composing emails, or writing reports.

This is how it works: Save any "snippet" of text in Text Blaze as a template and give it a shortcut.

You could try /ty for a sentence that reads thank you very much. Then, whenever you need that text, you simply type the shortcut and the snippet text will be substituted for it wherever you are in Chrome. It works in docs, slides, gmail, forms, or wherever there is a textbox!

With the free version of Text Blaze you can have up to 20 snippets and up to 2,500 characters in each snippet. There are also pro and enterprise pricing solutions for a personal or institution-wide upgrade.

I have used Text Blaze now for a few months and I have a few repetitive phrases that I have made snippets for and I simply just type the shortcut and voila the whole text is there. It is an amazing little tool - I encourage you to give it a try.

Do you want to learn more about edtech in your learning environment? Check out my website - tricialouis.com. There you can explore my resources, subscribe to my weekly email newsletter, and contact me. And if you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast and it is available and/or correct on the date the podcast is originally published. But, remember that services, sites, or products can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice.

Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode of the one five!

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SHOW NOTES:

Novel Effect Website: https://noveleffect.com/

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

TRANSCRIPT: (full transcript link)

Hello and welcome to episode number twenty-two of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you weekly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks.

In this week’s episode, I will be talking about Novel Effect. Novel Effect is a magical way to enhance story time in your classroom. The ever-expanding Novel Effect Library is at nearly 1000 books and in each of those books the app unlocks a soundscape of music, sound effects, and character voices that will delight students as you or they read the book aloud. The best thing about Novel Effect is that you don’t need any special books. The books from your classroom, school, or community library will work with the app - the magic comes from the reading of the book as the app listens for the text that is read to play the amazing sounds at the right time.

The app - available on iOS, Android, and now Chromebook (via the Google Play App store for chromebooks) - is very simple to use…here are the steps: First you download the app then you create your account. Select a book from the Novel Effect Library that you have the printed book for. There are also a few ebooks right in the app, so you can sample the novel effect fun right away if you don’t have a printed book. Then you will tap the PRINT button on the app - you will hear a chime and then start reading and experience the magic of music, sounds, and character voices.

You can use the full app for a free 7-day trial and then you can purchase a subscription through the website listed in the show notes. Subscriptions are available at the individual, school, and district levels.

So you have heard about how to use the app and now I will treat you to a book being read with Novel Effect. This book is called “The Ugly Pumpkin” by Dave Horowitz. Note: I have obtained permission from the author to make this recording for you. I have a special tie to this Novel Effect Soundscape as I was a guest musician on the soundtrack - each time you hear any clarinet music, that is actually ME playing in the score. So enjoy The Ugly Pumpkin.

–Audio from read book is inserted at this time–

I hope you have enjoyed that book and explore Novel Effect for yourself…it is truly amazing!

Do you want to learn more about edtech in your learning environment? Check out my website - tricialouis.com. There you can explore my resources, subscribe to my weekly email newsletter, and contact me. And if you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast and it is available and/or correct on the date the podcast is originally published. But, remember that services, sites, or products can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice.

Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode of the one five!

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SHOW NOTES:

Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/

Keyboard Shortcuts for Google Drive (on the web): https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2563044?hl=en

Google Drive Help Center: https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2375091?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

TRANSCRIPT: (full transcript link)

Hello and welcome to episode number twenty-one of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you weekly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks.

In this week’s episode, I will be talking about some Google Drive organizational tips that have helped me for the over 13 years I have used Google Drive. In this podcast, I am going to share tips around three main areas of Google Drive::

Folder First-File Second
Naming Convention
Starred

Then at the end I will also have a few random drive organizational tips.

First up is Folder First-File Second. It has been my experience that if you create a folder first and then create the document inside of that folder, you are going to be better organized! If you don't create the folder first, be sure when you are renaming the new doc/slide/sheet, that you utilize the ORGANIZE function right away to put it in the correct folder. I always start from drive instead of the individual sites of the docs creation - then I have my organization structure at the ready. Also, use sub-folders. They are great for getting things organized!

Next we have naming convention - The most important thing is pick a naming convention and stay with it! I tend to make my file & folder names pretty wordy, because it will help when I use search in Google Drive. You can also utilize special characters in the beginning of your name to prioritize it to the top of your google drive. Another tip is that you can use emoji in your file/folder names to give a visual cue (hint - don't put them at the beginning of the name - it seems to take forever for drive to load when emojis are first in the name - so just put them at the end) You might also want to think about a "color convention" as well -- what do the folder colors mean to you?

In our final main area I am going to talk about starred folders/files. Starred folders/files are a great way to organize documents, but come up with a HARD LIMIT for yourself of how many things you are going to star...because if you star everything it is not going to help you at all! I keep my hard limit under 25 - then I know that the files/folders in this area are truly special and it is a great way to get quick access to them with the starred category on the left file menu of drive.

Here are some other random drive tips:

Purge frequently - get on a schedule to keep your drive tidy and purge those files/folders that are no longer needed. Remember, once you put a file or folder into the trash it will automatically be deleted after 30 days!
Don't duplicate files to put in multiple folders -- add a SHORTCUT instead! Use SHIFT+Z on your keyboard to make a drive shortcut and then put those shortcuts in MULTIPLE PLACES.
Search for files in the omnibox of google chrome as well as right in drive.
Speaking of search - use drive ADVANCED search - in the search bar, click the drop down arrow and then you can refine your search by owner, file type, date, and so many other filters very quickly!
Worried about that "Shared with Me" area - just don't sweat it - it is an aggregation of files - they are not YOUR files. If you start deleting, you might cause problems for others, so just don't worry about it.
And finally, make keyboard shortcuts your friend! Check out the show notes for a link to a list of google drive shortcuts to get “under your fingers.”

Do you want to learn more about edtech in your learning environment? Check out my website - tricialouis.com. There you can explore my resources, subscribe to my weekly email newsletter, and contact me. And if you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast and it is available and/or correct on the date the podcast is originally published. But, remember that services, sites, or products can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice.

Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode of the one five!

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SHOW NOTES:

PDF Candy: https://pdfcandy.com/

PDF Candy Chrome Extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pdfcandy/omlipfboclalclnoekphiecadjlklphh?hl=en

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

TRANSCRIPT: (full transcript link)

Hello and welcome to episode number twenty of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you weekly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks.

In this week’s episode, I will be talking about PDF Candy. Now this sounds like some delicious treat you might get on vacation at a fancy chocolate store, but even though it is NOT something to eat, it is still quite delicious. PDF Candy is one of those websites that earns a spot on your bookmarks bar as you will always find a need for it. What does PDF Candy do - well what doesn’t it do. Anytime you want to do something to a PDF or convert something into a PDF, PDF Candy is your one-stop shop. Simply upload your file and then choose from nearly 50 different PDF related actions. All of the PDF actions are super easy to use and you can even choose from your cloud storage (like google drive or dropbox). You can even create a favorites list of your most used PDF actions.

The site is free to use, but there are daily limits on how many files you can convert if you are using the free version. If you are a power PDF user, you may want to pay the $36/year fee to have unlimited access to the site.

PDF Candy even has a handy chrome extension if you prefer that instead of a bookmark.

I can tell you that PDF Candy has come to the rescue for me when I have had those situations where I needed to get a file into a PDF format OR get a PDF into a different file type. Like I said before, it is super simple to use and I recommend you add this to your web toolkit!

Do you want to learn more about edtech in your learning environment? Check out my website - tricialouis.com. There you can explore my resources, subscribe to my weekly email newsletter, and contact me. And if you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast and it is available and/or correct on the date the podcast is originally published. But, remember that services, sites, or products can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice.

Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode of the one five!

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SHOW NOTES:

Asset Tiger: https://www.myassettag.com/assettiger#home

Barcode Scanner: https://amzn.to/3LojEUP

Avery Online for Barcode Stickers: https://www.averyproducts.com.au/software/how-to/create-barcodes-design-and-print

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

TRANSCRIPT: (full transcript link)

Hello and welcome to episode number nineteen of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you weekly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks.

In this week’s episode, I will be talking about Asset Tiger. Asset Tiger is an online asset management system. You can add up to 250 assets for free and manage them with unlimited patrons. This is a perfect system for a small classroom library or other learning space situation where you might loan out things to students OR to other staff members. You could even use this for personal assets if you wish. If you need more assets in your library, their pricing system is very reasonable. At my district, we use asset tiger to manage the check-in and check-out of all of our mobile devices and many of our stationary devices for students and staff, so we opted for the 10,000 asset plan and only have to pay $400 a year!! We manage over 5,000 assets and trying to do this with a shared google sheet just was not working. Asset tiger allows us to input our assets through a CSV upload (or manually if you just have a couple assets). You can also upload your patron lists via CSV upload. Asset Tiger gives you the templates and you just fill them in for any upload. You can even add pictures and documents to your assets so you know what you are checking out and have all the documentation necessary if a problem arises (user guides, warranty information, etc.). It is a fantastic service that has so many options and it is accessible through any web browser.

Now you might be thinking you need a fancy scanner or tags for this system to work - and you would be wrong. Asset Tiger even has a FREE companion app for iOS and Android and you can scan tags and check in & out items. If you want, you can buy a barcode scanner rather inexpensively and connect that to your mac, pc, or chromebook via USB - check the show notes for a link to a 2 in 1 wired & wireless barcode scanner on Amazon. And you might be wondering about barcode tags? At my district, we simply use the district supplied asset tags for our system, but you can also create those for free using Avery online. You can design your label and utilize your own asset numbering system. Then, you can print the labels and adhere them to your assets. Easy Peasy!

Asset Tiger has many help videos to get you started, so I recommend you dive in and learn how Asset Tiger can help your classroom, school, or district keep track of their assets!

Do you want to learn more about edtech in your learning environment? Check out my website - tricialouis.com. There you can explore my resources, subscribe to my weekly email newsletter, and contact me. And if you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast and it is available and/or correct on the date the podcast is originally published. But, remember that services, sites, or products can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice.

Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode of the one five!

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SHOW NOTES:

Notability iOS App: https://apps.apple.com/app/notability/id360593530

Notability Support: https://support.gingerlabs.com/hc/en-us

Notability Gallery: https://notability.com/gallery/en

Notability for EDU: https://support.gingerlabs.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409501974170-Notability-for-EDU-FAQ

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

TRANSCRIPT: (full transcript link)

Hello and welcome to episode number eighteen of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you weekly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks.

In this week’s episode, I will be talking about Notability. Notability is a popular note-taking app for the iPhone, iPad, and the Mac. It is designed to allow users to take notes, annotate PDFs, sketch ideas, and record audio all in one place.

With Notability, users can create notes using a variety of tools such as text, handwriting, and shapes. They can also import PDFs and other documents to annotate and mark up with highlights, comments, and drawings. Additionally, the app has built-in support for recording audio, which can be synced with the user's notes to create a comprehensive record of a lecture or meeting. The built-in scanner makes it a dream for teachers and students as you can quickly grab those paper handouts and digitize them in moments.

Notability also offers a number of organizational features, including the ability to create notebooks and dividers to categorize notes. Users can also search for notes by keyword, tag, or date, making it easy to find specific information.

Notability also has an awesome library - called the gallery - where you can find templates, ideas, and lots of inspiration on how to utilize all the tools inside the app.

One of the greatest bonus features of Notability is that the full app is FREE for educational users. You simply have to use Apple School Manager or a Mobile Device Management (known as an MDM) application. My school district utilizes Jamf as our MDM, but the other major MDMs are Meracki and Mosyle. If you are just a regular user of Notability, there is a free download to sample all of the tools and create a few documents, but then there are in-app purchases available for a monthly or yearly subscription - note the yearly subscription is a reduced rate, so that is what I would recommend.

You can also pair notability with Airplay on your ipad and cast your screen via an AppleTV or using other applications like Reflector or Airserver (we have a mix of all three of those in our district.

There are many ways to take notes on the iPad (or your iPhone), but the educational version of notability is an amazing way for teachers and students to elevate their note-taking skills.

Do you want to learn more? Check out my website - tricialouis.com. There you can explore my resources, subscribe to my weekly email newsletter, and contact me. And if you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast and it is available and/or correct on the date the podcast is originally published. But, remember that services, sites, or products can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice.

Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode of the one five!

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SHOW NOTES:

Cleartune App Store Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cleartune/id286799607

ForScore App Store Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/forscore/id363738376

Airturn DUO500 Bluetooth Pedal: https://amzn.to/3J6E6YJ

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

TRANSCRIPT: (full transcript link)

Hello and welcome to episode number seventeen of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you weekly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks.

In this week’s episode, I will be talking about two apps I utilize on my iPhone & iPad - Cleartune & ForScore.

Let’s get started with Cleartune. Cleartune is a tuning app for your iphone/ipad. I have been using cleartune for 15 years now and what makes it my choice for a tuner is that it has zero latency - which is key to knowing if your instrument is in tune or not. The precision of the app allows you to tune any instrument (including guitar and timpani). I keep my cleartune set at equal temperament, but if you are playing music/instruments from different time periods, you can even choose from a wide variety of temperaments. The app is built to be used on either an iPhone or an iPad and can be a great teaching tool if you mirror your iPad to a display or projector. This app is $4 and well worth the purchase price because of its precision and the purchase cuts out any other ads that might appear in other apps.

Now let’s learn about the ForScore app. The ForScore app is the ultimate app for your sheet music. You can upload PDFs of any type of music (from the web, email, or via other cloud services), organize the scores into playlists, annotate on the score with a variety of drawing tools and musical symbol stamps, and even link audio tracks to the score (like accompaniments, or others) and be able to hear & play the music at the same time. There is so much in this app and it has evolved over the 13 years it has been around - and I have been using it for that length of time. The interface for using forscore has an easy learning curve and there are so many powerful tools included in it. Here are just some of the amazing tools in the app:

Score Sync - so if you have a couple of devices, your scores stay up-to-date no matter which device you use

Half-Page Turns - so you can see the bottom of a page and the top of the next page at the same time

Repeats - link pages so you can handle repeats with one tap on your ipad

Scanning - if you get sheet music, you can scan it immediately into the app using the camera on your device

View options - you can choose how you want the music displayed on your device

Built in Utilities - If you don’t want a dedicated tuner app like I mentioned before, there is a tuner, metronome, and pitch pipe built right into ForScore

Hands Free - if you pair a bluetooth pedal or bite switch (which is an adaptive device) to your iphone or ipad, you can turn the pages of music without taking your hands off your instrument. I use an AirTurn pedal with my ipad and it works flawlessly. There is a link to the AirTurn bluetooth pedal in the Show Notes, so be sure to check that out along with the app links.

Recently, ForScore has added a Pro option to the app which is a $10 yearly subscription…I have not felt that I needed this subscription as the full app cost at $20 has so much included with it…and that is $20 one-time purchase NOT a yearly subscription for the app.

I highly recommend these apps for your iPhone or iPad if you are a musician - they make “making music” so much easier!

Do you want to learn more? Check out my website - tricialouis.com. There you can explore my resources, subscribe to my weekly email newsletter, and contact me. And if you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast and it is available and/or correct on the date the podcast is originally published. But, remember that services, sites, or products can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice.

Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode of the one five!

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SHOW NOTES:

Stop Motion Animator Extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stop-motion-animator/bjkfigedpppnggdamgeclieeekhbgjpc/related?hl=en

Compact Mirror Hack PDF: http://bit.ly/3Ew6O2k

Demo Video using Stop Motion Animator on a Chromebook WITH Compact Mirror Hack: https://youtu.be/MPWNFP9fQrk (no sound)

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

TRANSCRIPT: (full transcript link)

Hello and welcome to episode number sixteen of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you weekly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks.

In this week’s episode, I will be talking about the Stop Motion Animator chrome extension. I have been a fan of stop motion animation as it is a great activity for students to not only express themselves in the making of a video, but it is a fun way for them to share information and show what they know.

When doing stop motion animation on a chromebook (or laptop since this is a chrome extension) it can be kind of tricky, but I have a solve for that and I will go into it more later.

Let’s get started. Once you install the extension, I would recommend pinning it to your chrome toolbar for easy access. When you click on the extension a new tab will open up and the first thing you will want to do is allow access to your device’s camera (otherwise there will be no pictures to animate). Once that access is allowed, take a look at the different buttons:

On/Off: Turn On, Off webcam camera
Capture: Take pictures from the webcam camera
Undo: Undo previous snapshot
Play/Stop: Preview video
Clear: Clear all video
Clock: Displays the effect of the video's Frames Per Second rate
Flip: flip the camera
Record Audio: Record audio for the clip
Clear Audio: Remove record audio
Save: Save clip to computer

What I like about stop motion animator is that it’s super simple to use. The addition of the onion skinning (that’s where you see the previous image while preparing the next image), makes it easy for students to prepare their images.

Remember earlier I mentioned that I have a solution for using the webcam on your chromebook or laptop for stop motion animation? Well here it is - a compact mirror. Simply go to your nearest retailer and grab a cheap compact mirror and then you can use a piece of tape (painters tape works best) to position the hinge of the compact mirror to reflect the camera down. Then you can put a little whiteboard over your keyboard and place the objects on it that you want to animate. If you want to see this hack, be sure to check out the show notes for a link to a PDF that shows how to set it up. Also in the show notes, is a link to a youtube video where I used the hack to make a video.

When you are finished taking all the pictures for your stop motion film, you can view it and then choose to save it in your google drive (as a webm file) when you are on your chromebook. If you are on a laptop (pc or mac) the webm file is downloaded and you can store it anywhere.

I hope that you think about adding stop motion animation as a fun activity in your classroom. You will be surprised with the creativity of your students and what they can come up with!

Do you want to learn more? Check out my website - tricialouis.com. There you can explore my resources, subscribe to my weekly email newsletter, and contact me. And if you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast and it is available and/or correct on the date the podcast is originally published. But, remember that services, sites, or products can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice.

Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode of the one five!

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SHOW NOTES:

Page Marker Chrome Extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/page-marker-draw-on-web/jfiihjeimjpkpoaekpdpllpaeichkiod?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

TRANSCRIPT: (full transcript link)

Hello and welcome to episode number fifteen of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you weekly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks.

In this week’s episode, I will be talking about an amazing chrome extension called Page Marker. Installing this chrome extension is something you wish you will have done a long time ago. It allows you to have drawing tools on ANY webpage and yes, that includes google documents. Once the extension is installed (and you will want to pin this one for sure), you can click on it and then a panel of tools opens up. On the tool panel, you can choose from a pen, highlighter, eraser, select, text tool, move, line, download, undo & redo, trash, exit, and the size slider (for pen size). I pretty much just use the pen tool and it is incredible. One cool hack for this extension is that you can open up your google slides and then choose “publish to web” in the file menu. Once you have that link, open it up in a new tab and then you can use the page marker extension to mark up your slides - this is better than just presenting the slides as that goes into a full-screen mode and you can’t access the extension during that full-screen mode. After you have made your marks on a slide, you will have to clear the ink once you move to a new page in your slide deck, but before you do that, you can download an image of your marked up page. Those images can be then loaded into your LMS for reference by students. You can also combine page marker with loom and make great screen recordings with all the markings! One more thing to know about page marker is that if you are on a regular web page (not like the slide deck I mentioned before), the “ink” that you put on the page is actually sticky and you can scroll the webpage up or down and the ink stays put. Now that is pretty darn cool in my book.

I encourage you to try the page marker extension and then share with your students as it gives them a great way to do annotations anywhere on chrome!

If you have any questions about the content shared in this podcast, you are free to contact me at any time through the contact me section on my website - tricialouis.com. And if you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast and it is available and/or correct on the date the podcast is originally published. But, remember that services, sites, or products can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice.

Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode of the one five!

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SHOW NOTES:

Noisy Book App Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/noisy-book/id1474786858

Noisy Book Word List: http://bit.ly/3HR6RH5

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

TRANSCRIPT: (full transcript link)

Hello and welcome to episode number fourteen of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you weekly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks.

In this week’s episode, I will be talking about the Noisy Book app. This is a fun app that takes a story you make up OR one you read from a book and adds sound effects as you read. The app is free for iphone/ipad and at one time had a 99 cent in-app purchase to unlock saving more than one story. Thanks to a few emails to the developers of the app, I am able to tell you that the app is now ALL FREE (with all functions).

When you open the app, you have to make sure to allow the use of the microphone & access to speech recognition on your device. Once that happens you simply start reading or making up a story and the app adds the particular sound effects in. The app has nearly 800 of these sound effect words (check the show notes for a link to a google sheet with about 600 of them listed) so you can use that as a guide if you are making up a story. Just as a note, saying the words “the end” is a verbal cue for the app that your story is done and then it saves it locally on your device. This would be a fun app for students to use in your learning environment as there are no logins necessary and since it saves locally there are no cloud services involved. You could give your students 3-5 (or more) words on the list to write a story and then have them read it into the app to hear the sound effects. With the full functionality of the app unlocked, you can save your stories and be able to listen to them later. You can even save the story as a PDF and print if you want to.

If you select the menu in the upper right corner of the app you can change the colors/fonts used when stories are saved, learn more about the app, and even access a FAQ section. Under the advanced part of the menu, there are a few options you can choose from and you can even choose to “reset everything” if you want to erase all the stories on the app and just start over.

All in all, this is a cute and fun app to use with young students as it is a way to bring a little variety to a reading or writing assignment.

If you have any questions about the content shared in this podcast, you are free to contact me at any time through the contact me section on my website - tricialouis.com.

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast and it is available and/or correct on the date the podcast is originally published. But, remember that services, sites, or products can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice.

Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode of the one five!

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SHOW NOTES:

Momentum Chrome Extension https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/momentum/laookkfknpbbblfpciffpaejjkokdgca?hl=es-MX

TabSpace Chrome Extension https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tabspace/kcinhoikngobhiikicnpahoanenlnlha

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

TRANSCRIPT: (full transcript link)

Hello and welcome to episode number thirteen of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you weekly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks.

In this week’s episode, I will be talking about two chrome extensions that enhance your new tab experience in the chrome browser and they are called Momentum and TabSpace.

First, let’s learn about Momentum. Momentum is a free chrome extension that amps up your new tab. When you start a new tab with Momentum installed, you are greeted with beautiful landscape photos & encouraging quotes. Along with that you will find areas that you can customize like focus, quick links, to-do lists, and local weather. I have used the Momentum chrome extension on my personal chrome account for years now and I love how it makes my new tab not only a more beautiful space, but gives me additional utilities. Momentum does have a paid version, but I have never invested in that and for the casual user, I think that the free version is great!

Now, let’s learn about TabSpace. The tagline in the chrome web store for TabSpace is a “scratch space for your new tab page” and it is just that. Once you install this extension, your new tab becomes a way for you to keep notes for yourself and it just remembers it and when you start a new tab, whatever you have added just appears. Now, this is an extension that I am using for my school chrome account and it is really beneficial. Being able to take quick notes that always show up on a new tab can be good reminders for tasks or maybe continuing certain chrome journeys. The only thing that is lacking in TabSpace is that it is device specific - notes you take on one device do NOT show up on another device. Let me make sure I explain that a little bit more - say I take a note on my TabSpace on my desktop pc. When I open my school chromebook that note is NOT there even though I am signed into the same chrome account. Now this isn’t a deal breaker for me when using TabSpace, but I just wanted to make sure I told you about it.

I am sure there are a multitude of other new tab extensions out there, but these are two that I have used and seem to be filling the needs I have for a new tab on my devices. If you know of a good new tab extension, feel free to reach out to me via my website and let me know.

I hope you and your students will find these new tab extensions useful in your learning environment.

If you have any questions about the content shared in this podcast, you are free to contact me at any time through the contact me section on my website - tricialouis.com.

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast and it is available and/or correct on the date the podcast is originally published. But, remember that services, sites, or products can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice.

Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode of the one five!

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SHOW NOTES:

Google Jamboard Tutorial Video https://youtu.be/Yznx6XsCPSM?t=61

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

iOS App https://apps.apple.com/us/app/jamboard/id1143591418

Google Play App https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.jam&hl=en_US≷=US

Help https://support.google.com/jamboard/?hl=en#topic=7383644

Training in Teacher Center https://edu.google.com/intl/ALL_us/for-educators/product-guides/jamboard/?modal_active=none

TRANSCRIPT: (full transcript link)

Hello and welcome to episode number twelve of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you weekly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks.

In this week’s episode, I will be talking about Google Jamboard. Google Jamboard is a digital whiteboard and collaboration tool developed by Google. It allows users to create and share documents, drawings, and presentations in real-time, from anywhere with an internet connection. It allows multiple users to work on the same document at the same time, and also offers features such as the ability to import images and videos, add text and drawings, and use sticky notes. It is primarily used in classrooms and business meetings for collaboration and brainstorming.

Google Jamboard can be used in education in a variety of ways, including: Collaborative problem-solving, Interactive presentations, Graphic organizers, Mind mapping, Classroom polls and quizzes, Student-led discussions, Digital storytelling, Group work, and so much more. Now, there actually was a device from Google that is a Google Jamboard, but through some web investigation, I believe that the device is now discontinued, but the awesomeness of the Jamboard lives on in the web version or through the app (for iPad or Android Tablets).

Jamboard is a visual tool so in order for you to learn more about Jamboard, I encourage you to check out my Jamboard tutorial video posted in the show notes. In the video, I share about the Jamboard interface, the similarities & differences between the web & app versions, and give ideas how to use your jams…so be sure to check it out for a more visual explanation of Google Jamboard.

Be sure to check out the additional resources in the show notes for links to the Google Jamboard Apps for your iOS or Android device as well as links to help & training guides from Google.

If you have any questions about the content shared in this podcast, you are free to contact me at any time through the contact me section on my website - tricialouis.com. If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast and it is available and/or correct on the date the podcast is originally published. But, remember that services, sites, or products can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice.

Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode of the one five!

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SHOW NOTES:

Visit canva.com/education to get your free Canva for Education account.

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

TRANSCRIPT: (full transcript link)

Hello and welcome to episode number eleven of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you weekly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks.

In this week’s episode, I will be talking about Canva. Canva is a graphic design tool that has many applications in education. It is a simple, intuitive platform that allows users to create a wide range of visual content, including posters, infographics, social media graphics, and much more. Here are just a few reasons why Canva is a great app to use in education:

The first reason is that it is easy to use: One of the main benefits of Canva is that it is extremely user-friendly. It has a simple drag-and-drop interface that allows users to quickly and easily create professional-looking graphics. This makes it an excellent tool for educators who may not have a lot of design experience, as it allows them to create visually appealing materials without a lot of hassle.
Next, it has a wide range of templates and resources: Canva has a vast library of templates and resources that can be used to create a wide range of visual content. This makes it an excellent resource for educators who are looking for pre-made templates that they can use to quickly and easily create materials for their classrooms.
Our next reason is that it is affordable: Canva is Free to educators! Simply visit canva.com/education and follow the prompts on how to get verified. Not only will you be able to utilize canva, but your students will as well.
And finally, it can be used to teach design skills: In addition to being a useful tool for creating materials, Canva can also be used to teach design skills to students. After you get your free account, make sure you set up a class space where you and your students can share designs with each other as well as work collaboratively on design projects. With canva’s simple drag-and-drop interface and wide range of templates and resources, it is an excellent tool for helping students to learn the fundamentals of graphic design. Also canva can be easily used on any chromebook or laptop with the web interface OR you can download the canva app to an iPad and be able to utilize canva that way. One advantage of the iPad is the touchscreen - there is something inside of canva called “draw beta” and that brings inking tools right inside your canva project.

Overall, Canva is a great app to use in education. It is easy to use, has a wide range of templates and resources, can be used to create a wide range of materials, is affordable, and can be used to teach design skills. Whether you are an educator looking to create materials for your classroom or looking to learn more about design, Canva is an excellent resource that you should definitely consider.

If you have any questions about the content shared in this podcast, you are free to contact me at any time through the contact me section on my website - tricialouis.com.

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast and it is available and/or correct on the date the podcast is originally published. But, remember that services, sites, or products can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice.

Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode of the one five!

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SHOW NOTES:

Adblock Plus Extension

DF Youtube Extension

Picture-in-Picture Extension

Youtube Screenshot Extension

Image to Text Website

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

TRANSCRIPT: (full transcript link)

Hello and welcome to episode number ten of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you weekly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks.

In this week’s episode, I will be talking about 4 chrome extensions that can enhance you and your student’s youtube experience. Please be sure to check out the show notes for the links to each of these extensions.

The first extension I will share is adblock plus. There is nothing worse than starting a youtube video and an ad (especially one that is really not geared towards education) interrupts the start of the video. Simply install this extension and your videos will start right away!

I like to pair adblock plus with the second extension on my list: DF Youtube. DF stands for Distraction Free. Have you ever played a youtube video and all your students can do is pay attention to the “suggested” videos on the right of the screen? Once you install this extension, all those distractions are gone and your students can learn from the video you have selected.

The third extension on my list is the picture-in-picture extension. This little extension is like magic. You simply goto the youtube video and then click this extension and the video will “pop-out” to the lower right corner…but wait…the magic is that the video will now show in the lower right corner of ANY TAB! This is great for when you want to watch a video and maybe do something on a website at the same time (like tutorials) and you are only on a “one-screen” device (like a small chromebook). To return the video to the full youtube experience, hover over the pop-out screen and click “back to tab”.

The last youtube extension on my list for this podcast is the youtube screenshot extension. Sometimes you want to get a still image of a part of a youtube video and with this extension installed you will now see the word “screenshot” near the lower right corner of the video. Simply click the word screenshot when you want a still image of the video and immediately a PNG file will be downloaded for you. This is so handy if you want to read some text or be able to zoom in further on part of a video’s image. BONUS: Take the image and upload it to a website called “image to text” and it will extract the text for you where you can copy and paste it wherever it is needed! Super cool!

I hope these 4 extensions will enhance your youtube viewing in your learning space!

If you have any questions about the content shared in this podcast, you are free to contact me at any time through the contact me section on my website - tricialouis.com.

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast and it is available and/or correct on the date the podcast is originally published. But, remember that services, sites, or products can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice.

Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode of the one five!

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SHOW NOTES:

Sketches School App Link

Everyone Can Create Drawing from Apple Education

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

TRANSCRIPT: (Full Transcript Link)

Hello and welcome to episode number nine of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you weekly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks.

In this week’s episode, I will be talking about an iPad app called Sketches School. Actually the long name of it is Tayasui Sketches School, but for brevity, we will just call it Sketches School.

Sketches School is a drawing app for the iPad that hits the big three with me for iPad apps. The big 3 being: 1. Free - this is a free app, so you don’t have to worry about budget, 2. No Ads - There are no inappropriate ads to disrupt work in the app, and 3. No In-App Purchases - sometimes with free apps you are limited to what you can use, but that is not the case in sketches school - the whole app is unlocked for the price of free. Actually, there is a bonus to the Big 3 for sketches school - no sign-in/account needed to use the app. This makes it the perfect drawing app to include on ipads for students of all ages.

Once you get the app, you will notice its simplicity. You can organize your drawings into different notebooks if you want (but that is not necessary). When you get ready to start a drawing you can start from a blank white page or choose different backgrounds or “paper type” and you can even start with an image from your photos app as the background.

Once you have your page setup, you have entered the app. The pen tools are along the left hand side - you have pencil, pen, marker, paint, pastel, acrylic, watercolor, and what always seems the student favorite is airbrush. Be sure to have volume up on your device when using the different pen tools - they actually make the sounds as well when you use them - how neat is that? You also have some text/shape options, eraser, the knife/cutting tool, and my favorite artist tool “smudge” - so you can blend those ‘inks’ together. Inside the ruler tool you can choose to draw with a variety of symmetry, you can draw lines, and bring up a ruler (great for math lessons).

The pen size and the ink color choosers are along the right side so there are a ton of different options there.

Across the top you have a menu under the ellipse that contains different settings, import/export tools, and even a screen recording tool (with microphone) - a great way for teachers in lots of disciplines to make video lessons! Also at the top you can connect an apple pencil, but that is not needed to make this app work. And finally you will see a small grid - that will return you to the new project/new notebook screen.

Sketches school is even highlighted in the Everyone Can Create Drawing book from Apple Education. The link to this free e-book is in the show notes.

I also see sketches school as a great entry tool into drawing for students before they graduate to more complex drawing apps like procreate.

Overall, if you are looking for a quality drawing app for your ipad, I highly recommend sketches school. Download it and start to play with all of the drawing tools and you will see how it can become a powerful application in your learning environment.

If you have any questions about the content shared in this podcast, you are free to contact me at any time through the contact me section on my website - tricialouis.com.

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast and it is available and/or correct on the date the podcast is originally published. But, remember that services, sites, or products can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice.

Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode of the one five!

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SHOW NOTES:

Start.Me

Tricia’s Start.Me Page

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

TRANSCRIPT:

Hello and welcome to episode number eight of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you weekly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks.

In this week’s episode, I will be talking about start.me. Start.me is a way for you to customize a start page (or home page) for your browser. You can add Bookmarks, Notes, Tasks, RSS/Social Media Feeds, and also embed content from other webpages. Start.me works on any browser and on any device. It is a great way to make a hub for your valuable information in a one-stop place.

There are different pricing levels: a personal free and a personal pro account and of course pricing for a team or enterprise. I am currently using the personal free account and with that I can have up to 3 start.me pages and on each page an unlimited number of widgets. Now, some of the widgets are only available with the paid version, but I have found that I have not had the need to upgrade to the paid account.

What I really like about it is the customization you can do with the bookmarks. You can have them in list form or in different icon sizes with the link names or with no text. Above all, this makes a great way for you to have a hub of your links if you have to switch devices or work in different locations than your home classroom or office. I have put my start.me page link at the bottom of my website - so that is a great way for me to be able to visit a classroom (within my district or in other districts), call up my website and then have all my essential links.

If you would like to take a look at my start.me page, check the show notes for the link.

Finally, if you are working on a new interactive panel, like a smart panel, you know the chromium browser is lacking in functionality. By creating a start.me page, you can make that your homepage on the chromium browser and you have all the links you need in an easy to access place!

Overall, I think start.me is a great way for you to organize those most important links and other information into one easy to access collection that is device agnostic and shareable to those in your learning environment.

If you have any questions about the content shared in this podcast, you are free to contact me at any time through the contact me section on my website - tricialouis.com - or via social media.

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast and it is available and/or correct on the date the podcast is originally published. But, remember that services, sites, or products can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice.

Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode of the one five!

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SHOW NOTES

Mote

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

TRANSCRIPT

Hello and welcome to episode number seven of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you weekly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks.

In this week’s episode, I will be talking about Mote. Mote is an audio note tool that allows you to leave voice feedback and other audio recordings throughout google documents, slidedecks, forms and on other places on the web.

Mote works via a chrome extension, but it also does have a website for you to utilize. Simply install the chrome extension and you can begin using your voice. Mote has a tiered pricing plan - you can use the free tier and have up to 20 voice notes per month (that are up to 30 seconds in length). Or you can utilize the individual license that allows unlimited voice notes (that are up to 180 seconds in length). Mote also offers team, school, and district pricing.

Mote allows you to make those connections via voice feedback that are harder to obtain in just text feedback. Mote allows for diverse learners to take advantage of audio playback for task directions or other learning accommodations. And finally mote is a great way for students to convey what they know in audio format - great for checking reading fluency, foreign language learning, and in music classes for voice/instrument recording.

With the paid version of mote, your voice is also transcribed to text and it can be translated into 33 different languages!

I would recommend you give mote a try in your learning space…the power of audio is at your fingertips with just a click of the mote extension.

If you have any questions about the content shared in this podcast, you are free to contact me at any time through the contact me section on my website - tricialouis.com - or via social media.

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast and it is available and/or correct on the date the podcast is originally published. But, remember that services, sites, or products can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice.

Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode of the one five!

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SHOW NOTES

Flippity

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

TRANSCRIPT

Hello and welcome to episode number six of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you weekly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks.

In this week’s episode, I will be talking about Flippity. Flippity is a free website that allows you to turn Google spreadsheets into interactive digital manipulatives, activities, and tools. The site offers a variety of ready-made tools that you can copy and customize. In order to use the flippity tool you want you go to the website, choose the tool, and go into the instructions to get a copy of the spreadsheet that you can edit with your own data. Once the data is set, you simply publish the sheet to the web and share the auto-generated link. Some of the tools include a quiz show generator, a random name picker, a scavenger hunt activity, a word search generator, a crossword puzzle maker, and a Mad Libs creator. Flippity now offers an array of tools that don’t even require the spreadsheet under the “skip the spreadsheet” section - this makes it easy for the person who does not want to create the spreadsheet or does not have the time to do so. All you have to do is simply paste in your content and click the tool you want to use.

I would recommend any of the flippity tools for your classroom - you can even share flippity with students and they could create their own flashcards or other games. Not only is this a good way for students to review classroom material, but they are learning how to utilize spreadsheets which is a great skill to have.

By the way - Flippity meets the “Tricia’s Top Three” list of qualifications of what makes a good resource: 1. Free, 2. No Ads, and 3. No sign-in needed. Don’t get me wrong, I am willing to pay for a good app/resource, but if I can get something for free, it is even better!

If you have any questions about the content shared in this podcast, you are free to contact me at any time through the contact me section on my website - tricialouis.com - or via social media. You can find me AT talouis on twitter or AT talouistech on facebook or instagram.

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast and it is available and/or correct on the date the podcast is originally published. But, remember that services, sites, or products can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice.

Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode of the one five!

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SHOW NOTES:

Sign up for Loom for Education

After you sign-up, be sure to fill out this verification form for your account.

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

TRANSCRIPT:

Hello and welcome to episode number five of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you weekly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks.

In this week’s episode, I will be talking about Loom. Loom is a screen & video recorder. Now I know there are a lot of products that fit this category. Some you may have heard of or used before would be screencastify, screencast-o-matic, or even the “grand-daddy” of them all - camtasia. Now I have used all of these tools as well, but I can tell you when I need to make a quick video to explain something, it is Loom that I reach for every time.

One of the reasons why I use Loom is its price point. Loom is FREE for educators, you can simply sign up for Loom with an institution email account (your google account is the easiest in) and then submit the verification request via a google form. I have included links to the account creation & verification request form in the show notes. The verification process does not take more than a couple days and then you can use loom. The education account allows you to have unlimited videos in your library and the time limitation on recording a video is 45 minutes. Honestly, in my opinion, you probably should not be making videos over 45 minutes in length, so that should not be an issue.

Another reason I like loom is that it works great as a chrome extension. There is also an installable program for mac and pc that does have a couple more features in it (the best feature being able to record system audio with the installed version) but for the most part, you should be able to record almost all your videos with the chrome extension.

Recording a video in loom is as simple as clicking that chrome extension and choosing if you want to have your camera on with the screen or without or just the camera alone. If you have multiple monitors in your setup, you can choose which screen you want to record. Then you just simply press record and start your video. There are also drawing tools and mouse emphasis tools if you are doing a screen recording that can help you explain your process. You can pause your recording and then resume in the same session. When you are done, a new tab opens up and there is your video!

You can do a little editing - like trimming the ends of the video, but if you are looking for a full-fledged video editor, loom is not your tool. But, you can take that recording you just made in loom and download an mp4 and then import into another editing program - this is what I do when I want to use camtasia to kind of “fancy up” a video! Also the downloaded mp4 can be used in edpuzzle if you utilize that video quiz tool!

But if you are happy with your video in loom, you simply click the link icon at the top right and you get a sharable link to your video - no permissions to have to worry about - the link just works! When people get your link to watch, they can use emoji reactions to your video which is a great way to get quick feedback. You are also notified when your video is watched for the first time and loom keeps track of how many times each video is watched!

A great bonus feature of loom is the automatic transcript it generates from your video - you can review the transcript and correct any mistakes in the transcript and then the person that is viewing the video can have the transcript up while watching and even use the transcript to skip around to different points in the video. You can even copy the transcript with one click to paste in any word processing program!

Your videos are stored in the cloud and then you can go back to your library and reshare the links at any time. If you make your titles very descriptive there is even a search feature in your library so you can find a video quickly.

All-in-all, loom is a great way for you to record videos for your classroom or learning space. I encourage you to give it a try!

If you have any questions about the content shared in this podcast, you are free to contact me at any time through the contact me section on my website - tricialouis.com - or via social media. You can find me AT talouis on twitter or AT talouistech on facebook or instagram.

If you like this podcast, consider supporting it by going to buymeacoffee.com/talouis and pledging your contribution to the one-five.

Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast and it is available and/or correct on the date the podcast is originally published. But, remember that services, sites, or products can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice.

Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode of the one five!

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SHOW NOTES:Learn more/sign up for Wakelet at: https://features.wakelet.com/

Wakelet collection of iWB/iFB sites: https://wakelet.com/wake/D3sNMg2vMG2tBRg6_fBQB

Wakelet collection of my favorite chrome extensions: https://wakelet.com/wake/xhjbhzZGTmh9G32KUMPVC

TRANSCRIPT:Hello and welcome to episode number four of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you weekly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks.

In this week’s episode, I will be talking about Wakelet.

Wakelet in essence is a bookmarking tool, but in reality is so much more. I am very new to wakelet as I have only used it for a couple of weeks now, but I am super excited about all the possibilities on how to use it to share information.

The tagline on the wakelet site is that it is a complete learning platform. It is a fabulous way to organize all those resources that we need for the courses that we teach.

Wakelet has a quick sign-up process and it is a free tool for you to use. From that point forward you just add your content. Now this does not just have to be URLs but can be articles, pdfs, youtube videos, documents, images, and much more. You can select from 5 different layouts on how you want your collection to look. From that point you can share your collection for people to use OR you can build a collaborative collection with others. You can even download a clickable PDF of your wakelet collection.

In true wakelet style, there is even a wakelet collection of training materials on how to use wakelet! One side note - the learning curve on wakelet is pretty shallow - you can be up and running in probably less than 30 minutes!

Wakelet has an easy to use chrome extension to gather bookmarks and also has a mobile app!

Like I said, I am still a very new user to wakelet, but it has some awesome applications for your classroom!

Be sure to check the show notes for the link to sign up to wakelet yourself AND check out 2 of my wakelet collections - one is about great sites to use on your interactive whiteboard or interactive flat panel and the other collection is all about my favorite chrome extensions

Well, there it is, a quick overview of wakelet! If you have any questions about the content shared in this podcast, you are free to contact me at any time through the contact me section on my website - tricialouis.com - or via social media. You can find me @talouis on twitter or @talouistech on facebook or instagram.

Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast and it is available and/or correct on the date the podcast is originally published. But, remember that services, sites, or products can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice.

Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode of the one five!

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Hello and welcome to episode number three of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you weekly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks.

In this week’s episode, I will be sharing about Okiolabs. What is Okiolabs? Well, Okiolabs is a company that makes amazing doc cams and now webcams. I learned about them back in November of 2020 on Twitter. One of the first products they put out was the Okiocam S. The Okiocam S is a great little document camera. Super small footprint and you can use it practically anywhere. Another key point about okiocams is their price point. If you are looking for an in-expensive but GOOD doc cam you can’t go wrong with the S cam that is priced currently at $60.

Over the past couple years they have made other models like the T Plus. That model webcam comes with a built-in dry erase board. The neat thing about this dry erase board is that it has a matte finish so it does not create that typical whiteboard glare you get. That doc cam is currently priced at $80.

And just recently (September of 2022), they introduced the S2 and S2 Pro line of doc cams. These doc cams also have an onboard microphone so it can be used as a webcam as well! The S2 kicks it up a few notches with a 12 MegaPixel camera and a built-in LED light. I am currently using - and loving - the S2 Pro model right now. The S2 Pro is their highest priced doc cam but even at $120 it is priced far less than other comparable document cameras.

The most amazing thing about okiocams is that you can use them with a chrome extension - no pesky installations are required. So, that makes the doc cam usable on pc, mac, or chromebook. They get all their power from the USB input so no need for a separate plug-in either. So you could even have these available for student use as well. FYI - they do have a variety of different software to download including time-lapse, stop motion, and snapshot/recorder apps.

Okiolabs also introduced a line of webcams. I have not personally used that product, but after using the different doc cams over the years, I would bet that it is a great product.

One last word about Okiolabs, they make a google slides add-on as well - it makes it super easy to have your doc cam connected and to insert a still image right into a google slide OR as an added bonus you can just have the live image of the doc cam up right inside your google slides window!

Well, there it is a quick overview of Okiolabs and Okiocams! If you have any questions about the content shared in this podcast, you are free to contact me at any time through the contact me section on my website - tricialouis.com - or via social media. You can find me @talouis on twitter or @talouistech on facebook or instagram.

Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast and it is available and/or correct on the date the podcast is originally published. But, remember that services, sites, or products can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice.

Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode of the one five!

Additional Resources:https://www.okiolabs.com/

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Hello and welcome to episode number two of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you regularly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks.

This week’s episode will actually focus on a tool that made it into my first newsletter that I published back in January of 2018. OK - that does not seem like that long ago, but in the ever-changing techworld 2018 could be seen as the “dark ages”!

So, what is the tool that we are going to learn about today? It is Classroom Screen! What is classroom screen? Classroom screen is a widget filled website that is device agnostic (which means it can work on any type of desktop, laptop, or tablet/mobile device) that can be used in conjunction with a projector or interactive flatpanel.

Once you go to the classroom screen website - it is classroomscreen.com - in your web browser you can opt to just “launch now” to give it a try and it will open up....speaking of browsers, my preferred browser is chrome on my pc/mac - so when listening to this podcast just know that any web tools that I recommend work best in chrome. Anyhow, back to classroom screen - now that you have launched classroom screen you are going to see an array of widgets across the bottom of the screen. Starting from left to right we have:

Background - where you can choose the background of your classroom screen

Random Name - a random name picker for your class - you can copy/paste a list in

Dice - Roll up to three 6 sided dice

Sound Level - Use this widget in conjunction with the mic on your device to have a visualization of the noise/sound level in your room

Media - bring in an image, youtube video, live webcam footage, or embed code from another application

QR code - input a website and get an instant QR code your students can scan

Draw - a nifty whiteboard tool

Text - a simple text box to showcase text

Work Symbols - created symbols to remind your students with a visual cue

Traffic Light - another visual cue for your students

Timer - set a timer and chose your alarm sound

Stopwatch - use to time a certain activity (with lap button)

Clock - show digital and analog clock

Calendar - show a calendar on your screen.

You can have any or all of the widgets open at once and you can have different instances of the same widget.

Once you choose your widgets, you can close the widget array to give you a bit more real-estate on your screen.

Now we just played with the launch version - but if you want more features, click on the home icon in the upper left corner of classroom screen. You can login with an email/google account and have some options with the free account, but of course there are more with the PRO account (which is currently at $30/year) - the most crucial feature of the PRO account is being able to save your screens - so you can preload them with backgrounds/widgets/content and not have to create it live. You can also save name lists for the random name picker in the PRO version.

I have used the FREE version for a very long time, but I can see the benefit of the pro version if you decide to use this heavily in your classroom.

Well, there it is a quick overview of classroom screen! If you have any questions about the content shared in this podcast, you are free to contact me at any time through the contact me section on my website - tricialouis.com - or via social media. You can find me @talouis on Twitter or @talouistech on Facebook or Instagram.

Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast but also remember that services/sites can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice.

Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode of the one five!

classroomscreen.com

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Episode 1 Transcript: Hello and welcome to the inaugural episode of the one-five. I am your podcast hostess - Tricia Louis - the self-designated tech goddess and I will be coming to you regularly in this audio podcast format with great edtech tools, tips, and tricks. So, what is the one-five? The one-five will be a weekly broadcast of the quick facts about ONE tech tool in less than FIVE minutes. The name is a riff on my phone extension for my office at the Richland School District (1515) and of my office number (105). I have had this podcast on my mind for quite awhile and I figured the time was now to start it out. I am going to start first with my podcast being available through my website - tricialouis.com - and on apple podcasts. I will expand to other podcasting services as this project expands. I am hoping that this podcast will become an extension of my weekly newsletter - Tricia’s Technology Tuesday Tidbits (isn’t alliteration great?) where I give quick tips about a wide array of edtech for your classroom/work area. The goal of this podcast is for you to be able to listen to the audio and to be able to implement it in your classroom without a lot of fuss. I like to make learning something new very accessible to everyone and I am of the mind that once you feel comfortable doing the little things in tech, you are more apt to take on the big things. It is all a learning process and the process is the product in edtech. As things are ever-changing in edtech you can count on this podcast to bring you up-to-date information. You can also count on getting ideas and strategies of how to implement edtech into your daily routine and into your classroom practices. If you have any questions about the content shared in this podcast, you are free to contact me at any time through the contact me section on my website - tricialouis.com - or via social media. You can find me @talouis on twitter or @talouistech on facebook or instagram. Keep in mind the information shared on this podcast may take additional clearances from your tech department to work properly in your district, school, or classroom. I have vetted all of the information shared on this podcast but also remember that services/sites can change or become unavailable without a lot of notice. So, here we go on this podcast adventure and I can’t wait to share all sorts of great edtech in a wide variety of categories and regarding all of the platforms that we use in our classrooms & work areas. Thanks for joining me this week. Here’s to our edtech journey together!

The One-Five: Recent Episodes

Tricia Louis