Category: Tech tips

How to Automate an MLA Heading

How to Automate an MLA Heading in Word

This one is quick–how to create a macro that automatically inserts an MLA-appropriate heading:

  • Have students log in. Macros go with the profile of the user, not the local computer.
  • Open MS Word.
  • Decide what the keyboard shortcut will be for the macro. I use Ctrl+Alt+H. Test it to be sure it doesn’t bring up some other shortcut.
  • Go to View-macro-record macro
  • Call the macro ‘MLA Heading’ and select ‘Keyboard’
  • Add your selected keyboard shortcut to ‘Press new shortcut key’  and click ‘Assign’, then ‘Close’.
  • Your mouse becomes a cassette tape. Type the heading that will be part of your macro. Feel free to backspace and make corrections. Those are all recorded, but they’re so fast, you won’t notice when you invoke the macro.
  • Stop recording by clicking Macros – Stop Recording.
  • Test the shortkey

Clean and simple, and fun for students–a great lesson during Hour of Code or another coding lesson. The macro will impress anyone sitting by them when they are logged in.

Here’s a quick four-minute video on creating a macro (though this one, not specifically for an MLA heading): (more…)

13 Tips to Solve Unusual Problems

tech tipsIn these 169 tech-centric situations, you get an overview of pedagogy—the tech topics most important to your teaching—as well as practical strategies to address most classroom tech situations, how to scaffold these to learning, and where they provide the subtext to daily tech-infused education.

Today’s tip: Solutions to unusual problems

Category: Problem-solving

Whether you follow Habits of Mind, Common Core, Depth of Knowledge, IB, or another K-12 learning strategy, every student must learn problem-solving to become a functioning, contributing adult. There are thirteen great strategies that can be taught as part of ‘problem solving’ between kindergarten and eighth grade—a few each year, when they’re age-appropriate for your group.

Here’s a poster with the strategies. Post it on the wall in your classroom. Let students notice when they’ve accomplished one and what’s coming up in their future:

Sign up for a new tip each week or buy the entire 169 Real-world Ways to Put Tech into Your Classroom.

What’s your favorite tech tip in your classroom? Share it in the comments below.

–image credit Deposit Photos

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Starlink–What is it? Why use it?

I’ve had a lot of trouble with my email the last few months. My newsletter is falling apart. My home email is changing servers–who knows what that will require on my part. My spam folder has had a mental breakdown and never (ever) works correctly. And, my internet services are suffering more than their usual annoying level of quirks and breaks.

I’m looking for a change. There’s one big option I’ve been watching for a few years: Starlink. It doesn’t use fiber or cable–it runs off satellites. I haven’t pulled the trigger (it requires geeky setup and a substantial startup fee), but every year, after every internet and email problem, it gets more interesting. Starlink probably won’t fix my email problems, but it might put a dent in my internet issues. Several friends and efriends use it and are thrilled with it. Liesbet over at Roaming About, a self-proclaimed nomad, happily roaming about South America, switched to Starlink and loves it.

One of the reasons I don’t make the switch is it’s not easy (and I like easy). It costs something like $600 in equipment and the monthly fee is somewhere around $150-$200, but to get away from the Earth-based internet problems that can be hacked, cracked, and virused is appealing. (more…)

Tech Tip #25: My Keyboard Doesn’t Work

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

You sit down to type, start in on that long project with an imminent deadline, and nothing happens. The cursor blinks… and blinks… and blinks… but goes nowhere.

What do you do?

Before you buy a new keyboard, try a few things:

  • Is the keyboard’s power light on? If it is, check your screen. Is there something that’s preventing you from typing? Maybe a dialogue box that wants an answer? If the light isn’t on, continue down this list
  • Check the plugs. Maybe the cord that connects the keyboard to the computer is loose or fell out.
  • Reboot. Sometimes the stuff in the computer’s boot-up sequence that makes the keyboard work gets lost. Restart your computer so it can re-establish itself.
  • Do you eat at your keyboard? Does anyone? I say this next solution hesitantly: Bang on the key. Sometimes keys get food between them. If that doesn’t work, turn the keyboard over and see what falls out.

If none of those work, here are some pretty good suggestions from ChatGPT:

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Tech Tip #41 Fix Computer with System Restore

In these 169 tech situations, you get practical strategies to address many classroom tech situations.

Today’s tip: Fix computer with system restore

Category: Problem-solving

Q:  My computer no longer runs right. I downloaded the auto-updates to my PC and it hasn’t worked right since. What do I do?

System Restore is a recovery tool for Windows that allows you to reverse certain kinds of changes made to the operating system. One way to think of it is as an “undo” feature for the most important parts of Windows.

Here’s how you use it:

  • Type ‘system restore’ into the search bar at the bottom of the start menu.
  • Select ‘system restore’ from the list.
  • Follow the directions.

Note: The system restores to a point you created earlier so you have to have done that. If you need help with this concept, here’s a longish YT that covers it in depth: (more…)

What Happens When Technology Fails? 3 Work-Arounds

Has this happened to you? You spend hours rewriting an old lesson plan, incorporating rich, adventurous tools available on the internet. You test it several times just to be sure. It’s a fun lesson self-paced lesson plan with lots of activities and meandering paths students undoubtedly will adore. Technology enables it to differentiate authentically for the diverse group of learners that walk across your threshold.

Everyone who previewed it is wowed. You are ready.

Until the day of, the technology that is its foundation fails. Hours of preparation wasted because no one could get far enough to learn a d*** thing. You blame yourself–why didn’t you stick with what you’d always done?  Now, everyone is disappointed.

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5 Internet Safety Tips for Teachers

5 Internet Safety Tips for Teachers

The internet has provided teachers with numerous tools to enhance their students’ learning experience. However, it’s not without a few downsides. Cyber threats, in particular, can expose both educators and learners to new kinds of risks that could endanger their privacy and security.

As a teacher, taking proactive measures to avoid and mitigate them is critical for creating a safe environment to teach and learn while maximizing the perks of the vast digital resources the internet offers.

Common Cyber Threats Facing Educators

Every profession has had its fair share of internet-based troubles. But what scams and crimes are teachers most likely to encounter? (more…)

Tech Tip #67: How to Add Accents and more

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each week, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Q: I teach Spanish and need a quick way to add accents to words. Can you help?

A: You can go through the symbols library, but there’s an easier way. Use the Ctrl key + the accent. Here is a table:

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Tech Tip #8–Print a selection off a webpage

tech tipsIn these 169 tech-centric situations, you get an overview of pedagogy—the tech topics most important to your teaching—as well as practical strategies to address most classroom tech situations, how to scaffold these to learning, and where they provide the subtext to daily tech-infused education.

Today’s tip: Print a selection off a Webpage

Category: Printing

Q: I only want to print part of the webpage, not the entire thing. How do I quickly print just a selection?

A: Another reason for printing only part of a page is that you might want to save paper. To print a portion of a page:

  • highlight the desired text
  • press Ctrl+P
  • in the Print dialog box: in Print Range (or similar), click Selection, then OK

Now, only the selected portion of the Web page will print.

You can also print only the text, leaving out the ads etc. Compare the first inset below to the second, printed through a browser extension called Readability:

One final option: If you’re using software (like MS Word), you can use a variety of screenshot programs to grab just a piece of your page. Check Tech Tip #116 in 169 Real-world Ways to Put Tech into Your Classroom. for more on this.

What’s your favorite tech tip in your classroom? Share it in the comments below.

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