Tag: 169 tech tips

In 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: Visit Foreign Language Google Search

Category: Internet

Sub-category: Language, Search/Research

Q: English isn’t my first language. How do I access Google in other languages?

A: To visit the foreign language Google search engines, type:

www.google.co

Then add the country extension you would like to visit. For example:

www.google.co.jp

…for Japan.

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In 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: My Internet Won’t Work

Category: Internet

Sub-category: Problem-solving

Q: My internet stopped for no reason. I’m in the middle of something important. I don’t want to reboot—it takes forever. What can I do?

A: Do what the pros do–unplug your internet connection, wait ten seconds, and plug it in again. Half the time, this is all it takes.

The same applies to a printer that stops for no known reason–turn it off, wait ten seconds and turn it back on. It’s something about tasks being shuffled out of the way and needing to re-establish their order. All I know is it works often enough, it’s my first line of defense to problem-solving this particular problem.

If that doesn’t work, try these:

• use a different browser
• reboot your computer
• check all the cables–is everything plugged in as it should be?
• see if your firewall is blocking it
• check recent system upgrades–did they affect the internet?
• ask a neighbor if theirs is working–maybe it’s out all over

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In 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: Check History in Your Browser

Category: Internet

Q: How do I see where my kids/students have gone online?

A: Go to what’s called ‘history’–a list of all the websites whoever logged in under a particular user name went.  Here’s how you do it:

• In Firefox, Chrome, or IE, hold the Control key (Ctrl) and push H. That brings up a list of the sites visited by that profile.
• Select the time frame you’re interested in
• Chrome also lets you search other devices logged into Chrome.

If you find they went somewhere they shouldn’t, don’t over-react. Sometimes it happens by accident. Ask them about it. Watch their answer. Their body language will tell you as much as their words. You know your students. You’ll know if they are telling the truth.

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In 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: My Pic’s a BMP and I need a JPG

Category: Images

Sub-category: Edit/Format

Q: My picture file is a .bmp and I need a .jpg. What do I do?

A: If you have an image you want to use, but it’s in the wrong format, open it in MS Paint (which comes FREE with Windows) or Photoshop and save-as a .jpg.

Another method: Take a screenshot and save that as a .jpg. See Tip #116 for how to take screenshots.

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In 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: Top Ten Internet Shortkeys

Category: Internet

Sub-category: Keyboarding

Here’s a poster with ten favorite shortkeys students will love when using the internet:

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In 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: Zoom In/Out of Websites

Category: Internet

Sub-category: Problem-solving

Q: I can’t read the internet page. How do I zoom in?

A: There are a few ways, but here’s the simplest: Hold down “Ctrl” key and move your “mouse scroll wheel”. One direction zooms in; the other zooms out. 

There are two other ways:

• Ctrl+ (the plus sign next to backspace) will zoom in; Ctrl- will zoom out.
• Go to the menu bar. Select ‘View’, ‘Zoom’ and either ‘Zoom in’ or ‘Zoom out’.

To return to the original setting, hold down Ctrl and hit the number zero.

Take a moment while I get a cup of coffee and try it… OK–how’d it go?

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In 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: Basics of Internet Safety

Category: Internet

Sub-category: Security

Here are two posters to share with students about the basics of Internet safety:

Here’s a lesson plan on Internet Search/Research.

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In 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: How to Activate a Link

Category: Internet

Sub-category: MS Office, Keyboarding

Q: I see an underlined blue phrase on my word processing document. That’s a link to a website but how do I make it work?

A:  Activating a link is simple, but varies depending upon where you find it:

• MS Word: Hover over the word or phrase and Ctrl+click to activate.
• Google Docs: Click the phrase; a link appears below it; click.
• Internet: Click the phrase.

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

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In 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: My Webpage Froze

Category: Internet

Sub-category: Keyboarding

Q: My webpage is stuck. It won’t update and I can’t move around it to links or even scroll. What do I do?

A: Refresh the page with F5. If that doesn’t work, you might have to “force refresh” with Ctrl+F5. That will send the browser to re-check with the web server for the latest copy of the web page you are viewing. If you are using a Mac, push Apple + R or Cmd + R.

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

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In 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: How to Move Pics Around in Docs

Category: Images

Sub-category: MS Office, Google Apps

Q: I added an image to my Word document, but I can’t move it around the page. How do I fix that?

A: Word’s default for inserting a picture on a page is ‘inline’–it treats it as text. Like words on a document, it can’t be easily moved. Here’s how to fix that:

• Click on the picture; select ‘Picture Tools’ at the top center of the screen.
• Select ‘wrap text’ from the ribbon.
• Select ‘tight’ to have words wrap around it.

Now drag and drop it anywhere you’d like.

For detail, and how to do this in Google Apps, visit Tech Tip #12.

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