Welcome to the EdTech Roundup

Welcome to the blog of the Sublette School District Educational Technology Department.  This blog has been created for two purposes.  The first is to share, celebrate, and discuss what is happening in classrooms across the district with community members.  Over the past few weeks I have met with several parent groups and  through discussions with them I have found that many parents are very interested in educational technology in general and specifically how the new one-to-one student devices will impact teaching and learning. Through a variety of posts on technology supported teaching and learning initiatives this blog will provide a window into how learning environments in our district are transforming as the result of investments into new hardware, software, and training. 

The second purpose of this blog is to provide a space for teachers to share what is working as they experiment and reflect on their use of instructional technology.  This blog will provide a forum for educators to share instructional narratives and have conversations with other teachers both inside of our district and outside of it. Often teaching can be an isolated job and it can be difficult to network with others in the education profession; however, one of the benefits of  internet technologies is that there are now many media through which teachers can quickly and easily connect with others in the field to dialogue around what is best for students.  This blog will serve in that capacity.

While Glen Egbert will serve as the main author and curator of this blog; teachers, students, administrators, and parents are welcome to make guest posts.  If you would like to contribute please contact Glen via email at gegbert@sub1.org.  

Improve Google Chrome Performance by Removing Unwanted Extensions

I often help teachers and students resolve issues with Google Chrome such as random pop up adds, web based programs malfunctioning, and unwanted tool bars.  95% of the time these problems are caused by malicious browser extensions that have inadvertently been downloaded to Google Chrome. If you experience any of the problems mentioned above Here is how to get rid of them:

1. Open Google Chrome.

2. Click on the 3 bars in the upper right hand corner of the browser window.

3. Click on "Settings" then "Extensions"

4. Review the list of Extensions.  Disable or delete (by clicking the trashcan icon) any extensions you don't recognize or use.  

Windows Explorer Preview Shortcut

One big time saver when looking for files in Windows Explorer is the Alt + P keyboard shortcut that opens a file preview window.  Here is how it works:

First open Windows Explorer

Then press Alt + P which will display a preview window that allows you to preview any files that you click on rather than waiting for them to open in a program.

Learning Visually With Draw.io

Do you ever need to create graphic organizers, mind maps, concept maps, webs or outlines?  If so check out draw.io in your Pinedale Portal under "applications".  It is an easy to use tool for organizing or presenting information visually.  As an added bonus it links to your Google account so you can save your work directly to your Drive!  

Using Multiple Google Accounts Made Easy

Do you have multiple Google Accounts?  Maybe one for school and one for personal use?  If so, Google's multiple user feature makes it easy to switch between accounts without logging out and in. Here is how it works:

1. Open Google Chrome and click on settings button in the upper right hand corner of your screen (it is 3 lines, see below).

2. Next click on "Settings" and then scroll down to "Users"

3. Select "Add New User".  Pick an icon and follow the prompts to login as the new user (enter information for an account that is different than the one you are currently logged in under). 

4. Once you finish entering information for your new account, you will be able to flip back and forth quickly between accounts using the icon in the upper right hand corner of your screen.

Adding Personalized Tiles to Your Pinedale Portal

With the new update to the Pinedale Portal you can now add your own tiles (which are actually links to web pages) to your portal.  Here is how it works:

1. Go to Pinedale Portal and click on "My Tiles

2. Right click on the page and select "Add Tile" 

3. Enter in the URL and title for the page.  

4. You now have your own tile which will take you to the website you have chosen. 

Zoom, Zoom

Do you ever have the need to zoom in on your screen so that you can see something better. Here are two way to do this.

1. In most web browsers you can hold down the Control button  then press either the + or - button to zoom in and out on the browser window.

2.  For other programs you can press the Windows button together with + or - button.  This will turn on the Windows magnifier. To turn it off, press Windows button + esc.