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Accessibility Considerations

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As more and more content is added to the web on a daily, or even minutely, basis, one of the most important aspects of design is accessibility. Any web designer worth their grain of salt should be able to discuss this, but many people who add content to the web aren’t professional web designers and don’t even know where to begin. Plus, now, more than ever, many school districts are being hit with complaints, notices of non-compliance, and in some cases lawsuits over not having accessible design or content on their pages. When designing content on a page, we often rely on what we can see to make things look readable and pretty. However, just adding bold or different size fonts doesn’t help users who rely on screen reader software or other add-ons to access information. Use these ideas to add more functionality to your documents and web page design to make sure everyone can access the important information you have posted: Header levels/Styles Using header levels and header forma
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Private Comments in Google Classroom

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One of my most favorite ways to give feedback to students is using the Private Comments feature in Google Classroom. Much of my love for them has come from what I've learned from Alice Keeler, both on her blog and from her session at our Tech Kickoff this past August. I like this so much because it allows for personal, instant, and constant feedback to students on an individual level from anywhere, anytime. I know many teachers in my district don't like the fact that they are getting notifications from students at all times of the day, but I think it's great to see that my students are interested in their work for me when they have the time to do it. Plus, it gives me a great way to talk to students about time management, commitments, and prioritizing the things in your life (even if it ends up that my class works isn't the priority, it still opens up that window!). One quick note: I've found that many people don't see the difference between the Private Com
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Using Slides "Right"

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We all know that we shouldn't put a lot of text on slideshow slides and the last thing we want to do is watch someone read their slides to us during a lesson or presentation. However, many people don't know just how flexible Google Slides are and how to "hack" the use of them to make presenting information more pleasing to an audience. Recently, I went to the IETA conference in Boise, ID, the annual conference for the Idaho Educational Technology Association (IETA). While there, I attended a session by the illustrious Sarah Windisch ( @slwindisch on twitter) about using Google Slides. While I have always tried to keep my slides more focused on images than text, I learned some new hacks from her and other presenters at the conference. Here are my top 3 additions to slide decks that we should all try at least once: Use topical images that draw interest Your slideshow should support what you are talking about, not be the centerpiece. Use images that relate t
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IETA Tech Conference-New Tech Knowledge for a "Regular Teacher"

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Trying Something New   In the beginning of February I had the privilege of attending the Idaho Education Technology Association   (IETA)   Conference in Boise, Idaho.   I'll say that I certainly felt out of my element---an elementary art teacher at a tech conference?   I was sure the woman behind the counter handing out registration information could see the neon signs above my head flashing, "Tech Newbie!", "Here for the Freebies!", or "Just an Art Teacher!"   Although sometimes my tech knowledge is admittedly "low tech", I was so excited for the opportunity to take risks to grow as a professional by trying new things out of my comfort zone.     My background is in a general K-8 setting so I knew that I wanted to focus on learning how I could gain new knowledge about instructional technology best-practices to bring back to share with the teachers at my school.  If I learned things I could actually use in my art room-now that was an
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New Ways to Video in G Slides!

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Up until recently, YouTube was the only option when inserting video files into a Google Slides presentation. This caused many teachers headaches due to wanting to use their own videos in slide show, but not wanting to go through the process of uploading those to YouTube. Now, Google has made it possible to pull videos right from your Google Drive into your slide show! There are four new options for using video, that give it more customization than ever before. Embed Drive Videos in Slides Just like before, choose Insert  > Video > and select the Google Drive option. Just watch out for adjusting your sharing permissions, like any other file in Google Drive, you need to set it so that anyone viewing the slides would have access, if necessary.  Start/Stop Times If you only want to share part of the video, the option to choose start and stop times is available when you click on the options menu for any inserted video file.  Auto-Play Videos Similarly as
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Google Classroom Updates

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This is a bit late and will be brief, but in mid-January, Google Classroom made some updates. See their blog post for details. Highlights: Differentiated Assignments in Google Classroom New Notifications Late work turned in Re-submissions on student work These work with the other notification already available, and as before, it's an all or nothing option for users.  Check out their blog post for more information. 
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Organizing Your Bookmarks Bar

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Is your bookmark bar getting so full that you have to always click into the overflow to see the pages you need? One day, I found myself searching far and wide in my bookmarks for a page that I know I had saved. It seemed ridiculous to me that I was having such a hard time finding a page that I had saved to get back to easily. That's why we bookmark pages, right?  To get to them easily?  Mine weren't. So I had to make a change. What I found has changed the way that I get to my most used pages. Using icons for your most often visited pages You can change that so that each bookmarked page is only a small icon without the words!! Follow these quick steps to change your chrome life forever Go to the page you want to bookmark Click the Star icon in the omni bar to bookmark the page Right click the bookmark in the bar   Delete the title/name in the box and click save Voila! You can now have almost four times as many pages accessible to you witho
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