FTT - Google Workspace: AI, Pageless Formats, Emojis, and More!

 

Google Workspace: AI, Pageless Formats, Emojis, and More!

@LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS

Google Docs and Beyond

Get ready for this, Google Docs is now old enough to drive! This year Docs celebrated its 16th birthday and many of you have probably noticed some subtle changes to its appearance. It's a little bit like Facebook user interface updates. You initially hate the appearance changes but eventually, you don't even remember what the old setup even looked like. Well in addition to some aesthetic changes, Google Docs has quietly added some powerful collaborative updates, some that we've highlighted before, but some that could positively impact your class, club, or activity!

Pageless Google Doc Format

It's kind of absurd how much of our educational budget is spent on printing and ink for assignments, homework, assessments, etc. Don't worry, don't worry I'm not about to go on a rant about going completely digital. Look, as an AP Econ teacher, I know full well that sometimes there isn't a substitute for traditional pen and paper. But with more and more of us pushing out digital assignments like Google Docs, it's sort of unnecessary to be bound by margins and page breaks on Docs. Now you can switch to the Pageless view of Google Docs and it's kinda awesome. Go to "file" and "page set" and you can switch over to "pageless" view. 

AI Summaries....oh no

Don't be alarmed, ChatGTP isn't taking over your Google Docs. But there is a neat AI-powered function that automatically generates what it thinks is a suitable summary of your document. By creating a document outline, the AI attempts to grasp the highlights of your document and delivers a bite-sized summary paragraph that is fully editable. Watch this GIF (soft g) of the summary AI in action:

Google Meets...meets Google Docs

Listen, I still shudder every time I even hear the word Zoom. I had a student remark that they took my class during remote summer school on Zoom and I was as shocked as anyone because I apparently blocked that part of my memory. Even so, conferencing can be an easy way to communicate and collaborate when there's some distance between us. You can now create Google Meets within a Google Doc. Let me try to explain. Think about every time we were on Zoom or Google Meets and someone shared a document. Our entire screen was filled with their shared screen and it left very little digital real estate for us to contribute or work on the document ourselves. Now, within Google Docs, you can create a video conference where everyone still has access to the document!

They quietly added a video conference button to Google Docs on the top right corner of the screen. Now no one has to "share their screen" and you can still communicate and collaborate in real-time!

Just click on the camera icon, choose "start a new meeting" and you have the option to share the file AND the video conference call all in one go!

Custom Building Blocks

We've highlighted the usage of the "@" sign on Google Docs in the past on this blog. They've expanded a bit of their menu with simple, yet powerful templates that allow students and staff to create project kickoff templates, milestones, to-do lists, code, calendar invites, and even email templates. You can write an important email on Docs enjoying the full menu of text editing customization (font, size, colors, etc), and then automatically convert the doc into a Gmail ready to be sent. Check out this fantastic 1-minute video that highlights the features of building blocks:

Calendar Draft Template

Similar to the email template, they've recently added a calendar template option. While I'm not entirely sure how much more utility you can get out of this integration versus merely using the calendar app, I'll have to test it out to see.

Emoji Voting Chips

Much like my reaction to the Emoji movie, I wasn't quite sure about emoji's clawing their way into every facet of our lives. But thumbs up and the fire emojis seem to be relatively tame. Users can quickly give non-verbal feedback on a variety of inputs.

Third-Party Smart Chips

OK so before we go any further, what the heck is a smart chip? Think about it this way: apps are to phones as smart chips are to Google Docs. If you hate that...think about it as Extensions are to Chrome as smart chips are to Google Docs.

Anyways, they are customizable tools that you can use to get more productivity or efficiency out of Google Docs. There is a ton of potential for third-party smart chips that can be more Education focused. While there aren't too many partner applications to choose from so far, I can see our usual educational integrations jumping on board soon.

Summary

OK, that seems like enough to get started. Just knowing that the changes happened is the first step. What I truly like about Google Workspace is how flawlessly it allows users to integrate every aspect of Google that we rely upon. On one document I can dynamically link a Google Slides presentation, PDFs, Calendar events, User emails, and more. That may seem overwhelming which is perfectly OK. Start with a SINGLE integration chip. Use it, get comfortable with it, see if you even like it. Then go on to another and before you know it, you'll be a Google Docs power user! As always, let me know if you have any questions or concerns!

FTT - What's New With EdPuzzle?

What's New With EdPuzzle?

@LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS

On March 11, 2020, two days before school and the world shut down, we had a representative from Edpuzzle come to District 113. She was here to teach us how to use this new tool that integrates with Schoology and will help us make videos more interactive and engaging for our students.  We already knew a little bit about Edpuzzle, but we just started paying for the premium license. At that time, I had no idea that video was going to be the primary way many of our students would get their educational content and I remember feeling excited to share the new things I learned about Edpuzzle with our staff. 

Fast forward three years and Edpuzzle is still a wonderful tool that we have available to us. While we are now back in classrooms and can see our students' faces there is no denying the power of learning through video. I have personally completed many household projects and have fixed several appliances in my home by watching YouTube videos. I know that this is different from learning concepts or understanding complex ideas but so much of our content is taken in from video and thus educators need to keep video on the table as a means for sharing ideas and information.

If you have not used EdPuzzle in a while or if you have just been using it the same way since 2020 (no judgement!) you might not know about the many new features that Edpuzzle has rolled out. Here is a summary of the new things you will want to try with your students.

1. Edpuzzle Originals

Edpuzzle is now creating its own content. They are professionally made videos that are made by a team of expert teachers. They are aligned to learning standards and they even have questions already embedded. You can copy and assign them as-is or you can edit and add your own questions. This is great because YouTube can really take you down a rabbit hole if you are searching for videos that you can use. At least with Edpuzzle originals, you know that there is a level of quality and content that will be appropriate and useful. They are adding more and more content at a furious pace and they are prioritizing middle and high school topics such as literary devices, algebra, biology, and more. Check out this Edpuzzle original lesson on Pi Day. 

 

2. Student Projects

While Edpuzzle is fantastic for making sure students watch and understand videos, there is nothing more powerful than having students create. Edpuzzle now has a student projects feature that allows students to create their own Edpuzzle video lesson. As the teacher, you will click Add Content and then choose Student Project. You can decide if you want students to search for videos or upload their own. Here is a 1 minute video showing 7 ways you can use Edpuzzle student projects.

3. Audio Responses

When students have open-ended questions to answer, they now have the option to respond via video. Some students are better able to show what they know verbally and this gives them the option to do so.

All they need to do is click under the answer box where it says Answer With Audio.  They can record their audio response and submit it without leaving Edpuzzle. 

4. More Languages And Closed Captions

You can now use Edpuzzle in languages besides English! And there is Edpuzzle original content available in Spanish. Click on the profile logo and go to the settings tab. From there, you can adjust the language.  They are working on adding new languages in the near future.

5. Multiple Attempts

You can now allow students multiple attempts at answering questions and viewing videos.  Want your students to have unlimited attempts so they can practice for an upcoming summative assessment? No problem! When you are on the assign page, just indicate the number of attempts you are willing to allow. 

How are you using Edpuzzle? Have you forgotten about it? I think it's time to bring it back. Want some help getting started? Feel free to reach out or book a time with me.

FTT - AI Tools to Improve Your Productivity (Or just have a bunch of fun)

 

AI Tools to Improve Your Productivity (Or just have a bunch of fun)

 @LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS

Where to begin?

While ChatGPT seems to be getting all of the attention, there are in fact a number of AI-related services on the web that can be utilized to drastically improve your work productivity. Or they can just be plain fun to mess around with as we explore and experiment in the relatively early stage of the consumer-side AI market. Something to consider: good AI is just like good CGI. You see, when CGI is well done, viewers never notice it. It blends in with reality and you would have never guessed that castle wasn't really there. Bad CGI hits you in the face with a metaphorical hammer. Believe it or not, we've been relying on good AI for years and years and things seem to be ramping up. So let's take a quick peak at some of the newest and greatest consumer AI products out there.

Rationale.jina.ai

Rationale.jina is a decision making AI that offers a number of different analysis modes that can help you make a simple, yet rational decision in under 10 seconds. The economics teacher in me immediately weighed the marginal costs and benefits of trusting a random AI to be my personal assistant. 

So imagine you are pondering a decision like: should I become a vegetarian. You can decide between a few analysis modes:

• 3 Pros and Cons
• Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, or Threats (SWOT)
• Multi-Option
• Causal Chain

Now you can also create a "persona" which asks you to add details of your life for context and a backstory to get a more "personalized analysis." Using the SWOT analysis model, the program gave some decent, albeit basic, advice. It might be simple information/data, but sometimes our students just need simple.

Clipdrop.co and Letsenhance.io

The MakerSpace has been using an AI-powered image enhancer for a number of years now when we create our signage and stickers. So essentially if someone sends a low-quality image and wants it turned into a poster, I typically upload it to LetEnhance.io to beef up its resolution. Using AI, it sees where there is a lack of pixel depth and guesses to fill in the blanks. Now it's not a magic bullet like what you'd see on a corny CSI episode where they magically enhance a license plate, but it does its best.

This is a gross oversimplification

Clipdrop.co seems to take this to another level. You ever see those clickbait ads that say something like, "Doctors hate him! This one weird trick...." well this is almost true for the graphic design teachers out there because it automates some of what used to be locked up behind the skill chest of Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator. You can cleanly remove a background from an image, cleanup blemishes on a person's picture, change the lighting, upscale the resolution, and true to its namesake, clip drop multimedia from one image to another. No idea what that means? No worries because neither did I until I watched this quick demo video.

Elevenlabs.io

Elevenlabs is a brilliant, although beta speech synthesis service that can quickly turn text into truly human-like voice recordings. If you were impressed with Alexa or Siri, you'll be amazed at how quickly they can synthesize a random paragraph into an audio clip that seems to nail every type of punctuation you can throw at it. I took a random part of a David Foster Wallace speech, and it actually sounded like a breathing human was reciting the piece. As mentioned it's currently in the beta stage and they are looking to add Spanish, Polish, and German by the end of the month. You can choose between about a dozen different voices between premade "Arnold" and "Bella" or even the cheerful "Sam." Check out their FAQ page here.

So play around with these options. They're all free with options to upgrade for premium features. Remember, these are all mostly in beta stages. We're really living in some extraordinary times and most foresee an exponential explosion of power and usage from AI programs. Might as well get used to it!