Google Alerts -Have Searches Come to You.

Google Alerts:

Set google to search for you and email you results

Searching is something you probably do everyday.  Google has a feature that can help you with topics you search repeatedly.

  Google Alerts will do an on going search for you and email you links an summaries of the most updated results.

Here are the steps to setup an alert:

Go to the alerts page, Google Alerts type your topic into the search box.

 Choose the filters to narrow the search to meet your needs.

Once you have created your alert you can choose how you want often you want it to be delivered.

First click the gear:

Then check the Digest box for the options drop down menu:

I usually choose at most weekly, I prefer to get the searches in batches to limit the amount of email I receive.

Hope you find this useful.
-Steven

Oh No! Where Did My Spellcheck Go?

 "I am working in Google Docs and spellcheck is no longer working. I spell things wrong on purpose but when I run the spell checker it says, 'no suggestions.' What is wrong?"

Google's spell check seems to adapt based on your spellings. If you misspell several words when you start typing it decides you don't care about spelling, shifts to a less aggressive spell correcting protocol so that it won't hurt your feelings. 

The program also seems to believe you would never paste a large chunk of text into your document that was full of errors.

So, if you paste or duplicate a document it trusts you are happy with the spelling and turns off spell check.

If this happens here is the first thing you should check:

If spelling is not working then select English(United States) and prepare your ego for a hit. It should start pointing out your horrible spelling skills right away.

Thank you for reading.

Sincerely,

Steven Lucey

I want to look at just my items In Drive

Google Drive's Advanced Search

Google drive's search results include all the items you have created and all the items that have been shared with you. this a great way to find items you are looking for. 

However, if you are using it with your students you will find the search results can be somewhat overwhelming. 

To solve this problem you can use the advanced search feature. 

This feature is Located in the  search bar you will see a tiny triangle at the very end near the search button. If you click this triangle it will open up the advanced search box. 

The advanced options allow you to limit your search.
The filter options include: 

• item type
• documents
• spreadsheets
• presentations
• forms
• images
• ownership
• Owned by you
• Owned by anyone
• Not owned by me
• application it opens with

(Update:"Incoming" has been changed back to "Shared With ME") Google Drive has a New Look

So as usual Google is making changes.

The Google Drive may look a little different when you open it this coming school year. 

Below is an image of the new Drive look:

(Update:"Incoming" has been changed back to "Shared With ME")

The part I want to focus you in on is that the shared folder is now called Incoming.

The folder will still be the place to find anything shared with you. I personally like the renaming it makes sense to me.

Steven

3 Useful Apps/Websites for Your Google Account.

I realize there are thousands of sites that post lists of applications and weblinks.

However, I thought it might be good to post a list that I know will work on our network.

1. Google drive templates 

 This is an app that brings you to the templates gallery for Google Drive tools, (i.e docs, spreadsheets, presentations, forms).

2. CK-12 

This web-app is a great online textbook site. When you use your Google account to login you can then customize an online textbook for you class they they call them flexbooks. My one issue with this site is that not all subjects are equally represented

            Another great aspect is that the flexbooks can be saved as .pdf as well as be  accessed on student's             smartphone or any of the top e-readers including Kindle, Nook, and ipad.

3. Diigo Bookmark Manager

 I have mentioned Diigo before, it is my personal choice for Bookmark management or collecting

Why: One of the most important skills to learn for using the internet is how to searching and evaluating websites. But once you find and evaluate the sites it is important to have a way to get back

What: A bookmark manager is an Browser extension you can add to your browser collect the sites you have determined to be valuable. 

What I like about Diigo is that I can highlight parts of pages and it saves the highlights and the link.

Diigo is an extension you can add to your browser for easy access to the Bookmarking tools.

All the above mentioned tools can be found in the Chromestore and are all free.

Take 5 Minutes to Prepare For the New School (or Any School at WSPS) With GOOGLE.

Google does a great job of explaining how to use it's products. They recently updated their training website 
Google Online Training. 

The site has a menu to choose the area you want to learn more about. I would suggest starting with Docs and Drive or Gmail if you are just beginning.

If you take 5-10 minutes, I am positive your time will not be wasted, there are tutorial videos and clear explanations.

Here is an example of one of the videos:

Google Sharing a Google Folder

There are choices for this weeks entry. You can check out the the step by step slideshow explaining how to share a folder, you can read the short explanation of Access Levels, or you can do both.

Sharing vs Sending

To start I would like to explain Sharing: Before online resources like Google Docs became common, people would collaborate on documents by sending word documents to each other to edit. The problem with this method is that in order to edit the document you would need to download a copy to your computer and open it in Word. This workflow lead to multiple copies circulating of the same document. and no easy way to track revisions.

With Sharing you have a single document. This document, in our case a Google Doc, is created and stored on the google server and collaborators access it online. All changes are stored in the document, less digital mess. Google takes it a step further and allows you to share a folder with collaborators this allows you to share digital items in bulk with collaborators.

Access Levels

An important aspect of the process of sharing is Access Levels. The Access Levels determine the collaborators abilities, basically how what they can see and do. As teachers you will be sharing documents with administrators, colleagues, and students. This means knowing what the Access levels are is important so that you can be in control of your documents.

There are 3 main access levels:

• Can View
• Can Comment 
• Can Edit

Can View is the most restrictive access level.

• Abilities: The collaborator is only able to view the shared item. They can however, make a copy of the document or download a copy.
• Restrictions : "Can View"  collaborators cannot edit the document, delete the document, or change the permissions.

Can Comment is slightly less restrictive.

• Abilities: The collaborator has all of the "Can View"  rights plus they can make comments on the document.
• Restrictions : "Can Comment"  collaborators cannot edit the document, delete the document, or change the permissions.

Can Edit is the least restrictive of the collaborator settings.

• Abilities: They are allowed to edit the shared item. They also can add collaborators if the Owner gives them permission. (It is important to note: Editors are given the right to share by default, so the Owner needs to remove it if they do not want an editor to share the item. (The steps to change this setting are below)
• Restrictions: "Can Edit" collaborators can not permanently delete an item.

Here are the steps for removing sharing from "Can Edit".






Credits:
"Sharing settings overview - Drive Help - Google Help." 2013. 20 Dec. 2013 <https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2494886>

Google Drive Chapter 1

I am sharing this chapter from the Google Apps for Education training page. I recommend reading it over it. It does a great job of explaining the basics of Drive.