audio in google Slides

Many of you will be pleased to hear that Google is now rolling out the ability to add audio to Slides.

If you weren't one of the lucky ones who got it in the first round, it's on it's way now or you may even already have it by the time you read this!

The sound files need to be stored in your Drive - my tip would be to create a folder for all the sound files and make the sharing permission on the folder 'Anyone with the link can view'.

That way, any files you add to the folder will automatically take on that sharing permission and you won't have to remember to change it each time you add a file to your slide deck.

Classroom idea...

As it gets nearer to the end of the school year in the Southern Hemisphere, teachers are often on the lookout for purposeful activities to keep their students engaged and on task.

I used to use photofunia.com for students to create reflections of their year or to create posters with meaningful, personalised quotes to leave for next year's students. (It also meant the following year, new students weren't coming in to a bare classroom 😁.)

There are a huge number of photographic templates that students can add themselves to. You can search the site by categories or scroll them all - you might want to give a time limit when it comes to choosing effects! Some students find it hard to make a decision when there's so much to choose from.

Create your new image, downlaod it and combine with a site like Canva, Adobe Spark Post or Google Drawings to add the text.

A purposeful, engaging task to keep your students focused.

There are so may ways you could use these tools - we'd love to see any examples of how you use them with your students... #utbSHARE

TIPS AND tricks

Attach files in Microsoft Forms

You can now allow students to attach files when completing a Microsoft form.

When you create the form you choose the number of files, size limit, and file type.

It's rolling out in stages- so if you don't have it quite yet - it's on it's way to you n the very near future.😉

Collapsible text boxes in Google Sites

You can now add collapsible text boxes into a Google Site to help condense space.

If you have a large body of text you can make it collapsible, so viewers of your Site would click on the text to expand it out and read the full content.

If your students are using Google Sites to create a website it's a great addition for them to consider - when would it be appropriate for them to use this function and how would it affect the end user?

.new

It's been awhile now since Google introduced the ability to create a new Doc, Slide or Sheet by simply typing docs.new, sheets.new or slides.new.

Recently though they have added a few more.

You can now create a new Form with forms.new, a new Site with sites.new, a new Keep note with keep.new and a new Calendar event with cal.new.

Tip: If you, or your students, create new documents this way, get into the habit of moving them as soon as you have created them to keep your Drive organised.

But did you know it's not just G Suite tools that this nifty trick works with?

• canva.new will open a new Canva project for you.
• playlist.new will create a new Spotify playlist.
• link.new will take you straight to Bitly to create a new shortened link to use.
• sell.new will take you straight to ebay.

Any company or organization can register its own .new domain to help people get things done faster so keep an eye out - I'm sure there will be others available in the future to help us navigate our way quickly around the internet.