PPS Instructional Technology

You have the ability in Chrome to choose if you would like to see notifications.  It is always a good idea to have notifications turned off when you are going to be presenting your screen, as we do with our TECs.  Follow these simple steps to disable notifications. Step 1: Open Chrome and click on the three lines in the upper right corner. Step 2: Select Settings from the menu. Step 3: Scroll down to the bottom and select "Show Advanced Settings." Step 4: In the Privacy section, Select "Content Settings..." Step 5: Scroll down until you see "Notifications". Step 6: By default, it is set to Ask when a site wants to show notifications (recommended).  To turn off notifications all together, select "Do not allow any site to show notifications"

Chrome extensions can be an amazing tool.  They can save you time and expand the function of your web browser.  Sometimes, however, we need to turn off extensions that you may have intentionally or unintentionally added.  For example, there are several extensions out there that will allow you to receive Facebook notifications.  These can be very helpful if you are on your personal computer and want to receive up to the minute notices.  It is a different story if you are on a school computer (and your school chrome account), like your TEC, that you are using as a presentation system with your students.  I am sure you do not want them seeing all your Facebook notifications.  Thankfully, turning off extensions is really easy. Step 1: Open Chrome and click on the three lines in the upper right corner. Step 2: Select Settings from the menu. Step 3: Choose Extensions on the left side of your screen. Step 4: Uncheck the box next to word Enabled to tur...

We love student created content! Creating materials to teach others can, when done well, really impact a student's learning. However, no matter the positive outcomes of students teaching students, when it comes to presentation day, getting students logged into and out of Google Chrome can be tedious and time consuming. Ugh. Well, here's a tech tip that might just speed up students getting access to their Google Drive presentations (or any other files associated to their Portage accounts). Google Chrome's Incognito Window Chrome's Incognito Window allows another user to quickly login to and out of Google Services without disrupting your profile on Chrome. Either use the shortcut keys Ctrl+Shift+N from Chrome or click on the Chrome menu button and choose "New Incognito Window" Then type in or go to " gmail.com ", " drive.google.com ", or whichever Google Service you wish and login to that service. When students are done pr...

Clearing the Chrome browsing history solves many issues you may experience in the web browser.  For example, if you change your network password, and store passwords in Chrome, you will want to clear your browsing history so that your new password can be "remembered" instead of the old one. Here is a quick video on how to clear your browsing history. (If you see a puzzle piece below instead of the video, simply right-click over the puzzle and choose "Run this plugin".)

Over the weekend, Google replaced the black bar with the 9 square "grid". Watch this two minute video to find out what and where it is. http://youtu.be/OUunkeM4K_Y

Google Chrome calls their web address bar "The Omnibox".  You can do many things in the Omnibox that will save you time and make your life easier.  Here are some of my favorites... Search Google is the king of search, so it makes sense that you can search directly from their web address bar.  Instead of going directly to www.google.com in order to search, you can just open your browser and type in your query in the URL address box at the top of the screen. Calculator If you need to do a quick calculation while on the web, you can simply type in an equation like 3+4 and then click the enter key.  This will bring up a calculator in your browser window. Conversions Have you ever wanted to quickly know many teaspoons are in a tablespoons, or how many miles are in a 5k?  Is so, then Google search will be your new best friend.  Simply type: 5km in miles or 3 tsp = tbsp and a converter will show up in your search results. Weather Want to know what the ...

Have you ever accidentally closed a tab or your browser?  Do you get frustrated trying to remember the site you were just on?  Well there is a quick fix for you if you are using Google Chrome. To reopen a tab you just closed: ctrl+shift+t If you closed the whole browser: Open Chrome back up. Type: ctrl+shift+t You can do this repeatedly if you closed multiple tabs accidentally. On a similar note, if you want to quickly open a new tab you can either click the blank small tab at the top of your window next to your last open tab, or you can type: ctrl+t

Do you want an easy way to create shortcuts for your Google Apps (Gmail, Blogger, Docs, etc.)?  It is as easy as a couple clicks. Step 1: Right-click on a Chrome application from your new tab screen: Step 2: Select Create shortcuts... Step 3:  Choose Desktop, Pin to Taskbar, or both.  Click Create. Here is what your choices would look like New desktop icon: ...or taskbar icon:

It’s that time again for……. The PPS TechnologyTimes! The PPS Technology Department would love for you to check out our winter 2013 newsletter. Featured Articles include: One-to-One Computing: Google Chromebooks  Web Filtering at PPS  Students’ Email Accounts  Google Chrome to Become our Default Browser  Meet the Tech Staff: Our New Building Techs  February/March After School Technology Training Schedule  It is one of our goals to help keep the PPS staff informed on what is going on in the technology department along with sharing wonderful and exciting ways technology is being used right here in PPS. If you have a project/event you would like featured in our next newsletter, or know someone who is doing a great job teaching with technology, we would love to hear about it! Email Jessica Winstanley ( jwinstanley@portageps.org ) or Paul Murray ( pmurray@portageps.org ) to share your ideas. For more information about what is going on in PPS...