Soft Technology

Link above not showing up? See my pics here. When I attended the recent Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) Conference in Austin, Texas, I came upon a little booth with a couple of young, hip folks in it who had practically nothing to show except an old craptop and a lovely logo. Intrigued, I ask for a demo . . . That’s when Jonathan, founder of the company, booted up said craptop in about 8 seconds. What did I see on the screen??? A CHROMEBOOK! That’s right people, a CHROMEBOOK. “Will this old crappy computer really load all of MY Apps and Extensions?”  (keep reading. Seriously, you've GOT TO SEE THIS!) I asked dubiously. Jonathan said, rather humbly, “it should! Log in and let’s see.” So I did, and it did. And again, I was blown away. I thought, I have to rush right home and tell my friend and Tech Director Tracie Simental! Then I mentioned this plan (of rushing home and finding Tracie) and found out that our district had been piloting the solution for MONTHS! (Way to ke...

TabCloud is my FAVORITE Google Chrome Extension. It allows me to upload a set of tabs then open them on a different computer, at a different time, or just after restarting my computer. INDISPENSABLE! If you enjoy it, please share this post or like and share the YouTube video.  Click here to install TabCloud

Learn about a few of my favorite Google Chrome Extensions in this video tutorial for use by education professionals and students. Think of all the time you can save with these great tools!

Themes may not be essential to using Chrome, but they sure are fun! Learn how to get and change your theme then see how to install extremely useful utilities into your Chrome browser. For email subscribers, see the video here . 

If you're just switching over to the Chrome Browser or getting started with Google Apps for Education, this series is for you. Become a Chrome expert in no time starting with the first video in what will soon be a series. Hope you enjoy it!

by Brian McLane Twitter: @brian_mclane Website: techmantraining.com Secondary Educator - 32 years, Ed-Tech Junkie, MA Teaching & Learning with Technology, “Head in the Cloud; Caught in the Web” Chromebooks for Graphic Design? I teach a high school desktop publishing class which includes graphic design, page layout, image editing, and more. We can use Chromebooks for almost everything we do. And we use completely free cloud software to do it. No Adobe Creative Suite, no Microsoft Office, no expensive, high-learning-curve software. Should I be teaching industry-standard software? Why ? I teach the concepts; the tools don't really matter. My students can learn the basics in the numerous free Google Apps and Web-based applications that are available for graphic design. Let's take a look! Image Editing One of the first things my students need to learn is image editing. Google Apps offers more image editors than we will ever need! Our go-to app is Pixlr . We use the Pixlr Editor,...

Guest Blogger Charly has been a camp counselor, K-12 math tutor, and collegiate print and digital journalist. She’s currently enjoying writing and snowboarding in Utah. Have you ever wished there were an easy-to-learn design tool which would let you and your students fry up print and digital documents in the cloud? What if it were completely free and ran from your browser? Lucidpress leverages a powerful yet user-friendly interface to bring image and text editing capabilities to your fingertips. Both beginning and advanced teachers and students can jump into Lucidpress and learn the tools the first time they use it. The best part is that unlike other programs, Lucidpress allows for real-time collaboration: between teachers, between groups of students, and between teachers and their students. Lucidpress is a web-based design tool that is ideal for making posters, flyers, and digital yearbooks and newsletters. You can create professional-looking documents—both print and digital—withou...

Three simple tips/tricks to help you work smarter in Google Chrome. Enjoy!

Interested in how Chrome (the browser/operating system) can work for you in schools? How Google Drive is different from Google Docs? What Google Drive Apps you should you install? Great! Check out this video tutorial. Don't forget to comment if you learned something new or have something to add.