Archives for May 2018

Searching effectively in Gmail

If there is one thing you can do to become more efficient in Gmail, it’s master Gmail search! Learning how to search effectively will allow you to narrow down your search results so that you can quickly pinpoint the exact email you are looking for. This is far more effective than hunting through labels or scrolling through pages of search results. In this blog post, I’ll show what not to do when searching Gmail, and share lots of tips for searching more effectively instead.

What NOT to do with Gmail search

The most ineffective way to search in Gmail is to type a name or keyword in the search box. Although this is something we’ve probably all done at times (me included), it is not very useful in narrowing down your search results. For example, if I was to type the name ‘Lucinda’ in the search box (my fictional colleague), the search results would include the following:

All emails sent to Lucinda
All emails CCd or BCCd to Lucinda (by me and others)
All emails from Lucinda
All emails with the word Lucinda in the subject or body.

That’s a lot of emails! Although I have narrowed my search down somewhat with this approach, I can narrow it down much further by using some additional techniques.

Learn what NOT to do when searching #Gmail, plus what you should do instead! Click To Tweet

How to search Gmail more effectively instead

The key to searching Gmail more effectively is to use the advanced search features. If you’re just getting started with advanced search, the easiest thing to do is to click the little arrow on the right side of the search box.

Here’s a quick rundown on how to use each of these fields.

Learn how to use the advanced search in #Gmail to quickly pinpoint the email you are looking for. Click To Tweet

At a minimum, always aim to use at least the From and To fields when doing a search. This will cut your search results down by around 50%, which is a great start. You can then use other fields to help narrow down the results even more. For example, if I was looking for an email from Lucinda that was related to her being ill, and it had a doctor’s certificate attached, my search would look something like this:

Get quicker again with search operators

Once you’ve mastered using the advanced search box, you can make your search process even quick by typing search operators directly into the search box. This allows you to do an advanced search without having to use the fields in the advanced search box. Here’s an example of the search operators for the search shown in the previous section.

As you can see, the operator ‘From:’ is related to the ‘From’ box, the words shown in brackets are the keywords from the ‘Includes the words’ box, and ‘has:attachment’ is indicating that I only want emails that have attachments. Note that there are no spaces between the words and the colon – it needs to be written like this to work properly.

The quickest way to learn these search operators is to start using the advanced search box. Every time you do so, you will see the operators displayed in the search box, which helps you learn what they mean. Alternatively, you can check out this list of all the search operators available in Gmail. A few useful ones are:

has:document – finds emails that have a Google Doc attachment or link. You can also use has:drive,
has:spreadsheet and has:presentation.
list:list emal address – finds emails from a mailing list.
in:anywhere – finds emails from any label, including spam and bin.
is:unread – finds all the emails that are unread.
Is:starred – finds all the emails that are starred
Has:green-check – finds all the emails that are starred with the ‘green-check’ star. You can use this for all the different types of stars, e.g. has:blue-star.
Older_that: finds all emails older than a specific date. You can also use ‘newer_than:’.

Here’s how to master #Gmail’s advanced search, plus some useful search operators Click To Tweet

Once you have put these Gmail search strategies into practice, you’ll notice that you will spend less time trying to find emails and more time actually actioning them!

In the Get efficient with Gmail the SMART way online course we deep dive into Gmail search (and more!) as part of our SMART Gmail management system.

Register your interest now to join the waitlist for the course and we’ll let you know when it’s live!

See the view history of Google Docs, Sheets & Slides

Posted by: Samantha Vardanega

The new Activity Dashboard feature in Google Docs, Sheets and Slides lets you see who has viewed a file, and when they last viewed it. In this blog post, I’ll show you how the feature works and how you can configure the related privacy settings.

Note: This feature is only available for those with a G Suite account, not a regular consumer Google account. However, those with G Suite accounts can see the view activity of people using regular consumer Google accounts (or people in other G Suite domains), so long as the file has been explicitly shared with them.

Curious about the Activity Dashboard feature in #Google #Docs, #Sheets & #Slides? Here’s how to use it Click To Tweet

Accessing the Activity Dashboard

1. Open the Google Doc, Sheet or Slide that you want to view activity for.
2. Select the Tools menu > Activity Dashboard.

3. The viewing history of each person the file is shared with is displayed on the Shared with tab. People who have a dash next to their name either have not viewed the file or have opted out of having their view activity shown (more on this soon).

Here’s how to see a list of who has viewed your #Google #Doc, #Sheet or #Slide Click To Tweet

4. The All viewers tab shows a list of everyone within your own G Suite environment who has viewed the file (except those who have opted out).

Changing privacy settings to opt-out of history viewing

You can choose to turn off history viewing for either one specific file or for all files. This means that your view history will not be visible in the Activity Dashboard.

To access the privacy settings:
1. Open the Google Docs, Sheet or Slide that you want to hide view activity for (or any Doc, Sheet or Slide if you want to hide it for all files).
2. Select the Tools menu > Activity Dashboard.
3. Click Privacy Settings.
4. Toggle on/off each setting as required.

5. Click Save.

Don’t want others to see if you’ve viewed a #Google #Doc, #Sheet or #Slide? Here’s how to opt out of the Activity Dashboard feature Click To Tweet

The Activity Dashboard is a useful way to see who has accessed a shared document. However, due to the opt-out feature, it can also not be regarded as an absolute truth! If you want to remind people to view or contribute to a shared document, try using the Email collaborators feature to send them a quick reminder. This email also includes a link to the shared document, in case they’ve lost it! You can find this feature on the File menu in any Google Doc, Sheet or Slide.

Want to learn even more G Suite tips and tricks? Join our online professional learning community.

ClassroomScreen – A great, free tool for you and your students!

Posted by: Lara Kirk

If you’ve ever used a timer, random name generator, sound level symbols or shared a link with your students you are going to love ClassroomScreen.

ClassroomScreen is a brilliant, FREE tool that allows you to customise a screen with widgets (tools) that will support classroom management and engagement. Your and your students will love how easily and quickly you can communicate with it. The symbols are great for learning about visual literacy too.

It is simple, fast to set up and brings some of the tools you use in your classroom to one place, displayed on one screen.

Here’s a few ideas of how you could use it in your classroom.

1. Classroom Management

Work symbols – choose from silence, whisper, ask neighbour or work together and display on your board.
Sound Level – this will measure the sound in the room. You can set it to a particular level and when the sound goes past that point the line will turn red.

Use ClassroomScreen to measure noise level in your classroom! Click To Tweet

Traffic lights – Indicate whether you are available for students to approach you when working 1-1 or in a group.
QR code – Direct students to web pages using the QR code. They can scan with a phone or iPad, or type in the link as shown above the QR code.
Sound Level – This will measure the sound in the room. You can set it to a particular level and when the sound goes past that point the line will turn red.
Random name generator – Type or copy and paste your students’ names into the text box, click on ‘choose’ and it will randomly select a name. You can also switch this widget to show and roll dice. Clicking on the disc and arrow icon at the top left will save your lists as a text file on your computer. Your lists will not be saved within ClassroomScreen.

2. Creative Writing/Oral Language

The background images are stunning! Choose one at random (or upload your own), brainstorm words and ideas using the fullscreen drawing tool (make sure you select a transparent background once you are in this menu) to record them on the screen. You could use the text widget to put some criteria on the board, then put on a timer and let them write or give impromptu speeches.

3. Student Voice/Feedback

The random name generator is a great way to make sure that students are participating – use this in conjunction with some prepared reflection questions to get them to think about their learning. Make sure you give them think time for this!
The exit poll feature allows you to enter a question and have students select a face to show their response to the question. The default question is ‘What did you think of today’s lesson?’ but you can change this easily. If you have an interactive whiteboard students can select from there, or have them come past your laptop or iPad to do this. You can choose to show or hide the results while they are entering their responses. Taking a screenshot of the finished poll would be a great way to record evidence of their thinking.

Use the exit poll in ClassroomScreen to get instant student voice feedback! Click To Tweet

While you can’t save your ClassroomScreen’s they only take seconds to set up! There’s great help and demo videos on the site too. Just click the three lines in the top left corner of the ClassroomScreen screen to find out more.

Check out our other blogs for more great ideas for your classroom.

Create animations and Pecha Kucha presentations in Google Slides

Posted by: Lara Kirk

By publishing your Google Slides to the web you can control how viewers see your slides. Go a step further and customise the auto-advance speed to create fun animations and timed Pecha Kucha style presentations.

What is ‘Publish to web’? It’s important to know about the Publish to web option as it allows you greater control over what your audience will see. The difference between this and sharing a presentation is a bit like the difference between seeing backstage at a theatre show or being in the audience. When you send the URL after publishing to the web, viewers will only see the slideshow, not the slides interface. You can choose a few settings for how you want your slideshow to be viewed.

Use ‘Publish to web’ to increase your control over how your Google Slides are viewed Click To Tweet

Auto-advance

Auto-advance controls how quickly your slides will change for the viewer. They will be able to move more quickly through the show by clicking but if they do not click, this will be the time that they advance on.
From within the Google Slides Publish to web menu you can choose auto-advance times of every 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 15, 30 seconds, or a minutes. You are not able to customise times outside of these options.
The work around for this is really simple!

How to customise Auto-advance time
1.Make your slides in Google Slides.
2.Go to File > Publish to web.
3.Don’t worry about what time it is set on in the menu above.
4.Click the Publish button, then OK when a prompt window asks you if you are sure.
5.Copy the URL.

6. Paste your URL somewhere you can save it. Maybe a Google Doc. It will look something like this…

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vR2UBg7_PPAYufwrhlBF5KsB927PpVh50zI3pUZEv1xnCoAmipuPWDZX8ISeUpa0xJWDoAh0OAZaFtI/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

Notice the delayms=3000 on the end? This shows us that each slide has a delay of 3000 milliseconds, or 3 seconds. That was the setting from within Google Slides. To change the auto-advance speed we just need to change these numbers.

So, Pecha Kucha presentations are twenty slides in twenty seconds. 20 seconds = 2000 milliseconds.

Animations generally run at 12 frames per second. 1 second divided by 12 frames = 0.0833333 seconds, let’s just call it 0.084 seconds – or 0084 milliseconds.

Customise auto-advance time in Google Slides to create animations and Pecha Kucha presentations Click To Tweet

Simply change the number on the end of the URL to the speed you want, paste it into a tab and viola!

For more great tips and tricks head over the the UTB website!

How to create a Hyperdoc to encourage independent learning in your classroom

Posted by: Donna Golightly

How envious does it make you feel when you hear a colleague talk about the 23 students in their class when your class roll is sitting at 32? Catering for all of those students with just one teacher in the classroom can, quite often, be a tiring experience. Developing independent work habits in our students not only helps to develop the tools that they will need when they enter the workforce but it can also help alleviate the stress of having 32 young minds all wanting your attention at the same time. Hyperdocs may just become your new best friend.

What exactly is a hyperdoc?

It is a Google Doc or Google Slide that contains instructions, links and tasks, to get your students thinking more independently. Focusing on creating opportunities for choice, exploration, and ways for your students to apply their knowledge is the key to creating a useful HyperDoc.

I discovered, that in order for my students to be able to use hyperdocs effectively and build independent work habits, I needed to begin with a simple version and scaffold them through how they work. The more we used them, the more I could begin to build into them. The students became more independent in their work habits and became more engaged as I began to offer them more agency in their learning.

Create hyperdocs to encourage independent learning in your classroom Click To Tweet

So how do you build up these hyperdocs?

Firstly, decide if you want to use Docs or Slides for your Hyperdoc. Both have similar capabilities so it really comes down to a personal preference. The following questions may help you to choose

Which tool do you personally prefer working with?
Which tool are your students more familiar with?
What is the purpose of the hyperdoc you are going to create?
The answers to these questions will help you to determine which tool you use.

Begin by creating a Google Doc (or Google Slide) around a relevant topic that you are focusing on, e.g. maybe you’re looking at area within your maths programme. You can create your own layout or make a copy of the many templates that are available online. Think about whether landscape or portrait would be more appropriate.

Follow these steps to create your hyperdoc:

Step one:

Give your Doc a name and add your title.

Use word art to create attractive titles in Google docs Click To Tweet

Step two:

Create a 2 x 7 table – 2 columns and 7 rows.

I like to start with the learning intentions so the students knew the focus for the task.
Underneath the WALT list the success criteria so students can go back and check off what they have learnt and can see what they still need to work on.
To begin with I would step the students through this and we would build the success criteria together.

Step Three:

Add some content that will support the ideas you want the students to develop and the criteria you are working towards.

Add links to websites that contain tutorials or information that will support the learning intentions you are focusing on.
Add videos that the students can go back and revisit to deepen their understanding. This means they don’t have to wait for you to help them all the time.

Add links to Google Docs to direct students to specific sites Click To Tweet

Step Four

Build the content that you want the students to work on.

You can add instructions as to how you would like the students to complete the tasks.
Add activities that can differentiate the learning for the range of students that are working on the tasks.
Include a variety of activities that engage the students in a variety of ways.

Step Five

Provide an opportunity for the students to reflect on their work

Encourage students to go back to the success criteria and check off the what they think they have achieved. How can they show evidence of this?
What are their next steps?
Are they able to help other students complete their tasks?

Once you’ve built your hyperdoc the way you want it, share it with your students. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you can build up student agency within your class programme and how much more independent your students can become. You can even collaborate with a colleague and build hyperdocs that can be used across your team.

Want to know more about developing independent work flows with your student? Check out the UTB website for more tips and ideas you could use.

A Message about Learning from Stephen Hawking

Posted by: Donna Golightly

When Stephen Hawking sadly passed away I was in Australia working with teachers on how to develop their use of Office 365 tools.

There were many news item about what a brilliant man he was and his quote, “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” popped up numerous times on Facebook over the next few days. As I was working with many dedicated teachers who were so open to learning about new forms of technology, and how these new skills could help them work more effectively, it got me thinking about how we perceive different platforms of learning.

Thank you Stephen Hawking for your wise words Click To Tweet

In the schools I’ve worked in there has always tended to be a Google v Microsoft mindset. You either have a Gmail account as your email source and you ‘use’ Google, or, you have an Outlook account and you ‘use’ Microsoft tools.

When reflecting on Stephen’s quote I began to understand it more clearly: when working with the mindset he was referring to, we tend to think we know what we’re doing. We have some knowledge of the suite of tools we’ve decided to use and so we stop there. We may develop an in-depth knowledge of those Google tools or Microsoft tools and we silently congratulate ourselves for adopting a positive attitude to learning new things. I am not suggesting in anyway whatsoever that this isn’t to be commended. But, because we believe we are doing a great job by developing this awesome knowledge in one domain, it can actually be a barrier to investigating other tools.

If we’re a Google school why bother learning about Microsoft tools? If we’re a Microsoft school why bother learning about Google tool? We remain ignorant to the value and benefits of the other range of tools simply because we don’t investigate it. This is what Stephen got me thinking about.

Do you only use Google or only use Microsoft? Click To Tweet

He got me thinking that what we should actually be doing is learning about both sets of tools. When we educate ourselves about all the platforms available to us we are better able to choose the tool that is most relevant for the task we want to complete, be it a Google tool or a Microsoft tool.

I have always loved Google tools. I worked at a Google school and I spent many hours extolling the virtues of all they could do. During the week that Stephen passed away I was working with Australian teachers and Office 365 tools. I realised I had lots of knowledge about Google, yet there was so much more that I could learn about that would enrich my experiences.

I never knew about OneNote simply because it isn’t a Google tool. Had I have taken the time to look outside my ‘Google walls’ I would have discovered a tool that is one of the most versatile I have ever come across.

OneNote is an amazingly versatile tool for education Click To Tweet

Thank you Stephen for leaving the world with such wise words – I still love Google tools, but I’m now mixing and matching with Microsoft, using what is the best tool for the task at the time – regardless of which camp it comes from.

What an inspiring message to pass on to our students – if we could all take on a little bit of Stephen Hawking’s legacy what a better world it would be.

If want some tips and tricks on how to use Google and Microsoft tools check out our online professional learning community.

Randomising question and answer order in Google Forms

Posted by: Samantha Vardanega

Google Forms gives you the option to randomise questions and answers. This is very useful if you are concerned that the order in which questions or answers are presented in might skew the results or create bias. It’s also useful in classroom situations if you have students who may take a peek at other students’ screens and choose the same answer! In this post, we’ll show you how to use these features and share a couple of tips.

Randomising questions
If you enable this setting, the questions in your form will be presented in a random order. Before you go ahead and turn it on, there are a couple of things you need to be aware of. First, if your form begins with questions like ‘Name’ or ‘Class’, these could end up being moved to anywhere in the form! Second, if you’ve ordered questions by theme or topic, this too will be disrupted.

However, before you get discouraged, there is an easy solution to both of these issues, which is to use sections in your form. If you arrange your form in sections, questions are only randomised within the same section. So, you could have one section that only contains ‘Name’ and ‘Class’, and then other sections for each topic or theme.

Here’s how to create a form with sections and randomise the questions:

1. Create your form.
2. Click the Add section button to add all the required sections to the form.

3. Add your questions to the relevant sections in the form.
4. Click the Settings (cog) button at the top of the form.
5. Click the Presentation tab, then tick Shuffle question order.

The key to randomising Google Forms questions is to use sections to keep some questions in the right place! Click To Tweet

6. Click Save.

Randomising answers
The random answer option works with multiple choice, checkbox, multiple-choice grid and tick box grid style questions. It is a per-question setting, so you need to enable it for each question you want to randomise.

Here’s how to turn it on:
1. Create your form and add your questions.
2. Click the three dots in the bottom right corner of the question you want to randomise answers for.
3. Tick Shuffle option order.

Want to avoid bias and skewed results in your Google Forms? Here’s how to randomise questions & answers. Click To Tweet

Want to use these options with a self-grading quiz? Check out the video below to learn how to create quizzes in Google Forms. We’ve also got heaps more tips and support on our professional learning community.

Macros in Google Sheets

Posted by: Adrian Francis

A major sticking point with moving from Excel to Google Sheets was the lack of ability to use macros. A macro will let you automate calculations and other aspects in sheets. For instance, if you regularly tally up marks, allocate a grade and then draw a graph or chart of the results for your class, then you can create a macro to do this for you. Google Sheets now have the capacity to write and run your own macros. This will improve your efficiency and save you time.

Google Sheets now have the capacity to write and run your own macros Click To Tweet

It is simple to build your first macro and save it in a Google Sheet. The great thing about macros in Google Sheets is that they are accessible whenever you use the sheet as they are cloud-based. They are written using Google Apps Script, but you don’t need to understand how to program using this code because you can record a macro within a Google Sheet. Unfortunately, you are unable to import macros from Excel at this stage as they use VBA as the code to make them run.

To build your first macro, follow these easy steps:

1. Create, or open an existing Google Sheet that has some data in it. For example, you may have a mark book with some marks in it.

2. Decide on what action you want to carry out, in the example here I want to convert the raw mark to a percentage.

3. Click on the Tools tab.

4. Click on Record macro

The macro window will now open and indicate that you are now recording a macro.

Complete the calculations and formatting that you want to have in the sheet.

5. When finished, click on save and name the macro.

Running the macro is just as easy:

1. Click on Tools
2. Choose macro
3. Click on the macro you have just written.

From here, you can also edit the macro by editing the underlying Google Apps Script:
1. Click on Manage macros.

2. Click on the three dots.

The apps script looks like this and you can edit it directly.

This macro will stay with this sheet. If you wish to use it in another sheet, you can download the script and then install it in another sheet.

Macros make your spreadsheet life more efficient and are now included in Google Sheets. Watch this video to see how easy it is to create a macro in a Google Sheet Click To Tweet

Macros make your spreadsheet life more efficient and are now included in Google Sheets. Watch this video to see how easy it is to create a macro in a Google Sheet.

Searching effectively in Gmail

Archives for May 2018

Searching effectively in Gmail

What NOT to do with Gmail search

How to search Gmail more effectively instead

Get quicker again with search operators

See the view history of Google Docs, Sheets & Slides

Accessing the Activity Dashboard

Changing privacy settings to opt-out of history viewing

ClassroomScreen – A great, free tool for you and your students!

1. Classroom Management

2. Creative Writing/Oral Language

3. Student Voice/Feedback

Create animations and Pecha Kucha presentations in Google Slides

Auto-advance

How to create a Hyperdoc to encourage independent learning in your classroom

What exactly is a hyperdoc?

So how do you build up these hyperdocs?

Step Five

A Message about Learning from Stephen Hawking

Randomising question and answer order in Google Forms

Macros in Google Sheets

To build your first macro, follow these easy steps:

What our clients say about us

Are you a beginner, intermediate or advanced G Suite or Office 365 user? Our skills checklist will help you find out.

Are you at a beginner, intermediate, or advanced level? This skills checklist will help you find out.

Main navigation

Searching effectively in Gmail

Archives for May 2018

What NOT to do with Gmail search

How to search Gmail more effectively instead

Get quicker again with search operators

Accessing the Activity Dashboard

Changing privacy settings to opt-out of history viewing

1. Classroom Management

2. Creative Writing/Oral Language

3. Student Voice/Feedback

Auto-advance

What exactly is a hyperdoc?

So how do you build up these hyperdocs?

Step Five

To build your first macro, follow these easy steps:

What our clients say about us

Are you a beginner, intermediate or advanced G Suite or Office 365 user? Our skills checklist will help you find out.

Are you at a beginner, intermediate, or advanced level? This skills checklist will help you find out.