Reminder: Updating your Chromebook

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We wanted to remind everyone about the importance of keeping your Chromebook up to date. Generally, keeping any device up to date is for the best. Whether it’s your Apple Mac, Windows Laptop, or Smartphone, updating your devices ensures you get the most up-to-date security patches and any of the latest features. Keeping your devices up to date helps to keep your data safe.

Before the half term, we saw a rise in classroom issues with Chromebooks, such as projectors not displaying what’s on the screen or the speakers not playing sound from Chromebooks. 9 times out of 10 these issues were resolved by running a quick update on the Chromebook. Whilst it can be a little frustrating that Google release updates so often, every week or two, it is important that you run them. The vast majority of the time the update will automatically download to your Chromebook as soon as it’s available, you will then have a notification telling you to restart to update.

You can see in the screenshot example above, it’s nice and easy to see that you’ve got an update. Just look for the little arrow in the circle to the left of the time. Just click on that, or the time, to access your notifications and the update will always be the first one visible in the list. Just click Restart to Update, it may take a couple of minutes to restart your Chromebook and apply the update but not only are you getting the latest security patches, you’re also avoiding any delays with the start of your lessons.

If something isn’t working as expected on your Chromebook, in the first case it’s best to check for an update before anything else. Even if there isn’t an update available it would be a good idea to at least restart your Chromebook.

You can check for updates yourself by clicking on the time, click the Settings cog, click About Chrome OS and then click Check for Updates.

Adobe Acrobat Chrome Extension

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A couple of days ago Adobe announced a big update to the Google Chrome Acrobat Extension. We now have basic editing capabilities for PDF’s. Some of the functionality you’re used to on Acrobat on a PC can now be completed on your Chromebook.

There’s a lot of waffle in the article so we’ll list the key features below but you can read the full article here if you wish.

  • Rotate, delete, or reorder PDF pages
    • You can also merge multiple PDF documents together. Or split a document into smaller documents.
  • Convert from PDF
    • Convert from PDF to a Word, Excel or Powerpoint document, webpage or a JPG.
  • Comments, markups and highlights
  • E-Signatures and Form Fields
    • No more printing, completing by hand then scanning back in.

Some of these features are free which means you can do these on your personal devices, others fall under the college’s Adobe subscription so as long as you sign in with your Barton Peveril account you’ll be able to use them.

If you haven’t got it already, you can add it from the Chrome Web Store. 

This was announced on the Adobe Blog on October 12th.

Getting started with Google Voice

We’re excited to announce Google Voice, our new college telephony solution.

Voice is a new telephony service from Google. It lets you take your number with you and make calls from your smartphone, Chromebook, or computer. There are lots of features to explore such as voicemail transcripts and smart spam filtering. To help you get started we’ve prepared this short guide.

Make and receive calls

Go to voice.google.com or download the Google Voice Android or iOS app to make and receive calls. Alternatively, you can also access Google Voice from the Gmail side panel. If you’re working on a Chromebook or desktop computer remember to keep Voice or Gmail open so you don’t miss any calls.

Find a number in Google Voice

You can search for numbers either using the Google Voice app or Google Contacts. Just remember that internal extension numbers such as 2224 no longer exist. Each Google Voice user or room phone will have a full UK number.

Remove old phone extensions in Google Contacts

Google Voice syncs your contacts from Google Contacts as well as the college Directory service. You may still have contacts in your personal address book that include the old college four digit internal extensions. To help you find and remove these we have created a Google Sheet to help. Simply make a copy of the Cleanup Google Contacts Phone Ext sheet and follow the instructions.

Change your microphone and speaker settings

To make and receive Google Voice calls, use your built-in microphone and speakers or connect external audio devices, such as headsets. Change audio devices before or during a call. If you use a headset for incoming calls on your computer, you can also choose a second device to ring. Then you can hear calls even when you take off your headset.

To manage audio settings open Google Voice and click on the Headset on the top right. For more information read Change your microphone and speakers.

Send calls to voicemail

When people call your Google Voice number and you don’t answer, the calls go to voicemail and are automatically transcribed. You can also link Voice with Google Calendar to automatically forward calls to voicemail outside your working hours.

To send calls to voicemail after your working hours:

  1. On your computer, go to voice.google.com.
  2. At the top right, click Settings.
  3. On the left, click Do not disturb.
  4. Turn on the Calendar setting you want:
    Follow working hours – Send calls to voicemail when Calendar shows you’re not working.
    If this option is inactive, you need to set your working hours in Calendar.
    Follow out of office – Send calls to voicemail when Calendar shows you’re away from work.

Additionally, you can send calls to voicemail temporarily by enabling Do not disturb. To learn more read Send Google Voice calls to voicemail.

Record a voicemail greeting

You can record a custom greeting for your voicemail on Google Voice. To record a new greeting:

  1. Open up Settings on the top right corner.
  2. Select Voicemail on the left.
  3. Select Record a greeting.

For full instructions read Set up or change a voicemail greeting.

Screen your calls

When you get calls to your Google Voice number, you can screen your calls to hear the name of the caller before you answer the call. After hearing the caller’s name, you can take the call or send it to voicemail. By default, Google Voice will also automatically block spam callers. Learn how to Turn on call screening.

Update your email signature

If your email signature included your old college phone extension then be sure to remove this number. You can either include your personal direct dial number, department phone, or the main reception number which continues to be 02380 367200.

Learn more about Google Voice

To learn more about Voice explore the following resoures:

Noted

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Noted is a fully-integrated audio recording and note-taking app.
What does that mean though?


Noted allows you to type out notes as well as recording audio clips to link with your notes meaning it’s easier to keep everything neat, tidy and together. If, for example, you record a whole lecture or class talk, everything you type is time-stamped so you know what point of the audio clip was happening as you typed. You can also add a little #TimeTag on specific points so you can easily jump back and forth between key pieces of information you want to make sure you don’t forget. Then you can also link specific pieces of text to those #TimeTags to join written notes and audio notes together more.

It means you’re boosting your productivity by having all your notes in one place and with audio notes you get to keep the context of what you’re trying to note. You don’t have to miss anything anymore.

All this is completely free! 

Noted only works with Apple products, but it does that seamlessly across Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch so you can just record a quick note on your Watch and it will automatically be synced to your Mac for when you need it. The same with your phone, if you’re out and about just open your phone and record a quick message or type a quick note and you’ll be able to get it on your Mac almost instantly.

There is also a Noted+ extra subscription if you like it enough. This extra includes dictation so you can turn your spoken words into written notes, it includes improved quality, background noise reduction and better exporting tools among other things. The best feature of Noted+ is that it includes Intelligent Playback so with that turned on, when it’s playing your notes back to you it will automatically skip and silence or background noise and only play you the important bits. Noted+ is $24 a year, roughly £17, at the time of writing.

Screencastify

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Screencastify is the #1 screen recorder for Google Chrome. Capture, edit and share videos in seconds.


Screencastify is a Google Chrome extension that is available from the Chrome web store. It enables you to create screencasts and videos on a Windows, Mac, or Chromebook. In addition to recording your screen, it combines annotation tools, record from your microphone for voice over, and you can record yourself with a picture-in-picture overlay of your webcam. Everything you record is saved to Google Drive so you can easily share the video with students, embed it on a Google Site, or upload to YouTube.

You can use Screencastify to create recorded lessons, tutorials, or giving feedback. It is often quicker and easier to convey how to do something in a video, rather than writing a long list of steps. To see an example of Screencastify in action view my video below.

Read more

Mote

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Mote lets you record a quick comment in Google Docs. It’s tagline is; the faster, friendlier way to comment on docs.

The mote Chrome extension makes it easy to add voice note feedback for students within Google Docs, Google Classroom, Slides and Sheets. You can quickly add a comment in simple terms without having to worry about how it may come across in the written word.

mote’s mission is to make document collaboration faster, friendlier and more powerful.

Online Courses

CourseTime to completeBenefitsWhat you’ll learn
Mote Certified Educator20 minutesBadge and certificateBecome familiar with all of Mote’s features. You just need to get at least 12 out of 15 questions right and there is video help too.

Keybr

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Keybr is another app to help you learn how to touch type or to just improve your typing speed. Learning this now will help you in later life, it improves your efficiency when taking notes or completing normal work tasks.

The great thing about Keybr is that once you’ve started typing and gone through a game or two, it will pull all this information about how you type into a report for you to understand. It can tell you where you stand in the average typing speed of everyone who uses the app, what letters you miss the most and more.

On the reports after a couple of minutes of typing, I learned that I am in the top 3% of all users on the site, am slowest going to the I key and hit the E key wrong the most times. It’s easy to also keep track of how many days and how long you’ve been practising too with stats just for that one day and a comparison across your all time statistics.

To get started you need to create an account so it can save your progress. Once you’ve done that, head to the Settings and change the Keyboard Layout to English UK as the default is US.

You can even play a little multiplayer game against others around the world. It gives you a paragraph to type out and the fastest wins!

SleepTown

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Do you often stay up late scrolling your phone? Hit the snooze button too much? If you have trouble putting your phone down at night, or suffer from insomnia and want to attain a healthy, regular sleep schedule. SleepTown is your best solution.


It’s made by the same team who made Forest, one of our recommended focus apps so you can pair the two together and really focus your time and energy on things other than your phone.

How it works: 3 steps to a healthy sleep schedule

  1. Set your own challenging bedtime and wake-up goal.
  2. Open the SleepTown app before your bedtime goal and start constructing a building.
  3. Wake up before your wake-up goal, shake your phone to clear your mind, and see which building you got. Every morning the building is a surprise that will motivate you to wake up!

SleepTown Can Help You:

  • Beat your phone addiction and get more sleep
  • Maintain regular sleep hours between 4-10 hours a day
  • Construct amazing buildings by achieving your bedtime and wake-up goals
  • Wake up to a reward every day – your new building!
  • View your “SleepTown” and all your sleep statistics in the town page
  • Night shift mode helps reduce blue light

Head to this link to take a look at a video of how it works.

TypingClub

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TypingClub is an effective way to learn how to touch type for free! In this modern world, touch typing is an invaluable tool, for a lot of jobs typing quick is key to being efficient. It can also help in your education by allowing you to type your notes quicker when in a lecture.

Although the graphics and games seem to be aimed at a slightly younger audience, it’s free and makes it easy to learn how to touch type in your web browser, you can just log in and get started straight away. Anyone can do it.

There are 678 different lessons, starting from simple tests with a couple of keys to running through a whole paragraph with minimal mistakes.

But if you don’t want to start right at the beginning, there is a Placement Test that works out how well you can type at the moment and jumps you forward to a point in their program so you’re not wasting time on things you already do. When I took this test, it took about 5 minutes and bumped me up from lesson 1 to lesson 316 so I’m almost halfway through the test already.

If you create an account on the TypingClub website you can keep an eye on your stats and monitor your progress towards becoming a fluent touch typist.

I ran through the final test while I was writing this post. I managed to get 98% accuracy, high score of 3665 and 4 out of 5 stars. If you want to give it a go, make sure you are sat at a computer then head to this link.

Get Revising

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Get Revising is filled with smart revision tools and tips to help boost your grades. As part of The Student Room, you can be sure it’s got a good team behind it and a trusted name.

It’s filled with past papers and quick quizzes to help you learn more about whatever subject you need, all in all there are over 300,000 different learning resources with 192,564 resources just for A Level subjects (At the time of writing). Just over 140,000 of those resources are for GCSE subjects so if you’re retaking any of your GCSE subjects or want to help your friend or family member taking theirs, there’s enough resources to help everyone.

You can even search by exam board to make sure the information you use is relevant to your exact subject and exam.

It’s free for everyone, and teachers are regularly adding more and more quizzes and mindmaps all the time. Just a quick example, there are over 1,000 Spanish resources, 6,000 Law resources, and over 20,000 Biology resources.

If you want to be confident in the information you’re looking at, each resource has a rating system and some have Teacher Recommendations. Take a look at the example below, Art in Roman Britain has a 5 star rating meaning it is useful for A Level Classical Civilization, it also has a Teacher Recommendation which means a teacher has looked through the resource and found that it is of high quality. 

A great feature of Get Revising is their revision resource creation tool! These tools have been designed to make it easy for you to create something to test your knowledge, re-use it so you learn it best and share with others to help them too. Just look at all the tools available to you below: