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.
Google Jamboard is a digital whiteboard app that allows you to collaborate with others and join together your ideas.
Jamboardis Google’s answer to an Interactive Whiteboard, originally designed and marketed with a portable 55-inch, 4k display. Google have since released Android and iOS apps for it, perfect for touchscreen Chromebooks here at Barton! Even if you don’t have a touchscreen device you can still connect to a Jam on your web browser at jamboard.google.com
It is connected to G Suite so you can log in with your College credentials as normal giving you the ability to present, edit and share files with Google services like Drive, Sheets, and Slides.
BBC iPlayer lets you watch BBC content from your computer, Smart TV or mobile device.
BBC iPlayer isn’t just for catching up on last night’s Eastenders or rewatching Gavin & Stacey for the 17th time, you can also find a lot of educational material in its depths. You can watch the latest episodes of QI to learn more quirky facts about the world or explore the hundreds of episodes of Science and Nature documentaries. There’s also great comedy and entertainment shows for when you have finished your work for the day and need to relax.
Don’t forget though that some episodes are only available for a limited time and can be removed from iPlayer at any time.
You can look through all the episodes and series available for each subject on the BBC iPlayer website or click one of these categories; History, Documentaries, Science & Nature, Music.
Google Meet is Google’s video conferencing tool that also allows you to share your screen with attendees.
Google Meet is Google’s video conferencing tool that enables you to to talk face to face and share your screen with others. Lesson content can be shared in a live video stream with groups ranging from a few people up to hundreds of users. You can use it on the web at meet.google.com, on your Android device and on iOS devices. You can either just jump straight into a Video Meeting or schedule one for a later date and time in Google Calendar.
One of the best features of Google Meet is its ability to provide live captions/subtitles which can be turned on by anyone who needs it.
We’ve written up a quick run through of Google Meet and how to get started below.
STUDENTS ARE ASKED TO FOLLOW THIS VIDEO CONFERENCING ETIQUETTE GUIDE TO ENSURE YOU CAN TEACH WITHOUT INTERRUPTION.
Google Meet Set Up
Starting a Starting & adding people
Follow the guide below on how to set a Google Meet instantly, how to add others whilst in the meet.
Scheduling a video meeting and inviting guests
Follow the guide below on how to set this up and how to invite guests ahead of time. You will need Google Calendar.
Setting up Google Meet in Google Classroom
Follow the guide on the left on how to set this up for students to join in Google Classroom
Joining a video meeting
Joining a video meeting can be done in a number of different ways depending on how it’s been set up. You can click the link in your calendar appointment, or your meeting text or email. You can type in the meeting code on the Google Meet site or join via a smartphone using the Google Meet App
Calendar Appointment
Email Link
Meeting Code
Mobile app
Change your computer’s Video & Audio settings
Meet will pick up your default camera, speaker and microphone which in most cases will be the only ones you have however if you plug in alternative devices to use instead, it should then automatically pick these up instead of any built-in device.
More information can be found here and steps for changing the settings within the mobile apps can be found here.
Sharing your screen
Sharing or ‘Presenting’ your screen is possible on computers and iOS devices but not currently supported on Android devices. On the computer you can opt to share your whole screen or just an individual window whereas on the iOS device you can only share your whole screen.
To present on your computer just look for the Present now button in the bottom right of the meeting window then select if you want to share a particular tab, your entire screen or a window. Sharing just a window will allow you to share just multiple tabs you have open if you have more than one presentation or document whilst allowing you to continue working on your computer.
More information including how to take over presenting from someone else can be found here.
Muting a class
If you wish to mute your class, you will need to click on the “People” icon. In the People settings you will see the “All Muted” option, click on this and a toggle option saying “Let everyone turn on their microphone” will come up. Toggling this will disable your students to turn their microphone back on. To let your students have their microphone back on, you will to toggle this back on so they can enable their microphone again.
More information including how to muting a class can be found here.
How to record and transcribe
To record in Google Meet, you require Google teaching license and the host of the Google Meet to be able to record. In the Google Meet. By clicking the 3 dots in the bottom task bar, you click on “Manage recording” then adjust the settings if you wish to transcribe the meeting or not. After click “Start Recording”. Once the meeting is finished, you can click “Stop recording” or end the call. The recording will automatically save into your Google Drive.
More information including how to record in Google Meet can be found here.
The TED-Ed project — TED’s education initiative — makes short video lessons worth sharing, aimed at educators and students. Within TED-Ed’s growing library of lessons, you will find carefully curated educational videos, many of which are collaborations between educators and animators nominated through the TED-Ed platform.
Our very own Director of Humanities, Mark Robinson, has collaborated with TED-Ed to make range of videos:
Workbench hosts a huge range of features. Whether you’re looking for some pre-made lessons on a specific topic or want to find some basic tasks for your lesson, you might want to track your student progress visually or learn code yourself there is a wealth of content across the site. Plus, it’s free for education!
Google Arts & Culture is an online platform that allows you to view high-resolution images of artworks from around the world.
The Google Arts & Culture app hosts content from over 1200 museums and archives from across the world with tens of thousands of individual pieces of content including 360 degree videos of places and events, street views of locations like the Taj Mahal or Machu Pichu, or even inside views of the Palace of Versailles for example.
You can look for historical street art or narrow down your search by a specific colour or time.
The Chrome Extension shows you a new piece of art each time you create a new tab in Chrome.
Now with VR and AR, you can walk around museums and other amazing buildings from around the world.
The mobile device app allows you to use VR/AR to view art in a new way, some of the features are listed below along with video examples of how to use them:
Art Selfie
Take a quick selfie and the app will compare it with thousands of pieces of art from throughout history to find someone who looks like you.
Colour Palette
Take a photo of an item nearby then the app will search for more art with the same colours, perfect if creating a moodboard based on a specific colour.
Pocket Gallery
Use AR to walk round already created art exhibits without having to leave the room.
Art Projector
Use AR to place paintings and artwork infront of you so you can see the true scale of the pieces.
