Basics - Part II
Part II: Basic Technology Skills
This is a wonderful opportunity to build some important technology skills and basic knowledge that will help you succeed in this 21things4teachers learning program. Some of the skills involve taking screenshots and using shortcuts.
You will be expected to create a Digital Portfolio to demonstrate your skills, showcase your creative work, and to share your reflections as you complete the different 21things. In Thing 2, Face of Your Classroom, you will be creating an additional online presence where the target audience relates to your educational role and setting. Examples of a target audience would be your classroom students, parents, and/or colleagues.
Steps:
1. Screenshots
To document some of your work for your Digital Portfolio, it is important to know how to take a picture of things on your computer screen, such as a browser window, image you are editing, or application. Are there times you wished you could capture your computer screen to show others how to do something or provide more personalized feedback? Show me videos can be extremely helpful for learners, especially in this age of digital medium. A screenshot will be saved as an image which you can then add (copy and paste or insert the image) to your Digital Portfolio.
- Screenshots with a Chromebook (at the same time press and hold
the entire screen, and for just part of the screen you select 
) - Another handy resource is from the take-a-screenshot.org site which covers several different operating systems.
- An alternate option is to download a free program called "Jing" by Techsmith for the Mac or Windows PC described below.
Expand the content sections below to view videos and see newer resources for device and platform specific tips.
- Step-by-step directions
- Direct link to Chromebook Demo video shown below (recorded using the Screencastify Chrome Extension)
- Educator resources for "Getting to know Chromebooks for Education" from Wicked Good EdTech and Chromebook Essentials.
- Google Workflow Worksheet - a super reference for teachings using Google
The demo video below shows how to do a screenshot with a Macintosh computer.
Direct link to the Screenshot Demo video.
Step-by step directions for using PrintScreen, Alt PrintScreen, and using snipping tool.
Jing Another Tool for Screenshots
You can capture your screen or capture a photo of something you want to annotate with free Jing software, and make it available for your students to see online. Jing does require that you download the software, which is why we provide directions as well as additional options in the thing titled, Blended or Flipped Classrooms. We suggest you go through the Overview video and short tutorials on their site.
2. Basic Shortcuts
There are many keyboard shortcuts that you can employ when you are using your device. Many of the devices have identical shortcuts which makes it easy to transfer back and forth between devices. Each device though has some unique keys which do different things.
Shortcuts for the Chromebook (a Google doc), pdf version
1. Open this shortcuts document (PDF)
2. Open a word processing document (Word or Google doc)
3. Watch the video below and pause it while you try at least five
of the shortcuts out
Assignment: Take a screenshot of a favorite shortcut you used (e.g. copy and paste an image) and insert it into your Basics document.