One Click Provides More Room to Work in Google Docs

I just spent the last three weeks working with students and teachers who had Chromebooks as their primary computers throughout the school day. One of the things that I showed some of the students during that time was how to expand the size of the Google Docs editor so that they had more screen space dedicated to their documents and less dedicated to the editing menus.

If you use Google Documents and want a little more room to view your pages, you can make that space appear with just one click. In the upper, right corner of your screen you will now see an option for "compact mode" in each of your Google Documents. Click the compact mode arrows to collapse the formatting menu and receive about an inch of more space to work in your documents. Below you will see some screenshots showing you where to find the compact mode arrows.

Before using the collapse menu.

After using the collapse menu.

Answers to FAQs About Automatic Captioning of Google Slides

Last night I published a video demonstration of the new automatic captioning feature in Google Slides. Today, I've received eight emails from readers asking questions about automatic captioning. The theme of the questions are the same so I'm guessing that there are other readers with similar questions. Here's what you need to know about automatic captioning of Google Slides right now.

1. It's not available for all users, yet. As I mentioned earlier this week, the feature will be rolled out over the course of the next couple of weeks.

2. It is only available in English.

3. You must use Google Chrome on a Chromebook, Windows, or Mac computer.

4. The captions do not save.

5. It does not translate.

Kindness Bookmarks and Kindness Bingo

This week I had the opportunity to observe a great teacher-librarian in action at Sigsbee Charter School in Key West, Florida. One of the activities that she did with kids was making "kindness bookmarks." The kids made bookmarks like the one in the picture for this post. All of the bookmarks weren't the same, but they all had the theme of surprising people with kindness when they opened a book in the library.

Seeing the kindness bookmarks activity prompted me look for other kindness-themed activities. That search brought me to PBS Learning Media's Kind Acts Bingo activities. Kind Acts Bingo isn't a typical bingo game of chance. Kind Acts Bingo has a board of acts of kindness for students to do then check-off through the course of a day, week, or month. There are two Kind Acts Bingo boards available here.

Applications for Education
These kindness activities were created for elementary school students, but you can certainly use the same concepts with students in middle school and high school. If the bingo boards don't quite fit with your school or classroom setting, use the boards as a template to create your own version of Kind Acts Bingo.

How to Use Automatic Captioning in Google Slides

Earlier this week Google announced a new automatic captioning feature for Google Slides. That feature is slowing rolling-out to users over the next couple of weeks. The new feature appeared in my account yesterday morning. If you haven't seen automatic captions in Google Slides, watch my short demonstration embedded below.

60 Second Adventures in Religion - Animated Explanations

Some days I scroll through Feedly or Facebook and come across things that immediately make me think of a current or former colleague. That is exactly what happened when I saw the Open University's 60 Second Adventures in Religion videos. I'm quite sure that my former colleague Bree will be interested in using these videos as short introductions to theories and philosophies about religion. These videos aren't about specific religions rather they're about how theorists have explained religion.

Applications for Education
In addition to being used as short introductions to theories about religion, these videos provide a model for simple animated explanations. Your students could use video creation tools like PowToon or Animaker to create their own explanations.