Tutorials from THE Journal
Interested in contributing?
We're ramping up our library of technology tutorials for ed tech professionals. And that means we're looking for experts who would like to contribute to the effort.
Our tutorials are goal-oriented. They should solve a problem or reveal something to the user that he or she wouldn't normally know. And they should assume the reader is an intermediate or advanced user. (That said, you can feel free to pitch primers for beginners. We'll consider pitches on a case-by-case basis.) Illustrations (screen shots) are necessary; videos are optional.
If you'd like to contribute, contact David Nagel at [email protected].
The single greatest advantage of Microsoft's high-end Surface Pro 4 tablet over other high-end mobile Windows devices is its pressure-sensitive stylus. So those of you who jumped in with the latest generation of the device may have been perplexed (as I was) to find that some of the most popular graphics apps out there were incapable of using stylus pressure. But there's a simple fix for that.
Got an idea for a new tech initiative in your school but wondering where to find the money to pay for it? Grants from corporations and foundations may be just the funding source you need.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 01/22/15
Whether your district is experienced in securing grant funding or is new to the grant application process, here are six tips that can boost your chances of grant-seeking success.
Common wisdom says you just can't apply conditional formatting in a Google Apps spreadsheet using data from a different sheet. But here at THE Journal, we laugh in the face of wisdom, common or otherwise. But is such jocularity is justified? Read on.
This week's tutorial covers a number functions in Google's Spreadsheet app, Google Sheets. Here we take a practical look at using weekdays in calculations, introduce "if" statements and learn how to refer dynamically to the contents of a current cell.
The odds are good that you accomplished something over the course of your life for which you were extremely proud, but the significance of that accomplishment was lost in the explanation to others. After telling them of your grand accomplishment, their retort was along the lines of: "Well, what do you want? A medal?"
- By Tim States, Emmett Dulaney
- 08/20/14
Predictive analytics is growing rapidly in popularity among school district leaders. K-12 school districts are collaborating with universities and businesses at an accelerating pace, using advanced analytics to create innovative new models and tools to advance students' performance.
- By Vasuki Rethinam
- 06/12/14
From an instructor's perspective, there is a great deal of thought that goes into the creation of a new course in Moodle — everything from the template and color scheme to the best way to relay contact information. One of the most important considerations, however, might also be one of the most overlooked: How do you greet the students?
- By Emmett Dulaney, Tim States
- 06/11/14
Lighting for video can be intimidating, but setting lights up for a single subject, such as a lecturer or someone webcasting from a desk, only takes a few minutes and will improve the quality of your final product immeasurably. Below is a step-by-step guide.
As part of Common Core's shift of focus from teaching to learning, students are delivering more presentations (while teachers and peers sit-and-get). Not surprisingly, the same boring presentation techniques don't work any better for students than they did for teachers.
- By Lynell Burmark
- 05/21/14
Instructor Sicco Rood explains how to duplicate an existing course in Instructure Canvas or copy an existing course into a blank, empty course shell.
In our previous tutorial, we looked at using Moodle in concert with SCORM to record whether or not a student watched a video assignment. As an addendum, we'll use SCORM to help us record a quiz score related to that video in Moodle's gradebook.
- By Tim States, Emmett Dulaney
- 05/07/14
Moodle is a powerful LMS, there can be no doubt. Regardless of all it can do, however, there are times when you want a student to do something completely different and yet continue to use Moodle as your interface. When those situations arise, you can turn to the features of the SCORM package to make this possible.
- By Tim States, Emmett Dulaney
- 04/30/14
Here's a quick and dirty formula you can use in Google Sheets to get a running count of cells that contain any value (numbers, dates, text, links, etc.).
This question comes up often in user forums: How do I extract a piece of information from one column and put that extracted information into another? For example, if I have a URL in one column, can I extract the date from that URL and put it in my date column so I don't have to the the date manually?
There's a hidden gem in Moodle called the Feedback activity. It might not receive a lot of attention, but, once you start experimenting with it, you'll likely find a lot more possibilities for it than you imagined — from simple quiz creation to class discussions designed to keep students engaged in the learning material.
- By Emmett Dulaney, Tim States
- 04/02/14
In our first tutorial on Google Sheets, we looked at extending the software's default conditional formatting options through the use of formulas. That solution is good for a limited range of dates, but it might get cumbersome in spreadsheets that span longer periods, since each possible date requires a unique formula.
Google Sheets, the spreadsheet tool that's part of the Google Apps productivity suite, lets users format cells based on certain conditions, including the date contained in a cell and how far away that date is from the present. But the options available through the Conditional Formatting dialog are limited. Here's a way around those limitations.
Moodle experts Tim States and Emmett Dulaney show how courses can be enhanced with interactive exercises using the Choice activity.
- By Tim States, Emmett Dulaney
- 03/12/14