3 Things – Is it Winter Break yet? edition

FIRST THING:  Reminder about Google Drive Cloud Assignment

I demoed this during PD, but I’m not sure how many folks got it and we’ve added some new staff since then. So here is a refresher.

• What is it and what does it do? This is another Canvas LTI (plug-in) which connects Google Drive with Canvas. When you connect the tool it makes a copy of your template doc for each student in their Google Drive. The student can work on the doc right in Canvas and it is automatically shared back correctly. You can then view it and grade it using Speed Grader.
• For more on this, check out the complete overview of this LTI tool from the Canvas Community or check out this quick YouTube overview from Misty Joaquin.

SECOND THING: Memory Management for staff & students (Close tabs or try The Great Suspender!)

• Students and Staff have been complaining about bad connections and their devices freezing at critical times – like in the middle of your Zoom class.
• Likely Reasons:
  • RAM (Random Access Memory) is often the culprit, NOT your local Internet speed.
  • Chromebooks have only 2-4GB of RAM depending on the model and most of our staff macbooks have 8GB. A single Google Mail or Google Drive tab can sometimes take up 0.5 GB or more. When we have too many tabs open, then things start to not work – they freeze and get stuck endlessly loading or refreshing.
  • For our students, Internet speed MIGHT be the issue, particularly if they are using a hotspot or tethered to a mobile phone. If they have tried the memory tricks below and are still having issues, or their router is dropping the connection regularly, it may be a different issue and you should refer them to the help desk.
• Solutions:
  • Close your tabs!!! Tell your students to do the same.
  • Use The Great Suspender chrome extension. Staff and students should be able to use this tool. If you are a tab hoarder (and I definitely am), this is a pretty great tool. It puts your idle tabs to sleep which minimizes their memory usage based on the settings you configure. Here is a more detailed link describing the tool in full.

THIRD THING: Chrome Accessibility Features

Chrome and our student chromebooks have a number of accessibility features that can be turned on at any time. Many of our students have accommodations through their IEPs and 504s. Some features are automatically installed for our students who require these accommodations. Others must be turned on by the students. And some features, like magnification tools, are available to ALL learners and staff alike. Here are a few resources for checking these out and assisting students with using these features.