How to Capture and Mark Up Images on a Chromebook

I recently posted some tips for Chromebook basics and referred to a process I have used for annotating on screen captures using the devices. Below you'll find a video tutorial that shows the process.

Note that the first part of the video requires you to capture a part of the screen by pressing the shortcut keys:

ctrl-shift-Show all windows

The Show all windows key is the 6th key from the left in the top row. At least that's where it has been on all the Chromebooks I've used. It looks like this:

The general steps are:

• Capture an area of the screen with the above method.
• Copy the capture to the clipboard.
• Paste it in a Google Drawing.
• Mark it up using the tools available in Google Drawings.
• Capture the image again using the above method.
• Copy it and paste it where needed.

By the way, I know the SnagIt app and extension will allow you to do this. I prefer my method because it gives me more options for how I mark up the image. I love the SnagIt app (which I used to record the video above), but sometimes when I capture images and add arrows it takes too long to show up in my Drive as an image.

If you found this post helpful you might also want to see:

• Using a Chromebook to Make a Narrated Slideshow
• Google Apps Tutorials - Summer PD from 2014

Basic Chromebooks Tips for Teachers

I've been using Chromebooks myself for a couple years, but our middle school is just received the first few classroom sets this summer. I created these two documents with helpful Chromebook tips for the teachers and I wanted to share them here.

Some of the information is specific to our district, but you can easily make a copy of these and edit them as necessary. I'd appreciate it if you include a link to this blog on any copies distribute.

The first tipsheet is about file management. Among other tips, it refers to the Save to Google Drive extension, which is installed on all of our Chromebooks.

File Management With a Chromebook

And the second tipsheet is about ways to capture the screen, including how I mark up my screen captures.

Screen Captures on a Chromebook

You might also want to see:

• Using a Chromebook to Make a Narrated Slideshow
• Google Apps Tutorials - Summer PD from 2014

Reminding Students that Dreams Matter

I had a great opportunity to help with some music projects in a lower elementary Music class the past six weeks. We wrapped things up with a music video project about dreams.

I talked to the class briefly about why dreams matter to me. I told them how I had two big dreams as a teenager. I wanted to have a band and I wanted to make movies.

Both dreams came true, sort of. They didn't reach the scale I had envisioned some 30 years ago, but I do get to play music with my kids in church every week in our worship band and I get to make videos with students on my job.

So dreams definitely matter! I assured them their dreams might look different as they grow older, but the dreams in their mind now are there for a reason.

For the project the teacher and I had the students draw pictures of their dreams. I asked my daughter (16 years old) to write a simple chorus about dreams for the young students. I took her lyrics, fleshed out a couple lines and added the music.

We taught the song to the students and recorded them singing. I used GarageBand to add the rest of the arrangement and I edited everything together with Corel VideoStudio.

If you want to use the song, here are the notes and chords.

Here is the full video we finished with one class. I worked with them for three class periods and spent a good amount of time during the weekend putting this together.

How to use the Google Slides mobile app to make comics from real life photos

A lot of teachers have been using my process for creating comics with Google tools. I was thrilled to find it can now be easily done using the Slides mobile app! The best part of this is now you can bring in the real world pictures very easily.

If you haven't seen the general process and possible final products, you can read all about it on this page from my Education On Air presentation from a few weeks ago.

That process starts on a Chromebook or a computer and it uses either Google Drawings or Slides.

Now you can start in the Slides mobile app. I did this on an iPad, but the Android app will be similar.

First, start a new Slides presentation.

On a blank slide, click the + sign and select Image.

Choose to get the image From Photos or From Camera. Notice that if you use the camera, this is an amazingly simple way to immediately bring the real world into your creations!

Crop, resize and move the image as necessary.

To add comic elements, click the + again and select Shape this time.

Select Callouts and scroll down to the three comic elements. Choose the one you want.

From there, it's just a matter of placing the thought or word bubble, dragging the point to the character who is speaking or thinking and then entering the text. Here's my sample taken from a game I was playing with my son.

A few things to consider:

• While the tools are easy to use on the app, you might prefer to just use the app to bring the pictures into the Slides presentation. Then you (and any collaborators) can open that presentation on a Chromebook or computer for easy editing. 
• See my two-minute tutorial on creating the comics using a computer. The first steps are now replaced by the import process above, but the rest of the video shows the details of adding and editing the comic elements.
• You can change the background color of the slides by editing the presentation on a computer or Chromebook at any time.
• See the Projects page of my website for possible end products we make such as PDFs, virtual books or videos.

Creativity, Passion and Meaningful Contribution in School

Last week I had the privilege of presenting as part of the Education On Air conference. Jake Gentry and I did a session on my process of creating comics with Google tools. I was glad to see Matt Miller from Ditch That Textbook highlighted both of my classroom activities from the presentation.

Before I got into all that, though, I gave a short, big picture overview of why I believe some teachers are wearing themselves out to make learning happen. I presented some thoughts on the importance of creativity, passion and meaningful contribution in learning. In about four minutes I talk about things such as:

• How I breathe life into a classroom.
• Why teachers need to dream more.
• Why Google tools make this easier.

That part of the session is in the video below.

If you're interested in seeing the entire session, you can find it at this link.