3 Things from the NVHS LMC #7

VidReader: Create Search Transcripts of YouTube Videos

Put a URL for a YouTube video into VidReader and it will generate a searchable transcript on the fly for you. There are a number of sample videos you can try to see how it works. Click on any words in the transcript and the video will jump to that segment. You can then share the video with the transcript using a link or a number or a number of other sharing services.

Interesting Articles

On the Cult of Pedagogy blog and podcast, Jennifer Gonzalez interviews the host of the We Teach Languages podcast about how teaching world languages has evolved.  While looking for some resources for teaching about fake news, I stumbled across this 2016 NPR story about how to look out for fake news stories. It is a nice summary of a few useful techniques.. The University of Southern California Ed department has a new service called The Answer Lab, where scholars take questions and answer them with a summary of related research and a recommendation for best practice. The first two briefs are up on their website now.

Lincoln Award:  Dear Martin by Nick Stone

Justyce McAllister is an honors student, a senior headed to an Ivy League school, and only one of a few African American students in his classes. He is also a scholarship student trying to escape a rough neighborhood, He learns about the teachings of Martin Luther King from his favorite teacher and he keeps a journal where he writes letters to Dr. King to help make sense of his life. Then, his best friend is shot by an off duty cop while the two friends are out driving and Justyce’s world is turned upside down. Audio Sample of the Book

3 Things from the NVHS LMC #6 -- Google Edition

Google Search Tricks

Are you a Google Search Operator (nod to 80’s era Sade..anyone??) Commonsense Media shows students (and you) how to use a few common search operators to target and refine your web search. When you search for college information in Google, the knowledge panel, also known as the big box on the right side of the first results page, will now have some basic information about admissions, cost, etc. Looking for a podcast about soap carving or competitive dog grooming (we don’t judge) Type in the topic and the word podcast and Google will return a few episodes from podcasts as suggestions. You can even play them in the web browser.

Google Extensions for Your Sanity

If you aren’t familiar with extensions, the short of it is that they are little tools you add to the top right corner of your Chrome web browser that give it superpowers (disclaimer: not really). Here are a few that might help get you through a stressful day. Having too many tabs open in Chrome can be distracting. OneTab allows you to reduce the clutter. Just click the icon and all the tabs get reduced to one and you get a list of links to reopen any of the tabs. Sometimes you need to take a social media or YouTube break, but when it becomes a problem, use StayFocused to block or limit time you spend on certain websites. We’re talking about you, cute kitten videos.

Google Slides’ Side Hustle: Digital Notebooks

Google Slides isn’t only for presentations. Since it gives you the ability to add videos, links, customize the design, resize the slide to your own custom proportions, among other things, it also makes a great digital notebook. The Ditch That Textbook blog has directions and ideas for creating your own digital notebooks in your class.