Chromebook Accessibility: Hear text read aloud

You can hear full pages read aloud with Chromebook’s built-in screen reader or hear parts of a page read aloud with Select-to-Speak. This feature is especially helpful for those learning to read.

To have pages read aloud to you:

1. On your Chromebook, at the bottom right, select the time. Or press Alt + Shift + s

2. Select Settings (gear icon).

3. On the left, select Advanced > Accessibility > Manage accessibility features.

4. To listen to all text - Under “Text-to-Speech,” turn on Enable ChromeVox (spoken feedback).
   To listen to part of a page - Under “Text-to-Speech,” turn on Enable select-to-speak.

Be sure to also check out other Chromebook accessibility features!

Embed an Interactive Image into Schoology

 

Parent Pointer: Better Google Search

 

Schoology Tip: Hiding Students’ Overall Grades

If you are using the Schoology Gradebook, your students may start to notice a different overall grade in Schoology than IC because Schoology will start calculating the semester grade by averaging Q1 and Q2 by default. Please remind and reiterate to the students that their actual grade is in IC.

To avoid confusion, you can hide the student's overall grade in Schoology. In each Schoology course, go to Grade Setup. Under Visibility Settings, check Hide overall grade and Hide grading period grades.

If you are using the Schoology to IC Grade Passback, it will not impact the accuracy of grades in IC. This is because IC is not set up as a quarter system. You should notice that as you pass back the assignments, you have to do an additional step in IC of selecting Semester for the Standard/Grading Task (slide 5).

 

If you need help or support with this process please email the Help Desk at helpdesk@parkwayschools.net. Please include whether you are having trouble with Schoology or Infinite Campus and a screenshot of the issue.

Emphasize words in a Google document’s comments

Last week, Kristen highlighted using the Mote extension to give audio feedback or directions to students. To continue with the topic of feedback, did you know that you do NOT have to use ALL CAPS to emphasize words in a Google document’s comments? You can style text by enclosing within *, _, or - for *bold*, _italic_, and -strikethrough-. Check out @TonyVincent’s image on Twitter below. 

If you find yourself making the same comments repeatedly, consider setting up canned feedback in Google Docs or Slides.

Mote

 

Verbal feedback is powerful, effective, and efficient.  Research has shown that students are three times more likely to implement verbal feedback rather than written.
Mote is a Chrome extension that lets you easily add voice comments and feedback to shared documents and assignments. 

Mote is integrated into Google Docs, Slides and Sheets, as well as Google Classroom, for easy recording and playback. You can create voice notes for any website or application using the 'motepad' within the mote Chrome extension menu - simply click on the browser icon to access.

In Docs: Insert a comment, click the Mote icon and record!  Students see a message with a clickable link to hear your voice note.

In Slides: Click the Mote icon in the menu bar and follow the prompts.  When finished, place the icon where you’d like and use the format options to set how you would like it to play.  You can also change the image to something more appropriate for the slide deck. (right click-replace image)

In Forms: Click on the Mote icon in any question to create a recording of the question.  Currently, there is one Mote per question.  

Parent Pointer: Taking a Screenshot with the Chromebook

Throughout the semester your child(ren) may be required to capture the Chromebook screen (take a picture) to show evidence for the assignment. Here is a video of both methods.

To take a screenshot of the full screen with a Chromebook, hold down the Ctrl + Switch Window keys: 

Chromebook Keys:

Full Screenshot:

To take a screenshot with part of your full screen with a Chromebook, hold down the Ctrl + Shift + Switch Window keys. Highlight what you want to capture.

Chromebook Keys

Partial Screenshot:

All files are saved to your Downloads folder.