A TASSCC Guide Technological Assessment and Support Service for Children and the Curriculum Using Google tools for Additional Support in Literacy Removing barriers to learning, ensuring that the diverse needs of all learners are met in an equitable way, and supporting improved outcomes for all are central to Scottish Government Education policy. Consultation on the development of a Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy for Scotland. (2016) Contents Getting Logged on………………………………………………………………………..4 Google Docs………………………………………………………………………………..5 Using the Drawing tools to create a simple Mind map…………………………….5 Using Google Voice typing in a google doc…………………………………………7 Using Add-ons in Google Docs…………………………………………………………..8 Using Mindmeister in a Google doc…………………………………………………….8 Using Studyskills in a Google doc………………………………………………………..9 Using Extensions in Google Docs…………………………………………………………..11 Using Google Dictionary – Instant definitions on the web……………………………12 Using Note Anywhere – Add post-it notes to webpages………………….………….13 Using Select & Speak – Quick text-to-speech tool…………………………….……….14 Using High Contrast and Colour Overlay – Change the visuals! ……….…...….......15 Using Readability – De-clutter a webpage improve reading………….…………….16 Using Read and Write – Text-to-speech support……………………………….……….17 Using Apps with Google Chrome………………………………………………………….18 Contact TASSCC………………………………………………………………………………19 TASSCC provides a supportive technological service for children whose ability to access the curriculum is impeded by a physical, learning or significant communication difficulty. The TASSCC service provides targeted support for individual children and offers a referral service for schools that should be accessed when the range of resources and supports within their own educational setting is not sufficient to meet the needs of the young person. TASSCC also provides universal support through staff training and provision of resources including this comprehensive training guide. 2 Page Technological Assessment and Support Service for Children and the Curriculum [email protected] Google Tools for Additional Support in Literacy This course will introduce google based tools that can help to support learners in literacy based tasks. Google Apps, Extensions and Add-ons can be easily added to a pupil or staff profile to enhance the learning experience and allow work to be completed more efficiently. TASSCC will introduce recommended tools that have been tried and tested and that provide the best support for our learners in Aberdeen City. Google’s Chrome browser can be used in various ways to help with reading and writing. Traditional desktop software cannot be installed on Chromebooks, so pupils need to rely on extensions and apps to customise their learning experience. Extensions: Designed to work in combination with websites and the documents in Google Drive. Apps: Standalone applications that run in their own windows or tabs within the Chrome browser. Add-ons: Used within google docs to provide extra support for the pupil. 3 Page Technological Assessment and Support Service for Children and the Curriculum [email protected] Getting Logged on From the Google landing page, select Sign in on the top right corner and log in using your ab-ed account details. On a Chromebook you will need your ab-ed account details to access the device, and then you will automatically be logged into Google Chrome. Please get in touch with TASSCC using the contact details on the last page of this guide if you are having trouble getting logged in. A good tip to give you easy access to all of the tools within google is to make sure the bookmarks bar is showing. To do this click on the three dots at the top right of the browser window, select Bookmarks, and then Show Bookmarks bar. This will give you access to the bookmarks bar and the app palette. Click on the app palette to access common apps such as 4 Google Docs, Google Slides and the Web Store. Page Technological Assessment and Support Service for Children and the Curriculum [email protected] Google Docs Full information about Google Docs can be found here: https://www.google.co.uk/docs/about/ This application is Google’s version of Microsoft Word. Features on the toolbar are very similar and easily recognised by users who are familiar with Microsoft Word. To open a new google doc, click on the app palette and open the Google Docs application. From the next screen that opens, select blank. It is important to note that Google saves the document automatically. There is no ‘File, Save’ option as there is in Microsoft Word. A good first step would be to give the document a name. Click on the ‘untitled document’ field and type in the name of the document. Using the Drawing tools to create a simple Mind map On the menu click on Insert, Drawing to open the drawing canvas. Tools are very similar to the Microsoft Word Drawing toolbar. Hover over any of the icons to find out the function. 5 Page Technological Assessment and Support Service for Children and the Curriculum [email protected] To begin creating a mind map, click on the shape tool and click on a suitable shape such as oval. On the drawing canvas, move your cursor to the centre and ‘click and drag’ slowly to create the shape. Double-click on the shape to enter a topic name. Whilst the shape is still selected (you will be able to tell this if there are little nodes around the shape), click on the paint can tool to select a colour. Continue to create more shapes as above until you have enough for your mind map as shown below. A good tip is to copy the first shape as many times as needed, by right-clicking on it and selecting copy (or by clicking on the shape and pressing ‘Ctrl and c’ on the keyboard), and then pasting multiple copies of the shape either by right-clicking on the canvas and selecting Paste OR by pressing ‘Ctrl and v’ on the keyboard. Each shape can then be edited with a new name and colour. 6 Page Technological Assessment and Support Service for Children and the Curriculum [email protected] To complete the mind map, you will need to use the line tool to join the shapes together. Select the line tool on the toolbar. When you hover over a shape you will see that little nodes appear around the shape, this is a great feature to support mind mapping. Hover over the shape and then ‘click and drag’ on a node towards an adjoining shape. Click on Save & Close when completed to add the mind map to the Google doc. Using Google Voice typing in a google doc TASSCC would recommend Google voice typing as a great tool for pupils who may find it physically difficult to write or for pupils where spelling and dyslexia type difficulties are preventing them from accessing a full curriculum. Go to tools, voice typing. Click the microphone to start recording, it will turn red when live, click again to stop. If you click on the little ? as highlighted above, you will have access to all of the commands that can be used within google voice. You can also click here and scroll down to Step 3 to access the commands. An example of using the commands: ‘My name is Hazel full stop new line I live in Aberdeen full stop’. It is important to note that most laptops and chromebooks have a built-in microphone, however when using a desktop PC you may need to have a headset with microphone attached. 7 Page Technological Assessment and Support Service for Children and the Curriculum [email protected] Using Add-ons in Google Docs Add-ons can provide an added support for literacy work when using Google docs. There are many tools available, but TASSCC would recommend the following two tools: Mindmeister Text Help Study Skills Using Mindmeister in a Google doc The MindMeister add-on for Google Docs turns any bullet point list in your document into a mind map and automatically inserts it into the document. In a new Google doc, click on Add-ons on the menu, and Get add-ons… In the search bar that appears type in mindmeister as shown below, and then click on the blue + Free button. On the screen that follows click on Allow. Once the add-on has been activated, you will need to create a bulleted list. Select the bullet point tool on the toolbar. 8 Page Technological Assessment and Support Service for Children and the Curriculum [email protected] Create a list, using your tab key on the keyboard to move in a level. A good tip to move back in a level is to press shift and then tab on your keyboard. Once complete, highlight the list and choose 'Insert as Mind Map' from the Add-on, Mindmeister menu. The list will be converted into a mind map and embedded as an image in the document. A good tip would be to change the page to landscape in File, Page setup if the full mind map isn’t showing on the page. If you right-click on the newly created mind map, and choose ‘Image options’ from the menu you will be able to make small changes such as editing the colours. Using Studyskills in a Google doc Study Skills by TextHelp allows pupils to simplify the note taking process, highlight difficult words throughout a passage or similar type of activity using highlighting tools. All colours are free for 30 days, and following the free trial the yellow highlighting remains available for unlimited use. This is a great tool and is recommended by TASSCC even after the free trial period has expired. 9 Page Technological Assessment and Support Service for Children and the Curriculum [email protected] The studyskills add-on can be found in the same way as Mindmeister by clicking on the add-on menu, get add- ons and searching for ‘study skills’.