Video Tutorials

There are video tutorials available on the tech integration YouTube page for those interested. Click here. 

Currently there are tutorials on:

Gmail
Google Docs/Drive
SMART Board Troubleshooting
Google Forms
Google Calendar


There will be more videos added on an ongoing basis so be sure to check back occasionally to see what's new or subscribe to be automatically notified of what's new. 

Annoying Ads

Ronnie Burt- edublogs.org

  Oh Those Ads!

Have you ever been ready to show a great web page or video in class that you know will knock the socks of your students? You load up the page or YouTube video and then WHAM the train leaves the rails. Why? 

ADS

As soon as the page or video loads, some annoying or entirely inappropriate add pops up/autoplays and your students' attention has completely left the realm of anything academic and may not return.  Sniggers and chuckles ensue. Whispers soon give way to outright laughter. You now spend precious minutes trying to redirect students back on task while thinking ahead to whether or not you want to go through this headache again with the next group. 

Web resources are great until they aren't.  Distracting and sometimes time consuming ads are a constant frustration for those employing YouTube or other sites that rely on ad revenue to support the costs of hosting the site. Well, they are a frustration if you do not know how to turn them off. Here's how:

Enter AdBlock and AdBlock for YouTube

For some time now, Google's Chrome browser has allowed users to customize their browsing experience by adding apps and extensions that work entirely within the web environment. This is especially important since Chromebooks obviously navigate the web via Chrome. Thus, changes to Chrome would affect many of our students. If you are unfamiliar with Chrome or how to add extensions, watch this video first. 

AdBlockPlus.org

AdBlock and AdBlock for YouTube are two extensions that can be added to your Chrome browser profile which will block ads or significantly reduce them. AdBlock takes out most annoying ads and almost completely eliminates inappropriate ads from websites as you're browsing. AdBlock for YouTube eliminates the autoplay ads that start when you click on a video (which used to be just about the most annoying thing possible when using YouTube resources in a classroom). 

The combination of the two plus adjusting your YouTube settings for comments takes a video that normally displays as this: 

(Notice the autoplay ad, video recommendations on right, and comments below)

Instead display as this:

(The video looks smaller but they're actually the same size. All the ads, suggestions, and comments have been removed.) 

The AdBlocks have cleaned up the video, eliminating distractions that could derail the best lesson. 

To Add AdBlock 

1. Click the three bars on the top-right for your settings and select "Settings"
   
   
   
2. On the left click "Extensions" and then "Get More Extensions"
   
3. In the search bar on the top left, type "AdBlock"
   
4. For AdBlock Plus and AdBlock for YouTube, click "+ Free" and then "Add"

That's it! You now will be blocking those annoying ads!