Learning in the Lou

I'm sure you have heard me talk about my feelings for comic sans. I kinda don't care for it and don't get me started on the bookman font! I also know how many of you love using different fonts. Google Docs has a few fonts but follow these steps to add more official fonts to your Google Apps. Open any Google Doc Click on the font and scroll all the way to the bottom. Click More fonts... Scroll to find a font. Click the one you like. Click ok. Return to your Google Doc and check out your new options!

PicMonkey is a power online editor that does just about everything you want. Here are a few of our favorite things you can do. This post will get you started by creating a collage and simple editing. Why not check out this free online tool before summer starts. I'm sure you will take tons of pictures and this site will let you alter them in a fun way. Scroll down and click on Collage . Click Open . Select the pictures you want. Click on the images that appear on the left and drag them to the right. You can reposition the images by dragging them to a different spot. The final product. You have about a billion different options when making a collage.  Click Edit to upload an image. This is similar to all the apps that allow you to edit on your mobile device. I clicked on the magic wand to produce the image below. I used the Boost effect to amp up the colors.

This is a small selection of books I collected over the past few months with the intention of reading them all this summer. I am super pumped about it! New books offer so many new ideas to think about. Did you know the county library offers a summer reading program? It is 100% free and offers some pretty cool prizes. I kinda have my eye on that iPad mini. It would make a sweet dashboard computer for the car. Last night the kids and I signed up. Why not give it a shot? Visit the site and sign up! Ages 0 to infinity!

We posted a few days ago about the new app from Google called Science Journal . After playing with it we found a few interesting things.  Check out Making & Science by Google. You can find this link by clicking on the hamburger icon in the app. I think the Activities To Try is a great place to start. It will walk you through how to use the app and some activities to try. All you need is an Android device to get up and running with this great tool. Example of an Android device: Samsung tablet or phone.

There is a new Android app that Google just released called Science Journal . Not 100% sure how to use all the features but check out what it can do. I was measuring the noise level in the office. Pretty quiet so far. Ambient light at my desk. I moved towards the window and check out the spike! You can measure the acceleration on the X, Y and Z axis.  How might you use this in your classroom or life? Field day? Six Flags? Measuring the noise at home? (Sometimes my kids are just loud and now I have data to back it up!) How much ambient light is actually in this room?

You have all of this Google data that you would like to take with you to college or to look over as you sit on the beach in your retirement. There is something called Google Takeout but that only goes so far. Take a look at this very inexpensive site. Not only is it wicked simple but it goes way beyond what Google Takeout can do. GradGopher  transfers all your Google Drive folders from your work account to your personal account and it will make a copy of all the docs that were shared with you. That alone is the killer feature, one that Google can't do. It will also maintain your folder structure making finding your documents a snap. Just sign in with both accounts and set up a time to copy your data. It is that simple. Note: It does copy over all your emails if you want. Attachments? You bet! Sometimes it is just nice to have all of that information to use later on. GradGopher - follow them on twitter Check out their review on Facebook . I did write one after I use...

Lasers by Douglas Muth Check your Google Slides in a week for these two new features. 1. Laser pointer! 2. Questions in Google Slides Laser Open a Google Slides presentation. Click Present . Look in the lower left corner for the little squiggle. Click that icon and your mouse turns into a laser pointer! Questions Open a Google Slides presentation. Click Present . 1. Click on Presenter View in the lower left corner. 2. Click Start new . A unique address will appear at the top of the screen. Students open that address to ask questions. They can up/down vote questions others ask. Click PRESENT to have that question appear on the screen for everyone to see. The student interface is very simple. Type. Click Submit .