An Introduction to Google Spaces

Last week, Google announced a new app: Google Spaces. The idea behind Spaces is to create topic-based, shareable spaces that allow you to make a space about anything that interests you and then share it with your friends. Here’s a quick tour of Spaces.

For desktop:
To create a space, go to Google Spaces and click Create a Space.
Name it, and then you can send out invitations to the space. You can send out the link by copying it, emailing it directly, or sharing it via Facebook.
Spaces also has a mobile app. The video tutorial demos it on iOS, but it’s also available on Android.

For mobile:
Mobile has some expanded options for sharing, including sharing via a message (e.g., text or email). This is a convenient way to share mobile content.
Spaces integrates with Google search and YouTube. So you can search for a video in YouTube, view it, and then share it–all without ever having to leave a single app. This is great for a streamlined content browsing and sharing experience.
You can have conversations about content within Spaces and stay focused on the topic of a given space.
If you want to search through your spaces, you can use the search bar at the top of the screen.
Try it out for yourself and see what you think.

How to Create a Word Cloud in Google Docs

Creating a word cloud in Google Docs is a creative way to visualize the text you’re working on. It allows you to see what words are being used the most, so you can get a quick sense of your themes emerging in your writing.

1. In a Google Doc, navigate to the top your screen. Click Add-ons > Get add-ons.
2. Search for Word Cloud Generator.
3. Once you find it, click on the “+ Free” button to install the add-on. You’ll get a notification in Google Docs that Word Cloud Generator has been added to your add-ons menu.
4. To create your word cloud, Click on Add-ons > Word Cloud Generator > Create Word Cloud. 
5. The word cloud will form on the right side of your page, and it’ll be based on the words that are most commonly used in your document. The larger words indicate that they’re used more frequently. If you click on Append top word counts, it’ll create a table in your document that lists how many times each of your top words appears in your document.

Tech Tip: How to create interactive timelines from Google Sheets

Timelines are useful tools for helping students conceptualize how individual events fit into a given time period. My favorite timeline app is TimelineJS, an open-source tool from Northwestern University’s Knight Lab that lets you build timelines from Google Sheets.

Here is one I built about the Japanese-American internment.

There are only four steps to creating a timeline. The app’s page outlines them, and includes links to templates, but here’s a quick overview:

1. Open the Google Sheet template, remove the sample items and add your own content (dates, photos, Tweets, Google Maps, text and media links). The spreadsheet template includes a column for providing media credits. You can leave columns blank, but do not delete or change the column headers. Each row is for a new date and headline on your timeline.
2. When you have finished adding your content, head to File > Publish to the web. Remember to click on the “Automatically republish when changes are made” option.
3. Grab the link or embed code and you’re ready to share your timeline with your students — and the world.

And that’s it! Have fun creating your own timelines.

Gail Desler is a technology integration specialist for the Elk Grove Unified School District in California. She is a Google Certified Innovator, a Microsoft Innovative Educator, a National Writing Project Teacher Consultant and a Library of Congress American Memory Project Fellow. Gail co-directs the Time of Remembrance Oral Histories Project and co-curates the Digital ID Project. Follow her on Twitter.

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Tech Tips is a content collaboration between SmartBrief Education and GreyED Solutions. Have a tech tip to share? Contact us at techtips@greyedsolutions.com

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Conquer Tab Sprawl With Google Chrome Keyboard Shortcuts on a Mac

If you use Google Chrome and you tend to open up lots of tabs during a browsing session, it can get hard to manage and organize all of your tabs. Here are a few fast and effective keyboard shortcuts to conquer “tab sprawl” and navigate your tabs quickly.

Command + L = Highlight the URL in a tab
Command + Option = Navigate between tabs by holding these down and moving the right or left arrow
Command + W = Close current tab
Command + T = Open new tab
Command + Shift + T = Open the last tab you closed
Command + Shift + click a link = Open a link in a new tab

Note: These commands are for Macs. Most of these shortcuts will have an equivalent on the Windows version of Chrome by using the Ctrl key instead of the Command key.