IT Ideas

Web Version of Spotify If you want to use Spotify in a browser - so on a Chromebook or just don't want to install the local app, then there is now a beta web app. You do need a Facebook account to access it - but once in you can use you regular Spotify App. Follow this link: https://apps.facebook.com/get-spotify/?fb_source=notification&fb_ref=cazzette_gb&ref=notif&notif_t=app_notification Sign in with Facebook. You should then be able to switch to your Spotify account. Bookmark the page. Then enjoy browser based Spotify. There is a thread about this in the Chromebook group forum , which I would recommend to any Chromebook users out there. Don't know how long it will be in beta - but appears to work well on my ARM based chromebook and PC. Update: You can now get Spotify as an App in the Chrome-web store. So no need to do any of this now.

How to edit Videos in Google Drive A lot of people in our Apps domain have found how easy it is to upload videos straight to their Google Drive. However, it would be nice to be able to edit them. Well, you can. You need to add a app called Pixorial to your Drive and then you can: Edit videos Add captions and credits. Add transitions. Add audio tracks. Add images and much more. I've tried to illustrate this in a little video:

Fusion Tables Fusion tables have finally come to Google Apps for Education. These are quite cool and allow data sets - both private and public to be merged and visualised in a number of ways. You can make a Fusion Table by going to your drive and clicking on 'Create' 'More' and Fusion Table. You can also add it as a Chrome App. This is still in beta, so some of the features could well changes. You can add data-sets from Google Sheets or csv files. You can merge Fusion Tables, specifying the fields to match - essentially creating a relational database. The data can then be displayed in a number of way. Note the options differ if you are using the new or the old look. One I did earlier - oil production by country - not perfect - but only took a couple of minutes! If you want to know more go to the Google documentation on this .

Google+ Android App Update This Apps has just updated on my phone. You now get all the functionality more or less of the web based version. Most notably for me is the ability to start hangouts from the phone. This would be good if you wanted to have a live feed of an educational visit for example or any event and you just wanted to have a phone - not a laptop or tablet. Tested with a few private hangouts - works well and very easy to use. Also works fine on 3G.

Google Research Tools Research tools can be found in Google Documents and Sllides (Presentations). It allows you to do the following things: Add images from Google image search without having another browser tab open and automatically reference then. Add references to web searches automatically. Add whole webpages to documents. Add links to webpages automatically. All useful stuff if you are doing a project or just making a presentation for a class. Brief video of the key features below.

Realtime Board This is a cool Chrome app that creates a realtime board that you can share with other people. You can save your boards and save them as image files if you want. Screen shot below:

Self Marking Google Form Tests This is a quick demo of how to use the great MCQ script in Google Forms to make self marking tests with Google Forms and provide students with feedback.