John Hendron

March 30, 2020 by John Hendron

Math Notation

This post details how to create math functions in productivity software in iOS applications and the Mac.

“Equations” or mathematical expressions created in Apple’s software makes vector graphics files. Once they are created, they cannot be edited, but they can be copy and pasted into other applications, and even re-sized.

The expressions made in Microsoft Word stay within Word, however the tools in Word are also easier than learning LaTeX from scratch.

Either method below will work for inserting “equations” into a word processor; the Apple apps would be preferred if you want to move your equations into other applications.

LaTeX and Apple iWork Apps

Our math teachers don’t always have an easy time when it comes to creating the true look and feel of math notation on a computer. There are two popular standards for creating math notation: LaTeX and MathML. The Apple suite of applications—including Keynote, Pages, and Numbers—supports both standards.

On Mac, go to Insert > Equation… to get a dialog box for inputting the formatting language to represent your mathematical expression. On iOS, go to Insert (+) media and choose Equation. Apple provides more instruction here.

Simple expressions work on their own:

The Euler example is pretty simple, too, just using a circumflex to create a power. We have to group things with curly brackets. The expression before being translated by LaTeX is: e^{πi+1}=0

While that seems easy enough, how do we get started with either of these formatting languages?

Microsoft Word

In Word, LaTeX is supported as well, but there’s also Microsoft’s own tools as well for creating mathematical expressions.

Go to the Insert tab in the Ribbon.
Go to Equation.
Toggle LaTeX or use Word’s own buttons to create your expression.

Google

In Google, you can type the equation and then add any icons or symbols as needed.

Go to the Insert tab.
Go to Equation.
Type the equation and choose any icons or symbols as needed.

Schoology

In Schoology, you can type the equation in either LaTeX or in Schoology’s own form in any type of Material (Assignments, Test/Quiz, Assessment, or Discussions) that you need.

Choose the Material type.
Choose Insert Content.
Choose either Equation or LaTeX
Type the equation and choose any icons or symbols as needed.

March 30, 2020 by John Hendron

Digital Notebooks to Support Learning

The idea of a worksheet or notebook making its way into the digital domain isn’t new. The concept is worth-revisiting, however, when we consider what’s possible with an app like Numbers for Mac and for iPad.

Numbers is Apple’s spreadsheet app, but in the following video, you’ll find that it doesn’t work like, or even look like, a familiar tool like Excel.

Numbers puts its tabs/sheets along the top of the workbook; in a digital workbook like the one we look at in the video, these are steps in the lesson. Each page can go down and to the left, filling up as much space as you need.

Then students can go over to the next sheet to continue the lesson.

Numbers documents can include video clips, images, clip art, and more–and it’s easily manipulated, just like in Keynote.

Finally, here’s a link to the book I recommend that contains a number of great template files—including some using Numbers.

March 30, 2020 by John Hendron

The Lonely Lecture

College professors the world over are probably all coming to grips with how to make their own video lectures from home during the coronavirus pandemic. Using Apple devices, we have several methods for making recordings.

On iPad, you can use the built-in screen recording feature to record the entire screen and your voice.
On Mac, you can use the Quicktime Player to record your entire screen or a portion of the screen, along with your voice.

In both cases, the device stores the video and then it has to be uploaded somewhere. And at full resolution, these files can become large, even too large to upload to some of our platforms. Check out Apple’s video on using these features.

In this article, I detail how to use Google Hangouts Meet to record a lesson.

Google Hangouts Meet (called Meet for the remainder of this article) allows you to share a screen or a window from your Mac. In addition, it will display your video camera image simultaneously. That’s two things at once.

Create a new Meet at meet.google.com.
Choose “Join Now” after you see your image with the webcam.
Inside the Meet for One (hence my title, the Lonely Lecture), click on the three dots in the bottom-right of the screen, and then choose “Record.”
Choose to full screen or one window. A single window works well if you already have a presentation open, for instance, in PowerPoint or Keynote.
Talk. Remember it’s recording from the video camera, microphone, and screen actions.
Stop the recording when you’re done within Meet.
Wait.

The recording will eventually be mailed as a link from Google Drive to you. At this point, you can change the sharing permissions of this file within Google Drive so that everyone in your class can view this recording. This saves you the step of uploading the video to an online space.

Choose “everyone with the link” as the sharing option and permission set to “View.”

May not be the best method for you, but we just wanted to show how to leverage this tool in a little bit different way—as a video creation tool.

Watch John demonstrate making a video with Meet in Meet

March 30, 2020 by John Hendron

Using Google Calendars to Schedule Appointments

There’s a feature we have within Google Calendars to schedule appointments. What’s an appointment?

An appointment is a time slot that others can reserve for time with you, within a block of time you set aside on your calendar.

When school is closed, you may want to use this feature to manage your office hour times.

Create a new event in your calendar. Choose “Appointment Slots” after clicking to create the event.
Choose the time for your slots. In the example below, I chose 10 minutes.
Complete the rest of the details.
Click/choose Save. Then you will see the event on your calendar.
Click on your calendar event, choose “Go to the appointment page for this event…”
This is where students can sign up for a slot. Share this in your typical channels (i.e., Schoology or email).

For more information, look at Google’s support document on this feature.

March 27, 2020 by John Hendron

Google Jamboard

Google Jamboard is a physical interactive whiteboard by Google. In addition, Jamboard is a service available as part of the Google Cloud.

You can use Jamboard to collaborate within a unified virtual scribble space. In addition to using a virtual marker, you can add sticky notes, add graphics, and edit this space in real time over the Internet.

During our school closure, we’re offering this service to students and staff to be able to work out online collaboration in concert with Google Hangouts Meet, Schoology, and Seesaw.

iPad students with access to the internet can visit Self Service on their iPad to find the Jamboard app. It will be listed under the Google Suite tools.
Teachers can create Jamboards like Google Docs. Go to jamboard.google.com and create a new Jamboard.
Jamboards can be pre-loaded with graphics, notes, etc.
Teachers use the same Share functionality as they do with Google Docs to share access to the board. If you want a group of students to have editing access to your board(s), choose the option “Anyone with the link can Edit.” Then share the link with students. You can share the link through Seesaw, Schoology, or through a Hangout Meet chat.
Teachers and students using iPad can draw with their finger or a stylus.

As always, we do not endorse using this tool for full class instruction, as students under your care may not have access to broadband internet connectivity. Instead, use this tool in optional situations to assist students who request help who report having broadband connectivity.

February 18, 2020 by John Hendron

Masters and Custom Themes in Keynote

We all know Keynote comes with a nice collection of themes—different styles of slides to use to create your presentations. But sometimes they don’t meet your needs. You may want a different slide layout, a different slide size, or you want to only use Keynote to create something other than a presentation.

Customizing a slideware theme makes sense once you finally realize that slides can be more than just titles and bulleted lists!

In this post, we explore editing slide masters and creating your own custom themes.

Editing Slide Masters

Slides in Keynote can hold different elements. By editing a master slide, you can change things like:

background color,
individual elements on screen (graphics, text boxes, media placeholders,
font and text style,
dynamic information like date and time or slide number.

In the video linked below, I reduce the number of slide masters that belong to a theme so that Keynote can be used for a specific purpose, with students in mind. You can also edit the master slides to include things that maybe Apple didn’t think of. Examples might include a slide with four image placeholders instead of three, a different set of fonts, or your own custom shape styles and color scheme.

To edit the slide master within a theme, first open a new document, add at least one slide to your presentation, and under Format, with nothing selected, choose Edit Slide Master. A blue bar appears below the slide to indicate you are editing the master slide. If you edit the Master in a slide deck you’ve already worked on, please be informed that changing the master will change every instance of that slide in your deck.

Making Your Own Theme

Once you start editing, you might as well admit defeat. You’ve started to create your own Keynote theme! Beyond editing the masters in one of Apple’s simpler slide styles, you can do some additional things to make the slides more usable for you or your own audience.

You can name the masters in the sidebar that appears once you edit any master slide,
You can remove master slides you do not want to include,
You can duplicate master slides to make variations of a particular type, such as background color,
You can use media placeholders if you want students to include media assets such as video or pictures.

Once you have edited all the masters to your liking, you can go to File > Save Theme… and either save it as:

a standalone Keynote file in .KTH format (use this to share your theme with students via an LMS or AirDrop),
your own theme on your device.

Fonts, Styles, and Colors

The one caveat with creating your own themes in Keynote is that the theme won’t work as intended on another machine unless the fonts used are available on different devices. By sticking with the supplied fonts on MacOS and iOS by Apple, you should be in good shape!

If you really want to go all the way and share a very polished theme, then go the extra mile to…

Customize the color collection that belongs to your theme (this is used in the new color picker and across charts,
Create styles for text and for symbols
You can also include a slide master that just has clip art on it—for instance, you can use your school’s logo or something unique to your classroom on one of the slides so that students can re-use those images across different slides.