TechTip: Accessing Your Clipboard

 I use copy and past quite a bit in my work just as every knowledge worker does. Recently I've been playing with Window's different copy and paste options and have hit on two that I am finding helpful. 

The first is pasting plain text instead of formated text using CTRL + SHIFT + V. An example of this is copying and pasting information from an Excel spreadsheet into an email. If I just used CTRL + C and CTRL + V I get something that looks like;

But if I use CTRL + C and CTRL + SHIFT + V I get this;

1 Objective 1 Section 3.1: Determine whether a relation represents a function.

2 Objective 2 Section 3.1: Find the value of a function.

1 Objective 3 Section 3.1: Determine whether a function is one-to-one.

1 Objective 4 Section 3.1: Use the vertical line test to identify functions. Graph the functions listed in the library of functions.

This is handy if I want to edit the information, or remove formatting.

The second thing I've been using is accessing the clipboard using WINDOWS + V. I regularly copy and paste the same feedback to students and having to keep going back to a separate file can get tedious. In copying a number of different pieces of feedback I can select the right feedback for an individual student. 

via GIPHY

This has saved me a lot of time going back and copying and pasting different bits of information. For example when I create and post a video to YouTube I generally embed the video in a course announcement, and need to copy and paste the video title, description, and embed code. In using WINDOWS + V and opening the clipboard I can copy all three pieces of this information in one window, and then paste all three separate pieces of information into the correct place in my announcement.

What simple hacks, functionality, or features of apps or programs do you use that not many other people know about? 

Making my work boring - AutoHotkey

 As someone who sits at their computer to work there are a number of things I have to type regularly and accurately. For example my Zoom link; I need to share it at least once a day with students, faculty, staff, and others. I currently have a password set for it, so it is long. Instead of using a clipboard manager (although recently I have found the clipboard manager (Windows + V) to be helpful) I was on the hunt for a text expander, a program that would replace a code with something longer.

I don't know how I came across it, but I found AutoHotkey and I've been testing a few automation tasks and text expander. Below is a gif of me typing out simple codes being replaced with text that I use regularly. 

Below is what I've come up with so far, mainly using the text expander functionality of AutoHotkey (AHK), but I am trying some hotkeys to open up the correct files and programs to get certain tasks done. 

#NoEnv  ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.

; #Warn  ; Enable warnings to assist with detecting common errors.

SendMode Input  ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.

SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%  ; Ensures a consistent starting directory.

These are my reminders of how to code a hot key. 

; # Windows key

; ! ALT

; ^ CTRL

; + SHIFT

For example the following code lets me hold down the CTRL button and u to open up the tasks in my Planning Workflow.  

^u::

Run, Notepad++.exe

Run, "C:\Users\Robert\OneDrive - Clark College\000_Organizing Documents\00_Workflows\2021 Spring Ideal Workflows"

return

I use a number of dashes for breaks between sections in an email and elsewhere, so typing three letter codes to get the same number of dashes saves a bit of time.  

::d10::----------

return

::d30::------------------------------

return

::wem::rweston@clark.edu

return

I just found this out in the last hour but by adding an asteriks between the two colons at the start indicates that AHK should replace the text as soon as you type the following code. 

:*:ques?::If you have ANY questions, please don't hesitate to let me know. Anywhere in Canvas click on Help on the left menu, click on Ask Your Instructor a Question, and send me your question.{enter}

return

:*:ssig::Best,{enter}Mr. Weston

return

:*:csig::Best,{enter}Robert

return

:*:zlink::https://us02web.zoom.us/my/robert.weston

return

::AYIQ:: click on Help on the left menu bar in Canvas and click on Ask Your Instructor a Question

return

I routinely use Google so this script allows me to hold down ALT + c to take whatever is in the current clipboard (CTRL + c) and enter it into a Google search.  

!c::

{

Send, ^c

Sleep 50

Run, http://www.google.com/search?q=%clipboard%

return

}

To quickly get my head into grading quizzes I created the following command, ALT + q will open the files and sites I use to grade quizzes. Granted I have to do a little navigating, but it does get me into the process of grading quizzes a bit quicker.  

^q::

{

;Open old feedback files.

Run, C:\Users\Robert\OneDrive - Clark College\01_MATH 104 Spring 2021\05_Quizzes\Old

Sleep 1000

;Open Canvas Quizzes to open Quiz

Run, firefox.exe https://clarkcollege.instructure.com/courses/2059881/quizzes

Sleep 5000

Send {Enter}

Sleep 2000

;Open Canvas Assignments for Quiz Work

Run, firefox.exe https://clarkcollege.instructure.com/courses/2059881/assignments

return

}

If you use AHK, or can think of ways to use such a program, I'd love to hear your ideas. 

Making my work boring - Workflows

 

In listening to Cal Newport's Deep Work podcast and reading his book Deep Work, he has a point about making work boring so that we can free up cognitive space to be creative. In asking our brains to address the questions How am I going to do this? What needs to be done next? etc. we're wasting cognitive load on answering questions that have little to do with our actual work. 

To this end he suggests explicit workflows or processes for tasks you regularly complete. For this term I am slowly building these workflows, based on my ideal schedule for Spring 2021, below. 

In setting up my ideal schedule I think about what I want to spend time on, and when to NOT to schedule time. In being chairperson of my department there are a good number of days I have to focus my time and attention on something that comes up. This term I've added -0- to my schedule to be a placeholder for working on those emergent tasks.

From my ideal schedule I've been writing them in my journal (see The Time-Block Planner Feedback) and then adjusting my schedule as needed. Hopefully I'll be able to identify when my ideal schedule broke, and then create a new one for Fall 2021 with the lessons I've learned this term.

For each of those items in my ideal schedule I created the following text files to capture what I do during those times. 

A good number are blank, but over the break I thought about a few of them, below. Email is something Newport talks a LOT about, so I thought it would be good to solidify what I do first and make sure I only check email a few times a day. (I've since kept it open, but just mute the tab.)

This is how I grade quizzes, including my rubric. 

For office hours a good amount of the time students are not there, but I do need to take time to reach out to students. 

In doing this I keep feeling like I am programming myself, which on the surface seems to run counter to what academics would seem to prize; thinking about the world. Yet, what do I want to use my limited brain power on, the little or the big things?

It also feels nice to put these things down somewhere, knowing I can come back to them in the future and make them better. Maybe I learn enough AutoHotKey or Python to automate a good amount of what I do? Maybe I realize I dislike doing some of these tasks and find ways around them? Maybe I just iterate on them term over term, and come to a place of peace that I can't improve every task... Yet. 

"Making Teamwork Work" ideas to adapt

 In Inside Higher Ed, Steve Reifenberg discusses teamwork in Making Teamwork Work, and what faculty can do to improve how students work in teams. As a POGIL practitioner the People, Process, and Feedback elements are well worn paths to me, but there was a new route was offered. This quote really stuck out to me, emphasis mine;

In fact, a lot of evidence suggests that diverse teams can be more creative and perform better than homogeneous ones. But that diversity works only if the team members get to know one another and learn something about their teammates’ different vantage points and experiences and the benefits that they can bring to the project.

 I realize I haven't done a lot of that in recent memory, although my initial activities do have some personal questions. Maybe I should look at those first few activities to be intentional about students getting to know each other during that first week. 

The Time-Block Planner Feedback

 In this recent podcast episode, Dr. Cal Newport asked for feedback for his time-block planner. I purchased it at the end of last year to use over the Winter 2021 term. From that experience I bought a blank journal and created very similar organizational tools to the ones Dr. Newport has in his planner. I wrote and sent some feedback, but thought I'd share it here to describe what my planning process looks like. Here is what I sent him;

Dr. Newport,

In your recent Deep Questions podcast episode (Ep. 85: Are NFTs Frivolous or Fundamental?) you asked for feedback on your time-block planner. I used your planner over the Winter 2021 term to support my work as a math instructor and as the newly elected chairperson of the math department at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington. Over the term I attempted to use the planner consistently, but as with any new process I had mixed results.

For the Spring 2021 term I bought this journal from Baronfig to time-block plan. I was primarily attracted to the form factor at 7.5 in. by 5.5 in. and that it lay flat. With the previous time-block planner it felt fairly bulky, and I had to clip the left side of the planner to my desk to keep it laying flat. Working from home I didn't have to worry about carrying the previous planner in a bag, and worry about the additional weight it might add. I also tried writing in the previous planner in a chair with a table or desk and found it flimsy, and it slid around. The Baronfig journal is small enough that I could support writing in it with one hand, and it had a hard backing for additional support. 

With a blank planner I knew I had to organize the pages, and thought in drawing the tables and schedules I might be more motivated to use them. Using a blank planner also gave me the opportunity to add components I wanted in the previous time-block planner. 

The first page has a quarter plan (We are on 10 week quarters.) with major events. Excuse the coffee stain. 

I included a monthly schedule for finer gradation in tasks and events. 

In reviewing the time-block planner at the end of last term I realized I only organized the weekly overviews in terms of days, and therefore added this page before the first week. 

One thing I've been playing with are sticky notes for tasks that continue from day-to-day, or reminders I want to keep on a daily basis. 

You mentioned not having a full two-page spread for weekends, and I agree, it seemed like wasted space. So far I've just added the dates of the weekend days on each page, and am planning rough sketches of the day, and/or notes for when my mind wanders back to work. 

After having used this journal for a week and a day I am a little worried about having so many calendars to update and cross reference within the journal. Quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily feel just a tad much, so I may take out the monthly calendar.

Drawing the calendars, tables, and charts is a nice crafty task I do at night with some music on. Drafting in high school apparently left a mark on what I find meditative and calming. While asking users to draw their own schedules in a consumer product might be a step too far, adding in elements where users customize them for their needs may be useful.

I also looked at The Perfect Notebook (https://perfect-notebook.com/) for its modularity, but I'm still trying to sort out what I want in my journal and went the hand-written route this time. In the future I would like the option of doing a little up-front work to customize my planner, but then it's set and I don't have to worry about that part again. This might be a nice way to tie in quarterly reflections about the previous planner, what worked and what didn't, and then create your new planner with those lessons in mind. 

Thank you for sharing your organizational methods and your expertise. I have greatly benefited from both. 

Highest regards,

Robert Weston