Speaker 1:

Hi, I'm Megan from the Digital Support Team, T4L.

Speaker 2:

Hi, I'm Joe from Disability Inclusion.

Speaker 1:

Today's video is all about keyboard shortcuts. Keyboard shortcuts are wonderful for everybody. This video is for staff and students. Keyboard shortcuts can make your work faster. They can help you with multitasking. They can help you undo quickly. They're vital for some students though.

Speaker 2:

Yes, absolutely essential for some students with disability to help them navigate the computer and make their way around what they're doing, so really important.

Speaker 1:

And reduce cognitive load as well. Really great for everybody. We're going to jump into just five of our favourites today and then we'll show you where you can learn more. The first one I want to show you is Undo. If you look at my screen here and I accidentally do this, this is very common in the classroom, kids will go into panic, "I've lost my work," it is as simple as Control + Z. This works everywhere and I have used this probably 20 times just this morning. Excellent tool. Now Joe, zooming in and zooming out, really important for some kids.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely. There's some great magnification tools, but our Windows devices have a really simple feature built in that you can use to magnify the screen. Obviously, that helps a lot of our teachers as well when they're presenting to a class to help their students at the back row to see what they need to see. But obviously a lot of our students who might have low vision, they can magnify quickly and access what they need to.

Speaker 1:

That's as easy as Control + Plus to make it larger and Control + Minus to make it smaller. On a Chromebook, that's the same. On a Mac, it's just Command + Plus and Command + Minus. I think another great tool is splitting the screen, so from a student's case, we could have our work on one side and our research website on the other side of the screen. To do that, I'm, again, using a Windows device, hitting the Windows key and an arrow key. If I hit the left arrow here, that pops to the left-hand side of the screen and it's asking me which of my open windows do I want on the right, and that's as easy as split screening there. Really handy for teachers as well, Joe.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and great for our students to multitask and have things there if they need that extra support as well. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. You could even be watching this video now and testing some of the tools out on one side of your screen at the same time. That's split screening. Now Joe, clipboard history is a game changer. You just learned about this one this morning. You going to use it all time, aren't you?

Speaker 2:

This is new to me. I love this one.

Speaker 1:

It is the best. Clipboard history is actually... It shows us where our pasted things are. If I copy a few things here, I'm hitting Control + C to copy. Control + V will still work. I might even grab a screenshot of something as well. When I go to hit Windows + V instead of Control + V, that will pop up everything that I have copied since I turned my computer on.

Speaker 2:

Wow. I love that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, very cool. But even better, what we can do is hit the pin button and it will now be pinned. Even when I clear all or restart my computer, that will always be there, so really handy for email addresses or things that you find that you're typing all the time, specifically kids who need something like this.

Speaker 2:

I'm thinking a lot of kids difficulty with spelling or typing, having things that they use all the time in there is going to make it really easy for them to get that down quickly.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. The one catch with this is that you do have to come back to the same computer to get those pinned options. As I said, on a Windows device, that is Windows + V, on a Chromebook, it is Search + V, and on a Mac, it is Command + Space to get that up. Now, the last tool we wanted to talk about is one of your favourite.

Speaker 2:

Dictation. I love a dictation tool. The Windows devices now have the Windows + H shortcut, which quickly turns on the microphone, allows a student or a teacher to be able to just talk, and it will write for them basically anywhere on a Windows device where there is a cursor, so a real game changer for teachers to save a bit of time, but also for our students who need to get their ideas down quickly and easily. Students do need to think about it and plan a little bit before they start speaking, but it's really quickly for them to be able to type and remove some of those barriers that a lot of our students face with writing and spelling and typing.

Speaker 1:

As you said, works anywhere where there is a cursor. We can do it straight into Google, we could do it into the search bar at the bottom, anywhere at all, and that's why that's a nice universal one. It's Windows + H on a Windows device, Search + D on a Chromebook, and on a Mac, you're just looking for the microphone button. You can also set it up in settings so it's selected to a key lock F5 if you wanted to as well.

To learn more about keyboard shortcuts, you're going to want to jump onto the Department of Education site and find us. We're under the Teaching and Learning tab. Scroll down to Technology for Learning, scroll down to Resources, then Professional Learning Resources. There are a few steps, but it's worth it when you get there. You will find everything that you need to know in the Inclusive and Assistive Technology space. Here, you will find your printable versions of the keyboard shortcuts.

Speaker 2:

Excellent.

Speaker 1:

That's all from us. What I'm going to do now is lock my computer. Always do that before you're walking away. I'm going to hit on my Windows computer Windows + L to lock it. If you are on a Chromebook, it is Search + L. If you're on a Mac, it is Command + Control + Q.

Speaker 2:

Jump in and try some of these tools out.