The Wonderful World of Canva!

 

I have always wanted to get into using Canva as a way to be creative with invitations, announcements, and other projects. The creation of images, announcements, and QR codes are just some of the features that can be achieved by this program. I created an account by going to the Canva website and logging in with a username and password. 

As I explore Canva, I see that they have features that you can use on a project and collaborate with others. This feature would be so beneficial for organizations to be simultaneously working on the same thing and be able to share ideas and leave comments and feedback. This feature does require a "Canva Pro Subscription" which would be worth it for an organization or just others who want to work on a project and create things together.

There is a template you can use for different occasions you can use by imputing words or phrases and Canva has set designs that you can use as a starting point for your projects. Another feature is the “Magic Studio,” an AI-assisted image editing feature that can create endless images that you can then use as a template for the project you're working on. I found this to be one of my favorite features.

                        

My daughter is graduating from school and this is the perfect opportunity to create a graduation announcement. I logged into Canva searched for graduation announcements and used the filter to indicate the style, colors, and general style I wanted to create. I was able to drag and drop the pictures that I uploaded into Canva and then adjust them. I was so impressed with the intuitive and user-friendly features of the program. My first creation came out so good! This result made me so excited to try more projects in the future. I was able to download it as a PDF standard, JPEG, PNG, PDF print, or GIF(I have not dug deep into this one). I will be using this program in the future with other projects and I am excited to explore what more Canva has to offer. 

What would you create? 

Exploring AI Tools

 

Exploring AI Tools

AI tools like Suno.ai can simplify complex tasks, improve efficiency, and enhance creativity in various fields. I had some fun exploring the various AI tools and found my top two that I thought should share with you all. Remove.bg (https://www.remove.bg/upload) is a creative tool to remove the background of an image or picture and add whatever background that you would like. They have many backgrounds to choose from or you can add your own customized background. This is a game-changer for graphic designers, marketers, and anyone working with images. Instead of spending time manually selecting and deleting backgrounds, Remove.bg streamlines the process and produces high-quality results quickly. It's especially handy for creating professional-looking graphics, product photos, and social media content. The picture below is of my daughter and her friends when we were in Las Vegas during spring break. I had fun playing with the different backgrounds and felt that the ease of use was simple as I am a beginner and do not have any past experience with graphic design.

Remove.bg (https://www.remove.bg/upload) This AI-powered text-to-speech (TTS) technology was the most fun to use for myself because of the endless possibilities of music and lyrics to be created. It's useful because it allows users to convert written text into spoken audio in a natural and realistic voice. I can see this being beneficial for content creators, educators, or anyone looking to add audio elements to their projects without needing to record a voiceover manually. It is such a big time-saver and provides flexibility in content delivery. You get to create 10 songs a day for free using this particular AI tool.

I had the AI tool write a song about my daughter and her friends playing soccer.

https://app.suno.ai/song/8cc7fde0-94af-46a6-b5cc-fd66e8e67769

I did run out of song credits, however, I will be going back into the app and using it to create all kinds of songs. This was a fun AI tool!

I can see myself integrating both these tools not only into my personal creative life but also into my career. Give to a try and see for yourself!

Endless Possibilities with AI!

 

AI Technology Is Both Scary and Exciting!

    AI and the features it has are mind-blowing, to say the least. I mean, think about it – we're talking about machines that can learn, think, and even make decisions just like us humans. How wild is that?! And what really intrigues me is how AI is everywhere nowadays, from our phones and social media to healthcare and even self-driving cars. The rate at which it is expanding is faster than I can comprehend.

    Diving into AI feels like cracking open this treasure chest of endless possibilities, where every line of code I learn is like uncovering a new superpower. As it is ever-evolving and pushing boundaries, there's never a dull moment. So, yeah, you could say I am excited to ride this wave and see where it takes me!

    I first and foremost learned that you can be as vague as you want when prompting or extremely detailed depending on what level of response you want. I dove into Ghat GPT and was excited about the ease and simplicity of using it. I read and watched videos learning how to use Google Gemini and how you can embed it into your Google workspace, however, Idaho State University accounts look like they restrict it. Copilot is one that works in Microsoft 365 and I want to dive deeper into learning how to use it in the future. One of the most exciting features that I saw it can do is create PowerPoint presentations from documents in your Onedrive and from the web. What a time saver!

    I found 6 key elements prompts that should be used, although you do not need to use all of them at a time. Prompting AI is like stating the role you would like it to respond in, for example, being a teacher, engineer, or management. Second, state which audience you are talking to, as you do not want to respond to third graders as if they were adults. Third, make sure you give AI the task it needs to do, using verbs. Fourth, what approach you would like to use in the response. Lastly, the tone and style of the response. Do you want to use a direct, casual, or friendly response and you can tell it not to use abbreviations, acronyms, and any sort of jargon if needed.

Google Workspace and Shortcuts, Oh my!

                                                                                  

Google Drive is such a useful tool to store and organize all your documents in one place. Naming folder and creating sub folders is a easy way to have all your resources in one place. What if you want to work in one folder on a project and do not want to have to jump around your folders?

                                                              Create a Google Workspace! 

Here is a video that will show you how to create Google Workspace folders and shortcuts. 

I just love being able to customize my Google drive to to fit my needs and get to the information quickly. This kind of organization come in handy when I want to separate my work emails from my school emails. 

                                           How would you organize your documents with Google Drive?

                               

Organizational Charts

 I would love to share a video tutorial about making simple organizational charts in Google Sheets. These organizational charts can be used to help structure an organization. When you create an organizational chart on Google Sheets it can be shared and updated immediately which is a nice feature when it comes to collaborating. 

As you can see, it is simple and easy to create your own organizational chart they are simple to customize. I hope you have fun creating your own!

Learning screen capture and editing images

 I must say, learning to screen capture and edit pictures this week has been so fun! It helped open up my curiosity and want to learn more about editing. 

I have both a Mac for work and Windows for personal use. I loved that I was able to learn both ways depending on what computer I used how to screenshot or clip a part of the screen when needed. After practicing with several images, I was able to get the hang of it fairly easily. I know that I will utilize this a lot in my work life as I always have to explain where things are on our website. This will help me visually show the person asking the question through email. Using PowerPoint, and editing the pictures using shapes to circle important content or arrows to point out specific areas will also be useful to me. I am excited to build upon what I have learned as I grow in my knowledge of image editing. 

Snoozing Emails!

 

Snoozing emails! I get so many emails throughout the day that I can hardly keep up! As you know, I am all about organization, so when I read Robin Lindbeck's Blog about snoozing emails to save for a later date, I was thrilled to learn that I can use this for my email organization. 

I am constantly receiving emails about current and upcoming events in my job. Events that I will be attending and volunteering at like Bengal Visit Day, Rugir Con ISU, Experience ISU, New Student Orientation, and Academic Signing Days to name a few. I continuously receive emails about the event and what I am assigned on the day of the event. Having the option to snooze the email until the day before the event will be a game changer for me so that the information won't get lost in my inbox which it has before on many occasions. I then scramble to find the email or have the sender send it to me again. Now that is embarrassing!

Integrating something so small into my everyday work routine really does make a huge impact when it comes to productivity. I am excited to utilize this on a daily basis and hope that this will not make me feel so overwhelmed when it comes to my emails.