Fresh Takes 4 Teachers
Practical Ed Tech Live – Recording and Questions
This morning I recorded a new episode of Practical Ed Tech Live. This episode was a little short because I was recording with a special
Create Your Own Google Classroom – G Suite Not Required
Last month Google began allowing anyone who has a Gmail address to join Google Classroom classrooms. This week that option was extended to allow anyone
Penguins and 3D Printers
We went to the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas today and saw endangered African penguins. Seeing the penguins immediately reminded me of the story of
How to Subscribe to a YouTube Channel
I have a few YouTube channels that I enjoy and look forward to their next uploads. I subscribe to those channels so that I’m notified
Three Tips for Getting More Out of Webinars
About nine or so years ago I watched a webinar for the first time. I can’t remember exactly what the webinar was about (it was
Practical Ed Tech Live – Tomorrow Morning With a Special Guest
Tomorrow morning at 9:30 EDT I am hosting another edition of Practical Ed Tech Live in which I will answer your questions about all things
I Love a Good Keynote…But I’ll Take the Workshop
I love to listen to a good keynote presentation. Dan Meyer’s Math Class Needs a Makeover is still one of the best I’ve seen in terms of challenging
This Online Audio Editor Is Beautiful
Beautiful Audio Editor is a free audio editor that you can use in the Chrome and Firefox web browsers. Beautiful Audio Editor lets you record
Live Video of Owls, Ospreys, and More
Explore.org offers the largest collection of live nature webcams on the web. In the gallery of live webcams you will find video feeds featuring owls
Telegra.ph – Multimedia Publishing That Doesn’t Require Registration
Telegra.ph is a free publishing tool that I featured last week in Three Simple Platforms for Publishing Writing. In that post I made an error
Try This Fun, Free AR App for Outdoor Lessons
Spring is here in the northern hemisphere and those of us in northern climates are ready to get back to playing outside without wearing seven
Edublogs Publishes a Report on the State of Educational Blogging
Edublogs, a popular student blogging service, recently published the findings of their annual survey to gather feedback from teachers, students, and school administrators about their
GE Teach Tour Builder – Create Google Earth Tours for the Web
GE Teach is a fantastic project developed by Josh Williams. Josh and his students were some of the first to use the new version of
Free, Live Online Review for AP Government Exam
On May 2nd two of my favorite history teachers, Keith Hughes and Tom Richey, are hosting an online review session for students who are taking
How to Control What Appears in Your Facebook Feed
This afternoon I received an email from a reader who was quite upset that I was posting on her Facebook account. Since I’m not in
Story Cubes – Templates to Help Students Plan Stories
Read Write Think’s Cube Creators provide templates designed to break the writing process into six distinct parts. There are templates for writing biographies, mysteries, short
Getting Going With G Suite – An Online Course
Next Tuesday at 7pm Eastern Time I am starting a new section of my popular online course Getting Going With G Suite. Once again this
ViewedIt – Quick and Easy Screencasting
ViewedIt is a free Chrome extension that makes it quick and easy to create and share screencast videos. With the extension installed you can record
10 Math Tutorial YouTube Channels Not Named Khan Academy
One of the most popular posts of all time on this blog featured math tutorial YouTube channels for high school and college students. That post
Kitchen Science – Let’s Make Butter
SciShow Kids recently released a new video titled Let’s Make Butter. The video provides directions for making butter in your kitchen then goes on to
Practical Ed Tech Webinar FAQs
Starting in May and running through the end of August I will be hosting five different professional development webinars for teachers and school administrators. I
The Week in Review – The Most Popular Posts
Good morning from rainy Maine. The rain doesn’t stop us from playing outside, but it’s not quite as fun as playing in the sun. I
Three Simple Platforms for Publishing Writing
I recently finished making a couple of videos that teach people how to create self-hosted WordPress blogs. Using a self-hosted WordPress blog is the way
5 Good Ways for Students to Create Digital Showcases of Their Work
As I look at dreary weather outside my window it doesn’t feel like the end of the school year is near, but it is getting
Three Tools That Help Students Analyze What They Write
Probably every high school teacher since the dawn of time has asked his or her students to have someone else proofread their essays before turning
Loopy Makes It Easy to Create Animated Simulations
Loopy is a free tool for creating your own animated simulations or illustrations of a concept. This free animation tool is designed to showing relationships
SeeSaw Now Directly Accepts Google Drive Files
SeeSaw is a great tool for creating digital portfolios with your students. SeeSaw lets students create digital portfolios that include pictures, documents, presentations, and videos.
Create Sesame Street Fan Fiction on WriteReader
WriteReader recently announced a partnership with Sesame Street that essentially lets students use Sesame Street artwork in their own multimedia stories. As I wrote on
How to Create Your Own Placemarks in the New Google Earth
A new version of Google Earth was released yesterday. In my initial review of it I was excited that it now works in your web
Find Inspiration for Video Projects While Judging a Video Contest
This is a guest post from Rushton Hurley. Rushton is the founder of Next Vista for Learning and the author of Making Your School Something Special. Every year,
Practical Ed Tech Live Recording
Yesterday afternoon I hosted another edition of Practical Ed Tech Live. The Q&A session was streamed live on the Practical Ed Tech Facebook page and
A Tour of the New Google Earth – Google Earth in Your Browser
This morning Google released a completely new version of Google Earth. The new version is designed to be used in the Chrome web browser or
A Crash Course on the History of Movies
Thanks to Open Culture I learned about a new Crash Course that should be fun to follow for the next sixteen weeks. Crash Course Film
Dotstorming Adds Helpful New Features
Dotstorming is a good tool for hosting online brainstorming sessions and or general gathering of ideas from an audience. I’ve featured it in some of
Speak to Go – Explore the World With Your Voice in Virtual Reality
Speak to Go is a new Google WebVR experiment. Speak to Go lets you explore the world in virtual reality by just speaking the name
5 Good Resources for Teaching and Learning About the American Revolution
Today is Patriots’ Day. Here in Maine as well as in Massachusetts and Wisconsin it’s an official state holiday. The day commemorates The Battles of
Desmos Now Offers an Online Geometry Tool
Desmos, the company known for its online graphing calculator, recently released a new online geometry tool. Desmos Geometry is designed to help students understand geometry
Number Rack & Geoboard – Good Apps for Elementary School Math
Geoboard is a free app on which students stretch virtual rubber bands over pegboards to create lines and shapes to learn about perimeter, area, and
Words of the World – Learn the Origin of Words
Words of the World is another excellent set of videos from the same people that brought us the popular Periodic Table of Videos. Words of the
WriteReader and Sesame Street Partner to Help Kids Create Multimedia Stories
WriteReader, a fantastic multimedia writing platform, has just announced a partnership with Sesame Street. This partnership brings Sesame Street characters into WriteReader’s bank of images
Word Mover – A Great App for National Poetry Month
April is National Poetry Month. If you have students who need a little help crafting poems, have them try Word Mover. Word Mover from Read
Explore NASA Spacecraft in 3D
Spacecraft 3D is a free iPad app produced by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Spacecraft 3D uses augmented reality technology to bring NASA spacecraft to life
A Concise Explanation of Augmented Reality
On Friday I shared a post about an augmented reality app from PBS Kids. That app lets students take pictures of animated characters in outdoor
More Than 400 Science Animations
Learners TV, like many similar sites on the Internet, offers an index of math and science video lessons. What makes Learners TV a little different
The Week In Review – The Most Popular Posts
Good evening from Connecticut where I’m visiting family for Easter weekend. It was a big day for me and my daughter as it was our
Understanding the Science of Baseball
Baseball, my favorite professional team sport, is back in season. And soon Little League baseball will be starting again too. If you have elementary school
The PeriodicTable of Videos – An Update from the Archive
Earlier this week an email from a reader prompted me to take a look back through my archives for chemistry-related resources. The Periodic Table of
How to Annotate Images on a Chromebook
From time to time you may find yourself needing to highlight portions of an image or point out features of a diagram for your students.
Plum’s Creaturizer – A Neat AR App to Get Kids Exploring Outdoors
Creaturizer from PBS Kids is a free iOS and Android app that lets students create fun cartoon creatures then place them into outdoor settings through
11 FAQs About the 2017 Practical Ed Tech Summer Camps
Early registration discounts for the Practical Ed Tech Summer Camps are available for sixteen more days. In the last couple of weeks I’ve answered a
Dogs and Humans – A Long History of Friendship
Anyone who has followed this blog for more than a week or two has probably picked up on my love for my dogs (#adoptdontshop). I’m
See California’s Redwoods in Google Street View
In an earlier post I shared the Google Expeditions virtual tours of national parks. Shortly after publishing that post I discovered Google’s latest additions to
Explore National Parks for Free In Person or Online
Entry to national parks in the United States is free each of the next two weekends. If there is a national park near you, go
Quick Key’s New Google Forms Add-on Makes It Easy to Send Grades to PowerSchool
Earlier this year Quick Key added a Google Classroom integration. Recently, Quick Key took that integration deeper by introducing a Google Forms Add-on. Quick Key’s
7 Good Resources for Teaching and Learning About Earth Day
Each of the last two mornings I’ve been inundated with spammy press releases pitching all manner of websites and products related to Earth Day. The
Duolingo Tinycards – Create and Study Flashcards
Duolingo is a free service that is best known for helping students learn a new language. That’s not all Duolingo can be used for. Students
How to Use Incognito Mode In Google Chrome – And Why You Might Use It
In many of my webinars I will use Google Chrome’s incognito mode to demonstrate how a page like a Formative quiz or a Padlet wall
Keeping Track With Google Keep and Calendar – PD Webinar Tomorrow
From keeping track of the websites you bookmark to keeping track of your to-do list to scheduling appointments, Google Keep and Google Calendar have you
A Student With Autism Explains Autism
This is a guest post from Rushton Hurley. Rushton is the founder of Next Vista for Learning and the author of Making Your School Something
Peaks and Valleys – An Interactive Story Map
Peaks and Valleys is an interactive story map produced on the ESRI platform. As you scroll through the story map the highest peaks and lowest
An Interactive Mural of Birds
This afternoon while walking my dog, Max, I saw the first ducks of spring paddling around a small opening in the ice on a local
The Week in Review – The Most Popular Posts
Good morning from gray and rainy Maine. It appears that we’re into the “April showers” portion of the “April showers bring May flowers” adage. On
Three Ways to Create Jeopardy-style Games
On Friday I shared a video about how to create and play Jeopardy-style game on the Factile platform. There are other good options for creating
How to Create PDFs of Padlet Walls
Padlet has always had an option for saving the contents of the walls that you make with students. The trouble with doing that has always
ClassDojo Messenger Now Offers Scheduling
ClassDojo users may have recently noticed a new option within ClassDojo Messenger. You can now schedule messages to be sent at a later time. This
An Easy Way to Create and Play Jeopardy-style Games
Earlier this week I shared news about the updated Jeopardy Rocks platform that is now called Factile. Factile lets you create Jeopardy-style game boards to
How to Create Appointment Slots in Google Calendar
Whether you’re looking for a way to let students schedule office hours with you or you’re trying to streamline scheduling meetings with parents, Google Calendar
Q&A from Practical Ed Tech Live
Earlier today I hosted the second installment of Practical Ed Tech Live. Just like last week I answered the questions that were submitted to me
5 Considerations in BYOD Schools
BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) environments are becoming increasingly more common in schools. For teachers and students BYOD can be a good thing as it
From Blog to Job – A Teacherpreneur Jumpstart
On a regular basis I’m asked for advice about how to make money through blogs and social media. The first thing to know is that
Cyberbullying Explained by Common Craft
Lee and Sachi at Common Craft have released a new video that tackles a topic that every student, teacher, and parent should understand; cyberbullying. By
12 Lessons from 12,000 Blog Posts
It occurred to me the other day as I was watching the Red Sox home opener that over the course of the last ten years
12 Tools for Creating Videos on Chromebooks – A PDF Handout
Making videos is one of my favorite digital media projects to do with students and teachers. Chromebook users aren’t able to access iMovie, Final Cut,
Downloads On A Chromebook and 4 Other Tips for New Users
This morning I received an email from a reader who was concerned that her school was going to be using Chromebooks next year and she
Practical Ed Tech Live – This Thursday at 4pm EDT
Last Thursday I hosted the first Practical Ed Tech Live session simultaneously on Facebook and YouTube. During the 25 minute session I answered questions that
My Secret Method for Developing Blog Post Topics
Yesterday, on Anchor.fm I answered the question that I’m probably asked more than any other about blogging, that is “how do you come up with
How to Download Google Slides as Images
In the course of designing and building a great slide presentation, you may find that you have some slides that make great stand-alone graphics for
How to Create an Audio Slideshow in YouTube
This morning I received the following question in an email: You shared how to add sound to Google Slides. Is there a way to add
Jeopardy Rocks Now As Factile – Jeopardy & Flashcards
A couple of years ago I featured Jeopardy Rocks. Recently, Jeopardy Rocks changed its name to Factile and added some more features. At its core
If I Was Starting Free Technology for Teachers Today…
I am frequently asked about how I started Free Technology for Teachers. In response to that question I always tell the story about starting it
Don’t Forget the Greater Context on Your VR Trip
During last week’s Practical Ed Tech Live episode (join me this Thursday at 4pm EDT) I was asked about virtual reality, specifically Google Expeditions. The
The Week in Review – The Most Popular Posts
Good morning from Maine where it is snowing. No, that’s not an April Fool’s joke. It really is snowing. The weather forecast calls for ten
7 Google Product Updates You Might Have Missed in March
It can be hard to keep up with all of the changes and updates that Google makes to the products that have become an integral
33 Lessons on Critical Thinking
From analyzing a persuasive essay to dissecting research findings to determining the cause of an outcome in a science lab, having sharp critical thinking skills
PD Webinar – Google Forms & Sheets for Beginners
Google Forms and Sheets can complete all kinds of tasks for you, if you know how to use them. Once you’ve learned the basics of
The Month in Review – Spring Is Here (Kind of)
The calendar tells me that it is spring here in Maine, but the weather tells me otherwise. We’re expecting ten more inches of snow to
How to Use SoundCloud to Record and Comment
During Thursday’s Practical Ed Tech Live session I answered a question about recording and sharing audio. The person asking was looking for a way for
5 Good Resources for National Poetry Month
April is Poetry Month. Whether you’re trying to help students understand and interpret the meaning of poems or you’re trying to help them write their
How to Create an Interactive Diagram-based Quiz on Formative
With the NCAA basketball tournament Final Four games happening this weekend I thought this would be a good time to share an easy way to
Practical Ed Tech Live – Recording
Yesterday afternoon I hosted FB Live and YouTube Live sessions simultaneously. During those sessions I answered questions from readers and viewers. If you missed it,
Google Calendar Now Optimized for iPads- Finally
My life seems to be run by Google Calendar and Google Keep these days. I use it to schedule and keep track of appointments, to
Lighthouses and Designs for Democracy
Earlier this week the featured document from the U.S. National Archives was a drawing of the Matinicus Rock Lighthouse on the coast of Maine. The
Share the Mess and Learn
Yesterday, on Anchor I shared the idea that there is value is sharing the messes and mistakes that we make. In that little podcast I
Video Tips With Isla
Folks who follow my YouTube channel may have noticed that I’ve started using the live video option within YouTube’s Android app. This morning I used
Draft – A Distraction-free Collaborative Writing Tool
Draft is a free, collaborative writing platform that provides a distraction-free environment. When you write in Draft you won’t see anything but the text in
Practical Ed Tech Live!
The Practical Ed Tech Facebook page reached 3,000 likes yesterday. I promised to host a Facebook Live Q&A when the page reached 3,000 likes. I’m
Teach Your Monster to Read Minigames Overview
Last month the folks behind the popular Teach Your Monster to Read virtual world for literacy development introduced a set of minigames. The minigames are
How to Add Spoken Audio to Google Slides
The Practical Ed Tech Tip of the Week that I published yesterday was about adding music to Google Slides. In the twelve hours since that tip was
How to Create Short Answer Activities in Socrative
Socrative is one of the original and best platforms for creating quiz games to be played in your classroom on Chromebooks, laptops, and mobile devices.