All About Venice – Another Post Inspired by my Daughters
A few days ago while driving home from seeing a community theater’s musical production of The Little Mermaid one of my daughters asked me “why does Venice have canals instead of roads?” It was a question that I was happy to answer. The question also inspired me to revisit some items on the topic that […]
Three Self-paced Courses You Can Complete This Summer
If you’re interested in a professional development course that you can do while sitting outside this summer, take a look at the courses I offer through PracticalEdTech.com. Animated Explanations!This five-part course teaches you everything you need to know to create and teach with your own animated explanations. In the course you’ll learn why the process of […]
A Brief Explanation of Options
As kind of a hobby I dabble in options trading (I made $6 last week). I mentioned this to a friend of mine last Friday and he, like many other people I’ve talked to about it over the years, said, “I’ve heard of that, but I don’t what it means.” That conversation inspired me to […]
Create Animations from Audio in Adobe Express
I like to end the week with something fun. If you do too, head over to Animate from Audio hosted by Adobe Express. Animate from Audio is a fun little tool that matches your spoken words to an animated character of your choosing. The finished product is a fun little video that you can download […]
Five More Things Students Can Explain With Simple Animations
Last week I shared five suggestions for things that students can explain with simple animations. This week I have five more ideas to share with you. But first I’d like to remind you that creating simple animations to illustrate understanding of concepts can be done by just about anyone in just about any context. That’s […]
Why Does the Road Crack? – Another Question from my Daughters
One of my favorite things to do these days is to ride bikes with my daughters. Sometimes I even record those rides on Strava because my older daughter now wants to keep track of how fast she can go down a little section of road in our neighborhood (current record 10.5mph). When we were riding […]
Five Things Students Can Explain With Simple Animations
One of my all-time favorite tech coaching experiences was helping an eighth grade science class produce short animations to explain forms of energy. It was one of my favorite experiences for two reasons. First, the teacher came to me and said, “I’m sick of boring PowerPoints. Get them to do anything else.” Second, the kids […]
Making and Teaching With Animated Explanations – A New Practical Ed Tech Course
At the end of this week’s Practical Ed Tech newsletter I teased a new online course that I’ve been developing. That course is Animated Explanations. It will begin on November 1st. In Animated Explanations you’ll learn why creating animations is a great teaching and learning activity in elementary school, middle school, and high school classrooms. […]