15 Years of Free Technology for Teachers – Some Thoughts
Fifteen years ago today I was supervising detention when I wrote the first post on this blog. I did not have any idea what was to come over the next fifteen years let alone that I’d still be writing about educational technology in 2022. So on this occasion, if you’ll indulge me, I’d like to […]
Newsletters vs. Blogs and Social Media – Thoughts for Tech Coaches
A few weeks ago a reader reached out to me for advice on creating a tech tips newsletter for her staff. Specifically, she wanted to know if she should create a blog and then email the posts to staff or if just a newsletter would be enough. It was a question that I was happy […]
Why You’re Seeing More of My Face
You may have noticed that my face is appearing in more of the cover images for my blog posts and in more of the cover images for my videos. There is a reason for that and it’s not that I’ve discovered a new vanity in my mid-40’s. The reason is that in my on-going battle […]
How to Enable Spell Check in Blogger
Yesterday afternoon I answered an email from an old colleague who needed a little help with a frustrating little setting in Blogger. She wanted her students to be able to spell check their weekly reflection blog posts before they published them. Her frustration was caused by the fact that Blogger doesn’t have a built-in spell […]
It’s the Last Year for Weebly for Education
More than a decade ago Weebly was one of the first DIY website builders that recommended to teachers. I helped countless teachers and their students create classroom websites with Weebly for Education. This morning I got the news via email that Weebly (now owned by Square) has decided to shutter Weebly for Education in 2022. […]
Ideas for Blogging With K-12 Students This Year
This blog post is an excerpt from the updated 2021-22 version of The Practical Ed Tech Handbook which will available this weekend. Subscribe to my Practical Ed Tech Newsletter to have a PDF copy sent directly to you on August 15th. Whether your students are just learning how to type or they’re aspiring journalists, there […]
How to Password-protect an Edublogs Blog
For more than a decade Edublogs has been my go-to recommendation for anyone looking to build a classroom blog or website outside of the Google environment. One of the reasons for that recommendation is the priority that Edublogs gives to content privacy protection and teacher management of students’ accounts. That’s why I recommended Edublogs earlier […]
How to Make a Backup Copy of Your Blog
Last Friday evening a portion of the blogging community got a bit nervous when Blogger (Google’s blogging platform) started throwing up lots of error messages. In some cases people reported having blog posts completely disappear. Fortunately, everything was corrected fairly quickly, but it was a nervous hour or so for some bloggers. Blogger’s hiccup last […]
Three Simple Ways to Publish Online Writing Without Creating a Blog
On a fairly regular basis I get asked for recommendations for starting blogs. My advice is that using a self-hosted WordPress blog is the way to go if your goal is to create a robust platform to showcase your professional work. But creating a blog like that could be overkill for those who just want […]
What is Hotlinking? – Why You Should Avoid It
This morning I had a chat with a colleague who was having a little issue with his website not displaying the images that he was inserting into blog posts. The problem was that he was trying to insert images via URL instead of uploading images to host on his blog. In short, he was hotlinking […]
Calendars, Schedules, and Favicons – Three Easy Classroom Blog Enhancements
Writing yesterday’s post about blogging permission slips inspired me to look back through my YouTube channel and find some blogging tutorials I’ve made over the years. A few that jumped out as being as relevant today as the day that I made them are this one about embedding calendars, this one about scheduling blog posts, and […]
A Template for Getting Permission for Publishing Student Blogs, Podcasts, and Videos
Even though it’s not as trendy as podcasting or vlogging, blogging is still a great way to have students publish their thoughts and findings. Blogs are also still a good tool for students to use to create portfolios of their work that include writing, videos, and podcasts. Before your students, especially those who are under […]
How Prevent Weird Formatting in Your Blog Post Editor
A couple of weeks ago during Two Ed Tech Guys Take Questions and Share Cool Stuff someone asked why her blog posts don’t appear correctly when copying from a Word document into the blog post editor. Similarly, formatting gets weird when copying from a Google Document into a blog post editor. The reason for this […]
Join the Student Blogging Challenge in March
Every year Edublogs hosts a couple of student blogging challenges. The next one begins on March 15th. The challenge is open to all K-12 classrooms. Your classroom blog or student blogs don’t have to be hosted on Edublogs in order to participate. The 2020 Edublogs Student Blogging Challenge provides eight weekly blogging suggestions suitable for K-12 students. […]
A Mostly Complete Guide to Classroom Blogging
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve published some lengthy blog posts about classroom blogging activities and tools for classroom blogging. Those posts were excerpts from a longer piece that I’ve been working on. That longer piece is almost done. For lack of a more creative title, I’m calling it A Mostly Complete Guide to […]
A Comparison of 6 Blogging Services for Teachers and Students – Updated
About five years ago I assembled a series charts that compared the features of ed tech tools that served similar purposes. Some of the charts I made were about video tools, animation tools, timeline tools, digital portfolios, and blogs. To start 2020 I’m revisiting those charts and updating them to better reflect the current features […]
Ten Blogging Activities for Kindergarten Through High School Classrooms
Whether your students are just learning how to type or they’re aspiring journalists, there are lots of ways to use blogging as a classroom activity. Edublogs offers a nice directory of active classroom blogs. Take a look through that directory to find some good examples of how teachers are using blogs in all grade levels […]
How to Embed Books Into Your Blog
Google Books is one of my favorite tools for research. It’s also a great place to find all kinds of free books that you can read online and or download to read offline. Google Books also provides tools for embedding free books into your blog posts and webpages. These tools are available in both the […]
Need Some Classroom Blog Ideas? Try These Edublogs Resources
For years Edublogs has hosted a list of active classroom blogs. The purpose of the list to offer a place for teachers to find examples of classroom blogs and potentially find blogging buddies for their students. Anyone who has an active classroom blog can add their blog to the list regardless of whether or not […]
5 Ways to Enhance Your Classroom Blog
A classroom blog can be used for so many purposes that it is still one of the things that I think every class should have. A blog can be used for communicating important information to parents and students, it can be used by students as a journal to reflect on lessons, it can be used […]
How to Customize Your Edublogs Favicon
A couple of weeks ago I published a video about how to customize the favicon on Blogger blogs. Since then I’ve answered a few emails from readers who wanted to know if the same is possible in Edublogs. Yes, it is possible to customize the favicon icon for Edublogs blogs. The process of doing this […]
How to Embed Wakelet Collections Into Google Sites and Edublogs
In my previous post I provided an overview of the basics of using Wakelet to create collections of your bookmarks, notes, pictures, videos, and documents. Once you’ve made a few Wakelet collections you may want to share them with your students. There are a few ways that you can do that. You can share Wakelet […]
How to Change Your Blogger Favicon
Blogger is a popular choice for creating classroom blogs and personal blogs because it can be accessed through your Google account and because it is easy to use to start a blog. In a matter of a few minutes you can have a new blog up and running through Blogger. Blogger offers lots of simple […]
How to Remove the Default Navigation Bar on Blogger Blogs
Blogger provides anyone who has a Google account with a quick and easy way to start a blog. I have been using it for more than a decade for a variety of blogging projects and I’ve introduced it to many teachers over the years. The question about Blogger that I am asked more than any […]
Edublogs Explains How to Handle Student Blogs at the End of the Year
The end of the school year will be here before too long. For many of you it’s only about six weeks away. If you and your students have been blogging along this year, you might be wondering what you should do with those blogs when the year ends. Do you leave them floundering in the […]
Save Time by Creating Templates for Your Blog Posts
One of the reasons that I frequently hear given for not updating classroom or school blogs on a regular basis is “it takes too much time.” If you’re not in the habit of writing blog posts on a regular schedule it can take a lot of energy to get the blogging ball rolling. One way […]
Three Good Mobile Blogging Activities for Students
One of my favorite uses of iPads, Android tablets, and cell phones is mobile blogging. Blogging apps make it possible for students to record their observations and those of others from almost anywhere. Here are three mobile blogging activities that you might have students try on your next field trip. 1. One-take and or quick-cut […]
How to Create Featured Blog Posts
A couple of weeks ago, in anticipation of the Edublogs Student Blogging Challenge, I updated my chart of recommended classroom blogging tools. If you’re participating in the blogging challenge, you might find yourself wanting to feature a post at the top of the blog. This could be a post that contains important information about the […]
A Comparison of Blogging Services for Teachers and Students
The Edublogs Student Blogging Challenge kicks-off two weeks from now. You don’t need to be an Edublogs user in order for your students to participate in the challenge. If you’re new to blogging or new to having students blog, Edublogs is a solid choice for a blogging platform. Edublogs isn’t the only option for student […]
A Guide to Blogging Terminology
In my previous post I shared some information about the upcoming Edublogs Student Blogging Challenge. If you’re new to blogging or it has been a long time since you did any blogging, it can be helpful to have a glossary of terms that are frequently used when writing and talking about blogging. That’s why I […]
The Next Student Blogging Challenge Starts Soon
Blogging can be a great way to get students interested in writing and publishing their work for an audience. The challenges of classroom blogging have always been coming up with things for kids to write about and building an audience for your students’ work. The Edublogs Student Blogging Challenge addresses both of those challenges. The […]
Five Things That Help Me Develop Blog Post Ideas
I write a lot of blog posts. Over the last decade I’ve written more than 15,000 of them. That’s 1,500 per year for an average of 4.1 per day for ten years. Naturally, I am frequently asked, “how do you come up with blog post ideas?” Here’s an overview of where my ideas for blog […]
11 Years Later…
On this day eleven years I published my first blog post here on Free Technology for Teachers. I had a little bit of an idea of what I wanted to do and no idea that eleven years and nearly 14,000 posts later I would still be doing it. Some of you have been with me […]
Need Blog Post Ideas? Edublogs Has You Covered
For many people the biggest challenge in maintaining a blog has nothing to do with the technical aspects. It’s coming up with ideas for blog posts that often proves to be the biggest challenge to keeping a blog going. This is true whether you’re running a blog for a classroom, as a hobby, or for […]
Two Good Places to Find Classrooms to Connect With
Last week I ran a guest post written by Sarah Fromhold containing great tips for hosting Mystery Skype or Mystery Hangout activities. Since then I’ve fielded a few emails from readers who were looking for other ways that they can connect their classrooms with other classrooms. There are two things that I’ve recommended to those folks. […]
Guest Bloggers Wanted
Once a year I host guest bloggers for a week. This year I’m doing that during the week of November 11th. In past years I have had some awesome guest bloggers who went to to boost their own blogs by having their work appear on Free Technology for Teachers. If you would like to be […]
My Tips for Managing Student Blogs – One for All or All Have One?
In the course of a year I get to run a lot of workshops about blogging. One of the questions that frequently comes up in those workshops goes something like this, “do you recommend that I have just one blog or should all of my students have their own blogs?” There is not a clear cut […]
The Student Blogging Challenge – An Audience for Your Students’ Blogs
Edublogs provides an excellent service for creating classroom blogs and student blogs. But offering a solid blogging platform isn’t the only way that Edublogs supports teachers. Throughout the year Edublogs publishes helpful tips for creating and maintaining blogs with students. You’ll find those tips on The Edublogger. And twice each year Edublogs hosts a student […]
A Great Place to Find WordPress Tutorials
Creating a classroom or personal blog on hosted services like Blogger, Weebly, or Edublogs is rather quick and easy process. Services like these provide easy-to-follow templates and manage all of the software and security updates that a lot of people don’t want to spend time fussing with. But if you blog long enough there may […]
Use Scheduling to Blog Consistently
Earlier this week I hosted a webinar about creating and maintaining classroom blogs. One of the topics that I addressed during the webinar was the importance of publishing blog posts on a consistent schedule. Publishing consistently helps your students and their parents know when they should expect to see new entries appearing on your blog. […]
SpeakPipe Has New Customization Options
SpeakPipe is a great little service that lets you collect voice messages from visitors to your blog. I used it for many years on a classroom blog so that parents could leave voice messages by just clicking the “send a message” button on my blog. I could then either listen to the message or read […]
How to Embed PowerPoint Presentations Into Your Blog or Google Site
Last week I published a post about including slideshows in your blog or website. More than a few of you wrote to me with questions about the directions for embedding PowerPoint into your Edublogs blogs and one of you emailed me asking for help with Google Sites. To answer those questions I recorded the following […]
Google Finally Removes “Next Blog” Link from Blogger
For as long as I can remember people have complained about the “next blog” link that appears by default at the top of Blogger blogs. No one likes it because it can lead visitors to random blogs that may or may not be appropriate for classrooms. For many years I’ve taught people how to change […]
How to Export, Save, and Re-purpose Your Edublogs Posts
As the end of the school year approaches you might find yourself wondering what to do with all of the blogs posts your students wrote during the year. If you used Edublogs for your classroom blog, there is an easy way to export and save a copy of all of those posts. Follow these steps […]
Today’s Blogging Q&A Recording
This afternoon I hosted a live Q&A session about blogging. I used YouTube’s relatively new desktop livestreaming tool for the broadcast. If you missed the broadcast, you can watch the recording as embedded below. A list of the questions that I answered is included below the video in this post. How do I get started? […]
Join Me On Monday for a Blogging Q&A
After more than a decade of daily blogging I’d like to think that I’ve learned a thing or two about what works and what doesn’t. If you’re thinking about starting a blog or you just want to up your blogging game, join me on Monday afternoon at 3pm Eastern Time for a free, live blogging […]
Publishing an Example of Copyright Infringement
Update: after filing a DMCA takedown notice, this copyright infringement issue was resolved. Thanks to a friendly reader, I was tipped-off to the latest case of an educational technology “expert” committing an egregious copyright violation. It has been a few months since a good example like this has come across my desk. In this latest […]
How I Keep the Lights On
A little more than ten years ago I was where a lot of teachers find themselves at one point or another. I loved teaching but I didn’t love scraping to pay the bills. On one Wednesday afternoon in January, 2008 I had to borrow gas money from my department head to get me through to […]
Edublogs Publishes an Extensive Guide to Classroom Podcasting
Podcasting has had a resurgence over the last couple of years. Part of that resurgence is due to the increase in easy-to-use tools for creating podcasts as well as an increase in platforms through which you can listen to podcasts. Anchor.fm is one of those easy-to-use podcast creation tools. I featured it in a video […]
Edublogs Publishes a Guide to Mobile Blogging
Edublogs, one of the two services that I recommend for classroom blogging, has published a free guide to blogging on mobile phones. Edublogs recently deprecated their free mobile apps and now recommends three other ways to post to your Edublogs blog from your phone. The three methods that Edublogs now recommends for blogging on your […]
How to Include Podcast Episodes In Your Blog Posts
The folks at Edublogs were kind enough to share my list of ten classroom podcast ideas with participants in their Better Blogging With Students course as well as with all of their Twitter followers. This morning I asked the Edublogs folks if they were allowing the embedding of Anchor episodes into blog posts (Edublogs hasn’t […]
Everything I’ve Learned About Making Money Through Blogging Is In This Course
Over the years Free Technology for Teachers, Practical Ed Tech, and my other websites morphed from a hobby to a full-time job. Along the way I made plenty of mistakes and I have had some great successes. But one thing that I always say when people ask me for advice about how to make money […]
How to Schedule Blog Posts
Posting on a consistent schedule is one of the keys to maintaining interest in any blog. One of the best ways to maintain a consistent schedule is to use the scheduling tools that are built into most blogging services. By using the scheduling tools you can write a bunch of posts at once and have […]
Comparison and Explanation of Classroom Blog Services
On Friday I shared ideas for managing academic blogs. If you haven’t started a blog yet, choosing the right blogging platform can help you manage your classroom blog in the long run. Before we answer the question of which blog platform to use we need to understand some terminology commonly used when talking about blogs. Understanding […]
Managing Classroom and Student Blogs
One of the questions that I am frequently asked about blogging and have included in my webinar on the topic is “do you recommend that I have just one blog or should all of my students have their own blogs?” There is not a clear cut answer to this question because the answer depends upon […]
Don’t Make This Blogging Mistake
I spent about six hours on Monday and Tuesday trying to fix a formatting problem on PracticalEdTech.com. It was an infuriating little problem that was driving me batty. I Googled solutions, I tinkered with the CSS, I uninstalled plug-ins that I thought were conflicting, and I was about to give up when I diagnosed the […]
10 Blog Post Ideas for Your School Blog
“I don’t know what to write about” is one of reasons that many people cite for not regularly updating their school or classroom blogs. One of the ways that teachers and principals can avoid running out of blog post topics is to think about the questions that parents frequently ask during parent-teacher conferences or during […]
Thinking of Starting a Blog in 2018? – Here Are My Recommendations
Are you thinking about starting a blog in 2018? If you are, here are my recommendations based on more than a decade of daily blogging. Classroom Blogging If you want to start a blog to use with your students my first recommendation is to try Edublogs. It runs on the powerful WordPress platform but doesn’t […]
How to Maintain a Blog in 2018
As the new year begins you might have set a goal for yourself to blog more consistently than you did last year. Or perhaps your goal is to start a blog. If so, I have some simple advice that I give every time that I am asked, “how do you do it?” That advice is […]
A WordPress Plugin for Finding Public Domain Pictures
Pixabay is regularly featured as an alternative to Google Image search. Pixabay hosts thousands of high-resolution and high-quality images that are in the public domain. Today, through Product Hunt, I learned that Pixabay offers a WordPress plug-in. With the Pixabay WordPress plug-in installed on your blog, you can search for public domain images in the […]
I Livestreamed How to Handle Stolen Blog Posts
In what seems to be a biweekly occurrence, this afternoon I had to deal with a blog that was republishing my blog posts in their entirety without my permission and in full violation of my copyright rights. I was rather aggravated about the situation. Rather than just fuming and venting on Twitter (I did some […]
A Powerful Blogging Activity for Almost Any Classroom
A question that often comes up in my workshops about blogging is, “what should I have my students write about?” There are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of possible answers to this question. The suggestion that I often make is to start with a simple reflection activity. Set aside time in your Friday schedule to have your students sit […]
A Glossary of Blogging Vocabulary
Every December as the new year approaches I get a bunch of emails from folks who are looking for some guidance on starting a new blog. If you have never created a blog or it has been a while since you blogged, a quick overview of blogging terminology can be helpful. Here’s a little glossary […]
FAQs About Copyright and Blogging
My post on Monday about plagiarism kicked off a wave of comments and questions. To address some of those questions I published this list of resources for teaching and learning about copyright. Then yesterday afternoon I went live on my YouTube channel to address some questions too. That video is embedded below. An unplanned bonus […]
Blogging with Students
Blogging is a great way to provide all students with the opportunity to have their voices heard. Blogging is also a convenient way to connect your students with students from around the world. Seven Blogging Platforms for Teachers Compared and Ranked Provides a snapshot of different popular blogging platforms so you can compare them quickly […]
SpeakPipe Now Works on iPads
SpeakPipe is a neat tool that I have been recommending for years. It is a tool that you can add to your blog to collect voice messages from blog visitors. The messages are automatically recorded and transcribed for you to listen to and or read. Unfortunately, until now it didn’t work if your blog visitors […]
What Parents Like About Digital Portfolios
Last week I had the opportunity to talk with the founder of SeeSaw, Carl Sjogreen, about digital portfolios. In our conversation, recorded in the video below, we talk about what parents like about digital portfolios, what to include in a portfolio, and the differences between a blog and a portfolio. Disclosure: SeeSaw is an advertiser […]
10 Uses for a Classroom Blog
Regardless of the blogging service that you choose to use, here are ten things you can do with a class blog: 1. Posting assignments and reminders. 2. Posting enrichment activities. 3. Continuing discussions beyond the classroom walls. 4. Creating a central location for links to student resources. 5. Posting videos to supplement and complement class […]
Every Teacher Should Have a Blog – Still True
Almost ten years ago I published a little cartoon to illustrate one of the reasons that every teacher should have a blog. It’s still as true today as it was nearly ten years ago. Take a look… Every Teacher Should Have a Blog from Richard Byrne Want help getting your blog started? Join me tomorrow […]
How to Create a Great Classroom Blog – Webinar
As I mentioned last month in Get to Know Free Technology for Teachers, one of the ways that I keep this blog running is through hosting professional development webinars. I pick webinar topics based largely upon what you suggest to me throughout the year. One of the suggestions I’ve received many times in the last […]
A Blogger Privacy Setting You Might Want to Use
Blogger can be a good choice for many classroom blogs. One of its selling points for schools that use G Suite for Education is that students can log-in by using their school-issued Google Accounts. Another great aspect of Blogger is that you can get a blog started in a manner of minutes. But with that […]
Turn a Blog Into a Book
One of the reasons that I continue to encourage teachers to blog with students is that it helps to create a record of what your students have observed, learned, created, and shared throughout the school year. At the end of the year, you may want to take that blog and turn it into a physical […]
Three Thoughts About Making Time to Blog
A few years ago I was speaking at a conference in Arizona when I was asked, “what do you say to teachers who say I don’t have time for a blog?” I’ve been asked many variations on that question in the years since. Here’s my advice: First, don’t think of blogging as something you have […]
Built to Last – Blogging With Edublogs and Blogger
This November will mark the tenth anniversary of Free Technology for Teachers. Over those ten years I have reviewed thousands of free resources for teachers and students. Some of those free resources have come and gone in a blaze of glory (remember when Second Life and Nings were the cat’s meow?) while others have stood […]
Winning Blogging Strategies for Teachers
This is the time of year that many teachers start a new blog to communicate with students and their parents. Unfortunately, many of those blogs will fall to wayside before the end of the semester. This coming Tuesday I will host a webinar that can help you not only avoid having your blog fall to […]
What To Do When Your Pictures, Text, and Videos are Stolen Online
For years I’ve written and ranted about websites committing blatant copyright violations. Some of you have been supportive of my rants, thank you. This morning I am madder than ever about a website stealing blog posts. That’s because this morning I found a website that was not only stealing my writing, it was stealing my […]
How to Make a Blogger Blog Private
Recently, I received an email from a reader who had seen my comparison of classroom blogging tools and wanted to know more about how to make a Blogger blog private. I recorded the following video to illustrate how to set a Blogger blog as private. About once a week I’m asked what I use to […]
Getting Started With Weebly for Education
There are three services that I recommend more than any others when I am asked for a recommendation for a classroom blog or website tool. Those are Blogger, EduBlogs, and Weebly for Education. In the video that is embedded below I provide a short overview of how to get started using Weebly for Education.
5 Topics to Cover Early This Year On Your Classroom Blog
The new school year is here and you might be trying to get a new classroom blog rolling or get your old one going again. Either way, one of the best ways to get parents to read your classroom blog early and often is to give them the information they need at the beginning of […]
Three Countdown Calendars For Your Classroom Blog
In my workshops about developing blogs and websites for classrooms I always make the point that you should add some content that will appeal to all students and parents when they visit the homepage. This content can include links to handouts, a calendar of due dates, and current announcements. Another item that you can add […]
Tools to Show Your Students the Reach of Their Blogs
ClustrMaps is a free service that you can use to show students the global traffic sources of their blogs. ClustrMaps will display a real-time map of where in the world visitors are when they visit your blog. To get a ClustrMap for your blog just visit ClustrMaps.com, enter your blog’s URL, and enter your email address. […]
More Than 40 Examples of Classroom & School Blogs
Earlier this week at the Upstate Technology Conference in South Carolina I gave a couple of presentations about using blogs and social media in school. One of the best ways to learn about using blogs in school is to see how others are doing it. That’s why a few years ago I put together a […]
Blogs in the Age of Google Classroom
This week at ISTE 17 there will plenty of buzz about Google products and products that integrate with Google Classroom. Google, and some Google devotees, will have you believe that Google Classroom is the solution to almost every workflow and communication problem you have. Google Classroom does provide some good solutions to workflow and communication […]
Lessons from 12,000 Blog Posts – Video
For the last six weeks on my YouTube channel I’ve been sharing short lessons that I’ve learned from publishing more than 12,000 blog posts over the last ten years. This morning I created one more video to summarize all of those lessons. That video, which was recorded live on YouTube, is embedded below. Information about […]
Publish This Email – A Simple Blogging Tool
PublishThis.email is the latest in a string of relatively new services offering a quick and easy way to publish your writing online. PublishThis.email lets you create simple webpages by just sending an email to page@publishthis.email. The email that you send to that address will be turned into a webpage in a matter of seconds. You […]
One Simple Thing That Can Make Your Blog Better
I am frequently asked for advice about blogging. That’s probably the result of blogging for more than ten years and publishing more than 12,000 blog posts. The piece of advice that I give more than any other is, be consistent. Consistency in blogging means two things. First, publish on a consistent schedule. It helps your […]
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 use of educational blogs. This year 688 people completed the survey, down from 777 last year, but up from the 587 two years ago. Sue Waters wrote a detailed report […]
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 recorded the video embedded below to answer some of the questions that are most frequently asked about my Practical Ed Tech webinars. Watch the video and you’ll get the discount code […]
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 to go if your goal is to create a robust platform to showcase your professional work. But creating a blog like that could be overkill for those who just want […]
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 I’ve written and published more than 12,000 blog posts across this blog and a few others that I maintain. When I realized that I took out my notebook and jotted […]
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 so many blog posts?” One of the things that I do to develop blog post topics is to have mind mapping sessions on a regular basis. For every blog post […]
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 as a hobby that I never thought would turn into the business that it has become. As a follow-up to that, I usually share what I would have done differently […]
Why You Should Use Videos In Your Blog
Using videos in blog posts helps to keep visitors on your blog longer. For teachers and school administrators, adding a videos to your blog is a good way to show students and parents who you are and what you sound like. And, of course, videos are helpful when you’re explaining something that needs visuals in […]
SpeakPipe – Collect Voice Messages Through Your Blog
SpeakPipe is a great tool to add to classroom blogs. SpeakPipe allows you to collect voicemail messages through your blog. With SpeakPipe installed on your blog anyone can click on the “send voicemail” button and leave a message for you. When a visitor clicks the “leave voicemail” button she will be prompted to allow access […]
Why You Should Write Evergreen Blog Posts
The two reasons for giving up on a blog that I hear more than any other reasons are, “I don’t have anything to write about” and “no one is reading my blog.” Focusing on developing evergreen blog posts can help you solve both of those problems. An evergreen blog post is a post that will […]
Winning Blog Strategies – Webinar This Thursday
Helping teachers create blogs and or re-start dormant blogs is one of my favorite things to do. In fact, last week I ran a three hour workshop for that purpose. If you don’t have three hours to invest in a workshop, join me online on Thursday at 4pm EST to learn about winning blog strategies that […]
How to Add Page Tabs to Blogger Headers
Blogger has a bunch of little features and options that are often overlooked by new users. One of those options is adding static page tabs to the header of your blog. Someone recently sent me an email about how this option works. In the video embedded below I demonstrate how to add page tabs to […]
7 Blogging Tools for Teachers Compared and Ranked – Updated for 2017
One of last year’s most popular posts featured my chart comparing seven popular blogging tools for teachers and students. Given the recent update to Edublogs I thought it was time to update my chart and rankings of blogging tools for teachers and students. You can view the chart here as a Google Doc or as […]
Edublogs Now Offers Pro Features for Free!
Edublogs is a blogging service designed for classrooms. For the last four or five years many of the services that they offered were only available to people who subscribed to the “Pro” version of Edublogs at a cost of $39.95/year. Most of those “Pro” features will be available for free beginning today. The Edublogs Pro […]
Three Themes to Brainstorm About for Your Classroom Blog
Maintaining any kind of regular posting schedule on a blog requires some planning. To that end, one of the things that I do on a regular basis is have a brainstorming session in which I develop themes to write about and then topics within those themes. You can do this for your classroom blog by […]
Blogging Platforms for Teachers Compared and Ranked – Best of 2016
As I usually do during this week, I’m taking some time off to relax, ski, and work on some long-term projects for the next year. This week I will be re-publishing the most popular posts of 2016. By the way, if you want to learn more about using blogs in school, join Blogs & Social […]
Twelve Posts from One Topic
One of the most frequently cited reasons for discontinuing a blog that I hear is “I don’t have anything to write about.” Said another way, “I’ve run out of ideas.” Keeping your blog fresh does require coming up with a lot of blog posts topics. A method that I regularly use to develop blog post […]
Why You Should Try to Use Video on Your Blog
This morning Isla and I posted a short video on YouTube to explain why you should try to include videos in your blog posts. Using videos in blog posts helps to keep visitors on your blog longer. For teachers and school administrators, adding a videos to your blog is a good way to show students […]
Three Ways to Make Your Blog Posts More Helpful
One of the central purposes of this blog and thousands of others on the web is to help others. Blogs that help people solve problems get a lot of return visitors. Apply that concept to your classroom, library, or school blog the next time you craft a blog post for it. If your post helps […]
Do You Have an Online Hub?
Social media and text messaging is great for sending quick updates about things happening in your classroom and in your school. But when you need to write a longer explanation of your announcement or reminder, a blog is your best friend. Use social media and text messaging services to direct parents and students to your […]
5 Blog Posts Your Students’ Parents Will Appreciate
Posting useful, practical tips is one of the best ways to get your students’ parents to frequently read your classroom blog. Coming up with those tips to write as blog posts can be challenging at times. Therefore, I’m offering you these five blog post topics that parents will appreciate. Consider turning any or all of […]
Telegraph – Super Simple Blogging
Alan Levine’s Cog Dog Blog is one of my absolute favorite blogs. I skip over many others in my Feedly list to read his posts first. I almost always learn something new when I read his blog. Yesterday, I learned about super simple publishing tool called Telegra.ph Telegra.ph gives you a simple place to publish […]
9 Lessons Learned Through Nine Years of Blogging
Today marks the ninth birthday for this little blog that I started on a Wednesday evening in 2007. Read that first post and you’ll see that I didn’t have much in the way of goals or expectations for this blog. It was just something I was doing to help other teachers. Back then I didn’t […]
Emojis and More Special Characters in Blogger
This isn’t groundbreaking, but you can now use emojis in Blogger. About a week or two ago a new icon appeared in the “compose” mode in Blogger. That icon represents the special characters that you can insert into your Blogger blog posts. Those special characters include emojis. They also include more practical things like arrows, […]
Padlet Now Offers Commenting on Notes
Padlet is one of my favorite all purpose ed tech tools. With Padlet you can create a place to collect digital exit tickets, a place for collaborative brainstorming, a place to create digital KWL charts, a place for collaborative bookmarking, and even a place to create a simple classroom blog. My YouTube channel contains a […]
16 Things You Can Do To Add More Functions to Your Classroom Blog
After you have identified some goals for your blog and created its basic framework, you’ll might find yourself asking, “what else can I do with my blog?” There are lots of third-party functions that you can add to most blogs. I like to add the Remind widget to classroom blogs. Similarly, most blogging platforms have […]
Weekend Project – Identify a Goal for Your Blog
When it comes to blogging one of the patterns that I see every school year starts to emerge around this time of year. That pattern is, our blogs that we started with the best of intentions in August start to lose their momentum. It’s easy to blame the tasks of the daily grind of the […]
How to Put a Random Name Selector In Your Blog
Whether it is to call on a student to answer a question during a lesson or two choose a line leader for the day, we all have occasions for using a random name selector. The Random Name Picker from Russel Tarr’s Classtools.net is one of those tools that can be used in almost every classroom […]
Blogs & Social Media Course for Teachers & Principals Starts Tonight
Have you ever started a classroom blog with the best of intentions only to see it fall by the wayside after a couple of months? Are you wondering, “what’s the big deal about Twitter?” Would you like to engage your students, their parents, and your community as a whole in more consistent and efficient manner? […]
5 Common Classroom Blog Mistakes
A classroom blog can be a powerful tool for improving communication with parents, for building a sense of community amongst your students, and for creating a record of what you and your students have learned throughout a school year. But you can only reap these benefits of classroom blogs if you maintain the blog and […]
5 Benefits of Having a Classroom Blog
1. Being authors on a blog gives students the opportunity to share their thoughts with you, their classmates, and their parents on a longer timeline than is typically feasible during a school day. Not every student is going to be able to quickly articulate his or her thoughts during a face-to-face conversation with his or […]
The Problem With Automating Your Blog
The web is great. Everyday a new tool appears that makes some task easier than ever to accomplish. But not every task that can be automated should be automated. For example, let’s say you decide that your organization (perhaps SETDA) needs a blog, but you cannot find time to have someone actually write blog posts […]
A Glossary of Blogging Terminology
The start of the new school year isn’t far for many teachers now. It is at this time of year that I find myself helping teachers get classroom blogs started. Once you’ve chosen the best blogging tool for you and your students, sometimes the next challenge of running a blog is just knowing the terminology […]
The Week in Review – The Most Popular Posts
Good morning from an airplane somewhere over the North Carolina/ Tennessee border. I’m headed out to Denver for the ISTE 2016 conference. As I boarded the flight I ran into my friend Kelly Hines from Discovery Education. I’m sure there are plenty of other excited educators on the flight too. If you are going to […]
7 Tools for Creating Classroom Blogs
After I published last night’s post on reasons to have a classroom blog, a handful of people contacted me for recommendations on which blogging platform to use. The answer isn’t always clear cut as every teacher has his or her unique classroom dynamics to account for in making a choice. That’s why earlier this year […]
5 Reasons to Have a Classroom Blog
Earlier today someone wrote the following in response to my post featuring a good example of a teacher and student blog, “Franklly (sic) I don’t want to blog with my students. I want to talk with them face to face in class.” While I appreciate that the person who wrote that comment on Facebook wants […]
A Good Example of a Student & Teacher Blog – And How to Make Your Own
On Monday afternoon I had the pleasure of seeing Elisabeth Alkier give a presentation about the book review blog that she developed with her students and her school’s librarian Dlo Duvall. The Bode Book Review is a blog authored by students in Elisabeth and Dlo’s school. The purpose of the blog is to provide other […]
How to Password Protect Blog Posts
On Monday night I received an email from a reader who was looking for a way to have his students blog and share pictures without making the posts completely public. There are two ways that I suggest doing this. In Blogger you can restrict access to a blog by selecting the private option and specifying […]
How to Save Space and Time When Using Images in Your Blog
Whenever I publish a new blog post, I include an image in the post. Including an image helps draw readers in and it helps grab attention when it is shared on places like Pinterest and Facebook. Folks who blog frequently may find it tiresome to look for new images all the time. Likewise, in a […]
An Informal Chat About Ed Tech Blogging – Recording
Earlier this evening I hosted a Google+ Hangout On Air for people who had questions related to blogging for professional purposes. It was an informal half hour in which I answered a bunch of the questions that I frequently receive in my email on that topic. A few new questions were added into the chat […]
Join Me for a Hangout On Air About Ed Tech Blogging
Every week I get lots of questions from people who want to know how I started FreeTech4Teachers.com, how I maintain it, and, of course, how it helps me make a living. I’ll answer those questions and any others that you have during a Google Hangout On Air on Sunday at 7pm EST. This is informal. […]
Three Things That Get People to Read Your School or Classroom Blog
I run a lot of workshops for teachers and school administrators about using blogs and social media to connect with students and their parents. At the beginning of those workshops I almost always ask some variation of the question, “have you ever started a blog and then stopped using it?” Most of the time many […]
Three Ways to Generate Topics for Your School’s Blog
Posting new content on a regular basis is one of the best ways to get parents to frequently check your school, library, or classroom blog. Coming up with blog post topics is the struggle that many people have in attempting to regularly update their blogs. At times, I have that problem too. I have three […]
10 Somewhat Interesting Things About Me and Free Technology for Teachers
Over the last few months there have been a lot of new visitors and subscribers to FreeTech4Teachers.com and the Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page. Welcome and thanks for joining me here. And thank you to long-time followers who have helped this blog and the corresponding Facebook page grow. Whether you’re new here or you’ve […]
How to Create a Classroom Blog on Weebly for Education
Weebly for Education offers a good platform for creating a classroom blog. One of the perks of Weebly for Education is that you can create and manage your students’ accounts from one central dashboard. Weebly for Education also offers all of the great templates and content management tools that has made Weebly one of the […]
SeeSaw Now Offers a Simple & Safe Blogging Platform for Kids
SeeSaw is a great digital portfolio tool for students and teachers. It works on all devices including iPads and Android tablets. The service allows students to draw and annotate items in their digital portfolios. In the SeeSaw iPad app students can talk while drawing on pictures in their portfolios. Today, SeeSaw launched a blogging function. Now you can […]