Two Good Ways to Create Simple and Focused Websites
Parts of this post originally appeared late last year in an issue of my Practical Ed Tech weekly newsletter. I am often asked for recommendations for simple website builders that teachers and students can use to create small websites. The purpose isn’t to share everything they’ve done and have you grade it. Tools like Seesaw […]
SpacesEDU Updates iPad App
Spaces is a digital portfolio tool that I’ve covered since the beginning of 2021 when it launched with a great feature called Asynchronous Breakout Rooms. Since then it has grown to include better reporting features and “best of” showcase features. The latest update comes in the form of an updated iPad app. The updated app […]
Spaces EDU Adds Easier Enrollment and Faster Sharing
Back in June Spaces announced a bunch of new features that they were working on getting ready for new school year. Those features are now available! Faster Enrollment and Easier Activity Sharing Nothing stops momentum in a classroom like having to go around to each student and say “click here” or respond to students saying […]
Spaces Adds New Features for Creating Better Digital Portfolios!
Disclosure: Spaces is currently an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com Spaces is a great digital portfolio service that I’ve been using and recommending for the last couple of years. Like all good edtech tools, it started with a handful of really good and unique features. Since then it has steadily added more features based on feedback from […]
How to Create a Custom Theme for Your Google Site
Do you use Google Sites for your classroom website? Do you have students use it for classroom projects like making digital portfolios? Are you tired of using the same stock themes that Google provides? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you need to watch my new video about creating custom themes for […]
Three Ways to Create Simple Portfolio Websites
We’re nearing the point in the school year that many of us start to think about activities for students to do to summarize their highlights of the school year. One way to do that is to create simple portfolio websites. These are sites that have just one page that features only the best work that […]
New Spaces Digital Portfolio Features
Spaces is a digital portfolio tool that I first covered around this time last year. Since then it has steadily grown in popularity. As it has grown in popularity it has steadily responded to teachers’ feedback and suggestions for improvement. The latest example of that is found in the latest batch of updates. In the […]
Create a Portfolio With Carrd.co
I often get asked for recommendations for simple website builders that teachers and students can use to create small websites. Google Sites is fine, but the aesthetics still have a long way to go. Services like WordPress and Weebly are great, but have way more menus and options than what’s needed for a quick and […]
Spaces – Capturing & Celebrating Student Growth
Disclosure: Spaces is currently an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com Spaces is a free digital portfolio tool that launched earlier this year and has quickly become one of my top recommendations for teachers and students who want to bring Portfolio-based assessment into their classrooms. Since it came to my attention in the middle of the last school […]
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. […]
Great Book Creator Resources to Start the New School Year
Disclosure: Book Creator is an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com. This blog post was written by me, Richard Byrne. Book Creator is a versatile digital publishing tool that I’ve been using and recommending for years. And every school year it seems to get better. This year is not an exception to that pattern as they’ve just launched […]
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 Track Updates to Students’ Google Sites
Google Sites can be a great platform for students to use to maintain digital portfolios. In fact, I did that last year with my computer science principles students. The challenge for a teacher when students use Google Sites for portfolios is keeping track of updates to those portfolios. The method that I came up with […]
Spaces Digital Portfolios Emphasize Feedback and Growth
Disclosure: Spaces is an advertiser on this blog. A couple of months ago I published a detailed overview of a digital portfolio platform called Spaces. In that blog post I emphasized the capability of Spaces to be used for Asynchronous breakout sessions. Those asynchronous breakout sessions are great for students to give each other feedback. […]
New Seesaw Feature – Add Your Voice to Objects
Seesaw recently added a helpful new feature that enables you to add your voice to objects in Seesaw activities. It is different from the previous, and still available, voice recording tool. The new voice recording feature allows you to record explanations of shapes, images, and objects in a Seesaw activity and have those explanations directly […]
Spaces – Digital Portfolios With Asynchronous Breakout Rooms
Disclosure: Spaces is a new advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com Spaces is a new digital portfolio tool that offers some unique features that teachers and students will like. Not the least of these features is a group portfolio function that is best described as providing asynchronous breakout rooms. This post will highlight the features of Spaces and […]
New Shapes and Fonts in Book Creator
Book Creator is one of my favorite tools for creating ebooks. It’s a versatile tool that can be used to publish multimedia fiction and non-fiction stories. I’ve also recommended using it to have students create portfolios of their best work. Last week Book Creator introduced a few new features. Two of those are available to […]
Ten Ways to Use Wakelet
One of the reasons that Wakelet has become popular in schools in the last couple of years is that it can be used for a wide range of activities. It’s also popular because it can be used in a wide range of grade levels and subject areas. I mentioned this in a webinar that I […]
A Few Overlooked Ways to Customize Google Sites
In a recent article about using digital portfolios for assessment I mentioned using Google Sites and Blogger. Neither of those tools are known for being aesthetically outstanding. In fact, I’d say they’re very plain at best. That said, there are some little tweaks that you can make to Google Sites to improve site navigation and […]
Create a Simple Website With Canva and Use It as a Digital Portfolio
Canva has been my graphic design tool of choice for the last five years. Lately, I’ve been using it to create slideshow presentations and videos in addition to simple graphics like the featured image in this blog post. In fact, the last two free webinars that I hosted featured slideshows designed in Canva. One of […]
A Great Update to Google Sites – Review Changes Before Publishing
Earlier this week I wrote about how I’m having my students use Google Sites as digital portfolios. Right after that I published that post Google announced a few helpful updates to Google Sites. Then yesterday there was another update announced. The latest update might be the best one yet for those who use Google Sites […]
Google Sites as Digital Portfolios
The computer science courses that I’m teaching this year are almost entirely project-based courses. I’m having them do two things to keep track of their progress throughout their projects. One of those things is use Google Sheets to keep track of materials and keep track of their trials. The other thing that they’re doing is […]
Multi.link – A Convenient Way to Share All Your Profiles
Multi.link is a new service that makes it easy to share all of your social media profiles, websites you own, videos you produce, and pictures on one simple page. To use Multi.link just head to the site, sign-up in a minute, then start adding links. You can link to just about anything that you want […]
5 Wakelet Tutorial Videos
Over the last year and a half or so Wakelet has become quite popular with teachers. Part of that popularity is due to the versatility of Wakelet which continues to increase every time a new feature is added. Some of the things that teachers, myself included, are doing with Wakelet include using to for collaborative […]
How to Annotate Webpages With Seesaw’s Chrome Extension
Seesaw recently released an updated Chrome extension that makes it easy for students to save and annotate articles in their digital portfolios. With SeeSaw’s free Chrome extension installed students can save an entire webpage or select a portion of the page to save. Once they’ve made a selection of what to save the Chrome extension […]
How to Use the Math Manipulatives in SeeSaw
Just in time for the annual ISTE conference SeeSaw introduced a handful of new tools for students to use in the creation of their digital portfolios. One of those new tools is a whiteboard interface onto which students can drag and drop math manipulatives. Students can use freehand drawing tools along with the manipulatives to […]
How to Make Digital Collages in SeeSaw
Yesterday, I shared five highlights from SeeSaw’s update in advance of next week’s ISTE conference. One of those highlights is a new drag-and-drop digital collage creation tool. Students can use the new collage tool with pictures, text, speech and thought bubbles, drawings, and digital stickers. Students can also use SeeSaw to record themselves talking about […]
5 New SeeSaw Features for Teachers and Students Creating Digital Portfolios
SeeSaw is a digital portfolio tool that I have used and recommended since shortly after its launch in 2014. After initially launching as an iPad app it quickly evolved to become tool that can be used on Android devices, on laptops, on desktops, and on Chromebooks. This week SeeSaw added more features designed with Chromebook […]
Timelines as Portfolios
Last month I featured some of my favorite tools for students to make digital portfolios and tools for students to use to create multimedia collages to celebrate the school year. One of the things that I forgot to mention last month was the idea of using multimedia timelines as a means to sharing growth throughout […]
5 Good Options for Making Digital Portfolios
In yesterday’s Practical Ed Tech post I mentioned that if you have been using a service like SeeSaw all year to have students create digital portfolios, it is relatively easy to have students create an end-of-year showcase of their best work. Of course, SeeSaw isn’t the only way to create a digital portfolio. Here’s are […]
You Can Now Publish Entire Book Creator Libraries
Book Creator, one of my favorite tools for creating multimedia ebooks, has announced a new publishing option that many teachers have requested. Book Creator now lets teachers publish entire libraries of their students’ books. This library publishing option is in addition to the option to publish individual books. Publishing an entire library of student-created Book […]
Here’s How Parents Can Receive Text Notifications in the SeeSaw App
In all of last week’s kerfuffle about Remind and Verizon it got lost that there are other ways for students and their parents to receive mobile updates from you. SeeSaw is one of the services that offers a way for parents to receive text notifications. SeeSaw’s parent app includes the option for parents to enable […]
A New and Easy ClassDojo Login for Students
Earlier this fall ClassDojo added new features to their digital portfolio tools for students and teachers. The highlight of those was the option for students to select the items that they want included in their portfolios. ClassDojo calls these student-led portfolios. Today, ClassDojo added a new way for students to sign into their portfolios. Beginning […]
Three Digital Portfolio Styles – And Tools for Making Them
This post originally appeared in my Practical Ed Tech Newsletter and on my Practical Ed Tech website. This week I am working with a group of teachers who want to have their middle school students create digital portfolios that they will maintain throughout the school year. The first part of our work will be to […]
A Rubric for Digital Portfolio Assessment
Next week I am working with a group of teachers to help them start creating digital portfolios with their students. After we decide what we want students to include in their portfolios and the platform for the portfolio we’ll start looking at the assessment aspect. To help get that conversation started we’ll be looking at […]
Three Good Options for Digitizing Your Students’ Physical Work
Whether it’s a model made for a science fair or a paper on which a student successfully solved a complex math problem, there are times when we want to save a copy of physical work to use in digital portfolios. The following three tools are great for taking a picture of a student’s physical work, […]
ClassDojo Releases Three New Features for the New School Year
If you’re a ClassDojo user, you should have recently received an email about three new features that have been added for the 2018-19 school year. One of those features is significant and two are just convenient. The significant update is found in ClassDojo’s new Student Portfolios service. This free service was announced at the end […]
Tips on What to Include in Digital Portfolios
During the course of the school year our students will create some fantastic digital artifacts. Building a digital portfolio is a greatway for students to organize those artifacts to share with you and to share with their parents. If you’re considering having your students create digital portfolios this year, but you’re not sure what to […]
SeeSaw’s Android App Has New Features for Students and Teachers
SeeSaw is one of my favorite tools for creating and maintaining digital portfolios. In fact, I featured it in a workshop that I facilitated yesterday. This week SeeSaw added some new options to their free Android app. Students can now use the app to respond to activity prompts that their teachers have shared. Students can […]
How to Use SeeSaw’s New Activity Library
Earlier this week SeeSaw unveiled a new activity library for teachers. The new library contains more than 1500 activities that you can assign to your students in your SeeSaw classroom. You can use the activities as they are written or modify them to meet your students’ needs. In the following video I demonstrate how to […]
SeeSaw Unveils a New Activity Library – 1500+ Activities to Use Now
SeeSaw is a great digital portfolio tool that students can use on Chromebooks, iPads, Android tablets, and on any computer that has an updated web browser. Last fall SeeSaw introduced a feature called “Activities” that enabled teachers to create and give assignments in their SeeSaw online classrooms. That feature proved to be a hit! Now […]
ClassDojo Introduces a New Digital Portfolio Option
For the last couple of years ClassDojo has offered a digital portfolio feature called Student Stories. This summer ClassDojo is introducing a new portfolio option called simply ClassDojo Portfolios. The new ClassDojo Portfolios will be student-led portfolios. Students will choose the items that they want to include in their portfolios. They can include pictures, documents, […]
Now You Can Add Custom Links to Google Sites Navigation Bar
At first I wasn’t thrilled with the switch from the old version of Google Sites to the new one. That was largely due to the absence of many useful features in the new version that had existed in the old version. Slowly Google has added those features back into the new (current) version of Sites. […]
Google Sites Now Supports HTML & Javascript Embed Codes
One my biggest complaints about Google Sites has always been that it doesn’t accept third party embed codes. This means that you couldn’t embed videos from great websites like Next Vista for Learning, embed Tweets, or embed any interactive elements like a Padlet wall. That will soon change. Google has announced that beginning in January […]
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 […]
SeeSaw 101 – How to Get Started Making SeeSaw Digital Portfolios
For the last couple of years SeeSaw has been my first choice for a digital portfolio tool. It works well on all platforms and it’s equally easy to use on all platforms. But if you need a little help getting started on SeeSaw, SeeSaw 101 is there for you. SeeSaw 101 is a set of […]
10 Good Options for Creating Digital Portfolios
Yesterday’s Practical Ed Tech weekly newsletter featured ten tools that your students can use this year to create digital portfolios. A copy of the handout that was included in the newsletter is embedded below.
How to Use SeeSaw’s New Messaging Option
SeeSaw is a great digital portfolio tool that works on Chromebooks, iPads, Android tablets, and any computer with a modern web browser. Earlier this year at the ISTE conference SeeSaw announced some new features including a new messaging option. The new messaging option is now available to all teachers. In the video embedded below I […]
Student Stories Drawings in ClassDojo
Student Stories is ClassDojo’s student portfolio tool that they launched around this time last year. A few weeks ago I gave a run-down of new features that are going to be added to ClassDojo’s Student Stories tool for the new school year. One of those features is an option for students to draw or annotate […]
9 Features of ClassDojo’s Digital Portfolio Platform – Coming Soon
About this time last year ClassDojo introduced a digital portfolio platform that they call Student Stories. Since its initial launch ClassDojo has steadily added new features to Student Stories. Today, ClassDojo announced nine features that will be available for the start of the new school year. 1. User names and passwords are no longer required […]
SeeSaw Unveils New Features at ISTE 17
This morning at ISTE 2017 I had a nice conversation with Carl Sjogreen from SeeSaw. Carl shared with me the newest features being added to SeeSaw. The following new features will be available on July 5th and are available to preview here at the ISTE conference. 1. A new teacher-to-student and teacher-to-parent messaging system has […]
4 Updates to ClassDojo’s Student Stories
Last fall ClassDojo introduced a new digital portfolio tool that they call Student Stories. Initially, it was only available on iPads then it expanded to users of all types of computers and tablets. Student Stories puts students in charge of assembling their portfolios. Their portfolios can include digital work as well as physical work that […]
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 near for many people. The end of the school year is when many of us start to think about summative activities for our students to do to show what they […]
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. Your students can even use SeeSaw to record a video of themselves talking about an artifact in their portfolios. This week SeeSaw made it easy for Google Drive users to […]
How to Create a Webpage in Adobe Spark
Adobe Spark has received a lot of attention in the last year for the great video creation tool that it contains. But it also contains an excellent tool for creating simple webpages. Within Adobe Spark you can create webpages that contain images, text, and videos. Those pages can then be published as stand-alone sites or […]
How to Create Webpages In Canva
Canva is known for its great graphic design tools. You’ve always been able to download your Canva graphics and upload them to your website. A few months ago Canva introduced the option to publish your graphics as webpages and or embed them into existing webpages. As I wrote earlier this week, using the publishing option […]
SeeSaw Now Supports Text Labeling – 15 Lesson Plans for Using Labels
SeeSaw, a great digital portfolio platform, recently added a new text label feature. The labeling tool in SeeSaw lets your students add text labels to any picture or diagram that they have stored in their portfolios. There are eight pre-made labels that students can apply to their pictures and drawings within SeeSaw. Students can also […]
Add Text Labels to Drawings & Pictures in SeeSaw Portfolios
In the two years since its initial launch SeeSaw has become one of my most frequently recommended digital portfolio tools. The team at SeeSaw is continuously developing new features to make it a better tool for students and teachers. The latest enhancement to SeeSaw comes in the form of a new labeling option in the […]
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 […]
Student Stories – ClassDojo Portfolios on Chromebooks, Desktops, and Mobile Devices
A few months ago ClassDojo introduced a new portfolio feature called Student Stories. At the time of its launch Student Stories was only available to use on mobile devices. This morning, ClassDojo announced that Student Stories can now be created on Chromebooks, MacBooks, and Windows computers. Basically, if it has a camera, your students can […]
Add Audio to Images In SeeSaw Digital Portfolios
SeeSaw is a great platform for creating digital portfolios. Whether students use the free SeeSaw iPad app, the Android app, the Chrome app, or just the website they can add all kinds of media to their digital portfolios. SeeSaw supports uploading videos, documents, slideshows, and audio recordings. Students can also include hyperlinks in their digital […]
Students Can Collaboratively Create Timelines on HSTRY
HSTRY is a neat timeline creation tool that I’ve been a fan of since it launched a couple of years ago. One of the features that makes it different from other timeline tools is that you can build quiz questions into your timeline. This week HSTRY added another nice feature in the form of collaboration. […]
FreshGrade Offers Free Webinars About Digital Portfolios
FreshGrade is a digital portfolio platform that has quickly risen in popularity over the last eighteen months. The learning slideshow feature in FreshGrade is one of the many features that has helped it become popular amongst teachers and students. FreshGrade is offering a series of free webinars to help teachers learn more about creating and […]
10 Good Tools for Creating Digital Portfolios – A PDF Handout
As the new school year gets started you may find yourself thinking about how you and your students can keep track of the great work that they do throughout the school year. Creating and managing digital portfolios is one way to create a showcase of your students’ good work. In the document embedded below I […]
Student Stories – Student-led Portfolios on ClassDojo
Over the last few years ClassDojo has become known as a platform for keeping track of your students’ habits and behaviors. Originally, it appealed to teachers of elementary school students but over time teachers of older students started to use to keep track of things like constructive participation in classroom discussions. Last summer ClassDojo introduced […]
Connect Your Classroom Through SeeSaw Connected Blogs
On Tuesday morning at the ISTE 2016 conference I sat down with the founder of the popular digital portfolio tool, SeeSaw. He showed me some of updated features of SeeSaw’s free product as well as the new analytics options within SeeSaw Plus (a subscription service). One of the best features of SeeSaw’s free service is […]
A New Version of Google Sites is Coming
Google Sites is flexible tool for creating school websites, classroom blogs, wikis, and digital portfolios. For years it has remained unchanged except for the addition of page-level permissions a few years ago. Today, Google announced that a new version of Google Sites will be rolling out over the next year. The new version of Google […]
FreshGrade Helps You Quickly Create Video Slideshows of Your Students’ Best Work
While I was preparing my handout on digital portfolios I noticed a cool feature in FreshGrade that is perfect for the end of the school year. In your FreshGrade account you can quickly create video slideshows highlighting your students’ best work. To do this simply sign into your FreshGrade account then under the reporting tab […]
10 Good Options for Creating Digital Portfolios – A PDF Handout
For the majority of readers of this blog the end of the school year is already here or will be here within a month. This is the time of year that I get a lot of requests for suggestions on digital portfolio tools. If you find yourself looking for a digital portfolio tool and or […]
Create QR Codes for Any Item in a Seesaw Digital Portfolio
Seesaw is a fantastic tool for creating digital portfolios and blogs with your students. With the Seesaw mobile apps and web app students can upload digital artifacts as well as save pictures of physical work they’ve done. Once uploaded to their digital portfolios students can annotate items with text, drawings, and voice comments. Portfolios that […]
FreshGrade Now Offers an Android App for Teachers
FreshGrade is a free digital portfolio service that launched last year and has quickly become popular in some schools. The service allows teachers and students to create portfolios containing video and audio files, pictures, and text files. Recently, FreshGrade introduced an Android app for teachers. FreshGrade’s Android app for teachers essentially brings all of the […]
Padlet Adds Helpful New Attachment Previews
Padlet is a fantastic tool that I have used and recommended countless times over the years. My tutorial video about it is the most viewed video in my YouTube channel. This week Padlet introduced some improvements that might not jump out at you right away, but will be helpful to you in the long run. […]
How to Create a Classroom Blog on SeeSaw
A couple of weeks ago SeeSaw introduced an option to create a classroom blog within your SeeSaw account. SeeSaw’s blogging tool allows you to create public or private blog to share with students and their parents. In the video embedded below I demonstrate how to create a blog on SeeSaw.me The videos below demonstrate how […]