A Class for Teachers Who Want to Make More Money
My most popular Practical Ed Tech course this year is How to Create and Sell Your Digital Products in 2023. Now that summer is here (in the northern hemisphere) this is a great time to take the course if you haven’t already done so. The format of this course is email-based. Starting with day you register, […]
New eBook – Teaching Search Strategies to History Students
Earlier this week I listed the educational technology topics that I’m still passionate about after all these years. One of those topics is search strategies and discovery tools for students. To that end, I’ve recently updated my e-book on Teaching Search Strategies to History Students. In my updated e-book Teaching Search Strategies to History Students […]
50% Off 50 Tech Tuesday Tips
In late 2021 I published 50 Tech Tuesday Tips. A huge thank you to everyone who purchased a copy. Sales of that eBook helped me keep Free Technology for Teachers going throughout 2022. Unfortunately, like almost all books about educational technology, 50 Tech Tuesday Tips was always going to have a relatively short shelf life. […]
Book Creator Now Offers Audio, Video, and Text Commenting
Last week Book Creator introduced a great new feature just in time for the start of the new school year. That feature is the option to add video, audio, text, and emoji comments to students’ books. The new feature is still in beta, but you can try it right now. You can add comments to […]
WriteReader Adds New Features for Teachers and Students
WriteReader, one of my favorite tools for telling stories with pictures, recently launched four new features for teachers and students. One of the new features improves the usability of WriteReader while the other three enhance the overall experience for teachers using WriteReader in their classrooms. Phone-friendly Interface WriteReader was originally built to be used on […]
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 […]
Book Creator Has a New Color Selection Tool
A couple of weeks ago Book Creator introduced some new shapes and fonts to use in the creation of multimedia ebooks. This week Book Creator added a new color selection tool that will help you apply the exact color you want to use on those shapes and other page elements. Book Creator now offers the […]
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 […]
Book Creator Adds New Options for Copying and Re-using Pages
Book Creator is one of my go-to tools for making ebooks and digital portfolios. In fact, I like it so much that it’s one of the featured tools in my Practical Ed Tech Virtual Summer Camp. And now there is a new feature that makes Book Creator better than ever. That new feature is the […]
Book Creator Adds New Accessibility Features
Book Creator is a tool that I have been using and recommending for years for making multimedia ebooks. You can use it as an iPad app or in your web browser. This week Book Creator announced that it now works in Microsoft Edge as well as Chrome and Safari. That’s not the only product enhancement […]
Fraidy Cats’ Book of Courage – An eBook of Writing Prompts
Make Beliefs Comix is a creative writing platform that I have recommended for years. The core of Make Beliefs Comix is a free set of tools that students can use to create their own comics in multiple languages. Here’s a video overview of how it works. In addition to the comic strip creation tools, Make […]
How to Use Book Creator’s New Autodraw Feature
At the beginning of this week Book Creator announced the launch of a new set of drawing tools that students can use in the creation of multimedia ebooks. Among those tools is a new feature Book Creator is calling autodraw. Autodraw allows people like me who don’t have much drawing ability to attempt to draw […]
Book Creator Adds New “Magic Ink” and Autodraw Tools for Making eBooks
Book Creator, the massively popular ebook creation tool, has added a new set of drawing tools. A couple of the highlights of the new drawing tools are Magic Ink and Autodraw. Magic Ink is a feature that will enable students to fill the pages of their Book Creator with chalk-like drawings as well as fill […]
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 […]
How to Find, Download, and Borrow Books from the Internet Archive
On Tuesday hundreds of thousands of works entered the public domain. That includes early movies, pictures, early audio recordings, and many pieces of literature. Many of those works are available through the Internet Archive. The Internet Archive offers millions of texts that can be borrowed and or downloaded for free. In the following video I […]
Two New Ways for Kids to Create Stories on WriteReader
WriteReader is one of my favorite tools for elementary school students to use to create multimedia stories. The outstanding feature of the service is the option for teachers to write corrections directly beneath a students’ original writing in their ebooks before publication. Students can record their voices on the same pages that they write on […]
ReadWorks Now Integrates With Google Classroom
ReadWorks is a free service that provides standards-aligned reading lesson plans for K-12 classrooms. In addition to lesson plans ReadWorks offers a huge libray of fiction and non-fiction literature that you can search according to topic and grade level. All articles in ReadWorks are listed with a lexile score and suggested grade level. ReadWorks has […]
More Ways to Add Content to Book Creator Projects – Coming Soon!
Thanks to Amy Burns I just learned about a great, new feature that is soon to be available in Book Creator. The new feature will let you embed content from third-party sites into your Book Creator books. Some of the many third-party sites that will be supported in this new feature include Desmos (an online […]
5 Ways for Students to Create Multimedia eBooks
Writing a multimedia ebook or magazine can be a good way for students to illustrate and or further explain portions of fiction and non-fiction stories that they develop. Multimedia publishing tools that include a collaboration component can further help students as they work together with each other or with you to improve their work. The […]
Book Creator is Now Live for All Chromebook Users
Earlier this summer Book Creator, a massively popular iPad app, was made available in a beta version for teachers to try on Chromebooks. As of this week the Chrome version of Book Creator is available to all teachers and students. You can access the new Chrome version of Book Creator at app.bookcreator.com. Book Creator’s Chrome […]
WriteReader Presents the Most Popular Topics Amongst Student Authors
WriteReader is a great multimedia writing tool for elementary school students and their teachers. On WriteReader students can create multimedia ebooks independently or with the assistance of their teachers. Teachers can log-in and see what their students have written. Teachers can make suggestions and corrections to what their students have written in WriteReader. Teachers’ suggestions […]
Three Good Options for Creating eBooks in Your Web Browser
Creating a multimedia ebook can be a great way for students to showcase examples of their best work. Writing a multimedia ebook can also be a nice way for students to illustrate and or further explain portions of fiction and non-fiction stories that they compose. The following three platforms make it possible for students to […]
A Guide to Google Books for Students & Teachers – Best of 2015-16 School Year
All of this week I am on the road working with teachers in Texas, Kansas, and Arizona. Rather than scrambling to write blog posts at the end of each day, I’m taking this time to feature some of the most popular posts and new tools of the 2015-2016 school year. Google Books is one of […]
Two Tools for Writing & Drawing Books Online Before Printing
This morning I received an email from a reader who was looking for tools that her students can use to create booklets that they design online then print. The caveat of the request was that the tools had to have an option for students to draw as well as type and insert pictures. A few […]