A Memory and a New Course
Just about the only thing keeping me on Facebook these days are the memories reminding me of where I’ve been. Back in December one of those memories was of a post I made in 2008 in which I wrote, “is wondering how to make money appear out of thin air.” (That was written back in […]
Pros and Cons of Using Social Media for School Announcements
Today at the Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp I was asked for my opinion about using Facebook as the primary tool for posting information for the parents of your students. Answering that question reminded me of an article that I wrote a few years ago on the same topic. An updated version of that article […]
How to File a Copyright Infringement Complaint With Facebook
I frequently deal with websites that are plagiarizing my work. Usually, I deal with sites that are plaigiarizing my work by simply sending them a notice that they’ve been caught and that they should stop. Seven times out of ten it ends there. If it doesn’t end there I’ll send a formal DMCA takedown notice. […]
Join Me on Wednesday for Practical Ed Tech Live!
Last week I hosted my first live Q&A session of the year. A handful of you sent me questions last week and I enjoyed answering them. A few people sent me questions after the broadcast. I’ll be answering those and any new questions this Wednesday at 4pm Eastern Time. You can send questions in advance […]
If You Manage a School Facebook Page, Watch Out for This Scam
I manage a handful of Facebook Pages. This morning when I logged into Facebook I had notifications that “Verified Facebook Page” had requested administrative access to those pages. This seemed phishy to me and so rather than just clicking “accept” I stopped and thought about it then did a little research before ultimately determining that […]
How Machines Learn – And What Facebook Knows About You
Machine learning is a hot topic in the ed tech start-up community. You may have heard of an ed tech start-up or two that is touting how machine learning and or artificial intelligence will help them help students. But what is machine learning? CGP Grey recently tackled that topic in a new video. After you […]
This is Your Brain on Snapchat
Do you spend a lot of time on Facebook? Do your students spend every spare minute on Snapchat? Have you wondered how this affects your mood or your students’ moods? If so, KQED and PBS Learning Media have a resource that you should share with your students. How Do Different Social Media Platforms Affect Your […]
Join Me For Practical Ed Tech Live This Thursday
Last Thursday was the most attended edition of Practical Ed Tech Live that I’ve hosted this spring. I’ll be hosting another episode this Thursday at 3:30pm EDT. You can join me on my YouTube channel or on the Practical Ed Tech Facebook page. I’ll answer your questions live as they appear. I’ll also answer questions […]
Phishing Explained by Common Craft
Last week’s viral Google Docs phishing scam provided a good reminder to many that we should always give a critical eye to emails and social media posts that don’t look quite right. It also served as a reminder that we need to educate students and, sometimes, our colleagues about phishing attempts. Common Craft has an […]
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 the business of hacking the social media accounts of my readers, I think she meant that she was seeinf a lot of the Free Technology for Teachers Facebook posts 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 going to host that session on Thursday at 4pm Eastern Time. It will be an open Q&A session about all things related to educational technology. Join me! If you want […]
This Creepily Named Site Reminds Us To Check Facebook Privacy Settings
Stalkscan is the creepy name of a website that lets people enter the URL of a Facebook profile and view all of the public information for that profile. The site is a good reminder to check your Facebook privacy settings regularly. You can can always view your own profile as another person by going to […]
Please Practice Good Digital Citizenship
I talked about this briefly on my Anchor podcast yesterday, but I need to elaborate a bit here. During the last year I have increasingly seen teachers sharing and or reacting to posts on social media without actually reading the full article. For example, see the screenshots below in which teachers have shared Facebook posts […]
A New Facebook Page for Practical Ed Tech Tips
Many readers of this blog are already familiar my Practical Ed Tech weekly newsletter in which I share my favorite tip of the week and a short list of the most popular posts from this blog. Last night I decided to create a Facebook page to complement that newsletter. The Practical Ed Tech Facebook page […]
Other Places We Can Connect
I receive a healthy amount of requests on my personal Facebook account every week. I decline most of them because I like to keep my personal Facebook account for interactions with family and friends that I’ve interacted with in person in some significant way (working together, going to school together, sharing meals, etc). But there […]
How to Browse a Facebook Page Without Logging Into an Account
Earlier this week I received an email from a reader who was concerned that Facebook was requiring her to log into an account in order to view the content of the Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page. While the pop-up that Facebook puts over a page until you sign-in is annoying, there is a way […]
How to Use Facebook to Bookmark Links
Almost every day I see a Facebook friend or two tag herself/ himself in the comments on a Facebook post purely for the purpose of “saving for later.” Perhaps you have a friend that does the same. There is an easier way to save items in Facebook. That is to simply open the drop-down menu […]
5 Settings You Should Know for School or Classroom Facebook Pages
As I mentioned yesterday, maintaining a Facebook fan page for your school or classroom can be a good way to keep parents informed of upcoming events. When you create a Facebook fan page for your school or classroom there are some default settings that you will want to change in order to keep the page […]
How to Create Historical Facebook Profiles With Google Drawings
Creating a fake Facebook profile for a character in a book or of a famous person in history could be a good way to get students interested in writing about that person. Doing that on Facebook.com is a violation of Facebook’s terms of service, but there are ways to create fake Facebook profiles without using Facebook.com. One […]
Search Facebook for Tools Reviewed on Free Technology for Teachers
I’m not sure if this feature is new or I was just slow to notice it, but this week I noticed that you can now search the Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page for my older Facebook posts. More than 400,000 people are now following that page. The search function on the Free Technology for […]