Introduction to Classwork in Microsoft Teams
Teachers who use Microsoft Teams will have a convenient new feature to use this fall. That feature is called Classwork and it will enable you to create modules of resources drawn from assignments and OneNote notebook pages as well as web links, files, and Microsoft Forms quizzes. Last month at the ISTE conference I saw […]
A Thanksgiving Leftovers Search Lesson and Bookmarking Tip
One of my favorite things about Thanksgiving is eating the leftovers the next day. I enjoy a good turkey sandwich almost as much as Ross, but I do like to mix it up a bit and try other ways to use leftovers. In fact, I was doing that earlier this week (yes, I was planning […]
Two Alternatives to Kami for Annotating PDFs
Last week a reader emailed me to ask about some alternatives to Kami for annotating PDFs. She didn’t ask because she didn’t like Kami. She asked because her school was cutting back on what they would spend for software licensing. I gave her two suggestions which you might also consider if you find yourself looking […]
40,000 People Get Their Ed Tech Tips This Way
Yesterday morning I logged into my YouTube studio dashboard and saw that my little channel of screencast videos now has 40,000 subscribers! My videos aren’t anything fancy. I just write some bullet points on a notepad then record using Screencast-o-matic. I do some light editing (blurring, trimming, and occasionally adding text overlays) and then hit […]
How to Create Collaborative To-do Lists in OneNote
In this week’s Practical Ed Tech Newsletter I featured some tools and ideas for students to use to manage group projects. OneNote was one of the tools that I mentioned using for that purpose. It’s a good option for students who are already using OneNote because they don’t have to learn a whole new tool […]
Ten Updated OneNote Features to Note
Mike Tholfsen is a product manager for Microsoft Education and the producer of some excellent Microsoft product tutorial videos for teachers. I frequently reference his videos in my weekly newsletter and when answering readers’ questions about Microsoft products. This week Mike released a new video about the latest updates to OneNote. OneNote is the Microsoft tool that […]
Best of 2021 – Three Good Options for Annotating PDFs
As I do every year, I’m taking this week as a break from publishing new blog posts and will be republishing some of the most popular posts of the year. New blog posts will resume on January 1st. In last week’s Practical Ed Tech newsletter I shared three good options for adding audio comments to […]
A Tip for Finding and Reading Thanksgiving Leftovers Recipes
One of my favorite things about Thanksgiving is eating the leftovers the next day. I enjoy a good turkey sandwich almost as much as Ross, but I do like to mix it up a bit and try other ways to use leftovers. In fact, I was doing that earlier this week (yes, I was planning […]
40 OneNote and Outlook Tips for Teachers and Students
Mike Tholfsen is a product manager for Microsoft Education and the producer of some excellent Microsoft product tutorial videos for teachers. I recently mentioned one of his videos in my weekly newsletter. For those who missed it, the video I mentioned was 20 Outlook Web Tips and Tricks 2021. In 20 Outlook Web Tips and […]
My Most Popular Tutorials in July
In July my YouTube my YouTube channel passed the 37,000 subscriber mark. In July I published twenty-three new tutorials including some in-depth guides to getting started with Google Workspace for Education. On my YouTube you’ll also find tutorials on a wide variety of topics including making your own Android apps, video creation tips, Microsoft Forms tutorials, podcasting tips, […]
Three Good Options for Annotating PDFs
In last week’s Practical Ed Tech newsletter I shared three good options for adding audio comments to Google Docs, Word docs, and PDFs. That prompted a couple of readers to ask me about options for annotating PDFs. I have a few recommendations for annotating PDFs. The one you pick may depend upon whether you prefer […]
My Favorite Feature of OneNote’s Chrome Extension
OneNote is the Microsoft product that I use more than any other in my daily work and personal life. I have it installed on my Android phone for taking notes and bookmarking things that I find while reading through my favorite blogs on Feedly. I also use the OneNote Chrome extension on my computers to […]
How OneNote Can Help Students Solve Math Problems
As I mentioned last week, I’m trying to make more videos about the excellent products that Microsoft offers to teachers and students for free. One of those products is OneNote. Within OneNote there is a great feature that can help students solve math problems. In the video that I’ve embedded below you can see how […]
How to Annotate PDFs in OneNote
This past spring I published a video about using PDFs in Google Classroom and a video about converting PDFs into Google Docs. One of the things that I’m working on before the next school year starts is to produce some more videos about using Microsoft products. To that end, this morning I made the following […]
A Great Set of Microsoft Teams Tutorials
I published a bunch of videos about using Google Meet and Zoom this spring. That’s because those are the tools that I use the most and I was asked about the most. This afternoon I answered an email from a reader who was looking for help with Microsoft Teams. My recommendation was to check out […]
Move Items from One Google Account to Another
It’s that time of year again when some teachers will be leaving one school district for another. With that move comes the need to move your digital resources as well as your physical resources. I was reminded of this yesterday when I got an email from a reader who wanted to know how to move […]
Short Overviews of Immersive Reader in Word and OneNote
Immersive Reader is one of the central components of Microsoft’s accessibility tools for inclusive classrooms. Immersive Reader will read documents aloud. It can be customized to highlight each word or each syllable as a document is read aloud. Users of Immersive Reader can also select the voice in which a document is read aloud and […]
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, […]
Five Key Updates to Microsoft’s Education Products
During the ISTE conference this week Microsoft showcased many features of their varied education products. If you, like me, were not able to attend the conference, you can get a full run-down of all of the updates in What’s New in EDU. Here are the updates that stood-out to me. Add Forms to Assignments in […]
How to Save Bookmarks Using OneNote for Android
In 2018 I have been using OneNote as my primary tool for saving bookmarks and quick notes. Previously, used Google Keep for all of my bookmarks and notes on my Android phone. I made the switch because I found OneNote’s Android app to have more features that I use on a regular basis. The feature […]
An Easy Speech-to-Text Option for Word, OneNote, and PowerPoint
Word, OneNote, and PowerPoint users have a new speech-to-text option. A new dictation option has been added to Office 365. The dictation tool will transcribe your spoken words into text on your screen. This afternoon I tried the dictation option in both Word and PowerPoint on my desktop. It is easy to use and accurate […]
Adverbs, Themes, and Labels – New Immersive Reader Features
Immersive Reader is a free add-in for Word, OneNote, Outlook, and Edge enables students to have articles read aloud to them at pace that meets their needs. Additionally, Immersive Reader will identify individual syllables, highlight each word as it is read, and identify parts of speech for students. It has become my go-to recommendation whenever […]
Three Ways to Digitize Your Physical Sticky Notes
Last week Padlet added a new feature to their free iPad and iPhone apps. That feature is the ability to snap a picture of a set of physical sticky notes then have those notes appear on a Padlet wall that you can manipulate in the app and or in your web browser. If you haven’t […]
Microsoft Adds New OneNote and Teams Features for Teachers and Students
This week Microsoft announced a handful of new OneNote and Teams features. These new features were all developed for the purpose of improving collaboration and transparency. Rubrics in Teams Back in February Microsoft acquired Chalkup. One of Chalkup’s primary services was to provide a platform for creating, sharing, using rubrics to grade assignments online. Chalkup’s […]
How to Create Staff Notebooks in OneNote
Early this year I was finally convinced that Microsoft’s OneNote is a product that I should be using more often. In fact, I’ve moved all of my bookmarking and digital note-taking into OneNote and now use Google Keep just for reminders and shopping lists (yes, I know you can do that in OneNote too, but […]
A Quick Guide to OneNote
Over the last few months I have come to appreciate all of the things that OneNote does that my trusty old Google Keep can’t do. Whenever a product has as many features layered into it as OneNote does, it can take some time to understand how all of those features work individually and can work […]
5 Features of OneNote That You Won’t Find in Google Keep
Earlier this year I shared that I have moved almost all of my online bookmarking and note-taking to OneNote. That’s not to say that don’t like Google Keep anymore, in fact, I still like and even have a whole lesson about it in my G Suite training course. In a side-by-side comparison for bookmarking and […]
How to Find & Make OneNote Templates
The more that I use it, the more I think that OneNote is a fantastic all-in-one product for note-taking, bookmarking, and general organization of your digital life. Like any robust product, OneNote has some features that you might overlook unless someone points them out. In my case, templates were a feature that I didn’t notice […]
By Request – 5 Task Management Tools for Students
This morning I received an email from a reader seeking suggestions for to-do list management tools her students can use to keep track of assignments and other things that they have to do during the week. Here are my suggestions for task-management tools for students. OneNote If your school uses Microsoft products, I’d take a […]
NoteStreaming 101 – What You Need To Know To Get Started
Earlier today on Twitter I posted a question about notebooks. Specifically, I wanted to know who still uses physical notebooks and, if so, if there is a preference for lined or unlined paper. By the way, I use a notebook with unlined paper and I draw with a Uniball Signo 207. Do you have a […]
Picture Dictionary and Custom Colors Added to Immersive Reader
Microsoft’s Immersive Reader just might be my favorite accessibility tool. This free add-in for Word, OneNote, Outlook, and Edge enables students to have articles read aloud to them at pace that meets their needs. Additionally, Immersive Reader will identify individual syllables, highlight each word as it is read, and identify parts of speech for students. […]
Three Good Tools for Annotating Images Online
Annotating images can be a good activity for students to do illustrate their understanding of a process by adding information to a blank flowchart. Annotating images is also a good way for students to highlight and identify parts of a diagram like one of a plant cell. I have had students annotate images to identify […]
Immersive Reader on iPads
When I was at the BETT Show last month I learned about the planned expansion of Microsoft’s Learning Tools including Immersive Reader. Part of that expansion rolled out yesterday with the addition of Learning Tools for Word on iPads. NEW! Word for iPad on @Office365 now has shipped Learning Tools! Check the “View” tab #mieexpert […]
5 Ways to Record Notes With OneNote for Android
Back in December I decided that I needed to spend some time giving some of Microsoft’s products a good, honest try. I did this to be able to give a more balanced comparison to rival Google products. Some of the Microsoft products I don’t like as much as Google’s offerings, I still prefer Google Forms. […]
Microsoft Introduces Page Locking for OneNote Class Notebooks
Today, Microsoft announced a slew of new features for teachers and students who use Office 365 Education. Among those new features is an option that anyone using OneNote Class Notebooks is sure to appreciate. That is the new option to lock pages as “read only” for students. A couple of other new OneNote features to […]
Taking Notes on a Touchscreen – Three Options Compared
iPads, Android tablets, and touchscreen laptops that fold flat make it easy for those who prefer to handwrite their notes to preserve those notes in a digital format. I’ve used Google Keep for this purpose for a number of years, but as a part of my on-going effort to feature more non-Google tools I spent […]
Tutorials on Organizing OneNote
To most outside observers my notebooks, both digital and physical, are a hot mess. That’s because I rarely employ tags, folders, or any of the other traditional methods used to organize a notebook. The only time I do use tags and folders is when I am working on specific research project. The rest of the […]
A Short Overview of Immersive Reader from Microsoft
Immersive Reader is a free tool available from Microsoft. As I wrote earlier this week, Immersive Reader will read aloud the articles that students have in their OneNote notebooks. Immersive Reader does more than just read articles aloud. It will identify to students the nouns, verbs, and adjectives within an article. Students can also choose […]
Immersive Reader – A Fantastic Addition to OneNote
For the last six weeks I have been making a concerted effort to increase my working knowledge of OneNote in order to be able to make better comparisons between it and its competitors. One of the aspects of OneNote that I appreciate is its flexibility. An example of that flexibility is found in a free […]
A Quick Comparison of Three Bookmarking Tools
As some of you know, all month I have been running a side-by-side-by-side comparison of Google Keep, OneNote, and Zoho Notebook. I use them mostly for bookmarking websites and taking an occasional note. In the video included in the Facebook post embedded below, I demonstrate how I am using the three and what I like […]
One OneNote Feature I Wish Google Keep Had
As many readers know, I’m a long-time user of all things Google. That includes Google Keep which I have been using for all of my bookmarking and note-taking since Evernote gutted its free plan about two years ago. Recently, I’ve embarked on a quest to give other bookmarking and note-taking tools an honest try. So […]
Mac Users Can Now Quickly Move From Evernote to OneNote
If you’re one of the many people considering leaving Evernote after the latest round of “updates” made its free plan almost worthless, Microsoft has something for you. OneNote is a free tool that works on every platform. Microsoft has offered an Evernote to OneNote transition tool for Windows users for a while. Late last week […]
Try DropItToMe to Collect Files from Students and Colleagues
DropItToMe is a free tool that you can integrate with your Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneNote account. DropItToMe lets you collect files from anyone and have those files directly deposited into a Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneNote folder. The beauty of using DropItToMe is that people sending files to you don’t see the contents of […]
Evernote’s Free Plan Is Almost Worthless – Here Are Two Good Alternatives
At the end of June Evernote announced some significant changes to their subscription plans including the free service that they had offered for years. Last night I received a reminder email from Evernote prodding me to buy up to one of their premium plans. I deleted the email because I switched away from Evernote and […]
A Good Place to Find OneNote Tutorials
Yesterday morning I woke up to an email from a reader who told me that it was “ridonkulous” that I don’t write about OneNote. (Side note, I need to get back in the habit of not checking email first thing in the morning so that I’m not starting my day with a nasty tone). The […]