Three Activities All Teachers Can Create in Classwork
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 […]
How to Import PDFs Into Book Creator Projects
About a week ago Book Creator rolled-out the third or fourth new feature of this school year. That feature is the ability to import PDFs to use in your Book Creator projects. I had a cold and couldn’t speak well last week so I had to wait until this week to give Book Creator’s new […]
How to Create PDFs in Google Classroom
Last weekend a reader reached out to me to ask if I could create a video about the relatively new option to create PDFs in Google Classroom. I was happy to oblige. In this new video I demonstrate how to use the Google Classroom mobile apps to create PDFs from scratch. As I demonstrate in […]
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 […]
How to Convert Word Documents and PDFs Into Microsoft Forms
There are many little features of Microsoft Forms that shouldn’t be overlooked. And there is a new big feature of Microsoft Forms that definitely shouldn’t be overlooked. That feature is the ability to import Word documents and PDFs into Microsoft Forms. The import feature in Microsoft Forms makes it possible to quickly take a quiz […]
Five Ways to Work With PDFs in Google Drive
Some of the questions that receive more than frequently than others revolve around working with PDFs. The answers that people are looking for are often “hidden” in plain sight. Case in point, just uploading a PDF to Google Drive gives you a handful of ways that you can work with it. In this new video […]
Use Google Drive to Comment on PDFs, Images, and Videos
Google Drive can be used to store just about any kind of file that you have. What a lot of people overlook is that you can use Google Drive to comment on those files without converting them into Google Docs or other Google Workspace formats. For example, you can upload a PDF to your Google […]
Annotate PDFs With Lumin PDF – Free for Teachers
Lumin PDF is a neat tool that I wrote about a couple of years ago when one of my colleagues needed a way for her math students to draw on PDFs that she sent to them in Google Classroom. You can read more about that situation right here. I just received an email from Lumin […]
Scan Documents and QR Codes With Your Chromebook
Chromebook users will be happy to learn that Google has released an update that provides more utility for the camera that is built into Chromebooks. The update gives Chromebook webcams the ability to scan documents and QR codes. To scan a document with your Chromebook you now need to just open the camera app on […]
How to Share Sections of Google Docs in Google Classroom – And Why You Might Do That
Yesterday a reader sent me an interesting question about Google Docs and Google Classroom. She wanted to know if there was a way to share just one of a few pages of a Google Doc with her students via Google Classroom. One solution would be to copy the content of that one page and paste […]
How to Use TeacherMade to Create & Share Online Assessments
Disclosure: TeacherMade is an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com Earlier this week I wrote an overview of a great new service called TeacherMade. TeacherMade lets you quickly convert your favorite PDFs, Word documents, and images into online activities and assessments. Last night I created a short video that walks you through the process of creating an activity […]
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 […]
How to Convert a PDF Into a Google Document
On Friday during Two Ed Tech Guys Take Questions and Share Cool Stuff someone asked if there is a tool that I would recommend for converting a PDF into a Google Doc. Fortunately, you can do that without having to use any third-party tools. PDF to Google Docs conversion is built right into Google Drive. […]
How to Schedule and Host Google Hangouts Meet Events – Video
Last week I published a series of screenshots illustrating how to schedule and host Google Hangouts Meet events. For those who would like to see the whole process in a video format, I recorded the following tutorial video. In How to Create Google Hangouts Meet Events you’ll see two methods for creating events and inviting […]
Fill-in PDF Forms in the Google Drive Mobile Apps
Earlier today Google released a convenient update to the Google Drive iOS and Android apps. The update enables users to fill out PDF forms on their phones and tablets. The update will be rolling out over the next couple of weeks although some users may already see the new feature. Being able to fill out […]
CleverPDF Offers 20 Ways to Work With PDFs in Other Formats
CleverPDF is a free service that anyone can use to convert a PDF into a Word document, a Pages file, or an ePub file. That’s just the tip of the iceberg of what’s on offer from CleverPDF. The service can be used to create PowerPoint slides, Keynote slides, images, Numbers, and Excel files. In addition […]
An Easy Way to Convert PDFs Into Word Documents
From time to time we all need to convert a document from one format to another. There are lots of online tools that will do that for you. Perhaps the simplest one that I’ve tried is a service called Easy PDF. To use Easy PDF you do not need to register on the site, there […]
Create Fillable PDFs and Online Forms With JotForm
JotForm is a great tool for creating fillable PDFs and online forms for things like course registration, permission slips, and course evaluations. Last week I wrote a detailed overview of JotForm. Today, I made a video that walks you through the features of JotForm from the perspective of a form creator and a form respondent. […]
How to Annotate PDFs
Twice in this week, once on Facebook and once in email, I have been asked about how to annotate PDFs. In both instances my response was to take a look at using Kami to annotate PDFs. Kami is a browser-based service through which you can draw, highlight, and type on a PDF. You can share […]
Kami – Annotate and Collaborate on PDFs
Disclosure: Kami is an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com Kami is a neat service that makes it easy to annotate and comment on PDFs. The folks at Kami describe their service as a digital pen and paper. That is an accurate description of what the core of the service provides. The core function of Kami provides you […]
Practical Ed Tech Handbook – 2017 Edition
In 2015 and 2016 I published a 30 page PDF that I called the Practical Ed Tech Handbook. Those have been accessed more than 100,000 times. Today, I revised the Practical Ed Tech Handbook for 2017. Within the pages of the 30 page document you will find short reviews of my favorite tools for creating […]
Two Helpful Tips for Navigating PDFs
One of the search tips that I often remind students about is, “search within your search results.” In other words, open up a webpage, a PDF, or a Word file and search within it before dismissing it as not relevant to your search. There are two simple ways that students can quickly search and navigate […]
15 Tools for Teaching History With Technology – A Handout
One of the things that teachers often ask me for is a set of tools to get them started on using technology in their classrooms. This is a common request because it can be overwhelming to look at a website or a read a stream of emails with tips and try to figure out where […]
Great Tools for Creating Screencasts – A PDF Handout
Over the last few weeks I have shared my favorite tools for creating screencast videos on Chromebooks, on Windows and Mac computers, on iPads, and on Android tablets. Many people who read this blog work in BYOD environments or otherwise need tools for creating screencasts on a variety of devices. Therefore, this morning I put […]
Digitize Your Whiteboard and Paper Notes With OneDrive
From Evernote to Google Drive to CamScanner there are plenty of mobile apps that you can use to snap a picture of a whiteboard or paper note and have that turned into a PDF. Now Microsoft is trying to get into the same game with the latest beta version of OneDrive for Android. In the […]