Whiteboard.chat – Create Online Whiteboards You Can Share and Monitor
Back in September I wrote a review of a new online whiteboard tool called Whiteboard.chat. I like it because it allows teachers to create whiteboards for their students. Teachers can then remotely monitor the whiteboards to see what their students are doing on those whiteboards. It’s great for doing things like asking students to solve […]
New Google Meet Tools to Help You Improve Call Quality
Google has added a new tool to Google Meet to help you answer the question, “why is Google Meet call quality so bad?” Now when you’re in a Google Meet call you can click on the little “three dot” menu in the bottom-right corner of the screen and you’ll find a “Troubleshooting and Help” menu. […]
Ten Google Meet Features for Teachers – Fall 2020 Update
Back in the late winter/ early spring of this year I published an overview of Google Meet features you should know how to use for teaching online classes. Since then Google has updated old features and introduced new ones. To reflect the updates made since the spring I created this new video overview of ten […]
How to Use and Adjust Grid View in Google Meet
In my unofficial tech support role at my school I get asked a lot of questions. Now that we’re back to 100% online teaching and learning those questions are coming as emails instead of as “hey Richard” questions in the hallway. One of the questions I got this morning was about viewing all students in […]
Seven Tools for Creating Word Clouds
This morning I received an email from a reader who was looking for an alternative to ABCya’s word cloud generator. ABCya’s word cloud generator was a good one. Unfortunately, it is no longer available. Here are some other word cloud tools to try. Uses for Word Clouds: Word cloud generators can be useful in providing […]
Jamboard is Now Integrated Into Google Meet
Back in June Google started teasing the possibility of Jamboard being integrated into Google Meet. The possibility has come to fruition as yesterday afternoon Google announced that Jamboard is now integrated into Google Meet. Jamboard can be launched inside of Google Meet by opening the small sandwich menu (the three little dots in the […]
Google Adds Another Control for Teachers Using Google Meet
Eleven days ago Google announced the launch of new Google Meet controls for teachers. Those new controls were the ability to specify who can or cannot share screens in a Google Meet meeting. This week Google announced the launch of another meeting control for teachers using Google Meet. The latest update to Google Meet introduces a […]
How to Create Online Whiteboards, Share Them, and Monitor Them
Earlier this week I wrote a review of a new collaborative whiteboard tool called Whiteboard Chat. One of the highlights of Whiteboard Chat is the ability to create whiteboards for your students and then remotely observe what your students put on the whiteboards. The best part is that you can see up to nine student […]
Whiteboard Chat – Online Whiteboards You Can Share and Monitor
Whiteboard Chat is a free service that you can use to create collaborative whiteboards to use with your students. It is possible to use Whiteboard Chat without an email address which makes it quick and easy to get started. There are two ways to use Whiteboard Chat. The first is to create one whiteboard that […]
Five Zoom Features You Need to Know
As the new school year gets going there is going to be a lot more Zoom calls in our future. At my school students are going to be on Zoom or Google Meet for at least two days of every week to start the year. If that sounds like you, here is a handful of […]
How to Quickly Incorporate Google Meet Into Google Classroom
Thanks to a Tweet from Chris Pirkl yesterday evening I learned that Google has now made it easier to post Google Meet links in Google Classroom. In fact, now you can now have a Google Meet link permanently assigned to each of your classrooms with Google Classroom. This means that you can have the same […]
Webinar Recording – Strategies for Remote Instructional Technology Support
Yesterday afternoon I hosted a webinar titled Three Strategies for Remote Instructional Technology Support. If you missed it, the recording is now available to view here on my YouTube channel and as embedded below. The slides from the presentation can be seen here or as embedded below. Highlights of the webinar included: Improving your autoresponder. […]
Use Read Receipts to Make Sure Students Know They Have Google Classroom Assignments
Last week I published a post in which I explained that you can use read receipts in your G Suite for Education email to make sure that students have at least seen your messages even if they don’t reply to your messages. I do that when I email students to remind them that they have […]
A Solution to Zoom “Not Responding” on Windows 10
On Friday morning I started having problems with every Zoom meeting that I tried to launch or join on my Windows 10 computer resulting in the annoying “application not responding” message. I didn’t have the same problem on my Mac. Based on the response to a Tweet that I posted, I wasn’t the only one […]
Three More Free Webinars About Online Learning
Last week Rushton Hurley hosted three webinars about transitioning to online teaching and learning. Those webinars addressed a lot of questions about planning. You can watch the recording of his webinar from last week here. Rushton is hosting three more free webinars this week. Here’s how Rushton describes the webinars that he’s hosting this week: […]
Webinar Recording – Three Things We Can Do To Quickly Transition to Teaching Online
Last night I hosted a free webinar in which I shared what I’m doing to transition to quickly transition to teaching my high school classes online. I also shared some advice from my colleague Dr. Wendy Robichaud on how to prepare students for online learning and what to focus on in the first week or […]
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 […]
Reminder – Free Webinar on Remote Learning – Today at 1pm ET
There are tons of free webinars about remote learning that have been offered in the last week and are scheduled for the coming days. Many of those appear to be vendor-specific. Rushton Hurley, former principal of an online school and founder of Next Vista for Learning, is hosting a free webinar today at 1pm ET […]
Three Free Webinars About Transitioning to Teaching Online
In my previous post I mentioned Rushton Hurley’s Emergencies and Switching to Online Learning. Later this week Rushton is going to host three free webinars on the topic. The webinars are Wednesday at 4pm ET and 7pm ET and then again on Friday at 4pm ET. You can register for the webinars here. In describing […]
Two More Guides to Transitioning to Online Instruction
Last week and again this morning I published my top tips and tools for teaching remotely if your school closes due to COVID-19 outbreak. And as I mentioned on my podcast, Larry Ferlazzo has a good list of resources going too. Now there are two more guides that I’d like to draw your attention to. […]
The Practical Ed Tech Podcast Episode 36 – Teaching Online and More
This episode of The Practical Ed Tech Podcast is a bit longer than the usual weekly episodes. The first ten minutes of this episode is spent explaining some strategies and tools for teaching online. I did this in response to all of the emails and Tweets I’ve received in the last week regarding teaching online […]
Updated – 5 Online, Collaborative Whiteboard Services
Online, collaborative, whiteboards can be great tools for hosting quick review sessions for your students. Your students can also use these tools to conduct online study sessions with each other. Here are five free online whiteboard tools to try. Draw Chat is a free service that allows anyone to create a video chat over a whiteboard, […]
How to Invite Students to Google Classroom & How to Join a Google Classroom
The addition of Gmail users to the Google Classroom platform has made it possible for almost anyone to create and join courses in Google Classroom. This has also caused some confusion for people who previously used Google Classroom with a G Suite for Education account. The confusion arises when a person tries to join a […]
Know Lounge Adds New Features for Teaching Online
Know Lounge is a free service for hosting online instructional sessions in the web browser on your computer or on your iPad. I initially reviewed the service in February and found it easy to use although a bit lacking of features. Today, Know Lounge announced the addition of new features that teachers will like. Know […]