Create Interactive Video Lessons With ClickView
ClickView was one of the first fifteen things that caught my eye during last week’s ISTE Live conference. It’s a tool that you can use to create interactive video lessons with videos you’ve made as well as with videos you find online. There are other tools like ClickView available to teachers. What caught my attention […]
Good Resources for Teaching and Learning About Income Taxes
There are two things that I always write about at this time of year. One of those is Patriots’ Day and the American Revolution. The other thing is income taxes. In this post I’ll share some resources for teaching and learning about income taxes in the United States. Tax Help for High School Students A […]
Slideator – Add Your Voice to Almost Any Type of Slideshow
Slideator is a free tool that you can use to add voice-over and webcam recordings to your slides. Slideator works with just about any type of slideshow that you own. You can even use it with a set of slides that you have in PDF. In addition to adding your voice-over and webcam recording to […]
How to Find TED-Ed Lessons by Grade Level
Yesterday, I received an email from someone who saw my post about TED-Ed’s The Writer’s Workshop. She was wondering if there is a way to search TED-Ed videos by grade level. That’s not a function available on YouTube, but it is a function available on the TED-Ed lessons website. To sort TED-Ed lessons by grade level go […]
How to Record a Video Lesson in PowerPoint
A few years ago I published a video about how to create a video by using the recording tool built into PowerPoint. Since then Microsoft has added more features to the recording tools in PowerPoint. So last week I recorded a new tutorial on how to record a video lesson in PowerPoint. In this short […]
Videos for Teaching and Learning About Memorial Day
Next Monday is Memorial Day. Students often confuse the origin and purpose of Memorial Day with those of Veterans Day. The following videos can help students understand the origins and meanings of Memorial Day and Veterans Day. The Meaning of Memorial Day is a two minute video covering the origins of the holiday in the […]
A New PowerPoint Recording Option
For a couple of years now I’ve been using and recommending Canva’s presentation recording tool because it has a built-in teleprompter. That feature lets you record your video while viewing your speaker notes, but the speaker notes don’t appear in the final recording. The latest version of PowerPoint now includes that same capability. Mike Tholfsen […]
Use Canva’s Design and Recording Tools With Your PowerPoint and Google Slides
The other day a reader sent me an interesting question that I hadn’t thought about before. That was whether or not you can use Canva’s recording studio with Google Slides. At first I thought to myself, “why not just make a screen recording of the slides with something like Screencastify?” Then I thought about it […]
How to Quickly Create and Share Narrated Presentations
Yesterday afternoon I published a video highlighting my five favorite features of Canva. After I published it I thought about it some more and decided that one of the features needed to be explained a bit more. That’s why I created this video to demonstrate how to create a narrated presentation by using Canva’s built-in […]
Three Ways to Create Video Lessons With Your Existing Slides
Last week I hosted a webinar about creating videos for asynchronous instruction. One of the points that I made in the webinar was that you don’t need to start from scratch every time you want to record a new lesson. In fact, one of the easiest ways to get started is to record over a […]
How to Build Questions Into Screencastify Videos
Disclosure: Screencastify is currently an advertiser on my sites. A couple of weeks ago Screencastify announced the launch of some new features in their video editor. One of those new features is the ability to add interactive questions into your videos. You can do this with videos that you record with the Screencastify Chrome extension […]
Narakeet – Quickly Turn Slides into Narrated Video Lessons
A reader recently emailed me looking for advice on how to create narrated video based on slides made in Canva. She didn’t want to record her own voiceover audio. My suggestion was to try using Narakeet to have the slides converted into a narrated video. Narakeet lets you upload slides and have them converted into […]
Record Annotated Video Presentations With PresentationTube’s Chrome Extension
PresentationTube is a non-profit that has provided a free service to teachers for many years. That service is the ability to record video presentations based on PowerPoint files and PDFs. Recently, PresentationTube released a Chrome extension that lets you create video lessons in your web browser. PresentationTube’s Chrome extension will let you record while talking […]
27 Videos That Can Help Students Improve Their Writing
The Writer’s Workshop is a playlist of twenty-seven TED-Ed video lessons about writing. The The Writer’s Workshop contains lessons on basic topics like how to use punctuation and point of view. It also offers videos about more difficult topics like how to make your writing humorous. A few of the videos from The Writer’s Workshop playlist are embedded below. First, […]
Create Video Lessons Without Making Your Own Recordings
As I do every year, I’m taking this week off from writing new blog posts. This week I’ll be re-running a few of the most popular posts in 2020. In the latest episode of The Practical Ed Tech Podcast I mentioned that EDpuzzle recently updated their user interface and that I was going to make a […]
Using YouTube to Share Lessons This Fall? – Settings and Tools You Need to Know About
This fall many of us are using YouTube more than ever before to share lessons with students. Whether those lessons are ones you recorded or ones that you found YouTube, there are some settings and tools that you should know about. Settings and Features When Sharing Your Own Video Lessons You can make your videos […]
SciShow Kids Returns Next Week!
A little over a year ago SciShow Kids, one of my favorite YouTube channels, announced a hiatus. I thought that was going to be then end of the channel. Much to my surprise this afternoon I saw an update from the channel announcing its return. SciShow Kids returns next week with new videos for elementary […]
A Few Basic Settings to Know When Uploading to YouTube
This past semester I created and uploaded to YouTube more videos for students than I ever have before. Based on the number of questions that I answered on that topic, I know I’m not the only one. And depending on how school starts in the fall, there may be many more teachers tan ever before […]
Updated – How to Use EDpuzzle to Create Video Lessons
In my previous post I wrote about and included a video about adding timestamps to longer videos that you post on your YouTube channel. Rather than just talk about it, I took my own advice and added timestamps to one of my longest and most popular videos of the last few months. That video is […]
How to Timestamp Your YouTube Videos
When you’re publishing videos that are longer than five or six minutes on your YouTube channel it can be helpful to viewers to add some timestamps to the video’s description. Including timestamps in the description lets your viewers click to jump to an exact mark in the video. There are a couple of ways that […]
A Handful of Video Lessons About Memorial Day
This is Memorial Day weekend here in the United States. Monday is actually Memorial Day. Students often confuse the origin and purpose of Memorial Day with those of Veterans Day. The following videos can help students understand the origins and meanings of Memorial Day and Veterans Day. The Meaning of Memorial Day is a two […]
Seven Ideas for Flipgrid Activities
One of the reasons that Flipgrid became popular and continues to grow in popularity is that it can be used across grade levels. Another reason for its popularity is that it new features are added to it on a regular basis. With every new feature comes a new way to think about how Flipgrid can […]
Create Video-based Lessons a Little Faster With This Chrome Extension
A couple of weeks ago when I got the notice that my school would be closing I made a video about how to use EDpuzzle to create video-based lessons without having to create your own recordings. I first shared it with my colleagues and then included it in my Practical Ed Tech newsletter. One thing […]
How to Create Video Lessons Without Making Your Own Recordings
In the latest episode of The Practical Ed Tech Podcast I mentioned that EDpuzzle recently updated their user interface and that I was going to make a video about it. Well I started to make a video just about the updated UI then realized that I could help more teachers right now by making a complete […]
Watch2Gether – Host Live Online Discussion About Shared Videos
Watch2Gether is a service for sharing videos that I’ve used off and on since 2011. When I first started using it you could share YouTube videos and host live chats about those videos on the same page. Over the years it has expanded to offer support for using videos from Vimeo, Facebook, Instagram, and half […]
Tips and Tools for Teaching Remotely
Over the last week I’ve received a bunch of emails and Tweets from people looking for my suggestions on tools and tactics for teaching online if schools are closed due to COVID-19. I’m going to start this post with some tips for giving online instruction then get into some recommended tools. Tips for Giving Live […]
A Great Set of Videos for Teaching Networking and Computer Hardware Concepts
As some of you know, I took over a computer science program at my local vocational/ technical high school this year. It has been fun and, at times, has made me feel like a brand new teacher again. When I took the job I told my director that I’d be fine with the programming side […]
The Origins of the English Language
This morning I had a student ask me “what does ‘the’ mean?” It’s was one of those classic teenager moments of trying to distract me/ waste time at the start of class. I indulged him for a minute then got on with the plan for the day. The interaction did remind me that there was […]
EDpuzzle Live Mode – Turn Video Lessons Into Group Activities
EDpuzzle has been my go-to tool for making video-based lessons and quizzes for many years. Just in time for the new school year EDpuzzle has released a new feature called Live Mode. EDpuzzle’s Live Mode lets you take your existing EDpuzzle lessons or any new lessons that you create and turn them into group activities. […]
27 Birds, 27 States – A Good Nat Geo Series for Kids
A few years ago National Geographic Kids started publishing a series of videos called 50 Birds, 50 States. For some reason they never got beyond 27 states. The 27 videos that were released do present a fun way for students to learn some basic facts about each state. The videos are presented as animated rap […]
Two More Lessons in TED-Ed’s “Why Should You Read…” Series
Last fall TED-Ed started publishing a series of lessons titled “Why Should You Read…” The series features TED-Ed lessons that explain the significance of classic works of literature. When I last wrote about the series it contained seven lessons. The series is now up to nine lessons. The latest lessons are about Fahrenheit 451 and […]
How to Upload Videos to Reply to Flipgrid Topics
I love Flipgrid for the ease with which students can record videos with their webcams to reply to prompts that you give them. But not every student likes to appear on camera. And not every Flipgrid topic has to be a free-form response. It is in those instances that your students can use the option […]
11 Halloween Lesson Resources
Halloween is just two days away. If you’re looking for some Halloween-themed lessons, take a look at the following resources that I featured earlier this month. All About Poe In Why Should You Read Edgar Allan Poe? students can learn about Poe’s guiding principles for writing, the recurring themes of his work, and the personal factors in […]
Create Great Video Lessons on iSL Collective
iSL Collective offers a huge gallery of video-based lessons designed to help students learn English. It also offers a fantastic tool for teachers to use to create their own video-based lessons. iSL Collective’s video lesson creator lets you build questions into videos found on YouTube and on Vimeo. The lesson creator allows you to add […]
iSLCollective Video Quiz Creator
iSLCollective is an interactive video quiz creator that allows students to interact with videos while they watch them. Once you create an account you can upload a video from either YouTube or Vimeo. Once your video has uploaded you can begin adding any number of question types such as including fill in the gap, matching, multiple […]
EDpuzzle Offers an Android App for Students
Thanks to David Kapuler I have just learned that EDpuzzle now offers an Android app for students. The EDpuzzle Android app lets students join your EDpuzzle classroom, find assignments, watch videos, and answer the questions that you have added into videos in your EDpuzzle classroom. Students who have more than one teacher using EDpuzzle can […]
Three Lessons About the Sound of the Human Voice
“I hate the way my voice sounds,” is often said by students and teachers the first time they hear their own voices on a podcast or video. This is because most people aren’t accustomed to hearing their own voices the way that others hear it. Why does your voice sound different to you when you […]
Which Parts of the Brain Do What?
Which Parts of the Brain Do What? is the title of a new MinuteEarth video. In the short video students can learn a bit about the origins of brain studies, how FRMIs changed the way brain function is studied, and why correlation does not always equal causation. The video also introduces students to the terms […]
HipHughes History Celebrates 300 Video Lessons
This week Keith Hughes celebrated the publication of the 300th video on his massively popular HipHughes History channel. His latest video is a short explanation of the flipped classroom model and how it uses it. That video is embedded below. Along with his 300th video, this week Keith published a Google Document that lists all […]
How Does a Canyon Become Grand? – And Other Lessons on the Shaping of North America
Earlier this month TED-Ed published a new lesson about how the physical geography of North America has changed over time. The lesson, titled How North America Got Its Shape, includes brief explanations of the roles of shifting tectonic plates, erosion, and volcanic activity in shaping North America. The lesson includes the Grand Canyon as an […]
theLearnia Offers a Good Way to Create Video Lessons
theLearnia is a free service that I reviewed about four years ago when it was primarily a social network built around video lessons. This week I took another look at theLearnia and learned that the site is now focused on helping teachers create video-based lessons. On theLearnia you can create video lessons up to fifteen […]
A Crash Course in Physics
On the last day of March Crash Course launched a new series of videos about physics. The series now contains seven videos on friction, integrals, derivatives, Newton’s Laws, and motion. The playlist is embedded below. For some physics lessons that younger students might enjoy, take a look at NASA’s Rocket Science 101. To use these […]
Zaption Expands Free Options for Creating Flipped Lessons
Zaption is a popular tool for creating video-based lessons and quizzes. The service operates on a freemium model in which they offer a mix of free and paid options. Last week Zaption announced that the free options have been expanded. Teachers can now utilize all of the video lesson creation tools that Zaption offers. Those […]
5 Tips to Improve Critical Thinking Skills – A TED-Ed Lesson
5 Tips to Improve Your Critical Thinking is the latest TED-Ed lesson. The introduction to the lesson is a bit long for my liking but once you get past that the tips are solid. The lesson presents critical thinking as a process of five steps. The last step is the one that students will probably […]