EdTech Links of the Week - 3-20-23

Each week I keep an eye out for the latest edtech resources through blogs, social media, podcasts, videos, user groups, and more. I then try to reshare these resources in many ways.

One way I share these is here on the blog in these "EdTech Links of the Week" posts. See below to explore the latest batch of resources, and be sure to share with others who may benefit.

If you want to make sure you don't miss new resources, you can:

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter here: bit.ly/curts-news
📧 Join the "Control Alt Achieve" email discussion group: bit.ly/caa-emailgroup

🔔 Get new blog posts automatically through email - FollowIt link

📅 Subscribe to the "Control Alt Achieve" calendar for livestreams: Calendar link

🐦Follow me on Twitter here: twitter.com/ericcurts

🔗 Subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog here: RSS feed link

And as always, please let me know of any resources that you recommend. I would love to learn from you!

Making and Taking Virtual Tours with Google Earth

Google Earth has long been a favorite tool of mine for exploring the world, seeing amazing 3D renderings of natural wonders as well as manmade structures, and of course viewing my house from space.

However, it offers much more than that! With Google Earth you and your students can take and make interactive, educational virtual tours.

With the Voyager tool you can explore hundreds of pre-made tours and activities.

With the Project tool you can create your own tours by plotting points on the globe to make a 3D geographic tour of a story, historical event, interesting locations, or any concept you are exploring in class. Each location can include additional text, images, videos, links, and more.

I recently recorded a 45-minute training video on making and taking Google Earth tours. See below to view the video, as well as access resources from the session and detailed directions. And if you or your students create a Google Earth tour, please consider sharing the product. I would love to learn from you!

My 2023 UCET Sessions

I am excited and honored to be presenting at the Utah Coalition for Educational Technology Conference (UCET 2023) in Provo, Utah this week on March 14th and 15th, 2023.

I always look forward to an opportunity to see old friends, make new friends, share some ideas, and learn so many new things from others.

You can learn more about the conference at:

https://ucet.org/conference/

Below is a list of sessions I will be presenting at UCET 2023, along with any associated resources. Please feel free to join me for any of these sessions. I look forward to sharing, learning, and chatting with you!

EdTech Links of the Week - 3-6-23

Each week I keep an eye out for the latest edtech resources through blogs, social media, podcasts, videos, user groups, and more. I then try to reshare these resources in many ways.

One way I share these is here on the blog in these "EdTech Links of the Week" posts. See below to explore the latest batch of resources, and be sure to share with others who may benefit.

If you want to make sure you don't miss new resources, you can:

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter here: bit.ly/curts-news
📧 Join the "Control Alt Achieve" email discussion group: bit.ly/caa-emailgroup

🔔 Get new blog posts automatically through email - FollowIt link

📅 Subscribe to the "Control Alt Achieve" calendar for livestreams: Calendar link

🐦Follow me on Twitter here: twitter.com/ericcurts

🔗 Subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog here: RSS feed link

And as always, please let me know of any resources that you recommend. I would love to learn from you!

Google Slides Tier List Activity

I am always looking for ways to engage students in critical thinking and communication.

Recently I have been working on an activity that gets students comparing, contrasting, and prioritizing concepts, as well as defending the rationale for their claims.

This activity is based on something called a "Tier List".

A tier list is a concept that was originally developed in the video game culture where people would rank characters or items from the game based on how important they were. Typically the levels would be letter grades such as A through F, but often with the addition of an S-level that would be the highest rank (from Japanese word for "Exemplary").

Over time people have used the tier list format to rank a wide range of concepts, which I thought would work great for students. What I came up with is a Google Slides "Tier List" activity for schools:

• It is a high engagement student activity
• It encourages critical thinking, communication, comparing, contrasting, prioritizing, and defending rationales
• It can be used in any subject or grade level
• It should only take 15 to 30 minutes, and can be used multiple times throughout the year with different content.

See below for all the details about this activity including a tutorial video, examples, and templates you can make copies of.

EdTech Links of the Week - 2-27-23

Each week I keep an eye out for the latest edtech resources through blogs, social media, podcasts, videos, user groups, and more. I then try to reshare these resources in many ways.

One way I share these is here on the blog in these "EdTech Links of the Week" posts. See below to explore the latest batch of resources, and be sure to share with others who may benefit.

If you want to make sure you don't miss new resources, you can:

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter here: bit.ly/curts-news
📧 Join the "Control Alt Achieve" email discussion group: bit.ly/caa-emailgroup

📅 Subscribe to the "Control Alt Achieve" calendar for livestreams: Calendar link

🐦Follow me on Twitter here: twitter.com/ericcurts

🔗 Subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog here: RSS feed link

And as always, please let me know of any resources that you recommend. I would love to learn from you!

2023 SPARCC EdTech Conference

As part of my job at the Stark Portage Area Computer Consortium (SPARCC) in North Canton, Ohio, I help run a free educational technology conference each year.

We are excited to once again be offering the conference this year, and I would love to have you participate!

• The conference will be held on Tuesday, July 18, 2023.
• The conference will be both in-person and virtual.
• The conference will be held in person at the Stark County Educational Service Center at 6057 Strip Ave NW, North Canton, OH 44720.
• The sessions will also be streamed live for those who cannot attend in person.
• The sessions will also be recorded for those who cannot attend on the date of the conference.
• This is a FREE conference for teachers, administrators, technology staff, and anyone interested in using educational technology to support teaching and learning.
• This is an excellent way to kick off a new school year with great ideas!

Call for proposals and registration are now open. More details are included below in the rest of this blog post, and also on the conference website at http://conference.apps.sparcc.org/

I look forward to learning with you!