Monday, November 28, 2022

EdTech Links of the Week - 11-28-22

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: Newsletter link
🐦Follow me on Twitter here: Twitter link
🔗 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!

8 Googley Wintertime Activities for Kids

As we get closer to the holiday break, it is expected and understandable that our students start getting a little distracted. They are looking forward to lots of days off, holiday celebrations, gifts, and more. Let's be honest … we may be a little distracted as well.
 
This is a time of year when we look for some fun activities to keep our students focused and active. But we don't just want busy work. If possible it is great to find projects that are fun, tie into wintertime themes, and still provide our students with a chance to be creative, write, or improve some content area skills.

To help out with that, I have put together eight wintertime-themed activities that use free Google tools, including Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Drawings:

⛄ Activity #1 - Build a Snowman with Google Slides
🎄 Activity #2 - Decorate a Holiday Tree with Google Slides
🧲 Activity #3 - Wintertime Magnetic Poetry with Google Drawings
📬 Activity #4 - Holiday Greeting Cards with Google Drawings
🎁 Activity #5 - "12 Days of Christmas" Guided Google Sheets Math Activity
🌟 Activity #6 - Pixel Art Ornaments with Google Sheets
❄️ Activity #7 - Wintertime Emoji Rebus Stories with Google Docs
💡 Activity #8 - Holiday Lights Writing with Google Docs

Some of these are projects I have shared in the past, while others are new twists on previous posts. Hopefully some of these will be a good match for your students to keep them busy AND learning as we head into the holidays.

Sunday, November 27, 2022

The 12 Days of Chrome-mas 2022

With the holiday season here, I am excited to share some of my favorite tips and tricks for the Chrome web browser!

I will be doing this in a series of blog posts throughout the month of December that I am calling "The 12 Days of Chrome-Mas".

Each blog post will provide a tip or trick or lesser known feature or helpful idea related to Google's Chrome web browser.

See below for options on how to access each entry for "The 12 Days of Chrome-Mas".

Saturday, November 26, 2022

Illustrating Stories with Canva's AI Text to Image Tool

Artificial Intelligence continues to develop at an astonishing pace. What seemed like science fiction a year ago, is science fact today.

One area in particular is text-to-image tools. What I mean by that are tools where you provide a text description, and then the AI creates a new image based off of your text. It doesn't just find an image similar to what you wrote. It makes a brand new image that never existed before!

So far we have seen this done with AI tools such as Dall-E 2 or Google's Imagen.

Now this amazing technology is available right inside of Canva. If you aren't already using Canva, it is totally free for schools, and lets you and your students create images, presentations, videos, infographics, websites, and so much more.

This sounds like a wonderful way for students to bring their writing to life with original illustrations to go along with their stories, poems, and more. So I decided to use Canva's new AI-powered "Text to Image" tool to illustrate a funny poem I wrote.

See below for a video demonstration of this, detailed directions, and of course my final illustrated poem.

Monday, November 21, 2022

EdTech Links of the Week - 11-21-22

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: Newsletter link
🐦Follow me on Twitter here: Twitter link
🔗 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!

Saturday, November 19, 2022

New Google Sheets Timeline Creator

Creating a timeline is a great project for students. Timelines can be used to show historical events, or things that happened in the student's own life, or stages in scientific processes, or details about a character's journey in a book, and so much more.

Thankfully there are lots of excellent tools out there for creating timelines. Some good recommendations include:
Well now there is one more to add to that list. Google Sheets has now added an official timeline creation tool!

With this new feature it is super easy for students to create and share interactive timelines right in Google Sheets that include titles, descriptions, dates, links, colors, groups and more.

See below for a tutorial video on how to use this new timeline tool, as well as written directions. As always, I would love to see what your students create, and learn from you with new ideas on how this could be used.

Note: The timeline tool is available for anyone with a school account (or work account) but not for personal accounts. This is a new feature, so it is still rolling out for some schools. According to Google, the rollout schedule is:
  • Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 2, 2022 
  • Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 16, 2022 

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Chromebooks Can Do That?!

Chromebooks have become a common tool in schools, but are you and your students getting the most out of them?

I recently had the opportunity to present a webinar where we took a deep dive into Chromebook features, some of which may be lesser-known. 

These features can encourage creativity, increase efficiency, ramp up engagement, and support teaching and learning in your classroom.

Some of the topics we explore in the session include:
📷 Camera tools
🎞️ Screen capture and recording
🖐 Touchpad gestures
🗂️ Multiple desks
📶 Offline access
⌨️ Keyboard shortcuts
🤖 Android apps
🔑 Accessibility tools
And more!

See below for the recorded webinar video and detailed session resources.

Monday, November 14, 2022

EdTech Links of the Week - 11-14-22

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: Newsletter link
🐦Follow me on Twitter here: Twitter link
🔗 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!

Friday, November 11, 2022

10 Chromebook Touchpad Tips and FREE Poster

Although I use a Bluetooth mouse any chance I get, there are times when I am mouse-less. I might be on the go, or on a plane, or just somewhere that doesn't have enough room for that helpful input device.

Thankfully Chromebooks have a wonderful built-in touchpad!

Chromebook touchpads are designed to replicate what a mouse can do, but they also go further with touch gestures that provide extra features for navigation and management.

Although my first choice may always be for a mouse, I am happy to say that the Chromebook touchpad is a more than capable replacement to keep me productive and efficient no matter where I am. This can be especially helpful for our students who may often be using Chromebooks without a mouse.

To help spread this helpful information I have created a full-color illustrated poster with 10 Chromebook touchpad tips. You can get the poster for free in multiple formats using the links below. I have also included details and animations for each of the touchpad gestures in this blog post.

Wednesday, November 9, 2022

Build a "What I Am Thankful For" Turkey with Google Slides

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, now is a great time for all of us to pause and think about what we are thankful for.

To help out with this I have created a Google Slides activity for your students. With this template your students will build a turkey where each of the feathers will display things that the student is thankful for.

Optionally the students can also use the Mote Chrome extension to record themselves explaining what they are thankful for, and adding that audio to their digital turkey.

See below to get your free copy of the "What I Am Thankful For" Turkey template, as well as a short video and detailed directions on how to use it.

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

My 2022 GaETC Sessions

I am excited and honored to be presenting at the Georgia Educational Technology Conference (GaETC 2022) in Atlanta, Georgia on November 2nd and 3rd, 2022.

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 access more GaETC information at https://conference.gaetc.org/

Below is a list of sessions I will be presenting at GaETC 2022, 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!

Tuesday, November 1, 2022

EdTech Links of the Week - 11-01-22

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: Newsletter link
🐦Follow me on Twitter here: Twitter link
🔗 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!