2022 Year-in-Review

It's hard to believe that the year is coming to an end. If time flies when you are having fun, then I must have really been enjoying this year.

And I did!

This year was filled with wonderful experiences, time spent with family and friends, lots of travel, and many, many trainings, videos, and posts.

As a way to wrap up the year, I decided to pull together some of the stats and highlights from 2022 including:

✍️ Top Blog Posts

▶️ YouTube Views

🐦 Top Tweets

✈️ Travel Destinations

📰 Newsletter Growth

📧 Email Discussion Group

🎬 Bonus: Favorite Movies

These are not just numbers however. They are representations of people who have gone on this learning journey with me, folks who have connected in person or virtually, and ultimately educators and students who have been impacted and have impacted me.

Thanks so much for learning with me, and I am looking forward to learning more with you in 2023!

My ISTE 2023 Sessions

I am excited and honored to once again present at the 2023 ISTE Conference in Philadelphia this June 24th through 28th.

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

You can attend ISTE in person this year, or take part as a virtual attendee. Registration opens January 10th. To get more details and register for the conference go to:

• conference.iste.org/2023/attend

Below is a list of sessions I will be presenting at the ISTE Conference, along with any associated resources. I will continue to update this list with any changes and additions to my schedule.

Please feel free to join me for any of these sessions. I look forward to sharing, learning, and chatting with you!

Podcast Spotlight: Stronger Together Experience

I recently had the pleasure to be a guest on "Stronger Together Experience".

Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love podcasts and am always mentioning something new I learned from one of them, so I was super excited to get to join an episode of the podcast "Stronger Together Experience".

The podcast is hosted by Dr. Matthew X. Joseph and is described as follows:

We can gain new insights and share ideas and experiences to improve as educators by interacting with our colleagues. Being Stronger Together allows us to collaborate and support one another’s growth. Join me to share your story about collaboration and inspiration.

Recently Matt has been having people on who will be speaking at FETC in New Orleans coming up on January 23 through 26. I am thrilled to be a featured speaker for FETC, so it was great to chat about my upcoming sessions, and how to get the most out of the conference, but also the importance of taking risks in education and how we really are stronger together.

Take a look below to watch or listen to the episode, access the resources, and explore more of the podcast.

Excellent Extensions for Google Chrome

This post is Day 12 of my "12 Days of Chrome-mas" where we are learning all about the Google Chrome browser including tips, tricks, lesser known features, and helpful ideas. You can access all of the posts in the series at: bit.ly/chromemas22

Google Chrome is a powerful web browser filled with loads of useful features and tools. Hopefully all of the other videos and blog posts in my series on Google Chrome have demonstrated this well.

However, as awesome as Chrome is, it may not do everything you need.

Thankfully Google allows you to make Chrome even better by installing Chrome web extensions. Extensions are tools from the Chrome Web Store that give extra features and abilities to Chrome. When you have them installed, you will find them as little icons in the top right corner of your browser.

In this blog post and video we are going to take a look at how to get extensions, how to manage your extensions, and my resource with over 150 recommended extensions for you and your students.

See below for a short tutorial video and written directions.

Favorite Keyboard Shortcuts in Chrome

This post is Day 11 of my "12 Days of Chrome-mas" where we are learning all about the Google Chrome browser including tips, tricks, lesser known features, and helpful ideas. You can access all of the posts in the series at: bit.ly/chromemas22

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.

In such situations I have learned to take advantage of keyboard shortcuts, and thankfully Google Chrome has a large amount of shortcuts we can use.

Some of these have proven to be so helpful, that even when I do have my mouse, I have found it easier to just use a quick key combination to get something done.

In this video we are going to look at some of my favorite keyboard shortcuts for Google Chrome. I am sure there are several that I am going to miss, so please let me know what your favorite shortcuts are and how you use them.

Note: For my video and blog post I used my Windows computer. Anywhere that you see me mention using the Ctrl key, you can swap that out for the Command key if you are on a Mac.

Using History in Google Chrome

This post is Day 10 of my "12 Days of Chrome-mas" where we are learning all about the Google Chrome browser including tips, tricks, lesser known features, and helpful ideas. You can access all of the posts in the series at: bit.ly/chromemas22

On average a person visits over 130 web pages per day. That comes close to 50,000 web pages per year.

So what do you do when you want to get back to one of those 50,000 web pages, but you don't have it bookmarked, and you can't quite remember the web address?

Well thankfully Google Chrome has you covered. As you are browsing the web, Google Chrome keeps track of every site you visit in your own personal history. This can help us in at least four different ways including:

• Reopening a web page you accidentally closed out of
• Searching for a web page by keyword
• Searching for a web page by date
• Opening a web page that you accessed on a different device

See below for a tutorial video and written directions on how to do each one of these.

EdTech Links of the Week - 12-19-22

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: 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!

Managing Multiple Accounts in Google Chrome

This post is Day 9 of my "12 Days of Chrome-mas" where we are learning all about the Google Chrome browser including tips, tricks, lesser known features, and helpful ideas. You can access all of the posts in the series at: bit.ly/chromemas22

It is very common for people to have more than one Google account.

• You may have a personal Google account, such as a Gmail address.
• But you may also have a Google account provided by your school or your employer.
• And you may even have more accounts if you help run a club or organization.

So how do you manage your different accounts in Google Chrome?

There are several options for accessing multiple accounts in Chrome, and we are going to take a look at three of them. The first two options are ok, but the third option is my favorite, and is my personal recommendation.

See below for a tutorial video and written directions for each of these options.

My 2023 KySTE Sessions

I am excited and honored to be presenting at the 2023 KySTE Spring Conference in Louisville, Kentucky on March 16, 2023. This is my first time at the KySTE Conference!

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 KySTE information and register for the conference at:

• www.kyste.org/Content2/conference

Below is a list of sessions I will be presenting at KySTE 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!

Incognito Mode in Google Chrome

This post is Day 8 of my "12 Days of Chrome-mas" where we are learning all about the Google Chrome browser including tips, tricks, lesser known features, and helpful ideas. You can access all of the posts in the series at: bit.ly/chromemas22

It is great that Google Chrome syncs with your account to keep track of all of your synced passwords and browsing history and installed extensions and more.

But sometimes you don't want it to.

Sometimes you want to be able to use Chrome without it being tied to your account. To be anonymous. To have a blank slate. To be incognito.

Thankfully Google Chrome provides you with just that with "Incognito Mode" which is useful in a lot of different situations. Let's take a look at how incognito mode works, and several reasons for why you would use it.

See below for a short tutorial video and written directions.

Reading List in Google Chrome

This post is Day 7 of my "12 Days of Chrome-mas" where we are learning all about the Google Chrome browser including tips, tricks, lesser known features, and helpful ideas. You can access all of the posts in the series at: bit.ly/chromemas22

In some of my other posts in this series I talked about ways to manage your bookmarks in Chrome. Bookmarks are great for sites that you want to save permanently and access over and over again.

But what about sites that you might just need temporarily?

Many times when I am online I may come across an article that I want to read, or a website I want to explore, or a tool I want to test out, but I don't have the time right now to do so. I want to save the site for later, but I don't really want to add it as a bookmark.

What can I do?

Well thankfully Google Chrome has a helpful built-in tool called the "Reading List" that is perfect for this type of situation. Let's take a look at how this works.

See below for a short tutorial video and written directions.

Bookmark Folders in Google Chrome

This post is Day 6 of my "12 Days of Chrome-mas" where we are learning all about the Google Chrome browser including tips, tricks, lesser known features, and helpful ideas. You can access all of the posts in the series at: bit.ly/chromemas22

In a previous post we looked at one trick for managing your bookmarks, which was using bookmark icons. That is a great way to save space on the bookmark bar for your most commonly visited sites.

However, that probably won't solve all of your issues if you have dozens or hundreds of bookmarks.

Another helpful tip is to use bookmark folders. Let's take a look at how to create bookmark folders, how to add favorites to the folders, and how to search through all your bookmarks.

See below for a short tutorial video and written directions.

EdTech Links of the Week - 12-12-22

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: bit.ly/curts-news

📧 Join the "Control Alt Achieve" email discussion group: bit.ly/caa-emailgroup

🐦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!

Icons and Emojis for Bookmarks in Chrome

This post is Day 5 of my "12 Days of Chrome-mas" where we are learning all about the Google Chrome browser including tips, tricks, lesser known features, and helpful ideas. You can access all of the posts in the series at: bit.ly/chromemas22

Bookmarks are an excellent way to provide quick access to your most used websites. And that would be great if you only had ten favorite sites. However if you are anything like me, your bookmark collection is in the dozens, or perhaps hundreds of links.

So how do you manage your bookmarks when they no longer fit on the bookmarks bar?

Thankfully there are lots of tips and tricks to wrangling your bookmarks. One trick is to use bookmark icons.

See below for a short tutorial video and written directions on how this works.

An AI Wrote this Blog Post

I have been fascinated with artificial intelligence for years, and the impact it is having and is going to have on all of our lives. I even do a keynote speech on it called "The Bionic Educator".

So I spent some time this evening investigating a new AI tool that has taken the Internet by storm this week. It is called ChatGPT from Open AI, and you can explore it yourself at:

https://chat.openai.com/

You can ask the AI pretty much anything and it produces impressive results. This can include:

• Explaining a concept
• Summarizing text
• Comparing and contrasting two things
• Giving directions for a task
• About 100 other tasks - see great example here
• And writing. Writing pretty much anything from poems to stories to 4-paragraph essay responses to, well, to a blog post.

So that's what I did. I had a chat with it and in a matter of minutes it wrote the blog post below on the topic of (appropriately) the benefits and potential challenges of AI in education. (The image for this post was also created by OpenAI's other tool DALL-E)

I am curious what you think of the result, and more importantly, what you think about the impact of AI on education. This is a topic I am going to continue to explore.

And the blog post below is just for demonstration purposes. I promise you that all of my other posts are really written by me and will continue to be. 

Of course, that's probably what an AI would say.

p.s. - For more details on ChatGPT, here is the video from my recent "EdTech Links of the Week" live stream where I demonstrated ChatGPT and talked about the possible users and benefits for education: YouTube link

Live Captions in Google Chrome

This post is Day 4 of my "12 Days of Chrome-mas" where we are learning all about the Google Chrome browser including tips, tricks, lesser known features, and helpful ideas. You can access all of the posts in the series at: bit.ly/chromemas22

Captions are a powerful tool for all learners.

• They can help beginning readers to connect the spoken word with the written word.
• They can help language learners who are still learning the language.
• They can help when you are in a noisy or distracting environment.
• And they can simply help you catch things you may have missed otherwise.

I personally use captions for everything I watch and they have helped me tremendously.

Thankfully most audio and video now has captions as an option.

• YouTube has auto-generated captions
• Google Slides has Live Captions when presenting
• Google Meet has a caption option any user can turn on.

But what if you come across something that doesn't provide captions? Well Google Chrome has you covered with built-in Live Captions.

See below for a short tutorial video and written directions on how this works.

Google Lens SUPER Image Search in Chrome

This post is Day 3 of my "12 Days of Chrome-mas" where we are learning all about the Google Chrome browser including tips, tricks, lesser known features, and helpful ideas. You can access all of the posts in the series at: bit.ly/chromemas22

I am old enough to remember when the Internet was all text-based, so I am thrilled that it has been full of images for a long time now. As awesome as that is, online images can bring along some problems.

Some images may be deceptive, saying they are something different than they really are. This could come from Photoshopping the picture or simply claiming it represents something else.

Or some images could have text in them, but because it is a picture, the text can't be selected. This can be a challenge for a student who wants to have the text read aloud or translated into a different language.

Thankfully we have a tool built right into the Chrome web browser to help with all of these problems. That tool is Google Lens.

See below for a short tutorial video and written directions on how this works.

Making QR Codes with Chrome

This post is Day 2 of my "12 Days of Chrome-mas" where we are learning all about the Google Chrome browser including tips, tricks, lesser known features, and helpful ideas. You can access all of the posts in the series at: bit.ly/chromemas22

A QR Code (or "Quick Response" code) is a popular way to give someone a web link. By now we have probably all used our phones to scan one and pull up the menu in a restaurant.

However they are also useful in a school setting. Students can scan a QR Code with their phones or Chromebooks to quickly access a web link, whether it be to an online article or instructional slideshow or activity document or useful website.

Thankfully there are a lot of good options for creating QR Codes, but one of the easiest is built right into the Chrome browser.

See below for a short tutorial video and written directions on how to create QR Codes right in your Chrome web browser.

EdTech Links of the Week - 12-5-22

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: bit.ly/curts-news

📧 Join the "Control Alt Achieve" email discussion group: bit.ly/caa-emailgroup

🐦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!

Pinning Tabs in Chrome

This post is Day 1 of my "12 Days of Chrome-mas" series where we are learning all about the Google Chrome browser including tips, tricks, lesser known features, and helpful ideas. You can access all of the posts in the series at: bit.ly/chromemas22

Two common issues with tabs in Google Chrome are:

• Having the tabs take up too much room when you have a lot of them open and
• Accidentally closing out of a tab that you meant to keep open

There are certainly several options for addressing these issues, but one simple approach is to pin a tab. Pinning a tab makes the tab much smaller, and it makes it impossible to close the tab if you do not mean to.

See below for a short tutorial video and written directions on how this works.

What's New in Google - November 2022

Catch up on everything new in Google Workspace for Education from November 2022, and see great ideas and resources!

Below is the recorded video from our November 2022 Google User Meeting, along with the meeting agenda with all the awesome resources and Google updates from the last few months. This includes lots of new Google updates and Google resources for your class.

The monthly meetings are hosted by the Google Educator Group of Ohio, but are open to anyone from any location. The purpose of these meetings is to:

• Connect Google-using educators
• Share the latest Google Workspace news and features
• Provide tutorials, demonstrations, and how-to’s
• Share best practices of how Google Workspace is being used within schools
• Ask questions and get answers

The video from the meeting is recorded and available for later viewing for those who cannot attend or connect live. See below to view the recorded video, agenda, and all the resources from the November 2022 meeting: