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!

Google Chrome Can Do That?!

Google Chrome is the most popular web browser in the world. Chances are you use it, or have used it.

But are you getting the most out of it?

Chrome is loaded with lots of helpful features and tools that make your work easier, help you be more productive, and extend your abilities way beyond just browsing the web.

A while back a did a series of blog posts and videos on Google Chrome, where we explored lesser known features, tips, tricks, and helpful ideas for getting the most out of Chrome.

To make it simpler to access all of that content I have pulled everything together in one place. For each topic below you will find a short tutorial video, a basic overview, and a link to the original blog posts with even more details.

Over time I will continue to add new content here as Google Chrome continues to add features and improvements. Also, be sure to let me know your suggestions for tips that I should add. I would love to learn from you!

What's New in Google - February 2023

Catch up on everything new in Google Workspace for Education from February 2023, and see great ideas and resources!

Below is the recorded video from our February 2023 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 February 2023 meeting:

EdTech Links of the Week - 2-20-23

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

📅 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!

Free Media Resources for Projects

When creating a project, such as a presentation, video, poster, podcast, or more, one challenge is finding media elements for your project that are free to use.

Thankfully there are many resources online that provide free, high-quality multimedia content that you and your students are able to use for free in any of your creations.

These include:

🖼️ Free Photos

✂️ Free Clipart and Icons

🏃 Free Animated GIFs

🅰️ Free Fonts and Text

🔊 Free Sound Effects

🎵 Free Music

▶️ Free Videos

🔱 Free Design Templates

In this blog post we will explore lists of free resources for each of these categories. If you have other sites that you use for free media, please let me know so I can add them to these lists.

And although the media elements provided through these sites are free, be sure to check for any attribution requirements to make sure you provide proper credit when using any content.

Book Creator Pen Tools - Let Your Inner Illustrator Come Alive!

Book Creator is a fantastic tool for students and teachers to create and share digital books. Not only does it help you write a book, it also makes it super easy to illustrate your creation.

Book Creator has a powerful pen tool that includes:

• a marker, paint brush, crayon, and highlighter to draw and write with
• the magic ink option to draw, write, and fill with colorful patterns
• a fill tool to color items in with colors or patterns
• an emoji tool to search, find and insert emojis
• and (best of all) the AutoDraw tool

These simple but powerful tools can bring out the inner illustrator in any student, and help them make a colorful and engaging book.

See below for a tutorial video and written directions on how these tools work. And thanks to Book Creator for sponsoring this post and video! All opinions expressed are based on my personal view.

Mote for Multilingual Learners - Recorded Webinar

Recently I had the privilege to offer a free online session for the Teacher Innovation Network "EdTech Playground" where the theme was ways technology can support multilingual learners.

For my portion of the session I presented about the Chrome extension Mote and how it can be used in the multilingual classroom. Here is a description of my session:

Marvelous Mote Activities for Schools

Mote is a free Chrome extension that lets you and your students record your voices and insert the audio into most all Google tools. In Docs this can be used to provide recorded directions, add personalized feedback, and practice fluency. In Slides this is the simplest way to embed audio in your presentations. In Forms you can use Mote to add audio to your questions, but also for students to record and submit their answers. Mote can also be used in Classroom, Gmail, and much more. Learn how you and your students can use this awesome extension to enhance teaching and learning with audio

The other presenter was Brian Lopez who covered using Flip for multilingual learners.

The Teacher Innovation Network was kind enough to make the recorded video available for people to view if they were not able to attend the live session. See below to watch the recording, as well as access the resources I shared in the session.

EdTech Links of the Week - 2-6-23

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

📅 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!

Hearts and Charts Google Sheets Math Activities

In an earlier blog post I shared a fun math activity using Google Sheets and Skittles candy as a project students could do to tie in with Halloween, but it could certainly be done any time of the year.

With Valentine's Day coming up, I was asked if I had a similar version of the activity using Valentine Conversation Heart candies. That sounded like a terrific idea, so I made a new version of the project that uses the seasonal heart candies with little messages on them.

Very much like the earlier Skittles activity, this "Hearts and Charts" Google Sheets project allows students to practice skills including:

🤔 Estimating

🖐 Counting

⚖️ Comparing

➕ Adding

➗ Dividing

📊 And Graphing

And the Sheet is self-checking, so it provides feedback to the students as they work through each problem, letting them know if that got it correct or not.

See below to get your copy of the template, as well as written directions on how your students can do the activity.