Podcast Spotlight - The EDUProtocols Podcast

I recently had the pleasure to be a guest on "The EDUProtocols Podcast".

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 this podcast.

The podcast is hosted by Jamie Halsey, Scott Kazarian, and Fabian Hofmann and is described as follows:

"This podcast is about teaching better and working less with EduProtocols. We put out a bi-monthly episode doing a deep dive into different eduprotocols. We talk to educators, authors and experts to find out how they are utilizing the power of the protocol in their practice."

I had a wonderful time chatting with the crew about my "Tier List" activity, which is a fun and engaging activity that can be used in any grade level or subject area to get students thinking critically, comparing and contrasting, debating, defending their ideas, communicating with others, and seeing other viewpoints.

Take a look below to listen to the episode, access the resources that I shared in the episode, and explore more about the podcast.

What's New in Google - April 2023

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

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

Announcing Poems Too Silly To Say

Over the years I have shared lots of EdTech resources for learning about poetry, as well as creating poetry. For example, I recently shared a post about poetry tools, resources, and a contest for National Poetry Month.

As much as I enjoy sharing resources about poetry, what I love even more is writing my own poetry, especially humorous poems. Through much of my life I have enjoyed writing funny poems for myself, and then for my daughter and step-sons, and now for my two grandchildren.

I am so excited to announce that I will be publishing a book with many of my favorite silly poems that I have written!

The book is called “Poems Too Silly To Say” and will contain 20 of my favorite poems that I have written, as well as full-color illustrations for each poem, hand-drawn by my daughter, Christina Terhune, who is an amazing artist!

See below for all of the details about this upcoming book, as well as how you can stay connected to the progress on this project, and how you can share this information with others.

My 2023 TLA Sessions

I am excited and honored to be presenting at the Texas Library Association Conference (TLA 2023) in Austin, Texas this week on April 20th, 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://txla.org/annual-conference/

Below is a list of sessions I will be presenting at TLA 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 - 4-17-23

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!

Podcast Spotlight: EdVentures in Tech

I recently had the pleasure to be a guest on "Edventures in Tech Podcast".

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 this podcast.

The podcast is hosted by Andrew Nikola and Dan Roberto and is described as "A discussion on best practices regarding educational technology and technology integration."

I had a wonderful time chatting with Andrew Nikola and Jon Redeker (Dan's fill-in for this episode). We talked about many things including the history of Control Alt Achieve, some of my favorite EdTech projects, my philosophy of tech integration, how to stay up to date with EdTech, and the challenges and benefits of artificial intelligence in education.

Take a look below to listen to the episode, access the resources that I shared in the episode, and explore more about the podcast.

EdTech Links of the Week - 4-10-23

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!

EdTech Spotlight - Scribble Diffusion

EdTech Spotlight posts are shorter entries (as compared to my normal full-sized posts) that highlight a specific educational technology resource.

These normally contain a video clip of me talking about and demonstrating the resource. These video clips are taken from my weekly live streams that I record on Monday nights at 7pm EST. These videos are more casual and conversational than my pre-recorded edited tutorial videos.

For this entry we are taking a look at Scribble Diffusion.

See below for a video clip about this resource, as well as a brief explanation and relevant links. If you use this resource, I would love to hear about your experience!

EdTech Spotlight - Stickity

EdTech Spotlight posts are shorter entries (as compared to my normal full-sized posts) that highlight a specific educational technology resource.

These normally contain a video clip of me talking about and demonstrating the resource. These video clips are taken from my weekly live streams that I record on Monday nights at 7pm EST. These videos are more casual and conversational than my pre-recorded edited tutorial videos.

For this entry we are taking a look at Stickity.

See below for a video clip about this resource, as well as a brief explanation and relevant links. If you use this resource, I would love to hear about your experience!

Google Bard Overview for Educators

Google has been at the forefront of artificial intelligence research and development for many years. We have seen this work in AI-powered tools such as:

• Google Lens - to identify the content of any image
• Docs Voice Typing - for speech to text capabilities in Google Docs
• Google Translate - to translate text into over 100 languages
• AutoDraw - to identify what you draw and provide a better version
• And so many more!

Recently Google took a major step forward by opening up access to Bard, their generative AI chatbot. This tool is similar to other products such as ChatGPT from OpenAI. In fact, ChatGPT is built on top of the Transformer technology developed by Google.

As with other Google tools, Bard has many applications and implications for schools. To help with this I have created a tutorial video and blog post where we cover:

🔑 Accessing Google Bard

💬 Using Google Bard

🗓️ Bard Activity History

🎓 Bard Examples for Educators

Check out the tutorial video and post below, and as always let me know your questions, thoughts, and ideas on this topic.

EdTech Spotlight - Felt

EdTech Spotlight posts are shorter entries (as compared to my normal full-sized posts) that highlight a specific educational technology resource.

These normally contain a video clip of me talking about and demonstrating the resource. These video clips are taken from my weekly live streams that I record on Monday nights at 7pm EST. These videos are more casual and conversational than my pre-recorded edited tutorial videos.

For this entry we are taking a look at Felt.

See below for a video clip about this resource, as well as a brief explanation and relevant links. If you use this resource, I would love to hear about your experience!

EdTech Links of the Week - 4-3-23

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!

EdTech Spotlight - ScreenPal

EdTech Spotlight posts are shorter entries (as compared to my normal full-sized posts) that highlight a specific educational technology resource.

These normally contain a video clip of me talking about and demonstrating the resource. These video clips are taken from my weekly live streams that I record on Monday nights at 7pm EST. These videos are more casual and conversational than my pre-recorded edited tutorial videos.

For this entry we are taking a look at ScreenPal.

See below for a video clip about this resource, as well as a brief explanation and relevant links. If you use this resource, I would love to hear about your experience!