EdTech Links of the Week - 12-31-24

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:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: 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

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

2024 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 2024 including:

✍️ Top Blog Posts
▶️ YouTube Stats
🎓 PD Sessions
📰 Newsletter Stats

📧 Email Discussion Group Stats

💬 Facebook Group Stats

🎬 Bonus: Favorite Movies and Shows

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 2025!

My ISTE 2025 Sessions

I am excited and honored to once again present at the 2025 ISTE Conference in San Antonio, Texas this June 28th through July 2nd.

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. To get more details and register for the conference go to:

• conference.iste.org/2025

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!

Join Me for the "EmpowerED 2 Teach with AI" Virtual Conference

I am excited and honored to be presenting at the FREE "EmpowerED 2 Teach with AI" virtual conference that runs from January 3rd through 5th, 2025.

"EmpowerED 2 Teach with AI" is a virtual conference for educators to beat burnout and work smarter, not harder with Artificial Intelligence.

More than 15 awesome speakers will be presenting on topics including:

• Gamification with AI 
• Personalizing Education 
• Time-Saving Strategies
• Prompt Engineering for the BEST AI Responses
• Student-Facing AI
• Teacher Specific AI Tools 
• 10x Your Teacher Productivity
• Privacy in AI
• And more!

See below for all the details on the conference, speakers, sessions, registration, and more. I look forward to learning with you!

EdTech Links of the Week - 12-18-24

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:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: 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

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

Join Me for Sequoia Con 2025

I am honored and excited to be providing a keynote session once again this year for Sequoia Con 2025!

Sequoia Con is an online conference focusing on Artificial Intelligence in K-12 education, which is hosted by Evergreen Education. The event will have presentations from dozens of teachers, administrators, and technology experts.

The conference will be delivered live through Zoom on April 3rd and 4th 2025, but all sessions will also be recorded and shared after the event with everyone who registers.

Speaking of registering, You can also get $50 off your registration with coupon code "CONTROLALT".

For more details on the conference, visit the event website at...

evergreened.org

...and see below for additional information. I look forward to learning with you!

Winter Themed Google Fonts

As I have shared in several previous posts, I have always had a love for fonts. The right typeface can help to communicate information or spice up content.

With the winter season almost here, I decided to share some of my favorite fonts for this chilly time of year.

My favorite place to explore typefaces is Google Fonts, where (as of this writing) Google provides over 1,700 free fonts. You can explore and preview all of these typefaces at https://fonts.google.com/

These fonts can be used by you and your students to add style, personality, and creativity to your Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms, Sites, and more. You can easily add any of these fonts to your Google tools by clicking the font menu, choosing "More fonts", and then typing in the font name.

If you are not using Google tools, you can also download the fonts for use in the programs on your computer.

See below for 15 of my favorite fonts for wintertime listed in alphabetical order. Some tie into the snowy side of the season, while others lean into the festivities and fun.

My 2024 RSAC Sessions

I am excited and honored to be presenting at the 2024 Raising Student Achievement Conference (RSAC24) in Oak Brook, IL on December 9, 2024.

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 RSAC24 information at:

• https://rsac.iarss.org/

Below is a list of sessions I will be presenting at RSAC24, 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!

Google Sheets for Educators (or Anyone)

Google Sheets is easily one of the most powerful tools in the Google Workspace suite of programs. I use it every day in one way or another.

It can be used for many tasks such as:

• Analyzing student data to identify at-risk students
• Tracking student behavior
• Managing inventory
• Collecting attendance from a PD session and generating certificates
• Providing conditional formatting feedback in learning activities
• Building a learning database for students to draw conclusions from
• Making pixel art
• Creating interactive learning games and activities
• And much more!

Unfortunately many people can feel intimidated by spreadsheets and not be sure where to begin. I want to take that fear away and help ease you into the wonderful world of spreadsheets!

To help with, below you will find an 80-minute recorded webinar on Google Sheets where we cover topics including view options, freezing rows and columns, sorting data, filtering data, formulas, charts and graphs, sparklines, conditional formatting, data validation, and even pivot tables.

You will also find templates you can make copies of to follow along and try out each of the features demonstrated. I am excited to see what you do with these skills, and welcome any questions you have as you learn!

EdTech Links of the Week - 12-4-24

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:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: 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

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

AI Tool Spotlight: TeacherServer

New AI tools for education are constantly being created. It can be challenging to stay up to date with what is new, as well as determine the value of each new tool.

To help with this I try to explore as many new tools as I can and then share my findings in my blog.

For this post we are exploring TeacherServer - https://teacherserver.com/

I had been hearing a lot about this tool recently and finally had some time to try it out. And I am so glad that I did!

TeacherServer is an AI prompting tool similar to MagicSchool, Khanmigo, Eduaide and others, where you choose a tool, type your details into a form, and the AI generates your content.

However, TeacherServer has some specific benefits:

• Absolutely Free - TeacherServer is free to use. No ads, no fees, just tools to help you teach.
• Amount of Prompts - There are currently over 800 prompt tools for science, social studies, math, reading, writing, art, music, PE, special ed, leadership, parents, higher ed, research, and more.
• Speed - TeacherServer uses a locally installed AI server, rather than going through ChatGPT, so you get super quick results.
• Full Privacy & Security - All data is processed locally and never stored or shared.

See below for a deeper exploration of this tool. As always please share with me your questions, comments, and suggestions.

What's New in Google - November 2024

Catch up on everything new in Google Workspace for Education from November 2024, and see great ideas and resources!

Below is the recorded video from our November 2024 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 2024 meeting:

Bluesky Starter Tips for Educators

Social media always seems to be changing. Many tools have come and gone (I still remember with fondness my Google+ account) but many more still have come to take their place.

Recently Bluesky has exploded in popularity, adding millions of users over the last few months. Most importantly for me (and maybe for you) many of these users are educators.

Over the last few months I have been thrilled to see how many educators have joined Bluesky. Even better, many are actively posting and participating. In some ways it feels similar to "old education Twitter" for those of us who remember that.

If you haven't joined Bluesky yet, I would encourage you to consider it. The site makes it super easy to connect with others and customize your feed so you see just what you are interested in, making it a more personalized and valuable experience.

To help you get started, I have listed some helpful tips and resources below that got me going with Bluesky. Please share your suggestions as well, and I hope to connect and learn with you there! You can find me at https://bsky.app/profile/ericcurts.bsky.social

EdTech Links of the Week - 11-19-24

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:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: 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

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

Podcast Spotlight: Unpacking Education

I recently had the pleasure to be a guest on the "Unpacking Education" podcast from AVID.

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 Paul Beckermann, Rena Clark, and Dr. Winston Benjamin and is described as follows:

If it relates to education and matters to you, we're talking about it on our podcasts. Unpacking Education shares in-depth conversations each Wednesday on timely topics with guests who share their expertise and experience-from teaching strategies, to educational technology, to equitable access to future-driven skills for all students.

I had a wonderful time chatting with the team about generative AI and how it can be used in K–12 classrooms, with specific examples of AI tools to try and practical classroom activities that can make a real impact with students.

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

Recorded Webinar - Google Gemini for Education

I recently had the opportunity to record a webinar for a deep dive into Gemini, which is Google's AI chatbot.

You are probably familiar with ChatGPT, which is an excellent chatbot, but Google Gemini is a great tool as well. Google has long been a pioneer in artificial intelligence, and they have continued to improve and expand Gemini over the last couple years.

If you have not tried out Gemini yet, now is a great time. It is a powerful AI tool that offers unique features including:

• Built-in fact checking with the "double-check" feature
• Data protections when used with a school account
• Free unlimited use
• And more!

See below for my 45-minute recorded webinar and session resources all about Gemini.

My 2025 OETC Sessions

I am excited and honored to be presenting at the 2025 Ohio Educational Technology Conference (OETC25) in Columbus, Ohio on February 11th through 13th.

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 OETC25 information and register for the conference at:

• https://oetc.ohio.gov/

Below is a list of sessions I will be presenting at OETC25, 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 - 11-12-24

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:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: 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

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

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.

Super Tutor: AI to Support all Learners

Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool for teaching and learning. One of the most beneficial uses is for supporting students. 

It has been said that with AI it is like every learner can now have their own 24-hour personal tutor.

I recently recorded a 47-minute training video for an updated version of my session "Super Tutor: AI to Support all Learners".

In this session we explore ways AI can assist educators as they are helping students, as well as ways for students to use AI directly to get individualized support. Tools explored include MagicSchool AI, Khanmigo, Brisk Teaching, Diffit, SchoolAI, AI chatbots, and many more.

See below for the recorded video and session resources. And be sure to share your suggestions for AI tools and uses. I am excited to learn with you!

Podcast Spotlight: ShiftED Podcast

I recently had the pleasure to be a guest on the "ShiftED Podcast" from LEARN.

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 Chris Colley from LEARN (Leading English Education and Resource Network) and is described as follows:

…a show that highlights the work of innovative educators with their students as well as the services that LEARN offers to support learning in the English milieu. The show is a part of our core mission of supporting the English education community in Quebec.

I had a wonderful time chatting with Chris about my journey in education and technology, how to help educators adopt technology, balancing technology and life, preparing students for their futures, the ABC's of AI, creative uses of AI, how to find the best EdTech resources, and more!

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

My 2025 FETC Sessions

I am excited and honored to be presenting at the Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC 2025) in Orlando, Florida on January 14th through 17th, 2025.

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 register for FETC at https://www.fetc.org/

If you are thinking of attending, you can save 10% on an All-Access or Session pass with my special promo code FETC25SPEAKER

Below is a list of sessions I will be presenting at FETC 2025, 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 - 10-31-24

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:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: 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

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

What's New in Google - October 2024

Catch up on everything new in Google Workspace for Education from October 2024, and see great ideas and resources!

Below is the recorded video from our October 2024 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 October 2024 meeting:

Did a Robot Write this Report? Managing AI Cheating

Generative AI is a powerful tool that can be used to support teachers and students. Most of the time when I am sharing about AI or doing AI trainings, I often focus on the positives aspects of this technology and how it can be used to benefit education.

Unfortunately, just as AI can be used to generate lesson plans, provide helpful feedback, and serve as a personalized tutor, it can also be used to write a paper, provide answers, and do students' work.

In short, AI can be used to cheat. Depending on the study you look at, research shows that between 60% and 70% of students admit to using AI to cheat.

It is critical for schools to explore and address this concern so that students can benefit from the support of AI, but not abuse this tool and ultimately hurt their own learning.

But how can we manage this? Recently I recorded a 50-minute video where I do a deep dive into addressing AI cheating. To be clear however, there are no easy answers. We are all learning this together and my presentation simply shares hopefully helpful ideas. I welcome your suggestions, thoughts, questions, comments, and opinions!

See below to watch the recorded video and access all of the support materials.

Podcast Spotlight: One-to-One Podcast

I recently had the pleasure to be a guest on the "One-to-One 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 Brian Bates and Linda DeYounge and is described as follows:

Learn about the latest topics in edtech with the Learning Technology Center of Illinois, a program of the Illinois State Board of Education. Each episode will include discussions about integrating the most recent tech into classrooms, interviews with movers and shakers in education technology, and answers to questions from listeners.

I had a wonderful time chatting with Linda and Brian about creative uses of technology in the classroom, the importance of student voice and choice, my current top three favorite EdTech tools, and more!

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

EdTech Links of the Week - 10-24-24

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:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: 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

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

Halloween Themed Google Fonts

As I have shared in several previous posts, I have always had a love for fonts. The right typeface can help to communicate information or spice up content.

With Halloween almost here, I decided to share some of my favorite fonts for the spooky season.

My favorite place to explore typefaces is Google Fonts, where (as of this writing) Google provides over 1,700 free fonts. You can explore and preview all of these typefaces at https://fonts.google.com/

These fonts can be used by you and your students to add style, personality, and creativity to your Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms, Sites, and more. You can easily add any of these fonts to your Google tools by clicking the font menu, choosing "More fonts", and then typing in the font name.

If you are not using Google tools, you can also download the fonts for use in the programs on your computer.

See below for a dozen of my favorite fonts for Halloween. Some tie into the scary side of the season, while others lean into the candy and fun.

Citation Needed: AI Tools that Provide Sources

Although artificial intelligence can be a great benefit for educators and students, there are also valid concerns that schools need to consider and address (see https://bit.ly/curts-aimisuse for more details).

One of those concerns is the possibility for AI to produce content that is incorrect. In short, AI can make mistakes.

When discussing this with schools, I usually recommend several ideas to help address this concern:

• Educate students on the potential for misinformation
• Encourage critical thinking and skepticism among students
• Use multiple chat tools to get a variety of responses
• Improve the initial prompt to get more accurate responses
• Ask follow-up questions to expand information and perspectives
• Use tools that help check and verify information

For this blog post I am going to take a closer look at the final suggestion listed above - "Use tools that help check and verify information". Thankfully there are many AI tools that assist with fact checking or can provide sources you can use to learn more and verify the information.

See below for details on five suggested AI tools and how they can be used to help address potential inaccuracies. I have also included details for the free versions of each of these tools. 

Be sure to explore all of my AI resources at https://www.controlaltachieve.com/ai and as always I would love to hear your ideas, recommendations, and questions.

EdTech Links of the Week - 10-17-24

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:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: 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

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

Back-To-School AI Webinar Recording

Last month I was honored to be on the panel for a "Back-To-School AI Webinar".

Dan Fitzpatrick, a leading voice in AI for education, organized a panel of educators to share some of their favorite AI tools and ideas to help kick off a new school year. The panel included:

• Sabba Quidwai, the CEO of Designing Schools from California
• Jason Gulya, an English professor at Berkeley College from New Jersey
• Aileen Wallace, a high school teacher from Scotland
• Matthew Wemyss, a school leader from Romania
• And me!

For my portion of the webinar I shared about Brisk Teaching and how educators can use it to easily:

• Create content such as a quiz, lesson plan, slideshow, etc.
• Generate feedback on student writing
• Change reading level and language of articles and documents
• Monitor student writing process
• Create student AI chatbots for learning activities

See below to watch the recording of the webinar. I hope you pick up some great ideas!

Creating Soundboards with Google Slides for Stories, Games and More

How can you bring some extra life into your class activities, discussions, and games? Ding, Ding, Ding! Yes, that's right, with your own custom soundboard.

A soundboard can be used in your class for many purposes:

• It could provide fun sound effects for class games, quizzes, and competitions.
• You could use the soundboard for audio cues for classroom transitions, such as indicating when time's up, or students need to clear their desks, or switch groups, or such.
• The soundboard could be used while you are reading a story out loud to your students, to bring the story to life with sounds from the story content.
• You could use the sounds to support and reinforce content being taught in class.
• If you or your students are recording podcasts and videos, a soundboard can be used to for effects and transitions while recording.
• And more!

There are certainly lots of options for classroom soundboards, but one free and easy tool for this is Google Slides. With Google Slides you can create your own custom soundboard with audio that you have recorded or downloaded from free audio sites.

See below for details on how to do this. You will find a 21-minute video I did for MoteCon24 where I go through all the steps, as well as links to my associated resource document, session slideshow, sample soundboard, and more.

My 2024 ITIP Ohio Google Summit Sessions

I am excited and honored to once again be presenting at the ITIP Ohio Google Summit at the Kalahari Resort and Conference Center in Sandusky, Ohio this October 28th and 29th, 2024. This year the conference is hybrid, with an in-person or virtual registration option.

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: itipohio.org/google-conference-2024

You can also view the full conference schedule and register for the conference.

Below is a list of sessions I will be presenting at the ITIP Ohio Google Summit, 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 - 10-10-24

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:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: 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

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

Upcoming Webinar - Cyber Assist: Using AI as Your Teaching Assistant

I am excited to be providing a free webinar for the OETC Postscript Series on "Cyber Assist: Using AI as Your Teaching Assistant".

OETC (the Ohio Educational Technology Conference) is offering these "postscript" sessions as a way to keep the learning going throughout the year as we head toward the next conference in February.

Here are the details on my OETC Postscript webinar:

• October 16th from 4-5 p.m. (Eastern Time)
• Cyber Assist: Using AI as Your Teaching Assistant
• It has been said that with generative AI, every educator now has their own personal 24-hour assistant. Learn how to use tools such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Brisk Teaching, EnlightenAI, QuestionWell, MagicSchoolAI, Khanmigo, Diffit and more to help you generate presentations, create lessons, write emails, provide feedback and much more. Save more time so you can spend more time impacting students!
• Register for free here - Registration link 

Anyone is welcome to attend the live webinar. Feel free to share with others and I look forward to learning with you!

AI Summit for School Leaders

Artificial Intelligence is a hot topic in schools right now, but a lot of the focus has been on how teachers can use this powerful new tool.

Although that is great, it is also important for school administrators and leaders to explore AI. School leaders set the tone and expectations for the use of AI in education, and will likely also help set the policies and guidelines for its appropriate use.

To help with this, I am super excited to offer an AI Summit for School Leaders in partnership with OASSA, the Ohio Association of Secondary School Administrators. The event will be held October 31st and November 1st in Columbus, Ohio, and although it is hosted by OASSA, you do not need to be a member to attend.

See below for all of the details and registration information. And feel free to share with others who may benefit. I hope to learn with you!

4 Googley Halloween Learning Activities

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I already love the Fall with the change in temperature, beautiful leaves, and the smell of logs in our fireplace.

And Halloween is one of the high points. I love walking my grandkids around their neighborhood as we go trick-or-treating, and try my best not to eat too much of their candy.

Most years I even try to dress up for the occasion, although having a beard does somewhat limit my options. My go-to costume recently has been none other than Bob Ross!

Another favorite thing I have done is to create Halloween-themed educational activities with Google tools including:

🎃 Build a Jack-O-Lantern with Google Slides

👻 Halloween Rebus Stories with Emojis and Google Docs

🦇 Halloween Drag and Drop Poetry with Google Drawings

💀 Skittles and Google Sheets Math Activities


For convenience I decided to pull all of them together in one blog post. See below for details on each activity and links to the resources and templates.

EdTech Links of the Week - 10-3-24

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:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: 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

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

Google Docs Calendar Templates for the 2025-2026 School Year

Several years ago I created some Google Docs templates for a colleague who was looking for a simple one-page document to show important calendar dates for an entire school year. The templates were a big hit and many people found them to be helpful.

Although it still feels like the school year has just gotten started, I have already received emails from folks asking if I have made a version for next year ... the 2025-2026 school year.

So for all of you super organized people who are already planning for the next school year, I am happy to say, yes, I have versions for 2025-2026. See below for the links to get your own copies of these templates, as well as some basic directions on how to edit them for your own use.

What's New in Google - September 2024

Catch up on everything new in Google Workspace for Education from September 2024, and see great ideas and resources!

Below is the recorded video from our September 2024 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 September 2024 meeting:

Podcast Spotlight: Teaching 'N Tech with Allan & Chad

I recently had the pleasure to be a guest on the "Teaching 'N Tech with Allan & Chad" 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 Allan Brown and Chad Hoffman and is described as follows:

Allan Brown and Chad Hoffman host this podcast series highlighting effective instructional strategies implemented by educators in Northeast Ohio. Episodes focus on successful teaching methods from their experiences in the classroom and special guests provide insights as well.

I had a wonderful time chatting with Allan and Chris about three of my favorite AI tools for schools, as well as ideas for embracing technology in the classroom, even for teachers who are unsure.

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 - 9-26-24

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:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: 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

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

Jam Slides - Google Slides Replacement Template for Jamboard

Last year Google announced that they would be shutting down Jamboard, which was a collaborative digital whiteboarding tool. According to Google's timeline, as of October 1, 2024, Jamboard will become view-only, and as of December 31, 2024, the tool will shut down entirely.

This announcement was a great disappointment to many educators who have come to rely on Jamboard for teaching and learning.

Since then many other tools have been explored as potential replacements for Jamboard including Figjam, Lucidspark, Miro, Padlet Sandboxes, Canva, and more. I have even hosted an intro and advanced webinar on moving from Jamboard to Figjam.

All of these are excellent tools and I encourage you to test them out. However, I would like to suggest one other option to consider … Google Slides.

Although no tool is an exact replacement for Jamboard, Google Slides is actually very similar. In addition, it is a Google tool, so you and your students already have access to it and are probably pretty familiar with how it works.

To make this transition even easier, I have created a free Google Slides template that you can copy and use. This "Jam Slides" template is designed to help you mimic all of the features from Jamboard in Google Slides.

See below to get your own copy of the template, and to watch a tutorial video where I use this template and go through each Jamboard feature one by one and show how they can all be done in Google Slides.

Join Me for MoteCon24

I am excited and honored to be presenting at the free, virtual MoteCon24 event on September 30th!

MoteCon is a totally free, online conference with loads of great sessions on using Mote, the awesome Chrome extension that lets you and your students record your voice and add that recording to websites and web tools including Google Docs, Slides, Forms, Classroom, Gmail, and more.

In past years I presented at MoteCon22 and MoteCon23. This year MoteCon will be streamed live on YouTube on September 30th from 5pm to 8pm Central Time (6pm to 9pm Eastern). For those who can't watch live, the recorded videos will be available for on-demand viewing afterwards,

See below for all the details and how to register for free. I look forward to learning with you!

Spelling Snake - Using AI to Code Educational Games

In the past I have shared about using AI for coding and I even have a blog post from about a year ago with a 1 hour deep dive video with loads of examples that you can check out.

Well a lot has changed in the last year so I wanted to share a great new AI tool that makes it easier than ever to create, play, and share educational games or simulations or other interactives.

And you don't even need to know how to code!

This tool is the new artifact window in Claude. If you are not familiar with Claude, it is an AI chatbot very similar to ChatGPT and Gemini, and can be accessed for free at claude.ai

The artifact window is a new feature that lets you see the code that Claude generates, run the code to test out your game live, and share a link with others so they can play your game.

So for my example I decided to create a spelling game. My idea was to have it be a twist on the classic snake game, but with spelling words. Now of course you can have Claude create the code for whatever you want. It can be an educational game or a simulation or an interactive activity.

See below for the 13 minute video that walks you through the entire process from start to finish. And if you create something with Claude, please send me the link so I can try out what you created.