Control Alt Achieve: EdTech Links of the Week

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

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📧 Join the "Control Alt Achieve" email discussion group: bit.ly/caa-emailgroup
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And as always, please let me know of any resources that you recommend. I would love to learn from you!

This week I have 4 resources from around the Internet and 2 resources from my blog.

✍️ Argumentative Writing Templates

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Curipod is one of my favorite educational AI tools (see my earlier blog post and video for more details). You can use AI to create or personalize instructional slideshows and lessons that students can interact with and receive AI-generated feedback. Recently Curipod released a new set of Argumentative Writing templates. Here's how they work:

You pick the template: Defend the Suspect, Greek Gods Casting Challenge, Guardians of the Planet, Monsters & Magic, Basketball Manager and more!
You use the AI to adapt them to your students interest for the argumentative writing.
Curipod creates the interactive slideshow for the students to connect to.
Students write their argumentative response.
The AI grades their writing on a 6-point rubric including Claim, Evidence & Reasoning, and Conventions, and gives them personalized feedback.

Learn more about these new templates and try them out with your students!

🧒 FigJam Share to Classroom

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When Google announced they were shutting down Jamboard, many educators scrambled to find possible replacements. One of those included FigJam, which provides a totally free, powerful collaborative whiteboard tool for teachers and students to use. You can check out my "FigJam for Schools Intro Webinar" and "FigJam for Schools Advanced Webinar" to learn all about it.

As powerful as FigJam is however, there was one feature that was missing. Jamboard files could easily be pushed out to students through Google Classroom, so each student got their own copy or collaborated on a shared copy. Well, good news everyone!

FigJam now includes an easy option to share FigJams with your students through Google Classroom.

Simply open the FigJam file you want to share and click on the "Share" button in the top right corner.
Then choose "Share to Google Classroom" from the sharing window.
Next choose if you want to make a copy for each student, or let them collaborate together on the file.
Finally choose the class you want to share to, and create your assignment as normal.

😰 Anxiety Simulator

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Many people struggle with anxiety to varying degrees and frequencies. I know that anxiety has been a challenge for me at different times in my life. Recently AE Studio released a free AI-powered tool called Anxiety Simulator to help you see how what you say might affect someone else's anxiety level. Here's how it works…

For the simulation the AI chatbot pretends to be a close friend with anxiety.
You start the conversation by typing in any message you want.
Below your message you will see a star rating of your message based on how well it could be received by someone with anxiety.
You will also see a thought bubble to click on to see an alternate message that could be received better, as well as feedback on your original message.
Next, the AI will respond to your message as someone with anxiety.
Below the AI response you will see an Anxiety Bar which indicates the level of anxiety they are having from your message.
You will also see a thought bubble to click on to see their thoughts and concerns about the conversation.
You can then continue the conversation with more responses back and forth.

I tested this out and found it to be an excellent way to better understand how someone else may interpret my messages, and ideas on how to communicate more clearly in a way that would not unnecessarily provoke anxiety. This could be a great instructional and awareness tool for adults and students.

🖊️ Whiteboard App

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As a previous math teacher I have long been a fan of the simple web apps provided for free by The Math Learning Center. These are typically aimed at elementary classrooms and include their geoboard, number frames, number lines, pattern blocks, and many more. Recently I came across a new interactive they have launched which is their Whiteboard App.

The Whiteboard app is a digital workspace for teachers and students to solve problems and explain their thinking. Math concepts can be explored in a variety of ways using a flexible set of tools to sketch, write, and build equations. Some of the features include:

Use the Drawing tools to solve problems and show understanding.
Add equations, expressions, and descriptions with the Math Text and Writing tools.
Hide and reveal work with resizable covers to create your own problems and model strategies.
Share your work by saving an image or creating an 8-character code and link to send to others.

🌞 My 2024 CFISD Digital Learning Conference Sessions

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Wrap up the summer with my free virtual EdTech PD sessions! I am super excited to be presenting the following topics online for the CFISD Digital Learning Conference on July 25th

🖐️ Active Learning with Google Tools and EduProtocols
📊 Google Sheets for Educators: From Data Noob to Nerd
✨ The "Gem in AI" - Google AI Tools for Education
🖥️ Google Meet Enterprise Features

In addition to my sessions there will be about 100 more presentations from a wide range of amazing educators. Get all the details, resources, and live streaming links at the link above.

▶️ Recorded Webinar - Accessibility Tools to Support All Learners

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I recently recorded a new training on "Accessibility Tools to Support all Learners" where I explored a wide range of assistive tech tools including:

🗣️ Text to speech
🎙️ Speech to text
👓 Readability
📗 Reading comprehension
🤖 Generative AI support
🔊 Audio support
🅰️️ Translation
☑️ Behavior, focus, and organization
🧭 Navigation

You can access the recording and all of the session resources at the link above. Feel free to share with others, and I would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions on these tools and other support tools.