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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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 3 resources from my blog.

👍 FigJam and Google Integration

Curious about FigJam but not sure how it fits in with your Google tools? Good news is there are a few integrations to make your life easier.

FigJam add-on for Google Classroom: This integration allows you to seamlessly assign, collect, and grade FigJam files, all without leaving Classroom. Install it today in the Workspace Marketplace and check out the tutorial for step-by-step instructions.
"Share to Classroom" button: If you don’t have access to Classroom add-ons, use the free “Share to Classroom” button to easily post FigJam files as assignments.
Jamboard <> FigJam converter: Just because Jamboard is going away doesn’t mean you need to lose your amazing files. Use the FigJam importer to convert all your Jamboards into fully editable FigJam files. Learn how in this short tutorial.

🎧 NotebookLM Audio Overviews

Resource Link

I have shared about Google's NotebookLM in the past with a blog post and short demo video.
It is an AI-powered tool that lets you add your own documents, slideshows, PDFs, online articles, and more, and then you can ask the AI questions specific to the files you uploaded.
Google often shares this as a tool that could help a student study their notes or a teacher create educational content.
Well, NotebookLM got a major update! Now you can have it generate an audio overview of the content you uploaded.
What is so novel is that the audio overview is in the style of an engaging podcast discussion between two people.
I am excited to see how this could help students understand content from their class, whether it is an audio chat about an article they are reading or a deep dive conversation comparing and contrasting multiple sources they are studying.
And best of all, it is completely free and you can learn more about it in Google's recent post.
For one of my tests with it I uploaded an entire copy of my "Control Alt Achieve" book and it produced the following "podcast" that you can listen to here: MP3 Audio link

📰 What's New in Google?

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It has been since May that we had a GEG-Ohio meeting, as we typically take off in the summer, so we are going to have a lot of information to catch up on!
Feel free to join us online Monday, September 30th at 1pm (EST) for our first GEG-Ohio Google User Group meeting for this school year.
These are online meetings where we cover all of the new features and updates from Google, as well as great ideas for using Google tools in school.
If you can't join live, the meeting will be recorded and you can watch it afterwards at your convenience.
Here is the agenda document, live video link, and calendar link.

🤖 AI Competencies for K-12 Education

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A while back I did a keynote for "Sequoia Con 2024" which was organized by Evergreen Education.
Well the folks from Evergreen have now put together a helpful document on "AI Competencies for K-12 Education" that explores the skills within AI that students will need to learn.
The document covers six main domains including AI Essentials, Future-Ready Thinking, Wayfinding, Human-Machine Collaboration, AI-Leveraged Innovation, and Ethical and Societal Implications.
Inside each of those there are detailed skills that students should master during their years in school.
And they provide practical examples of possible curriculum integrations for those skills across different grade bands.
If you are interested, you can get your own copy at the link above.

🖊️ Jam Slides: Google Slides Replacement Template for Jamboard

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With Jamboard shutting down, I created a Google Slides template that helps you replicate everything Jamboard did in 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.

You can get a copy of the template, detailed directions, and a 25-minute video going through every feature at the link above.

💯 Upcoming Webinar - The Future of Feedback & Personalized Learning

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I have a webinar coming up on "The Future of Feedback & Personalized Learning" where we will be looking at using AI for grading and feedback using tools such as Fobizz, Snorkl, EnlightenAI and more. The webinar will be September 26th at 4pm Eastern and will be recorded if you can't watch live. You can get all the details and registration info at the link above.

🛠️ Update - Free Access for MakerEd Educators Forum

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Quick update... We now have a discount code for the MakerEd Educators Forum. You can use the code "MEF2024free" to save 100% off of the normal $65 cost! This gives access to all the live sessions as well as their recordings afterwards. This is a two day virtual conference where educators will explore maker topics, share ideas, exchange tips & tricks and learn from one another.

I'll be presenting my session "Yes (even) You Can Code with AI!" on September 28th. You can get all the details and registration information at the link above.