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.

EdTech Links of the Week - 9-17-24

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!

The AI Toolbox - Recorded Webinar

Recently I had the privilege to offer a free online session for the Teacher Innovation Network "EdTech Playground" series where the theme was artificial intelligence in education.

For my session I presented on a wide range of my favorite artificial intelligence tools and how they can be used for teaching and learning. 

Here is a description of my session:

The AI Toolbox: Best AI Tools for Schools

ChatGPT and Gemini are wonderful, but what other AI tools are available? Thankfully there are many educational AI resources that build on top of these models with tools that are free, provide extra functionality and features, and make the process easier and more convenient for educators. In this session we will explore many of these tools such as MagicSchool AI, Khanmigo, SchoolAI, QuestionWell, EnlightenAI, Snorkl, Sorcerer, Drift, Curipod, Brisk Teaching, Ideogram, Udio and more.

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.

Feel free to share with others who may benefit, and please let me know what AI tools I left out that I should explore.

Upcoming Webinar - The Future of Feedback and Personalized Learning

I am excited to be offering another webinar for Fobizz! 

A few months ago I partnered with them to present my "ABC's of AI" session which provided a general overview of AI in education. You can get all the details about that session in my earlier post.

For the next webinar we are narrowing the focus to grading and feedback with AI.

One of the biggest challenges in education is the time required to provide detailed feedback on student work. Thankfully we now have powerful AI tools that can generate personalized feedback for student work based on the guidelines, rubrics, and style we suggest. This can include feedback on student writing from short answers to full essays, as well as feedback on spoken student explanations. In this session we will explore AI feedback tools such as the Fobizz AI Grading Assistant, Snorkl, EnlightenAI, and more.

Here are the details:

💬 The Future of Feedback and Personalized Learning

📆 Thursday, September 26, 2024 from 4pm to 5pm (Eastern)

🎯 Learning goals

• You will learn how to use AI tools to assist with grading and feedback.
• You will explore how AI tools function in an educational context.
• You will understand how to train AI tools using rubrics and exemplars.
• You will learn methods to save time and increase consistency in grading using AI.
• You will discover how to maintain your personal touch and oversight while using AI tools.

The webinar will be recorded for those who cannot attend live. You can register for the webinar on the Fobizz website at:

https://plattform.fobizz.com/fortbildungen/1827-the-future-of-feedback-and-personalized-learning

Note: The webinar is completely free, but you will need to sign up for a free Fobizz account to sign up. Fobizz provides a wide range of free webinars on EdTech topics.

I am looking forward to learning with you!

EdTech Links of the Week - 9-10-24

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!

Back-To-School AI Webinar

As the new school year kicks off, artificial intelligence is on everyone's minds with thoughts of how to best use this powerful new technology to support teachers and students.

Dan Fitzpatrick, a leading voice in AI for education, has organized a panel of educators to help address this topic in a free "Back-To-School AI Webinar".

And I am super excited to be a part of it!

Here are the details:

• The Back-To-School AI Webinar 2024/25
• 📅 September 19, 2024
• ⏰ 11:00am Eastern / 8:00am Pacific / 16:00 UK
• 🧔 Speakers - Dan Fitzpatrick, Jason Gulya, Dr. Sabba Quidwai, Matthew Wemyss, Aileen Wallace, and Eric Curts (me!)
• ✅ Register for free at https://hz03lw7mbb2.typeform.com/to/ufAsvREV

What you'll leave with:

• Clear steps to get started using AI effectively (or clear steps on how to guide your colleagues)
• Prompting tips for tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini
• Insights into the AI education tools that are causing waves around the world
• Much more

5 attendees will win a brand new copy of the Back-To-School AI Guide 2024/25: 46 Steps & Tools For Educators Exploring Artificial Intelligence

Please share with others who may benefit, and I look forward to learning with you!

Make Educational Maps with AI

By now we are all pretty used to AI chatbots being able to generate a wide range of content from lesson plans to images to even educational songs. However, another creative use for AI chatbots is to create content for informational maps.

Google My Maps is a free tool that allows you to create your own custom maps, where you can add pins for different locations, and then add content to each pin to explain what it represents.

Although you can do this by hand, that can take quite a while. It turns out that Google My Maps allows you to upload a CSV file (comma separated values) with all of the data needed to create a map.

Well the good news is, we can use an AI chatbot to generate that CSV file, complete with all the data needed for our informational map.

See below for a short video tutorial and detailed directions on how to do this, along with several demo examples I created that you can explore. And of course I would love to see examples of what you create. Please feel free to share with me the maps you make.

EdTech Links of the Week - 8-29-24

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!

Free Webinar - Navigating AI Challenges

I am excited to be presenting a free webinar for Skyrocket Education Services on September 13th on the topic of "Empowering Learning with Artificial Intelligence: Navigating AI Challenges".

As beneficial as AI is for educators and students, there are also challenges, concerns, and the potential for misuse.

In this session we will explore ways to address academic integrity concerns, tools and strategies to help monitor AI use, proper citation for AI generated content, ways to encourage positive use of AI in the classrooms, developing your own class set of AI guidelines for students, alternative assessment options, addressing AI bias and inaccuracies, student data privacy, identifying fake content, evaluating AI tools, and more.

Here are the details for this free webinar opportunity:

• 🧭 Navigating AI Challenges
• 📆 Friday, September 13, 2024
• ⏰ 1-2:30pm (Pacific) / 4-5:30pm (Eastern)
• ✅ Registration - https://www.addevent.com/event/CZ22391170
• 🧰 Session Resources - https://bit.ly/curts-aimisuse

I look forward to learning with you!

New Equatio Math Whiteboard

As a previous math teacher, the Equatio extension for Chrome has long been my recommendation for the easiest way to add math symbols and content to Google Docs, Slides, Forms and more.

I have often shared about Equatio in training sessions and blog posts. For example, you can learn more about the basics of this tool in my earlier post "Equatio: Yes You Can Type Math and Science in Google Docs and Forms!"

Well recently Equatio got a new way to create, add, and edit math content… the Equatio Whiteboard tool.

This new tool makes it easier than ever to create and insert math content into Google tools, such as shapes, lines, freehand drawings, text, and even embedded YouTube videos.

To help share about this update I recorded a short demo video going through the basics. See below for the video and details about this new feature. And a big thanks to Texthelp for sponsoring this post!

Eric's EdTech Webinars and Certificates

Although I do lots of live trainings, both in-person and remote, I am only able to reach so many people that way. To try to reach more people, for many years I have been recording a lot of my training sessions and then posting those to my YouTube channel.

If you haven't checked out my YouTube channel, I encourage you to do so. There are hundreds of videos there covering a wide range of educational technology topics. Please consider subscribing as well so you don't miss new content. You can access my channel here: youtube.com/ericcurts

Although having access to my videos on YouTube is great, sometimes teachers ask me if they can also get a certificate of attendance for watching my recorded trainings. Many educators need a certain number of PD hours each year to renew their licenses.

To help with this I am now providing free automated certificates of completion for many of my recorded videos. See below for all the details on how to view the videos and get your own certificates.

EdTech Links of the Week - 8-22-24

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!

EdTech Playground Sessions for 2024-2025

I am excited to once again be presenting an "EdTech Playground" for the Teacher Innovation Network this year! In past years I have presented on  "Mote for Multilingual Learners" and "Accessibility Tools for All Learners".

The great things about the EdTech Playgrounds are:

• They are FREE!
• They are streamed live
• The recordings can be viewed later
• They are open to anyone

This year I will be doing a session on artificial intelligence:

• The AI Toolbox: Best AI Tools for Schools
• August 27, 2024
• 3:30 to 5:00pm (Pacific Time) / 6:30 to 8:00pm (Eastern Time)
• Registration - https://sccoe.to/tin2425

See below for the full list of EdTech Playground sessions for this year, as well as details on how to register. I look forward to learning with you!

Happy 10th Birthday Google Classroom!

It is hard to believe, but Google Classroom came out 10 years ago!

Before we had Classroom, I remember leading loads of PD sessions where I tried to help teachers build their own system in Google Drive where they created shared folders for every student, developed consistent naming schemes, and tried their best to stay relatively organized with the hundreds of files shared by their students.

Then along came Classroom! It automated and simplified file management for teachers, but also made it easier to assist students with their work. Over the years more and more new features have been added to build on this foundation.

On August 14th Google celebrated the 10th birthday of Google Classroom. To help celebrate I updated and reorganized my Classroom Resource page on my blog. Now it is easier for folks to find all of my Google Classroom tutorial videos, blog posts, resource docs, slideshows, and more.

You can check out all the resources here - www.controlaltachieve.com/classroom - or in the rest of the blog post below.

[Image credit ChatGPT]

Excellent EdTech Newsletters

It is difficult to stay up to date on everything new in educational technology. It seems that everyday there is a new tech tool or website, a helpful update, a PD opportunity, a creative idea for using technology in the classroom, and more.

How can you stay in the loop on all this great information?

One practical option is subscribing to EdTech newsletters!

This is actually one of my favorite ways to learn about new EdTech ideas. Sure I also listen to podcasts and belong to email discussion groups and check social media, but I especially appreciate newsletters for many reasons:

• They come directly to my email so I don't have to remember to go out and check anything.
• They are filled with great tools, tips, updates and resources.
• They are free!

See below for a list of many of the EdTech newsletters I currently subscribe to and benefit from. Hopefully you will find some here that will help you. And of course I am sure I am missing many other excellent newsletters. Please send me an email to let me know which ones you subscribe to that I should check out. I will keep updating the list below with more newsletters over time.

EdTech Links of the Week - 8-13-24

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!

15 New Favorite Google Fonts

As I have shared in the past, I am quite a typophile. That is, someone with a passion for typefaces, font design, and the art of typography in general.

One of my main sources for typefaces is Google Fonts at fonts.google.com where Google provides over 1,700 free fonts (as of the date of this writing). These can be used by you and your students in most all of Google's products to add style, personality, and creativity to your docs, slides, and more.

Every now and then I like to go to the Google Fonts website and sort the fonts by date. This allows me to explore the newest fonts that Google has added. I did this recently and wanted to share some of my favorite new fonts. See below for a list, examples, descriptions and links to 15 awesome fonts from Google.

Keep in mind, 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. And of course these are only 15 of 1,700+ fonts, so be sure to explore more at Google Fonts.

Texthelp Back to School Virtual Conference

I am excited and honored to be a part of the Texthelp "Back to School Blockbuster" virtual conference on September 18th and 19th, and I invite you to attend!

I have been sharing about Texthelp's products for so many years now, including tools such as Read&Write, Equatio, and more, which provide accessibility and support tools for all learners.

Well Texthelp is once again running their annual back to school virtual conference. I will be joining many amazing speakers, and will be presenting a session on AI in education. See below for more details and free registration:

• Texthelp "Back to School Blockbuster"
• September 18th and 19th
• 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm EST
• Streamed live
• 100% free!
• Recorded videos will be available through November
• Register here: Registration link

I hope you can join us and I look forward to learning with you!

Learn your New Students with Google Slides

One of the first things every teacher wants to do each year is memorize their students faces and names. This makes a personal connection to each of your students and helps them feel welcome and valued in your class. The last thing we want to do is call a student by the wrong name or have to resort to a "Hey you".

When I was first teaching (back in 1992, you do the math) I took pictures of my new students on the first day of class with an old camera with 110 film. I then would get the pictures developed at my local drug store and would attach the photos to 4x6 cards I had the students fill out with their names and details about themselves.

These became my flashcards so I could learn my students names, faces, and key details about each of them. I would practice with these for the first week or so of school to make sure I learned all 130 or so new students I had that year.

Well now with technology there are so many better and faster ways to do this. For one example I have created a Google Slideshow template that you can use to help learn your students names and faces and a little about them. You can even randomize the slides for better quizzing of yourself. See below to get your copy of the template and directions for how to use it.

EdTech Links of the Week - 8-6-24

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!

World Snorkl Day - Recorded Videos

I recently had the privilege of presenting a session for "World Snorkl Day". This was a free live streamed PD event with four hours of awesome content from twelve amazing educators across eight different sessions of fun, learning, and inspiration!

If you are not familiar with it, Snorkl was one the featured AI tools in my "Cool Tools 2023" series. For more details you can read that original blog post and watch my 12-minute tutorial video all about the tool.

In short, here is how Snorkl works:

• You create a problem, question, or prompt for your students and provide an exemplar answer for the AI.
• Students then record themselves speaking as they solve the problem or answer the question while explaining their reasoning.
• If needed the student can draw on the digital whiteboard while speaking.
• The AI then reviews the student's explanation based on the guidance you have provided.
• The AI then provides personalized feedback for the student on their work.
• The grades and feedback are all collected for you as the teacher to review.

See below for all of the recordings from "World Snorkl Day" including the "Snorkl Innovation Slam" session I was honored to be a part of.

Join me for the MakerEd Educators Forum

I am super excited to be presenting at the virtual MakerEd Educators Forum this September. The MakerEd Educators Forum is a two day virtual conference where educators will explore maker topics, share ideas, exchange tips & tricks and learn from one another.

The event will be held on September 27th and 28th, and will consist of 30-minute presentations on Friday, interactive workshops on Saturday and unconference conversation opportunities both days. 

The goal of the Forum is to give STEAM & maker educators the opportunity to share ideas, resources, and experiences.  The sessions will focus on practical skills, examples of successes and struggles, creative uses of AI in the classroom, new ideas and tips and tricks you can use with your students. Presentation topics include bridging literacy and computer game design,  exploring Tinkercad's newest interactive features, AI and storytelling in the classroom and much more.

Even better, 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.

On September 28th I will be presenting the following session:

Yes (even) You Can Code with AI! 

Don't know Python from Perl? Is HTML all IDK to you? Do you think JavaScript is the handwriting on your Starbucks cup? Even if you have never written a line of code in your life, you can with AI! In this session we will see how to use tools such as Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude to create code that you can use in Google Docs, Sheets, and Sites for learning games, simulations, activities, supports, time-savers, productivity helpers, and more.

You can get more details and register for the event at https://makered.org/educatorsforum

Between a Doc and a Hard Space: How to insert non-breaking spaces

Google Docs is a powerful word processing tool with so many useful features for educators, students, and everyone. As awesome as those are, however, there are still some things that Google Docs can't do, or perhaps just can't do as well as other tools.

Recently I received an email from someone asking how to insert a "hard space" into a Google Doc (or sometimes just called a "non-breaking space").

In short this is a special space character that prevents the words on either side of it from being separated by a line break. When text wraps to the next line, the words connected by the non-breaking space stay together on the same line. It's useful for keeping things like names, dates, measurements or other word pairs from being split apart.

It turns out you can do this in Google Docs, but it is not a simple task. I was excited to dig in and discover how this can be done (as well as create an exceptionally punny title for this blog post).

See below for direction on how to add a "non-breaking" or "hard" space in Docs when needed.

EdTech Links of the Week - 7-30-24

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!

4 Recorded Webinars from CFISD

I was honored to once again present at the 2024 CFISD Digital Learning Conference this year. This was a virtual conference so all of the sessions were recorded. 

If you were not able to join us for the live conference, you can still watch the recordings of my sessions.

This year the sessions I offered included:

• 🖐️ 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

See below for details on these four sessions, including descriptions, resources, and links to the recordings.

EdTech Links of the Week - 7-23-24

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!

Recorded Webinar - Hipster Google

I recently had the pleasure to present sessions at the High Impact Conference for Educators, which is an event we put on through the Educational Service Center where I work. All of my sessions were recorded, and over time I hope to share several of the videos.

Please note that the recordings are a lot more casual than some of my other videos, as this is from an in-person conference with a room full of attendees, so there is some chatting and questions and such. Hopefully though you will still find the content helpful.

For this recording, this is the session:

Hipster Google - Tools You Probably Never Heard Of

Everyone knows about Google Docs, Gmail, Search, and other common Google tools. But there are also loads of smaller, lesser-known, but powerful tools that can be used for teaching and learning. Learn about 70+ hidden gems such as nGram, Trends, AutoDraw, Chrome Music Lab, Toontastic, Landlines, Reverse Image Search, Instant Search Cards, Semantris, Art Palette, Timelapse, Interview Warmup, GameSnacks, Data GIF Maker and more (List subject to change based on how cool and unknown the tools remain.)

See below for the full recording, as well as the resources from the session. Please feel free to reach out with any questions, feedback, or suggestions you have on this topic.