My Top 20 EdTech Posts of 2017

As 2017 draws to a close, this will mark the second anniversary for the Control Alt Achieve blog. I launched this site back in December of 2015 as a one-stop-shop to share all of my educational technology resources, activities, help guides, training videos, and more.

And it has been a great second year!

During 2017 I shared 86 posts (not counting this one) and the site received a little over 2.9 million visits (with a 2-year total of 4.2 million visits). As always though, the most important statistic was the number of people who contacted me via email or Twitter or in the comments to share their awesome ideas, or to let me know how they used one of my resources in their class, or to share pictures of their students engaged in an activity I had posted.

Your comments and feedback mean so much! Over the years I have transitioned from being a classroom teacher to a tech integrationist at a district level to a tech integrationist at a regional level. It is so great to see that even though I am no longer in the classroom myself, the resources I share can still impact real students, helping them create, collaborate, write, learn, and explore.

Below are the top 20 posts from this year, based on the number of page views each received. I would encourage you to look through the list to see if there are some you missed the first time around, and consider sharing these resources with other educators you know who would benefit from them.

Finally there is a very short optional, anonymous feedback form at the bottom. Please feel free to provide some feedback to help me make 2018 even better!

12 (More) Fabulous EdTech Blogs to Follow

On the 12th day of Tech-Mas my true love gave to me… 12 Best Blogs.

Note: This post is part of my "12 Days of Tech-Mas" series for 2017. You can see all of the posts for each day as they get released in the main post here: "12 Days of Tech-Mas 2017".

About a year ago I put up a post about "50 Fabulous EdTech Blogs to Follow" where I shared a list of many of my favorite blogs to get educational technology ideas, tools, and inspiration. At that time, I mentioned that the list was certainly far from complete.

Since that time I have continued to add many more sites to my list. To be able to stay on top of so many blogs, I use Feedly to pull all of the posts together so I can visit one single location to see everything that is new. For more details on how to use Feedly, see my earlier post on the topic.

So I thought it was time to update the list with 12 more excellent EdTech blogs, which you will find listed and linked in the post below.

Some of the blogs are very well known, while others have a smaller following. Some generate new posts every few days, while others only add new content a few times per month. The one shared characteristic of all of these blogs is I have found them to be valuable and have learned from each one. To keep things simple, the list is alphabetized.

And just like last time, please leave comments to let me know of other valuable educational technology blogs that you are aware of. I am always looking for new sources of technology integration ideas.

11 Great EdTech Podcasts

On the 11th day of Tech-Mas my true love gave to me… 11 Pods O'Casting.

Note: This post is part of my "12 Days of Tech-Mas" series for 2017. You can see all of the posts for each day as they get released in the main post here: "12 Days of Tech-Mas 2017".

Podcasts are one of my favorite ways to learn new information, be inspired, be challenged, discover creative practices in education, find out about the latest resources, and even be entertained.

Best yet, we all have busy lives, so podcasts fit in wonderfully to my schedule, allowing me to listen when driving to work or to a training, or mowing the yard, or going for a jog (which I need to do more often).

For the writing of this blog post I checked my podcast app and I currently am subscribed to 135 different podcasts, covering a wide range of topics and interests. I certainly do not listen to every episode of each, and only a portion of them deal specifically with educational technology. So for this post I have decided to highlight just eleven of my favorites.

These eleven examples all focus on EdTech and consistently provide me with valuable information and resources. There are many more podcasts I could recommend, and perhaps they can be part of a future post, such as those covering education in general (The Cult of Pedagogy, Teaching Keating, Sustainable Teaching, 10 Minute Teacher, etc.) or interesting information (99% Invisible, No Such Thing as a Fish, RadioLab, Freakonomics, Tell Me Something I Don't Know, Reply All, The Allusionist, Science Vs, etc.)

See below for details on eleven of my favorite educational technology podcasts (in alphabetical order). If you are new podcasts, hopefully this will encourage you to try out a few. If you already listen, maybe you will pick up a couple new shows from the list. If you are a podcast addict like me, please share some of your recommendations in the comments at the bottom.

10 Excellent Extensions for Chrome

On the 10th day of Tech-Mas my true love gave to me… 10 Excellent Extensions.

Note: This post is part of my "12 Days of Tech-Mas" series for 2017. You can see all of the posts for each day as they get released in the main post here: "12 Days of Tech-Mas 2017".

It's no secret that I love Chrome web extensions. They are an awesome way to add new features and tools to your Chrome web browser. Extensions can be a powerful benefit for schools as they provide options for creation, curation, accessibility, readability, efficiency, and much more!

Many of my blog posts have dealt with Chrome extensions, such as:

• Seven Summarization Tools for Students
• 20 Chrome Extensions, Web Apps, and Add-ons for Math
• Chrome Extensions for Struggling Students and Special Needs
• And many more…

I even have a Google Sheet where I keep a list of all of my favorite Chrome extensions, with links to install them, and a short description of what each does. You can access the current version of my list here:

• Eric's Favorite Chrome Web Extensions - Google Sheets link

Having said all of that, there are some extensions that I have not really covered on the blog yet. For this post I wanted to highlight ten cool extensions that are worth checking out. Some of these are relatively recent, while others have been around for a while. Some you may have heard of, but others may be new to you. Whatever the case, all of these are valuable for teachers and students.

9 Terrific Trainings - The FREE 2017 Ditch That Textbook Digital Summit

On the 9th day of Tech-Mas my true love gave to me… 9 Terrific Trainings.

Note: This post is part of my "12 Days of Tech-Mas" series for 2017. You can see all of the posts for each day as they get released in the main post here: "12 Days of Tech-Mas 2017".

With the holiday season here, you have probably been busy trying to find the perfect gifts for the people in your life. But what about you? Don't you deserve to get something for yourself?

Well you are in luck! You may not be able to find any Hatchimals in the stores, but you can still get yourself nine days of free professional development on technology, pedagogy, and more!

Back for its second year is the "Ditch That Textbook Digital Summit". Starting on December 15th there will be a new video from a new speaker each day for nine days. This is a fantastic way to get free professional development at your pace, on your schedule, in your pajamas (if you want).

See below for all the details on how to take advantage of this awesome opportunity, before it goes away (like all the Hatchimals).

8 Ways to Supercharge Google Docs with Drawings

On the 8th day of Tech-Mas my true love gave to me… 8 Docs Drawings.

Note: This post is part of my "12 Days of Tech-Mas" series for 2017. You can see all of the posts for each day as they get released in the main post here: "12 Days of Tech-Mas 2017".

"You can't do that in Google Docs!"

If you have ever made that claim, then you know the frustration of loving all the awesome things you can do in Docs, but still bumping up against limitations.

Sometimes we can extend the capabilities of Docs by installing add-ons or extensions. However, there is another powerful tool that's been sitting right there in the Docs menu all this time, which can provide you with loads of extra features that you may not have realized you had.

That tool ... Google Drawings.

That's right. You can embed Google Drawings into your Doc right from the "Insert" menu. Being able to insert a live, editable Google Drawing inside your document can let you do lots of things you normally cannot do in Google Docs.

In this blog post we are going to take a look at eight things you can do with Drawings inside of Docs. These can be great to make your documents more interactive for students, to add multimedia, to create HyperDocs, for student projects, and much more.

See below for details, directions, and examples for each, as well as recorded video tutorials demonstrating how each works.

7 Helpful Hacks for Google Tools

On the 7th day of Tech-Mas my true love gave to me… 7 Helpful Hacks.

Note: This post is part of my "12 Days of Tech-Mas" series for 2017. You can see all of the posts for each day as they get released in the main post here: "12 Days of Tech-Mas 2017".

Google tools have so many awesome features, options, and settings, that it is easy to miss some of the cool things their products can do for you. In this blog post we are going to take a look at seven helpful hacks to get more out of your Google experience.

The criteria I used for coming up with this list of tips and tricks include:

• These are built-in features in the Google tools, rather than something that needs to be installed separately such as extensions or add-ons.
• These should provide some benefit to you such as saving time, improving organization, avoiding problems, or making you more efficient.
• These tips should be lesser known features of common Google tools.

Certainly you may be familiar with some of these tips, but hopefully you will learn a few new tricks, or at least be reminded and encouraged to use some of these options. As always, I would love to hear your favorite lesser known Google tips. Please share your ideas in the comments at the bottom of the post.