by Free Technology for Teachers | Dec 9, 2018 | Academic Technology
PBS Kids ScratchJr is a PBS Kids-themed version of the popular ScratchJr app. PBS Kids ScratchJr is available as a free iPad app and as a free Android app. The app is designed to help five to eight year old students learn basic programming concepts through a...
by Free Technology for Teachers | Dec 9, 2018 | Academic Technology
This is a guest post from Avra Robinson (@AvraRachel), Director of Online Learning for EdTechTeacher. When teachers or students begin to explore new digital environments, they often become confused and frustrated because they lack the basic building blocks needed to...
by Free Technology for Teachers | Dec 9, 2018 | Academic Technology
Money Math Duel is an iPad app and Android app designed to help students learn to count currency. The app is unique in that it allows two students to use it at the same time. Students place the iPad between them and each has his or her own end of the screen to use....
by Free Technology for Teachers | Dec 8, 2018 | Academic Technology
Good morning from chilly Paris Hill, Maine where it’s a crisp 7F as write this. In the category of “things I never did before having kids” today we’re going to look at a big Christmas tree display and to see Santa. It should be fun even if it...
by Free Technology for Teachers | Dec 8, 2018 | Academic Technology
It is not a secret that I’m a devoted Google Docs user. Since the first time that I tried it, I’ve done nearly all of my writing in Google Documents. Even when I was writing for a magazine that required all submissions to be in Word format, I wrote in...
by Free Technology for Teachers | Dec 8, 2018 | Academic Technology
At one time or another we’ve all suffered from a bout of heartburn. It usually happens to me if I drink soda pop (sometime the allure of a cold can of Coke on a hot day is too strong to resist). What else can cause heartburn? And what is actually happening in...
by Free Technology for Teachers | Dec 7, 2018 | Academic Technology
From time to time we all need to convert a document from one format to another. There are lots of online tools that will do that for you. Perhaps the simplest one that I’ve tried is a service called Easy PDF. To use Easy PDF you do not need to register on the...
by Free Technology for Teachers | Dec 7, 2018 | Academic Technology
As the end of 2018 approaches I thought it would be fun to see what you think are the best educational technology apps, sites, and services. For the next week I’ll leave this Google Form open for you to nominate your favorite educational technology app, site, or...
by Free Technology for Teachers | Dec 7, 2018 | Academic Technology
Over the last ten years I’ve had the privilege to visit hundreds of schools and conferences to lead professional development workshops. During that time the topics of my workshops have evolved in response to the continuously evolving field of educational...
by Free Technology for Teachers | Dec 7, 2018 | Academic Technology
Earlier this morning I shared news about NPR’s Student Podcast Challenge that starts in January. While NPR does provide some good guides for students and teachers to use to plan podcasts, those guides don’t include tutorials on specific podcast recording...
by Free Technology for Teachers | Dec 7, 2018 | Academic Technology
Thanks to Ms. Meade on Twitter, last night I learned about NPR’s Student Podcast Challenge. The challenge is open to students in fifth through twelfth grade. To enter the challenge students have to create a podcast that is three to twelve minutes long. Their...
by Free Technology for Teachers | Dec 7, 2018 | Academic Technology
The United Nations Environment Program offers a series of free posters based on data from the UNEP’s Geo Data Portal. These posters use charts, graphs, and maps to display information about environmental data. Some of the topics covered in these posters include...
by Free Technology for Teachers | Dec 6, 2018 | Academic Technology
This morning on Twitter I was asked about the possibility of editing the captions that are automatically generated by the Google Slides captioning tool. The question was raised by Michelle Joyce in response to my blog post about using the Google Slides captions and...
by Free Technology for Teachers | Dec 6, 2018 | Academic Technology
Since the first day that it launched two and a half years ago, I knew that Adobe Spark would be a great tool for students to use to create videos. Like any good product it has evolved over the last couple of years by adding more features without eliminating the core...
by Free Technology for Teachers | Dec 5, 2018 | Academic Technology
This morning I received an email from a reader who wanted to know if it was possible for his students to add their personal videos to Google Slides presentations without having to use YouTube. His plan is for students to collaborate to create a Google Slides...
by Free Technology for Teachers | Dec 5, 2018 | Academic Technology
ReadWorks is an excellent service that provides teachers with free reading lesson plans. ReadWorks offers lesson plans that can be used in classrooms from Kindergarten through 12th grade. All of the lessons are standards-aligned. And if you don’t want to use...
by Free Technology for Teachers | Dec 5, 2018 | Academic Technology
Earlier this year Google added automatic captioning to Google Slides. This week, via The Verge, I learned that Microsoft is adding automatic captioning and translation to PowerPoint starting in January. The automatic captioning will work when you are displaying your...
by Free Technology for Teachers | Dec 5, 2018 | Academic Technology
This week is the 77th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. That wasn’t the first military action of the Japanese during WWII. It’s just the event that finally got the U.S. to join the war. If you’re looking from some resources to use...
by Free Technology for Teachers | Dec 5, 2018 | Academic Technology
About six weeks ago I published a post about TED-Ed’s series of videos that explain why students should read the classics. When I published that post there were five videos in the series. The series is now up to seven videos. Those videos are listed and embedded...
by Free Technology for Teachers | Dec 4, 2018 | Academic Technology
Flipgrid is a great video response tool that can be used by students of almost any age including those under age 13 who often don’t have email addresses. If your students don’t have email addresses you can create student IDs for them to use on Flipgrid....
by Free Technology for Teachers | Dec 4, 2018 | Academic Technology
I love Flipgrid for the ease with which students can record videos with their webcams to reply to prompts that you give them. But not every student likes to appear on camera. And not every Flipgrid topic has to be a free-form response. It is in those instances that...
by Free Technology for Teachers | Dec 3, 2018 | Academic Technology
A couple of weeks ago I posted a short review of a site called Bensound that hosts about 175 free instrumental music tracks that you can download for free. You can down the music for free and re-use it in classroom video projects provided that you follow the...
by Free Technology for Teachers | Dec 1, 2018 | Academic Technology
Good morning from Maine where this morning we’re going to get a Christmas tree from a friend’s tree farm. A few years ago this is not something that I would get excited about, but having kids has changed my perspective on so many things including Christmas...
by Free Technology for Teachers | Dec 1, 2018 | Academic Technology
Earlier this week I published a post about Gmail’s Smart Reply feature. A few people emailed to ask if I had a video about how to use it. I didn’t have one so last night I made one. In the following video you can see how to use Smart Reply in Gmail as well...
by Free Technology for Teachers | Dec 1, 2018 | Academic Technology
As I write this What is Federal Land? is the #49 trending video on YouTube. It’s nice to see an educational video trending that high on YouTube. The video was produced by CGP Grey who has produced some other fantastic educational videos over the years....
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