The Week in Review – The Leaves Have Arrived
Clouds over the valley of Bryant Pond. Good evening from the Free Technology for Teachers World Headquarters in Woodstock, Maine where spring seems to have turned into summer almost overnight. I went away for one night to give a presentation and when I came back I noticed far more full leaves than when I left. […]
What is the World Wide Web? And How Does It Work? – Two Good Explanations
Even though they use it everyday many of our students don’t understand how the World Wide Web works. A recently released TED-Ed lesson tackles the topic of how the Web works. In What is the World Wide Web? students can learn about the origins of the Web, its evolution, and how we can contribute to […]
Real-time Translation Coming to Skype Later This Year
Earlier this week Microsoft announced that they have developed a real-time translation feature for Skype. The real-time translation tool will provide nearly-instant subtitles for the words spoken by the people on a Skype call. In addition to the subtitles you can hear a translation of spoken words. Microsoft says that this feature will be in […]
Canva Explains Color Scheme Basics for Slides and Infographics
Canva, one of my favorite services for creating infographics and slides, regularly sends emails containing design tips. The tip that they sent out in their latest email contained a link to this color scheme basics tutorial. The five part tutorial teaches you how to create five complementary color schemes to use in your slides, infographics, […]
Could You Win the National Spelling Bee? – Test Yourself With These Winning Words
Last night two champions were crowned in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. As I watched the final moments last night I knew that I would not have been able to spell some of the words presented to the competitors. If you and or your students would like to test your spelling skills against those of […]
Listango – A Quick and Easy Bookmarking Tool
The Internet is not lacking for bookmarking tools. Some are complex and robust while others are clean and simple. Listango falls into the clean and simple category. Bookmarking websites with Listango is a simple matter of clicking the Listango bookmarklet in your browser then choosing the list to which you want to add your bookmark. […]
ParticiPoll – Add Interactive Polls to PowerPoint
ParticiPoll is a service that you can use to add interactive polls to your PowerPoint presentations. Your polls are created and delivered within your PowerPoint slides. Once you’ve added ParticiPoll to your PowerPoint you can create as many polls as you like. Each poll can have up to six response options. The best aspect of […]
Listen, Compose, and Play Music on SFS Kids
Three years ago I explored and reviewed the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra’s website for kids called Keeping Score. Recently, the site was overhauled with new features and a new name. The new site is called SFS Kids and it is loaded with good activities for elementary school and middle school students. On SFS Kids students […]
Science Friday – Science Lesson Plans and Interesting Science Videos
Science Friday is a must-bookmark for teachers and students of science. On Science Friday you will find interesting videos and articles about a wide array of topics in chemistry, biology, physics, space science, and much more. As the name implies, new videos appear on Fridays. One of the videos from earlier this month that I […]
8 Crash Courses to Help High School Students Review the School Year
If your school is not yet out for the summer, you’re probably in the home stretch. This is the time of year when we spend a lot of time reviewing everything that we did during the school year. While your students should definitely review their notes, they might want to supplement those notes with some […]
