The Month in Review – What a March It Was!
Good morning from Maine where I’m sitting in my home office waiting for students to join into a Google Hangouts Meet for virtual office hours. It’s hard to believe that at the beginning of the month COVID-19 was something that was affecting people “somewhere else” and now has nearly all of us working and teaching […]
A Map Coloring Challenge
Last week Maps Mania shared a collection of online and printable map activities for kids and adults. At the bottom of that collection was a link to Mathigon’s map coloring challenge. The challenge is to use as few colors as possible to color in all 50 U.S. states without the same color touching two states […]
C-SPAN Classroom Offers New Lessons on the Economic Impact of COVID-19
C-SPAN Classroom is a free resource that anyone who teaches U.S. History or civics should have bookmarked. I’ve written about many of their great resources and programs over the years including their annual student video contest and annual summer workshops for teachers. C-SPAN Classroom recently published a new lesson plan that includes a set of […]
Create Video-based Lessons a Little Faster With This Chrome Extension
A couple of weeks ago when I got the notice that my school would be closing I made a video about how to use EDpuzzle to create video-based lessons without having to create your own recordings. I first shared it with my colleagues and then included it in my Practical Ed Tech newsletter. One thing […]
Webinar Recording – Two Ed Tech Guys Take Questions
Last Friday Rushton Hurley from Next Vista for Learning and I held the first episode of Two Ed Tech Guys Take Questions (if you have a better idea for a title, please tell us). Lots of people came and lots more asked me about a recording. Rushton recorded it and put up a page of […]
A Student View of Joining a Zoom Meeting on an Android Phone
A few days ago I got an email from a reader asking me what it looks like when a student tries to join a Zoom meeting on an Android phone. It was a good question because it is important to have an understanding of what a student experiences when he or she tries to use […]
The Practical Ed Tech Podcast – Episode 39B – I’m Tired and Can’t Count
On Friday I recorded the 39th episode of The Practical Ed Tech Podcast. You might be saying, “but Richard, last week wasn’t last week the 39th episode?” You would be right because I called it that, but it turns out I lost track somewhere and skipped an episode so this is really the 39th episode. […]
The Week in Review – Online Meetings, Baseball Cards, and Forts
Good morning from Maine where the birds are chirping and it feels like spring as I sip my coffee. We’re going to spend the day playing in the yard. Spring has come a little earlier than normal here in Maine otherwise we might be going crazy isolating in the house. Rain is in the forecast […]
How to Share Your Computer’s Audio in Microsoft Teams
Whether it’s the basics of how the technology works or “features” right now we’re all learning a lot about hosting online meetings. For example, this week I learned about sharing system audio in Microsoft Teams meetings. Microsoft Teams isn’t a service that I use on a regular basis so when I do use it there […]
Free Course – A Teacher’s Guide to Creating Common Craft Style Videos
For more than a dozen years Common Craft videos have been used by teachers to help students understand topics including digital citizenship, personal finance, and many big technology concepts. One of the things that makes Common Craft videos popular is the clear and concise manner in which information is presented using a whiteboard, simple cutouts, […]
