Latest education updates from around the world
Measuring Technology’s Impact on Student Achievement
Determining if technology is positively impacting learning in the classroom is important when implementing new digital tools and platforms.
2o Engaging Recess Games to Play at School
Recess games to play at school is the topic of our post today!
Ah, recess! That precious pocket of time where our students get to shed the structure of the classroom, let loose, and simply be kids. As a former teacher, I’ve seen firsthand the vital role that recess plays in recharging young minds, promoting physical health, and fostering social skills.
I’ve also seen recess turn into a chaotic free-for-all, leaving some kids sidelined, others overwhelmed. How can we, as educators, strike the perfect balance between freedom and structure during this break? How can […]
How to Scan and Search Handwritten Notes in Google Keep and Docs
In this week’s Practical Ed Tech Newsletter I shared a couple of studies that support the benefits of handwriting notes over typing notes. In the newsletter I also shared a couple of tips for digitizing handwritten notes. One of the things that I mentioned was using Google Keep to digitize handwritten notes.
Google Keep’s free mobile apps for iOS and Android let you snap a picture of a handwritten note and then convert the handwriting into a text note. The text can shared directly to Google Documents. And if you don’t share the note to […]
How to Create and Share Google Photos Albums
A couple of days ago a reader emailed me to ask for suggestions on how to share pictures with her students’ parents without having to send the pictures as email attachments every day or every week. I was happy to provide a couple of suggestions.
My first idea was to use a service like Seesaw to share pictures with students’ parents. I’ve done that in the past in my own classroom and now my kids’ teachers do the same. My other suggestion was to create a Google Photos album that is shared with parents. How to do […]
Meta’s Annual XR Conference Will Have an “In-person Presence” for the First Time Since 2019
Meta announced that Connect, its annual XR developer conference, will have an “in-person presence” this year, marking the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began in late 2019.
Connect is set take place on September 27th and 28th at Meta’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California—an entirely new occurrence in itself, since the company traditionally held its in-person Connects at off-site venues, including the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose and Loews Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles.
Registration for the in-person experience is “limited,” Meta says, with attendees having access to demo experiences, networking events, and more. Meta says to expect in-depth […]
What is Cybersickness? The Common Virtual Reality Side Effect Explained
Cybersickness affects more than half of those who use virtual reality experience to some degree. Here’s what educators need to know about cybersickness and how to prevent it.
20 Things to Do When Bored in Class
Things to Do When Bored in Class is the topic of our post today!
As teachers, we are no strangers to those occasional wandering gazes or stifled yawns emanating from the back of the classroom. While we might hope every moment in class is filled with fascination and intellectual discovery, the reality is that there are bound to be periods that feel less engaging. This is particularly true for students who each carry a unique learning style, pace, and set of interests.
Yet, even in these moments of monotony, opportunity still looms around. In fact, moments […]
50 Creative Would Rather Questions for Middle School Students
Would Rather Questions for Middle School Students is the topic of our post today!
There is something truly magical about the middle school years, isn’t there? Our students are at that unique cusp of adolescence – their minds curious, their spirits wild, and their hearts ready to explore the world around them.
But, in our quest to light the lamp of knowledge, we often find ourselves wrestling with an age-old challenge: how to keep our students engaged. How do we crack the code of their fleeting attention spans, their sudden shyness, or their newfound skepticism? How do we […]
Apple Joins Pixar, NVIDIA, & More to “accelerate next generation of AR experiences” with 3D File Protocol
Today, big tech companies including Apple, Pixar, Adobe, Autodesk, and NVIDIA, announced the formation of the Alliance for OpenUSD (AOUSD), which is dedicated to promoting the standardization and development of a 3D file protocol that Apple says will “help accelerate the next generation of AR experiences.”
NVIDIA has been an early supporter of Pixar’s Universal Scene Description (USD), stating last year it thinks Pixar’s solution has the potential to become the “HTML of the metaverse.”
Much like HTML forms a sort of description of a webpage—being hostable anywhere on the Internet and retrievable/renderable locally by a web […]
Five Tools for Creating Automatically Scored Formative Assessments
This morning I answered an email from a reader who was asked to teach additional classes this fall. She reached out to me for suggestions on tools to create self-grading formative assessments to save her time this fall. I’d bet that there are many other teachers in the same situation and wondering the same thing. Here are some of my suggestions for creating automatically scored formative assessments.
Formative
Formative, which was recently acquired by Newsela, is a great tool for creating formative assessments that can be automatically scored. I’ve been using it for the […]
Virtuix Raises $4.7M in Latest Crowd Investment, Plans to Ship 1,000 VR Treadmills by Year’s End
Virtuix, the company behind the Omni VR treadmill, announced it’s raised $4.7 million through its latest crowd investment round. The Austin, Texas-based company also says it plans to ship 1,000 of its Omni One VR treadmills by the end of this year.
Earlier this year, Virtuix launched an equity crowdfunding campaign to further support the production of its Omni One VR treadmill, which, when paired with a VR headset, allows you to physically run around in a VR game instead of relying on artificial locomotion schemes, like stick movement or teleportation.
Similar to other parabolic […]
Meta Reveals New Prototype VR Headsets Focused on Retinal Resolution and Light Field Passthrough
Meta unveiled two new VR headset prototypes that showcase more progress in the fight to solve some persistent technical challenges facing VR today. Presenting at SIGGRAPH 2023, Meta is demonstrating a headset with retinal resolution combined with varifocal optics, and another headset with advanced light field passthrough capabilities.
Butterscotch Varifocal Prototype
Revealed in a developer blogpost, Meta showed off a varifocal research prototype that demonstrates a VR display system which provides “visual clarity that can closely match the capabilities of the human eye,” says Meta Optical Scientist Yang Zhao. The so-called ‘Butterscotch Varifocal’ prototype provides retinal resolution of up […]
Great Debates and Taylor Swift
EconEdLink is a resource that I’ve recommended to social studies teachers for many years now. In addition to great economics lesson plans like this one about lemonade stands and this one about owning your first car, EconEdLink provides professional development opportunities throughout the year.
Innovative Technology Powers Innovative Instructional Models
Educator Dr. Keith Shoemaker shares how his school transformed instruction with data.
Supporting Student Collaboration
How to set up opportunities for student collaboration that sets them up for success
Canva, Pictures, and Micro:bits – The Month in Review
Good evening from Maine were the sun has set on the month of July, 2023. This month I hosted a course on search strategies for teachers and students. If you missed it, I’ll be offering it again soon. Look for an announcement in the next couple of days about that.
Meta’s New First-person Shooter Aims to Highlight Improvements to ‘Horizon Worlds’
Meta introduced a new game called ‘Super Rumble‘ to Horizon Worlds, something the company hopes will showcase a new generation of improved experiences on its own social VR platform.
Released after a successful beta weekend in May, the free-for-all first-person shooter is said to highlight new improvements to Horizon Worlds, such as “better graphics, deeper gameplay, and a variety of quests and rewards.”
Players can choose from six superpowers before each session, allowing them to outmaneuver opponents and develop their playstyles. Here’s how Meta describes each power:
Super Dash gives you super speed
Super Jump lets you launch […]
Only 1 Day Remains to Play ‘Echo VR’ Before Servers Go Dark
Tomorrow, Meta and Ready at Dawn are shutting down Echo VR, the free-to-play game that helped pioneer VR sports. Get in now before they pull the plug.
Meta made no secret it was shutting down the zero-gravity sport Echo VR and its PC-only squad shooter variant, Echo Combat, having announced earlier this year it was sunsetting the games come August 1st at 10 AM PT (local time here). That means fans only have a few hours left to play before the multiplayer-only games are unceremoniously disconnected from Meta’s servers.
Echo VR fans didn’t go down without a fight though. Some spirited protests against […]
Why Apple Can’t Ignore VR Forever
Apple Vision Pro is coming next year, not only making for the Fruit Company’s much awaited first XR headset, but also spurring a resurgence in public interest (and likely investment) in the XR space. At $3,500, Vision Pro is undoubtedly an expensive steppingstone to the company’s future augmented reality ambitions, but even if it’s ostensibly ignoring virtual reality in the meantime, it probably won’t forever.
Apple has a tendency to undervalue gaming initially, though perhaps reluctantly, eventually acknowledges its importance. Gaming in XR is considerably enhanced by fully immersive experiences and motion controllers, and Apple will probably start feeling the […]
What is Desmos and How Can It Be Used for Teaching? Tips & Tricks
Desmos is a math teaching tool that uses graphing to create advanced visuals.
6 Tools for Blended Learning
Blended learning tools to try, from award-winning educator Sherri Powell
How to Annotate Images on Google Jamboard
Even though it’s not as popular as it was a couple of years ago, Google Jamboard is still a great tool for conducting a variety of online activities including collaborative brainstorming sessions, creating word mover activities, and annotating images. It’s the annotating images use case that I demonstrate in this new video.
Annotating images in Jamboard is a great way for students to ask you questions about things they’ve noticed. Likewise, as demonstrated in the video above, it’s a good way to pose questions to your students or […]
15 Fun Math Games for Kids
Fun math games for kids is the topic of our blog post today!
I’ll admit, there was a time when the mere mention of the word ‘math’ would make me break out in a cold sweat. Despite being an EFL teacher for many years, not a mathematician, I have come to understand the transformative magic that math holds. Now, I’m eager to use my rich experience in educational blogging to provide you with practical resources that make math learning fun and engaging for kids. My purpose is to help you morph math from a seemingly rigid, […]
Debate Topics for Kids
Debate topics for kids is the subject of today’s post!
As someone who has spent a good deal of time in the realm of education, I’ve witnessed first-hand the spark of intellectual curiosity that comes alive when children engage in thoughtful and structured debate.
I firmly believe that fostering this spirit of healthy dialogue and open-mindedness is not just beneficial, but vital for our young learners. It allows them to explore different perspectives, construct logical arguments, develop empathy, and above all, encourages them to become informed, confident, and engaged participants in a rapidly changing world.
In light of […]
A New Google Classroom Control Over Assignment Submissions
When you return to school this fall Google Classroom will have some new features for you to try. One of those new features that was recently announced is more control over assignment submissions. And unlike some of the features announced earlier this summer, this update is one that will be available to all teachers regardless of which version of Google Workspaces their schools use.
Latest feature added to Google Classroom is the ability to completely prevent assignment submissions after a set due date. Previously, students could submit an assignment after a due date and […]