Latest education updates from around the world
‘Rec Room’ Teams Up with NFL for New Virtual Merch Featuring All 32 Teams
Rec Room announced it’s partnering with the National Football League (NFL) to bring a host of officially licensed virtual merch to the social VR platform.
Kicking off today, Rec Room will feature a new NFL pop-up shop where users can buy NFL-licensed virtual hoodies and hats, which includes all 32 NFL teams.
Although we were hoping for an official NFL football mini-game too, the studio says its’ also launching a photobooth in the platform’s ‘Rec Center’ hub which will also let fans show off their NFL-licensed gear by snapping a few photos for social.
The platform has played host to similar […]
10 Best Tools to Create Training Videos and Video Tutorials
‘Roblox’ Rumored to Launch on Meta Quest in Late 2023
Roblox already supports PC VR headsets in addition to every conceivable traditional platform out there, although a recent report maintains the metaverse powerhouse may land on Quest later this year.
The report arrives from The Verge’s newly released paid newsletter, Command Line, which was created by The Verge’s deputy editor Alex Heath.
In it, Heath reports Roblox may be arriving on Quest in the second half of 2023, however that “plans are subject to change.” Thus far, neither Meta nor Roblox has responded for comment.
This isn’t completely out of left field either. In the company’s Q1 2021 earnings call, Roblox CEO […]
BookWidgets Adds a New Video Quiz Option to Use in Google Classroom and Beyond
At the end of last year I highlighted the collection of more than thirty activity templates from BookWidgets that can be used in Google Classroom. This week BookWidgets added a useful new widget simply called Video Quiz.
As the name implies, the video quiz widget in BookWidgets lets you create a video-based quiz to use directly in BookWidgets and or distribute through your favorite LMS including Google Classroom. With the video quiz widget in BookWidgets you can use your own videos or videos that you’ve found on YouTube to create […]
An Important Tip for Using Image Search in Google Slides
The Explore function in Google Slides can be a good tool to use to find images to use in your presentations. The images found through the Explore function in Google Slides are supposed to be Creative Commons licensed images. However, Google doesn’t make that information readily available within the Explore image search results. That’s why you need to click through the image to verify that you can actually use it. You’ll also need to click through to the source to get the information that you need in order to provide image attribution information on your slides.
In […]
Lesson Plan – How to Spot Fake Screenshots
In his recently published Next Vista for Learning newsletter Rushton Hurley mentioned a cool lesson plan from PBS Learning Media. That lesson plan is titled How to Spot Fake Screenshots on Social Media. It’s an important skill for all middle school and high school students who use social media to have and this lesson plan provides a great way to teach that skill.
In How to Spot Fake Screenshots students learn why people or organizations post fake screenshots. The lesson also teaches students four clues to […]
Lunar New Year- Key Facts
Lunar New Year is around the corner and by the end of the month Chinese and several other Asian countries together with their communities from all around the world will be celebrating the Lunar New Year. Celebrations take many forms including fireworks, festivities, family get togethers, special food, and various cultural rituals.
Lunar New Year is an important holiday for Chinese people. It is a tradition that dates back to over 3000 years. In this post, I share with you some key facts about the Lunar New Year together with links and resources to use […]
10 Best Apps to Turn Photos to Sketches and Drawings
Below is a collection of some of the best apps to help you turn photos into cartoons, sketches, and drawings. Students can use them to create beautiful works of art to use in their multimedia projects or in activities that involve comic strips, digital storytelling, presentations and many more.
Chromebook Apps for Converting Pictures into Cartoon Avatars
Avatars are awesome works of art. They provide a good alternative for using personal pictures on digital profiles. Students can use them as a secure way to virtually represent themselves. There are several cutting-edge web tools and mobile apps to use for creating beautiful avatars. For those of you using Chrome browser, here are two of good extensions to try out. For mobile devices, check out his list featuring some of the best avatar maker apps.
1-Bitmoji
What Does It Mean to Be Innovative?
Using Failure and Risk-taking to Unlock Creativity and Innovation
A Quick Tip for Using the Same Color in Multiple Canva Designs
Canva has lots of helpful design tools for students and teachers. Some of those are fairly obvious while others are a bit hidden and easy to overlook. One of those that’s easy to overlook is the color hex code field in the color palette selection tool. Once you know how to use it, you might never overlook it again.
The hex code field in Canva makes it easy to make sure you use the exact shade of a color between multiple designs or multiple elements within the same design. For example, […]
I’m Feeling Lucky – Around the World With Google Earth
Google Earth is one of my all-time favorite tools for teaching geography and history lessons. Two of my favorite ways to use Google Earth in the classroom are outlined below.
On its […]
iCivics Lesson Plan
This iCivics lesson plan is designed to provide educators with ideas on incorporating the tool into their instruction
6 Best Online Avatar Maker Tools
An avatar maker is an online tool that allows you to create a digital representation of yourself. Avatars are especially ideal to use for profile pics on social media or gaming websites. If you are looking for some good web tools where you and your students can create cartoon avatars or emoji avatars, the selection below contains some options to try out. These avatar makers are simple and easy to use and provide a wide variety of customization options. For mobile apps, check out best avatar making apps.
1. AvatarMaker
AvatarMaker, […]
How to Remove Google Forms Add-ons
Last week my Android notified me that I had 22 apps that I hadn’t used in the last 30 days. I took that as a good reminder to do an audit of all the things connected to my Google account and disable or uninstall the apps, extensions, and add-ons that I no longer use. That process included removing some Google Forms add-ons as well as some Google Slides add-ons.
If it has been a while since you last did an audit of the add-ons connected to your Google Workspace products, now’s a good time to do that. […]
Create a Snowman Word Game
Earlier today when I picked up my daughter from preschool she proudly showed me the snowman artwork that she had made during art class. A picture of her artwork is the featured image of this blog post.
Seeing my daughter’s snowman art reminded me of the snowman word game template offered by Flippity. Flippity’s Snowman word game is a game in which students have to correctly guess the letters of a word in order to prevent their snowmen from melting. The template lets you make your own variation on the game with words and hints of […]
Ask Two EdTech Guys
At the end of 2022 Rushton Hurley and I brought the curtain down on our series of live webinars titled Two EdTech Guys Take Questions and Share Cool Stuff. The archive of the shows lives on right here. And if you can’t get enough of our friendly faces and banter, we’re bringing the series back in a new format! But we need your questions to make it go.
If you have an educational technology question that is burning in your brain, we’d love to answer it for you. To submit your question please fill […]
Year-Round Schools: 5 Things To Know
Schools that employ a year-round or balanced calendar hope to limit learning loss and provide more resources and one-on-one attention for students.
Meta Sharpens the Axe for Quest 1: First-party Social Ends in March, Security Patches in 2024
It seems Meta is finally taking the original 2019 Quest behind the shed this year, as the company announced it’s set to deprecate first-party social features on the device, which includes access to Parties and Meta Horizon Home. Meta also announced it won’t be delivering new features beyond critical bug fixes and security patches until 2024.
The company sent out an email to users of the original Quest detailing the upcoming changes. Here’s that email in full:
We launched Quest 1 over four years ago and we are grateful to the Quest 1 community for pushing VR forwards. As we look […]
Flipped Learning Pioneer Examines Mastery Learning
Flipped learning expert Jon Bergmann provides a blueprint for educators interested in mastery learning.
6 Good Cartoon Avatar Maker Apps
The purpose of this post is to share with you this collection of cartoon avatar makers that you can use to create beautiful and expressive cartoon avatars that look exactly like you. For us in education, avatars are great alternatives to students using their real pictures on online platforms. Avatar pics are also fun. I have been using them for a while now and my favorite app is Bitmoji.
However, Bitmoji is not the only app that does a good job creating avatars, there are several other apps that are equally important. The list below features some of them. […]
Reflex Math- Learn Math Fact Fluency Through Interactive Games
Best Timeline Creation Tools for Teachers and Students
Hands-on: Vive XR Elite is Lightweight & Compact, But Shares Quest Pro’s Woes
At CES 2023 HTC revealed its new Vive XR Elite headset which is positioned as a Quest Pro competitor. In terms of features and hardware, the headset is largely a refinement of formfactor over anything else; and while it’s undoubtedly compact and lightweight, it may be hampered by an unclear value proposition and some ergonomic details that went overlooked.
For a detailed look at Vive XR Elite’s specs and features, check out our announcement article
Everyone’s head shape, nose size, and eye positions are different. That said, the first time I put on Vive XR Elite it was clear […]
Intel Partners with Meta to Optimize Flagship Wi-Fi Card for Low Latency PC VR Gaming on Quest 2
Quest 2 users have a few choices when it comes to cutting the cable and playing PC VR games over Wi-Fi. You can opt for something like a dedicated dongle, or simply configure your network for the most optimal Wi-Fi setup, which usually means having your PC connected directly to the 2.4/5Ghz router with an Ethernet cable and maintaining line of sight with the router. If your PC has Intel’s latest Wi-Fi 6e AX1690 card though, that’s about to change.
Intel announced at CES 2023 that they’ve partnered with Meta to make better use of its flagship Wi-Fi card by […]