Latest education updates from around the world
Vrgineers Announce Wireless Module for XTAL Ultrawide FOV Headset
Vrgineers, the team behind enterprise-focused wide-FOV VR headsets, announced at CES 2023 this week that it’s releasing a wireless version of its latest XTAL VR headset.
To realize the newest flavor of XTAL coming to enterprise, the company worked with IMRNext to create a belt-style Wi-Fi transmission module that includes what Vrgineers call “a powerful battery pack.”
Vrgineers XTAL natively runs 4K resolution per eye, making it a tough feat to transmit via Wi-Fi. To get around this, the companies developed a special mode running a compressed resolution of 2,560 × 1,440 at 70 Hz per […]
Magic Leap 2 Gains Certification so Doctors Can Use AR During Surgery
Magic Leap, the storied unicorn developing enterprise AR headsets, announced at CES 2023 that its flagship device Magic Leap 2 earned a certification that clears it for use in the operating room.
The company first intimated it had pursued IEC 60601-1 certification at SPIE’s XR conference in January 2022, however the news largely went unreported since the information was presented in a single slide at the conference.
At AMD’s CES 2023 keynote, Magic Leap CEO Peggy Johnson confirmed Magic Leap 2 has indeed obtained IEC 60601-1 certification for its flagship AR headset.
As explained by TÜV Rheinland, […]
Using EdTech to Support Healthy Habits in Kids and Teens
Tech advancements are inherently meant to make life easier for us. It’s only when we abuse it or become obsessed with it that it can become a toxin to our health. In today’s age, however, young students are becoming more engrossed with technology — toeing the line between obsession and general interest in technology.
Our aim as educators and tech enthusiasts should be to harness new technology for its potential and leverage it for why it was created – to make life easier and solve our problems.
Through education technology, we can lead our young student […]
Being a Student-Centric Technology Leader
Award-winning educator Michael Marassa says one of the keys to being a successful chief technology officer is putting the needs of students and teachers first.
How to Sort Microsoft Forms Entries by Completion Time
A couple of days ago I helped a reader who needed a quick way to sort Google Forms responses so that the most recent submission was always easy to find. I’m guessing that there’s probably a Microsoft Forms user out there who would like to know how to do a similar thing. That’s why I created this short tutorial video. In the video that is embedded below you can see how to sort responses to Microsoft Forms according to most recent submission.
5 Google Docs Features You Might Have Overlooked or Forgotten About
Google Documents has been around so long now that some of us who have been using it from the start may have forgotten about some features. I did that just the other day when I “remembered” to use the version history to go back and look at a some edits that I had made to a large document. Similarly, if you have been using Google Docs for a long time you may not have noticed some of the more recent features because you’re in the habit of using just the tools that you regularly use.
Trading Card Creator Tool to Use with Students in Class
Trading Card Creator is a web tool from ReadWriteThink that you can use with your students for various educational purposes most important of them is to help them enhance their writing skills. Trading Card provides card templates which students can use to describe characters, places, abstract topics, events, and objects.
Comic Maker- Practice Writing Through Comic Strips
As is the case with Book Cover Creator we reviewed in a previous post, Comic Creator is another useful tool from ReadWriteThink that students can use to easily design their own comic strips. The tool provides students with a variety of features to employ in the creation process. They can choose from different backgrounds, add characters and pros, and type in their textual input.
Comic Creator is very easy to use. To get started will have to provide a name to their cartoon, add a subtitle and type in the name […]
7 Best Apps to Create Video Collage with Music
Wondering how to make video collage with music on your iPhone or Android device? Try out one of the video collage apps below. These are some of the best apps out there and you can tell they are the best from the high ratings and positive reviews they receive on both Google Play and App Store pages.
Cube Creator- Boost Students Reading and Writing
Best Online Video Collage Makers
A video collage is a combination of different media elements (e.g., video clips, text, images, music, voice-overs, etc) into a single video output. As is the case with photo collage or photo grid, a video collage lets you showcase multiple clips into a collage layout. Video collages serve various purposes from capturing unforgettable memories to marketing products.
More Than 25,000 Teachers Get Their Ed Tech Tips This Way
Last month I wrote about going back to basics with email and RSS. The main point of that article being that email and RSS are good ways to follow your favorite websites without having to rely on the vagaries of social media algorithms. Since that post went live I’ve had a few folks reach out to ask about the RSS feed for this blog and the email options for following it.
There is a daily email that is generated from Free Technology for Teachers. You can subscribe to […]
Razer Announces Quest 2 Adjustable Head Strap & Facial Interface
Razer is getting into the VR accessory game soon, as the company announced at CES 2023 that it’s selling a head strap system and facial interface built specifically for Meta Quest 2.
The accessories were built by Razer in collaboration with ResMed, a San Diego, California-based medical equipment company that knows its way around all-day comfort.
“Designed for long-lasting comfort and weight-balanced support, the Razer Adjustable Head Strap System was created with all head shapes in mind. The high-performance nylon material provides reliability, comfort, and durability while the optimized weight distribution allows for more balance during active […]
HTC Unveils Vive XR Elite, a Quest Pro Competitor Priced at $1,100
HTC officially unveiled its next consumer-focused headset at CES 2023 today. Called Vive XR Elite, the standalone mixed reality device boasts a feature set that positions HTC to go toe-to-toe with Meta’s Quest Pro, but at a notably cheaper price of $1,100.
The moniker ‘Flowcus’, a portmanteau coined by VR analyst and YouTuber Brad Lynch when the headset’s design was initially leaked in November, seems to ring true with Vive XR Elite. The design seems very much like a mashup of Vive Flow, a casual VR content viewer using pancake lenses, and Vive Focus 3, the […]
Meta is Bringing One of Its Most Popular VR Games to PSVR 2
Who would have thought one VR’s most popular games was coming to Sony’s next-gen VR headset? Probably everyone, but now the company has confirmed it is indeed bringing Beat Saber to PSVR 2.
Announced during Sony’s CES 2023 keynote, Beat Saber is said to be “in development” for PSVR 2, a game created by the Meta-owned studio Beat Games.
There’s a few more questions still in need of answering between now and PSVR 2’s February 22nd launch though—one in particular: is Meta going to offer PSVR 2 support as a free upgrade to owners of the game on […]
Virtual Event Platform ‘Wave’ Returns to VR with Pico Partnership, Calvin Harris Concert to Debut Jan 13th
Wave, the virtual event production company known for putting on a ton of VR concerts a few years back, actually deprecated VR support for its app back in early 2021 to focus on streaming its brand of digital concerts to traditional platforms. Now, through a new partnership with VR headset creator Pico, Wave is set to jump back into VR with more concerts, available exclusively on Pico devices.
Through the partnership, Wave says it’s developing “a series of immersive 3D concert experiences with massively world-renowned artists” for Pico’s line of consumer headsets. Those include Pico Neo […]
How to Spell “No One” and Other Fun Lessons from Drawings Of…
Lillie Marshall is an English teacher, writer, and artist whose work I’ve seen on social media for many years. So when she reached out to me last week to tell me about her new project called Drawings Of… I was more than happy to take a look at it.
Drawings Of… is a website full of Lillie Marshall’s cartoons that were drawn for the purpose of teaching English lessons. Throughout the site you will find cartoons and written lessons about a variety of topics that are commonly taught in English classes. Take […]
Collaborating with School Librarians and Media Specialists on Lessons
Educators need to work together to support instruction and enhance the overall learning experience and collaborative spirit within K-12 schools
How to Use Custom Backgrounds in Animate from Audio Videos
In this week’s Practical Ed Tech Newsletter I featured a fun tool from Adobe called Animate from Audio. Based on the responses that I received to the newsletter, Animate from Audio is going to be used in a lot of classrooms over the next couple of weeks. A couple of the responses that I got were questions about using custom avatars and backgrounds in the videos.
Unfortunately, you can’t upload your own avatar to the Animate from Audio editor. But you can upload your own background images to […]
Bingo Baker- An Excellent Online Bingo Card Generator
Bingo games are always fun to play. Kids and students love them, adults do too. You can use Bingo games for a wide range of educational purposes including teaching vocabulary, math, science, grammar, you name it. You can pretty much co-opt the learning potential of bingo games to any content area and generate amazing learning outcomes.
Back when I was an EFL teacher, I used to utilize bingo cards with students to teach them vocabulary, grammar, regular/irregular verbs, prepositions, word formation, and several others parts of speech. And because there was no Internet […]
The Literacy Shed: Literacy Resources for Teachers
The LiteracyShed, by the Education Shed Ltd, is an educational platform that features a wide variety of literacy resources with a special focus on visual literacy. The site offers a a large collection of high quality films and video content for teachers to use with kids in the primary classroom. The purpose is to help kids improve their literacy skills and become independent learners. While most of the video content offered is appropriate for primary aged students, teachers and parents are advised to watch the video content first before sharing it with kids.
6 Great Chromebook Apps to Create and Edit Music
How do you get music on your Chromebook?
Best Apps to Easily Add Captions and Subtitles to Videos
‘Gran Turismo 7’ Coming to PlayStation VR 2 at Launch
Sony has announced that the latest title in its longstanding racing franchise, Gran Turismo 7, will support PSVR 2 at launch.
This week during Sony’s CES 2023 conference, the company announced that Gran Turismo 7 will support PSVR 2 at the headset’s launch via a free upgrade for existing owners.
Not much was shared about exactly how the game’s VR compatibility will work, including whether it would support the headset’s new motion controllers or rely on the standard PS5 gamepad.
This won’t be the first Gran Turismo game with VR capabilities. GT Sport (2017) offered support for the original PSVR headset, though only partially, […]
5 Good PDF Tools for Teachers
In this post I share some of practical PDF tools to help you manage and organize your PDFs. You can use them to perform a wide range of actions including: creating and reading PDFs, filling and signing PDFs, combining multiple PDFs into a single file, filling and editing PDF forms, and many more.
1. Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Acrobat by far my favourite. I have been using it faithfully for many years and I just love it. I do have the premium option which is a little bit expensive compared to other PDF […]