Latest education updates from around the world
i-Ready: Full Review for Teachers and Parents
HP Reverb G2 Discounted to Lowest Price Yet for US Black Friday Sale
HP’s Reverb G2 is a solid PC VR headset with class-leading resolution. Now the headset is on sale for its lowest price yet in the US for Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2022.
The Best Reverb G2 Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2022 Sale
Even at its original MSRP of $600, HP’s Reverb G2 headset is a solid PC VR headset, especially for games and applications where resolution really counts. Now at its most discounted price yet, the headset feels nearly like a steal.
The best Reverb G2 Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2022 sale so far is $300 from […]
‘Half-Life: Alyx’ Mod Brings 3-4 Hours of Gameplay Today in Unofficial ‘Levitation’ Chapter
If you haven’t played Half-Life: Alyx (2020), Valve’s first Half-Life game in a decade which is exclusively available on SteamVR headsets, then you can look forward to not only one of the best VR horror shooters in existence, but soon heaps more action after the credits roll. The creators of the long-awaited Levitation mod say it’s slated to release for free starting today.
Update (November 25th, 2022): Levitation is now available on Steam, downloadable in 5 separate parts. Here’s a description of the mod, which its creators say takes around three to four hours to complete.
Half-Life: […]
One of the Best VR Games is Free on Epic Games Store Right Now
The gift giving season has started early this year, it seems. Star Wars: Squadrons (2020), the highly-rated space dogfighter from EA’s Motive Studios, is free to claim on Epic Games Store from now until December 1st.
Star Wars: Squadrons was primarily created for console and PC, although its VR implementation was right at home in the game’s immersive cockpits. Everything can be played in VR, from its full-length single player campaign to its 5v5 multiplayer mode.
We liked it so much back at release in late 2020 that we gave it a ‘Great’ rating of [9/10] in our full […]
Clipart & Drawings for Classroom Projects
Earlier this week I shared ClipArt ETC and Clippix ETC as good resources for locating free clipart and pictures to use in classroom projects. That was the third post this fall that I’ve published to feature a good place for teachers and students to find free drawings. To summarize all three of those posts I recorded a short video about all three of them.
In this new video I demonstrate how to use the following places to find free clipart and drawings for classroom projects:
An Encyclopedia of Comic Artists
Peanuts drawn by Charles Schulz, Calvin and Hobbes drawn by Bill Watterson, and The Family Circus drawn by Bil Keane were the comics that I was drawn to as a kid. By the time I became a high school teacher my students didn’t recognize any of those comics and I didn’t know the ones that they were reading. In short, my knowledge of comics and their artists was limited to what appeared in the Sunday newspaper when I was a kid. Does that sound like you? If so, you may also be interested in looking at
The 10 Best Santa Apps
It is about the time of year that Christmas magic is upon us. Indeed, during the last couple of years and more specifically since the outbreak of the pandemic, Christmas started to acquire a more digital character with Santa taking some of its fun to the cloud. In this spirit and to make the digital Santa happier, I went ahead and compiled for you some of the best Santa apps out there.
A Thanksgiving Leftovers Search Lesson and Bookmarking Tip
One of my favorite things about Thanksgiving is eating the leftovers the next day. I enjoy a good turkey sandwich almost as much as Ross, but I do like to mix it up a bit and try other ways to use leftovers. In fact, I was doing that earlier this week (yes, I was planning for Thanksgiving leftovers) when I got super annoyed by all of the pop-up and scrolling ads on various recipe websites. That’s when I implemented one of my favorite search tips, searching by file type.
To the end of my […]
Best Websites to Help Students Learn Coding
Best Coding Games for Kids
This Time With Four Part Harmony and Feeling…
It’s Thanksgiving Day here in the U.S. And although the pandemic ended my annual tradition of watching the road race in my hometown my tradition of posting and listening to Alice’s Restaurant continues. If you’d like to join me in this tradition, here’s Arlo Guthrie performing Alice’s Restaurant.
Fun fact! If you search for the song on Wolfram Alpha you will find a chart of Wikipedia traffic for the search term “Alice’s Restaurant.” So the question/ cultural history lesson for students is […]
The 7 Best Secret Santa Generators
Christmas is around the corner and we definitely are looking forward to it. Family get-togethers and gift exchanges add up to the fun and joy we experience during this wonderful season. If you are like me and are entrusted with organizing a Secret Santa, the gift exchange generators below will help with your gifting assignments.
Meta to Resume Quest Sales in Germany Following 2-year Antitrust Case
Over the past two years Meta has been blocked from selling its VR headsets in Germany based on the linkage between its virtual reality products and Facebook. Now it seems Germany-based customers will soon be able to order Quest headsets in-country.
As reported by German VR publication MIXED, residents of Europe’s largest economy will soon be able to order Quest 2 and Quest Pro, which are both set to be available in-country by the end of this year.
After the sales halt in September 2020, Germany-based customers had to import Meta VR devices, which was typically done […]
‘Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom’ to Release on Quest 2 and Pico 4 in March 2023
Maze Theory today announced that its long-awaited Peaky Blinders VR game is officially set to launch on March 9th, 2023.
Called Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom, the dark action-adventure game is set to release on Meta Quest 2 and Pico 4. The studio is also slated to release the game on SteamVR headsets, however the studio hasn’t mentioned launch timing for PC VR platforms yet.
Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom puts you on the gritty streets of 1920s Birmingham and London as you explore iconic locations from the show, including The Garrison pub, Charlie’s Yard and Shelby’s Betting Shop.
‘Batman VR’ App Allegedly in the Works for Quest, FTC Filing Claims
Among documents released by the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) earlier this week is a claim that Meta’s VR studio Camouflaj, the developers behind Marvel’s Ironman VR, have also planned a Batman VR app for release on Quest.
The apparent leak was found by Janko Roettgers, formerly of Protocol and Variety. The document in whole can be viewed here.
“In September 2022, Meta acquired Camouflaj, which currently developing Ironman and Batman VR apps for Quest.”
The information comes as a part of wider antitrust investigation into Meta’s acquisition of Within, the studio behind the VR fitness app. You […]
Two Cool Mapping Tools in the Felt Mapping Platform
A couple of weeks ago I published an introductory overview of a new digital mapping platform called Felt. As I said in that introduction, I’ve only begun to scratch the surface of all of the things that students can do and make on Felt. One of those things is the ability to quickly and easily map walking, running, and biking routes. Those routes can be displayed in a variety of colors on the map. Another neat feature is the option to overlay any image onto the map.
How to Search Within Your Google Drive Folders
Yesterday afternoon I shared a tip for keeping track of what you put into your Google Drive folders. This morning I have a tip on how to find the things that you and or your collaborators put into your Google Drive folders.
Google Drive has contained a search function almost since its launch more than ten years ago. That search function is fairly obvious. A less obvious search feature that sometimes gets overlooked is the ability to search within a specific folder in your Google Drive account.
To search within a specific folder in Google […]
The 10 Best Languages to Learn
Language learning has many benefits. At the socio-cultural level, a new language means being introduced to a new culture, new traditions and new ways of conceptualizing the world. When you learn a second or third tongue you do not simply learn its linguistic system but you also learn its underlying cultural codes. Languages are not empty vessels and certainly are not culturally neutral.
Quest 2 Black Friday Sale Brings Discounted Headset & Game Bundles
We’re keeping an eye on the best Oculus Quest 2 Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2022 deals, don’t blink or you might miss the best Quest 2 sale of the year!
Updated – November 22nd, 2022
The Best Oculus Quest 2 Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2022 Sales
Oculus Quest 2 (128GB)
The best Oculus Quest 2 (128GB) Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2022 sale so far is $350 bundled with Beat Saber and Resident Evil 4 VR.
That’s a $120 (25%) discount over what you’d normally pay ($50 off the headset and $70 worth of games).
You can find the deal […]
Watch Out for This Email Scam Pretending to Be From YouTube Support
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If you have a YouTube channel, there is a new (new to me anyway) email scam that you need to be aware of. This scam landed in my inbox earlier today. Fortunately, the scam is so poorly executed that it is rather easy to spot.
The scam is that someone finds the email address you have associated with the “about” page on your YouTube channel then sends you a PDF by sharing it via Google Drive. The PDF is titled “Copyright Warning” and claims to be from “YouTube Support.” However, the email address associated with the shared […]
More Than 70,000 Pieces of ClipArt and Pictures for Students
The Florida Center for Instructional Technology hosts two fantastic resources for teachers and students in search of clipart and pictures for classroom projects. One of those is ClipArt ETC and the other is Clippix ETC.
ClipArt ETC is an online catalog of more than 70,000 pieces of clipart that students and teachers can download and use in classroom projects. The catalog is arranged in thematic collections and sub-collections. Simply pick a collection then a sub-collection to find the clipart that you want to use. The clipart is available in three file […]
How to Add Descriptions to Google Drive Folders
A few days ago I received an email from a reader who was looking for suggestions about how to keep track of what is contained with the folders of a Google Drive account. My suggestion was to try adding descriptions to the folder.
When you right-click on a folder in your Google Drive account a new menu appears. All the way at the bottom of that menu there is a little description field in which you can write up to 25,000 characters. Watch this short video for a demonstration of how to add a […]
GooseChase: What It Is and How Educators Can Use It?
GooseChase EDU is a digital tool that helps students learn through scavenger hunts
‘Swords of Gargantua’ Studio Thirdverse Secures $15M, Aims to Bring Latest Titles to PSVR 2
Japanese VR studio Thirdverse today revealed it’s raised $15 million, something the Swords of Gargantua developer says will be used to expand global recruitment and develop new Web3 and VR titles.
In its latest round, MZ Web3 Fund has signed on as the lead investor, bringing the company’s overall outside funding to $33 million.
As an investor in Thirdverse, MZ Web3 Fund joins 8DAO, B Dash Ventures, double jump.tokyo Inc., Fenbushi Capital, FLICK SHOT, Holdem Capital, KUSABI, OKCoinJapan, OKX Ventures and Yield Guild Games.
The Tokyo-based studio says it plans to release more than 10 Web3 games through […]
FTC: Meta Wanted to Expand ‘Beat Saber’ to Fitness Before Controversial Within Acquistion
During investigations by the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) into Meta’s acquisition of VR fitness game devs Within, a filing revealed that the company was initially looking to expand popular block-slashing rhythm game Beat Saber into a dedicated fitness app.
It’s been a little over a year since Meta announced its intention to acquire Within, the studio behind the VR fitness app Supernatural. In July, the FTC blocked the deal for allegedly limiting fair competition among companies in the VR fitness space. At the time, FTC Bureau of Competition Deputy Director John […]