Latest education updates from around the world
What Is Media Literacy All About?
With the pervasive spread of the Internet and web technologies, the consumption and production of media materials have increased exponentially. There is a massive exposure to all types of media content (text, images, video, and audio), and for the first in human history, people are actively engaged in consuming, producing and sharing different forms of knowledge.
Is This the End of the Google Keep Chrome Extension?
I’ve been using Google Keep for nearly all of my bookmarking for the last half-dozen years or more. It nicely syncs my bookmarks, notes, and reminders between my phone and any computer that I use when logged into my Chrome profile. Unfortunately, my days of using Chrome as my primary bookmarking tool may be coming to an end in December.
Last week I started to notice a little warning appear whenever I bookmarked a site with the Google Keep Chrome extension. The warning reads,
“starting on December 5th, 2022, notes created here will not save […]
5 Things You Can Make With Microsoft Flip Besides Selfie Videos
Microsoft Flip (formerly known as Flipgrid) is a great tool for getting to know your students through the use of short selfie-style videos. I’ve also used it for asynchronous classroom discussions. You might have done the same with your students then gotten to the point of wondering, “okay, what’s next?” If that’s where you are with Microsoft Flip, I have some suggestions for you in this short video.
In 5 Things You Can Make With Microsoft Flip Besides Selfie Videos I demonstrate the following things that you might […]
6 Good Tools To Create Newspapers and Flyers for Your Class
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Teaching with News: Helpful Tips and Resources for Teachers
Our students live in a world saturated with all kinds of news. Unfortunately, a sizable portion of online news stories, especially those circulating on social media sites are fake news, false information, disinformation, misinformation, or downright propaganda. As parents and teachers we need to make sure our kids and students do not fall for such news and that they are empowered with the necessary media literacy skills to help them safely navigate this fake-news-infected world.
With the widespread use of social media platforms and the ubiquity of news stories, teaching students how to critically evaluate sources […]
GeoQuiz History Edition – A Fun and Challenging Geography Game
The start of Geography Awareness Week is nine days away. It’s probably my favorite academically-themed week of the year. (Yes, that’s my social studies teacher background coming through). Over the next week or so I’ll be sharing a bunch of great resources for teaching and learning about geography. To start things off I have a fun and challenging game for history students.
Geoquiz History Edition is a fun and challenging map game for history buffs. The game works like similar geography games in which you’re given the name of a place and have to place […]
Documents, Maps, and Clocks – The Week in Review
Good morning from Maine where it is unusually warm for November. There have been many years in the past when I have been skiing by this point in the fall. Today, we’re going to the beach! We won’t swim because the water is quite cold despite the warm air temperature. Instead, we’ll have fun exploring and looking for beach treasures. But before doing that we have more leaves to rake which is a different kind of fun. I hope that whatever the weather is wherever you are in the world that you have a fun and […]
Here is How to Easily Blur Background in Zoom
Zoom is a great video conferencing tool for us in education. From hosting online classes to conducting webinars and organizing virtual meetups, Zoom is absolutely a reliable platform to do the job in the best way possible. Over the years, and especially since the outbreak of the pandemic Zoom has introduced a wide variety of interesting features making it one of the best free video conferencing tools out there. One of these features is the background blur.
How to blur Background in Zoom?
Background blur is part of the virtual background effects available in Zoom. The background blur functionality, […]
Co-op VR Stealth Action Game ‘Espire 2’ Releases on Quest 2 Later This Month
Co-op VR stealth action game Espire 2 is headed to Quest 2 later this month with a pre-order discount starting today. A new developer diary video shows the latest in the game’s development.
Update (November 4th, 2022): Developer Digital Lode today announced that its upcoming co-op VR stealth action game Espire 2 is set for a release date on November 17th. The game is also compatible with Quest Pro, but no the original Quest.
Espire 2 is available for pre-order as of today, offering a 10% discount off the full $30 price.
A new developer diary video from Digital Lode gives us […]
How Focusable Helps Me Stop Procrastinating
On Thursday morning I wrote about a new TED-Ed lesson that explains why we procrastinate. The lesson also offers some suggestions for breaking the procrastination habit. One of those suggestions is to journal about how you feel when faced with a task that you would rather avoid. To that end, I suggested trying Focusable.
I’ve been using Focusable since September. I use it whenever there is a project or even just a list of little tasks that for one reason or another I have trouble getting started on. It’s a simple […]
The Benefits of Early STEM Education
The benefits of early STEM education come from fostering young children’s natural curiosity and love for exploration.
Get Ready for The Great Thanksgiving Listen 2022
During Tuesday night’s episode of Two EdTech Guys Take Questions the topic of audio recording came up. That prompted me to go on a little bit of a tangent (as I’m prone to doing) about The Great Thanksgiving Listen hosted by StoryCorps.
The Great Thanksgiving Listen hosted by StoryCorps is back for the eigth year in a row. This annual event is intended to get people to record audio stories with family and friends. The Great Thanksgiving Listen was originally developed to get high school students to record […]
7 Popular Science Museums
We human beings have come a long way towards understanding the world (or probably the worlds) we are living in. Our knowledge of the inner workings of this world is expanding exponentially and in both directions: horizontally and vertically. From the invention of fire to Mars exploration, our insatiable appetite to discover and learn is getting wilder and wilder and with it our scientific knowledge.
Wonderful Online Museums and Sites for Virtual Field Trips to Use in Class
Rethinking Learning Spaces: 4 Strategies for Student-Centered Learning
The Brigantine Public School district has redesigned its learning spaces and rethought how and where learning takes place. Superintendent Glenn Robbins shares how others districts can do the same and prioritize student-centered learning in the process.
Why We Procrastinate and Tips to Stop Doing It
I meant to write about this a few days ago. TED-Ed recently published a new lesson that tackles an issue that most of us have dealt with at one time or another. That issue is procrastination.
Why You Procrastinate Even When It Feels Bad is a TED-Ed lesson that explains why people procrastinate. It does a great job of explaining the biggest psychological cause of procrastination. That cause being the fight-or-flight response in our brains to tasks that we perceive as difficult or otherwise stress-inducing. The lesson explains why we procrastinate when faced with […]
ICYMI – Two Ed Tech Guys Take Questions
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A couple of nights ago Rushton Hurley and I resumed our Two Ed Tech Guys Take Questions series. We were joined by a handful of fine folks and even more people were registered to join us. If you missed our live broadcast, you can now watch the recording and find all of the associated links right here on Next Vista for Learning. The recording is also available to view here on Rushton’s YouTube channel and as embedded below.
Make believe bonus points for anyone who recognizes the shirt I’m wearing and knows the year it’s from. […]
5 of The Best Apps for Annotating PDFs
Sony Reveals 11 More PSVR 2 Games Coming in 2023, Including 4 Brand New Titles
Alongside Sony’s big reveal of the long-awaited price and release date for PSVR 2 today, the company also dropped some new info on 11 games coming to the headset in 2023.
Firstly, four newly revealed games, then seven ports which are making their way to PSVR 2. You’ll find expanded descriptions of the games over on the PSVR blog.
Newly Announced Games
The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR
Supermassive Games just revealed The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR, or what it calls a “fast-paced roller coaster action-horror-shooter where every move you make, and everything you see, could mean the difference between […]
PSVR 2 to Launch February 22nd for $550, Pre-orders Coming November 15th
Sony today announced the long-awaited price and release date for PSVR 2, its next-gen VR headset for PS5.
Best Laptops for Teachers
The best laptops for teachers keep learning with tech as mobile as powerful as possible.
A New Primary Source Crowd-sourcing Project from the Library of Congress
By the People is a crowd-sourcing project that enlists the help of the public to transcribe thousands of primary source documents that are housed by and have been scanned by the Library of Congress. Over the years there have been collections of documents from the American Civil War, papers from the American Revolution, presidential papers, documents about suffrage, and documents about the integration of Major League Baseball. A collection of nearly 6,000 documents written by President James A. Garfield is the latest addition to By the People.
Meta Bans ‘Rec Room’ From Hosting 12 & Under Accounts on Quest
Rec Room is soon removing access to its limited ‘Junior Accounts’ on Quest, effectively blocking kids 12 and under from playing the social VR game on any of Meta’s headsets.
Rec Room says in a statement that Meta is requiring the social VR platform—and all apps on the platform—to block access to children 12 and under or be removed from the Quest Store, which is slated to go into effect November 14th.
Rec Room’s Junior accounts provide limited access, stopping kids 12 and under from doing things like transmitting or hearing voice audio, sending or receiving in game text messages, damaging teammates in […]
How to Make Multimedia Maps on Padlet
Geography Awareness Week is coming up in a couple of weeks. In preparation for my favorite academic week of the year, I’ve recorded an updated tutorial on how to make multimedia maps with Padlet.
Padlet is one of the most versatile tools you can put in your digital toolbox. Creating multimedia maps is just one of the many things that you can do with Padlet. In the video that is embedded below I demonstrate creating a multimedia map by using Padlet’s built-in maps. The video also covers how to share your Padlet […]
What is Checkology and How Can It Be Used to Teach? Tips & Tricks
Checkology is a news and media space that’s safe for students to learn.