Latest education updates from around the world
One Last Round-up of Halloween Resources
As my daughters have reminded me about 1,000 times in the last week, tomorrow is Halloween. If you have elementary school students who are equally excited about Halloween and you want to include a little Halloween-themed activity into your day tomorrow, take a look through this round-up of resources that I’ve previously shared throughout the month.
How to Catch Monsters is a free play script published by Playbooks Reader’s Theater. The play was written to be performed by students in first through third grade. The play centers around two children who are trying to catch […]
Grateful Dead Writing Prompts
One of the things that people sometimes find surprising about me is that I enjoy listening to and watching old Grateful Dead shows. One of my all-time favorites is this October 31, 1980 performance of Ripple. I was watching it for about the hundredth time last week when I was struck by the images that appear from about the 1:26 mark to the 1:36 mark. In that frame we see a young couple (I’d guess their age to be mid-20’s) swaying with their arms around each other. I began to wonder about them. […]
Educational Halloween Resources for Teachers and Parents
We love the Halloween season and our kids love it even more. You can see the excitement in their eyes and sense it in the vibrant atmosphere everywhere you go. Halloween infuses everything with a spooktacular energetic vibe creating a lot of fun and joy. As teachers and parents we can not help but take full advantage of this amazing event and turn it into meaningful learning experiences for kids in and outside class, all while keeping the spooky and ghoulish spirit of the season intact.
Some of The Best Halloween Apps
1- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow iC (Age […]
10 Great Halloween Books for Kids
Chrome, Crows, and Games – The Week in Review
Good morning from Maine where the sunrise is still more than an hour away as I drink my first cup of coffee. It’s going to be an exciting day in our house because we’re going to see Disney Frozen on Ice! To say that my daughters are excited about it would be an understatement. They would have slept in their Frozen costumes last night if we had let them. The rest of the weekend will be a more mundane schedule of raking leaves and riding bikes. I hope that you have a fun and relaxing weekend.
This […]
How to Create a Digital Map Collection in Wakelet
Wakelet is a free, collaborative bookmarking and file organization tool that puts things into a nice visual display. So when a former colleague emailed me a couple of days ago to ask for help creating a collection of digital maps Wakelet was one of the first tools to come to mind (Padlet was the other). To a Wakelet collection you can add links (with previews) for Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Street View imagery, and Bing Maps.
10 Good Tools to Create Free Surveys and Polls
1. Zoho Survey
What Is A Quizlet Live and How to Use It with Students? Tips for Teachers
New- You Can Now Import PDFs into Book Creator
The popular classroom tool Book Creator recently dropped two big updates which teachers will be excited about. If you’re someone who has traditionally relied on PDFs and worksheets to aid learning in the classroom, it’s now time to bring those PDFs to life in Book Creator!
Sword Fighting Game ‘Broken Edge’ Coming to Quest 2 & PC VR on November 17th
Fast Travel Games and Trebuchet today announced that Broken Edge, the multiplayer VR sword fighting game, is set to launch on Quest 2 and SteamVR headsets on November 17th.
Developed by Trebuchet and published by Fast Travel Games, Broken Edge is a multiplayer fantasy sword-dueling action VR game where you choose your fighter and go head-to-head against another player online.
Check out the trailer from earlier this summer, which shows off some of the game’s melee combat, the different classes and their respective weapons:
Playable classes include the barbarian, duelist, knight, samurai, and tyrant—all of which have their own unique weapons […]
Sony’s VR Pioneering London Studio Says Next Project Isn’t a VR Game
Sony’s London Studio, the team behind trailblazing PSVR content PlayStation VR Worlds (2016) and Blood & Truth (2019), are making a new online co-op combat game that the studio calls its “most ambitious title to date,” but it doesn’t feature VR support.
Co-studio head Tara Saunders describes London Studio’s next project in an SIE blogpost:
Our next project is an online co-op combat game, which as you can see here, is set in a modern fantasy London. The key thing about this is that it’s a PlayStation 5 title—it’s not a VR game like our last title was. And it’s our […]
‘VRChat’ Begins Open Beta for Hand-tracking on Quest 2 & Quest Pro
VRChat has brought hand-tracking to its social VR platform in a recent update, letting users opt-in to the experimental feature on Quest 2 and Quest Pro.
“This isn’t just the ability to use your real hands via the Quest’s powerful finger tracking—it also means you don’t have to use your controllers at all in VRChat,” the studio says, describing its recent 2022.4.1 patch. “You can move around, jump, and use your menu, all with just your hands.”
Check out the intro video below to see hand-tracking in action:
For now, the hand-tracking system only works on VRChat via Quest 2 or Quest Pro […]
Creating A Roblox Classroom
By creating a Roblox classroom, teachers can provide opportunities for collaboration, creativity, and more
How to Adjust Playback Volume in Google Slides
Support for audio files was welcome addition to Google Slides when it was announced in the fall of 2019. But four years later there are still some quirks to it to watch out for. And sometimes the setting you need isn’t quickly found. That was the case a few days ago when someone emailed me to ask about adjusting the volume of audio playback in Google Slides.
In this brief video I demonstrate how to adjust the volume of the audio playback in a Google […]
How to Import PDFs Into Book Creator Projects
About a week ago Book Creator rolled-out the third or fourth new feature of this school year. That feature is the ability to import PDFs to use in your Book Creator projects. I had a cold and couldn’t speak well last week so I had to wait until this week to give Book Creator’s new feature a try and record a video about it. The new feature works well and as I demonstrate in this new video, importing a PDF into Book Creator can be a good […]
Make Green Screen Videos With Zoom an Adobe Express
A few weeks ago I shared directions for creating green screen videos in Canva. That method is great because it doesn’t require you to record in front of a physical green screen. Today, I’d like to share another method that doesn’t require you to record in front of a physical green screen. That method uses a combination of Zoom and Adobe Express.
Zoom’s desktop client has an option to replace your background with any picture that you want to upload to your Zoom account. Host a Zoom meeting without any participants […]
Finding and Exploring 15 Minute Cities
City Access Map is an interactive map that anyone can use to find and explore the walkability of cities around the world. Specifically, City Access Map lets you explore cities in which residents can access needed services within a fifteen minute walk. City Access Map calls these cities 15 Minute Cities.
You can explore City Access Map by browsing through the listing of cities or by simply panning, zooming, and clicking on an interactive globe. Once you’ve chosen a city to look at it in more detail you can adjust the display […]
Quest Pro Review – Impressive Hardware With a Value Proposition That’s Kind of a Mess
Quest Pro is here and brings with it some welcomed hardware improvements but a dubious value proposition that’s highly dependent on someone else making the right apps.
There’s two ways to look at Quest Pro:
A better and more expensive Quest 2
A headset with new features that wants to transform the way you work
The former is pretty straightforward. If you plan on gaming just like you do on Quest 2, Quest Pro is in most ways the superior device. But when you factor in the $1,500 pricetag, there’s just no way the improvements are worth the cost of admission. […]
Steam Halloween Sale: 10 Horrifying Deals on PC VR Games This Week
Steam is looking to knock the cobwebs from your wallet this week by offering up some very spooky savings on PC VR games. Here’s a look at our favorite games currently on sale that are sure to give you a fright this Halloween.
Steam’s Scream Fest takes place from now until November 1st. You’ll find hundreds of games on sale, but these are ten of our favorite horror, thriller, and spooky survival games that you should consider picking up:
Blair Witch VR
Bloober Team’s VR adaptation of the popular PC game hits you right in the spine as […]
Teaching a VR Lesson: 5 Questions to Ask
Proper planning can ensure an AR or VR lesson is a success, says immersive learning expert Jaime Donally.
Typeform- A Good Form Building Tool for Teachers and Students
Typeform is a good form builder that you can use to create a wide variety of form types including: surveys, contact forms, questionnaires, quizzes, registration forms, polls, invitations and many more. Typeform provides a set of interesting features (some of which are interactive) enabling you to easily collect and share information in a secure way. Of particular interest to us in education are the online Form Builder tool, Survey Maker tool, and the Quiz Maker tool.
1. Form Builder
123FormBuilder- Easily Create All Types of Forms
123FormBuilder, as its name indicates, is a web tool that enables you to create numerous types of online forms including surveys, polls, questionnaires, contact forms, event registration, order form, application form, and many more. 123 Form Builder offers an easy drag and drop form builder that makes it easy for anyone with no coding knowledge to create beautiful forms.
What Is Zoho Survey? Quick Review
Zoho Survey is a good tool that teachers can use to create surveys and quizzes. Zoho Survey enables you to easily create your own surveys. It offers a wide variety of pre-made templates with the ability to edit and customize them the way you want. You can add different question types, drag and drop questions, upload your logo, add your own theme, and many more.
