Latest education updates from around the world
What is TeachingBooks and How Can it Be Used to Teach? Tips & Tricks
TeachingBooks is a collection of resources about books and authors for use by students and teachers.
Teachers Love 4-Day School Weeks. Do They Work?
Four-day school weeks are increasingly being offered as a way to recruit teachers, but the research is mixed on the advantages and disadvantages of the schedule.
How One District Addressed Learning Loss
Hoover City Schools in Alabama pivoted quickly to meet the pandemic’s learning challenges
Best Teacher Supplies for Classroom (on Amazon)
Apps to Help You learn English with Movies and Videos
Step Up Your Syllabus – Hyperlink the Fun
Step up your syllabus and make it more fun by creating your syllabus in Google Slides™. Hyperlink help direct parents and students to the important information.
The post Step Up Your Syllabus – Hyperlink the Fun appeared first on Teacher Tech.
How to Quickly Broadcast Your Screen to Your Students’ Screens
A few months ago I published an overview of DisplayNote Broadcast. It’s a tool that you can use to broadcast your screen to your students’ laptop or tablet screens. Shortly after I published my initial overview DisplayNote Broadcast added a Google Slides and Classroom integration. The latest update is a Chrome extension that you can use to share your screen with just a couple of clicks.
In the short video that is embedded below I demonstrate how to broadcast your screen to […]
Lessons on Compound Interest, Rent, and Mittens
Last week I got an email from the Council for Economic Education. The email listed the ten most popular resources on their site. Two of them stood out to me and one of them led me to an additional resource that wasn’t included in the email.
The Compound Interest Calculator is the most popular resource on the Council for Economic Education’s website. It does exactly what the name states. Students enter age, interest rate, initial investment, and monthly savings to see how much they’ll save and earn over time. There are […]
Tutorial: Reuse MULTIPLE Google Classroom Assignments
If you are a Google Classroom user try my Reuse GC (unofficial) Add-on) to reuse multiple google classroom assignments. Reuse Multiple Google Classroom Assignments My Add-on (unofficial) allows you to list the assignments from a previous class, check the checkbox of multiple assignments, and reuse them to your Google Classroom easily. Make a copy of…
The post Tutorial: Reuse MULTIPLE Google Classroom Assignments appeared first on Teacher Tech.
Airplanes, Lesson Plans, and Coding – The Week in Review
Good morning from Maine where we’re hoping the heat and humidity will break today. I write that sentence knowing full well that in a month I’ll probably be back to wearing flannel shirts and sweaters. Until then we’re going to try to enjoy the last few weeks of summer before school starts.
This week I held the sixth webinar in my summer webinar series. A big thank you to everyone who has registered for one or all of them. Your support helps me keep the lights on. There is one more webinar in the […]
Win a Classroom Maker from Lumio
I’ve never been one to spend much time on classroom decoration (partly because it’s not in my nature and partly due to frequently changing classrooms). But I know a lot of teachers who do spend a lot of time and money on classroom decoration. If that’s you, you’ll want to enter Lumio’s $2,500 Classroom Makeover contest.
This is one of the easiest contest you could enter. All you have to do is go to Lumio’s contest page and enter the email address you use for accessing Lumio by SMART. If you […]
Best Vocabulary Websites for Students
Vocabulary is key to language learning and a strong grasp of vocabulary is a prerequisite especially for improving one’s writing style and speaking skills. The list below features some of the best vocabulary websites that you can use with your students and kids to learn new vocabulary items, improve vocabulary practice, and ultimately […]
Membean- A Good Vocabulary Website for Students
Preview: ‘Red Matter 2’ is Raising the Bar on Quest 2 Graphics & Doubling Down on Interactivity
Due out in just two weeks, Red Matter 2 is promising to up the ante over its already well regarded predecessor, this time being built from the ground up to look as good as possible on Quest 2. We got to sample the game to see how it’s shaping up ahead of release.
Developer Vertical Robot has boldly claimed that Red Matter 2 will be the best looking (realistically styled) game on Quest 2, and as we’ve played so far they appear to be well on track to make that a reality. In many ways Red Matter 2 running on Quest 2 looks as […]
How to Schedule Assignments for Multiple Classes in Google Classroom
How to Schedule Assignments for Multiple Classes in Google Classroom by using the built in features in Google Classroom.
The post How to Schedule Assignments for Multiple Classes in Google Classroom appeared first on Teacher Tech.
The Design & Implementation of Hand-tracking in ‘Myst’
Using Presence Platform’s upgraded Hand Tracking API, we introduced Hand Tracking with our most recent update to Myst on the Meta Quest Platform, titled ‘Hands & More’. We’re super excited to finally let folks play Myst on Quest without physical controllers! In this post, we’ll discuss the evolution and iteration of implementing hand tracking in Myst—and in particular, adding more support for it in Unreal Engine 4.27.2.
Guest Article by Hannah Gamiel
Hannah Gamiel is the Development Director at Cyan—the studio behind the original ‘Myst’ games—and helped develop the new ‘Myst (2020)‘ which includes VR […]
‘Among Us VR’ Beta Signups Now Open, Playtesting to Begin “in a few days”
Social party game Among Us rose to viral success in the midst of the pandemic. Calls to bring the game’s ‘imposter-hunting’ gameplay to VR were immediate, and unofficial VR versions of the game sprang up in no time. Now the full blown Among Us VR remake is on the verge of release, and you could get in on the action.
Update (August 5th, 2022): Among Us beta signups are now available, promising VR users that playtesting the game will begin “within a few days.”
Users are invited to give their email address, preferred VR platform, and join the […]
Meta Releases ‘First Hand’ Demo to Showcase Quest Hand-tracking to Developers
Meta this week released a new demo app called First Hand to showcase the kind of experiences that developers can build with the company’s controllerless hand-tracking tools.
Controllerless hand-tracking has been available on Quest for years at this point, and while it’s a more accessible input modality than using controllers, controllers are still the main form of input for the vast majority of games and apps on the headset.
Meta has been increasingly pushing for developers to embrace hand-tracking as more than a novelty, and to that end has been building tools to make it easier for developers to take […]
Quest v43 Update May Finally Include 16:9 Recording Mode
Quest’s v43 software update has already rolled out on the Public Test Channel, however now it seems Meta is getting ready to unlock a number of long overdue video capture options, like the ability to record in 16:9 aspect ratio. Additionally, it appears some settings specific to the company’s upcoming headset Project Cambria have cropped up as well.
Reddit user ‘deliciouspotato2’ spotted a few menus that Meta may not have intended to release just yet. The settings seen below were allegedly pushed out through the Public Test Channel for v43, an opt-in program which gives normal headset […]
Five Interesting Ways to Use Screencastify in Your Classroom
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A couple of days ago I wrote a short post about the changes to Screencastify’s free plan. At the end of that post I included some ideas for using Screencastify in your classroom. If you missed that short list, here are the ideas in more detail.
Add Interactive Questions Into Your Videos
Adding interactive questions into your instructional videos is a great way to make sure that students actually watch your lesson all the way through. It’s also a good way to determine if you need to re-teach something or alter your explanation […]
Google Search Tools Students Often Overlook
The default action for students to take when given a research task is to turn to Google. Unfortunately, many students won’t venture much beyond the first couple of pages of Google.com results pages before declaring, “I can’t find anything about this.” But as Dan Russell reminds us in The Joy of Search, good search often requires the use of multiple tools. To that end, Google offers search tools beyond just Google.com. Unfortunately, students won’t use those tools unless they know that those tools exist and how to use them. Here are some of […]
What Are Google Classroom Add-Ons? Tips & Tricks
Here’s everything you need to know about Google Classroom add-ons, a new feature from Google.
‘Rec Room’ Launches Western-style Shooter Today with ‘Showdown’, Releases Weapon Maker Tools
Rec Room today announced the launch of a new game coming to the popular social VR platform that lets you suit up for a PvP western-style shootout with your squad.
Called ‘The Showdown’, the mini-game releases today in early access, and will see a wider global launch across PC VR, Quest, iOS, Android, PlayStation, and Xbox on August 18th, with more platforms coming soon.
Showdown transports Rec Room players to the western-inspired ghost town Sarsaparilla Springs, offering up a 3v3 cork-loaded shoot out.
Quest’s Most Popular Basketball Game on App Lab ‘Gym Class’ Secures $8M
IRL Studios announced that Gym Class, its popular VR basketball game on Meta Quest App Lab, has raised $8 million in a seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) with participation from Y Combinator.
Other participants include Founders Inc., Todd and Rahul’s Angel Fund, Balaji Srinivasan, Zaza Pachulia, and a number of other angel investors.
Named in Road to VR’s top 20 free games on Quest, Gym Class lets you shoot hoops and dunk on friends like you probably can’t on a physical court.
The free early access version is highly rated on App Lab for good reason, in part […]
Short Lessons on Centripetal Force and Tea Cups
Last week I took my older daughter to Storyland to ride the roller coaster as many times as she wanted to. Today, I’m taking my younger daughter for a daddy-daughter day at Storyland. Her favorite rides are the Flying Dutch Shoes, Alice’s Tea Cups, and the Cuckoo Clockenspiel. In other words, she likes to spin around and feel the effects of centripetal force.
Thinking about those spinning rides prompted me to look for some concise explanations of centripetal force. Here are a few resources that I found that could be helpful […]