Latest education updates from around the world
How to Create a Badge Tracker in Google Sheets
A few days ago a reader reached out to me with a question about creating a badge tracking system to keep track of students’ progress toward various goals. While there are quite a few companies that offer badges as part of their systems, ClassDojo comes to mind, she was looking for something that was a little more independent and customizable. My suggestion was to try using the Badge Tracker Google Sheets template from Flippity.
Flippity’s Badge Tracker template lets you create a customized badge system. You can add in your own […]
7 Great Tools to Organize Citations and References
Flexible Due Dates: How it Works in College & K12
Strict due dates are ingrained in all levels of education but some educators find when they get rid of them there’s less stress and more learning.
How to Use Virtual Backgrounds in Microsoft Flip
Virtual backgrounds and background blurring are features of Microsoft Flip that can be helpful to you and your students in a few ways. First, virtual backgrounds and blurring are useful in protecting student privacy when they are recording at home or anywhere else outside of your classroom. Second, you can use virtual backgrounds as a teaching aid (see my video below for more about that). Third, virtual backgrounds are just fun and provide a nice way for you and your students to express a little personality.
Significant Changes to Screencastify’s Free Plan
Screencastify is a versatile screencast recording tool that I’ve used over the years to create many kinds of instructional videos including Common Craft-style videos and virtual tours. As I write this blog post, I still prefer Screencastify to the new built-in recording option in Chromebooks. That said, it should be noted that Screencastify has just introduced some significant changes to their free plan.
Here’s What’s Changing in Screencastify
The new free version of Screencastify increases the recording time for your videos from five […]
Rare Conjoined Twin Surgery Aided by VR Training, Bridging the Gap Between Two Continents
Practice makes perfect, especially when it comes to life-saving procedures that deal with extreme edge cases like separating conjoined twins. Now a UK-Brazilian team have done just that, which is thanks to detailed planning sessions which allowed the surgical team to model and rehearse the operation in VR from two different continents.
As reported by BBC News, three-year-olds Bernardo and Arthur Lima were born conjoined at the cranium, also know as craniopagus twins.
Now, after seven surgeries, the boys have effectively become the oldest craniopagus twins to have been separated, a […]
How to Convert Word Documents and PDFs Into Microsoft Forms
There are many little features of Microsoft Forms that shouldn’t be overlooked. And there is a new big feature of Microsoft Forms that definitely shouldn’t be overlooked. That feature is the ability to import Word documents and PDFs into Microsoft Forms.
The import feature in Microsoft Forms makes it possible to quickly take a quiz that you’ve written in Word and have it automatically turned into a quiz that students can complete in Microsoft Forms. Likewise, you can do the same with a quiz that you have in a PDF. This feature works with […]
What is OER Commons and How Can it Be Used to Teach? Tips & Tricks
OER Commons is an open source of free resources for educators to use as they need.
Biden-Harris Tutoring Initiative: What You Need to Know
Researchers support the Biden-Harris administration’s recent tutoring initiative but warn there are potential road bumps to successfully ramping up tutoring nationwide.
Convertio- A Good OCR and File Conversion Tool for Teachers and Students
Meta Says New Prototype Will Put Its Cutting-edge R&D in a Market-viable Headset
Back in June Meta revealed its latest XR R&D efforts through a handful of different prototypes designed to prove out various concepts. The next step, the company says, is to bring it all together into a single package that could one day reach real users.
If you spend time keeping up with the latest XR research (as we like to do), you’ll know the vast majority of the work being done is about proving that something is possible, but not necessarily about whether or not it’s viable as tech that could be made into a real product—where challenges […]
Google Classroom Now Has Add-ons – For Some Schools
Yesterday afternoon Google made an announcement that had some teachers on Twitter buzzing. That announcement was that Google Classroom now has add-ons for teachers to use. Those add-ons are supposed to make it easier to access popular tools like EdPuzzle, WeVideo, and Pear Deck from Google Classroom.
CCP is Finally Pulling the Plug on VR Pioneers ‘EVE: Valkyrie’ & ‘Sparc’
EVE: Valkyrie (2016), the sci-fi dogfighter from CCP Games, used to be one of most talked about titles in VR thanks to its cross-platform multiplayer, high visual polish, and position as one of the first games on Oculus Rift and PSVR. Starting August 5th, CCP is shutting down its servers for both EVE: Valkyrie and and sci-fi sports game Sparc (2017), putting a definite end to an era.
EVE: Valkyrie was a day-one launch title for both Oculus Rift and PSVR during the headsets’ respective releases back in 2016. It garnered favorable reviews then thanks to CCP’s ability to produce a highly-polished multiplayer […]
Hear from Our Expert: How to Accelerate Literacy Learning
Despite the challenges of the last two years, there are many reasons to feel hopeful about the future
Best Digital Icebreakers
Ease into the new school year with fun and engaging digital icebreakers
Search Tip – How to Find Published Google Workspaces Files
Refining Google searches according to domain is one of my favorite ways to get students to look beyond the first couple of pages of their typical Google search queries. Students can specify site or domain in Google’s advanced search menu to limit results to those that are only from top-level domains like .edu. They can also specify a subdomain like docs.google.com. In fact, that’s a great way to find publicly shared Google Documents. It also works for finding publicly shared Google Slides, Forms, Sheets, and Drawings.
How to Find Public Google Workspaces Files:
Watch the following short […]
Here’s a Breakdown of the Newly Increased Prices of Quest 2 & Official Accessories
Now that August is here, Meta has made good on its promise to raise the price of Quest 2 and its accessories. Here’s a quick look at how the company has increased prices for its most popular VR headset yet.
If you’ve been following along you’ll recall that Meta announced just last week that it would raise the price of Quest 2, making the industry’s most affordable VR headset a bit less of a steal. It’s not just the headset though; most of the official accessories have increased in price too. Here’s a breakdown of the price changes […]
Blackbird Provides an Innovative Way for Anyone to Teach Coding
Disclosure: Blackbird is currently an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com.
A Around this time every year I get emails that go something like this, “Hi Richard, I have a new job this fall and I’ll be teaching coding for the first time. Do you have any resources you can share with me?” Usually these emails come from folks who aren’t teaching coding as their full-time jobs but will be doing it under the banner of a larger title like tech coach, STEM teacher, or Makerspace Coordinator. If this sounds like you, Blackbird […]
Best Comic Maker Apps for Students
1. Canva
Xiaomi Unveils Consumer Smart Glasses with 50 MP Camera & Micro OLED Display
Chinese tech giant Xiaomi today unveiled a pair of smart glasses that the company is positioning as an addition to an active lifestyle, targeting consumers at 2,499 yuan (~$370).
Called Mijia, the Google Glass-style device features a single display and two cameras: a 50 MP primary and 8 MP periscope camera, something the company says is capable of up to 15× zoom and 100 minutes of continuous recording.
According to Sparrow News, Mijia houses a single Micro OLED from Sony which boasts up to 3,000 nit peak brightness and 3,281 ppi. The camera/display upper can also be […]
Report: Pico 4 Controllers Appear in Leaked Images, Revealing New Ergonomic Design
ByteDance’s Pico Interactive is getting ready to launch a new line of standalone VR headsets soon looking to compete with Meta, dubbed Pico 4 and Pico 4 Pro. Now a leak has allegedly revealed Pico 4’s controllers, and they look to be a significant step forward in terms of ergonomics.
The news comes courtesy Antony Vitillo, AR/VR developer and editor over at SkarredGhost, who received the images of the controllers from a community member after having initially covered the FCC filing for Pico 4 that popped up late last month. The images appear to be marketing […]
Elinor’s Nature Adventure and Hands-on Learning Activities
As I mentioned last week, my daughters have started to enjoy Elinor Wonders Why on PBS Kids. While they were watching an episode this morning I went on the PBS Kids website to search for some Elinor-themed learning activities. I wasn’t disappointed with what I found.
The parents page for Elinor Wonders Why is full of resources for activities for parents do with their children. Of course, the resources are also great for elementary school teachers who are looking for some hands-on activities. On the parents page you’ll find directions for […]
How to Make Whiteboard Videos in Microsoft Flip
Last week’s most popular post was Getting Started With Microsoft Flip. To start this week let’s look at doing a little more than just a basic selfie video in Microsoft Flip. An additional way to use Microsoft Flip is to create whiteboard style videos.
When you open the recording tool in Microsoft Flip press record and then open the options menu you’ll find lots of tools for enhancing your videos. It’s there that you’ll also find an option for a whiteboard. You can use that virtual whiteboard when […]
Teaching About the James Webb Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope provides lots of opportunities for teachers to engage and inspire their students.
NASA’s 6 Top Tools for Teaching About the James Webb Space Telescope
NASA has a wealth of resources for educators looking to use the James Webb Space Telescope to teach STEM.