ClassTools Key Word Checker - See if Students Use Assigned Vocabulary Words

The ClassTools Keyword Checker is a handy little tool that you and or your students can use to make sure they've used assigned vocabulary words in an essay. To use the Keyword Checker just write or paste a list of keywords into the left side of the tool. Then paste the text of an essay into the right side of the Keyword Checker. Keyword Checker will then provide you with a chart showing which words have and have not been used in the essay.

Applications for Education
The ClassTools Keyword Checker could be useful to students when they have a list of assigned vocabulary words to use in a writing assignment. Before they submit their work they can use the Keyword Checker to make sure that they've used all of the required terms.

100+ Animated Philosophy Lessons

Wireless Philosophy AKA Wi-Phi is a project produced by philosophy students and professors from Duke, Yale, Northern Illinois University, MIT, and Duquesne University. The purpose of the project is to philosophy through animated videos. There are currently more than 100 videos available in the Wireless Philosophy YouTube channel. The videos are organized into twelve playlists covering topics like critical thinking and biases, political philosophy, religion, Descartes, and linguistics.

Introduction to Philosophy is embedded below.

H/T to Open Culture.

SeeSaw Now Lets Students Draw and Talk on Items in Their Digital Portfolios

SeeSaw is a great digital portfolio tool for students and teachers. It works on all devices including iPads and Android tablets. The service has always allowed students to draw and annotate items in their digital portfolios. The latest update to the SeeSaw iPad app lets students talk while drawing on pictures in their portfolios.


Applications for Education
The option to draw and talk on top of a picture could be useful in helping students explain the artifacts in their digital portfolios. Students can also draw and talk on a blank canvas in the SeeSaw iPad app. Doing that would be a good way to have students explain and demonstrate how to complete a mathematics problem.

How to Install Google Documents Add-ons

Google Documents contains many powerful features on its own. Install a few Add-ons and you can significantly enhance the capabilities of Google Documents. In the following video I demonstrate how to install a Google Documents Add-on. The video also features a handy table formatting tool.


This video is the 72nd addition to my Google Tutorials playlist on my YouTube channel.

How to Create a Word Cloud in Google Documents

Word clouds can help students analyze documents written by others as well as documents of their own creation. The Google Documents Add-on called Tag Cloud Generator makes it easy for students to generate a word cloud within any of their documents. In the video embedded below I demonstrate how to use this handy Google Docs Add-on.

Applications for Education
By copying the text of a document into a word cloud generator your students can quickly see the words that appear most frequently in that document. Word clouds can also be used to help students see which words that they have frequently used in their own works. Have your students create word clouds of their work during the revision process of writing a story or essay. The word cloud will quickly show students which words they have used the most. Then ask them to think about synonyms for the words that they have used most often in their writings.