The Week in Review - The Most Popular Posts

Good morning from Maine where the snow is falling and my dogs and I couldn't be happier about it! This is the second snowstorm that we've had in less than a week. As you can see in the picture to the left, Mason loves the snow. Max likes it too although his short hair doesn't let him play outside as long as Mason. Anyway, we'll be going outside to play in the snow as soon as this post is complete. As always, wherever you are this weekend, I hope you have time for some fun too.

Here are this week's most popular posts:
1. 4 Fun Facts About Reindeer
2. An Easy Way to Create Mindmaps in Your Browser
3. OpenEd Adds Thousands of New Science Resources
4. 10 Ideas for Using Comics In Your Classroom
5. 5 Things We Can do to Prepare Students to Work Independently
6. Three Free Online Whiteboards Students Can Use Together in Realtime
7. Fake or Real? - A Fun Google Search Challenge

Next week I will be hosting my last webinar of the year. The webinar is all about using YouTube in your classroom. You can read more about it here. I'll be offering more professional development webinars in January including one designed for Google Forms and Sheets beginners. And if you're looking for in-person professional development, please get in touch with me at richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com

Need a speaker for your conference? 

Click here to learn about my keynotes and workshops.

Please visit the official advertisers that help keep this blog going.

Practical Ed Tech is the brand through which I offer PD webinars.

Storyboard That is my go-to tool for creating storyboards.

QuickKey saves teachers tons of time when scoring formative assessments.

WriteReader is a fantastic multimedia writing tool for elementary school students.

Math Playground offers hundreds of math games and tutorial videos. 

Discovery Education & Wilkes University offer online courses for earning Master's degrees in Instructional Media.

PrepFactory offers a great place for students to prepare for SAT and ACT tests.

Boise State University offers a 100% online program in educational technology.

EdTechTeacher is hosts workshops in six cities in the U.S. in the summer.

My Simpleshow provides a great way to create explainer videos.

How to Record a Webcam Video on Your Chromebook

Recording a video with the webcam on your Chromebook can be accomplished through the use of a free Chrome app called CaptureCast. CaptureCast, produced by Cattura Video, allows you to record the screen on your Chromebook as well as input from your webcam.

To record a video with the webcam on your Chromebook open CaptureCast in your browser then allow it to access your webcam and microphone. You can specify how high of a resolution you would like to use to capture your video. You can also choose your audio quality. If you have an external microphone connected to your Chromebook, make sure that you have it enabled before you start recording.

When you have finished recording in CaptureCast you can save your video on your Chromebook or upload it to YouTube, to Vimeo, or to Google Drive.

Applications for Education
CaptureCast could be a great tool for students to use to create video entries for classroom blogs. Rather than having students write blog posts, they can record short videos to talk about what they learned in class that week or to share their thoughts on a topic that you've posted for discussion on your classroom blog.

As I explain in Winning Blog Strategies, including video in blog posts is a good way to increase engagement on your classroom blog.

YouTube, It’s Not Just Cats & Khan Academy

This coming Wednesday I will be hosting my last webinar of 2016. The topic is YouTube. Specifically, I will be showcasing the features of YouTube that many teachers and students overlook. That's why I am calling the webinar YouTube, It's Not Just Cats & Khan Academy.

In the webinar you can learn how to protect your students' privacy when you or they upload videos to YouTube. You can can also learn how to create an interactive series of choose-your-own-adventure videos. Did you know that you can collaborate to create playlists of the best videos about a topic? You'll learn how to do that in the webinar too. In fact, you'll collaborate in real-time with the other people who participate in the live webinar. Registration for the webinar is open now.

Webinar FAQs

• The live webinar is on December 21 at 4pm ET. 
• The cost is $20.
• The webinar is conducted live.
• The recording will be emailed to those who cannot attend the live session.  
• Certificates for one hour of PD will be awarded to participants. 
• Register here.

Richard, why are you charging for the course? 

I explain the answer in this video.