Why Do Whales Sing? - A Lesson Prompted by My Daughters

As you may know, I have two toddler-age daughters. So as you might guess, our bathtub is full of bath toys. One of those toys is a water scoop that is made to look like a whale. Tonight, during bath time my oldest asked, "what's a whale say?" Not being able to make a whale sound myself, I turned to YouTube for a video of whale sounds. In doing so I stumbled into a TED-Ed lesson about whale sounds.

Why Do Whales Sing? is a TED-Ed lesson through which viewers can learn which whales (all baleen whales) sing, how whales create songs, how far their songs can travel, and theories about why whales sing. The lesson also teaches viewers how man-made noises in the oceans can affect the feeding and migration patterns of whales.


Applications for Education
In addition to being an interesting lesson about whales and whale anatomy, Why Do Whales Sing? could be a good introduction to a lesson about how sound travels.

Google Announces Transformation Reports for G Suite for Education

Earlier today Google announced the launch of a new product called Google for Education Transformation Reports. Through Transformation Reports school administrators will be able to survey users of G Suite for Education products in their schools and see usage reports for the various G Suite for Education products employed in their schools. Google, of course, will see this data and make recommendations for improving/ increasing use of various G Suite tools.

As of now, Google for Education Transformation Reports is a service that is only being offered to schools using G Suite for Education in the United States. School and network administrators can apply for early access to Google for Education Transformation Reports now.

Using Google for Education Transformation Reports is a bit of a double-edged sword. On one side it could be useful to see which products teachers and students are using in your school. On the other side, this smacks of giving Google more information that could then be used to further hook users into the G Suite ecosystem.

How to Use the Read-aloud Function in Microsoft Edge

Edge is Microsoft's web browser that replaced their classic Internet Explorer. Edge has a lot of handy features including a customizable read-aloud function. The read-aloud function has been available in the Windows version of Edge for quite a while. This morning, thanks to Mike Tholfsen I learned that the read-aloud function is available in the Mac version of Edge. In the following video I demonstrate how to access and customize the read-aloud function in Microsoft Edge.

To use the read-aloud function in Edge on a Mac you do have to have the developer version of Edge installed. Anyone can get that version right here. 

Applications for Education

One of the things that I appreciate about the read-aloud function in Edge is that students can customize it to meet their needs. Students can not only choose the voice that reads aloud to them, they can also choose the speed at which text is read aloud to them. The other nice aspect of Edge's read-aloud function is that the words on the page are highlighted as they are read aloud.