Friday, February 28, 2020

Join Me This Summer for Two Days of Hands-on PD

The days are getting longer and even though we had a snow day yesterday, today is a beautiful day here in Maine. Before we know it kids will be showing up to school in shorts and tee-shirts again. And although the summer might feel far away, it will be here sooner than later. I'm looking forward to doing a lot of things this summer including hosting the Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp for the seventh time.

What is it?
The Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp is a hands-on professional development workshop that I host here in Maine. This year we'll be back at the Bethel Inn Resort.

Registration is limited to 25 people so that everyone can get the attention and time they need to dive into a variety of topics in educational technology. This year I'll be leading the group through activities in search strategies, video creation, podcasting, Arduino and simple electronics, app design for beginners, and AR & VR in the classroom.

When and where?
July 13th and 14th at the Bethel Inn Resort in Bethel, Maine (about an hour northwest of Portland).

In previous years people have turned their trips to the Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp into vacations by spending additional time touring western Maine, the White Mountain National Forest, coastal Maine, and other parts of northern New England.

Is it a conference? 
You can call it that if that's what it takes to get your school to pay for your registration. But it's not a conference, it's a two-day workshop. It's 25 dedicated educators who come together to learn, talk, and explore new ways to use technology in their classrooms and libraries.

Who should attend?
Anyone who has an interest in learning and developing new ways to use technology in her or his practice should attend the Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp. You don't have to be a "techy" to participate. Teachers of all subjects and grade levels are welcome to participate. Whether you're just starting on your technology integration journey or you're a veteran tech coach, your participation is valuable. That's what has brought some people back for two, three, and four years in a row!


Get a registration discount code and more information right here!

Google Earth Now Works in Firefox, Edge, & Opera!

I shared this news in my podcast earlier today, but just in case my podcast isn't the first thing you listen to in the morning, I'm excited about the web version of Google Earth finally being available in Firefox, Edge, and Opera. The Tech Lead Manager and a software engineer for the Google Earth announced this news on Wednesday.

In the announcement that was published on Wednesday there was an explanation of what has made it possible for Google Earth to now run in Firefox, Opera, and Edge. The short version is that Google Earth now uses Web Assembly instead of Native Client which was a Chrome-only option.

Applications for Education
The significance of this update is for schools that would prefer to have only Edge or Firefox installed, but were allowing Chrome for the purpose of using Google Earth can now stick with their preferred browsers.

If you're interested in learning more about how to use Google Earth in your classroom, watch my video below or check out my on-demand webinar Google Earth & Maps - It's More Than Just Social Studies.

The Practical Ed Tech Podcast - Episode 35 - Snow Day!

School was cancelled yesterday (our 98th snow day, or so it felt) so I recorded my weekly installment of The Practical Ed Tech Podcast a day early. In this episode I highlighted a couple of new resources for pictures, videos, and audio files to use in your multimedia projects. The first part of the podcast also features two resources about recognizing misinformation that are worth bookmarking. And if you missed the big news about TikTok, I covered that too.

As I always do in my weekly episodes, in this episode I answered a handful of questions from readers and listeners. There were questions about podcasting, game creation, image editing, and Google Forms.

You can listen to episode 35 of The Practical Ed Tech Podcast right here or on your favorite podcast platform. The complete show notes are available here.




Listen to all episodes of the podcast here or find them on the following podcast networks:

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