A Great Series for Introducing or Reviewing Arduino Programming Concepts

Arduino programming was one of the things that we were really starting to get rolling on just before school closed. Now that my school is closed and we're doing remote teaching and learning, I'm using EDpuzzle to create review activities for my students.

This week I used EDpuzzle to create lessons based on a great series of Arduino programming basics. The videos were produced by Bob at I Like to Make Stuff. In the three part series he covers the big, basic concepts of programming in general before moving into the specifics of Arduino programming. The final video in the series puts everything together for viewers. And if you're wondering what an Arduino is, Bob has that covered too. The first video in the series is embedded below and the rest can be found on I Like to Make Stuff.



If you're wondering what EDpuzzle is and how it works, I have that covered here.


And you're interested in learning more about Arduino, there's a section of the Practical Ed Tech Virtual Summer Camp dedicated to it. 

Quick Tip - Apply Custom Colors to Google Slides

Regular users of Google Slides are probably familiar with the process of adding images to the backgrounds of their slides and changing the background color. There is one little background color option that is easily overlooked. That option is applying a custom color that isn't listed in the default color menu in Google Slides.

In Google Slides it is possible to use any color you like as the background for your slides. To do this simply open the background colors option then at the bottom of the menu click the little "+" icon to open another menu in which you can enter a color code or drag your cursor on a palette to select a custom color shade. The process is demonstrated in my video that is embedded below.


Applications for Education
This is certainly not a game-changing feature of Google Slides, but it might be pleasing to some teachers and students who want a little more control over the color schemes in their slides. 

Free Webinar Tomorrow - Two Ed Tech Guys Take Questions

For the last few weeks Rushton Hurley, founder of Next Vista for Learning and a former virtual school principal, has been hosting free webinars all about making the transition to online teaching and learning. Tomorrow, I'm going to join him as a co-host for a webinar titled Two Ed Tech Guys Take Questions.

As the title implies, during tomorrow's webinar we'll be taking questions and doing our best to answer them for you. We'll also share some of our favorite cool finds and pass along a few tips and tricks. The webinar will be live at 1pm ET/ 10am PT. You can register here.

Last week Rushton hosted a webinar with Susan Stewart that they called Activities Across Grade Levels: The Power of an Image. If you're an elementary  school teacher, this is a webinar for you. The recording is embedded below and you can get the slides and chat transcript here.