Pi, Puppy, and AI - The Week in Review

Good morning from Maine where the sun is shining and it is going to be a beautiful late winter day. It's going to be perfect for playing outside with the newest member of our family, Rangeley Noodle! Last weekend we got a black lab puppy and my daughters named him Rangeley Noodle. Rangeley is for one of our favorite places in Maine and Noodle because my five-year-old thought it was fun to say and the rest of us went with it. Wherever you are this weekend, I hope that you have something fun to do outside too. 

This week I started a new course called Five Video Projects for Almost Every Classroom. Even if you missed the first week, you can still sign-up and get all of the lessons. 

These were the week's most popular posts:
1. A Round-up of Pi Day Resources
2. AI Tools are Coming to Google Workspace Tools
3. An Overview of Using and Detecting Artificial Intelligence
4. 15 Microsoft Forms Tutorials for Teachers
5. A New Answer to the Questions I'm Asked the Most
6. Annotate Videos With Text and Pictures
7. Whimsical - An AI Concept Map Generator

Make More Money This Year!

If you're looking for a way to put a little more money in your pocket this year, my self-paced course How to Create and Sell Digital Products in 2023 is for you! It's one of three on-demand courses that I currently offer.

Workshops and eBooks

If you'd like to have me speak at your school or conference, please send me an email at richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com or fill out the form on this page. Book me for this school year and I'll include copies of my eBook for all of the teachers in your school. 

Animated Explanations

Making and Teaching With Animated Explanations is a five-part, self-paced course that teaches you how to make a variety of animations. More importantly, it teaches you why making animations is a valuable and fun classroom activity for students of all ages. 

Other Places to Follow Me:

• The Practical Ed Tech Newsletter comes out every Sunday evening/ Monday morning. It features my favorite tip of the week and the week's most popular posts from Free Technology for Teachers.
• My YouTube channel has more than 45,000 subscribers watching my short tutorial videos on a wide array of educational technology tools. 
• I've been Tweeting as @rmbyrne for fifteen years. 
• I update my LinkedIn profile a time or two every week.
• The Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page features new and old posts from this blog throughout the week. 
• If you're curious about my life outside of education, you can follow me on Strava.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission. Featured image captured by Richard Byrne.

Pi, Myths, and Daylight - The Week in Review

Good morning from Maine where the sun is shining and we're all ready to go out and play in the snow. It's going to be a great day for late-winter skiing. I hope that you also do something fun this weekend. 

This week I hosted a webinar for a school and had a Zoom meeting with some folks who recently completed my course on how to create and sell digital products. If you take the course, I'll be happy to Zoom with you too. Speaking of courses, Five Video Projects for Almost Every Classroom begins on Tuesday. 

These were the week's most popular posts:
1. Physical Education Activities for Pi Day
2. A Lesson in Writing Myths
3. Changes are Coming to Your Favorite Google Workspace Tools
4. "But It's Still Sunny Outside!" - Short Lessons on Daylight Saving Time
5. Three Activities All Teachers Can Create in TeacherMade
6. Another Tool for Detecting Writing Created by AI
7. 167 Math In "Real Life" Lessons

Make More Money This Year!

If you're looking for a way to put a little more money in your pocket this year, my self-paced course How to Create and Sell Digital Products in 2023 is for you! It's one of three on-demand courses that I currently offer.

Workshops and eBooks

If you'd like to have me speak at your school or conference, please send me an email at richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com or fill out the form on this page. Book me for this school year and I'll include copies of my eBook for all of the teachers in your school. 

Animated Explanations

Making and Teaching With Animated Explanations is a five-part, self-paced course that teaches you how to make a variety of animations. More importantly, it teaches you why making animations is a valuable and fun classroom activity for students of all ages. 

Other Places to Follow Me:

• The Practical Ed Tech Newsletter comes out every Sunday evening/ Monday morning. It features my favorite tip of the week and the week's most popular posts from Free Technology for Teachers.
• My YouTube channel has more than 45,000 subscribers watching my short tutorial videos on a wide array of educational technology tools. 
• I've been Tweeting as @rmbyrne for fifteen years. 
• I update my LinkedIn profile a time or two every week.
• The Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page features new and old posts from this blog throughout the week. 
• If you're curious about my life outside of education, you can follow me on Strava.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission. Featured image captured by Richard Byrne.

Math, Chromebooks, and Chemistry - The Week in Review

Good morning from the O'Hare Airport Hilton where I'm hoping to be able to fly home today. Yesterday, after a great day of presenting at the North DuPage Connections Conference I looked at my phone and discovered that my flight home was cancelled. I'm hoping to get home tonight, but there is a lot of snow (even by Maine standards) in the forecast. 

If I ever get home, I'm hoping to take my kids skiing. I hope that you also have something fun planned for your weekend! 

Earlier this week I announced a new Practical Ed Tech course that is starting on March 14th. It's called Five Video Projects for Almost Every Classroom. You can learn more about it and register here. Registrations for my Practical Ed Tech courses is what enables me to keep this blog going. Thank you. 

These were the week's most popular posts:
1. 167 Math In "Real Life" Lessons
2. Chromebook Keyboard Considerations for Kindergarten
3. Chem Collective Virtual Labs
4. Free Course on ChatGPT and AI in Education
5. A Good Series on How Computers Work
6. Great Art Explained
7. The Google Docs Features Starter Pack

Make More Money This Year!

If you're looking for a way to put a little more money in your pocket this year, my self-paced course How to Create and Sell Digital Products in 2023 is for you! It's one of three on-demand courses that I currently offer.

Workshops and eBooks

If you'd like to have me speak at your school or conference, please send me an email at richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com or fill out the form on this page. Book me for this school year and I'll include copies of my eBook for all of the teachers in your school. 

Animated Explanations

Making and Teaching With Animated Explanations is a five-part, self-paced course that teaches you how to make a variety of animations. More importantly, it teaches you why making animations is a valuable and fun classroom activity for students of all ages. 

Other Places to Follow Me:

• The Practical Ed Tech Newsletter comes out every Sunday evening/ Monday morning. It features my favorite tip of the week and the week's most popular posts from Free Technology for Teachers.
• My YouTube channel has more than 45,000 subscribers watching my short tutorial videos on a wide array of educational technology tools. 
• I've been Tweeting as @rmbyrne for fifteen years. 
• I update my LinkedIn profile a time or two every week.
• The Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page features new and old posts from this blog throughout the week. 
• If you're curious about my life outside of education, you can follow me on Strava.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission. Featured image captured by Richard Byrne.

Another Tool for Detecting Writing Created by AI

Artificial Intelligence was the theme of February in the educational technology world. That theme is continuing as we begin the month of March. On that note, I've found another new tool designed to try to detect writing generated with AI tools like ChatGPT. 

Crossplag AI Content Detector is a free tool that you can use to try to determine whether or not an AI tool was used to generate a passage of text. Like other AI detection tools, Crossplag AI Content Detector is easy to use. To use it you simply paste a block of text into the content detector and it will give a rating of likelihood that AI was used to create that text. Watch my short video below to see how it works. 

Video - Another Tool for Detecting Writing Created by AI



Applications for Education
Just like all of the other AI content detection tools that have popped-up over the last six weeks, this one isn't perfect. That said, it's worth noting that these tools exist. Use these tools to start conversations with your students about responsible use of AI tools like ChatGPT, Moon Beam, and other AI writing tools.

45,000 People Get Their Educational Technology Tips This Way

Yesterday morning when I checked my YouTube Studio account I noticed that my little channel had passed the 45,000 subscriber mark. Despite publishing videos on YouTube since at least 2009, I've never had a viral hit and probably never will. Instead of worrying about that I just try to make as many helpful videos as I can. To get a sense of the type of videos that I publish, take a look at the five most-watched videos of the last month. 

How to Embed Google Sheets Into Your Website or Blog



An Easy Way to Create a Bibliography in Microsoft Word



The Basics of Creating a Quiz in Google Forms



How to Use the Citation Tool in Google Docs



How Create Your First Google Site

AI, Brainstorming, and Authentication - The Week in Review

Good morning from Maine where the wind is howling and the wind chill makes it feel as though it's -15F right now. It's no wonder our cat has camped himself in front of the stove this morning. I much prefer he do that than rub his head on my laptop as I type this week's week-in-review post. 

This week was school vacation week here in Maine. I took most of the week off to teach skiing lessons, take my own kids skiing, and enjoy a little time away from my computer screen. Somehow I still managed to publish a bunch of new posts throughout the week. Take a look at the list below and see if there is anything that piques your interest. 

These were the week's most popular posts:
1. Free Course on ChatGPT and AI in Education
2. Three Good Tools for Recording Brainstorming Sessions
3. 10 Tools for Gathering Real-time Feedback From Students
4. Warm-up Activities for Group Brainstorming Sessions
5. How to Blur Objects and Faces In Your Videos
6. How to Use the Google Authenticator App With Twitter
7. How to Make a Mini Course

Make More Money This Year!

If you're looking for a way to put a little more money in your pocket this year, my self-paced course How to Create and Sell Digital Products in 2023 is for you! It's one of three on-demand courses that I currently offer.

Workshops and eBooks

If you'd like to have me speak at your school or conference, please send me an email at richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com or fill out the form on this page. Book me for this school year and I'll include copies of my eBook for all of the teachers in your school. 

50 Tech Tuesday Tips!

50 Tech Tuesday Tips is an eBook that I created with busy tech coaches, tech integration specialists, and media specialists in mind. In it you'll find 50 ideas and tutorials that you can use as the basis of your own short PD sessions. Get a copy today!

Other Places to Follow Me:

• The Practical Ed Tech Newsletter comes out every Sunday evening/ Monday morning. It features my favorite tip of the week and the week's most popular posts from Free Technology for Teachers.
• My YouTube channel has nearly 45,000 subscribers watching my short tutorial videos on a wide array of educational technology tools. 
• I've been Tweeting as @rmbyrne for fifteen years. 
• I update my LinkedIn profile a time or two every week.
• The Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page features new and old posts from this blog throughout the week. 
• If you're curious about my life outside of education, you can follow me on Strava.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission. Featured image captured by Richard Byrne.

Brainstorms, Pictures, and Videos - The Week in Review

Good morning from Maine where winter weather has returned after a brief respite on Thursday. It was sunny, dry, and warm enough to ride my bike outside for the first time since the start of the year. This weekend, I'm back to skiing and teaching skiing. I hope that you have something equally fun planned for your weekend. And if you're starting a long weekend or vacation week, I hope you enjoy the extra time off. 

These were the week's most popular posts:
1. 10 Tools for Gathering Real-time Feedback From Students
2. Three Good Tools for Recording Brainstorming Sessions
3. Concise Explanations of DNS & IP
4. Two Ways to Use Pictures in Formative Assessment
5. Lumen5 - Quickly Turn Your Writing Into Videos
6. Free Shapegrams from Tony Vincent!
7. 25 Gmail Tips for Teachers and Students

Learn How to Create and Sell Digital Products!
If you're looking for a way to put a little more money in your pocket this year, my self-paced course How to Create and Sell Digital Products in 2023 is for you! It's one of three on-demand courses that I currently offer.

Workshops and eBooks

If you'd like to have me speak at your school or conference, please send me an email at richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com or fill out the form on this page. Book me for this school year and I'll include copies of my eBook for all of the teachers in your school. 

50 Tech Tuesday Tips!

50 Tech Tuesday Tips is an eBook that I created with busy tech coaches, tech integration specialists, and media specialists in mind. In it you'll find 50 ideas and tutorials that you can use as the basis of your own short PD sessions. Get a copy today!

Other Places to Follow Me:

• The Practical Ed Tech Newsletter comes out every Sunday evening/ Monday morning. It features my favorite tip of the week and the week's most popular posts from Free Technology for Teachers.
• My YouTube channel has nearly 45,000 subscribers watching my short tutorial videos on a wide array of educational technology tools. 
• I've been Tweeting as @rmbyrne for fifteen years. 
• I update my LinkedIn profile a time or two every week.
• The Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page features new and old posts from this blog throughout the week. 
• If you're curious about my life outside of education, you can follow me on Strava.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission. Featured image captured by Richard Byrne.

Feedback, AI, and Language - The Week in Review

Good morning from Maine where it is roughly 50 degrees warmer than it was at this time last week! One thing that hasn't changed since last week is that AI is the still the hot topic in education. I think I've fielded more questions related to AI in the last week than I have about anything else all year! 

This week my daughter's school was unexpectedly closed for a day. I took the day off and we went skiing at a new-to-her mountain. It was a learning experience for both of us. And we both ended up having a lot of fun by the end of the day. I hope that you had a fun learning experience this week as well. 

These were the week's most popular posts:
1. 10 Tools for Gathering Real-time Feedback From Students
2. Three Tools for Detecting Writing Created by AI
3. New Padlet Feature! Present Padlet Walls as Slideshows
4. The Makers of ChatGPT Have Launched a Tool to Detect Text Written With AI
5. 75 Google Documents Tutorials
6. How to Set Expiration Dates for Google Docs
7. Learning About Languages and The Mysteries of Vernacular

Learn How to Create and Sell Digital Products!
If you're looking for a way to put a little more money in your pocket this year, my self-paced course How to Create and Sell Digital Products in 2023 is for you! It's one of three on-demand courses that I currently offer.

Workshops and eBooks

If you'd like to have me speak at your school or conference, please send me an email at richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com or fill out the form on this page. Book me for this school year and I'll include copies of my eBook for all of the teachers in your school. 

50 Tech Tuesday Tips!

50 Tech Tuesday Tips is an eBook that I created with busy tech coaches, tech integration specialists, and media specialists in mind. In it you'll find 50 ideas and tutorials that you can use as the basis of your own short PD sessions. Get a copy today!

Other Places to Follow Me:

• The Practical Ed Tech Newsletter comes out every Sunday evening/ Monday morning. It features my favorite tip of the week and the week's most popular posts from Free Technology for Teachers.
• My YouTube channel has more than 44,000 subscribers watching my short tutorial videos on a wide array of educational technology tools. 
• I've been Tweeting as @rmbyrne for fifteen years. 
• I update my LinkedIn profile a time or two every week.
• The Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page features new and old posts from this blog throughout the week. 
• If you're curious about my life outside of education, you can follow me on Strava.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission. Featured image captured by Richard Byrne.

Groundhogs, AI, and Cold - The Week in Review

Good morning from Maine where the it's -17F and windy as I write this blog post. Even by Maine standards it is exceptionally cold. How cold? The ski school where I teach on the weekends is closed today due to the wind and cold. Instead of skiing today we'll be doing some baking and some art projects. I'm looking forward to some warm chocolate chip cookies this afternoon after I ride my indoor training bike. I hope that you have something fun to do this weekend regardless of the weather. 

These were the week's most popular posts:
1. Get Ready for Groundhog Day With These Short Lessons
2. The Makers of ChatGPT Have Launched a Tool to Detect Text Written With AI
3. GPTZero - Another Tool to Detect Writing Created by AI
4. 75 Google Documents Tutorials
5. How to Map Spreadsheet Data on Felt
6. 27 Google Drive Tips and Tricks
7. Three Things You Should Know How to Do With TinyURL

Workshops and eBooks

If you'd like to have me speak at your school or conference, please send me an email at richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com or fill out the form on this page. Book me for this school year and I'll include copies of my eBook for all of the teachers in your school. 

50 Tech Tuesday Tips!

50 Tech Tuesday Tips is an eBook that I created with busy tech coaches, tech integration specialists, and media specialists in mind. In it you'll find 50 ideas and tutorials that you can use as the basis of your own short PD sessions. Get a copy today!

Other Places to Follow Me:

• The Practical Ed Tech Newsletter comes out every Sunday evening/ Monday morning. It features my favorite tip of the week and the week's most popular posts from Free Technology for Teachers.
• My YouTube channel has more than 44,000 subscribers watching my short tutorial videos on a wide array of educational technology tools. 
• I've been Tweeting as @rmbyrne for fifteen years. 
• I update my LinkedIn profile a time or two every week.
• The Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page features new and old posts from this blog throughout the week. 
• If you're curious about my life outside of education, you can follow me on Strava.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission. Featured image captured by Richard Byrne.

The Most Popular Posts of the Month on Free Technology for Teachers

Good evening from Maine where the sun has set on the month of January. It was a busy and fun month for me. I hope it was a good start to the year for you as well. 

This month I hosted a new Practical Ed Tech course called How to Create and Sell Your Digital Products in 2023. Dozens of people joined me in the course and many more have asked when I'll host it again. The answer is, soon. Subscribe to my weekly newsletter to find out when my next course is open for registration. When you subscribe you'll also get my tip of the week sent directly to your inbox at the start of every week. 

Thank you to everyone who supported my work this month by taking one of my courses, sharing a post with your colleagues, or simply sending a note to say hello. I appreciate it very much! I couldn't keep this going without you!

These were the most popular posts in January:
1. 27 Google Drive Tips and Tricks
2. Dozens of Tutorials for Getting Started With Google Forms
3. Dozens of PowerPoint Tips & Tricks
4. Dozens of Google Slides Tutorials
5. AI Writing Check
6. A Cool Tool for Uncluttering and Saving Online Articles
7. How to Sort Google Sheets and Forms Entries in Reverse Chronological Order
8. Students Can Create Their Own Video Games With Construct 3
9. BookWidgets Adds a New Video Quiz Option to Use in Google Classroom and Beyond
10. Three Ways to Create Your Own Mobile App

Workshops and eBooks

If you'd like to have me speak at your school or conference, please send me an email at richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com or fill out the form on this page. Book me for this school year and I'll include copies of my eBook for all of the teachers in your school. 

50 Tech Tuesday Tips!

50 Tech Tuesday Tips is an eBook that I created with busy tech coaches, tech integration specialists, and media specialists in mind. In it you'll find 50 ideas and tutorials that you can use as the basis of your own short PD sessions. Get a copy today!

Other Places to Follow Me:

• The Practical Ed Tech Newsletter comes out every Sunday evening/ Monday morning. It features my favorite tip of the week and the week's most popular posts from Free Technology for Teachers.
• My YouTube channel has more than 44,000 subscribers watching my short tutorial videos on a wide array of educational technology tools. 
• I've been Tweeting as @rmbyrne for fifteen years. 
• I update my LinkedIn profile a time or two every week.
• The Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page features new and old posts from this blog throughout the week. 
• If you're curious about my life outside of education, you can follow me on Strava.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission. Featured image captured by Richard Byrne.

Skeletons, Slides, and Snow - The Week in Review

Good morning from Maine where there is a lot snow covering the ground. We had two big snow storms this week that cumulatively brought about 22" of new snow to my neighborhood. So as you might have already guessed, we're going skiing today! I spent last night sharpening the edges and putting fresh wax on all of skis my family owns. We're ready to go! I hope that you have something equally exciting in store for your weekend. 

These were the week's most popular posts:
1. 27 Google Drive Tips and Tricks
2. Dozens of PowerPoint Tips & Tricks
3. eSkeletons - Digital Comparisons of Mammal Skeletons
4. 45 Digital Mapping Tutorials
5. Using Google Slides to Organize Research
6. A Classic Search Lesson from My Archives
7. How to Find the Source for Images in Google Slides

Workshops and eBooks

If you'd like to have me speak at your school or conference, please send me an email at richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com or fill out the form on this page. Book me for this school year and I'll include copies of my eBook for all of the teachers in your school. 

50 Tech Tuesday Tips!

50 Tech Tuesday Tips is an eBook that I created with busy tech coaches, tech integration specialists, and media specialists in mind. In it you'll find 50 ideas and tutorials that you can use as the basis of your own short PD sessions. Get a copy today!

Other Places to Follow Me:

• The Practical Ed Tech Newsletter comes out every Sunday evening/ Monday morning. It features my favorite tip of the week and the week's most popular posts from Free Technology for Teachers.
• My YouTube channel has more than 44,000 subscribers watching my short tutorial videos on a wide array of educational technology tools. 
• I've been Tweeting as @rmbyrne for fifteen years. 
• I update my LinkedIn profile a time or two every week.
• The Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page features new and old posts from this blog throughout the week. 
• If you're curious about my life outside of education, you can follow me on Strava.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission. Featured image captured by Richard Byrne.

Slides, Apps, and Adventure - The Week in Review

Good morning from Maine where yesterday's snow storm has coating the ground with about eight inches of fluffy snow. Everyone in my house is excited to go play in it! We're going skiing! 

Earlier this week my older daughter's school was closed for the day so we had a little daddy-daughter day in which we explored the beach. If you've never taken a winter day to explore the beach, do it. We found all kinds of neat seashells and driftwood. 

I hope that you had a great week and that you have a great weekend!

These were the week's most popular posts:
1. 27 Google Drive Tips and Tricks
2. Dozens of PowerPoint Tips & Tricks
3. Dozens of Google Slides Tutorials
4. Three Ways to Create Your Own Mobile App
5. Why You Should Clean Your Phone
6. Tools for Teaching Adventure - A New OPEN Phys Ed Resource
7. Students Can Create Their Own Video Games With Construct 3

Workshops and eBooks

If you'd like to have me speak at your school or conference, please send me an email at richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com or fill out the form on this page. Book me for this school year and I'll include copies of my eBook for all of the teachers in your school. 

50 Tech Tuesday Tips!

50 Tech Tuesday Tips is an eBook that I created with busy tech coaches, tech integration specialists, and media specialists in mind. In it you'll find 50 ideas and tutorials that you can use as the basis of your own short PD sessions. Get a copy today!

Other Places to Follow Me:

• The Practical Ed Tech Newsletter comes out every Sunday evening/ Monday morning. It features my favorite tip of the week and the week's most popular posts from Free Technology for Teachers.
• My YouTube channel has more than 44,000 subscribers watching my short tutorial videos on a wide array of educational technology tools. 
• I've been Tweeting as @rmbyrne for fifteen years. 
• I update my LinkedIn profile a time or two every week.
• The Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page features new and old posts from this blog throughout the week. 
• If you're curious about my life outside of education, you can follow me on Strava.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission. Featured image captured by Richard Byrne.

Forms, Games, and Images - The Week in Review

Good morning from Maine where the sun is rising on what should be a nice winter day. It's nice to see the sun after a couple of days of clouds, snow, and a bit of rain. We're headed out to take and teach ski lessons this weekend. I hope that you also have something fun scheduled for the weekend. 

This week I started my first course of the new year. I have more scheduled for later this year. Subscribe to my Practical Ed Tech newsletter to be notified when my next course opens for enrollment. That newsletter contains my tip of the week and a summary of the most popular posts from this blog. 

These were the week's most popular posts:
1. Dozens of Tutorials for Getting Started With Google Forms
2. Students Can Create Their Own Video Games With Construct 3
3. 5 Google Docs Features You Might Have Overlooked or Forgotten About
4. How to Convert Google Forms into Microsoft Forms
5. I'm Feeling Lucky - Around the World With Google Earth
6. BookWidgets Adds a New Video Quiz Option to Use in Google Classroom and Beyond
7. An Important Tip for Using Image Search in Google Slides 

Workshops and eBooks

If you'd like to have me speak at your school or conference, please send me an email at richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com or fill out the form on this page. Book me for this school year and I'll include copies of my eBook for all of the teachers in your school. 

50 Tech Tuesday Tips!

50 Tech Tuesday Tips is an eBook that I created with busy tech coaches, tech integration specialists, and media specialists in mind. In it you'll find 50 ideas and tutorials that you can use as the basis of your own short PD sessions. Get a copy today!

Other Places to Follow Me:

• The Practical Ed Tech Newsletter comes out every Sunday evening/ Monday morning. It features my favorite tip of the week and the week's most popular posts from Free Technology for Teachers.
• My YouTube channel has more than 44,000 subscribers watching my short tutorial videos on a wide array of educational technology tools. 
• I've been Tweeting as @rmbyrne for fifteen years. 
• I update my LinkedIn profile a time or two every week.
• The Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page features new and old posts from this blog throughout the week. 
• If you're curious about my life outside of education, you can follow me on Strava.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission. Featured image captured by Richard Byrne.

Contests, Maps, and Drawings - The Week in Review

Good morning from Maine where normal winter weather has returned. It's cold and clear as I get ready to head out to our local ski area. Last weekend it was warm enough that my family went skiing one day and rode our bikes outside the next. This weekend we'll be sticking to the snow sports. I hope that you have something equally fun planned for your weekend. 

This week a bunch of people registered for my new course on creating and selling digital products. If you're interested in joining the course, there is still time to register. 

These were the week's most popular posts:
1. StudentCam 2023 - Only Three Weeks Left
2. A Cool Tool for Uncluttering and Saving Online Articles
3. How to Include Google Maps in Your Google Documents and Canva Documents
4. How to Sort Google Sheets and Forms Entries in Reverse Chronological Order
5. How to Create Map Overlays
6. Two Ways to Create Short Audio Recordings to Share via QR Code
7. How to Spell "No One" and Other Fun Lessons from Drawings Of...

Workshops and eBooks

If you'd like to have me speak at your school or conference, please send me an email at richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com or fill out the form on this page. Book me for this school year and I'll include copies of my eBook for all of the teachers in your school. 

50 Tech Tuesday Tips!

50 Tech Tuesday Tips is an eBook that I created with busy tech coaches, tech integration specialists, and media specialists in mind. In it you'll find 50 ideas and tutorials that you can use as the basis of your own short PD sessions. Get a copy today!

Other Places to Follow Me:

• The Practical Ed Tech Newsletter comes out every Sunday evening/ Monday morning. It features my favorite tip of the week and the week's most popular posts from Free Technology for Teachers.
• My YouTube channel has more than 44,000 subscribers watching my short tutorial videos on a wide array of educational technology tools. 
• I've been Tweeting as @rmbyrne for fifteen years. 
• I update my LinkedIn profile a time or two every week.
• The Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page features new and old posts from this blog throughout the week. 
• If you're curious about my life outside of education, you can follow me on Strava.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission. Featured image captured by Richard Byrne.

Skiing, Puzzling, and Overlooking - The Week in Review

Good morning from Maine where it's overcast and unseasonably warm. I took most of the week off to ski with my kids, teach some skiing lessons to other kids, and give my mind a little rest from thinking about educational technology. I hope that you have had a great week as well. 

As we're on the cusp of the New Year I'd like to say thank you to all of you who supported my work in 2022. An especially big thank you to those who enrolled in one of my courses, purchased one of my eBooks, or invited me to speak at your school. I couldn't keep this blog going without you. Thank you!

These were the week's most popular posts:
1. Short Lessons on How Snow is Made
2. Best of 2022 - My Favorite Chrome Extensions
3. Best of 2022 - Five Good Resources for Learning About Airplanes and Airlines
4. Best of 2022 - Exposing DMCA Email Scams
5. Best of 2022 - The Science of Winter Olympic Sports
6. Best of 2022 - A Fun Map Puzzle
7. Best of 2022 - Overlooked Google Docs Features

50 Tech Tuesday Tips!

50 Tech Tuesday Tips is an eBook that I created with busy tech coaches, tech integration specialists, and media specialists in mind. In it you'll find 50 ideas and tutorials that you can use as the basis of your own short PD sessions. Get a copy today!

Workshops and eBooks

If you'd like to have me speak at your school or conference, please send me an email at richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com or fill out the form on this page. Book me for this school year and I'll include copies of my eBook for all of the teachers in your school. 

Other Places to Follow Me:

• The Practical Ed Tech Newsletter comes out every Sunday evening/ Monday morning. It features my favorite tip of the week and the week's most popular posts from Free Technology for Teachers.
• My YouTube channel has more than 44,000 subscribers watching my short tutorial videos on a wide array of educational technology tools. 
• I've been Tweeting as @rmbyrne for fifteen years. 
• I update my LinkedIn profile a time or two every week.
• The Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page features new and old posts from this blog throughout the week. 
• If you're curious about my life outside of education, you can follow me on Strava.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission. Featured image captured by Richard Byrne.

Generators, Animations, and Snow - The Week in Review

Good morning from Maine where the wind is howling and the temperature is rapidly dropping. We had planned to ski today, but the wind and ice has altered our plans. So instead of skiing we'll putter around the house making sure everything is ready for Santa to visit tonight. I predict some cookie eating and hot cocoa drinking is also in our near future. I hope that you have something equally fun and relaxing to do today. 

There were two developments in my professional life this week. First, I got hired to be a part-time ski instructor at our local ski mountain. I've always said that I'd like to teach physical education, this is probably as close as I'll ever get to that. Second, this week I announced a new online course that I'll be teaching over the course of four weeks in January. 

These were the week's most popular posts:
1. How a Generator Works - And Other Short Lessons About Generating Electricity
2. 17 Tools for Collaboratively Creating Mind Maps and Flowcharts
3. How to Collect Pictures Through Google Forms
4. Slideator - Add Your Voice to Almost Any Type of Slideshow
5. How to Clip Sections of Your YouTube Videos
6. Some Thoughts About AI in Education
7. Create Animations from Audio in Adobe Express

50 Tech Tuesday Tips!

50 Tech Tuesday Tips is an eBook that I created with busy tech coaches, tech integrators, and media specialists in mind. In it you'll find 50 ideas and tutorials that you can use as the basis of your own short PD sessions. Get a copy today!

Workshops and eBooks

If you'd like to have me speak at your school or conference, please send me an email at richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com or fill out the form on this page. Book me for this school year and I'll include copies of my eBook for all of the teachers in your school. 

Other Places to Follow Me:

• The Practical Ed Tech Newsletter comes out every Sunday evening/ Monday morning. It features my favorite tip of the week and the week's most popular posts from Free Technology for Teachers.
• My YouTube channel has more than 44,000 subscribers watching my short tutorial videos on a wide array of educational technology tools. 
• I've been Tweeting as @rmbyrne for fifteen years. 
• The Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page features new and old posts from this blog throughout the week. 
• If you're curious about my life outside of education, you can follow me on Strava.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission. Featured image captured by Richard Byrne.

Slides, Experiments, and Skis - The Week in Review

Good morning from Maine where everything is covered in snow this morning! The first proper snowstorm of the year rolled in yesterday and it's still snowing as I write this morning. After I take care of shoveling it will be time for fun in the snow. My oldest daughter has been eagerly anticipating getting out on her skis so we're going to do that this weekend. We also have tickets to see a Disney on Ice performance this weekend. It's going to be a fun-filled weekend for us. I hope that you're weekend is equally fun!

Before I head out to do some snow removal, I have this week's list of the most popular posts to share with you. 

These were the week's most popular posts:
1. A New Google Slides Feature That Could Help Reduce Collaborator Confusion
2. Color Our Collections - National Portrait Gallery Coloring Pages
3. Get Your Free Copy of The 2022-23 Practical Ed Tech Handbook
4. Ten Canva Features for Students - An Experiment
5. A Short Overview of ChatGPT
6. Artificial Intelligence in Canva Documents
7. Can I Use That Picture? - A Short Guide to Using Pictures from the Web

50 Tech Tuesday Tips!

50 Tech Tuesday Tips is an eBook that I created with busy tech coaches, tech integrators, and media specialists in mind. In it you'll find 50 ideas and tutorials that you can use as the basis of your own short PD sessions. Get a copy today!

Workshops and eBooks

If you'd like to have me speak at your school or conference, please send me an email at richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com or fill out the form on this page. Book me for this school year and I'll include copies of my eBook for all of the teachers in your school. 

Other Places to Follow Me:

• The Practical Ed Tech Newsletter comes out every Sunday evening/ Monday morning. It features my favorite tip of the week and the week's most popular posts from Free Technology for Teachers.
• My YouTube channel has more than 43,000 subscribers watching my short tutorial videos on a wide array of educational technology tools. 
• I've been Tweeting as @rmbyrne for fifteen years. 
• The Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page features new and old posts from this blog throughout the week. 
• If you're curious about my life outside of education, you can follow me on Strava.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission. Featured image captured by Richard Byrne.

Get Your Free Copy of The 2022-23 Practical Ed Tech Handbook

Near the start of every school year I publish an updated version of The Practical Ed Tech Handbook. This year it took me a bit longer than usual to get it done and I didn't send it out until mid-September. Since then I made a few minor edits to it (mostly to correct grammatical mistakes that I missed earlier). If you didn't get your copy earlier this school year, The Practical Ed Tech Handbook is now available for free to anyone who is subscribed to The Practical Ed Tech Newsletter or who registers for it here. 

This year’s edition of The Practical Ed Tech Handbook has 58 pages divided into thirteen sections.

1. Communication with students and parents – page 5
2. Creating Blogs & Websites – page 9
3. Web search strategies – page 15
4. Digital citizenship – page 17
5. Video creation and flipped lessons – page 22
6. Audio recording and publishing – page 31
7. Backchannels and formative assessment – page 32
8. Digital portfolios – page 36
9. Augmented and Virtual Reality – page 38
10. Intro to Programming and Makerspaces – page 43
11. Accessibility Tools – page 48
12. DIY Game Creation – page 54
13. Helpful things that don’t fit into one category – page 56

You can get your free copy of The Practical Ed Tech Handbook when you subscribe to The Practical Ed Tech Newsletter right here.

Canva, Search, and Goodbye - The Week in Review

Good morning from Maine where it's a cold and breezy December morning. It was a busy and sad week here at the Free Technology for Teachers world headquarters (AKA, my house). This week I hosted or co-hosted a couple of webinars including the last live episode of Two Ed Tech Guys Take Questions and Share Cool Stuff. And on Wednesday morning, we said goodbye to our loyal dog, Mason. 

Mason was a great dog that we adopted when he was already nine years old. He was by the side of our daughters for all of their lives. Until he got too weak to climb the stairs on his own, every evening he would check my daughters' bedrooms before he settled down for the evening. As we said a few times this week, there were times when it seemed like he was the only one not going crazy in our house in the days of having two babies who didn't sleep through the night. We miss him. 

And now for what you expected on Saturday morning, here's the list of this week's most popular posts:

1. 50 Canva Tutorials for Teachers
2. A Few New Search Tools from Google
3. Ten Good Tools for Making Multimedia Timelines
4. Biographies in Infographic Form
5. A Handful of Resources for Computer Science Education Week
6. How to Correctly Use Google Images to Find Pictures for Your Projects
7. Interactive Math & Science Simulations for Online and Offline Use

50 Tech Tuesday Tips!

50 Tech Tuesday Tips is an eBook that I created with busy tech coaches, tech integrators, and media specialists in mind. In it you'll find 50 ideas and tutorials that you can use as the basis of your own short PD sessions. Get a copy today!

Workshops and eBooks

If you'd like to have me speak at your school or conference, please send me an email at richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com or fill out the form on this page. Book me for this school year and I'll include copies of my eBook for all of the teachers in your school. 

Other Places to Follow Me:

• The Practical Ed Tech Newsletter comes out every Sunday evening/ Monday morning. It features my favorite tip of the week and the week's most popular posts from Free Technology for Teachers.
• My YouTube channel has more than 43,000 subscribers watching my short tutorial videos on a wide array of educational technology tools. 
• I've been Tweeting as @rmbyrne for fifteen years. 
• The Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page features new and old posts from this blog throughout the week. 
• If you're curious about my life outside of education, you can follow me on Strava.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission. Featured image captured by Richard Byrne.