An Easy Way to Add To-do Lists to Google Calendar

HashtagTodo is a neat service that enables you to quickly create to-do lists in your Google Calendars. With HashtagTodo enabled in your Google Account you can create a to-do list in any of your Google Calendars by simply adding #todo to the end of any calendar event title. Once you've added the #todo to your event HashtagTodo will create a daily event listing all of your to-do items for the day. When you've completed a task on your to-do list, delete it from your calendar and it's deleted from your list. If you don't complete an item on your list for the day, it is automatically rolled over to the next day.

Applications for Education
For students who are already using Google Calendar to keep track of their schedules, HashtagTodo could be a great addition to their calendars. HashtagTodo will display students' to-do lists to them whether they use the Google Calendar mobile apps or the desktop version of Google Calendar.

Click here for five other good ways that students can keep track of their assignments this year.

H/T to Lifehacker. 

Free National Parks Passes for U.S. Fourth Grade Students

From my trip to Yellowstone in 2006.

Every Kid in a Park is a National Park Foundation initiative intended to get students and their families to explore national parks, forests, and wildlife refuges in the United States. The program provides fourth grade students in U.S. schools with a free pass to all national parks (parents and siblings also get in for free). Parents and students can register for passes individually. Teachers can click here to get passes for all of their fourth grade students.

Applications for Education
As long time readers of this blog know, I am a big advocate for getting kids outdoors to exercise, explore, and learn. Every Kid in a Park provides an excellent opportunity to introduce students to the joys of the great outdoors. To help teachers get the most out of a park visit with students, Every Kid in a Park offers some suggested field trip activities in every state in the union.

H/T to LifeHacker.

First Episode of #askRichardByrne Recorded

Last week I announced that I will be starting a new video series tentatively called #askRichardByrne. This week I recorded the first episode with my Mind Rocket Media Group partner Dr. Rod Berger. The raw video has now been sent off for editing and should be available soon on EdCircuit. In the meantime, if you have an ed tech question for me please use the hashtag #askRichardByrne on Twitter or post your questions on the EdCircuit Facebook page (a Mind Rocket Media Group property).

As I mentioned last week, I attempted to do a series like this on my own a couple of years ago and found that I didn't have the time to do all of the video editing that was necessary. By working with MindRocket Media Group I don't have to worry about that and I can just focus on answering your questions.

And, of course, you're always welcome to email me at richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com I do my best to answer all of email every week. A good way to get to the top of my priority inbox is to address me by name in your email.

Social Media & Visual Design - An Interview With Guy Kawasaki

This afternoon I had the opportunity to speak with Guy Kawasaki about his role with Canva and his upcoming keynote at iPad Summit Boston on November 17th. During the interview, embedded below, In we chatted about the role of social media in schools and visual design. At the end of the chat Guy makes his prediction for the upcoming NHL season too.


Disclosure: I have been an advisor to Canva. iPad Summit Boston is an advertiser on this blog.

Misplaced Modifiers and the World's Largest Chocolate Bunny

How Misused Modifiers Can Hurt Your Writing is a brand new TED-Ed lesson that anyone who teaches writing should bookmark. The video in the lesson is based on a newspaper headline that reads, "Thief Robs Town With World's Largest Chocolate Bunny." The video explains how misplaced modifiers create ambiguity in writing. The lesson explains and demonstrates how to avoid misplacing modifiers. Click here to view the review questions that accompany How Misused Modifiers Can Hurt Your Writing.