Google Keep for iOS - Organize Ideas and Task Lists

Google Keep is one of my favorite Android apps. I use it for setting reminders and creating task lists on my phone. Occasionally, I'll even use it to organize my thoughts in a series of sticky notes.

This week Google made Keep available as an iOS app. The iOS version of Keep works just like the Android and Chrome versions. On Google Keep you can create sticky notes to use simple text notes, as bookmarks, or as reminders with dates and times. You can color code your notes and arrange them by dragging and dropping them into any order you like. And like most things in your Google Account all of the notes in your Google Keep account will sync across all of your devices.


Applications for Education
Using the color-coding aspect of notes in Google Keep could be a nice way for students to construct an outline for a research paper or presentation.

Google Keep can be an excellent to-do list app for students. Students can color code notes, make lists, and share notes.

Best of the Web - Autumn 2015

This morning at the 21st Century Technology and Learning Symposium in Ponoka, Alberta I gave the latest version of my popular Best of the Web presentation. The presentation included some old favorites mixed with some new favorites. Some of the old favorites in the slides continue to update which is why they continue to be in this slide deck. The slides are embedded below.


If you would like to me speak at your event, please click here for more information.

My Reading Mapped is Back!

At about this time two years ago I wrote a post about a great collection of Google Maps and Earth files called My Reading Mapped. Suddenly, six months ago it went offline. This morning I received an email from the developer of My Reading Mapped. The email was an announcement that he has relaunched the site.

On My Reading Mapped you will find KML files (AKA Google Maps & Earth files) for things like historical migration and trade routes, monarchies and republics, famous explorer and conqueror expeditions, and climate change patterns. More than 150 maps are available to download from My Reading Mapped.

Applications for Education
My Reading Mapped is a great resource for social studies teachers to bookmark and share with students. The maps offer an excellent alternative to reading out of a textbook because students can not only read the information they can also quickly explore the areas that they are reading about.

Sorting TED-Ed Lessons by Grade Level

Yesterday, I received an email from someone who saw my post about TED-Ed's The Writer's Workshop. She was wondering if there is a way to search TED-Ed videos by grade level. That's not a function available on YouTube, but it is a function available on the TED-Ed lessons website. To sort TED-Ed lessons by grade level go to the TED-Ed lessons page then choose "student." In the "student" drop-down menu you can choose elementary school, middle school, high school, or university. You can combine grade level sorting with content search.

Applications for Education
As TED-Ed's lesson database continues to grow, being able to sort by grade level will become more and more useful in our searches for content appropriate for our students.

151 Practical Ed Tech Tips

Earlier this year I started to organize the screencast videos that I've made over the years. I called the list Practical Ed Tech Tips. Since I started that list I've made an effort to add one or two new screencasts to it every week. The playlist now contains 151 videos.

In the playlist you will find videos about tools for flipping your classroom, videos on managing workflow, social media tips, search strategies, and media production. The playlist also contains videos about tools like Remind, Duolingo, ClassDojo, Classtools, Photos for Class, and many other popular web services for teachers and students. The entire playlist is embedded below.