How to Enable Page Level Permissions in Google Sites

Page-level permissions in Google Sites allows the creator of a site to share and grant collaborators editing access to specific pages within a site rather than giving collaborators access to edit the entire site. To use page-level permissions open your Google Site editor then click "enable page-level permissions." With page-level permissions activated you can share and allow editing for each page individually. In the video embedded below I demonstrate how to enable page level permissions in Google Sites.


Applications for Education
As I mentioned in the video, using page-level permissions is a good way to use Google Sites as a digital portfolio for your students. Give each student access to edit just the page that is assigned to him or her.

40+ Alternatives to YouTube

One of the most popular posts that I have ever written on FreeTech4Teachers.com was a list of alternatives to YouTube. Over the years I've updated the list as new sites emerged and old ones shut down. I updated the list again last night. You can see it here or here.

If you do have access to YouTube in your school, consider using tools like ViewPure and Watchkin to display videos without showing the "related" videos comments from YouTube.

How to Turn an Outline Into a Mind Map

When it comes to organizing their thoughts some students prefer to use an outline style while others see large concepts better when they're in a mind map format. Text 2 Mind Map bridges the gap between the outline format and the mind map format by providing a tools for creating both on the same page. In the video embedded below I demonstrate how to use Text 2 Mind Map.

Write Music in Google Documents

VexTab Music Notation is a Google Documents Add-on that lets you write music notation in Google Documents. With the Add-on installed you can write standard music notation, drum notation, and guitar tablature in a Google Document. To do this simply open the Add-on from your Add-on's menu, select "insert VexTab," then start writing. When you have finished writing a segment click "insert notation" to add it to your document. The inserted notation appears as an image in your document. Click here for a tutorial on writing VexTab notation.

Applications for Education
VexTab Music Notation could be a good Add-on for students in a music theory course who have been asked to write a few bars of music. The Add-on could also be useful to teachers who want to create some sample music as an instructional aid.

5 Educational & Interesting Media Collections In the Internet Archive

The Internet Archive is a huge library of books, music, videos, images, spoken audio recordings, and more. The Internet Archive can be a great place to search for content to use as part of a lesson. For example, the Television Archive News Search is good place to find video clips to use in lessons about events of the 20th and 21st centuries. Students may also find media public domain media in the Internet Archive that they can use in building multimedia presentations.

Here are five collections in the Internet Archive that are of interest to teachers and students.

1. The LibriVox free audiobook collection contains more than 9,000 audiobooks that can be streamed and or downloaded for listening on your computer.


2. As mentioned above, the Television Archive News Search is a good place to find news videos about events in the 20th and 21st centuries. You can search this collection by topic and or television network.

3. The NASA eClips collection contains more than 200 videos about a wide range of topics including the International Space Station, telescopes, weather, and physics. The clips are available to download or watch online.


4. Your students might not be able to visit the New York Public Library in person, but they can certainly access a lot of it online. The New York Public Library collection in the Internet Archive contains more than 100,000 titles.

5. 78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings is a collection of early 20th century recordings. In the collection you will find a lot of music of the time along with some spoken audio recordings. This is a collection worth bookmarking for use in a music history/ appreciation course.


Much of what you can find in the Internet Archive is in the public domain although there is plenty that is not in the public domain so check before re-using an item.