Two Good Tools for Building Online Discussions Around Videos

Watching videos then answering questions about them is the basic premise of a lot of flipped classroom lessons. To take that idea to higher level, invite students to ask questions and or and notations to videos that you have shared with them. Vialogues and VideoNot.es are excellent tools for building online discussions around shared videos.

VideoNotes allows you to load a video on the left side of your screen then on the right side of the screen VideoNotes gives you a notepad on which to type. VideoNot.es has a Google Drive integration which allows you to save and share notes. In the video embedded below I provide an overview of how to use VideoNot.es.



Vialogues is a website that is designed to enable users to host conversations around a video. Users can upload videos to Vialogues or use YouTube videos as the centerpieces of their conversations. After you have selected a video from YouTube or uploaded a video of your own, you can post poll questions and add comments that are tied to points in the video. Your Vialogue can be made public or private. Public Vialogue's can be embedded into your blog or website. Watch the video below to learn how to use Vialogues.

The Week in Review - A Week in Texas

A Padlet of stories.

Good afternoon from Austin, Texas where I'm waiting for a flight home after a great week here in Texas. This week I had the privilege to speak at TCEA and at Texas A&M. The highlight of the week for me was speaking to and working with undergrads at Texas A&M who are studying to become elementary school teachers. It was so invigorating to see their excitement to learn about and try new tech tools. The picture to the left is of the Padlet wall that they filled with stories they created with Pic-Collage and Thinglink.

Here are this week's most popular posts:
1. My Three Favorite Classroom Timer Tools
2. Click to Spin - A Fun and Free Random Name Picker
3. Students Can Compare Maps Side-by-Side in GE Teach
4. Create a Single Dashboard for All of Your Cloud Storage Accounts
5. Limnu - Create Collaborative Online Whiteboards
6. Three Examples of Students Creating Real-World Products to Solve Problems That Mattered to Them
7. Annotation Studio - Annotate Shared Documents With Text, Video, and Images

Would you like to have me speak at your school or conference?

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Please visit the official advertisers that help keep this blog going.

Practical Ed Tech is the brand through which I offer PD webinars.

BoomWriter provides a fantastic tool for creating writing lessons. 

SlideModel offers great PowerPoint templates for teachers. 

Storyboard That is my go-to tool for creating storyboards and cartoon stories.

Discovery Education & Wilkes University offer online courses for earning Master's degrees in Instructional Media.

PrepFactory offers a great place for students to prepare for SAT and ACT tests.

The University of Maryland Baltimore County offers graduate programs for teachers.

Boise State University offers a 100% online program in educational technology.

EdTechTeacher is hosting host workshops in six cities in the U.S. in the summer.

KidzType provides a fun way to teach and learn typing skills.

More Than 4000 People Get Their Ed Tech Tips This Way

Over the last 20 months I've made a concerted effort to consistently update my YouTube channel with at least one new tutorial video every week. This morning while uploading my video about making screenshots with Evernote I noticed that there are now more than 4,000 people subscribed to my YouTube channel. If you would like to be alerted when I add new videos to my YouTube channel, please consider subscribing to it.

My two most popular YouTube playlists are embedded below.

How to Clip & Share Sections of Google Books

Earlier this week at the TCEA conference in Austin, Texas I ran a short workshop about Google Books. One of the things that we did in that session was clip and share sections of free Google ebooks. In the video embedded below I demonstrate how to clip and share sections of free Google ebooks.


Applications for Education
Clipping and sharing a section of a free Google ebook in your classroom blog is a great way to direct students to a particular passage that you want them to read and comment on. In the same blog post that you share a section of a Google ebook you should also insert some questions for students to think about and respond to in the comments of your classroom blog.

How to Create Annotated Screenshots With Evernote Web Clipper

The Evernote Web Clipper is a handy tool for teachers and students. I use it every day to bookmark websites. I also use it for creating annotated screenshots. Students can use it to clear distractions from web pages that they are reading. In the video embedded below I demonstrate how to do those three handy things with the Evernote Web Clipper.