Flowcharts Explained by Common Craft - And How to Make Them

Common Craft has released a new explanatory video all about flowcharts. The new video explains what a flowchart is, why they are used, what they can be used for, and the structure of a basic flowchart.



Applications for Education
After your students learn what flowcharts are and what they are used for, have them try making their own flowcharts. They can make flowcharts on paper or use a digital tool. The benefit of using a digital tool to make a flowchart is that students can invite collaborators to work on make the flowchart as good and accurate as possible. Here's an overview of how to make a flowchart in Google Drawings. An overview of how to make a flowchart with Padlet can be watched here.



Disclosure: I have a long-standing in-kind relationship with Common Craft.

How to Use Your Own VR Tours in Google Expeditions

Google's VR Tour Creator is probably my favorite new tool of the last year. I love being able to make my own virtual reality tours and share them with others. Recently, Google added support for VR Tour Creator tours to the Android version of Google Expeditions. This means that you can create your own VR tour then play it back and share it in Google Expeditions. You can even lead other people on your tour through Google Expeditions. In the following video I demonstrate how to use your VR Tour Creator tours in Google Expeditions.


To learn how to use the VR Tour Creator, watch this video.


Watch this video for an overview of how to lead students in Google Expeditions.

What Makes It Windy? - Lessons for Kids

The wind has been howling here in Maine for the last two days. As my daughter says, "it's soooo windy." She asked me this morning why it was so windy outside. That's a hard concept for a two year old to grasp, but I tried my best to explain it to her. If you have kids who are a little bit older than mine, the following videos do a good job of explaining what creates wind.

Crash Course Kids covered the question "what makes the wind?" in a video released a few years ago. The video uses the backdrop of a beach to illustrate the roles of temperature and air pressure in creating windy conditions.


Met Office is a YouTube channel that produces weekly videos about meteorology. They covered the question of "what causes wind to blow?" in the following short video. The video does not have any narration, just subtitles. I prefer the visuals in the Met Office video to the ones in the Crash Course Kids video.


Applications for Education
Both videos are suitable for elementary school or middle school science lessons. Try using a tool like ClassHook's Pause Prompts or EDpuzzle to build questions into the videos.

Only Two Days Left! - Super-early Registration Discount for the Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp

It is bitterly cold here in Maine today. But summer will be here eventually and it will be glorious! The sun will rise early and stay up late, the warm breeze will blow, and the Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp will happen. If you're interested in joining us for the Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp, register by the end of February for the lowest rate.

Learn more about the Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp by watching the following video or reading the details here.

Powered by Eventbrite

Find & Replace in Google Docs

I have a bunch of template documents that I keep in my Google Docs account. Whenever I have to use one I also use the find & replace function in Google Docs. Find and Replace is a simple and convenient Google Documents function that has a ton of utility when you're re-using a document and only need to make a few minor adjustments to it. In the following video I demonstrate how to find and how to use the find & replace function in Google Docs.



Applications for Education
Find & Replace can be helpful when you're re-using documents like field trip permission slips and similar forms from year to year. Rather than re-writing the whole thing, just change the few items that need to be updated.

Image credit: Image by 3dman_eu on Pixabay