The Practical Ed Tech Podcast - Episode 23 - Not Pink Eye!

In this episode of the Practical Ed Tech Podcast I shared some highlights from the Creativity Conference, shared some neat new ed tech tools, and answered a handful of questions from viewers, readers, and listeners. Oh, and I don't have pink eye, I just have an irritation from scratching my eyelid.

Listen to the episode here or on your favorite podcast network. The complete show notes can be found here.



Listen to all episodes of the podcast here or find them on the following podcast networks:

• Google Podcasts
• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• RadioPublic
• Pocket Casts
• Breaker
• Overcast

The Week in Review - The Most Popular Posts

Found on the vending machine
in the teachers' room at my school.

Good morning from rainy Maine. Rain in December in Maine is always a bummer because it washes away the know which means we can't ski, sled, or make a snowman. But we'll find something else fun to do today. I hope that you get to do something fun this weekend too.

This week I hosted the Practical Ed Tech Creativity Conference. If you missed one of the presentations, you can watch it on my YouTube channel. All of the presentations are available there.

These were the week's most popular posts:
1. Tools to Improve the Accessibility of Websites, Videos, and Slides
2. Add Interactive Annotations to Images With a New Classtools Tool
3. Lesson Plan, Meal Plan, and Fitness Plan Templates
4. Easy Ways to Make Your Own Apps - Webinar Recording
5. Coding + Drones = 100% Engagement - Webinar Recording
6. How to Create Interactive Images With Classtools
7. ScriptSlide - A Google Slides Add-on for Pacing Presentations

I'll come to your school in 2020! 
2020 will be my tenth year of speaking at schools and conferences. Send me an email at richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com to learn more about how we can work together.

Thank You for Your Support!

• More than 450 of you have participated in a Practical Ed Tech webinar this year. Thank you!
• Robocompass - A Robotic, Online Geometry Box.  
• Actively Learn offers thousands of high-interest academic articles for students. 
• University of Maryland, Baltimore County has been supporting this blog for many years.

Other Places to Follow My Work

Besides FreeTech4Teachers.com and the daily email digest, there are other ways to keep up with what I'm publishing. 

• Practical Ed Tech Newsletter - This comes out once per week (Sunday night/ Monday morning) and includes my tip of the week and a summary of the week's most popular posts from FreeTech4Teachers.com.
• My YouTube Channel - More than 16,000 are subscribed to my YouTube channel for my regular series of tutorial videos including more than 300 Google tools tutorials. 
• The Practical Ed Tech Podcast is where I answer questions from readers, share news and notes, and occasionally talk to interesting people in education. 
• Facebook - The FreeTech4Teachers.com Facebook page has nearly 450,000 followers. 
• Twitter - I've been Tweeting away for the last twelve years at twitter.com/rmbyrne
• Instagram - this is mostly pictures of my kids, my dogs, my bikes, my skis, and fly fishing. 

Why Should You Read Lord of the Flies - A New TED-Ed Lesson

Why You Should Read Lord of the Flies is the latest video added to TED-Ed's "why should you read..." series. There are now more than thirty videos in that series. Why You Should Read Lord of the Flies follows the same pattern as the other videos in the series. The video covers the major plot points of the story and provides a bit of background on the author and the writing of the story. Those who are looking for discussion questions to use with the video will find them here.


Applications for Education
Why Should You Read Lord of the Flies doesn't reveal anything new or particularly insightful about the story or William Golding. That said, if you're having students read the book, this video provides a nice little introduction to the story.

Using Video as a Reflective, Collaborative, and Data Collecting Tool

The last presentation of the Practical Ed Tech Creativity Conference was given by Brian Heyward who shared Using Video as a Reflective, Collaborative, and Data Collecting Tool. In his presentation Brian shared how video can be used to reflect on process/progress, collect data for informal/formal research, and to collaborate synchronously or asynchronously on the same tasks. Brian included some great tips for those wondering about how to manage and assess students' videos. The video of his presentation is now available to view here.

Using Makey Makey to Creative Assistive Technology - Webinar Recording

Yesterday afternoon Art Spencer gave an engaging presentation about some interesting Makey Makey projects that he's done with elementary school and middle school students. In the presentation Art does a great job of explaining what Makey Makey is and how his students have used it to create assistive technology devices for other students who have special needs. Watch Art's presentation here.

On a related note, Amazon has Makey Makey Invention Kits on sale right now at 29% off the regular price.