Five FAQs About the Practical Ed Tech Virtual Summer Camp

Two weeks ago I announced the dates for the Practical Ed Tech Virtual Summer Camp. Since then registrations have been coming in every day. And many more people have sent me questions about registration and about the format of this virtual professional development event. In no particular order, here are the answers to the FAQs.

Is there a group discount?
Yes, there is a group discount available. You can save $50/person if you have five or more people registering from your school district. Email me for a discount code to apply to online group registrations or to initiate a PO registration.

Can I register with a purchase order or check?
Yes, you can certainly register with a purchase order. Send me an email or have your business office send me an email to initiate that process. Because of the additional paperwork and delay in receiving funds, the early registration discount doesn't apply to purchase order registrations.

Can I get CEUs/ contact hours?
You will receive a certificate from me indicating that you participated in ten hours of professional development time. Whether or not your school, state, or province will accept it for license/ certificate renewal is a determination that you will have to make. The rules about CEUs vary widely from state-to-state and I can't possibly keep track of them all.

What platform are you using for the webinars?
All of the webinars will be conducted through the GoToWebinar platform. I've tried many other webinar services, but I keep coming back to GoToWebinar because of it's reliability. I've used it for almost a decade for hundreds of webinars. You can access GoToWebinar on any computer or tablet.

Will the sessions be recorded?
Yes, all of the live webinars will be recorded. If you have to miss a session, you'll be able to watch the recording. That said, I find that people get the most out of webinars when they can attend live broadcasts and ask questions in real-time. Therefore, I encourage you to pick the Practical Ed Tech Virtual Summer Camp session that works best with your schedule.

Register Here

An Important Setting for Using Audio and Video in Google Slides

Last fall Google finally added an option to insert audio files into Google Slides without the need for any third-party add-ons. While it wasn't as good as some people hoped it would be, it was still great news for Google Slides users.

There are some quirks to adding audio to Google Slides. One is that you have to record your audio outside of Google Slides then upload it to Google Drive and then add it into your presentation. The other quirk is that you have to change the sharing permissions on your audio file if you want people who view your presentation on their computers to be able to play the audio. I explain how to make that change and why it's important in this new video.


As I mentioned in the video above, you also need to change permissions on video files that you insert into Google Slides from your Google Drive account. Just like with audio, if you don't change the permissions on the video, people viewing a copy of your slides on their computers won't be able to play the video.

How to Deploy G Suite Add-ons Across a Domain

From time to time a reader will ask me if there is a way to install a Google Docs or Google Sheets add-on for his or her students. This is possible if you are a G Suite domain administrator. Otherwise, ask your G Suite domain administrator to do it for you. In the following video I demonstrate how to deploy a G Suite add-on for all users or a subset of users within a domain.


Applications for Education
Deploying an add-on across a domain is not only a time-saver for teachers and students, it's also a way for domain administrators to make sure that the add-on meets all of the requirements of your school's data policies.

Classright - A Google Sheets Add-on for Bulk Management of Google Classroom

Classright is a new Google Sheets add-on for managing multiple Google Classroom classes in one place. I gave it a try this morning and found it to have great potential as a time-saver at the beginning and end of a semester or school year.

There are eight things that you can do with Classright in Google Sheets. Those eight things are:

1. Create courses. 
2. Archive courses.
3. View lists of courses. 
4. Invite students to courses.
5. Add students to courses in bulk (G Suite admins only).
6. Delete students from courses. 
7. List all students. 
8. List students by course. 

Who should try this add-on?

The set-up of the add-on after the installation does require a fair bit of effort. So if you're an elementary school teacher who only has one Google Classroom course to manage, Classright probably isn't worth investing your time into learning. If you're a G Suite administrator who wants to set-up classes on behalf of all teachers in an elementary school, then Classright is definitely going to be a time-saver for you. Likewise, high school teachers who have multiple sections of courses to manage can benefit from using Classright to create and manage Google Classroom classes. 

What I'd like to see from this add-on. 

My dream is that an option to post announcements and assignments from a Google Sheet is added to Classright. 

The developer of Classright has a thorough set of tutorials available on his website. Take a look at his tutorial videos to get started getting the most out of Classright's potential uses. 

The Geometry of Castles - A Math Lesson in Google Earth

In the web browser version of Google Earth there is a section called Voyager. Within the Voyager section you'll find lots of pre-made tours, quizzes, and activities. One of those activities is called The Geometry of Castles.

The Geometry of Castles is a Google Earth Voyage that you can use to teach short lessons on angles and calculating line of sight distance. The voyage takes viewers to five castles around the world to illustrate these concepts. For teachers there is a handy guide available from Media4Math.

Media4Math has two other Voyages featured in Google Earth. Those are The Geometry of Sustainable Architecture and Triangular Structures. Media4Math offers helpful guides for teachers for both of those Voyages in Google Earth.


Applications for Education
For more than a decade I've encouraged teachers to look at Google Earth as being a tool that can be used for more than just social studies lessons. Sites like Google Lit Trips and Real World Math are dedicated to using Google Earth for language arts and math lessons. The obstacle to adoption of those ideas for many teachers was the requirement to install Google Earth on students' computers. Now that Google Earth can be used in Chrome, math lessons using Google Earth are accessible to more teachers and students than ever before.

We'll talking about Google Earth, VR Tour Builder, and other virtual tour activities in the Practical Ed Tech Virtual Summer Camp. Register here.