How to Quickly Create Animated Maps

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about new mapping tool called Mult Dev. It's a free tool that lets you quickly create animated maps. In the time since I wrote about Mult Dev a couple of updates were made to it. The most notable of those being that you now need to sign into the service with a Google account or a GitHub account. In this short video I demonstrate how to create an animated map with Mult Dev. 


Applications for Education
As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, Mult Dev probably isn't a great option for mapping short journeys or connections between cities that are relatively close together. Rather, it's a good tool for showing students distances between cities that are far apart like Boston and San Francisco or San Francisco and Sydney.

A feature of Mult Dev that I'd like to see in the future is an option to adjust the speed of animation based on the distances between cities. For example, I'd like to have the animation slow down when showing the distance between Sydney and San Francisco then speed up when showing the distance between San Francisco and Boston.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission. Sites that steal my (Richard Byrne's) work include CloudComputin and WayBetterSite. Featured graphic created by Richard Byrne using Canva.

Read and Transcribe Walt Whitman's Notebooks and Diaries

A few years ago the Library of Congress launched a crowd sourcing project called Crowd. The purpose of the project is to enlist the help of the public to transcribe thousands of primary source documents that are housed by and have been scanned by the Library of Congress. Over the years there have been collections of documents from the American Civil War, papers from the American Revolution, presidential papers, documents about suffrage, and documents about the integration of Major League Baseball. Currently, the LOC is seeking help transcribing a collection of Walt Whitman's notes and diaries. 

Anyone can participate in the LOC's Crowd project to transcribe documents in the Walt Whitman collection of notes and diaries. To get started simply go to the collection and choose a document. Your chosen document will appear on the left side of the screen and a field for writing your transcription appears on the right side of the screen. After you have completed your transcription it is submitted for peer review. A demonstration of the process is included in the video below.



Applications for Education
The LOC's Crowd project is a good opportunity for high school students and some middle school students to learn about Walt Whitman while contributing to a national project. All of the collections in Crowd do have timelines and some other resources that help to provide context for the documents that are in need of transcription.

The Smithsonian has a similar crowdsourcing project called Smithsonian Digital Volunteers.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission. Sites that steal my (Richard Byrne's) work include CloudComputin and WayBetterSite. Featured image, public domain. 

Moving from OneDrive to Google Drive

On Monday I shared directions for moving from Google Drive to OneDrive. I did that to help people who are leaving a school district that uses Google Workspaces for one that is using Office 365. Of course, it also happens that at the end of the school year some people will leave an Office 365 environment for a Google Workspaces environment. If that's the case for you, watch this short video that I created for you. 

In the video I demonstrate how to download files from your OneDrive account and then upload them to a Google Drive account. In the video I also point out the small problem that occurs when you import a zip file into Google Drive. There are two remedies to that problem. The first is to use a third-party add-on in Google Drive to extract the contents of your zip file. The second is to skip the zip file and just download the individual files that you need from your OneDrive account before uploading them as individual files in your Google Drive account. Neither option is ideal, but they both work. 

On a related note, if you're leaving one school district that uses Google Workspaces for another that uses Google Workspaces, here are directions for making that move as easy as possible.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission. Sites that steal my (Richard Byrne's) work include CloudComputin and WayBetterSite. Featured graphic created by Richard Byrne using Canva.

How to Collaboratively Create Presentations With Canva

Regular readers of my blog probably know that I'm a big fan of Canva. I use it almost daily for making everything from YouTube thumbnails and presentations. And over the years I've used for making timelines, simple websites, comic strips, certificates, and lots more. In that time I've also seen Canva add new features on regular basis including an improved collaboration option. While it once was fairly clunky, the collaboration option is now as seamless and real-time as working on a Google Document. 

If you haven't tried using the collaboration option in Canva, watch my short video below to see how it works. The video includes the perspective of the original creator of a presentation and the perspective of a person who has been invited to collaborate on the presentation. 

Applications for Education

Canva's presentation design templates are far superior to the default options found in Google Slides and PowerPoint. And with the option for students to remotely collaborate while using those templates, Canva offers a great way for students working in groups to make outstanding slideshow presentations. And if they're not going to give a presentation in class, they can still use Canva's collaborative presentation tools to design and publish audio slideshow videos. 

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission. Sites that steal my (Richard Byrne's) work include CloudComputin and WayBetterSite. Featured graphic created by Richard Byrne using Canva.

Games, Maps, and Pictures - The Month in Review

Good morning from Maine where we're ending the month with a cold and rainy day. It's so chilly and damp that we have the heat on! Last week it was over 90F and I was turning getting all of our air conditioners out of winter storage. Such is life in northern New England. 

This month I wrapped up my Teaching History With Technology course. A few folks have asked if I'll offer it again during the summer. I will offer it again but I've not chosen dates. I'll announce that as soon as possible. What I do have firm dates for is The Practical Ed Tech Virtual Summer Camp. Early bird registration ends tonight! Register here. 

Finally, I hope that everyone has a great end to the school year and a well-deserved rest in June. 

These were the most popular posts in May:
1. How to Create Your Own Online Board Game
2. Fling the Teacher! - A Fun Review Game
3. Mult.dev - A New Way to Quickly Make an Animated Map
4. Ten Good Tools for Telling Stories With Pictures
5. How to Find Public Google Docs, Slides, Forms, Sheets, and Drawings
6. Combine Canva and TeacherMade to Create Online Activities
7. Brainstormer - A Collaborative Brainstorming and Voting Tool
8. Three Good Ways to Make Online Word Games
9. My Ten Favorite "Hidden" Office 365 Features
10. Ten Google Workspaces Features for Teachers You Might Be Overlooking

Register Today!

Early bird registration for the Practical Ed Tech Virtual Summer Camp ends at midnight (Eastern Time). Register for the session of your choice right here!

On-demand Professional Development

• Ten Search Strategies Students Need to Know
• A Crash Course in Making & Teaching With Video
• A Crash Course in Google Earth & Maps for Social Studies

Other Places to Follow Me:

• The Practical Ed Tech Newsletter comes out every Sunday evening/ Monday morning. It features my favorite tip of the week and the week's most popular posts from Free Technology for Teachers.
• My YouTube channel has more than 36,000 subscribers watching my short tutorial videos on a wide array of educational technology tools. 
• I've been Tweeting as @rmbyrne for fourteen years. 
• The Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page features new and old posts from this blog throughout the week. 
• And if you're curious about my life outside of education, you can follow me on Instagram or Strava.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission. Sites that steal my (Richard Byrne's) work include CloudComputin and WayBetterSite. Featured image captured by Richard Byrne.