In every episode we answer questions from readers and viewers like you. We also share some cool and interesting things that we've found around the Web. Rushton tends to share cool videos and pictures while I tend to share cool tech tools. And we both try our best to give helpful answers to your questions about all things educational technology.
For the new season we're (mostly me because I'm the rambler) going to try to be a little more concise in our answers so that we can answer more questions in each episode. Please join us! And feel free to email me in advance with your questions.
This morning as I was starting to get caught up on a backlog of email I answered a question from a reader who wanted to know if I had a video about Chrome profiles that she could share with her staff. I do, here it is. In the video I demonstrate and explain the difference between signing into a Chrome profile and signing into your Google account. The video is embedded below.
The key points to remember are:
Your Chrome profile handles all of your Chrome browser preferences and settings including the extensions you like to use, bookmarks, saved passwords, and display settings (default fonts and color schemes).
Signing into your Google account is how you access things like Gmail and Google Docs.
Whenever you're done using a shared computer, you should sign out of both your Chrome profile and your Google account.
On a related note, I find it helpful to use a different profile icon for each of my Google accounts. It provides a visual reminder of which account I'm currently using. Doing that helps me avoid creating a work document in a personal account or trying to send a personal email from a work account. Here's a little video about that.
Disclosure: Screencastify is currently an advertiser on my sites.
A couple of weeks ago Screencastify announced the launch of some new features in their video editor. One of those new features is the ability to add interactive questions into your videos. You can do this with videos that you record with the Screencastify Chrome extension or with videos that you upload into your Screencastify account. Whichever type of video you choose to use, you can add multiple choice questions into the timeline of the video. In this short video I demonstrate how to add questions into your Screencastify videos.
After you've added questions to your Screencastify video you can share it with your students via Google Classroom or by sharing a direct link to your video. If you share via Google Classroom, you can use all of the standard Google Classroom options to see which of your students have completed the assignment. If you share with a direct link to your video, you'll need to require that students sign-in with an email or username in order to keep track of which students have completed the assignment. Either way, students must answer the questions in order to watch the next segement of your video. As soon as they answer a question students do know if they answered correctly or not.
The new version of the Screencastify editor is rolling out over the next couple of weeks. If you don't see the new version in your account right now, sign-up here to be notified when it is available in your account.
Applications for Education
Adding interactive questions into your instructional videos is a great way to make sure that students actually watch your lesson all the way through. It's also a good way to determine if you need to re-teach something or alter your explanation of a concept. You can do that by looking to see if there is a pattern to the answers your students choose while watching your video.
Good morning from Maine where we're getting ready for a day of outdoor fun. My youngest daughter wants to go catch a fish and my oldest daughter wants to see a moose. Fortunately, a little time in the boat on Mooselookmeguntic Lake provides a great opportunity to make both of my daughters happy. I hope that you have a happy weekend as well.
As I do early every Saturday morning, I've compiled a list of the most popular posts of the week. Take a look and see if there's something new or interesting that you can apply to your classroom.
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 37,000 subscribers watching my short tutorial videos on a wide array of educational technology tools.
I've been Tweeting as @rmbyrne for fourteen years.
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.
This is an update to a post that I published earlier this year. Since the original publication I've created a couple more Canva tutorials to bring the list to 21.
I've been using Canva to make all kinds of graphics and presentations almost since the day it was first available to the public. Over the years I've used to make greeting cards, videos, infographics, presentations, posters, timelines, comics, and many other graphics. And, at one point or another in the last five years, I've made videos about how to make all of those graphics. In not particular order, here's my complete list of Canva tutorials for teachers and students.
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, Today Headline, and 711Web.
