Reindeer Facts and a Ride With Them

My daughters are very excited for Santa and his reindeer to visit our house tomorrow night. We'll be leaving out snacks for him and his reindeer. For weeks they've been asking if reindeer are real. Reindeer are real, they're just not capable of flying like Rudolph and his pals (I leave that part out when talking to my daughters).

If they still have questions about reindeer when they're older I might show them this SciShow Kids video about reindeer. 4 Facts to Know About Reindeer explains why reindeer are called caribou in North America. The lesson also teaches students how reindeer have adapted to find food and stay warm in cold weather. The video concludes with an explanation of why reindeer migrate.

Older kids and adults who want to learn a bit more about reindeer should watch this clip from BBC Earth. The video explains how reindeer stay warm in the coldest of conditions.



Another part of the same BBC series about reindeer is this Magical Finland Sleigh Ride.

This blog post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, there's a 99.9% chance that it has been used without permission by one of the many splogs that steal my work every day. 

How to Create Videos of Augmented Reality Animals

During my Best of the Web webinar on Tuesday afternoon someone asked me how I made the videos of the augmented reality animals in my house and in my yard. The answer is that I simply used the augmented reality tools that are built into Google's mobile search on Android (also available on iOS). 

To create the videos of augmented reality animals in my house I simply did a Google search for them on my Pixel 5 then chose the "view in your space" option to have the animals rendered in AR. Once the animals were rendered in AR I then just held down the record button that appears on the screen when viewing an AR object via Google mobile search. The video automatically saves to the phone and from there you can share it anywhere including YouTube and Instagram (that's where I shared a video of a hippopotamus in front of my Christmas tree). 

The whole process of making a video with augmented reality videos might sound complicated, but it's not. I demonstrated the whole process in this short video. 

Applications for Education

I think it could be fun to have students record short videos about animals in augmented reality. Then stitch together a series of the short videos to tell a story about the animals. For example, I can envision creating an entire story about the misadventures of a hippopotamus that gets loose in my neighborhood.  

This blog post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, there's a 99.9% chance that it has been used without permission by one of the many splogs that steal my work every day. 

How to Create Google Docs and PDFs With Hyperlinked Chapters

A kind reader who purchased my new ebook asked me how I was able to create the hyperlinked sections within the ebook. There are a couple of ways that it can be done, but the way that I did it is built into Google Documents. 

Like nearly every document that I create, I created 50 Tech Tuesday Tips in Google Documents. Within Google Documents there is an option to insert headers and section breaks. When you insert a header into a Google Document that header is automatically added to the index that Google Docs automatically creates for you. Those headers are automatically hyperlinked between the index and the corresponding section in your document. Then when you export the Google Document as a PDF the hyperlinked is preserved. Additionally, if you use the automatic table of contents feature in Google Docs, the table of contents is hyperlinked and preserved when you export your Google Document as a PDF. 

The whole process that I described above is demonstrated in this short video. It's one of those things that's a little easier to understand when you see it as opposed to just reading about it. 

Applications for Education
Hyperlinking sections makes it a lot easier for people to jump to sections in a long document. If you or your students are creating long reports in Google Documents, consider adding section headers to make it easier navigate.

How to Embed Blog Posts Into Canva Designs

A few weeks ago I discovered that you can embed Google Forms and Microsoft Forms into Canva designs including website design templates. Then yesterday, as I was putting together my Best of the Web presentation slides, I accidentally discovered that you can embed blog posts into Canva designs. 

The process for embedding blog posts into Canva designs is the same as it is for embedding Google Forms or Microsoft Forms into Canva designs. Simply choose the "embed" option in the Canva design editor then paste a link to the blog post into the embed field. The blog post will then appear in the design where you can resize it to fit into the design as you like. 

Watch this short video to learn how to embed blog posts into Canva designs. 

On a related note, here's how you can use Canva to create webpages.

Have you heard? I published a new ebook titled 50 Tech Tuesday Tips. It's a great resource for busy tech coaches, media specialists, and curriculum directors. 

Best of the Web 2021 - Webinar Recording and Slides

Yesterday afternoon I hosted my annual Best of the Web webinar. More than 100 people attended the live session and even more asked to view the recording and slides. As promised, you anyone can now watch the recording right here on my YouTube channel. The slides can be seen here or as embedded below as a Canva presentation. 

Best of the Web 2021 by Richard Byrne

My new ebook, 50 Tech Tuesday Tips, mentioned in the webinar can be found right here.

The tools mentioned in the webinar:

SpinnerWheel

Mote

WordTune

Volley

Flipgrid virtual backgrounds

Classroomscreen

Canva's video editor

Google's AR animals

Ziplet

Lumio

Carrd.co

Narakeet

Mouse X-Ray Goggles

PhET

Tract

Screencastify Editor

Blackbird Code

TeacherMade

Wick Editor

Glide Apps

Bitly+ TinyURL+

Demonstrations of all of the tools and services mentioned above are included in the Canva slides that I posted.