Canva, one of my favorite online graphic design apps, had a big announcement for schools today. They’re calling it Canva for Education. This new offering gives teachers and their students access to premium tools for absolutely no additional cost. Intrigued? I was too. Here’s what you need to know.
Read More »
Let’s be honest, no teachers needs another “Best Teacher” mug. Chances are, they already have a cupboard full of those at home. It’s not that they won’t appreciate the thought, it’s just that there are only so many mugs one person can use! So, if you are looking for something a little more unique, why not consider one of the ten techy gifts for teachers below. They’re a great way to say thank you to the educators in your life. Everything on this list can be had for $30 or less, and if you decide to buy something for yourself as well, I won’t tell!
Read More »
I know what you’re thinking. There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Well, you’re right. Apple TV+ is not completely free in the strictest sense of the word, but if you purchased some Apple products or services recently, you may be able to get it at no additional cost. Why? Apple is releasing its TV streaming service at a very competitive time. Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Hulu, HBO, and others are already well established in a crowded marketplace, so Apple decided that a good way to get to win eyeballs, (and future subscribers), is to give the service away for free. Here’s how that works.
Read More »
In August 2015, Microsoft held an internal hackathon where employees competed with other Microsoft staff from around the world to solve a problem with technology. Many of these pet projects never saw the light of day again, but the winning entry quickly grew to become an indispensable tool for a huge number of students and their teachers. It launched in January 2016 under the guise of Learning Tools for OneNote, but today you may know it better as the Immersive Reader.
Read More »
For years, IT professionals have been telling us to create strong, unique passwords in order to help us stay safe online. Not everyone knows what a strong, unique password is, but if you sign up for a new web based service, the chances are high that they will force you to choose a password that has at least 8 characters, and includes a number, a capital letter and/or a punctuation character. However, in the world of data breaches that we now live, a strong, unique password is no longer enough. Enter two factor authentication.
Read More »
Last week, Microsoft held a Surface event that took the wraps off a whole slew of new and innovative devices that the company is hoping will capture the imagination of its customers. Some of these devices were iterative versions of what is already available from Microsoft, but others were completely new product categories.
I’ve really come to admire Microsoft’s innovation. They are not afraid to push the boat out and try new things. These products don’t always pan out the way they hope, (see Surface RT), but a willingness to innovate and expand the boundaries of what is already out there, is something you have to at least respect, even if you are not a Windows user. Here’s what’s new.
Read More »
I used to use Twitter lists a lot. They were a great way of filtering out tweets and getting exactly the kind of information from the people you wanted to hear from. You can make lists of people with similar expertise, whether you follow them or not, and see all those tweets in a special timeline of their own. I had a list for the people on my team, a list for iPad Educators, a list for my favorite EdTech tweeters, a list for news sources I like, and more. Then I started using TweetDeck.
TweetDeck had columns for that kind of thing. I could add my existing Twitter lists to a column, I could also add hashtags, keep track of Twitter chats in real time, add temporary columns for conferences, and quickly switch between them, or see multiple strands at once. This meant lists became less useful to me, but that may be about to change.
Read More »