Earlier this morning I received an email from someone who is coming to the Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp for the third time. She was looking for ideas on creating augmented reality layers without using an iPad. My first thought went to Aurasma Studio. Aurasma Studio is developed by the same people that launched the very popular Aurasma iPad app three or four years ago. Aurasma Studio lets you create augmented reality layers of information within your web browser. Within Aurasma Studio you can upload trigger images that will result in an animation or video being displayed when someone views that image in the Aurasma apps. In the Aurasma Studio you specify which animations or videos will be displayed by the trigger image. You can upload your own animations and videos. To make your augmented reality trigger images more accurate, Aurasma Studio lets you set location parameters. The video below provides an overview of Aurasma Studio. I've been playing with Aurasma Studio for a little while. One of the things that you should note is that it can take a long time for your videos and or animations to upload and process. In fact, the last one that I made took almost 30 minutes to fully process. So if you're going to use this in your classroom, plan your time accordingly. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesNow You Can Choose Which Google Drive Files Are Synced for Offline AccessThe Week in Review - The Most Popular PostsHow to Create Bookmarks & Reminders With the New Google Keep Extension 

 Every week I get lots of questions from people who want to know how I started FreeTech4Teachers.com, how I maintain it, and, of course, how it helps me make a living. I'll answer those questions and any others that you have during a Google Hangout On Air on Sunday at 7pm EST. This is informal. There won't be slides or handouts, but it will be posted on my YouTube Channel. Join me! at 7pm EST on Sunday. You might even get to see my loyal assistants on air. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related Stories10 Somewhat Interesting Things About Me and Free Technology for TeachersThree Free Tools for Giving Remote PresentationsAn Informal Chat About Ed Tech Blogging - Recording 

Good morning from sunny Woodstock, Maine where I am about to head out on group bicycle ride. Winter ended early this year so we're taking advantage of the nice weather by going biking. This week more registrations arrived for the Practical Ed Tech Summer Camps. Both of them are now more than 50% full. I was down at the host hotel this week and it got me excited about once again leading these hands-on workshops. Early bird registration is available for seven more days. Here are this week's most popular posts: 1. 16 Educational Resources for Earth Day 2016 2. Scrible Edu Helps Students Organize Research 3. 100 Google Apps Tutorial Videos 4. Three Good Ways to Use All Those Pictures Students Take 5. CaptureCast - Record Screencasts on Your Chromebook 6. GeoGebra Exam Mode Lets You Choose Which Tools Your Students Can Use During Tests 7. Geopedia - A Map & Wikipedia Mashup Spring and Summer PD Opportunities With MeDiscounted early registration for the Practical Ed Tech Summer Camps is available through the end of the month. If coming to Maine isn't an option for you, take a look at the online workshops I'm hosting throughout the spring and summer.Would you like to have me speak at your school or conference?Click here to learn about my professional development services.  Please visit the official advertisers that help keep this blog going.Practical Ed Tech is the brand through which I offer PD webinars.BoomWriter provides a fantastic tool for creating writing lessons. FreshGrade is a great online digital portfolio tool.  Storyboard That is my go-to tool for creating storyboards and cartoon stories.Discovery Education & Wilkes University offer online courses for earning Master's degrees in Instructional Media.PrepFactory offers a great place for students to prepare for SAT and ACT tests.FrontRow offers adaptive online ELA and Math practice activities.  Teach n Go is a comprehensive platform for teaching online courses. The University of Maryland Baltimore County offers graduate programs for teachers.Boise State University offers a 100% online program in educational technology.EdTechTeacher is hosting host workshops in six cities in the U.S. in the summer. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesThe Week in Review - A Walk in the WoodsThe Week in Review - TransitionsThe Week in Review - The Most Popular Posts 

Earlier this evening I hosted a Google+ Hangout On Air for people who had questions related to blogging for professional purposes. It was an informal half hour in which I answered a bunch of the questions that I frequently receive in my email on that topic. A few new questions were added into the chat too. If you weren't able to make it, you can now watch the recording on my YouTube channel. (you may want to fast-forward through the first two minutes in which I was just setting things up). This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesJoin Me for a Hangout On Air About Ed Tech BloggingAurasma Studio - Create Augmented Reality In Your Web BrowserHow to Create Bookmarks & Reminders With the New Google Keep Extension 

EdTechTeacher, an advertiser on this site, has launched a new FREE video series called #ETTchat. Each week, one of their instructors posts a new video with ideas using technology in the service of learning.  Collaborative Book PublishingGoogle Slides has become a universal tool for students to use on any device. In this video, Greg Kulowiec (@gregkulowiec) shows how students could collaboratively design a book using Google Slides and then publish it with the digital publishing platform, Issuu.  Learn more about collaborative tools and ePub creation on the EdTechTeacher web site. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesThe Week in Review - The Most Popular PostsJoin Me for a Hangout On Air About Ed Tech BloggingAurasma Studio - Create Augmented Reality In Your Web Browser 

Thanks to everyone who joined me last night for the Google+ Hangout on Air about ed tech blogging. I appreciated the questions and comments that came in through Google+ and Twitter during the Hangout. Some people have emailed me asking how I set it up and how I got the recording posted so quickly last night. In the video below I demonstrate how to create a Google+ Hangout on Air. (The volume is a bit loud in this recording so you may want to turn your volume down before you hit play). Applications for Education Hosting a Google+ Hangout on Air can be a good way to host an informal professional development Q&A session. Google+ Hangouts themselves can be a good way to connect classrooms who have been blogging buddies. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesJoin Me for a Hangout On Air About Ed Tech BloggingHow to Use VideoNot.es With Google DriveThree Free Tools for Giving Remote Presentations 

Google's gallery of fonts provides a lot of style flexibility in Google Slides. Even more flexibility is available if you use the word art options in Google Slides. In the video embedded below I demonstrate the differences between using fonts and word art in Google Slides as well has how to customize your word art. Learn many more features of Google Slides and ideas for use in your classroom in my online course Getting Going With GAFE. You can even earn graduate credits through the course. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesNow You Can Choose Which Google Drive Files Are Synced for Offline AccessHow to Make Your Google Sites Mobile FriendlyAurasma Studio - Create Augmented Reality In Your Web Browser 

Adding a label cloud or tag cloud to your blog can provide visitors with a convenient way to search for older content within your blog. Rather than scrolling through your archives or performing a keyword search, visitors simply click on a label in the label cloud to find all of the posts related to that label. In the video embedded below I demonstrate how to add a label cloud to a Blogger blog. Applications for Education If you regularly label your the posts on your classroom blog, your students will thank you for adding a label cloud. When they're reviewing for final exams they will be able to simply click on a label for the topic they're studying and find all of the resources that you posted on that topic. That's much easier than trying to search through the blog archives for the month or day that you posted that handy review guide on the War of 1812 or the Pythagorean theorem. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesHow to Add Word Art to Google SlidesHow to Create a Google+ Hangout On AirJoin Me for a Hangout On Air About Ed Tech Blogging 

In response to my latest Practical Ed Tech Tip of the Week I received a bunch of requests for comparisons of screencasting tools that work on Chromebooks. So yesterday I made three screencast videos using three different screencasting tools. Add that to the one that I made on Friday with another screencast tool and you have four options for creating screencasts on a Chromebook. The four options are Nimbus Screenshot, TechSmith Snagit, CaptureCast, and Screencastify. My comments on each are listed below. The list is ranked according to my preference. Nimbus Screenshot: Nimbus Screenshot is my favorite tool on this list because of its ease of installation and it is the only tool on this list that provided a customizable countdown timer. I like the countdown timer because it gives me a few seconds to prepare to start talking over my screencast. The other tools just started recording the second that I hit the record button. Nimbus Screenshot was also the easiest to install and configure on my Chromebook. Screencasts recorded with Nimbus Screenshot can be saved to your local drive or to an online Nimbus account. I chose to save to my local drive then upload to my YouTube channel. You could also save to your local drive then share to Google Drive or another online storage service. Take a look at the video I created with Nimbus Screenshot. TechSmith Snagit: TechSmith's Snagit tool is a close second to Nimbus Screenshot. The only reason that I ranked it slightly lower is that it takes a bit of reading to understand how all of the features work, but that is to be expected when a tool has lots of options. The advantage of Snagit is that you can save your recordings directly to your Google Drive account or YouTube account. Snagit also benefits from being backed by TechSmith who is arguably the leader in screencasting tool development. From a recording standpoint, I wish that Snagit would include a countdown timer before I started to record. Check out my screencast made with Snagit for Chrome. CaptureCast: CaptureCast is the tool that I featured in a post last week. I put it on the same level as Snagit. CaptureCast was rather easy to install. Your recording length is unlimited. You can record your webcam while recording your screen which you cannot do with the Nimbus tool or Snagit. Set-up of CaptureCast is easy too. For folks who don't want to use YouTube to share recordings, CaptureCast lets you share directly to a Vimeo account. See my CaptureCast sample in this post. Screencastify: Screencastify might have the most name recognition in this list, but I like it the least of the four tools in this list. In fact, it's definitely the last one that I'd recommend to new Chromebook users. The set-up process asks a lot questions that could confuse new users. The free version limits recordings to ten minutes and puts a watermark on the recording. I was also not impressed with quality of the video recording. See my Screencastify sample to see the watermark and recording quality. Come to the Practical Ed Tech Chromebook Camp to take a deep dive into creating videos on Chromebooks. Discounted registration is available through the end of the month. Powered by Eventbrite This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesHow to Add Word Art to Google SlidesHow to Create a Google+ Hangout On AirHow to Use VideoNot.es With Google Drive 

Last night I hosted a webinar about using storyboards in the classroom. The webinar was sponsored by Storyboard That. Thanks to everyone who joined us live. If you couldn't attend the live webinar, you can now watch the recording on my YouTube channel or as embedded below. The links shared in the webinar are included in this slidedeck. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesFree Webinar - Summarizing the School Year Through StoryboardsHow to Add Word Art to Google SlidesAurasma Studio - Create Augmented Reality In Your Web Browser