Disclosure: The Educational Technology program at Boise State University is an advertiser on this site. This program has recently expanded its 100% online Ed Tech programs for teachers and has seats available for new students who want to start this summer or fall. Each year, hundreds of K-12 teachers from across the nation enroll in these high quality programs to earn a master’s degree in educational technology or a certificate in online teaching, technology integration or school technology integration. The 100% online format is an excellent option for those who live in rural communities or those who prefer to earn a graduate degree at home in their spare time. Most educators work full time and attend classes at a time convenient for them. Those who enroll in the program learn to the best ways to blend new technology and 21st century learning theory with current lesson plans. Course content can be applied to any grade level or subject taught. The program recently was ranked one of the top online education graduate programs by U.S. News and World Report. The program also has one of the largest number of graduates nationwide each year. The admission process is simple with an online application. No GRE is required for admission to master's degree or a certificate program. To learn more visit the program website edtech.boisestate.edu Tuition is affordable and most teachers qualify for some kind of financial aid, regardless of credit history, assets or income. Many can defer student loan payments while they are enrolled in the program. Classes are filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so class size is limited to 23. New Ed.S. Degree and Games Certificate will begin this fall. The program will offer two new 100% online programs this fall---an education specialist program and a graduate certificate in educational games and simulations. To learn more, contact an admission adviser: Jerry Foster phone: (208) 426-4008 or email: jfoster@boisestate.edu Dixie Conner: phone: (619) 741-7748 or email dixieconner@boisestate.edu This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.                

In recent weeks I have featured some neat National Geographic videos about cool things in nature like birds that eat dirt and animal migrations in Yellowstone. While those videos are great, they are a bit short. For longer lessons about interesting things in nature, take a look at the TED-ED playlist called Awesome Nature. 96 videos are included in the Awesome Nature playlist. The latest addition to the playlist attempts to explain the odd behaviors of domesticated cats. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesAnother Great Resource for Learning About Mount EverestRiddle Me This - 7 TED-Ed Lessons Based on RiddlesWhat Would Happen if You Didn't Drink Water? - And 12 Other TED-Ed Lessons About the Human Body 

PBS LearningMedia has released a new series of iBooks for K-8 teachers. The series promises to provide teachers with iBooks on topics in math, English language arts, social studies, and Spanish language and culture. Each iBook will include lesson plans, videos, games, and other activities aligned to NCSS, ACTFL, and Common Core standards. Two iBooks are available now and two more will be released by the end of this month. The two that are available now are All About the Holidays and Beginning Spanish. All About the Holidays offers lesson plans for 61 holidays. Beginning Spanish is a mapped curriculum for teaching Spanish to students in third through fifth grade. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesPBS LearningMedia Seeks Digital InnovatorsPBS World Explorers - The Lives & Journeys of Famous ExplorersLOC Student Discovery Sets Put Primary Sources on Students' iPads 

Next week I'm starting a new version of an online course that I've offered a few times in the past. Teaching History With Technology is an online course designed to help you learn and develop new ideas for using technology in your history, civics, or geography lessons. Some of the things that you can learn through this three week course include how to use online mapping tools, how to help students become better researchers, build interactive timelines, and how to create engaging flipped video lessons. When?Teaching History With Technology begins on Monday, May 2nd at 7pm EST. DiscountSubscribers to any of my blogs can use the discount code "subscriber" during registration. Recordings availableEveryone who completes the registration will be able to participate in the live sessions which include Q&A and access recordings of the live sessions. PD CertificatesParticipants who attend the live sessions will be given certificates for three hours of professional development. Contact your local licensing/ certification authority to determine whether or not you can use those hours toward license/ certificate renewal.  Questions?Send me an email richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesFour Ways to Explore the News Through MapsResources for Reviewing for AP US History Exam10 Educational Resources About the American Revolution 

Earlier this week Google launched a new notifications feature for Google Drive users. You can now get an alert on your desktop whenever someone shares an item with you or when someone requests that you share an item with him or her. There have been third-party apps that did this in the past. This is the first time that Google has offered it as a native feature. Watch the video below to learn how to enable desktop notifications for Google Drive. 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 SlidesNow You Can Choose Which Google Drive Files Are Synced for Offline AccessTelling Stories With Storyboards - Webinar Recording 

Parts of this post originally appeared on my other blog, Android4Schools.  A couple of weeks ago Google added a goal setting feature to Google Calendar that helps you identify times to work on personal goals like exercising or reading for pleasure. Today, Google put some of that same technology into a new Google Calendar for Android feature that helps you identify meeting times with colleagues. The new scheduling feature works with shared Google Calendars created within Google Apps for Education or Google Apps for Work. When you need to schedule a meeting with colleagues with whom you have shared a calendar, simply tap the new "find a time" option that appears when you create the meeting event in your Google Calendar. When you tap "find a time" Google Calendar will identify potential meeting times for spaces that are open on your shared calendars. Applications for Education The new "find a time" feature in Google Calendar for Android could be a great tool for teachers who work on teams. It could also be useful to guidance counselors and other specialists who need to coordinate times for meeting with teachers and students. "Find a time" is currently available only through Google Calendar for Android, but could soon be available on iPhones too. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesThree Google Apps Updates You Might Have Missed This WeekFour Tools for Creating Screencasts on Chromebooks - A ComparisonNow You Can Choose Which Google Drive Files Are Synced for Offline Access 

As I Tweeted earlier today, Google has introduced some new options for filtering YouTube in schools. If your school uses Google Apps for Education you can now whitelist (approve for viewing) an entire YouTube channel instead of just individual videos. This means that if I want all of my history students to be able to access Tom Richey's and Keith Hughes' videos, I can  approve the whole channel which includes current videos and any future videos that are added to it. That should be a lot less time-consuming than whitelisting each video as it becomes available. Another new option is to give logged-in users access to YouTube on a strict, moderate, or unrestricted level. Google Apps administrators can change those settings for user groups or individuals. You can learn how to enable any of these new settings in the YouTube settings support documentation offered by Google. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesGoogle Calendar Now Helps You Find Mutual Meeting TimesHow to Enable Google Drive Desktop NotificationsFour Tools for Creating Screencasts on Chromebooks - A Comparison 

This morning Haiku Deck, a popular presentation creation tool, released a new iPhone app. This new app brings the features of the Haiku Deck iPad app and web app to the iPhone. The Haiku Deck apps allow anyone to create beautiful slide presentations. One of the core features of Haiku Deck that has made is popular with teachers is the integrated Creative Commons image search. Your students can search for images, insert them in high resolution into their slides, and have attribution information automatically attached to them all without leaving the app. Haiku Deck's iPhone and iPad apps allow you to use your phone or tablet as a teleprompter during presentations. Speaker notes are shown to you, but not to your audience while you are in presentation mode. If typing on a phone is a challenge, Haiku Deck's voice-to-text option offers a convenient way to add text to your slides. Applications for Education Haiku Deck does offer a share to Google Classroom option. For schools that don't have iOS devices, the Haiku Deck web app is a good option. Watch my tutorial to learn more about the Haiku Deck web app. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesKaizena for iPad - Add Voice Notes to Students' Printed Documents3 Tools for Creating Comics on iPadsWikipedia Releases an Updated App for Exploring Interesting Content 

STEM in 30 is a neat webcast produced by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The series featured 30 minute live webcasts about a variety of topics related to air and space travel and science. During the live webcasts students can submit questions to the show's hosts. Students can also submit questions in advance of each show. The next STEM in 30 episode will be webcast on May 11th. Helicopters will be the focus of the next episode. The show will be webcast live at 11am and 1pm EST. If the live webcast schedule doesn't work for you, you can access the recording of the shows. Past show topics include kites, WWII and the Tuskegee Airmen, Mars exploration, and hot air balloons. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesWhy Are Airplane Engines so Big? - How Jet Engines Work #STEMNearly 100 TED-Ed Lessons About NatureRiddle Me This - 7 TED-Ed Lessons Based on Riddles 

One of the things that I like about CNN Student News is that it almost always includes a map to show students where a story is taking place in the world. I try to do the same whenever I teach current events by showing students a map of where a story takes place. It can also be good to let students pick a place on a map and then read stories about that place. The following three websites can provide students with a geographic connection to news stories. Newspaper Map is a neat tool for locating and reading newspapers from locations all around the world. Newspaper Map claims to have geolocated 10,000 newspapers. To find a newspaper you can browse the map then click on a placemark to open the link within to read a newspaper. You can also locate newspapers by using the search boxes to locate a newspaper by title or location. Along with links to the newspapers, Newspapers Map provides links to translate the newspapers you find on the map. Breaking News presents a constant stream of headlines from around the world. A map of story locations resides behind the news stream that greets you on the homepage. Click the tiny map icon in the upper-right corner of the news stream to find stories by location instead of by topic. Unfiltered News is a new site that uses an interactive cartogram to help you find trending news stories from around the world. To find stories through Unfiltered News simply open the website and click on a topic listed within one of the circles on the map. Once you've made a selection a list of stories will appear on the right side of your screen. Click on a story to read it in full. From the menu on the right side of the screen you can choose a different location and a new list of stories will appear. Historical Newspapers Mapped The U.S. News Map is a great resource produced by Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia. The U.S. New Map is an archive of American newspapers printed between 1836 and 1925. You can search the archive by entering a keyword or phrase. The results of your search will be displayed on an interactive map. Click on any of the markers on the map and you'll be shown a list of newspaper articles related to your search term. Click on a listed article to read it on the Library of Congress' Chronicling America website. Learn how to create your own multimedia maps and more in my online course Teaching History With Technology.  This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesTeaching History With Technology - An Online Course Starting MondayMapping the Emerald Isle - An Interactive Map of Surnames in Ireland10 Educational Resources About the American Revolution