Over the last couple of years I've made an effort to publish at least one new tutorial video every week. Most of those videos end up being featured in the Practical Ed Tech Tip of the Week, but they all end up on my YouTube channel. I now have more than 300 ed tech tools tutorial videos on my YouTube channel. More than 5,000 people have subscribed to my YouTube channel. Subscribe to it and you'll be notified when I publish a new tutorial. To subscribe to my YouTube or any other YouTube channel simply sign into your Google account then click "subscribe" on the channel's homepage. The video below demonstrates how to do this. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesHelpful Gmail Settings for Students & Teachers - Best of 2015-16 School YearA Guide to Google Books for Students & Teachers - Best of 2015-16 School YearHow to Create a Progress Chart in Google Sheets - Best of 2015-16 School Year 

Over the weekend at the Native Innovation Education conference I facilitated a short workshop titled Recording History With Students. The focus of the workshop was on helping students record interviews with their elders. We started out by looking at the great questions list offered by StoryCorps. We then moved on to using the StoryCorps.me app, MicNote, and or Vocaroo to record the interviews. After making the recordings we then used those audio tracks in Stupeflix where they were played in the background of a series of images to complete the stories. Finally, we put the Stupeflix video links into placemarks in Scribble Maps. The slides that I used as an introduction to the workshop are embedded below. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related Stories10 Resources for Teaching With Primary Sources - Best of 2015-16 School YearA Great Journal for History TeachersThe Origin and Meaning of Memorial Day 

Over the last week I gave presentations and facilitated workshops Texas, Arizona, Kansas, and Missouri. Many people asked for copies of the slides that I used (slides were not used in every workshop). I put links to all of my slides on one slide that is embedded below. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesRecording History With Students - Tools & Ideas300+ Ed Tech Tools TutorialsHow to Upload a Video to YouTube from Your Android Device 

The latest lesson published by TED-Ed explains to students why the Bill of Rights was added to the US Constitution. In the lesson students learn about the positions of Federalists and Anti-Federalists, which states pushed for a Bill of Rights, and why the Bill of Rights was added as a set of amendments to the Constitution rather than rewriting the Constitution. Why Wasn't the Bill of Rights Originally in the Constitution? is concise and covers the basics of the arguments of Federalists and Anti-Federalists. The video is a good introduction to those arguments, but a little too basic for a high school classroom. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesThe Origin and Meaning of Memorial DayWhy We Make Irrational DecisionsA Great Journal for History Teachers 

Google Sites is flexible tool for creating school websites, classroom blogs, wikis, and digital portfolios. For years it has remained unchanged except for the addition of page-level permissions a few years ago. Today, Google announced that a new version of Google Sites will be rolling out over the next year. The new version of Google Sites promises a new drag-and-drop editing platform, enhanced collaboration features, and new responsive design templates. The new version will first be available to Google Apps for Business users, but should eventually appear in Google Apps for Edu too. I own a Google Apps for Business domain and I have applied for early adopter status to test the new Google Sites as soon as possible. When I have access I will be sure to post a video about the new version of Google Sites here. Thanks to Beth Still for heads-up about the new Google Sites. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related Stories300+ Ed Tech Tools TutorialsHelpful Gmail Settings for Students & Teachers - Best of 2015-16 School YearHow to Create a Progress Chart in Google Sheets - Best of 2015-16 School Year 

What's Due is a free homework reminder service that I like a lot and have recommended a handful of times over the last couple of years. Unfortunately, What's Due sent me an email earlier this week that announced their pending closure. The email didn't say they were closing immediately rather it said that they wouldn't be supporting the apps any longer. Some other ways that you can send assignment reminders to students and parents include using Remind, Cel.ly, or the Google Sheet's Add-on called Add Reminders which you can learn how to use in the video in this post. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related Stories300+ Ed Tech Tools TutorialsHelpful Gmail Settings for Students & Teachers - Best of 2015-16 School YearHow to Create a Progress Chart in Google Sheets - Best of 2015-16 School Year 

It’s time for some information sharing. I’ll be at the eLearning Guild’s Annual Gathering this week. On Wednesday I’m doing a session on Adobe’s eLearning Suite. My session number is 408 and the title is "Adobe e-Learning Suite - A Whistle-stop Tour of Favorite Features". According to the online schedule, you will find me in the Camellia room. On the same day I’m making an early start (7:15!), as I am facilitating one of the Breakfast Bytes Discussion Groups. My topic is "Mobile Learning, How Will New Technologies Affect Your Thinking?" and you’ll find me in the Narcissus room. Hmm. Should I be reading something into the room name?  Finally, on Friday morning I’ll be moderating one of the Espresso Learning Activities tables. The table discussion is "Bridging the Gap Between Page Turning and Learning Engagement".  The subtext of the title is: • We walk before we can run - we page turn before we engage. • What does learner engagement mean to you? • Creating learner engagement doesn’t have to be expensive or time consuming. Come and chat with me on table 15. I’m looking forward to learning from everyone else at the conference. The eLearning Guild always put on a great show, and they attract some of the best eLearning experts in the World, so I am honoured to be able to rub shoulders with them and be able to learn from them all. If you see me  at the conference, come and say hi. Posted in eLearning

I’ve seen a number of people asking about the Coursebuilder extensions that are installed to Dreamweaver CS4 in the Adobe eLearning Suite. Specifically, people have been trying to find out what is different between this version of Coursebuilder, and the version that was available a few years ago. So I asked the Adobe engineers who have worked on this, and this is the response I got:- The Course Builder in eLS has loads of new features, following is the list of new features added 3 new Interaction types Matching - Drag and drop, Combo box type. Sequence Interaction Likert Interaction SCORM 1.2 and 2004 Compatibility All the interactions support SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004 along with AICC. The selection can be made in the tracking tab. Based on the setting in the tracking tab, Actions in the action manager can be selected for tracking the score. Compatibility with Different Browsers The New Course Builder supports the latest versions of Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer. New look and feel The Interactions carry new icons and the Course Builder Wizard does not carry the legacy scroll bar. So there you have it, from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. Posted in eLearning

The new custom variables in Adobe Captivate 4 make it fairly easy to capture, store and display your users name. Once stored you can also add the name to the Certificate widget and use it in many other ways. It is not immediately obvious just how you might achieve this, so I put together a quick demo that should show you all you need to know. Click this image to view the full demo. Posted in Adobe, Captivate, eLearning

Recently, a couple of different people asked me about Short Answer questions in Captivate 4. Apparently, when you create and publish a Short Answer question, the text entry box that your learner types into has small, 8-point text by default. That’s fine, you might think, but there is no way to edit the properties of this text entry box, so you are stuck with 8 point text. Short Answer questions in Captivate 4 have tiny text in the answer box I contacted ‘RJ’ Jacquez via Twitter and asked him about it. RJ is the Adobe Evangelist for eLearning and Technical Communication, which means he is a great go-to guy for all things to do with the eLearning Suite and the Technical Communication Suite from Adobe. Quick as a flash, RJ confirmed that it was indeed true, there is no way to format the answer text in a Short Answer question in Captivate 4. Now, here is where things get interesting. Most of the time, when an issue like this is raised, it must be reported as a bug and a fix may not appear until the next release of a product. But the Adobe Captivate engineers are special bunch - they rustled up a fix for this issue that requires no formal patch to Captivate 4. Those of you who are familiar with Captivate 4 will know that a new feature called Widgets. Widgets can be devised that extend Captivate’s features and functionality way beyond the original intent of the Captivate engineers. Those same engineers have realised that they can also fix some issues with the product by using Widgets. This Short Answer Input Text Formatting widget is a simple and quick fix … and so they made a widget that can be used to customise the font settings for the Short Answer question. This Widget is a 50k download, so it’s quick and easy to get and ind install. The only caveat, so far as I can see, is that the Captivate file must be published as ActionScript 3.0. The fix will not work if you publish your file as AS 2.0 compatible. Here's the same question with the answer text reformatted So where can you get this fix? RJ has a simple demonstration o fthe problem, which you can view here https://admin.adobe.acrobat.com/_a295153/p84127193/. At the end of the demo, there is a link to the download of the Widget file, and instructions on where to install it. You should follow RJ on Twitter if you want to get the best and latest eLearning and Technical Communication Suite tips and info @rjacquez Thanks RJ and the Captivate team! Posted in eLearning