Next month I am leading a short workshop on building digital portfolios. In preparation for that workshop, like every workshop I lead, I created a short PDF summarizing the tools that we will explore. For the benefit of those who cannot attend my workshop I'm making the handout available here on FreeTech4Teachers.com. You can view it as embedded below and or grab a copy by clicking here. Within the PDF you will find links to tutorials on how to use some of the featured tools. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StorieseduClipper Updates With New Tagging and Discovery FeaturesOne Strategy for Keeping Track of Students' Google SitesFrequently Overlooked Useful YouTube Features - A PDF Handout 

The history and culture of Mongolia has fascinated me since I first read about in high school. It's one of the places on my not-a-bucket-list list (h/t Gillian Duffy for that phrase) that I want to visit. I'm not going be able to visit anytime soon, but I can virtually explore it Google Maps Street View imagery. Google recently added Street View and off-Street Views to Google Maps of Mongolia. Through the Street View imagery of Mongolia you can virtually tour mountains, frozen lakes, desserts, and the streets of Ulaanbaatar. Applications for Education I love Google Maps Street View because it allows students to see and virtually explore places in ways that geography textbooks simply cannot support. If you find a specific image or view in Google Maps Street View, you can embed it into a blog post or webpage. Click here for a tutorial on how to do that. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesHow to Embed Google Street View Imagery Into Your Blog PostsUse Your Google or Edmodo Account to Create HSTRY TimelinesProjection Wizard - Which Kind of Map is Best for Your Project? 

A few weeks ago I shared some educational resources related to the Tour de France. Tomorrow, the Tour de France concludes in Paris. To mark the tour's conclusion I have two more educational resources about bicycles to share. Minute Physics offers two videos about the physics of bicycles. In How Do Bikes Stay Up? we learn how bikes stay upright, how design and weight influences balance, and why bicycles are difficult to balance in reverse. The Counterintuitive Physics of Turning a Bike explains how we turn bicycles. Applications for Education Both videos provide physics lessons based around an activity with which most students are familiar. Before letting students watch the videos ask them to try to explain how bikes stay up and turn. The first of the two videos could also provide inspiration for an outdoor physics lesson. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesHow X-rays and CT Scans WorkThe Physics of Soccer (Football) Banana KicksFrequently Overlooked Useful YouTube Features - A PDF Handout 

Last week ClassDojo introduced the option to create student groups within your ClassDojo classrooms. This morning I received an email from someone who was curious about how to change the student avatar pictures within ClassDojo. That's a question that I often receive in my workshops too. To answer that question I created the short video that you see embedded below. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesMore Physics Lessons About Bikes7 Good Options for Building Digital Portfolios - A PDF HandoutFrequently Overlooked Useful YouTube Features - A PDF Handout 

This post comes from the "in case you missed it department." Last week the Associated Press announced the publication of more than one million minutes of archival footage on YouTube. That footage is being published in collaboration with British Movietone. A sample playlist is embedded below. Applications for Education Much of the footage in the AP and British Movietone archives is under two minutes. The short clips could be good as supporting material to add to a reference page for students. In general, students will need the larger historical context in order to appreciate the video clips. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesHow to Apply Custom Avatars to ClassDojo ProfilesMore Physics Lessons About BikesUse Your Google or Edmodo Account to Create HSTRY Timelines 

Last week I presented three webinars on behalf of Simple K12 (the recordings will be available later this week). The third of those webinars was all about Google Drive Add-ons and Chrome extensions for teachers. If you couldn't attend the live webinar, you can still grab the handout here or view it as embedded below. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related Stories50+ Google Tools Tutorial VideosTry the Office Compatibility Extension to Open & Edit Files in ChromeHow to Prevent Downloading of Shared Google Docs 

edCircuit is one of the platforms that I am occasionally publishing through as a member of the MindRocket Rocket Media Group. edCircuit, managed by Donna Krache, is currently looking for guest columnists for the fall. Topics of interest include teaching as a second (or third...) career, facilitating effective professional development, and curriculum development. Donna is also looking to interview retiring or retired teachers. If you have an interest in sharing your voice on edCircuit, please get in touch with Donna Krache through this form or by emailing her at donna (at) edcircuit.com This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesCreating Concrete and Shape Poems on iPadsTeaching Mathematics With a Surface Pro TabletWanted! Guest Bloggers 

This is a guest post from Beth Holland (@brholland) of EdTechTeacher - an advertiser on this site. VideoNot.es allows students to take notes while watching videos. This tool is fantastic in a flipped, blended, or online classroom as students can have their typed notes automatically time-stamped to the video. Because VideoNot.es can be tied to a Google Drive account, all notes can also be saved and shared with others. As described in previous posts on this site, VideoNot.es works with YouTube, Vimeo, Coursera, Udacity, Khan Academy, and EdX videos. However, for many schools, these are not sufficient options because of content filtering, and teachers have always asked if it could be possible for students to take notes on videos shared through Drive. Until last week, my answer had been "no." But now, thanks to one of my EdTechTeacher Summer Workshop participants - Bill Melville (@bmelvillehwrhs) from Hamilton Wenham Regional High School - there is a solution. By manually changing the URL, students can now take notes on Google Drive videos! The screencast below walks through this process. Thanks again to Bill for this discovery! To learn more about working with Google Apps and Web Tools, EdTechTeacher provides FREE resources on their website.  This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesGreat Google Drive Add-ons for Teachers - A PDF HandoutMore Than 500,000 Historical Video ClipsHow to Apply Custom Avatars to ClassDojo Profiles 

Make Beliefs Comix is a multilingual comic strip creation service that I've featured a few times in the past. Through Make Beliefs Comix students can create comic strips online without needing to register on the site. Make Beliefs Comix also provides teachers with a wealth of printable templates to use in classrooms that do not have enough computers or tablets for every student to use. In the video embedded below I provide an overview of how to create comic strips on Make Beliefs Comix. Applications for Education Make Beliefs Comix and other services like it provide students with a fun and familiar format for creative writing. Sometimes a little visual prompt provided by a gallery of cartoon characters can inspire students to start writing a story. 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 Posts7 Good Options for Building Digital Portfolios - A PDF HandoutFrequently Overlooked Useful YouTube Features - A PDF Handout 

Last month I shared an outline for distributing your school and classroom messages to as many people as possible. Hootsuite is one of the tools that I mentioned, briefly, in that outline. Hootsuite allows you to schedule Tweets and Facebook posts to appear on a schedule of your choosing. Reasons for scheduling Tweets and Facebook posts:  1. You're busy and might not have time to log-in and post on a daily basis. 2. You want to repeat your Tweets and Facebook posts. 3. You want to populate your Twitter feed with messages related to a school event. Use the hashtag you've chosen for the event in your Tweets. This could encourage parents and students to use the same hashtag in their Tweets. Why you want to repeat Tweets and Facebook posts: Twitter and Facebook updates stream past most of us at a pace that is faster than we can follow. If you post your message only once, you have only one opportunity to grab the attention of students and parents who are following your classroom or school Tweets and Facebook posts. Use Hootsuite to schedule your messages to appear in the morning and the evening. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesCreate Short Stories and More on Make Beliefs ComixNow Take Notes on Drive Videos with VideoNot.esGreat Google Drive Add-ons for Teachers - A PDF Handout