This morning I answered an email from a reader who was looking for a little advice on keeping track of more than 150 Google Sites maintained by students as their digital portfolios. Here's the scenario that was described to me, I have more than 150 students using e.Portfolios and I struggle with finding different students' work. I ask students to name their GoogleSites specifically so I can sort them. I have created a form for student to complete to keep a record of the links. Maybe you have a better way?This was my suggestion for attempting to keep track of all the sites. (I used this method myself with about 100 students a few years ago). To make it easier to sort submissions I create student groups (not for collaboration, just for sorting) and make a different form for each group. Students have to submit their updates to the form that is assigned to their group. That way instead of having 150 students making submissions to one form I have 25 students making submissions to each of six forms. It's a little easier to sort through 25 students making submissions than 150 students making submissions to one form. I make it the responsibility of the students to enter their submissions on the correct form.  This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesHow to Import an RSS Feed Into Google SitesTry the Office Compatibility Extension to Open & Edit Files in ChromeA Short Explanation of Google Apps Terminology 

To get the most out of your Google Drive experience there are some basic settings that you should know how to enable or disable if you don't want to use them. Those settings are using Google Docs offline, file conversion, and photo folder creation. In the video embedded below I demonstrate how to enable and disable those settings. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesOne Strategy for Keeping Track of Students' Google SitesTry the Office Compatibility Extension to Open & Edit Files in ChromeA Short Explanation of Google Apps Terminology 

Good morning from Maine where I am spending the weekend putting together all of the finishing touches for next week's Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp in Portland, Maine (one seat became available at the last minute). This is the third year in a row that I've organized this event and this year's event should be the best one yet. Here are this week's most popular posts: 1. How to Use a Semicolon - A TED-Ed Lesson for Almost Everyone 2. Habitats - An Educational Game from the Smithsonian 3. EdTech Start-ups - Stop Talking Down to Teachers 4. How to Manage Classroom Digital Portfolios by Using Page-level Permissions in Google Sites 5. How to Create a Moderated Classroom Backchannel 6. A Nice Tool for Creating Animated Maps 7. How to Create a Multimedia Timeline Summer PD Opportunities With Me.Teaching History With Technology begins on July 16th. Would you like to have me visit your school? Click here to learn about my PD 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. Storyboard That is my go-to tool for creating storyboards and cartoon stories.MidWest Teachers Institute offers online graduate courses for teachers.HelloTalk is a mobile community for learning a new language.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.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.SeeSaw is a great iPad app for creating digital portfolios. 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 PostsThe Month in Review - The Most Popular PostsThe Week in Review - Thank You Guest Bloggers 

On Saturday morning I published a short post explaining the terms Google Apps for Education, Google Drive, and Google Documents. In that post I mentioned that Google Documents can be used offline if you use the Chrome web browser and enable the offline setting for Google Drive (click here for video directions). This morning I awoke to a few emails from folks seeking clarification on the requirement to use the Chrome web browser. You can use Google Drive and Google Documents in any recently modern web browser including Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Chrome. You can find out if you are using the most up to date version of a web browser by going to WhatBrowser.org. Simply visit WhatBrowser.org and you will be shown which web browser you're using and if it is the most updated version of that browser. Chrome is the web browser produced by Google. Learn more about web browsers in the video embedded below. Cookies are small pieces of information that reside in your browser as a result of visiting a website and the activities that you do on that website. They can be helpful in loading a website more quickly in your browser and remembering information for you. They're also used in tracking browsing habits and placing targeted advertising on the websites you visit. In the video embedded below Common Craft provides a good explanation of cookies. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesA Short Explanation of Google Apps TerminologyHow to Import an RSS Feed Into Google SitesOne Strategy for Keeping Track of Students' Google Sites 

Like a lot of the conferences that I attend, at the ISTE conference I had conversations with a bunch of people who were seeking advice about blogging. At some point almost of those people would say something like, "my blog is small, I only have a few hundred followers." Or they would say, "I'm on Twitter, but I only have one thousand followers." My response to both statements is, "that's awesome!" After that statement I follow up with some context to explain why 1,000 people is a lot of followers. New bloggers and podcasters often get obsessed with how many followers they have. When you have a few hundred or one thousand followers that can seem like a small amount when you compare it to the more established blogs in a niche. But don't compare your follower/ subscriber count to that of more established bloggers. Instead compare your current subscriber/ follower count against the previous month's. Look to grow month by month not to become the world's most popular blogger in one month. Let's put 1,000 followers into context. I live in a town of roughly 1,000 people. If I sent a letter to every person in town, I might get positive responses from 20 people. But if I send an email, publish a blog post, or produce a podcast episode for 1,000 people who have in someway said, "yes, I want to get more information from Richard" then I am going to get a far higher rate of response and engagement. Put another way, picture getting all of your followers together in one place and then you'll realize that 1,000 followers is a lot of people. 338,000 people like my Facebook page, but I get more responses from the 6,000 people who subscribe to the PracticalEdTech.com weekly newsletter. Creating a successful blog or podcast isn't about having the most followers, it's about having engaged followers. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesOnline Course - Blogs & Social Media for Teachers Begins Tomorrow NightWeb Browsers and Cookies ExplainedThe Week in Review - Preparing for Camp 

At one point or another we've all said, "I'm just going to check Facebook/ Twitter/ Pinterest for a minute then I'll get back to work." It's funny how that minute can quickly become ten or twenty minutes. Here are a couple of Chrome extensions that I use when I find myself falling into social media vortex and not being as productive as I should be. These extensions are equally useful to students as they are to adults. Stay Focusd is a Chrome extension designed to help you stop wasting time on sites like Facebook and get your work done instead. With Stay Focusd installed you can set a time limit for yourself for how much cumulative time in a day that you spend on sites like Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Once you've used up your self-allotted time on those sites you won't be able to revisit them in that browser for 24 hours. Dayboard is a free Google Chrome extension that opens your daily to-do list every time you open a new tab in Chrome. When you open a new tab for the first time Dayboard will appear and ask you to enter your to-do list for the day. After creating your to-do list for the rest of the day whenever you open a new tab you will see your list. You can place a checkmark next to items as you complete them. Dayboard does not require you to create an account, it works offline, and when I installed it it only asked for permission to view activity on the Dayboard website. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesAdvice for New Bloggers - Numbers Aren't Always What They SeemWeb Browsers and Cookies ExplainedThe Week in Review - Preparing for Camp 

This is a guest post from Avra Robinson (@AvraRachel) of EdTechTeacher - an advertiser on this site. Vocaroo is a simple, free voice recorder that allows users to create an audio recording with just a few clicks. Once recorded, the audio file can remain on the Vocaroo servers and be easily transmitted via a link, or it can be downloaded into several different file types including MP3, Ogg, FLAC, or WAV. Additionally, it can be embedded onto a blog or website or shared via several social media buttons. Since Vocaroo is web-based, it’s an ideal companion for the Chromebook classroom or any web-based environment. Students and teachers can easily record and share their thoughts with each other. The audio recordings become great opportunities for formative assessment and feedback as well as a neat way to have students double-check their writing for errors. 3 Classroom Applications:Formative FeedbackStudents can record 30-60 seconds of audio feedback about a new concept, and teachers can then collect links to the audio recordings in a Google Form or via a Padlet wall. Within 30 minutes, teachers could have a pulse on how well their students are understanding the ideas shared. Peer FeedbackAs students give peer-to-peer feedback using the comments function in a Google Doc, they can easily insert a Vocaroo link to provide an audio comment. This is especially helpful when they want to share ideas that are too lengthy to type. Teachers can do the same as they provide feedback to students about their work. Read Aloud to Catch MistakesPrior to submitting a draft of an essay, teachers can require students to read the essay aloud in a Vocaroo recording to catch mistakes and hear their essay. While teachers often encourage students to do this on their own, requiring a link to them reading it aloud would ensure that students see the process through. The link to the recording could be shared in a comment within the Google Doc or even added at the top of the essay. This simple task can help augment students’ oral reading fluency and help them catch potential mistakes that they might not have caught by reading their work quietly to themselves. To learn more about working with Google Apps, Web Tools, and Chromebooks, 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 StoriesTwo Chrome Extensions That Can Help You Stay on TaskAdvice for New Bloggers - Numbers Aren't Always What They SeemWeb Browsers and Cookies Explained 

Last month I wrote about a new audio publishing network called Spoken. Spoken is designed for sharing audio recordings of four minutes or less. Spoken describes itself as "Instagram for audio." On Spoken you can upload audio recordings that are up to four minutes long then attach cover images to those recordings. The most significant update to Spoken is the option to recordings into blog posts. I've done just that with the Spoken recording announcing updates to the Spoken platform. Listen to the recording as embedded below. Applications for Education Spoken could provide a good way for high school or college students to share audio recordings in which they reflect on learning experiences and or share advice with other students. As a teacher you would have to follow each of your students to hear their recordings. AudioBoom is a service similar to Spoken that offers a service specifically for students and teachers. Spoken is currently in beta. You will need to request an invite to use the service. My invitation arrived about 24 hours after my request. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesSpoken - A Network for Publishing Short Audio RecordingsAdvice for New Bloggers - Numbers Aren't Always What They SeemHow to Privately Share Audio Recordings on SoundCloud 

Yesterday, at that the third annual Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp Jim Wells spent about an hour sharing ideas for using Google Maps and Google Earth in variety of classroom settings. Google Earth offers a vastly more robust set of features than Google Maps offers. However, Google Maps is easier to access and is initially easier to understand. I have a set of Google Maps tutorial videos that I've created over the last year. Those videos are included in the playlist embedded below. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesProjection Wizard - Which Kind of Map is Best for Your Project?How to Download KML Data from Google MapsA Nice Tool for Creating Animated Maps 

Once again this summer Google is offering an online educational camp for kids. Camp Google is a four week program designed for seven to ten year old children. Each week has its own theme. This week is Ocean Week. Camp Google features videos, live and recorded, with experts in each week's thematic topic. The videos are designed to inform as well as prompt further inquiry by students. Students can conduct virtual investigations through Camp Google. Students, with the help of an adult, can also participate in hands-on learning activities related to the theme of each week of Camp Google. Materials lists for the hands-on activities are available to download on the Camp Google website. Applications for Education Camp Google is designed to be used as a summer learning experience for children to participate in with the help of a parent or other adult. The online activities and the hands-on activities could be used by teachers when students return in the fall. Elementary school teachers should take a look at the hands-on activities materials lists to get ideas for hands-on activities to do in their classrooms. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesMeasure Yourself - Comparing the Feet of AnimalsDozens of Online Games About Nature10 Resources for Teaching and Learning About Weather 

Auto Text Expander for Google Chrome is a convenient Chrome extension that I've recently started using. The extension enables me to create keyboard shortcuts for words and phrases that I frequently use in emails. To get started saving time sending emails install Auto Text Expander for Google Chrome. Once the extension is installed you will be sent a page to create your database of shortcuts. A handful of sample shortcuts are provided for you to help you understand how to format your shortcuts. After creating your shortcuts database you're ready to start using them in email and other web applications. To use your Auto Text Expander for Google Chrome shortcuts in your email just type the shortcut and hit the space bar to see the full text appear. For example, I have a shortcut "tyfr" that I now use when I want to write "thank you for reading my blog" in an email. Applications for Education At the beginning of every new semester I find myself answering the same type of question fairly frequently. You probably experience the same. Auto Text Expander for Google Chrome should make replying to those frequently asked questions a bit easier than before. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesTwo Chrome Extensions That Can Help You Stay on Task5 Google Maps Tutorials for Teachers and Students3 Helpful Google Drive Settings You Should Know 

Earlier this week at the Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp a number of us used Stupeflix to create videos. Stupeflix doesn't require users to register in order to produce a video. In the video embedded below I demonstrate how to use Stupeflix to create a video without registering on the site. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesWeVideo Makes Updates to Their Online Video EditorStupeflix - Create Audio Slideshow Videos Without RegistrationSpring Timelapse - A Video Project 

Tools like Stupeflix, Animoto, and Shadow Puppet Edu make it easy for students to quickly create videos. I often use these tools when introducing video production projects to teachers who have never attempted to have their students make videos. Here are three types of assignments that you can build around audio slideshow video tools. Biographical/ Autobiographical Stories Have students arrange a short audio slideshow about historical figures they're learning about in your classroom. Shadow Puppet Edu offers a built-in image search tool that makes it easy for students to find public domain pictures of historical figures. Or have students tell short stories about themselves to introduce themselves to their classmates. Students can pull pictures from their personal cell phones or social media accounts to complete this project. (If social media is blocked in your school, ask students to download pictures at home and place them in a Google Drive or Dropbox folder to use in school). Book Trailer Videos In place of or in addition to a traditional book report have students create an audio slideshow video about books they've recently read. Students can use images they made or grab images from sites like Photos for Class and Pixabay to use in their videos. Check out Book Trailers for Readers for more ideas about book trailer projects. Video Timeline Whether they're studying current events or historical events students can create video timelines by arranging images into a sequence that demonstrates the development of a significant event. Ask students to layer text onto their images to include dates and descriptions. The knock against tools like Stupeflix and Animoto is that they make it "too easy" for students to make a video and that they don't learn anything by making videos through these tools. As with most things in the world of ed tech it's not so much the complexity of the tool that matters, it's the assignment that you give to students that matters. Disclosure: Shadow Puppet Edu and Photos for Class are owned by companies that advertise on this blog.  This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesHow to Create a Video on Stupeflix - No Registration RequiredAn Interactive Video Series About the Search for the Northwest PassageOpinion Polls - How They Work and Why We Have Them 

Students who use the Google Classroom mobile apps (iOS and Android) will soon be able to receive instant notifications when new content is added in their classrooms. Students will receive notifications of new assignments from teachers, new announcements, grades becoming available, and new comments in the Classroom stream. The new announcements feature could help students stay on top of course content. However, it could also become just another alert on their phones that they mute or ignore. Source: Google Apps update blog.  This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesHow to Prevent Downloading of Shared Google DocsWeb Browsers and Cookies ExplainedA Short Explanation of Google Apps Terminology 

When it comes to crafting explanatory videos and images no one does it better than Lee and Sachi at Common Craft. Recently, they published a comprehensive free guide to creating animated GIFs as explanations. In How to Create ExplainerGIFs you will learn how to create animated GIFs using software that you probably have already. Through the guide you'll learn how to publish and share your explanatory GIFs. If you need images to use in your GIFs, How to Create ExplainerGIFs has a section devoted to finding images appropriate for crafting explanations. Applications for Education Having students create an animated GIF to explain a concept could be a good way to get them to think about how the individual parts of a concept come together to form one cohesive process. The examples section of How to Create ExplainerGIFs are a good source of ideas for using animated GIFs in school. In the examples you will see animated GIFs used to bring graphs to life, a GIF used to explain how a sewing machine works, and a GIF to illustrate a soccer rule. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesFive Nice NASA Resources for Teachers and StudentsThe Week in Review - The Most Popular Posts5 Tools for Hosting Collaborative Brainstorming Sessions Online 

Journey Into the Arctic is a neat choose-your-own-adventure series of videos about the search for the Northwest Passage. The series of videos, produced by Canadian Heritage, puts viewers in the role of an explorer leaving England in the 19th century to search for the Northwest Passage. At the end of each segment in the series viewers have to make decisions about navigation and logistical concerns. Each decision will lead to another segment in which viewers can continue or turn back in the exploration. Applications for Education Journey Into the Arctic could be a nice resource to use in an elementary school history or geography lesson. The series itself is a good example of how you can build an interactive video series in YouTube through YouTube annotations. Click here to learn how to use YouTube annotations. Thanks to Jen Deyenberg for sharing Journey Into the Arctic on Twitter. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesHow to Create a Video on Stupeflix - No Registration RequiredHow X-rays and CT Scans WorkExplore the World's Fair on Your iPad 

One of the best aspects of Google Drive is ability to quickly share documents and presentations with a large group of people. Sometimes when you share your documents or presentations you only want people to view those files, not edit or download them. You could share Google Docs as view-only but people can still make a copy of their own and download it. Recently, Google added the option to prevent downloading of shared files, even files shared as view-only. To prevent downloading of shared Google Documents open the "advanced" menu that appears in the sharing dialogue box. Then inside the advanced settings choose the option to prevent download. The screenshots below illustrate how to find these settings. Click image to view full size.Click image to view full size. H/T to Lifehacker.  This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesTry the Office Compatibility Extension to Open & Edit Files in ChromeNew Content Notifications in Google ClassroomHow to Import an RSS Feed Into Google Sites 

On July 22nd Simple K12 is hosting a morning and afternoon of free webinars about Google tools for teachers. The webinars will start at 10:00am Eastern Time and run until 1:30pm Eastern Time. There will be four webinars on July 22nd. I will be presenting sessions on YouTube tools, Blogger, and Google Drive Add-ons. These free webinars are designed for folks who are new to using Google tools.  Teachers who would like to pick up some tips for teaching others how to take advantage of the great things that Google has to offer will also enjoy the content of these webinars. Click here to register. FAQs About Simple K12 Webinars: 1.) Is this free? a. Yes! 2.) Can I have the recordings after? a. We will make the recordings available for 2 weeks following the event. 3.) How do I access the recordings? Do I need a SimpleK12 membership? a. No, SimpleK12 will share the links with Richard Byrne / FreeTech4Teachers.com and all of the registrants following the event so you can view for 2 weeks following the event. But be sure to register so you will be notified. Disclosure: I am being compensated for my time presenting these webinars.  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 Morning and Afternoon of Free WebinarsJoin Me Next Tuesday for an Afternoon of Free WebinarsHow to Prevent Downloading of Shared Google Docs 

NASA's website full of excellent educational resources. I just did a quick look through my archives and over the last few year I've written about NASA-related topics more than sixty times. Here are five of the most popular NASA resources for teachers and students that I've covered over the years. NASA's Lunar Electric Rover Simulator is a free iOS app that lets you explore the moon. The app is really a game in which players perform tasks to support the activities of a lunar outpost. Players transport items from place to place and along the way encounter lunar challenges to overcome. The app also includes an interactive gallery of images. You can download the app for free from iTunes. NASA @ Home and City is a virtual tour of NASA-related science in our homes and cities. Students visiting NASA @ Home and City can rotate buildings and take a look inside to discover everyday items whose development has been influenced by technology developed at NASA. Each item within a building has a narrated explanation of how that items was influenced by NASA technology. For example, students can take a look inside the bathroom of a house to learn how cosmetics have been influenced by technology used at NASA. Moonbase Alpha is an online game developed by NASA to be played on the Steam online gaming platform. Moonbase Alpha a simulation/ role playing game in which players assume the role of an astronaut working to repair equipment in order to restore oxygen delivery to a settlement on the moon. The game can be played by up to six players at a time who communicate using voice over communication. (To play Moonbase Alpha you do need to install the Steam gaming platform (it's free) on a Windows-based computer.) NASA Space Place is a sizable collection of fun projects, games, animations, and lessons about Earth, space, and technology. Before playing the games or attempting one of the projects, students should explore the animations and facts sections to gain some background information. The projects section of NASA Space Place provides teachers, parents, and students with directions for hands-on projects like building a balloon-powered rover, building relief maps, and building a moon habitat. The games section offers thirty games covering all of the subjects in the animations and facts sections. NASA has an excellent interactive timeline tracing the history of astronomy and space exploration from the Greek philosophers through today. Planet Quest is actually three timelines combined into one. The three timelines cover technology, discovery, and culture as it relates to astronomy and space exploration. Each element on the timeline is narrated. Users can select individual elements on the timeline or choose autoplay to hear the narration of each item in sequence. 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 PostsA Comprehensive Guide to Creating Explanatory Animated GIFsThe Week in Review - Preparing for Camp 

Sketchlot is a free collaborative whiteboard service that works on any device that will work on a Chromebook, iPad, Android tablet, or any computer connected to the web. Sketchlot is designed for teacher and student use. Teachers create their own accounts and then inside that account they can create a list of students. Each student is assigned his or her own password to use to join a drawing shared by his or her teacher. Teachers can create as many drawings as they like and share them on an individual basis. Teachers can share their drawings to one or all of their students at a time. Students can create their own sketches to share back to their teachers through Sketchlot. In the video embedded below I provide a demonstration of how to create and manage a Sketchlot account. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesNoteBookCast - An Online, Collaborative Whiteboard for Every DeviceThree Registration-free Options for Collaboratively Taking NotesUse Your Google or Edmodo Account to Create HSTRY Timelines 

Like many humanities teachers, I use a fair amount of group/ jigsaw reading activities. As a part of those activities I will ask students to share observations and questions with each other in-person as well as in an online document. Over the years I've had students use a variety of tools for sharing their notes with each other. These are the three that I tend to gravitate to right now. TitanPad is a free tool that allows you to quickly create an online place to collaboratively create documents with one or more partners. You do not need to register in order to use the service. You can chat in real-time while creating a document. Every person contributing to the documents you build is assigned a highlight color so that you can easily track who wrote what in the document. In the video embedded below I provide a demonstration of how to use TitanPad. If you work in a school that uses Google Apps for Education then you can have students sign-in and work on a document together to record observations and questions. But even if you don't have GAFE accounts for students you could still have them use Google Docs. As the teacher you can create a document and share it as "public, anyone with the link can edit." Insert a grid into the document and ask students to take notes within the grid. I have students put their names in the grid squares in which they write. When the activity is complete, switch the sharing setting back to "can view only." MeetingWords is a free service that is quite similar to TitanPad. MeetingWords can be used for creating an online notepad and chat room. Through MeetingWords you can quickly create an online place to collaboratively create documents with one or more partners. You do not need to register in order to use the service. You can chat in real-time while creating a document. Every person contributing to the documents you build is assigned a highlight color so that you can easily track who wrote what in the document. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesUse Your Google or Edmodo Account to Create HSTRY TimelinesHow to Create an Online Whiteboard SpaceeduClipper Updates With New Tagging and Discovery Features 

A few years ago Open University published a ten part video series on the history of the English language. Last week TED-Ed published a lesson titled Where Did English Come From? The TED-Ed lesson focuses on the evolution of language and similarities to other languages. The TED-Ed video is embedded below. The History of English from Open University is embedded below. As with many Open University lessons you should screen them to judge their suitability for your high school students. 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 Math of Michael Jordan's Hang TimeCreate Vocabulary Lessons With BoomWriter's Trending Words 

Diigo might not be as visually appealing as bookmarking sites like Pinterest, but in a lot of ways it is still an outstanding tool. One of the best features of Diigo, Diigo Groups, just got a couple of updates. First, you can now play YouTube and Vimeo videos directly within a group without opening a new tab or window. Second, you can now export the content (bookmarks) of a Diigo Group as a CSV or Excel file. Applications for Education If you're already using Diigo Groups to share resources with your students, you will probably enjoy the option for students to watch videos within a Diigo Group. You could have students use Diigo Groups to collaboratively create video playlists on topics that you're studying in class. 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 FeaturesThree Registration-free Options for Collaboratively Taking NotesHow to Create an Online Whiteboard Space 

This is a guest post from Beth Holland (@brholland) of EdTechTeacher, an advertiser on this site. Socrative is a free student response system that works on any device. With its built-in quick questions and quiz options, it is an incredible resource for formative and summative assessments. However, Socrative can be used for more than just quizzes. Socrative as BackchannelA backchannel is a digital conversation that runs concurrently with a face-to-face activity and provides students with an outlet to engage in conversation. Consider using the short answer option within the Quick Questions to give each student an opportunity to share his or her ideas before engaging in class discussion. For those students who may prefer to communicate in writing, or who might need more time to formulate their thoughts, this can be a great way for them to share their ideas. By using Socrative instead of a more public backchannel tool such as Padlet or TodaysMeet, students may feel more comfortable sharing their ideas. Teachers may also consider using a teacher-paced quiz as a backchannel. Discussion questions could be crafted in advance and then pushed out to students as a way to guide the face-to-face conversation. Socrative Space Race as Lab ProceduresWhile the initial intent of a Socrative Space Race is to provide some element of competition for students as they progress through an activity - Greg Kulowiec has a great blog post about how to do this. In a science lab, a Space Race could be used to present lab procedures and capture data across lab groups. With the space race projected, lab groups and teachers have a virtual progress board. Upon completion, the spreadsheet report could then be shared with the students so that they can analyze not only their observations and data collection but also that of the entire class. Socrative as Writing CenterShawn McCusker (@shawnmccusker) uses Socrative to help students craft thesis statements. By asking them to type their draft theses into a short answer Quick Question, he can then push the sentences back to the class for a vote. As a group, they can discuss what makes a strong thesis statement and offer suggestions to their peers. Students can then rewrite their statements and submit them for voting as many times as needed in order to collaboratively improve their theses. Socrative can also be used to set up a peer-editing session. Teachers can create a quiz with questions such as thesis statement, intro paragraph, textual evidence, etc. In fact, a single short response question could even be used for students to paste in an entire essay. Once the teacher has completed the activity, the reports can be used for a number of peer-editing activities: The individual PDF reports can be edited using a PDF annotation tool such as PaperPort Notes (iOS) or DocHub (computer/Chromebook). The PDFs could also be converted into Google Docs and then edited using the "Suggestions" feature.The spreadsheet report can  be shared with students as a Google Sheet and then formatted to include a "feedback" column. Using the Save-as-Doc Add-On in Google Sheets, teachers can take the Socrative report and convert it into a Google Doc to be shared with all of the students as "Comment-Only." Once the Doc has been generated, students can use the Suggestions to provide feedback to their peers, and teachers then have a single document with all of the writing as well as the edits in one place. When looking for one tool to use in a number of ways, Socrative is a great option for all areas of the curriculum. If you are looking to learn more, Beth Holland will be a featured presenter at the November 17-18 EdTechTeacher iPad Summit Boston. Both Early Bird Registration and the Call for Proposals are open. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesUse Your Google or Edmodo Account to Create HSTRY TimelineseduClipper Updates With New Tagging and Discovery FeaturesCreate Vocabulary Lessons With BoomWriter's Trending Words