The Practical Ed Tech Podcast

Adam Bellow is the co-founder of BreakOut EDU. He was also the founder of EduClipper. Before joining the start-up world he was a high school English teacher. 

In this episode I answered a handful of questions from readers and listeners. I also shared a couple of neat new tools to use in your classroom. And I gave a shout-out to Dr. Scott McLeod for his thought-provoking blog post about how school policies on mobile device use. Find all of the show notes in this Google Doc. 

In this episode I talked with Dr. Beth Holland about her work at COSN around issues related to digital equity. The last part of the conversation we talked about stand-up paddleboarding and lessons learned from racing stand-up paddleboards. Yes, it's an unusual mix of topics. But it is a fun mix and we had a great time recording the conversation. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. 

All of the questions that I answered in the podcast are available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EkV2UuEh8d9SCsLar_Taq2Z_A9oNiKbrCfrUibHRYMU/edit?usp=sharing

Dr. Scott McLeod is an associate professor of school leadership at the University of Colorado, Denver. In this episode we talk about what's changed and what's the in the last 12 years since he and Karl Fisch published their viral video Shift Happens was published. His new book, co-authored with Julie Graber, is Harnessing Technology for Deeper Learning. 

In this episode I talk about some new features of favorite ed tech products, the big fine that was levied against YouTube this week, and answer questions from readers and listeners like you. 

Get the complete show notes in this Google Document. 

In this episode I share some cool updates about Google Slides, Gmail, OneNote, and Immersive Reader. I also answer a bunch of questions from readers. And I give an update on Facebook fast. Get the show notes as a Google Doc right here. 

Questions answered in the show:

Can you limit the number of responses on Microsoft forms? For instance, we are doing a sign-up at school and only want 15 students/choice. Can this be done?

~Maggie

I teach technology classes and I am looking for a few good videos to show my class for sub days. Any recommendations?

Thank you!!

~Paulette

What apps for a Chromebook or in general do you recommend for ELL Students? By this, I am referring to helping students take content that is spoken or written in  English and translate it into Spanish. Something besides Google Translate.

~Eric

With my students I have created bilingual dictionary in Google sheets (two columns, one for English and one for translation). Do you happen to know of any way to turn it into an online dictionary with a search box?

~Karen

I'm looking for a way to record comments/feedback and send to my students when reading their essays. Is there something you can think of I could utilize? The only thing that I can think of is voice memo recording and emailing.

~George

This week I highlight some news from the world of educational technology and answer a bunch of questions from readers and listeners like you. 

New and Neat Things You Might Have Missed

Questions from Readers Like You

Do you have plans to make your podcast available through Pocket Casts?

~Jim

Hi Richard,

Enjoy your site. Thanks for everything you do. Quick question for you, what do you use make the circle appear in your screencast videos?

~Scott

Hey Richard,

I’ve made a playlist of YouTube videos that I plan to use as part of my unit on metaphors. Is there a way that I can show the videos in class without having to fast forward to the parts that are important?

~Angela

I watched your videos about making Google Earth files but I must be missing something. When I make the tour in Google Earth on my laptop it looks fine. I followed the directions for viewing it on Chromebooks but it doesn’t render correctly. Not all the placemarks are displaying full screen. What am I doing wrong? Thanks for any help you can offer.

~Bob

Hi Richard,

You know a lot about Google so I want to get your opinion on an issue that’s come up in our district. We’ve been a Google school for four years. I’ve heard from our IT director that our new superintendent wants to switch to Microsoft environment because “that’s what the business world uses.” Do you have any information that we could share with that could help persuade him not to make a switch next year?

Thanks.

~Kelcey

Hi Richard,

Thanks for all of the great resources you share. I have seniors this year and I’ve been tasked with helping them create portfolios that they can take with them after they graduate. I was wondering if you knew of any apps or online tools that would work for this purpose?

Keep up the great work!

~Steve

In this short episode I address the question, "our kids are bored with Kahoot and Quizziz, what can we do that is more exciting?"

The Practical Ed Tech Podcast is the audio from my weekly Practical Ed Tech Live broadcasts on YouTube. In each episode I share some news from the  world of educational technology and answer questions from readers of FreeTech4Teachers.com and PracticalEdTech.com

The outline of everything covered in the episode is available in this Google Doc. 

Subscribe to my YouTube channel to participate in the next YouTube Live session. 

Some highlights from the episode:

Google made a bunch of G Suite product announcements this week:

Unsplash for Education

SeeSaw has an updated Chrome extension for annotating webpages.