In this episode of The Practical Ed Tech Podcast I share some thoughts about New Year’s Resolutions and fitness, share a bunch of Hour of Code resources, and answer questions from readers.
News & Notes
Next week is CS Ed Week. Lots of companies and organizations are hosting online and in-person events related to CS Ed Week and Hour of Code.
Microsoft is hosting 400 free events in their stores around the world:
Hour of Code Minecraft lessons:
Tynker has a lot of Hour of Code lessons and activities for free:
Of course, HourofCode.com has tons of resources for Hour of Code:
Don’t forget that Scratch and Scratch Jr are great ways to get kids introduced to programming.
I found a couple of Scratch books published by MIT that you might want to check out too: https://amzn.to/2s2vltA
Google announced a slew of updates to Google Sites that will be rolling out over the next month or so.
Revision/ version history
Review changes before publication
Flipgrid announced a bunch of updates earlier this week. Those include recording without audio, changing playback speed, video sorting, and immersive reader in feedback.
Speech to Text is rolling for the Mac version of Word.
Next week is the Practical Ed Tech Creativity Conference. It’s free. It’s online. Join us!
Reflections from my Classroom
It was a great week!
I had an observation done by my director and he was pleased with what I was doing while also giving me some ideas for managing some of my more energetic freshmen.
Speaking of freshmen, one of mine had a major break-through when he got his Android app working. He was totally psyched!
I Tweeted a picture of a sign that I put up on my classroom closet. The sign was basically a reminder to students to check with me and exhaust all possible repair options before grabbing new parts.
Also Tweeted this week, a picture of a 1994 Compaq 4/25 laptop. Original MSRP $2400 USD.
Questions from Readers & Listeners
Hi Richard. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving. I’m almost a neighbor (Central NH) with 2 kids at UMaine Orono… So I’m really almost a neighbor!
Any suggestions on polling apps for mobile devices? As always, thank you.
Kim
Richard,
I am interviewing for a technology integration specialist. I am teaching about infographics and google forms. What would be better to demo infographics using piktochart or google forms? Love your website and facebook posts!
Melissa
Hi Richard,
Do you have any Twitter chats that you recommend? Time? Topics?
Sam
Richard,
Do you have any suggestions for some tech interesting tech projects that I can do with my middle school social studies students before the Christmas break? I’ve got a group that’s very “busy” and needs something to do if we’re going to make it break.
Tyler
