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Online Tools and Apps

Discover innovative online tools for education. Explore strategies and resources to enhance teaching, learning, and collaboration in the digital age.

Replacing the Goo.gl Shortener

by Miguel Guhlin April 7, 2018

written by Miguel Guhlin

Did you get the bad news? Goo.gl, the URL shortener service, will no longer be available after April 13, 2018. In this blog entry, let’s explore some alternatives. Those alternatives must address some of the main features of Goo.gl’s service, namely statistics, QR code generation, and easy URL shortening.

The Official News

The official announcement came via Slashdot and Engadget:

Google is replacing its URL shortener service, goo.gl, with Firebase Dynamic Links (FDL) as of April 13th. These new smart URLs will let you send people to any location within iOS, Android or web apps.

The complaints came fast and furious when people read that Google’s URL shortener was going away. Responses on Twitter included:

Well that stinks. There are plenty of others out there but theirs was the best. (Tracey Smith)
Sadness, I just shared it last week w/ one of my most reluctant to tech staff members & she was optimistic on it. Now, I get to tell her “no more” — sad. (Jen Wagner)

The complaints arise because Goo.gl offered statistics as well as QR code generation. While some have already offered a few solutions (e.g. Tinyurl.com, Bit.ly) to replace Goo.gl, let’s take a look at some other approaches. If you require information about the usage of URLs, you can rely on shorteners like Bit.ly.

For Chrome browser users, you will find a nice collection in the Chrome Web Store. Firefox browser users can find a wealth of add-ons that qualify as URL shorteners online.

You’re So Vain, You Think This Link Is About You

Other solutions, like ReBrandly, allow you to buy your own domain ($2 was the going rate for tceamg.xyz) and publish your own custom URLs. This can be handy since you will get access to a management console with statistics on visits or hits on each link you have created. As the ReBrandly folks point out, there are various reasons for getting a “vanity URL.” Here are some of the ones they mention:

Social media tracking and advertising
Link tracking and viewing sources of hits
Build brand awareness

You can read more about each of the reasons above. If you have the technical chops to host your own URL shortening service, however, then you will find the two below of interest.

Hosting Your Own URL Shortener Service

If paying a few dollars and letting someone else handle the server management is not your cup of tea, then,you may want to host your own URL shortening service. Here are two solutions to explore. These would be great for a school district hosting its own server. Each may also be great for someone who is relying on Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud to host content. Getting your own server may be a part of your first step towards hosting your own website or blog for yourself, your school, or district/organization.

Solution #1 – YOURLS

YOURLS describes itself as “a small set of PHP scripts that will allow you to run your own URL shortening service.” Since it is free, open source and offers statistics for your custom web addresses, it has a lot to offer. You can find a list of server requirements online. Here is one example: OE.CD (Organization for Economic and Cooperative Development).

Solution #2 – Phurl

Not unlike YOURLS, Phurl is a set of PHP scripts you can set up on your own server. It offers a variety of features, such as:

Simple, easy and neat interface
Basic admin panel to view, search for, and delete shortened URLs
Notification of new version of Phurl via admin panel
Shorten URLs using an alias generated by the script, or enter a custom alias
Browser Bookmarklets included for one-click shortening
Installs in a few minutes with built-in installation wizard

No matter what URL shortener you use, if you’re looking to make it easy for others to access your content, be aware that some URL shorteners are used for nefarious purposes. You may need to decode short web addresses.

Decoding Short URLs

If you use TinyURL or Bit.ly, you may want to make note of these “decoders.” Some ways to “decode” include CheckShort URL. The benefit of URL expanders is summarized in this way:

You can take any TinyURL and get a preview of where it might go. To do so, adjust your TinyURL to include the word “preview” in it. For example, consider these two shortened website addresses:

Original link: https://tinyurl.com/y8g82pua
Preview link: https://preview.tinyurl.com/y8g82pua

When Services Fail, Be Nimble

Web services come and go. This is true even when Google hosts those services (view the Google Graveyard). Be nimble and switch to another service. The solutions mentioned in this blog entry should make your next transition a hop and a skip rather than a jump into the unknown.

This blog entry was updated August, 2026 with new content.

April 7, 2018 0 comments

Online Tools and Apps

Content Curation on Steroids with Wakelet

by Guest Blogger March 21, 2018

written by Guest Blogger

Wakelet is a new, free ed tech tool that I think you should take a hard look at. It allows teachers (and students) to save and organize online content in any way you want. You can easily embed articles, videos, Tweets, podcasts, images, and pretty munch anything with a URL into a Wakelet collection. Why does this matter? Because with all of the information available to us today, it’s more important than ever that our students practice good content curation. Below are some ways you can use Wakelet in and out of the classroom.

Assignments

Educators are using the tool to set assignments for their students across many different subjects and courses. The students search the web to find relevant pieces of research and content to create a story or a narrative. They can add social media posts, videos, images, podcasts, and articles, as well as their own notes, which makes it the perfect platform to tell a story with content to back it up. You can see an example here.

With a Wakelet project, students are usually graded on the strength and depth of their research, and how well they have managed to create a narrative in their collection.

For Research Projects

It’s a great way to teach students the importance of research and encourage them to showcase information in a modern, logical, and visually engaging way. Their bookmarks can be organized and easily found using Wakelet’s filters. The tool can also be useful in helping students make sense of their research and get the big picture, as well as the details. Here’s an example of a Wakelet used for a research assignment.

Portfolios

Another use for students and teachers is using Wakelet as a portfolio. They can save all of their work and achievements into one place and showcase it to the people that matter the most. This can include any published articles (for journalism students), photographs, podcasts, videos, and even assignment documents. They can effectively create a digital CV using their Wakelet profile. Here’s a good example of a journalism student’s profile.

Share Tips and Resources with Others

In addition, if you’re a department head or an instructional coach, you can use Wakelet to create collections of related resources to share with your peers. Everything is easily organized and ready to use. Here’s an example of a collection by a kindergarten teacher that she shared with other K teachers and parents.

You can create a free Wakelet account with an email, Google, or Facebook account. Saved items can be reordered and text can be added to each of them. Collections can be kept private or shared with the world. There’s also a Chrome add-on as well as an iOS app. It’s all just so simple!

Some of the writing for this blog was done by James Davis with Wakelet.

March 21, 2018 0 comments

Good Teaching Online Tools and Apps

ClassroomScreen: You Will Love This Resource!

by Lori Gracey January 30, 2018

written by Lori Gracey

Here’s a new, quick, fun, and FREE resource that I discovered recently. It’s called ClassroomScreen and it has a very simple purpose. It was created by Laurens Koppers, a teacher in the Netherlands, and is designed for educators to use as a teaching screen in their classrooms. Simply connect your device to a projector, launch a browser, and go to the website. While the Chrome browser is recommended, it works in any browser, even on your smartphone.

What ClassroomScreen Offers

Once loaded, the site offers first a beautiful background picture that is different every time you open it. (I could use just that feature alone for so many classroom purposes, from writing prompts to descriptive language to math problems to science or geography facts.) Across the bottom of the screen, though, is where the real power of the site is.

ClassroomScreen

Each of the icons above represents a tool that you can use on the screen. And these tools are perfect for the classroom! Here’s what’s currently available (from left to right):

Language – Yes, you can have the content in a multitude of languages.
Background – This tool lets you select from a wide variety of stunning images or upload your own. You can even add your own video background now.
Random Name – Create a .txt file with all of your students’ names and upload it. Then this tool will randomly select a student. This same tool also lets you roll one, two, or three dice for a random number.
Sound Level – Follow a few simple steps and allow the site to use your computer’s microphone one time. Then set the maximum noise level you want in the classroom. This tool will show a a red or green progress bar to help your class know when they need to get quieter. And it’s good to know that the site does not record any sound or save any of the noises.
QR Code – This is a favorite resource of all the tools for the teachers I talked with. Type in a URL you want your class to access and it will automatically create a QR code for it. It’s so simple!
Drawing Tool and Upload Image – Use this to bring up a drawing screen that includes simple pens and shapes and a graph paper background. Upload an image and annotate over it for everyone to see.
Text – Insert a text box on your screen with basic word processing tools. This is great to use for simple instructions you want the class to follow.
Work Symbols – This is one of my favorite resources. It pulls up a reminder for the students about how they are working in class today, whether it is in Silence, Whisper, Ask Neighbor, or Work Together. It’s a great way to set expectations.
Traffic Light – Want to remind your students about their noise level? Bring up this stop light and tap on either green, yellow, or red to show them the current room condition.
Timer – This opens a simple hour-glass timer that you can set for however long you want and it will count down. It also includes a lap timer and a stop watch, for PE teachers, as well as a loop function.
Clock and Calendar – This is a simple clock that also shows the date.
Exit Poll – This new feature allows you to edit an already-created sample poll with your own question. Students can then select one of the five face choices to indicate their responses. This could be done on an iPad or Chromebook as they leave the classroom. Access to the exit poll is through a new, small icon on the far right side of the screen; it is not in the tool bar across the bottom.

All of the tools can be moved around the screen to wherever you want them, and you can have multiple tool windows open at the same time, even of the same tool. So if you have groups of students working on different things, each group can have their own widget. I’ve even heard of students who run ClasroomScreen on their own devices to help them stay on task or even using the Traffic Light to show their current understanding of a lesson or the status of their project.

ClassroomScreen

ClassroomScreen works best in full screen mode, which you can access in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. I am really impressed with this resource, even though it’s simple, and would encourage you to try it out in your classroom today!

This blog was updated with additional resources on July 26, 2018.

January 30, 2018 0 comments

Online Tools and Apps

Organizationally Challenged? ME to the Rescue

by Lori Gracey January 15, 2018

written by Lori Gracey

All of us are busy today, whether we are adults or students. Remembering all of the things that we need to get done and, more importantly, when they have to be done by, can be a major task. Technology resources like Google Calendar can certainly help. But what’s been missing is a central “brain” to keep track of everything in one place for us. And that’s where AI (Artificial Intelligence) comes in.

Over the past year or so, Amazon has introduced the Echo, a device designed to help us better manage our busy lives. And Google followed with Google Home. While absolutely fantastic, both of these are appliance solutions that require you to purchase a device. If you’re not where the device is, then it can’t help you. So these kinds of resources aren’t very useful for students at school.

What the ME Organizer Can Do for You

ME is a new web-based solution that is focused on “improving your daily life.” It is a virtual assistant that uses artificial intelligence to help us be more efficient and organize our lives. It lives on your favorite messaging platforms, such as Messenger, Telegram, SMS, Slack, and Alexa (coming soon), and is available 24/7.

For starters, here’s what this new resource can do:

Manages lists and sends you timed reminders
Remembers events or important information for instant recall
Manages your calendar
Calls you to wake you up
Provides weather updates
Sends you jokes when you’re having a bad day

Educational Uses of ME

Now all of the above features can also be handled by devices like the Amazon Echo. But again, ME can be with you anywhere you go, which makes it a natural for students to use in school. We know that organizational skills are critical to surviving and thriving in today’s world. But we don’t spend much time actually teaching kids how to be organized as we might need to. ME is a great tool for them to use for managing their assignments and homework, meetings and events, and important things they need to remember. Best of all, the service is completely FREE! Students can get started using ME simply by picking a communication system that will work on their device.

Our schedules aren’t going to get any less busy. So finding the perfect tool to help manage our busy lives is important. Share the ME organizer with your students and see if they find it useful.

January 15, 2018 0 comments

Online Tools and Apps

Photo Editing with Artificial Intelligence

by Lori Gracey December 8, 2017

written by Lori Gracey

Most of us these days, when trying to capture a special moment or a beautiful scene, use our cell phone cameras to take the shot. And while that’s great for portability, it may not result in the best pictures. We’re usually in a hurry (Why won’t the cat hold still while I take a picture of her doing something cute?). Add to that the fact that the more features our cell phone cameras add on, the less we actually know about how to take great photos. The result? Photos that are too dark, too bright, or just not right.

The good news for us photo amateurs is that artificial intelligence (AI) can how help improve our photos, even after they’ve been taken. AI Photos is a free website where you can upload any photo and the artificial brains will then make it better automatically; you don’t have to know anything or do anything. The tool’s creators claim that it can even “translate ordinary photos into DSLR-quality images.” (DSLR stands for Digital Lens Single Reflex and is the preferred tool of professional photographers.)

Photo Editing in Action

Below is a photo I took of one of my sons while he was in college. You can see the “before” look on the right and it’s really dark. The “after” look on the left shows how the photo appears once the AI has done its thing. Then I simply download my enhanced photo (as a JPG) and pretend I took it that way from the start. There’s no fee or registration required, which is amazing.

photo editing

The final, saved image looks like this. The AI seems to have not only lightened the background, but also sharpened my blurry image.

photo editing

Now this may not be the slickest photo editor on the planet. But, to be honest, sometimes I don’t need a lot of bells and whistles to have to pick from. Usually, I just want my photo to look good without a lot of work. AI Photos is fast and efficient and doesn’t require me to know a lot about photography. That’s what I’m looking for in any artificial intelligence, something that will save me time and make me look good!

Classroom Applications

Because the AI works automatically, this isn’t a great tool for teaching students how to take better photographs. But when you’re in the middle of a project and students need good photos fast, this is the perfect resource. Even elementary students can use it because of its simplicity. And, after all, the world needs better photos!

More Photo Editing Resources

If you want more resources on photo editing, check out these blog posts:

December 8, 2017 0 comments

making it merry title on a red background

Online Tools and Apps

Makin’ It Merry

by Peggy Reimers December 4, 2017

written by Peggy Reimers

For Meghan Trainor, it’s all about the bass, but I think it’s all about makin’ it merry with animated GIFs! My colleague Miguel Guhlin inspired me and then taught me how to create an animated GIF. Check out my second ever GIF above with the holiday theme.

I made my first animated GIF for Twitter. It showcased our wonderful presenters for the November TCEA Campus Technology Specialist Academy. I must say, I was quite jazzed at the result. I then put on my educator hat and wondered how could this be used in school. It could easily morph into a makerspace, a holiday art project, or a technology integration lesson.

Merry Animated GIF Creation Directions

Step 1

Open Google Slides
Under File >Page Settings >Pixels Set 400 x 400
Create your first slide
Choose a background color
Add your content: I drew lights and added clip art snowflakes and a text box with Happy
Duplicate your first slide
I changed the coloring of the lights and switched out the word “Happy” for “Holidays,” but used the same text box. *You do not want to change the alignment of the text.
Duplicate the second slide
For the third slide, I added a tree and snowflakes

Step 2

1. Use the Slides to Drives add-on

(Click on <Select a File) Find your Google Slide Presentation and click select

This will save the three slides as a .png. Be patient on this part. (It takes a little bit of time to make the magic work.

2. Click on the blue link to open up the folder in your Google Drive.

3.Download this file. On my Mac, it downloaded it as a zipped folder. I put it on my desktop and double-clicked on it to unzip it.

Step 3

Go to gifmaker.me
Upload your folder with your three .png files
On the left side, set your Canvas Size to 400 x 400
Set your animation speed (I used 750 for the blinking lights)
View the GIF or Download the GIF. But you don’t really need to view it because you can see it in the control panel.

Viola! There it is!

More Merry Making for the Holiday Season

Paper Snowflake Maker

Elf Yourself Special note: Fun to create, but the cost to save your song is $1.99.

Build a Snowman

Create a poster, card or photo collage with Canva

Send a Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or winter ecard

Make a Digital Breakout or try The Merry Merry Digital Breakout here.

Featured Image: Created by author

December 4, 2017 0 comments

Online Tools and Apps

For Fun and Creativity, Try a Digital Sign Generator

by Peggy Reimers November 16, 2017

written by Peggy Reimers

Digital sign generators are just plain fun. And with a little creativity, you can turn these little oddball web tools into something useful. I know what you’re thinking: that is a pretty big stretch. But so untrue! Without much effort, you can easily spice up the following with a self-made title or inscription:

Presentation slides
HyperDocs
Student or staff congratulations
Name tags
Bulletin boards
Blogs and websites
Online courses
Book reports
Newsletters
Green screen backgrounds or props
Story starters
Puzzles for a Breakout EDU or digital breakout game

Digital Sign Generators

Here are a few fun resources for digital sign generators to get you started:

Inspired by the Netflix series, Stranger Things, Nelson Cash created a Strangify Title Generator
http://makeitstranger.com/

Einstein Writing on the Blackboard

http://www.hetemeel.com/einsteinform.php

Custom Medal Maker and Road Sign
Bronze Colored Medal
Blue Road Sign

Make an Eye Chart
http://www.eyechartmaker.com/index.php

Two websites for designing your own “Breaking News!”
http://www.classtools.net/breakingnews/

http://breakyourownnews.com/

Geo-Greeting is a fun use of Google Earth’s 3D satellite imagery. Go ahead, create a message with letter-shaped buildings.

http://www.geogreeting.com

Sign Generators with Multiple Options

Atom Smasher Sign Maker has 12 signs that you can make. Caution, the Las Vegas Strip sign is probably not age-appropriate for students. My favorite three from this website include:

Highway Sign Generator

Road Construction Sign Generator

Bar-B-Q Sign Generator

Wigflip has a dozen different designs. My favorites here are the speech bubbles, motivational poster, green street signs, and the sticky notes.

Addletters has Harry Potter, Disneyland, and the Wrigley Field Marquee generators. Caution! When I checked out this site, inappropriate ads were visible.

With Image Chef, you have 45 options for creating digital signs.

Classic choices available at RedKid.You can’t help but love Scooby Doo, Pink Panther, and the iPod Billboards of yesteryear. One more caution age advisory caution: on this site, you can make a sign with an Absolut vodka bottle.

If you are looking to go old school, try WORD Art from Microsoft Windows 95. In its day, Word Art jazzed up millions of book reports, logos, and presentations.

Tombstone Generators

http://tombgen.appspot.com/
http://www.tombstonebuilder.com/
http://www.oregontrailtombstone.com/

The gravestone generators just might be one of my favorites. For educational purposes, I would use one of these tools to create:

Background for a Halloween haiku
An epitaph for a famous person, author, or historical figure.
A summary of a character’s features for a book report
Overused (dead words) that a class doesn’t use anymore …such as sad, happy, run, eat, etc.

Please share your creativity and let us know in the comment section how you and your students use digital sign generators to jazz up your projects!

November 16, 2017 0 comments

Online Tools and Apps Technical Support

Communication Apps Districts Can’t Live Without

by Miguel Guhlin October 20, 2017

written by Miguel Guhlin

Are you the go-to person for getting the word out to others on your campus or district? Let’s consider that you may be responsible if you have any of the following roles: district technology director or coordinator, human resources director, superintendent, assistant superintendent, principal, or classroom teacher. Yes, that’s right. Almost everyone is responsible for ensuring positive, engaging communications with parents and community. In this blog entry, we’ll explore some services and communication apps that make it easy to get the word out.

“Our district app is attached to our website. The admin office is the one who updates the website and app, and I get alerts when needed announcements are made through the app. We have a district Twitter and Facebook for official communication to the community.”

App #1 – Mobile App for Parents

Looking for a mobile app that parents and students can load on their smartphones to keep up to date? Several school districts rely on a large company to create their app. These school apps provide a wealth of information, including school news (which could be an RSS feed from your organization blog or content management system) and important notifications (e.g. hurricane alerts). School communications apps make it easy for parents to access grades, cafeteria menus, and campus event schedules. Let’s take a quick look at two well-known app providers.

Blackboard is one such school app provider. For those relying on Blackboard for services, a mobile school app may be available from Blackboard at an additional cost. From their website:

A beautiful mobile app can help bring your community together with the latest news, schedules, and school information personalized for every parent. The Blackboard Mobile Communications App, formally ParentLink, integrates with all the school tools you need—from websites, social media, and mass notifications—for a more streamlined communication experience.

Schoolway serves as cost effective alternative. From their website:

Unlike open forums like texting, Facebook or Twitter, SchoolWay gives your school the best way yet to inform and alert your school community with the content of your choice. From everyday information to important alerts, SchoolWay has you covered, safely and securely. Schools control the content, parents choose the content they wish to receive. From classwork updates to sports scheduling, lunch menus, scores and event updates, SchoolWay delivers…Your teachers, coaches, clubs and administrators can manage their own content independently. Then, parents and students can choose the content they want to receive. The app is also customized with the colors and logos of the schools in your district.

Schoolway is available at no charge if the district has a Jostens’ yearbook contract. If not, an individual school can expect to pay approximately $500. School districts may pay $1500 (these are ballpark figures).

“For parents/students, we have been using Twitter, Remind 101, and Facebook. For teacher/admin communication, we have been using GroupMe.”

Other school mobile apps that provide parent access include School Messenger, CampusSuite, and Como (formerly Conduit Mobile featured in Judson ISD’s initial effort) .

Responsive Web Design Lowers Cost of School App Adoption

A low-cost alternative to purchase of a school mobile app involves using responsive web design. It is an approach defined in this way:

Responsive web design (RWD) is an approach to web design which makes web pages render well on a variety of devices and window or screen sizes. (Source: Wikipedia)

It’s not an app, but rather a mobile-friendly website. Twitter Lite, for example, isn’t an app. It was designed to provide access to twitter on mobile devices that lack an app store, are in low bandwidth situations, and require fast loading content. Going “lite” on for school mobile can save you money.

In terms of what’s easy to use to create a lite site, take a look at the “New Google Sites.” You can embed RSS feeds for updates from blogs or content management systems (a.k.a. website tools like Blackboard, edlio, etc).

App #2 – Remind

Appropriate for classrooms, campuses, and group communications, Remind.com offers a simple solution. Used in seventy percent of U.S. schools, Remind has become synonymous with school communications. Teachers and principals rely on Remind because it makes sharing information easy and safe. Although teachers can start out with a free account, school plans are available. With safety in mind, Remind earned the iKeepSafe COPPA Safe Harbor Seal.

I appreciate the short Remind texts about a lesson that was taught so that I can initiate a conversation about a specific moment from the school day. They’ve helped to change the conversation with my child at home from ‘Eh, my day was fine’ to one where they share details—and at times, excitement—about what they learned. – Gwen Pescatore, mom of three and PTO president, PA

Remind is remarkably easy to set up for communications. In fact, every day, I receive an update via Remind keeping me up to date.

App #3 – Class Dojo

Another favorite for the classroom, Class Dojo has gained a following. Designed primarily for elementary students, it facilitates monitoring of student behavior throughout the school day and week. More importantly, parents can see how their child is behaving through the app as well. Many educators and parents love Class Dojo. It is a great tool to help students monitor their behavior throughout the day/week. Make sure to get approval for use of this tool from your school district first, however.

App #4 – Miscellaneous Communication Apps

There are a variety of apps available to facilitate communications among team members. These include free walkie-talkie apps like Voxer and Zello and group messaging apps like GroupMe and Telegram. Each has its own strengths. For example, if you need to be able to rely on passworded groups with text and audio options, Voxer, Zello, and Telegram will meet your needs. Zello’s benefit is that it doesn’t require users to share their mobile phone number with others. All apps listed work via the web, as well as on your mobile device of choice.

Having used all of these, my current favorite is Zello, a favorite for many others as well. If it worked for them, it should work for you.

Create Your Unified Communications Plan

While Twitter hashtags can unify a campus, and a school district Facebook page is a requirement today, these three apps can facilitate communication in an academic setting. Whether you are using an industrial strength mobile app or relying on a coordinated text messaging app like Remind, parent communication has never been easier. Develop a social media plan that relies on simple tools to get information to the people who most need it.

Note: This post was updated on February 28, 2018 to include additional school mobile apps.

October 20, 2017 1 comment

Educational Trends Good Teaching Online Tools and Apps

Five Reasons Why Explainer Videos Help Teach Generation Z

by Guest Blogger September 14, 2017

written by Guest Blogger

As Generation Z will be highly responsible for shaping our future, along with other young generations, teachers need to aid and support their social and academic development. From what we know about Gen Z, they are quite different compared to previous generations. Therefore, we must think of tools to fill the spots available for content reception to benefit both teachers and students.

Videos are no newcomer when it comes to supporting lectures; however explainer videos in general have exponential benefits that will support content retention. Five specific benefits include catering to the short attention span of the average Gen Z student through concise videos, offering ease of accessibility and mobility, providing visual learning opportunities, offering increased simplicity, and easily providing a variety of information and a simple way to update content.

This video has been created with mysimpleshow.

1. Simple videos for short attention spans.

A student’s attention span might, excessively speaking, decrease as I am writing this. After all, the average attention span of a Generation Z individual is about 8 seconds. Massive amounts of information expressed in long texts is outdated. What explainer videos offer is a condensed version of a lot of information. It’s the main message, the key points, or the announcement of something in a simple and video-based way. Thus, we combine the different needs of Gen Z with short, image-heavy, snackable information. Explainer videos ideally are around one to three minutes in length, with two minutes as the sweet spot, meaning high engagement.

2. Mobility and accessibility

Thanks to fluency across five screens, explainer videos allow viewers to access the videos anytime and anywhere. This enables students and teachers to free themselves of these “hunger slots” during the day when no information will reach them. Thanks to the accessibility, explainer videos can be assigned as homework or played throughout the school day according to teachers’ and students’ assessment. Thanks to technology, you can bring the screen to any setting required, taking the classroom anywhere you like across the globe. This supports the preference of an independent working environment.

3. Visual learning

Adobe has conducted research that indicates that more than 50 percent of students and teachers assess “watching” as the most effective learning source, followed by online research. Explainer videos combine both of these factors, as videos are watched and simultaneously searched online, and search results likely contain additional valuable information. Extra bonuses are the audio aspect for aural learning, as well as possible subtitle options that assist in improving reading skills.

4. Simple messages

In addition to accessible, shortened information nuggets, let’s talk about simplicity. As Gen Z students process information faster, they require understandable information bits so the content remains memorable. Explainer videos pick up on the concept of apps using images, keywords, attractive design layouts, user friendly interfaces, and simple sentence structures. This further leaves space for creativity when considering students and teachers creating their own videos.

5. Variety of information and ease of updating content

Explainer videos are not bound to a subject – the possibilities are endless! A teacher likely doesn’t have time to write an entire textbook, but can create or search for suitable explainer videos, reducing working time immensely while simultaneously ensuring students a deeper understanding of the content. Another great benefit here? Updated information. Not only is most content in the videos rather recent, but it is often easier to adjust, revise, and update information in comparison to textbook updates, as video creation tools are online and thus accessible 24 hours of the day, seven days a week.

Generation Z has the future among them, and it’s time teachers support these students through technology – explainer videos to be exact!

This is a guest blog by Finja Kruse. Kruse is a teacher who has worked with children of different ages. She also writes blogs and creates videos for simpleshow video maker. She has experience with different educational tools and is engaged in creative writing activities in school. You can contact her via LinkedIn.

September 14, 2017 0 comments

Educational Trends Online Tools and Apps Professional Learning

Four Great Twitter Walls to Use

by Dr. Bruce Ellis August 18, 2017

written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

Do you have an event coming up and would like to encourage tweeting during the event? Then you may want to consider using a Twitter wall. A Twitter wall displays a specified hashtag, list, or user account and updates every few seconds. Many events that make use of a Twitter wall will use a projector to have it displayed in a prominent place so their attendees can see the action…and hopefully participate by sharing their learning via Twitter.

Though Twitter walls can be pricey, here are four that I found that are either free or offer a free version that is well done.

The Wallrus

This has to be the easiest Twitter wall to set up. You have multiple themes available, can upload your logo, and identify one Twitter keyword, username, or Instagram keyword on the free version. There are four layouts (text, text and images, images, and instructions) which you can use in any combination or use all four (my preference) set on timers.

Activity Walls

Though not quite as extensive as The Wallrus, Activity Walls does do a nice job of showing the most recent tweets. Just identify your hashtag, set the colors (which can be a little quirky, depending on what browser you are using), and your wall is instantly created. Using Chrome, I can quickly jump to full screen for a nice projected view; using Internet Explorer, I can customize the accent, background, and text colors.

Tweet Monsters

Tweet Monsters is simple and focused. The free account is for personal use; you’ll need to contact them for pricing on corporate and other uses. Begin by identifying your hashtag. Customize text and background colors as well as the font, transition type, and transition speed. If needed, you can use the custom word filter to identify words to be filtered out and to either not show the tweet or substitute the bad word with an *. The downside of Tweet Monsters is that you only see one tweet at a time.

Twitter Fall

This Twitter wall has the most options available without a cost. You can add lists, searches, tweets by geolocation, exclude specific hashtags or words, and color code your timeline, mentions, and direct messages if needed. You do have a variety of setting to change regarding the speed, fall size, language, font size, and whether or not to show retweets. When finished tweaking your wall, you will want to click on the Presentation Mode link for easier viewing for your attendees. Though not the most professional looking wall, it does give the most flexibility. And, when I’m in a Twitter chat, I use this wall to follow the exchange and participate.

Twitter Wall Tips

When using a Twitter wall, be sure to consider these tips to make sure that it works the way you intend and that you get the most out of it with your attendees.

Investigate and choose your hashtag carefully. Be sure that the hashtag you are using isn’t conflicting with other users’ use of the hashtag, which may be completely different (and inappropriate) than your intentions.
Share your hashtag with your users well in advance and start “priming the pump” with tweets about your event.
Ask your attendees to tweet out their learning, great ideas, quotes, etc. using the hashtag during the event. Encourage non-tweeters to move from lurking to retweeting.
Tweet with images and photos to increase the engagement and the likelihood it will be shared with others.

Now that you have a few Twitter walls to choose from and some tips to get you started, we’d love to see what you do with them. Share the link to your Twitter wall in the comments below.

August 18, 2017 0 comments

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