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5 Criteria for Comparing AI Models
Artificial Intelligence

Getting the Most Out of Free AI Tools

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Looking for paid vs free AI tools? You may already know that you’re limited in what you can do with ChatGPT Free, Claude, and Perplexity in their free tiers. When someone asks, “What tips are there for ChatGPT for free users?” there’s no comparison to the Plus version except in the level of quality in the response. Let’s explore this in a few different ways.

Image generated by Bing Image Creator by author
Image generated by Bing Image Creator by author

Developing Criteria for Comparison

There are several ways to compare AI models from what they were to what they are today. For example, in comparing Claude 2.0 with Claude 3 Opus (the latest at the time I wrote this blog), speed and performance are key. There are other criteria that would be worth considering, such as:

  • Performance on benchmarks (e.g. MMLU, GPQA, GSM8K)
  • Speed (quick responses with higher intelligence)
  • Vision capabilities (processing images, charts)
  • Multilingual support (fluency in non-English languages)
  • Response accuracy (admits uncertainty over incorrect)
  • Contextual understanding (source)

When someone asks, “What tips are available for using the free versions?” this can be a difficult question to answer. It’s like asking, “What tips do you have for getting a stool to perform at the level of a high chair, or a ruler to a meter stick?” There’s simply more power and quality in the paid versions to draw on.

5 Criteria for Comparing AI Models
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Sample Chart

Here’s a sample chart comparing ChatGPT Free to ChatGPT Pro as of April, 2024. You can also find a comparison chart for Claude 2.0 to 3.0. The main thing to focus on is that one is free, the other requires payment.

Tips for Getting Better Performance

Some tips for getting better performance out of the free versions, which have built-in restrictions, appear below:

  • Understand the limitations of the free version vs the paid version.
  • Optimize your prompts. Use the AI to assist you in fine-tuning your prompt before you submit it in a fresh conversation thread or chat.
  • Try different free AI tools, and “AI smash” their results, feeding results from one into another. For example, mix Claude free results in ChatGPT free, fine-tuning the results each time.
  • Break complex tasks up into smaller pieces. Have the free AI do ONE thing or focus on one aspect alone.

Understand thought that you may not get better performance no matter what you do. That’s because there are inherent limits in the free versions. To get the best out of free AI tools, you may need to use more tools than one. That means, as wonderful as ChatGPT Free is, you will need to try some different tools. Ultimately, you may end up paying for improved performance.

Consider using the RETO prompt engineering tips to guide you:

Free AI Tools

In this section, you can find a list of free AI tools you can use. The benefit of these free tools, aside from the fact they are free, is their focus.

You already know the free versions of the following are available:

  • ChatGPT – no login or account required
  • Claude – login required
  • Google Gemini – login required
  • Perplexity – no login or account required

Since the list of AI tools that are free or paid (or both) is quite long, you can find a list here. To assist you in imagining how you could “app smash” these free tools to get better results, here’s a short guide that addresses five key areas. All tools listed on it are available for free (or were at the time this blog entry was composed).

Assessing AI Output

It can be difficult to assess the quality of AI output. Consider the following steps when reviewing AI generated content:

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Planning and Preparation

Four Time-Saving Tips to Maximize Productivity

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

In today’s fast-paced world, time is precious. It can be difficult to find the time to do everything you need to do. Let’s explore some tips for saving time in your daily life and maximizing your productivity.

1. Prioritize your tasks.

One of the most effective ways to save time is to prioritize your tasks. Make a list of everything you need to do and rank tasks in order of importance. Focus on completing the most important tasks first, and don’t waste time on tasks that can wait. I’ve always been a fan of making lists of what I need to complete each day. It helps keep me on track, and I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot if I can mark tasks off my list.

2. Plan your day.

Taking a few minutes each day to plan your schedule can help you save time and avoid wasting time on unimportant tasks. Plan your day by scheduling blocks of time for different tasks, and make sure you stick to your schedule as closely as possible. When I create my list of tasks, I like to estimate the amount of time each task will take. I try to be realistic about how much time I have available so I don’t overload my schedule. At the end of the day, I review my progress and adjust my plan as needed.

3. Use time-saving tools.

There are many technology tools available that can help you save time. For example, task management apps like Trello or Todoist can help you prioritize tasks and track your progress. Chrome extensions like RescueTime, StayFocusd, or Momentum can help you stay focused and avoid distractions while you’re working on your computer. Using scheduling tools like Appointment Slots, Doodle, or Calendly can help you easily schedule appointments. This will help reduce the time you spend on scheduling so you can focus on those important tasks you need to complete.

4. Eliminate distractions.

Distractions are one of the biggest ways we waste time. Whether it’s checking your email constantly, scrolling through social media, or being constantly interrupted by messages, distractions can take up valuable time that could be better spent on other tasks. To save time, it’s important to eliminate distractions as much as possible to stay focused on the task at hand. Put your cell phone on focus mode or tuck it away, out of sight. Close your email while you work on tasks. Put a sign on your door to let people know at what time you will be available. Set office hours so people know when they can stop by. All these options can help you maintain focus and boost productivity.

Saving time is a matter of being organized, planning ahead, and taking advantage of technology tools. By prioritizing your tasks, planning your day, and eliminating distractions, you can maximize your time.

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Google Tips and Tricks

Seven Google Sheets Tips to Save You Time

by Emily Horn
written by Emily Horn

We could all use a little more time. In fact, I’ve recently wondered where August, September, and October went. I can’t be the only person to experience this phenomenon! But regardless of how time feels to you right now, here are seven tricks for saving time with Google Sheets.

1. Merge cells to create first initial last name (i.e. ehopkins) usernames.

Did you know there’s a quick way to merge a cell with a first name (Emily) and a cell with a last name (Hopkins) to make a username (ehopkins)? Well, it’s true. Using one of the formulas below, you can easily do this with a list of hundreds of names. If you ever have to upload CSV rosters to create accounts, this will save you tons of time.

Here are two formulas to choose from:

  • =(CONCATENATE(LEFT(CELL,1),””, CELL))
  • =(LEFT(CELL,1) & “” & CELL)

Here’s what it looks like in action:

Take a look at the following trick to see how to change the case for your usernames.

2. Change text in cells to lowercase, uppercase, or proper case.

You can use one of the three functions below, either with another function or on its own, to change the case of your text in cells.

=PROPER

=UPPER

=LOWER

See them in action:

3. Want to see all Google Sheets keyboard shortcuts? You can!

If you’re using a Mac, simply press the command and forward slash keys. On a Windows machine, press the control key and forward slash. A window full of keyboard shortcuts will appear for you. It’s magic.

4. Easily create QR codes for any cell.

I love this one. You can create QR codes with information from your spreadsheet using this function.

=IMAGE(“https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chs=200×200&cht=qr&chl=”&CELL&”)”)

Just as an example, let’s imagine that you have a spreadsheet of usernames and passwords for your students. You can create a QR code for their passwords and provide them with a printed copy of their username and QR code. And if they forget their password, they can simply scan their code!

Here is a short clip to show how this can be done:

5. Create a drop-down list in any cell.

  1. Select the cell where you’d like to have a drop-down list.
  2. Click on Data in the Sheets menu and select Data validation.
  3. From the list, choose List of items and type your items into the text box, separating them with commas.
  4. Click Save.
  5. The dropdown box will appear, and you can drag it to place it in more cells inside your spreadsheet.

See this in action:

Check out this blog article about drop-down menus in lesson plans if you’d like to go deeper.

6. Send a Google Sheets comment through email.

  1. Click the cell you’d like to add a comment to.
  2. Either click Insert in the Google Sheets menu and then Comment; or you can select the add comment icon in the toolbar.
  3. When you see the comment box pop up, type @ and select an email address for the person you’d like to recive the comment. If you do not see their name on the list, you can type their email address in manually after the @.
  4. Type your comment after their email address.
  5. Click the checkbox next to “Assign to…”, then click the green Assign box. The assinee will recieve an email with their comment.
Google Sheets Comment

7. Fill multiple cells quickly and easily.

If you drag one cell down, you can fill cells with the same contents, but there are a few more tricks for this. Watch this short video by @JakeMillerTech to learn these tips to “fill down” cells and give him a follow on Twitter for even more great tips. These are fantastically useful, and I learned something new watching this.

I hope that you find these Google Sheets tips useful. If you have any to add, shout them out in the comments.

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iOS Tips and Tricks

My First Time Using An iPhone and Favorite Apps

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Have an iPhone, but not sure if you’re using it to its full capacity? Read this blog post to get a first time user’s insights. I’ll cover things you need to be aware of and share my list of favorite, must-have apps for productivity and work. Come along and learn with me as I use my new iPhone.

The Journey Begins

This spring, I joined 113 million iPhone users. There’s a total of 300 million smartphone users in the United States. That’s approximately 47 percent of smartphone-using population (source). The action was necessary for me, not only for fear of missing out (FOMO). After all, who can resist learning about new apps and how they can impact our lives?

My List of Amazing Apps

The best of the Apple operating system for iPhones (iOS) offers many great features. Everyone has their own list of favorite apps, so I’m going to focus on some of the ones that make a difference in my work.

Built-In Goodness

Apple’s iOS offers many incredible features that simplify daily operations, but they can also cause quite a bit of difficulty for newbies like me. For example, some of the great features available include:

  • Swiping: Swiping up from the bottom of the screen gets you one result, while swiping and holding get you another. Experiment with the two to see the differences.
  • Notifications: You can adjust, or turn off, notifications for your apps. This can be an important to know. (Path: Settings–>Notifications)
  • Accessibility options (two-tap vs three-tap on back): Want to take a screenshot? I tap twice on the back of the iPhone and it snaps the picture. No need to fumble with volume up and power button. You can set that up in your Settings->Accessibility options).

In fact, it’s worth spending the time to play around with your Settings. Take some time because you will be going back to it again and again. The most often used app on my iPhone is the Settings app.

Unlike Android, you usually end up paying for apps, even the free, open source software. My favorite anti-spam, robo-calls blocking app is Should I Answer. It integrates with your iPhone. On Android, this app is free. On iPhone, you pay a subscription fee per month that is about the same cost as Google One storage ($1.99). I do keep a few paid apps handy.

OK, let’s jump into a quick list of my favorite apps.

Secure Connections

No matter what device you are using, you need to protect your data. Some of the tools I use include the following:

Each of these gives you a powerful set of tools you can take advantage of to safeguard sensitive data.

If I had to pick my top three favorites from the list above, they would include:

Readdle Documents is your one-stop shop for an ePub ebook reader. What’s more, it’s a great media center for all sorts of media content. You can also share content to your computer or other devices via its built-in sharing. The other two tools protect you from spam phone calls (Should I Answer?) and WiFi-based attacks. I use these three apps every single day.

Photo Tools

Many of us appreciate the wonderful camera built into the iPhone. My favorite photo apps include:

Some extra tools you may find worth having include digital scanners. Two of my favorites include Fast Scanner and Readdle’s Scanner Pro. Both make it easy to scan multi-page documents and then share them with others via Google Drive, as well as Dropbox (to name two).

Media Tools

Working with audio and video recordings? For many of us, knowing how to interact with audio and video on our iPhone is a time-saver. Instead of exporting, offloading video to our computer, you can make changes on the go. Here is my short list for audio and video:

Audio


My favorite audio editing app? Hokusai Audio Editor. Get this app for Audacity-like editing experience, but with so much more. You can enhance Hokusai Audio Editor with Tools and Pro packs. Combined with RingtoneMaker, you can make and/or record ringtones.

Don’t want to make your own ringtones? Get them off the web. You can make one for each person in your contacts. You can grab ringtones off the web that are 30 seconds in length, then put them on your iPhone using two tools: Readdle Documents or, if on Windows, EaseUSMobiMover (free limited edition).

Most of us work with video as well. Let’s take a quick look at video apps for on-the-go editing.

Video

Working with video is easy on an iOS device. Here are some apps to try:

Along with Hokusai Audio Editor, my other must-have is Pinnacle Pro video editor. You can also get some special effects for your videos with one of these amazing video clip makers:

Of course, no list is complete without inclusion of DoInk’s Green Screen app ($2.99). You may want to spend some time exploring these apps to get a feel for them. They cost a few extra dollars, but it’s worth it for making special effects easy.

More to Learn

If you’re looking for free or sale iOS apps, be sure to check out this blog. There are some great tips for learning how to search for apps that don’t cost much.

As a newbie to iPhone magic, there’s a lot more I want to learn. What are some of your favorite must-have apps? Please share them in the comments.

Feature Image Source

Photo by surasak_ch on Unsplash

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Educational Trends

Tips, Tricks, and Tech Tidbits: Wellbeing

by Lori Gracey
written by Lori Gracey

This is another in the hodge-podge series of blogs that share a variety of resources for today’s educator. Today, we’ll be looking at some new items that can help us and our students feel better as we practice wellbeing. Let’s dig in.

Arts + Health & Wellbeing

Google Arts & Culture has a fabulous new website with activities developed by the World Health Organization to help us reconnect with ourselves, each other, and our environment. There are guided videos to relieve stress and boost your mood, as well as movement breaks, breathing exercises, and music and art activities. While designed for adults, this site would also work for students.

Get Moving!

To have a sense of wellbeing, we must connect our brains and our bodies through movement. These free cognitive-physical activity videos cover a variety of uses and are all centered around moving and its positive impact on the brain. The videos tend to be short (most of them under three minutes long) and include topics like social emotional learning, musical thinking, and math. All of them are based on the latest brain research and still manage to be fun. My favorite? The Mixed Tempo Beat Synchronization Classroom Activity (look at the expressions on the kids’ faces as they s-l-i-d-e!)

Put a Smile on Your Face by Cooking

Making and then eating something delicious can definitely add to your sense of wellbeing. The Open Source Cookbook is meant to be an open source toolkit that everyone and anyone can access during a time of heightened need. There are recipes from “chefs, line cooks, home cooks, mothers, fathers, nonnas, popo’s, and everyday joes.” Each recipe includes information about the provider, detailed instructions, and fabulous photos. Check out this yummy recipe for classy chopped beef burger and cheddar soup.

wellbeing

Create a Stop Motion Video

Cloud Stop Motion is an online stop motion animation tool with free accounts for schools. It offers powerful features including sound effects, music, title, credits, and more and works on any device. While no registration is required, the free school account offers more possibilities. With it, teachers/administrators can:

  • Create unlimited student groups and accounts.
  • View, edit and delete student accounts, projects, and movies.
  • Empty student recycle bins.
  • Render, watch, and export student animations as MP4 movie files.
  • Manage organization storage.

Calm Down with Sand

This Is Sand offers a chance for you to take a break and relax by piling different colors of sand into beautiful and artistic layers. There is an Android and iOS app or you can just use the browser-based version; all are free. Admittedly, my creations are not quite as beautiful as I had hoped. But there are some amazing examples of sand work to get you inspired.

wellbeing wellbeing

Challenge Your Mind

If you’ve relaxed enough and are now ready to challenge your mind, try out PuzzGrid. This timed puzzle activity starts off by showing you a grid of 16 words that must be separated into four categories of four words each. Each category should be on a similar theme or topic. Afterwards, you have to name each category (for example “rivers” or “Greek letters”). Be warned: there are words provided sometimes that don’t match anything. And many of the connections between words are not the obvious ones. Each puzzgrid is ranked as very easy, easy, medium, hard, or fiendish. Here’s an easy one to get you started. This activity would be great for young minds!

wellbeing

Relax with Nature

A virtual field trip can be a great way to relax and unwind. (Check out some of them in this TCEA blog). But sometimes you just need to stop and smell the flowers. Here’s a 10-hour relaxation video of nature scenes that includes soothing music. Show it in snippets when you (or your students) need to take a break and breathe. (Full disclosure: There are text adds that appear on the video, but, to me, the scenes are worth it.)

Practice Gratitude

One of the best ways to have a sense of wellbeing is to practice gratitude. There is a lot of research that shows that this can lesson emotional exhaustion and feelings of depression. This article has some easy ways for students to practice gratitude, and they would work well with adults too. And this one shares 22 videos that can help students better understand and show gratitude in their daily lives.

What are other resources you use to create a stronger sense of wellbeing in your life or the lives of those around you? Please share them in the comments below!

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Tips, Tricks, and Tech Tidbits: Attitude, Choice Boards, Coaching, and ELAR

by Lori Gracey
written by Lori Gracey

I just got back from attending the virtual TCEA 2021 Convention & Exposition and I’m thrilled to share some of what I learned there with you. Hold on to your horses and let’s go!

An Attitude First Aid Kit

tips and tricks

What resonated with me most this week was not a new tech tool or website, although I did see lots of those (and I share a few at the end of this blog). It was, instead, a remark from one of our thought leaders, Bonnie St. John. Bonnie told us that she found the need to “Create a first aid kit for my attitude, a collection of things on hand that can quickly shift my attitude from negative to positive.” Wow, what a game changer! I need to have on hand a kit of items that can help me take charge of my negative attitude when it springs up and get back into positive territory. The kit may include, for me, specific musical pieces, dark chocolate, a photo of my children and husband and another of my chickens (it makes me laugh).

What might be in your attitude first aid kit? If you’re not sure, here is a guide for you and your colleagues to use as a team-building activity in creating your attitude first aid kits. And Kylie Lloyd liked this concept so much that she created a Jamboard template that you can make a copy of to help her students to this.

tips, tricks, and tech tidbits

Digital Choice Boards Out the Wazoo!

The fabulous Janet Corder and Joan Gore provided a wealth of examples and best practices when using choice boards with students. They even included some choice boards for administrators, choice board templates, choice board assessment ideas, and so much more. You do not want to miss this!

The Coaching Continuum

Ashely Parker shared this continuum of coaching an adult learner (image below) that makes a lot of sense to me. And, what’s more, it allows me to plan what my next step with a teacher I am working with should be. I’m afraid that sometimes I stay on Level 1: Connection too much as I keep trying to provide the learner with resource after resource and don’t provide any follow-up and coaching to get to Level 2: Consultation.

Emoji Writing Prompter

Ian Byrd designed this quick and easy Random Emoji Generator writing prompter for busy teachers. Opening the page will produce an emoji that the student should write about. When he runs out of things to say, he can select “And Then” and another random emoji will be produced next to the first one to continue the story. This can go on for as long as the student likes. (Note: Some of the less than perfect emojis are included in this, so your student might get a toilet or the poop emoji.)

Reading Vine

Finding good reading passages that have comprehension questions and Lexile ranges can be difficult. And finding them for free is almost impossible. But luckily for strapped educators everywhere, there is Reading Vine.

“Rather than a one size fits all curriculum, Reading Vine offers supplemental reading practice that can be personalized to fit a student’s or group’s exact needs. Teachers, parents, and tutors simply choose appropriate passage text/questions as desired, and then save, download, or print it out and share with the students.” The site has reading sets and reading passages for grades K-12 and for Lexile ranges from 0 to 1300+. All of it is searchable by skill set, age, word count, Lexile, genre, and topic. And did I mention that it’s completely FREE??? The teacher has to register to use the site, but there is no other charge for its use.

Tech Tools

Finally, I do want to share with you a few of the technology tools that were new to me from the convention. Have you heard of these?

  • Body Synth – Move different parts of your body in different ways to make music with this fun site. It uses your device camera to track your movements and it is so much fun! You can hear the music as four different instruments, use your voice to play a chord, and adjust the sensitivity to make it work for big or small movements. I can see this being used in PE, obviously, but also as a movement break in all other classrooms.
  • Chromebook App Hub – This website has lots of resources, as you would imagine, about teaching with Chromebooks. But the really wonderful part of it is that it has an idea section called Idea Sparks. These are already-created lessons from other educators that work great on a Chromebook and they are, of course, free to use. You can also filter them by category, subject area, age range, and general learning goal.
  • Newspaper Front Page Template – There’s no such thing as too many templates. So add this one that has students create the front page of newspaper to your collection. This can be used in almost any content area, as well as working on determining if a news story is fake or real. The template is available for Google Slides and PowerPoint. (By the way, the provider SlidesMania has literally hundreds of great templates to use the classroom. They are created by educators and are ALL FREE!)
  • Wordwall – This is another site that helps teachers create a variety of interactive teaching resources such as quizzes, match ups, word games, and more. Each resource can be completed online or printed out. The Basic (i.e., free) plan is limited in that you have access to only 18 types of interactives and, more sadly, can only create five total resources. However, there is no limit to how many of the more than 10 million interactives already created by other educators that you can access and use with your students.

I hope you found at least one new tip, trick, or tidbit in this blog. If so, please drop me a line in the Comment section below about what you found interesting or useful. I’ll be back soon with even more!

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Tips, Tricks, and Tech Tidbits: Fire Safety, Halloween, Hybrid Learning, and More

by Lori Gracey
written by Lori Gracey

I’ve discovered some really cool tech tools and tips to share with you this week, including a couple of must-see ones for fall. So let’s dive right in.

Fire Safety and Prevention Resources

This site offers lots of fun resources for elementary students about Fire Prevention Week (October 4-10, 2020) and fire safety. It includes two different ebooks, choice boards, videos, and more.

Halloween Scratch Lesson: Spooky Clones

This cute lesson plan for upper elementary to middle school students includes an opening video for engagement and then four lessons to help students create a “scary” game. Note: You must request the lessons via email from the creator (form included in the website).

Six Requirements for Successful Hybrid Learning

Mark Anderson, the ICTEvengelist, shared what has to be in place in order for hybrid teaching and learning to be successful. If any one of the eight items below are missing, then failure may result. How are you making sure to provide all of these if you or your teachers are leading hybrid teaching?

tips

Noise Canceling App

If you need to record a video for your students or staff to watch, but find that the noise in your classroom or at home is interfering, then check out Krisp. The app is available for Macintosh and Windows computers and will mute both microphone noise and background noise for 120 minutes/week for free. There are examples of how good the app is on the website that let you hear what it sounds like with and without muting. It works on 800+ communication programs including Zoom, Teams, and Meet.

Weekly Tech Tips

K-2 technology integration specialist Traci Plitz provides a fabulous weekly tip sheet for her teachers. You can scroll through them and see the past weeks, as well as the current one. While they are designed for use in primary classrooms, many of them can be applied K-12.

Have Your Students Publish to the World

The Global Writing Project is a free weekly writing experience for all ages, a place where learners can write about the world with the world. With a weekly prompt, students can submit their writing via Flipgrid, Buncee, or Wakelet and be provided with an authentic global audience and an opportunity to be showcased as part of their weekly “Global Write” Champions Corner.

Release Your Inner Artist

I admit to being old enough to remember fondly the hours I spent creating with the Spirograph, a fabulous drawing tool for those of us who can’t draw. Now there’s a free, online version available called Inspirograph. Since you’re using your mouse instead of a pen or pencil, it’s a little bit harder to maneuver. But it’s still tons of fun and very relaxing in these stress-filled days.

A New Tech Tool to Improve Your Virtual Self

David Jakes shares his new favorite tech tool, mmhmm. “This is a tool that provides a series of new options to improve your virtual presence – in my case Zoom (it also works with Google Meet, and Chrome or Firefox only). The basic idea of mmhmm is that it provides a virtual camera interface for Zoom that gives you some interesting new features.” The tool is currently in private beta, but you can request an invitation here.

Student Avatars

TCEA’s own Lisa Monthie offers this cool tidbit that she picked up from Tammy G. Neil (both are great educators to follow on Twitter!). Have the students create an avatar with https://avatarmaker.com/ and “then use a tool such as https://gifmaker.me/ to make a GIF of all the students.”

Halloween Videos for Elementary Students

Celebrate each day of October leading up to Halloween with a different video. This article provides 31 cute and learning-filled shorts for younger students.

Getting Your Students Moving

We know that movement is crucial for learning, and here’s a fun way to put it into practice. Spin It is a random movement and exercise generator. At its default, it includes some very tough exercises like planks and wall sits. But the really cool thing about the spinner is that you can customize it for your students to be much simpler and less exhausting. Put in silly things like hopping five times on one foot or rubbing your stomach and your head at the same time. Mix it up, get students moving, and get them laughing!

That’s all of the tidbits for this time. If you missed any of the previous tips, you can find them all by searching our blog for “tips, tricks, and tech tidbits.” Let me know if any of today’s or earlier tips helped you.

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Tips, Tricks, and Tech Tidbits: Progress Trackers, Librarian Toolkit, and More

by Lori Gracey
written by Lori Gracey

In surfing the amazing world of educational technology recently, I’ve found more treasures to share with you. (If you missed the previous three blogs on this topic, be sure to check them out here, here, and here.)

Digital Progress Trackers for Google Form Practice

If you’re looking for ways that your students can keep track of their progress, check out these free digital trackers. There is one version with 30 spaces already created for you and an editable table that includes 25 spaces. The site also includes how to best use these with your students.

Lexend Fonts for Increased Readability

These fonts “are research based and shown to increase fluency and readability,” according to Mr. Zielinski. You can add them to any of your Google documents.

The Epic Book of Web Tools and Apps

More than 200 pages of apps and ed tech tools crowd-sourced by educators all over the world, this free book is bound to have some new things for you to try. It also includes “user-friendly tips in its screen shots, cheat sheets, video tutorials and hyperlinks to lots of additional goodies.” You do have to register to receive the free ebook.

And For Librarians

If you’re a librarian, you will love the Digital Librarian’s Survival Toolkit, again with more than 200 pages and full of crowd-sourced goodness. You will need to register to receive the free ebook.

Differentiation for Remote Learning

This graphic from ASCD shares best practices for how to differentiate four ways (content, process, product, and learning environment) while teaching virtually.

tips and tricks

Morning Meeting Calendar

If you’re an elementary teacher who uses the morning meeting calendar to teach with, then you will love this resource. There are six slides included: yearly calendar, weather, season, and three on the days of school. Make a copy of it here.

Teaching Math Procedures with Social Distancing and Distance Learning

Elementary math teachers will love all of the work that teacher Ashleigh has already done for you in these resources. Based on the math workshop process, she breaks the learning into small chunks and provides details on how each section should work.

Interactive Slides for Any Content or Grade Level

And finally, Theresa Wills has shared (under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license) a ton of templates that you can copy and use for a wide variety of activities and learning strategies. She also offers math manipulatives and elementary math lessons.

Let me know if you found any of these tips and tricks helpful. And be on the lookout for part 5 of this series!

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Tips, Tricks, and Tech Tidbits: Emails, Assessment Tool, Virtual Backgrounds, and More

by Lori Gracey
written by Lori Gracey

It’s time for another roundup of tasty educational technology resources and tips that you can use today. (Be sure to check out the first one in this blog series here.)

Be Safe as You Head Back to Campus

This tongue-in-cheek list of “foolproof” safety tips for teachers returning to their campuses in August will definitely get you laughing (and maybe crying a little).

Why You May Not Want to Read Your Unread Email

Want to see just how long it will take to go through all of those unread emails in your inbox? This simple calculator will tell you. (It was very depressing for my inbox!)

India’s Richest Man Launches a Free Zoom Rival

JioMeet, a competitor to Zoom, is now available. It does not cap free calls and can be used with a maximum of 100 users at a time. To ensure that its meetings are secure, calls on JioMeet are password-protected and, like Zoom, it also has a “waiting room” that ensures no unwanted attendees can barge into the calls. The JioMeet app is available now for Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, and even for the Chrome browser.

Another Free Assessment Tool

DOOZY lets you create free multiple choice and short answer quizzes and then share them easily with your students. No account registration is required for either the teacher or the kids, which is great. But that also means that data from the quizzes taken is not saved. You can also modify existing quizzes to save time.

Save the Planet with the Ecosia Search Engine

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Ecosia works like all of the other search engines except for one major difference. With their profits, they plant trees around the world, more than one million of them so far. As if that’s not enough reason to use them, they are also completely privacy friendly, which means they don’t sell your data to anyone or use third party trackers. And they have a Chrome extension.

Student-Created Virtual Backgrounds

Challenge your students to create their own virtual backgrounds for online classes. As TCEA member Scott Firenza shares on Twitter, “Not every student wants to turn on the camera to show others their environment. Have them create custom backgrounds: 1. collage about who you are, 2. all about a subject matter, 3. how does “subject matter” play a role in your life.”

Tips for Adding Videos to Google Docs

This great blog from Eric Curts offers four workarounds to providing videos in Google Docs.

Get Students Actively Engaged

Catlin Tucker offers these eight great ideas for engaging students during virtual learning. The ideas can work with any subject matter and for most age groups. Catlin provides excellent examples of each idea.

I hope that you found these tricks and resources useful. Have a great one to share? Please place it in the comments!

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Educational Trends

Tips, Tricks, and Tech Tidbits – Part 1

by Lori Gracey
written by Lori Gracey

Over the past few months, I’ve gathered together a pretty good collection of tips, tricks, and tech tidbits that I found interesting or useful. And I’d like to share them with you. There is no particular theme for these, nor are they organized into any semblance of order. But maybe you will pick up a new way of doing things from them.

Quickly Create a New Google Anything

If you type “slides.new” or “docs.new” or “sheets.new” or “forms.new”or “keep.new” or “sites.new” in the address bar of any browser, you can very quickly begin a new Google page.

Make a New, Fun Background for Your Computer Desktop

  • Open a new Google Slide (see above for how to do that quickly!).
  • Right-click on the slide and select Apply Layout — Blank.
  • Click on Insert — Image — Search the Web. (By the way, did you know that the graphics you find here are legal to use in your work and for your students?)
  • In the Search for Images box on the right-hand side of your screen, type in something you would like to use as the background for your desktop (clouds, beach, brick wall, etc.). Find one you like and drag it onto the slide (or click on the background and then click Insert on the bottom right). Resize the picture by dragging with the handles until it covers the slide.
  • Send it to the back.
  • Go to Insert — Shape — Shapes and find some shapes that you want to use to create boxes on your desktop. (These boxes can hold shortcuts to your folders and files and help to keep them organized.) Create the boxes and place them where you want them to appear.
  • Add color with the Fill option.
  • (If you have a Bitmoji of yourself, feel fee to add it in now.)
  • Save the whole thing as a JPEG.
  • Go to your computer settings and the JPEG as a background.
Photo from Linda. M. Comers post in the Bitmoji Craze for Educators Facebook group

Avoid Pop-Up Ads in YouTube

If you type _popup before the question mark on the web address of any YouTube video, then it will take off all of the ads and any other surrounding videos that the students could possibly click on. For example, this video on adding fractions has a YouTube URL of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDQipFjAoT8. If I change it and add the _popup, it looks like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=tDQipFjAoT8. Now it opens full screen without any annoying ads.

Scan Documents with the Free iOS Notes App

If you have an iPhone or iPad, you can easily use the Notes app (that you thought was completely useless) to scan any document for you. You can read more about this tip in a great blog from Peggy Reimers.

Use the Awesome Screenshot Extension to Annotate Quickly

This fabulous free Chrome extension allows you to annotate on any website and take a screenshot of it. This makes it perfect for creating handouts for students or adult learners. You can even blur out things on the page, like student names.

Eliminate the Interruptions

Did you know that it takes 23 minutes and 15 seconds to refocus on work after you have been interrupted by email or Slack or your favorite social media page or any other communication tool? Force yourself to stay on task with the free Strict Workflow Chrome extension.

Strict Workflow uses the Pomodoro technique of having structured work and relaxation periods. You select whether you want 25 minutes working and five minutes off or 45 minutes working and 15 minutes off. The Strict Workflow automates this and blocks websites of your choosing during work time. It can be a tough boss, but does really help you get into deep thinking on critical projects. A similar extension is StayFocused.

Stop Accidentally Closing a Critical Tab

I don’t know about you, but I am constantly closing out the tab of a website that I need to continue using in Chrome. Now there’s a way to prevent that. Open the site you want to keep open. Right-click on the tab of the site and select Pin Tab. Now the tab won’t close, even if you close out of the browser. It will still be there when you reopen Chrome. To unpin the tab, do the same thing and select Unpin.

I hope that you found these tricks useful. Have a great one to share? Please place it in the comments!

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