On Tuesdays I share a Tech Tip on our social media pages to assist our staff in their use of technology as it relates to their role. Today’s tip focuses on NFC (or near field communication) tags. These small pieces of plastic can be easily coded via a variety of app options so that when a smart device is placed in proximity to them, they automatically share some type of digital information (opening a website, sharing a file, etc). This is the same type of technology utilized in the “tap” function of your debit/credit card. For further explanation, check out the video… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – Dall E 2
On Tuesdays I share a Tech Tip on our social media pages to assist our staff in their use of technology as it relates to their role. If you have worked with students on any type of summative project it usually involves the inclusion of images to aid in understanding of the topic. I know when I was in the classroom this could mean anything from included images within PowerPoint and blog-embedded graphics to printed off images for posters and hand-drawn student recreations from online inspirations. With these types of media-inclusions comes the following questions: how do we find appropriate imagery that… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – Sketch
On Tuesdays I share a Tech Tip on our social media pages to assist our staff in their use of technology as it relates to their role. Digital content creation, including digital art and animation, is a popular activity across our division. In fact, our Tech Kits related to digital creation are some of our most popular loans from the PD Resource Center. I recently stumbled across the website, Sketch, via TikTok, which uses AI to animate drawings and thought that this could be the perfect introduction to digital creation for elementary students. Students create their own hand-drawn images, have them uploaded… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – SmartArt for Charts
On Tuesdays I share a Tech Tip on our social media pages to assist our staff in their use of technology as it relates to their role. Charts are something that teachers create and use ALL the time! This can be for: their own personal organization task lists for student completion seating charts committee/group participant organization sports brackets the list goes on and on! If creating these digitally you can be tempted to spend the extra time aligning shapes to create the perfect look, or searching for that perfect template. Did you know, that SmartArt within PowerPoint can take your text data… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – Edit YouTube Captions
On Tuesdays I share a Tech Tip on our social media pages to assist our staff in their use of technology as it relates to their role. Captions can be a great tool for accessibility but, sometimes, YouTube captions are too small/big or block the content of the video (depending on how it is filmed). But did you know that these captions can be edited and moved around the screen!? Thank you to Catherine Coyle at @classroomcreations for putting together a great tutorial via TikTok that I will embed below:
#TechTipTuesday – #MBEdChat
On Tuesdays I share a Tech Tip on our social media pages to assist our staff in their use of technology as it relates to their role. This week I would like to highlight a community of Manitoba educators who have been sharing and learning together on Twitter using the hashtag #MBEdChat The brainchild of Zoe Bettess in Thompson, this hashtag has 9 years of archives sharing information, inspiring discussions, and helpful links from MB educators from across the province. Connecting monthly, the #MBEdChat network hosts influential educators for a one hour period in which participants can view or participate in accessible online professional… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – Startup Tabs
On Tuesdays I share a Tech Tip on our social media pages to assist our staff in their use of technology as it relates to their role. Even if you would not consider yourself to be a “techy” teacher, you probably have a lot of “tech tools” that you are using regularly without realizing it. These include things like your professional email, attendance report software, digital grade book, etc. One tool that can streamline your morning routine, and ensure you have quick access to all of your tech tools, is the use of Startup Tabs. Startup Tabs allow you to set a… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – PDFs
On Tuesdays I share a Tech Tip on our social media pages to assist our staff in their use of technology as it relates to their role. I’m just going to go out there and say it, most teachers are hoarders! We love saving ALL the things because you never know when you may need it for this specific class, or that project, or that spirit-week activity. Digital files are no exception to this fact. Between curricular documents, blackline masters, third-party resources, shared files from colleagues, PD handouts…. this list goes on and on…. there are so many files! If they are… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – Zooming PowerPoints
On Tuesdays I share a Tech Tip on our social media pages to assist our staff in their use of technology as it relates to their role. If you are a fan of Prezi, which features easily accessible “zooming” transitions for presentations, then you’ll love that this feature is now built into PowerPoint! Check out the tutorial below from Mike Tholfsen’s TikTok account: This can be a helpful tool for: those who like the options available in Prezi but don’t like having to open 3rd party software those who want transitions in their presentation but aren’t comfortable applying them to every slide… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – Closed Tab
Every Tuesday I share a Tech Tip on our social media pages to assist our staff in their use of technology as it relates to their role. Nothing is more frustrating than when you are working online and the window you are working in accidentally gets closed! To quickly reopen your previously closed browser tabs you can use the shortcut: Control (Ctrl), Shift, and the letter T. This is also a good shortcut to teach students who may be in the habit of closing their friends windows as a prank (I’m looking at you middle-school students!)