My Favorite Book Site

There is never enough time for me to read all the books (much less Twitter, blogs, news sites, etc.) that I want to. Another problem is finding all the right ones for me. But one incredible site for me is Jeff Schechtman's "Specific Gravity" site that is filled with all kinds of non fiction books.

Schechtman covers so many topics. One hot one in my district is project based learning - so you know his suggestion (above) is going on my list. But other recent suggestions are one on Patty Hearst, how the world is accelerating in so many different facts, a book on the Middle East and on and one every few days with a new one. Each includes a summary and an author interview.

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Homework Reminders

When I want to quickly contact my online students, I use Remind.com . It allows you to send a text without knowing their phone numbers. Additionally you can set a time for it to be sent. You can add a link and/or upload a document. If you choose, you can also text individual students. All of the texts are recorded and kept as long as you keep the class. Above is a video giving you a great overview and here are several videos explaining how to use different parts of it. If you use Blackboard, the video below shows you how to embed Remind texts into a Blackboard page.

How to Make Your Own Flip & Tutorial Videos

Over the years I have made lots of video tutorial for my blog followers and flip videos for my students . Every single one of them have been made using Screencastomatic . You can purchase your own yearly subscription, but I have not only never paid, but also never even set up a free account. You don't need to since you can make the video and then just upload it onto YouTube. Watch the video above and you will be able to see how to record, add you talking (or not) to the recording and to upload it - all in less than two minutes. Go forth and make your own tutorials and teach lots of others. In a later post I'll show you how to organize your YouTube video library.

Tech Conferences

On March 7th and 8th I will be at the South by Southwest Education conference in Austin. Another conference that I have enjoyed is the ISTE one which this year is in Denver from June 26-29 . The key, if you can do so is to find someone else to pay for you. For example I am doing work for TES (more on that coming later) and so they are paying my entry ticket. So why bother? Well first off you will meet lots of tech minded people like yourself and make some connections that you can work with when you return home. Secondly there are lots of companies showing all of their latest wares and then, there are talks and demonstrations - literally hundreds of them. If you can't get the big ones, look for one close to home. Here is a place to start.

My AI Education

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