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Patrick Cauley

That’s not innovating

Tony and Patrick are back! Patrick is in Grand rapids attending the ATLIS conference. They will be talking about AI, innovating and how no one gives a flying hooey about the US PIRG report about Chromebooks. As always, check out the show notes below and you can subscribe to our …

Chromebooks and misleading reports

Image taken from the US PIRG website: https://pirg.org/edfund/media-center/new-chromebook-churn-report-highlights-problems-of-short-lived-laptops-in-schools/ I saw this article on PC Gamer by Jorge Jimenez titled “Here’s another e-waste crisis for the e-waste pile: ‘Chrombook churn‘” I read it and while there are some points to be made, I felt the article was a bit misleading and …

The Homer!

Season 1 – Episode 7 – The Homer! Tony and Patrick are at it again. Check out their continued conversation about AI in education and its implications along with some newer features for Google Classroom coming on the horizon. Check out the show notes below and as always, please subscribe …

Copyright & AI

Tony and Patrick continue to talk about AI in education and what it means. Check out the talking points below and be sure to subscribe to us on your favorite podcasting app. Copyright case for a comic book that used AI to generate the art https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/22/23611278/midjourney-ai-copyright-office-kristina-kashtanova Liken the images to …

Chat GPT and the CIA Triad

No, it is not that CIA. This stands for: Confidentiality Integrity Availability Tony explains what that means in more detail during a webinar he hosted about the security of Chat GPT with other educational professionals. Listen to the whole webinar below. Source: IT Babble Blog and Podcast

Chat GPT & IDOE

Good morning fellow reader. Last week I attended a webinar concerning Chat GPT. There are some good questions from the panelist and (spoiler) at the end of the webinar they ask those questions to Chat GPT. The best part of the webinar are when the panelist talk about all the …

Just ask Chuck

Tony and Patrick are back and are talking more about Chat GPT, ed tech services and more. Please check out the agenda below and be sure to susbcribe to us on your favorite podcasting app. Tony has a webinar coming up CIA Triad – https://www.fortinet.com/resources/cyberglossary/cia-triad Confidentiality Integrity Availability I love …

Tony ChatGPT

Tony and Patrick talk more ChatGPT and answer some questions we’ve been seeing such as Is it really plagarism? and If a teacher can use sites to find lessons, how is that any different for a student using ChatGPT? We also take a look at what to do when your …

Podcast S1:E1 – Chat GPT

Tony and Patrick are back after a bit of a break. We are going to be rethinking the podcast a little and so we are starting fresh. This is Season 1- Episode 1 and we are talking about the most Chat GPT from Open AI and all the fear and …

What’s going on?

Photo by Jeff Stapleton on Pexels.com Well, it’s been a spell since I’ve posted anything. To be honest – I haven’t really been feeling the blog too much recently. I’ve had some family members pass away and school and family life has been busy and IT Babble has just sorted …

Edmodo – It’s been fun

Well here we are. The end of Edmodo is upon us and I’m a little sad – not gonna lie. For those of you who don’t know what Edmodo is (or was at this point), it was a Learning Management System started way back in 2008. It showed up at …

See ya Slack

All good things must come to an end as they say and that seems especially true to free online services that work pretty well. The Tech Department at my school has been using Slack to communicate internally, but to really keep commonly used files, IP addresses and other important information. …

Google Calendar – Tips & tricks

Google Inc., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Ahhh – Google Calendar – I do enjoy using you. I know that are a lot of different online calendars out there to chose from and many are free, but this has been my mainstay for well over a decade. It is simple …

Happy 4th of July

NYE Fireworks Dubai by Ayesha Abbasi is licensed under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 While the picture above wasn’t taken during a 4th of July celebration (I would guess it was a New Year’s party in Dubai), I hope everyone out there is having a safe and fun Monday! Source: IT Babble …

Google Docs New Features – Markdown support!

Markdown was pretty popular a few years ago. So what is Markdown? It is a lightweight markup language that allows you to add formatting (bold, italics, lists, hyperlinks, images, etc.) to plaintext documents. You can read more about it here. Basically it lets you to format your text and document …

Google Docs new features “@”

Google Docs has recently (maybe a month or so ago) released some new features and I think they are genuinely useful. When you open a new Google Doc it prompts you right from the start to type the “@” symbol. Check out the gallery below to see what it looks …

Episode 215 – Baby, baby, baby ohhhh!

Tony and Patrick are back after a month off. It was the end of the year, things were busy and oh yeah, Tony and his wife had a baby, so I guess there were some legitimate excuses for being away As always, you can check out the agenda below and …

Episode 214 – Where are the teachers?

Tony and Patrick are back and talking about beer, Tony’s mischief and the “teacher shortage.” As always, you can find us on your favorite podcasting app and check out the talking points below. Final month of school What are you drinking? Founders All Day Vacay – https://foundersbrewing.com/our-beer/all-day-vacay/  Coors Banquet – …

Episode 213 – Feel the Flex

Tony and Patrick are back to talk about their great weather, some delicious drinks and much more. Check out the talking points below and be sure to subscribe to us with your favorite podcasting app. How’s the weather? What am I drinking? Bell’s Oberon Ale – https://bellsbeer.com/beers/oberon-ale/ Samuel Adams Summer …

Chrome OS Flex

Chrome OS on a MacBook? You better believe it! Here is how this happened. It is the end of the year and a teacher wanted an extra Chromebook on hand for her student to do some work in Google Docs. Since it is the end of the year, our supply …

Episode 212 – Ed Tech Lives

Ah yes, Tony and Patrick are back after a week off. It is now time to talk about ed tech again. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast with your favorite podcasting app and check out or show notes below. The Masters golf tournament CISSP Pin – https://isc2education.org/media/catalog/product/cache/6/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/c/i/cissp_lapel_pin.jpg  What am …

Episode 211

Photo by Rob Caterino – https://www.flickr.com/people/25030443@N03 That is a good picture of Michael Dudikoff – famed action star from the 80’s, 90’s, 2000’s and beyond. Want to know why he is our artwork? Listen to find out! Also, be sure to subscribe to us on your favorite podcasting app. Coach …

Episode 210 – Linux for all

After a short break – Tony and Patrick are back! Not only are we talking about some ed tech goodness. Check out all the talking points below and be sure to subscribe to us on your favorite podcasting app. Welcome back basketball fans! What am I drinking? Beeracuda from Abita …

Episode 209 – Spring Cleaning

Tony and Patrick are back for another tight show! We talk about weather, an upcoming project and of course some quality talk about educational technology. Sit back, relax and enjoy and don’t forget to subscribe to us on your favorite podcasting app. What am I drinking? Tony’s Spring Audit- Hardware, …

Huggy Wuggy – come on man!

I’ve seen this news story a few times this week and thought I’d weigh in. These are articles and videos about a video horror game known as Poppy Playtime. It is developed by MOB games, you can get it on Steam and it’s pretty popular right now. The gist of …

Episode 206 – Dog days

Tony and Patrick are back again! Here we talk video games, new dogs, passwords and how not to get your school smacked down by copyright claims. Check out the show notes below and as always please subscribe to us with your favorite podcasting app. What am I drinking? Bell’s Bright …

Oregon Trail

Let the poop jokes fly as everyone in your party gets dysentery and die on route to a better life in Oregon. All joking aside – this is a classic game of people seeking. Click the “power button” and play a little retro game that helped students learn the hardships …

Episode 205 – Butterdish Crumblescone

Original photo by Gene Skidmore – https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/28570188272 Tony and Patrick are back with another great episode. Learn the many names of Bumpercar Crumplezone amongst some other fantastic info as we talk and rant (a little about technology. Benedict Cumberbatch https://www.wattpad.com/622757598-the-many-names-of-benedict-cumberbatch What am I drinking? Tin Roof Blonde – https://www.tinroofbeer.com/brew/blond-ale/  Big …

Episode 204 – Snowplosion

Tony and Patrick are back for another great show. We talk about snow, printers, and a bunch more. Check out the talking show notes below and as always, you can subscribe to us with your favorite podcasting app. Snow everywhere Snowdays vs eLearning days Winter Olympics – Are you watching? …

Episode 203 – I quit

Bengals in the Super Bowl! What am I drinking? Bells Kalamzoo Stout – http://www.bellsbeer.com/beer/year-round/bells-kalamazoo-stout  Sapporo Steel Can Tall Boy – https://sapporobeer.com/our-beers/sapporo-premium-beer/  Revising Chatterbox Video coming soon Not as bad as first time Still don’t recommend it Weekly CISSP- Mandatory Vacations https://www.isc2.org/Certifications/CISSP  Minimum 1 week with no contact LinkedIn Trends: People …

Just stop it please

I saw this article on BBC and it made me a little angry – not going to lie. The title is How hologram tech may soon replace video calls. This article is posted on the BBC a reputable news site that is pretty respected around the world. This article was …

Episode 202 – Vintage Tech

Tony and Patrick are back for another fantastic episode. So sit back, hit the play button and enjoy sometime with us! We have good drinks and better opinions. As always you can subscribe to us using favorite podcasting app. What am I drinking? Great Lakes – Conway’s Irish Ale – …

Surface SE repairability

There has been a lot of back slapping and congratulations being passed out to Microsoft over this video. Yes, it is good that they have made a device that can be repaired by just about anyone with a screw driver and parts on hand. It looks pretty easy to do …

Shure MV7 – Not a review

OK, Santa was good to me this year. I received a new boom arm and a new microphone. The boom arm is the Røde PSA+ and it is pretty sweet. The microphone though is what is really special. I;m not going to review it here because 1) I’m not a …

Episode 201-Omar’s FJ

No Omar this week, sadly, but Tony and Patrick soldier on! We have a great discussion about beer, watches, Omar and oh yeah – some good ed tech stuff. Check it out on your favorite podcasting app or listen down below. What am I drinking? https://www.lindemans.be/en_US/beer/Framboise  Belgium Beer Cafe Dubai …

Notion.so – Shortcut keys

Notion is great for taking notes and it works even better when you know some basic shortcut keys. This helps you keep your hand on the keyboard and focused on the discussion, lecture or meeting you are in. Check out the short video above for some beginner tips. List of …

Episode 200 – Mining at School

Tony, Patrick and . . . OMAR are back! This is our 200th episode! Who could of thought that we would make it this far but here we are! There are plenty of stories and good topics to be had so check it out. As always you can subscribe to …

Episode 199 – Google is Santa?

Tony and Patrick are back for episode 199 (can you believe it?). It is a good one, so be sure to subscribe to IT Babble on your favorite podcasting app! One week till Winter vacation Plans? What am I drinking? Shiner Holiday Cheer – https://shiner.com/beer/holiday-cheer  Ghost River Gold – https://www.ghostriverbrewing.com/beer-overview  …

Episode 198 – What’s on TV?

Tony and Patrick have a short but sweet episode this week. Be sure to subscribe to us with your favorite podcasting app and check out the talking points below! What’s on TV? What am I drinking? Kirin Ichiban – http://www.kirinichiban.com/  Laptop recommendations – Don’t completely trust a blog https://itbabble.com/2021/12/03/laptop-recommendations-check-with-your-school-not-a-blog/ Notion.so …

Notion.so – A review

I’m a little excited about this – not going to lie. I’ve always been intrigued with what certain online “containers” can offer. I love the idea of these containers keeping my digital life in order. Helping my categorize and organize important bits of information. While sites like Apple Notes, Google …

Episode 197 – Winter movie suggestions

Tony and Patrick are back from the Thanksgiving holiday to talk about STEM, ed tech and much, much more. Be sure to subscribe to us with your favorite podcasting app. How was Thanksgiving? What are you drinking? Spaten Premium Lager STEM – needs a non-traditional space Space that holds 40 …

Episode 196 – Laughing at the Surface SE

Photo by Helena Lopes from Pexels Tony and Patrick have another great episode for everyone. It’s before Thanksgiving and we are having some fun as we talk ed tech. Check out the talking points below. As always, be sure to subscribe to us on your favorite podcasting app. Happy early Thanksgiving What am …

Episode 195 – Solar Minimum

Tony and Patrick are closing in on 200! This week is another banger. Remember to subscribe to the IT Babble podcast with your favorite podcasting app. Check out the talking points below:  Feedback Form: https://forms.gle/WTaR4BZTqUHPXrZG6 Solar Minimum HECC Conference  What are you drinking?  Shiner Bock Left Hand S’mores Milk Stout …

Life with a desktop

Yes – that is an official Hot Bench coffee mug. This year the technology department decided to ditch our laptops in lieu of a an iMac. That’s right we got rid of those super convenient computers that we can tuck under our arm and take nearly anywhere. So why did …

Episode 194 – Meta Pump

Tony and Patrick are back at it! Another great episode with a new Ask IT Babble segment and HOW! Be sure to subscribe to our podcast from your favorite podcasting app. Check out the talking points below! IT Babble how we make the show – for new listeners Daylight Savings …

Ask IT Babble!

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com Tony, myself and any guest who comes on the IT Babble podcast (subscribe from your favorite podcasting app) would love to hear from you and your questions, comments or funny stories. We will be adding a segment to our podcast that is dedicated just to …

Soul Machines – A demo

www.soulmachines.com There is a new company name Soul Machines. They make artificial intelligent digital people that are intended to be an active workforce for the metaverse. Whether you think the metaverse is the actual future, just a buzz word or complete nonsense is for another post or podcast. What interests …

Episode 193 – Happy Halloween

Tony and Patrick are back on this the spookiest of all nights to bring you joy and hope through ed tech! As always you can find our porcast on your favorite podcasting app so please be sure to subscribe and enjoy the show. Happy Halloween What am I drinking? Facebook …

Bitpaper.io – A review

The other day a student walked into the Tech office and politely asked if we could whitelist a site for him: bitpaper.io. He uses this site with a stylus and a touchscreen computer at home to do his homework. For a worksheet, he will upload it into bitpaper.io and then …

Episode 192 – AI curriculum

Tony and Patrick are back once again for another great show! Check out the talking points below and you can subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcasting app (we are on almost all podcast directories). Apple event takeaway MacBook Pro starting at $2000 Bitpaper.io – https://bitpaper.io/  Better than a …

WordPress + Anchor.fm = It’s a little broken

When I heard about this in March of 2021 I thought that this was too good to be true? How could this partnership last? here is are two services that want you to consumer content on their websites/apps. How are they willing to split their revenue? Well it looks like …

Episode 191 – Un-Boxing Day

Tony and Patrick are back and having more fun than ever. As always, you can find our podcast on your favorite podcasting app or on Podomatic. Check out the talking points below and if you have any humorous clips you want on the show – reach out to us in …

Google Forms + Form Ranger = Event Signup

Google Forms is pretty great. It’s easy to use, it presents the results in easy to digest graphs and it stores all the raw data in a spreadsheet so you can then organize and display however you want. Despite all this is does fall short in a number of areas. …

Episode 190 – Don’t Use Blockchain

We are back again! This time we don’t just talk about ed tech but also give some beverage recommendations as well as some TV viewing choices. Check out the talking points below and as always,, find us on your favorite podcasting app! Elysian Night Owl & Liquid Death Sparkling Water …

Episode 189 – Hercules Headmaster

Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons WE ARE BACK! Tony and I are going to try and podcast every week folks. That’s right, every – single – week of this year. Will we do it? Not sure but we are going to try. We are also going …

Milanote – A review

In 2020 I wrote a review about LucidSpark and then made a quick tutorial video. If you’re not too familiar with it and want a quick summary of what LucidSpark does, it is a collaborative tool where people can share and organize their ideas on a near limitless canvas. It …

Streaming Events #3 – Test!

Well…we tested and….it went well! We streamed two middle school volleyball matches. The total stream lasted about 2.5 hours and we streamed it on a lonely YouTube account. That way if there were mistakes they would be seen by very few people (in fact the only people who tuned in …

Laptop recommendations? Check with your school

Back in June I wrote this same article. You can read it here. Basically it was in response to an article written by Monica Chen of The Verge. The article “recommends” the best laptop for students at all levels by students. Well, they just republished the article again and I …

Bose VideoBar VB1 – Review

Image from Bose’s website – that is not my arm We have a pretty nice conference room at my school and it gets a lot of use too. It has a great 80″ display, nice tables with power built into them and comfortable chairs. We also have integrated speakers in …

Google Drive – Make a template

It is back to school time! I thought I would start this school year with a pretty simple tutorial on how to create a template that you can reuse over and over again. If you have ever used Google Classroom then there is a type of version of this already …

Streaming events #2 – Update

We have the goods! We have done some quick testing and this looks pretty promising. Right now my family and I are moving into a new house so I’m a little strapped for time between that, work and posting to IT Babble. So instead of a long detailed post (that …

Google Tables (Beta) – An introduction

Most people are not too familiar with Google Tables. It is a database that lets you keep records on tables and then lets you make associations from data on one table to another table. Here are some real world examples of what Google Tables can do for you or your …

Happy 4th of July!

Photo by Tairon Fernandez on Pexels.com Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans! And to my my fellow educators out there I hope the summer is treating you well after a difficult year! Source: IT Babble Blog and Podcast

Streaming events – An ongoing experiment

Photo by CoWomen on Pexels.com This is going to be an ongoing series. Here I am talking about what we currently do and are planning. In future posts I will talk about the testing of the equipment, the use of the equipment and finally changes that we’ve made. Streaming school …

Google Chrome – Tab groups

How did I not know about this?! If you’re like me, then you rarely have more than 10 tabs open at a time. However, not everyone is as . . . considerate to their computer as I am. I have seen colleagues of mine have anywhere from 30-50 tabs open …

mult.dev – A review

It’s a weird name for a website. What this website does is to create a quick, animated map. I can see people making this to add to a presentation or website but I am not too sure about what else. I am going to dig into it a little bit …

All done :)

Even though the school year is officially over, I still have plenty of projects and work to do through the summer. Keep checking into IT Babble every week to see what gets posted. For you younger readers out there. That gentleman above is none other than Roger Mosley who famously …

Computer reviews – Check with your school

I saw this article on the Verge titled What’s the best student laptop? We asked students by Monica Chin. Being I am in IT and education I am always interested in these articles and this one asks students themselves. What would students say they like? Here is a group of …

Brainstormer.online – A review

I was reading Freetech4teachers and saw a quick article about Brainstormer.online and thought it might be interesting to check it out. As you can guess from its unusual URL it is a brainstorming website that allows people to pose a question and a number of people brainstorm about that question …

Google Workspaces and transferring ownership

Well well, well I learned something new today. An area I’ve always wanted to do better was to help our students leaving our school transition their data from our school account to a personal account (most likely a personal account since they probably won’t have their new school account yet. …

Blackbird – A review

Blackbird Middle School Coding Education Platform I’m always interested in websites that teach coding. I like the idea of learning new skills and testing oneself. Blackbird is one of those sites. The goal here is to teach people JavaScript which is pretty cool because JavaScript runs in browser making a …

Bwahahahahaha!

Sometimes the wrong lens choice can make a hilarious photo. Have a nice Friday everyone and enjoy some odd perspective photography. Source: IT Babble Blog and Podcast

Teacheasyapp.com – A review

So I saw a comment on my TeacherMade review. It felt like a bit of advertising for Teacheasyapp which is fine. Apps and services have to get their name out there so I don’t mind too much. After taking a quick peak at it, I figured to do a full …

My new computer

ZenBook Duo Yep, I pulled the trigger and have purchased a new computer. It is the Asus Zenbook Duo (model# UX482EG-XS74). I’m not going to review it, if you’re looking for a comprehensive, fair, detailed and excellent review you should read Andrei Girbea’s review from Ultrabook Review.com. There you will …

iPad Pro vs MacBook Air M1

HOT TAKE ALERT!!!!!! The iPad Pro is not a good deal and schools should stay away from it! I guess that’s not really a hot take but more of an obvious opinion. Let me explain where this is coming from. My school assigns MacBooks to our staff. We like the …

Forky – A review

Yes it is I like mind mapping tools. I use it every now and again to brainstorm solutions to complex issues. It helps get a good view of everything I need to consider and to prioritize which areas to focus on and how. Forky.io is another in a long line …

mote for Gmail

Not too long ago I wrote a review about mote. To sum it up, it is a Chrome extension that will allow you add voice comments to Google Docs, Google Slides and Google Classroom. I like it, it works well. When giving feedback to students sometimes a voice is better …

Fun April Fools’ Day

I’m a little bummed. The last few years my school has had spring break over April Fools’ Day (April 1). I’m not a huge prankster at all, but it can be kind of fun to have a little harmless fun with the staff and students on this day. Sure, it’ll …

Episode 188 – Safe Search

It’s been a while but we finally made it back behind the mic. Tony and I talk a long while about a great number of issues. Check out the talking notes below and as always please subscribe to us on Apple Music or your favorite podcasting app. We’re back! TonyHas …

WordPress.com – Damn it

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com My last three posts have been screwed up by my blogging platform. WordPress.com published my last three posts (Whiteboard.fi – A review, WordPress + Anchor.fm = Podcast? and A/V in our classrooms) as earlier versions than the final version. Basically it was publishing drafts …

A/V in our classrooms

This post will give you a rundown of what we currently use for our A/V solution and what we are going to be switching to. I will be using specific names of products (and current prices if I can find them), but that is in no way IT Babble …

WordPress + Anchor.fm = Podcast?

OK – I am skeptical about this. Apparently you can turn all of your WordPress.com articles into a podcast on Anchor.fm. I like Anchor and I am still worried that Spotify has purchased it and others that could share that same space (looking at you Soundtrap.com). So I thought I’d …

Whiteboard.fi – A review

I was reading Techcrunch and saw that Kahoot! had purchased a small company called Whiteboard.fi. The fi stands for Finland in case you were wondering. So, I loaded up the website, tried it out and within five minutes knew this was a very good product. Read on below to get …

Snow days – are they gone?

Growing up in Ohio there were the occasional day when the snow or ice was too much and the school district closed. Those joyous occasions are snow days! It was a free day for students. No homework or tests; everything just paused. As a student, …

Newish Zoom Recorders

Just to be clear. I am not talking about Zoom, the video conference tool. I am talking about Zoom, the audio/visual recording hardware company. For long time readers of IT Babble, you may know that I have a sweet spot for Zoom. …

CloudApp – A review

Do you ever have those apps that you like using. That you genuinely enjoy firing up and doing some work in it? Well CloudApp is one of those apps for me. I’ve been using for nearly a decade now and it just gets better and better. …

Buying Chromebooks next year? ORDER NOW!

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Pexels.com This is more of a PSA than an opinion or review. If you are a school who buys/leases Chromebooks every year go ahead and order them now! From vendors I’ve talked to there is a backlog of Chromeook orders waiting …

Social Media – Cautionary tales

Before I get into the meat of this story I just want to say that I am not condoning any action taken by any party. This is not the point of this post. This post is just to talk about how anything that is posted online …

Royalty Free Images – Where to find them

If you are still using the old “copy and paste” method from random websites to add images to your blog, worksheets or websites then you should stop. It’s probably a violation of copyright but there are better and more legal ways. People are paying more attention to where photos come …

Chromebook + Wacom tablet? Interesting

I am quite interested in this. I have seen some Chromebooks with touchscreens and even a few of those may have a stylus, but the quality of those Chromebooks may leave a little something to be desired. Then I saw this article in Engadget that says Wacom now has a …

ChronoFlo timeline maker – Review

I have to admit I am a sucker for a good timeline maker. Way back in 2011 Omar Ghosn (the co-founder) and myself decided to review a bunch of timeline generators to find the best one (at the time). You can find all those articles here. …

Episode 187 – Snow Days

On this episode we talk snow days, football (RIP OSU) and quite a few other topics. Check out the agenda below and as always you can subscribe to us on Apple Music or your favorite podcasting app. Snow day and football How can we be independent from big tech companies? …

YouTube – How to make a playlist

This is pretty easy and certainly not a new topic but YouTube does change a bit over time so I thought I would put together this hand dandy little guide (with beautiful pics) to help you out. Keep in mind you must be logged into YouTube in order to create …

Funny spam comment

We use wordpress.com for IT Babble and have from the start. It’s solid, reliable and they block a bunch of spam comments from finding their way onto our posts. Every now and again I like to go in and just take a look at what these say and usually I …

Mic Tests!

We have some teachers who need to teach from home even though we are teaching in person. So I worked with them and worked out a solution with the devices we currently have on hand. The teachers will want to Zoom in to do their instruction so the students need …

Happy Holidays

Photo by Vladislav Murashko on Pexels.com Happy holidays from IT Babble. We hope your celebrations are happy and you can get a little time to be with your family and/or friends. We will see you in the New Year! Source: IT Babble Blog and Podcast

Google Classroom and Multiple Accounts

https://youtu.be/qicjXL01oFg There are a lot of people out there using the Google Classroom app. We have encouraged our parents to log into the app as their child. That way they can see what their kid sees and have a real understanding of what is …

Zoom issues on a Chromebook

Good day! We, like most of the world, are distance learning. We also use Chromebooks and Zoom. Early on we had reports from our families that they would continually get the wrong Zoom meeting over and over and over again. After a short and furious investigation we discovered the problem …

Adios Adobe Flash

It was announced back in July of 2017. Adobe and all the tech giants all agreed to end Flash by the end of 2020. Guess what? We are at the end of 2020. I wrote about this earlier, but now it is truly the eleventh hour. Apple has already killed …

My new tool (smartphone)

I just got a new phone and like a lot of educators, a smartphone is a great tool to use in one’s professional setting. I wish I was so cool that I could just head over to Amazon, pick a phone in 30 seconds and give no further thought to …

Episode 185 – Rants!

It’s been a while but we are back! As always check us out on Apple Music or your favorite podcasting app. Patrick’s new phone (coming soon) Distance yourself from tech and social media for your own health WordPress.com block editor Rant Chromebook camera failures Chrome OS update Doesn’t affect all …

pisgnage.com – Digital signage on the cheap

Schools are looking for ways to better communicate with their community inside the school as well as outside. One way to do this is with digital signage. This can helpful for a bunch of reasons: Sharing the menu for lunch Birthday greetings Local sports news Reminding students of deadlines Reminding …

Witeboard.com – A review

Hello readers, today I am reviewing another online whiteboard website. What makes this site different is how basic and minimalist this service is. There aren’t a ton of features and there is a very low learning curve but is it enough to be a good to be considered when there …

Covid 19 – Never going back

Covid-19 has changed a lot. A number of schools have had to think quick, move just as fast and definitely have had to be pretty creative figuring out how to deliver quality education, how to provide support for families and much more. As we continue to navigate this pandemic people …

Lucidspark – A review

There are a bunch of whiteboards out there you can use to collaborate with your colleagues or to use with your students. There is Padlet, Wakelet, Google Docs, OneNote and more. However, when I saw that Lucid had created their own whiteboard collaboration website I was excited. …

Episode 184 – HIFLEX

This is a different type of episode. Today, Patrick interviews Tony DePrato about his HIFLEX set up in the classroom. HIFLEX is a term that refers to students who are in the classroom and also at home and both are learning synchronously. …

To filter or not to filter?

There is a debate out there and it has been going on for quite some time. The debate is whether schools should filter content on student devices. This is a bit more complicated than saying yes or no. For example is the school using a BYOD approach, should schools filter …

Distance Learning and Academic Dishonesty

What is a lockdown browser. Some may be very familiar with these types of browsers while others may never have heard of them. I don’t think the term is used widely, I know a company called Respondus has a product called LockDown browser. So what is it? Basically, it is …

Teacher Made – Review

Teacher Made is a website that will take a PDF, JPG, PNG, GIF or DOCX (Microsoft Word file) and add interactivity to it such as text boxes students can fill in, multiple choice questions and more. It basically allows you to take a worksheet and make it so the child …

Google Form + Google Calendar = Zapier!

UPDATE: I’VE INCLUDED THE LINK TO THE CALENDAR, THE GOOGLE FORM AND THE ZAP AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST Here is the problem. Our teachers want to have a shared assessment calendar. That way they can see what tests are scheduled for each class and know how to not …

Episode 183 – Damn Fine Cans

Tony and Patrick are back! It has been long overdue too. It’s a longer than normal episode but there is a lot to talk about! As always, subscribe to us on Apple Music or your favorite podcasting app. 1) Back at school in a COVID world a) Tony’s motto: “You …

Parent-Teacher Conferences Online

Normally, these are done in person and occasionally over a phone call, but 2020 is definitely not normal and now schools are looking to do these through video conferencing apps such as Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams (Skype). I don’t have all the answers but I thought I would …

IPEVO VZ-X Document Camera – Review

Corona virus is disrupting how the whole teaching and learning process happens. When it hit the US back in early 2020 it sent a lot of schools spinning to figure out how to successfully implement distance learning and what tools would be needed. One tool that our teachers wanted or …

Zoom vs Google Meet: Zoom wins

I applaud Google and Microsoft for their efforts for beefing up Google Meet and Microsoft Teams respectively, but honestly speaking, if you are looking for a video conferencing application for your school or district, then Zoom is still your best option. Google has added some nice features to Google Meet. …

Episode 182 – Cheap Phones

A fantastic episode we talk about distance learning in the fall, learning management systems and how they are not adequate for distance learning and some great ideas of how to make it more successful. As always be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Music or your favorite podcasting app. …

Streaming in the classroom: Barco ClickShare

Not too long ago I reviewed the Barco WePresent and found it pretty good especially at its price point. Now we are taking a look at the ClickShare. Barco offers a few options with their ClickShare product and this one is the CS-100, the current entry level. This can be …

Episode 181 – Zoom

Tony and Patrick are back talking about distance learning, recommendations about video conferencing (including Zoom) and a lot more. Please subscribe to our podcast from Apple our searching for us on your favorite podcasting app. Happy Easter/Spring Break Zoom Zoombombing Zoom and privacy Zoom alternative Microsoft Teams Google Meet Skype …

Episode 180 – Empty shelves empty seats

Tony and Patrick are talking the school closures and what schools are doing, video conferences, and so much more. As always be sure to subscribe our podcast on Apple Music or your favorite podcasting app. No school! Distance Learning Plan So much to talk about here Be asynchronous  Front load …

Distance Learning ? – Check out these resources

I am sure many of you are teaching from somewhere other than your classrooms. If that is the case, then flexibility and leveraging other websites for services and content is something you are keenly aware of and possibly in search of. This list of resources has been bouncing around social …

Covid -19 – We’re closed :(

Like many other schools around the world we have closed due to the Coronavirus. In light of these circumstances I thought I would share our school’s Distance Learning Plan. I’ve embeded it below, but if you would like a link to the Google Doc please click here. From there you …

Episode 179 – Student Fail

Tony and Patrick are at it again. We’re still talking about the Coronavirus about a somewhat dubious story out of China some hardware and how some students were pretty sneaky. Be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Music or your favorite podcasting app. Online learning, biggest issue I am …

Smithsonian for the win!

The Smithsonian has released nearly 3 million images, 3D models, videos and more into the public domain! What this means is that anyone can search, find, download, use adapt and publish any of these artifacts without asking. So get searching and share this with your kids. Chances are if they …

How to use Pear Deck

The Pear Deck add-on is very popular amongst teachers. It allows them to bring interactive elements into their Google Slides presentation. Check out the video above to get a better sense of what Pear Deck offers and whether or not it is right for you. Source: IT Babble Blog …

Sneaky, sneak kids and electronic tests

This week, is a good week. I learned a whole lot about something this week and I thought I’d share it with you my good reader. So let me layout the scenario for you. It is the end of an grading period at my school and like many other school …

Streaming in the classroom – Airtame 2

I wrote a review about Airtame back in July of 2018 and I was pretty impressed by it. The price point was fair, the fact that it could mirror most devices (limited with iOS and Android but still not bad) and it could be used as digital signage. Oh yeah, …

Episode 178 – Forced to Flip

Tony and Patrick are back with a pretty important episode this time that is having an impact on some of our friends overseas but could happen to you one day. Also, social media sucks. Be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Music or your favorite podcasting app. Tony’s post: …

School portal – How to Improve the Parent Experience

A lot of schools offer a Parent Portal. Some portals are more robust than others but they all seem to offer these features: Check their child’s academic progress Check out school events (athletics, groups and clubs alike) Pay for fees Sounds good right? Well, yeah, but sometimes parents don’t use …

Streaming in the classroom: BenQ – Instashow

The journey continues! This time we are looking at the BenQ Instashow. A lot of people may not be too familiar with BenQ in North America, but they have it looks as though they have been making steady inroads into the continent. They may a bevy of products and this …

Episode 177

RIP Kobe Bryant Parent Portals  How to get parents to use them more Only use one portal – avoid fragmentation Consistency with the portal for teachers and faculty Survey coming soon (next few months) Tony wants to rant on vendors: Managebac  Microsoft’s new Edge browser Based on Chromium Microsoft Chromebook? …

Episode 176 – Happy New Year 2020

Tony and Patrick are back for 2020 with a new episode. It’s been a while but I assure the wait was worth it. Be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Music or your favorite podcasting app. Happy New Year – Resolutions? TDK12 – Practical advice for expats  Tdk12.net  Tony’s …

Streaming in the classroom: Barco WePresent

When it comes to screen sharing few names are as renowned or respected as Barco. They have a history of building quality products and delivering solid results. So today, I have been playing around with the Barco WePresent. A streaming box that will allow you to connect your device to …