I’ve been on Android phones for about 5 years now. Overall I like their functionality and their price point. Have any of my phones been as good as an iPhone? No (in my opinion), but they’ve been close and for less than 1/2 the dollar-e-doos to boot make it a …
Catching up I finally figured this out . . . sort of. I had quite a bit of help with ChatGPT but more on that later. First, let’s catch up. My school holds a field day we call it the Olympics. Students are gathered into teams (countries) and there are …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Free computer code on screen image, public domain CC0 photo. Ok. This was a bit of clickbait. ChatGPT prompts are real, just like The Real J. Peterman is real. These prompts are not for ChatGPT, they are for you, the end user. The prompts do not grant special powers, they …
Source: IT Babble Blog and Podcast
I attended an AI talk last week. The presenter was an AWS Engineer (Amazon Webservices). They sit on a few committees and advisory counsels for the current administration in Washington, D.C. The talk was a high-level view of how the technology works. Towards the end, a person in the audience …
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
I asked ChatGPT this question multiple times: What is Zork? You can see the answers are constructed differently each time and not pulled from a single source. This is why I believe the content needs to be cited as an anonymous source or interview. The AI does not pull from …
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 …
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 …
This video reviews the ChatGTP concept of time and the data it logs to the Windows Client. Source: IT Babble Blog and Podcast
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 …
This video is focused on the ChatGPT Windows Client Source: IT Babble Blog and Podcast
Here is another one of the conversations I had with the ChatGPT AI. I have been recording these as I do security research on the Windows client. This is the second part of a conversation I had. I began getting financial data that I could use for investing. That did …
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 …
ChatGPT has been all the rage. If you didn’t know any better, you would assume it has already replaced the need to write, think, or even have a teacher in the classroom. I have multiple posts coming that should be interesting to those concerned about data security, the genuine threat …
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 …
As a CTO, I have seen, tested, purchased, programmed, and implemented numerous software packages to support the Admissions Process. I began my journey with these applications in 2009.
These programs have grown in expense and features. Fundamentally though, are they delivering the outcome that schools need? Is this technology producing deeper wait lists and higher levels of future commitments?
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 …
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 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 …
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 …
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 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 …
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 …
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 – …
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 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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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, …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Welp that was quick. Not too long ago I wrote about the Choice Eliminator 2 add on for Google Forms. This Add on allows you to put limits on how many times a choice can be made and then it will eliminate that choice from the form. Think about people …
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? …
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 …
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 …
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 – …
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 …
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 …
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 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 …
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 …
Photo by Heorhii Heorhiichuk on Pexels.com I hope everyone has a memorable and eventful evening! Source: IT Babble Blog and Podcast
I saw these both featured on freetech4teachers.com and thought I would try them out. Richard Byrne has a quick description and a handy video on how they work which is nice. You can view that video with this link. These are both add-ons for Google Forms. They are not stand …
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 …
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 …
The Verge has run this article twice this year and they just republished it with slightly different recommendations. So, I’ve written (now my third time) a quick articlethat you should ask your school, not just trust a blog (hey-this is a blog) to which laptop/device is appropriate for your child. …
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 …
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 …
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 …
This has been coming down the pipe for a long time. It has long been known that Google Chromebooks are the go-to student devices for most schools (especially if they are running Google Workspace). I wrote a two part series that you can read here and here about it back …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Part 1 was a quick rundown of how we successfully utilized Google Forms to allow parents to sign up for our After School Activities (ASA’s). I didn’t dive into the nitty-gritty when it came to the details about how we utilized the Form Ranger Add-On with Google Forms to make …
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 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. …
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 …
Recently Apple and Microsoft held events and unveiled some new products. Looking through my educator glasses I thought I’d write about them and try to evaluate if they are good for schools. When I say that, I mean, are they good to buy a whole bunch and give them to …
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 …
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 …
I was working on a review when this came across my desk. Here is the short story. A teacher noticed that a student had another person’s email open while on their Chromebook. At first, the thinking was that they had signed into that Chromebook as that person (which is not …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
The long school year is almost over so hang in there people! Source: IT Babble Blog and Podcast
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 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 …
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
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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, …
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. …
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. …
Oh man, this is just too funny. I know it’s already made its rounds, but it’s still humorous. Enjoy the next 35 seconds and happy President’s Day. Source: IT Babble Blog and Podcast
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
OK, it’s a weird name but it has a pretty cool function. This is an extension you can add to Chrome and use on a variety of Google products to leave audio comments. If you mark up an essay or digital document, …
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. …
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? …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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
Tony and Patrick are back at it again for the last episode before our winter breaks. Check out all the goodness below and if you’re worthy enough. You will learn the true power of streaming (that’s a bad Star Wars joke) …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Photo by Magda Ehlers on Pexels.com Have a happy and safe turkey day no matter where you are in the world Source: IT Babble Blog and Podcast
A number of teachers have been making their own tutorial videos for distance learning. A common question I get is whether or not to store it in Google Drive or to put it on YouTube? I say YouTube. The reason why I suggest YouTube over Google Drive is simply the …
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 …
Tony DePrato | Follow Me on LinkedIn Source: IT Babble Blog and Podcast
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 …
This video will show you how to record all audio, video, etc while in online meetings on your Apple OS X machine. Private Recording | Good Audio | Totally Free Tony DePrato | Follow Me on LinkedIn Source: IT Babble Blog and Podcast
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 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 …
Stay safe out there everyone! Source: IT Babble Blog and Podcast
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. …
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. …
Blackbaud & Google Assignments W/ Drive This video explains how to use the Google Assignments Integration within Blackbaud’s OnSuite LMS. Tony DePrato | Follow Me on LinkedIn Source: IT Babble Blog and Podcast
Tony DePrato | Follow Me on LinkedIn More videos from my channel on EdTech Mastery. Source: IT Babble Blog and Podcast
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 …
I’ve developed a very flexible solution with iPads and some ergonomic tools/devices. The main goal was to have tech that was useful all the time, not just during quarantine, and tech that didn’t strain the network with video standards that can’t be handled by personal home networks. The investment would …
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 …
A few weeks ago I wrote a post about how we were handling parent-teacher conferences this year using Zoom. Well, we have done it and . . . it went very well. Here is the overview. The teachers were going to start a meeting and would manage parents entering …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Hey are you looking to buy bridge? I mean who doesn’t need a bridge? I’ll sell it to you and you can charge a toll for all the cars, bikes and people that will cross it and before you know it, you’ll be swimming in money! So what do you …
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 …
READ ALL THE REVIEWS ON THIS PAGE – STREAMING IN THE CLASSROOM SERIES This is the final post of this series. I’ll link all the reviews at the end of this post and link them all on their own page. Here is the rundown. It uses something called Miracast technology. …
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 …
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. …
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. …
Tony DePrato | Follow Me on LinkedIn Source: IT Babble Blog and Podcast
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