How to project computer to TV article was last updated: Nov 24, 2019. FYI: When I first wrote this post in 2013, I used Dragon Naturally Speaking to dictate to my computer to type down what I said. Back then, I was one of the only classrooms in my school to have my own projector… […]
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How to Draw on a Screenshot: Quickly Add Arrows and Text on a Screenshot (Windows)
How to Draw on a Screenshot UPDATED (Dec 10, 2019): This post was originally written in 2013 – I used Dragon Naturally Speaking and talked about screenshots. The content is still relevant today and is slowly being updated. Stay tuned! Back in 2013 when this post was originally written, I did a presentation for teachers […]
How to lock your iPad screen so students can only use 1 specific app
NOTE: This post is being updated for today’s classroom (May 25, 2019) Back in April 2013 when I first wrote this post, there were lots of great iPad apps for use in the classroom, but not all of us had access to school iPads. I knew quite a few teachers who had their own iPads […]
Nuance Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13 Premium vs Dragon Home / Professional 15 Review
My buddy John isn’t much of a typist. He jokes about how bad he is, and he’s not wrong. John uses the “seek and destroy” method of two fingers, maybe three fingers per hand when he’s typing.
To end my misery, I let John use Dragon Professional Individual 15 on my laptop.
AudioNote App – Taking notes / drawing diagrams in the classroom with audio sync!
AudioNote is a fun app. AudioNote 2 is a new upgraded version. I’m trying to decide if it’s worth upgrading to the new AudioNote 2 version. So right now I’m using the AudioNote app on my iPhone. The app popped up a little window saying that I could upgrade to the new AudioNote 2 which […]
Moving to a new server: WPEngine WordPress hosting
For the past few years, I’ve hosted this classroom technology website with SiteGround. Some nice features, but when I tried to have 25 students log into our class website (using buddypress), the website just crawled. Now, I’m trying WPEngine. It’s way more expensive for a class website, but on the other hand, it seems to work better with 25 students logging in at the same time.
Today, I migrated this classroom technology site over to WPEngine. We’ll see how things go.
Why I bought a touchscreen computer for my classroom
UPDATING: Thu Jul 25, 2019: This post was originally written using Dragon speaking naturally and getting my computer to type down my words. So I recently got a new touch screen computer to help me be a better teacher. (At least, that’s what I tell myself. It might have something to do with having new […]
Google Earth will change the way you teach (in 2-3 years…)
UPDATING: June 16, 2019 Last week, Google (Alphabet) announced to the world that users will be able to post their own stories, photos and experiences on Google Earth. It’s kind of like turning Google Earth into a social network: users can post private or public stories about their world for others to see. (And, all […]
The one keyboard shortcut your students should really know.
UPDATED: June 16, 2019 (Happy Father’s Day!) If students knew keyboard shortcuts, then they could get class work and homework assignments done a lot quicker. Seriously. Students who know their way around a keyboard and a computer are definitely at an advantage. As a literacy teacher, I told my students, if it takes you twice […]
March Break and Getting Unstuck
Sometimes, it’s hard to get unstuck. My buddy suggested getting out of the house. Hang out in a coffee shop and work away on the free wifi. So, here we are – double double in hand, and marking bins left at home. Here are 10 things that I want to think about over the next […]
Dragon Professional 14: Why Teachers should use voice recognition
Dragon Professional 14 Article UPDATING June 29, 2019: It’s been 3 years since I used Dragon to speak naturally and dictate this post. Here’s the updated post about Dragon Professional 14 from June 2016: It’s been a while since I’ve written on this blog but since it’s June (2016) I thought I would reboot it. […]
You can do better than a 10% discount for Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13 premium.
If you’re going to buy Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13 premium, don’t pay full price. Sometimes, when you’re on the Nuance website, just as you’re about to leave, they will offer you a discount. When I bought the voice recognition software, it offered me a 20% discount which I took right away. (Darn.) Yesterday, I was peeking […]
Windows 10 is coming and I just reserved my free upgrade.
UPDATED: June 16, 2019. This post was originally written 4 years ago when I used Dragon, spoke naturally, and dictated this article. My computer transcribed what I wrote using speech-to-text software. Right now, I’m using Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13 with Windows 8.1 Pro. But, in a few months (on July 29, 2015) to be exact, my […]