Chromebooks Unplugged - A Day in the Life of a Student Chromebook

Chromebooks are used by 50 million students and teachers every day in schools all around the world. But are you and your students getting the most out of them?

To explore this question I used a student Chromebook for an entire day as my primary device. To keep things realistic I also did it ... unplugged.

What I mean is, when a student is using a Chromebook at school, they may not always have a power outlet to plug into. This is why many schools ask students to make sure their Chromebooks are completely charged before bringing them in each day.

So for my day using a student Chromebook, I kept it unplugged from power and simply used its battery for the entire day. Then every couple of hours I stopped to record a short video to see how well the battery was doing, and to demonstrate some powerful Chromebook features that can help students with learning and creating. I ended up covering:

• Accessibility tools
• Screencast and Chrome Canvas
• Android apps (including Minecraft)
• Video editing
• Offline access

See below for the recorded video of my day unplugged, as well as other Chromebook resources. And a big thanks to MediaTek for providing the student Chromebook for this experiment, and for sponsoring this post.

Rubric for Evaluating AI Tools for Schools

Ever since the launch of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools, there has been an explosions in the creation of AI tools for schools. It seems that every week I am hearing about a new AI product launch designed to help education.

Over time I have shared many of my favorite AI tools in the "Cool Tools" series - bit.ly/cool-tools-23 - and in my resource document "The AI Toolbox: Best AI Tools for Schools" - bit.ly/curts-aitools

All of these products promise to improve teaching and learning by assisting teachers, creating educational content, personalizing learning for students, and more. But how can a school evaluate these tools to see if they really do provide safe, educationally sound, cost effective solutions?

To assist with this process I have created a "Rubric for Evaluating AI Tools in Education" which covers 18 essential criteria for assessing these products. The rubric is freely available for anyone to use or modify as needed.

See below to get your own copy of the rubric, as well as detailed directions on how to make the best use of it. As with anything AI-related, this is always a work in progress. I welcome your suggestions for improvements to make this an even more valuable tool for educators.

EdTech Links of the Week - 4-8-24

Each week I keep an eye out for the latest edtech resources through blogs, social media, podcasts, videos, user groups, and more. I then try to reshare these resources in many ways.

One way I share these is here on the blog in these "EdTech Links of the Week" posts. See below to explore the latest batch of resources, and be sure to share with others who may benefit.

If you want to make sure you don't miss new resources, you can:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: bit.ly/curts-news
📧 Join the "Control Alt Achieve" email discussion group: bit.ly/caa-emailgroup

🔔 Get new blog posts automatically through email - FollowIt link

And as always, please let me know of any resources that you recommend. I would love to learn from you!

Googley Poetry Projects and Tools

April is the time of year

For kids to write a poem.
There's loads of fun activities
Here for you to show 'em.

Google tools can be used
To make the perfect rhyme,
With templates, tools, and writing prompts
To save your students time.

Draggable Drawings, random Sheets,
And Google Docs highlighting
Will give your students inspiration
For their creative writing.

So look below to find out more,
Then get your students on it,
Writing their ode, haiku, free verse,
Their ballad or their sonnet.

Super Prompt - An AI Prompt to Create AI Prompts

Recently I shared a blog post with a list of some of my favorite AI Prompt Libraries for Educators.

The idea is that it can sometimes be a challenge to come up with a good prompt for AI chatbots, and thankfully people have been kind enough to share high quality educational prompts that they have developed, tested, and refined.

I decided to go one step further with this. I wondered… would it be possible to come up with an AI prompt that could be used to generate AI prompts?

Sort of like "Promptception". Or maybe "One prompt to rule them all" if you prefer a Lord of the Rings reference instead.

So after lots of trial and error, I did manage to come up with a "Super Prompt" that seems to work pretty consistently and generates useful educational prompts. You simply fill in what sort of task you need, such as a rubric generator or lesson plan generator or student writing feedback generator, and the super prompt will create the prompt you need.

See below to get a copy of the super prompt, along with usage notes and examples. Chances are I will continue to tweak the super prompt to improve it, and would welcome any suggestions you have.

What's New in Google - March 2024

Catch up on everything new in Google Workspace for Education from March 2024, and see great ideas and resources!

Below is the recorded video from our March 2024 Google User Meeting, along with the meeting agenda with all the awesome resources and Google updates from the last few months. This includes lots of new Google updates and Google resources for your class.

The monthly meetings are hosted by the Google Educator Group of Ohio, but are open to anyone from any location. The purpose of these meetings is to:

• Connect Google-using educators
• Share the latest Google Workspace news and features
• Provide tutorials, demonstrations, and how-to’s
• Share best practices of how Google Workspace is being used within schools
• Ask questions and get answers

The video from the meeting is recorded and available for later viewing for those who cannot attend or connect live. See below to view the recorded video, agenda, and all the resources from the March 2024 meeting:

Chromebook Accessibility Tools Webinar

Over the years I have had the opportunity many times to present sessions on accessibility tools, accommodation options, and resources to help support all learners. 

These have always been some of my most popular sessions as everyone can benefit from these tools.

Over time these resources have also continued to develop with new tools, features, and options. With all of these continual updates, I am excited to once again have the opportunity to present on this topic.

I am thrilled to be presenting a free webinar in conjunction with Trafera on May 8th at Noon ET (11am CT / 10am MT / 9am PT) on "Chromebook Accessibility Tools".

See below for all the details on this great learning event…