EdTech Links of the Week - 2-4-25

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!

What's New in Google - January 2025

Catch up on everything new in Google Workspace for Education from January 2025, and see great ideas and resources!

Below is the recorded video from our January 2025 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 January 2025 meeting:

Boost Student Learning with Brisk Teaching

Brisk Teaching is one of my favorite educational AI tools which I have shared about often on this blog.

I usually refer to Brisk Teaching as the "Swiss Army Knife of AI Tools for Schools" because of all the things you are able to do with it from creating content, to generating feedback, to re-leveling text, to so much more.

In addition to all of those uses, recently Brisk added a new feature that is easily one of my favorites… Brisk Boost activities for students!

With Brisk Boost:

• Educators can create school-safe student-friendly "Boost" activities with customized AI chatbots that students can interact with.
• These can include chatbots for tutoring, chatting with a character, debating, brainstorming, exit tickets and more.
• And Brisk records everything typed by the student and the AI so you can review it and learn how best to support your learners.

Recently I had the pleasure to present a booth session at FETC on how to use Brisk Teaching for students. See below for the 25 minute recorded video of that presentation to learn all about creating Brisk Boost activities, the student experience, and the teacher experience.

EdTech Links of the Week - 1-28-25

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!

Class Tools to Make Google BETTer

This week Google is in London at BETT, the world’s biggest educational technology exhibition. At the event, companies from all around the world show off their latest and greatest innovations for educational technology.

Google is using this opportunity to showcase new updates for Google Workspace for Education. These updates include new features for Google Classroom, Docs, Accessibility, Chromebooks, AI, and more!

Although I have never been to BETT yet (definitely a goal for the future!) I wanted to share these new updates with you. The big new update that caught my eye is "Class Tools" which is a classroom management solution for teachers and students to use on Chromebooks.

See below for the details on this new Class Tools feature, as well as an overview of what else Google announced at BETT.

EdTech Links of the Week - 1-22-25

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!

"Abracadabr-AI" - MagicSchool AI Rooms for Student Learning

MagicSchool is a very well known AI tool for schools, which I have shared about many times before.

When most people think of MagicSchool they probably think about how it can assist educators with creating content such as lesson plans, rubrics, releveled text, DOK questions, and more. 

As awesome as that is, MagicSchool has another use that makes me even more excited… MagicSchool for students!

With MagicSchool:

• Educators can create school-safe student-friendly "rooms" with customized AI chatbots that students can interact with.
• These can include chatbots for writing feedback, idea generation, tutoring, sentence starters, character chats, and many more.
• And MagicSchool records everything typed by the student and the AI so you can review it and learn how best to support your learners.

Recently I had the pleasure to present a booth session at FETC on how to use MagicSchool for students. See below for the 25 minute recorded video of that presentation to learn all about creating student rooms, the student experience, and the teacher experience.