Moving at the Speed of Creativity

Category: google

  • AI Photo Magic

    I love cooking with fire, enjoying fires in our fireplace at home, and building campfires when our family goes camping. I wrote about this a bit in my previous post, “Identity and Fire Cooking.” For the past year or so, we’ve had a friend’s “almost broken” plasma TV in our guest bedroom, serving as a…

  • Reconsider Google Love

    This may strike some readers and folks who have known me for years as educational technology heresy, but as a disciple of Neil Postman, I’m always eager to encourage more critical thinking about our uses of technology. I am writing to suggest we all seriously “reconsider our Google Love.” By this I mean we should…

  • Upgrading to AT&T Fiber Internet with Google Nest WiFi

    This month our family transitioned from cable modem high speed Internet access (from Cox) at home in Oklahoma City to true fiber optic Internet service from AT&T. By “true” I mean that the fiber optic cable has literally been pulled into our house… The “last mile” is not copper or coaxial cable. In this post,…

  • The Technology Correction and Section 230 Liability Protection

    “The Technology Correction” is something Jason Neiffer (@techsaavyteach) and I talk about frequently on our weekly webshow and podcast, “The EdTech Situation Room” (@edtechSR). This is a term Jason coined for the forthcoming regulation of our powerful technology companies built on the “surveillance capitalism” economic model, including Facebook, Google, Twitter, and others. Like the GDPR…

  • Import Class Schedule Into Google Calendar

    (Also see my updated version of this video and post from 1 August 2023, “Import Blackbaud Class Calendar to Google Calendar.”) We use the Blackbaud student information system (SIS) at our school, and it provides “subscribable” web calendars we can view in Google Calendar. However, for my own purposes (using the Google Home smart assistant…

  • More YouTube Restriction Options for Schools

    YouTube is a phenomenal platform for learning and sharing, and should be available for both students and teachers to use in schools worldwide. Unfortunately, however, in addition to hosting inspiring and amazing content, YouTube also hosts trashy, objectionable content which students under 18 in schools should not see. Fortunately, Google announced at the end of…

  • Student Email Overload and GMail Filters

    Teaching during the COVID-19 global pandemic can be crazy! About a month ago ago I boldly announced that I was going to start blogging every day again… and I promptly fell right off that wagon. Amidst lesson prep and teaching, getting behind on my grading, and trying to practice good wellness and self-care… blogging has…

  • Lesson Cast: Sharing a Class Recording with Minimal Steps

    This past summer as we prepared for the challenges and uncertainies of the COVID-19 dominated 2020-21 academic school year, our head of school asked me to work on an educational technology challenge. How could our teachers best share face-to-face / in-person lesson recordings with students who either chose or were required to learn at home…

  • The Social Dilemma Documentary and YOUR Social Media Privacy Settings

    If you have not yet watched the new Netflix documentary, “The Social Dilemma,” stop reading this post now and immediately go watch it. Or at least commit to watching it as soon as you have a spare 94 minutes. There’s a good reason it’s poised to be the first documentary to ever be the “#1…

  • YouTube Tips and Tricks (September 2020)

    A group of teachers interested in Google Educator Certification has started meeting periodically at our school in “Genius Bar Sessions” to dive into different Google products which we use as teachers. This week’s session (yesterday) focused on YouTube. The recorded lesson portion of our meeting is available as a 45 minute video on (where else?!)…