November 8, 2022

HECC 2022 - Touchscreens: Yes or No

 At some point in 2021, I came to the conclusion that my school's existing projectors and Interactive Whiteboard combination was outdated and was becoming unreliable. At the HECC conference in November 2021, I was running around testing every Interactive Flat Panel I could get my hands on.

It's a year later at the November 2022 HECC conference and since then my school has purchased and installed BenQ RM7503 IFPs. Teachers have been using them for over 3 months.

I'm presenting what I learned from this process at a HECC session and below you can find the resources that I'll be using in the presentation.

  1. Touchscreen Displays for Classrooms PowerPoint
  2. Touchscreen HyperDoc
  3. Touchscreen Evaluation Rubric (data collected in 2021 and 2022)

I hope this information helps you make a better decision for your school!

November 30, 2020

Share a Microsoft Teams Meeting Link

Here's how to get a link to your Microsoft Teams meeting that anyone can join. After you get the link, you can paste it into apps like Seesaw, a website, or an email.

  1. Create a new meeting in your Outlook calendar.
  2. Click more options.
  3. Toggle the Teams meeting option to on.
  4. Click Save.
  5. Double click on the meeting in your calendar to open it again.
  6. Right-click on the link that says "Click here to join the meeting."
  7. Choose "Copy link address."
  8. You can now paste that link wherever you need it. You can keep using that link for the multiple meetings. It doesn't matter that you scheduled it for a certain time in your calendar.

April 1, 2020

Options for Teams Meetings with Other Staff

Microsoft Teams provides multiple options for creating a Teams meeting. Here are a few.

In Outlook Calendar

This option allows you to schedule the meeting/video call at a specific time in advance.

In Teams Calendar with Meet Now

This launches a video call immediately and then you can invite people.


In Teams Chat

This calls everyone you are currently chatting with.




In any meeting, you can type someone's email address to invite them to join.




March 19, 2020

Options for Student Created Timelines

Here are several options I found for creating timelines. Some are not directly timeline tools, but could be converted to work.

  1. Book Creator - Because it's awesome and can be used for almost anything.
  2. Padlet Timeline
    1. Example Padlet in Timeline mode
    2. Blog
  3. PowerPoint - Create a template with a timeline and distribute it to students with Teams.
    1. Google My Maps
  4. Create a story in Google Earth.
    1. Instructions
    2. Video
    3. Blog post
    4. Support page
  5. Google Tour Builder (Possibly discontinued by Google and/or replaced by functionality in Google Earth)
    1. Website
    2. Website 2

March 15, 2020

Video Tools in Education March 2020

There are so many great ways to create and share videos with your students. You'll need a few basic things to work with video.

1. A device with a camera and microphone such as a phone, iPad, or laptop.
2. An app that will allow you to record the video.
3. An app that will let you host the video so that other people can watch it.

Some apps allow you to record and host video, while others only let you do one of these.


  1. Loom (https://www.loom.com/)
    1. Record your computer screen and optionally include a video of yourself.
    2. Videos can be hosted and shared directly on Loom, but you may want to consider downloading each video and hosting it on Microsoft Stream or Flipgrid.
    3. Teachers get Loom Pro for free.
    4. Alternatives include Screencastify and Soapbox.
  2. Flipgrid (https://info.flipgrid.com/)
    1. Record yourself talking or draw on a whiteboard.
    2. Videos are hosted on Flipgrid and private to your class.
    3. You can upload a video that you've taken with another app.
    4. Students can respond with their own videos.
    5. Students and teachers already have accounts, just login with Microsoft.
    6. Easy to use, and specifically designed for the classroom
    7. Videos are limited to 5 minutes.
  3. Microsoft Stream (https://web.microsoftstream.com/)
    1. Similar to YouTube, but private and only for users at Kingsway.
    2. Upload and host videos on Stream.
    3. Create your own channel.
    4. Videos can be shared with everyone in the school, or a specific group.
    5. Videos can be as long as you need.
    6. No option to record videos directly on Stream yet.
  4. WeVideo (https://www.wevideo.com/sign-in)
    1. Create, record, edit, and host your videos.
    2. Designed for education.
    3. Can be used by teachers and students.
    4. Choose login with Office 365.
  5. Camera app
    1. Use the camera app built into your phone, laptop, or iPad.
    2. Upload the video to Flipgrid or Stream.
  6. Microsoft Teams
    1. Create web conference meetings.
    2. Teachers have the option to record the meeting.
    3. Recorded meetings are automatically saved to Stream and students who missed the meeting can watch later.
  7. Record Video Inside PowerPoint
    1. See this Tweet that has demonstration video.