Canva

Some of Canva's design options
Canva is a simple-to-use yet fully functional graphic design tool website. A first-time user is presented with a tutorial to introduce its features. While a "Canva for Work" subscription is available for $12.95 per month (as of 2018-06-20), free use is surprisingly full featured.

The user begins by choosing a "canvas" (my term) size such as business card, flyer, poster, Facebook or Twitter post, or your own custom size. There are also customizable templates to apply to these canvases.

After selecting a background, the user can drag and drop various elements, including text, free high quality photos, grids, frames, shapes, lines, illustrations, icons, and charts. A wide variety of fonts are available, and the site includes the ability to upload the user's own photos.

Canva is equally usable on computer, tablet, or phone.




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Expresso

Expresso screen shotExpresso is an online "tool to edit texts and improve your writing style." It is a work-in-progress by a graduate student, Mikhail Panko, and is very easy to use. Expresso seems to me to be an interesting way to examine writing in a different way from standard grammar editors. It could prove useful in a variety of situations. As stated on the site, however, it is not

The site is incredibly easy to use. Simply key in or paste your text, click Analyze text, and an extensive listing of metrics will be presented.
First is a list of metrics for editing. Clicking on any of those will highlight related entries in the text. For example, click on weak verbs and all of the weak verbs in the text will be highlighted. You may edit if you choose, and to make your work easier, mousing over a highlighted word gives you a list of synonyms to choose from. Clicking on weak verbs again will remove the highlights. A few of the metrics in this list are extra long and short sentences, frequent words (by stem), clustered words, filler words, and passive voice.

A second list is of general metrics, such as number of characters and words, syllables per word, readability grade, and percentage of parts of speech.

Edited work can be copied and pasted back into your word processor. This is facilitated by the ability to use Ctrl-A to select all your text, excluding other text on the page. If you wish to mark your changes before transferring, you could use standard hot-keys to bold and or italicize text before copying.

The site includes a description of what it does and how it can be used, a tutorial, and an explanation of each of the metrics. The designer makes it clear that it is not a "magic bullet," but that it should be used to identify weak areas and to get ideas for possible edits.

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This is Your Child's Brain on Television

I haven't posted for a long time and have a lot of sites bookmarked for posting, but when I found this this morning I decided I needed to take the time to post it now. I doubt that any of this is news for educators. It should make us think about kids' TV viewing habits, as well as time spent on other digital devices.

This is Your Child's Brain on Television
Via: Online Courses News

If you appreciate infographics as much as I do, you might be interested in my Pinterest Infographics board.

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Timers

There are many reasons you might want access to a timer on your computer. For one thing, it can be good for students learning to budget their time to be able to gauge the amount of time left to complete their task. Also there may be times when people need to take a break or simply stop what they are doing. I myself often need to have an audible or visual reminder to stop and move on to the next task or leave for an appointment. Fortunately, there are many options, both downloadable and online, which could meet your needs. This post will present three of these options; a Google search will provide you with a long list of sites if you wish to pursue this further.

ORZESZEK. Kim Komando (komando.com) this morning shared Orzeszek Timer, FREE downloadable software. Nothing could be simpler than this little timer. A small window opens for you to enter the length of time, in a variety of formats as explained on the Orzeszek website:


  • 5 – 5 minutes
  • 2.5 – 2 minutes 30 seconds
  • 1d 5h 3m 25s – 1 day 5 hours 3 minutes 25 seconds
  • 1.05:03:25 – 1 day 5 hours 3 minutes 25 seconds
  • 1 5 3 25 – 1 day 5 hours 3 minutes 25 seconds
  • 01/01/2011 – until midnight on 1 January 2011
  • 01/01/2011 5:00 PM< – until 5:00 pm on 1 January 2011

  • To change the sound (no notification, loud, normal, or quiet) or change other options (e.g., change size, close when done, loop timer), simply right-click on the window and choose from a drop-down menu. You can also customize sounds by adding .wav files to the Sounds folder.

    Don't forget that when you unzip the downloaded file, the unzipped files will be placed in your Downloads folder by default. Be sure to put them in a place where you will know where they are and won't lose them.

    ONLINE STOPWATCH. I like Online Stopwatch, a Flash-based timer, for classroom projection because it is full-screen. It can be used for counting up or counting down.

    The display shows complete time remaining or elapsed in hours, minutes, and seconds.



    TIME ME. TimeMe provides a variety of QuickTime timers, both downloadable and online. Its display is much simpler than that of Online Stopwatch, so might be preferable in some instances.

    One of TimeMe's timers is digital Alarm Clock. As an additional function, it can be displayed simply as a digital clock. Its appearance is the same as the Stopwatch.

    PROTECT YOUR VISION. This timer is a little different. It is used on an individual's computer to remind the user to rest his/her eyes from looking at the monitor.

    According to protectyourvision.org, "Around 70% people in developed countries experience eye discomfort and vision problems when viewing a computer screen for more than 2 hour daily. The level of discomfort appears to increase with the amount of computer use.
    The most common symptoms of CVS [Computer Vision Syndrome] are:


  • eyestrain
  • headaches
  • blurred vision
  • dry, irritated eyes
  • double vision
  • difficulty refocusing the eyes
  • neck and shoulder pain"


  • This timer can be set to blank the computer monitor (or not if you prefer) after a set amount of time and for a set of time. For example, the default is to blank the monitor after 20 minutes for 20 seconds and then repeat that sequence. As you can see from the image above, you can also set it for 60 minutes of work with a 5 second rest.

    In addition, the site provides a set of  "Eyes Gymnastics" which you can use during the break time to help relieve the eye tension caused from constant viewing of the monitor. 

    If you don't like the little space guy ("minimal" theme), you can also choose from a "sunny" theme with a beach scene and a "space" theme.

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    Video Sources

    Perhaps some might find useful a LiveBinder of video sources I compiled for a workshop I did earlier this year. 

    It includes hundreds of sources categorized by discipline as well as some links for searching. Sites provide FREE videos, though some may also include videos available for a fee.

    If you haven't found LiveBinders yet, you might find it useful as well. It's a great way to organize links and to make them available to others. The fact that most (unless the site must be viewed in its own window) will display right on the LiveBinders page can be a benefit in some circumstances as well. It's FREE to use if you wish to create your own binder (public or private), and a search can bring up some great binders which have been created by others.

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    100 Video Sites Every Educator Should Bookmark

    [One of the] Last of its kind
    CC Licensed photo
    by Clint Gardner
    I'm always on the lookout for good listings of websites, and this one via Twitter was a real gem of a find! It brought to my attention another blog to follow: The Innovative Educator: Way out of the box!

    The sites included on the 100 Video Sites Every Educator Should Bookmark post are categorized by Educational Video Collections
    General Video Collections
    Teacher Education (my personal favorite, Teacher Training Videos, is included here)
    Lesson Planning
    Science, Math and Technology
    History, Arts and Social Science
    Video Tools
    Network and Program Videos
    Free Movies and Clips (free is good!)
    How- Tos
    Government Organizations.

    If this listing doesn't appeal to you, you ought to take a look at the blog anyway. There's some pretty great stuff there!

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    MakeUseOf Guides

    I've gotten so many good tips from MakeUseOf that it's one of my favorite sites; they find and review a lot of things I simply don't have time to look for.

    They also have currently 38 free downloadable guides in PDF format on such varied topics as iTunes, iPhone, Linux, Photoshop, digital photography, online shopping, building a gaming PC, Twitter, creating professional documents in Microsoft Word, Twitter, and the Internet Guide for the Movie Addict. There's really something for almost everyone.

    You might be interested in these other posts about resources I've learned of from MakeUseOf: Creative Commons, Semantic Search Engines, Functional Screensavers (PC and Mac), SAT Test Prep,

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