Technology

Free Technology for Teachers

This app helps you finds out which of the people you follow on Twitter are on Mastodon/in the Fediverse already and follow all of them easily.Try it: https://t.co/LitKPF11qH Keep checking it every few days to see if there are new people.— Robin DeRosa (@actualham) November 7, 2022

So how does Mastodon work: Its not one place. It's 'federated'. You pick a server to be on. That server by default will pull in some 'toots' (a silly word) from other servers it federates with into its timeline, and block some others.But YOU can follow anyone, on any server.— John Bull (@garius) November 5, 2022

I see several folks on here expressing confusion about how Mastodon works. As a relatively new lay user there, I thought I would share a few observations that help explain why I find that platform so rewarding:— Dr. Rajiv Jhangiani (@thatpsychprof) November 5, 2022

I'm going to make a quick thread of #Mastodon stuff that is by no means proclaiming me to be an expert or anything but helped me a few weeks ago.— freyquency (@freyquency) April 25, 2022

So yes, please do create a Mastodon account. Use https://t.co/1tW4ryhrY4 to choose an instance whose rules work well for how you want to communicate. Read those rules carefully and make sure you trust whoever controls your instance.— Ethan "no blue check before it was cool" Zuckerman (@EthanZ) November 4, 2022

Create custom QR Codes with Logo, Color and Design for free. This QR Code Maker offers free vector formats for best print quality.

Free Technology for Teachers

If you use iOS, be sure to check out Focus modes! Here are the ones I’ve set up.

Learn how to organize your writing in Ulysses the writing app using Groups, Filters, Keywords, and Favorites.

There’s growing interest in Mastodon, an alternative to Elon Musk’s Twitter. Here’s a guide to getting started with it.

When you connect apps together with automation tools like Shortcuts, AppleScript and callback URLs, you can end up with workflows much more powerful than any one app can deliver. The focus of this post is an app which facilitates this type of cross pollination: Hookmark (formerly Hook). Hookmark is an app for macOS which integrates other apps and resources, allowing you to cross link in just about any way imaginable. To give you an idea what it is about, imagine you are writing an Agenda no...

macOS Ventura is a hard release to pin down. I’ve been running it for months, and it’s been running well for all my everyday work and personal tasks. Features like Continuity Camera, iCloud Shared Photo Library, and the many system app updates have, on the whole, been stable, worked as advertised, and helped me do

While I’m linking to articles from this spring that I only read today, Matt Birchler wrote a piece for The Sweet Setup about using Shortcuts with the Stream Deck that provided a great workaro…

These commands can make your Canva presentation a lot more fun.

If you use CARROT Weather and have an iPad, stop. Go update CARROT, dig into its Layout settings, and pick the Multi-Column Layout Style before you read any further. I’ll wait. It’s good, right? Even if you don’t customize it at all, CARROT’s new three-column layout will excite your inner weather geek. The layout is

Recently, I wrote a bunch of Zotero tutorials that went (mildly) viral on #AcademicTwitter. Thought I'd put them all together so folks can find them easily.So, here goes 👇Zotero 101: A meta-thread 🧵Retweet to share it with your friends/colleagues.— Mushtaq Bilal, PhD (@MushtaqBilalPhD) September 22, 2022

Canva has over 75M users worldwide.But most people don't know how to unlock its full potential.Here's 10 Canva tricks you'll wish you knew sooner (I promise):— Syed Huq 🎮 (@_SyedHuq) September 17, 2022

It’s been two years since Widgetsmith took the App Store by storm. The app, which was created by long-time indie developer David Smith, lets users create custom Home Screen widgets. Then, shortly after the app’s release, it went viral when TikTokers discovered it and dropped Dave and his app squarely in the center of the

Teleparty (formerly Netflix Party) lets you watch TV together with your friends. Have a watch party on Netflix,Youtube,Disney Plus,Hulu,HBO,and Amazon Prime!

The starting point for your next project with Minimal UI Kit, built on the newest version of Material-UI ©, ready to be customized to your style

Curious or have questions about Apple's iOS 16? Here's a collection of CNET advice articles to help you learn your way around the new operating system.

The Omni Group has written its own flavor of JavaScript to automate its apps. These new automations will work on Mac, iPad, and iPhone. In this video, I take one of the Omni Group’s new JavaScript automations that can assign and adjust defer and due dates in OmniFocus. I then use a Keyboard Maestro trick to combine... Continue reading →

Learn the basics of Airtable in 60 minutes

Every academic knows that the BEST software for citation and reference management is Zotero.BUT many folks don't know how to take notes and annotate PDFs in Zotero.Here's how to get started 👇Zotero Annotations 101: A step-by-step guide with visuals 🧵— Mushtaq Bilal, PhD (@MushtaqBilalPhD) August 30, 2022

I’ve long imagined a tool that would enable a teacher to help students learn how to write and edit. In Thoughts in motion I explored what might be possible in

Viewing photos in Microsoft Teams is basic functionality. However, it is not always that easy to use. In this blog, I will give some practical tips to better deal with photos

In case you’ve missed it previously, SearchLink is my macOS Service for doing web searches and inserting Markdown links in your writing without ever switching to your browser. I use it daily, and it’