Issue 38 • June 18, 2025

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference is happening in San Antonio, Texas this year. I don’t attend every year, but 2025 is a year I’ll be there—and presenting!

Whether you’re attending or following along from home, social media will be full of interesting ideas and resources. Keep an eye on the #ISTELive hashtag.

I’ll be presenting on June 30, July 1, and July 2. I’m leading two 60-minute sessions, a poster session, and several booth presentations. My ISTE Live 2025 page has all the details, including .ics calendar files to quickly add my sessions to your calendar.

I’m especially excited to be co-presenting an Innovator Talk and a poster session with Erika Sandstrom, also known as Greenscreen Gal. Our talk is about editing videos in Canva, and our poster session shares video tricks and treats you can try in Canva. Check out the fun video trick Erika performs in this short clip. Notice the great job Canva’s background remover does in the final clip! 😉

Word Art Workbook 🎨

I like to create custom logos and title slides for each of my presentations. Most of them are made in Google Slides and contain word art.

Why word art? Unlike regular text boxes, word art treats text as a shape. You can still choose your font, and you also gain the ability to:

• Drag the corners to resize

• Apply border styles

• Fill with solid, transparent, or gradient colors

• Customize drop shadows

• Layer multiple Word Art elements

In my Word Art Workshop presentation, participants work through a digital Google Slides workbook to explore different ways to style word art. Since you're a newsletter reader, I thought you might enjoy trying it out, too.

When you make a copy of the Word Art Workshop workbook, you'll find examples and step-by-step instructions for recreating each design. Be sure to check the speaker notes for extra tips.

You’re also welcome to share the Word Art Workshop workbook with your students. If they need a video tutorial, I’ve got you covered!

I host a Word Art tutorial video as part of the Shapegrams Name Art Lesson. It’s available to members, and membership is just $35 per teacher per year. And, membership includes access to over 120 Shapegrams templates, which can be shared with students.

Alphabet AI 🥣

I used Word Art to design the title slide for my August presentation to all teachers in Council Bluffs Community School District.

The title reads like a bowl of alphabet soup, thanks to the playful Chewy font. I added a subtle drop shadow to give the letters a soft 3D look.

For many teachers, this will be their first professional development focused on artificial intelligence. A key part of the session will be reviewing CBCSD’s District AI Guidelines, which were developed collaboratively by a workgroup of teachers, staff, and administrators.

The guidelines are designed to fit on a single page and center on three key principles: Accuracy, Integrity, and Safety.

In addition to unpacking the guidelines, I’ll share ways AI can support teaching and learning. I’ll also explore how we can equip students with essential AI literacy skills. I’m thrilled to set up so many teachers for success with AI.

Remote Recommendation 🪄

When I present at ISTE and CBCSD (and everywhere else), my clicker is a Logitech Spotlight Presentation Remote. I’ve been using it since 2017.

This remote goes beyond just advancing slides. It has motion and gyroscope sensors that let me move my computer’s mouse pointer by waving the remote in the air. It also has a handy button to instantly blank the screen.

Its standout feature is the spotlight. With the press of a button, a circular highlight appears on the screen while everything else dims. It’s a fantastic way to focus attention on a photo, a block of text, or any part of the screen. I often describe it as waving a magic wand to guide the audience’s eyes.

The spotlight effect requires installing Logitech’s software, which is available for both Mac and PC.

As of now, the older version I use is available on Amazon for around $94. The newer version is listed on Logitech’s website for $110. Besides color options, the two versions work the same.

If you make purchase through my Amazon link, I’m paid a small commission.

Paper Patchwork Prints 🖨️

You can print large posters using a regular printer—just be ready to piece together standard 8.5 x 11 inch pages. Canva makes this surprisingly easy with its Image Splitter app.

To get started, open Canva, click “Apps” in the left sidebar, and search for “Image Splitter.” Create a new design with a custom size of 11 x 8.5 inches. Then open the app and upload your image. You’ll be able to split it into a grid by setting the number of rows and columns. Each piece is added to a separate page in your design, ready for printing.

Since Canva doesn’t include a Print button, you’ll need to download your design as a PDF and print it from there. For best results, use a high-resolution image so the enlarged version doesn’t look pixelated.

Depending on your printer settings, you may or may not need to trim margins from each page. You can assemble your poster by taping, gluing, or stapling the pieces together, though I prefer gluing them to a large sheet of chart paper to make alignment easier.

If you want to see how the process works, watch Profe Garcia’s TikTok video where he demos the Image Splitter app.

Unfortunately, Image Splitter doesn’t accept PDFs. To split a PDF into tiles, you can use Adobe Acrobat’s “Poster” option (Mac and Windows only).

Coding My Count 👨‍💻

While preparing for a recent webinar, I thought it would be fun to share how many Google Forms I’ve created over the years. Surprisingly, Google doesn’t show the number of files or documents anywhere.

So, I asked ChatGPT for help. It explained that there’s no built-in feature in Google Drive to display how many Forms you’ve made, but it did suggest two workarounds.

The first method was to switch Google Drive to list view and manually count files—50 at a time—as you scroll. Since I’ve created hundreds of Forms, that idea was quickly ruled out.

The second suggestion was far more useful: write a script using Google Apps Script. Although I’ve known Apps Script existed (mainly for developers building add-ons), I’d never actually tried using it myself. Luckily, ChatGPT provided simple step-by-step instructions along with ready-to-copy JavaScript code.

I followed the directions, clicked Run, and within moments the Execution Log showed I’ve created 633 Google Forms.

Of course, I couldn’t stop there. I asked ChatGPT to write a script that counts other types of Google files too. I pasted the new code into Apps Script and ran it the same way. That’s when I discovered I’ve made over 8,000 Google Slides. I have no idea if that number is impressive or embarrassing!

Watch for a special Learning in Hand Newsletter coming your way Tuesday, June 24th. I get to be among the first to tell you the new name for Quizizz! They even sent me a pink piñata to whack open as part of the reveal.

Smiles from Iowa,

Subscribe at learninginhand.com

Al was used to revise and proofread some of the text in this newsletter. It was also used to generate possibilities for section titles.