Courses For Teachers – Tech Classes, Resources and Thoughts For Educators

Canva For Education

TECH-916- Three 900-Level Semester Units

Canva for Education is the world’s largest free, online design platform that enables teachers and students to easily create beautiful and engaging designs. Bring your ideas to life with over 60,000 ready-to-use educational templates including worksheets, lesson plans, presentations, posters, newsletters, class schedules, book reports, infographics, and more.

K-12 teachers and students qualify for a free Canva ‘Pro’ account without limitations and since it only requires an Internet connection, it can operate on any device, including Chromebooks, iPads and even smartphones. Canva also seamlessly integrates with popular learning management systems such as Canvas, Schoology, and Google Classroom. Seamlessly collaborate with your team in the same document at the same time. Create talking presentations and pre-record your presentation to share multiple times. Share or export projects as a link, website, PowerPoint, PDF, MP4, and more. Join the thousands of classroom teachers already using Canva to instruct with visually interactive and fun content, both in the classroom and online.

Save Up To $45!
Use this code to save $15 per course: Eric45

YouTube For Teachers

TEC-968N – Three 900-Level Semester Units

YouTube is a powerhouse in the digital world and this course will cover how you can apply that same level of power into your instruction. We’ll begin at the very beginning on how to discover and share content that is already online, then move on to how you can create your own content, and then easily make it look professionally polished for all viewers.

All of YouTube’s powerful, yet easy-to-implement tools will be covered, providing you with the knowledge to teach like a pro and effectively communicate video content with your students, whether it is an existing video, something you created, or even a multi-cam live stream.

Learn how to harness and apply this free powerful instructional tool to supplement your student’s lessons in the classroom, virtually, or both.

Sample Lesson From The Course

Save Up To $45!
Use this code to save $15 per course: Eric45

iMovie For Macs, iPads and iPhones

TECH-914 – Three 900-Level Semester Units

iMovie is Apple’s free video editing program for Macs, iPads and iPhones. It is very easy to learn and integrates very well with all Apple devices, yet also has many advanced features for easily creating captivating video content for educational and personal use.

No previous experience is required for this course. Students will intuitively proceed through each lesson, creating appealing and engaging video content that can be used in their instruction the same day. Methods for sharing videos in almost any forum/format will also be discussed.

Students will need a Macintosh computer for the course so we can explore iMovie’s features, but we will also cover how you can use iMovie on iOS devices such as iPads.

Sample Lesson From The Course

Discover how you can use the Apple hardware you already use daily to create, educate, communicate and inform, all while having fun and maximizing your creativity.

- Three graduate-level semester credits from Fresno Pacific University.
- 100% online.
- Neither previous academic coursework nor work experience is required.
- The textbook is inexpensive, especially used copies.

Save Up To $45!
Use this code to save $15 per course: Eric45

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3D Printing For Teachers

STEM-909 – Three 900-Level Semester Units

The Good News: Your school district purchased a 3D printer for your classroom. The Bad News: Training wasn’t included. 3D printing technology has great potential in educational environments as course subjects can be brought to life. This equips the students with practical (and very valuable) real-life experience.

To the greatest degree possible, we’ll use free/open-source programs that run on multiple systems without making compromises. This will help maximize availability for you and your students, whether at school or at home. An inexpensive guidebook is recommended, and the apps/software are free. This class can be completed without access to a 3D printer and we’ll explore methods to help you teach 3D printing to your students the same way. The syllabus describes the journey but know that there will be ample opportunity to adapt lessons that fit what you teach and the hardware you have available.

Students will also have the option to adapt many of the assignments for use in their own classroom. Forum discussions throughout the course will allow the students to share creative and effective classroom uses of digital imaging.

Three graduate-level semester credits from Fresno Pacific University.
100% online.
Uses completely free, powerful software.
No textbook is required, everything is included in the course.
Neither previous academic coursework nor work experience is required.

Save Up To $45!
Use this code to save $15 per course: Eric45

Informational Video

Coming Soon!

Sample Screencast From The Course

Teaching With Tinkercad

STEM-910 – Three 900-Level Semester Units

Tinkercad is an amazingly easy-to-use, powerful program for creating 3D digital designs that are ready to be 3D printed, incorporated into projects or solve design challenges. This FREE collection of online software tools help people all over the world think, create, make and Tinker! For teachers, it integrates easily with Google/Tinkercad Classroom and is 100% cloud-based, meaning it will operate on any device that can run a web browser, including Chromebooks and iPads.

From the moment you open its welcoming interface, Tinkercad will draw you into the world of 3D modeling one basic shape at a time. All of the instruction is online, there are no extra materials to purchase. Students of all ages love Tinkercad. Discover and learn you can energize your instruction with Tinkercad.

Three graduate-level semester credits from Fresno Pacific University.
100% online.
Uses completely free, powerful software.
No textbook is required, everything is included in the course.
It can be taken on any device with an Internet connection and a mouse!
Neither previous academic coursework nor work experience is required.

Save Up To $45!
Use this code to save $15 per course: Eric45

Informational Video

Coming Soon!

Sample Screencast From The Course

Student Reviews For Eric

When a student completes one of my classes, they get the opportunity to submit a rating and thoughts on their course experience.

All of these reviews are unmoderated, so if someone really wants to let me have it, you’d see it. That hasn’t happened yet, much to the disbelief of the lovely Mrs. Westland.

Here are direct links to my course review pages.

SketchUp, STEM-903

Photo Editing With GIMP, TEC-997

Photography For Teachers, TEC-998

Online Photo Editing For Chromebooks, TECH-908

Video Editing: HitFilm Express, TECH-900

3D PRINTING FOR TEACHERS

STEM – 910 Teaching With Tinkercad

TECH -914 iMovie For Macs, iPads and iPhones

About Fresno Pacific University

Fresno Pacific University is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and is authorized to offer independent study graduate-level courses through the Office of Continuing Education. These open-enrollment courses serve teachers and administrators across the country and beyond with relevant and beneficial courses of study. The primary goal is to meet the needs of school districts and provide courses that will strengthen the teachers, the school district, and the students they serve.

Online Photo Editing for Chromebooks

TECH-908 – Three 900-Level Semester Units

Learn to create and edit digital images with powerful web-based applications on devices like Chromebooks and iPads/Android tablets. No experience is needed.

With schools issuing students devices like Chromebooks and tablets for school/home use, running powerful programs like Photoshop and GIMP are not possible. However, most of the same editing functions can be accomplished with Autodesk Pixlr, a free online photo editor that runs on any Internet-connected device. Pixlr Editor can be used on any device with a web browser, making it perfect for teaching communities with multiple platforms.

All of the lessons are self-paced and include a wide assortment of instructor-created video tutorials to help assist learners of any experience level find success in creating and editing images that they can use with their students.

- Three graduate-level semester credits from Fresno Pacific University.
- 100% online.
- The textbook is optional, everything else is provided.
- Neither previous academic coursework nor work experience is required.

Save Up To $45!
Use this code to save $15 per course: Eric45

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Video Editing: HitFilm Express

TECH-900 – Three 900-Level Semester Units

Video Editing: HitFilm Express is a class that will teach the creation of original video content that you can incorporate into your instruction. Participants will quickly discover how easy it is to record and edit video content that their students will find engaging and exciting, whether included in tutorials, presentations, or lesson enhancements.

In this course, you will learn to use a variety of free/open-source media editors, which run on Macs, Windows and Linux desktops. Our main workhorse will be DaVinci Resolve, a full-featured, professional-grade video editor that offers great basics with plenty of room to grow! Being free/open-source, both you and your students will be able to use it at both school and home!

All of the lessons are self-paced and include a wide assortment of instructor-created video tutorials to help assist learners of any experience level find success in creating videos that they can use in their classroom the very next day.

Some of the topics that will be covered in this class are:

Video editing.
Screencasting.
Audio editing.
Video format conversion.
Professional slideshows.
Transitions.
Publishing your video projects.
And more!

Three graduate-level semester credits from Fresno Pacific University.
100% online.
Uses completely free, powerful, open-source software.
The textbook is optional, everything else is provided.
Neither previous academic coursework nor work experience is required.

Save Up To $45!
Use this code to save $15 per course: Eric45

Informational Video

Sample Screencast From The Course

Photo Editing With GIMP

TEC-997 – Three 900-Level Semester Units

Imagine a web page, textbook or presentation without images. Digital imagery surrounds our modern lives; from the phones we carry or the almost infinite number of images available online, digital images help us to communicate, instruct and amplify what words alone cannot achieve. In this course, students will learn to take any existing image and modify/improve it to help facilitate their instruction and how sharing these skills can help students to do the same.

During this class, we will focus on achieving our goals with the software package GIMP (The GNU Image Manipulation Program). GIMP is an open-source (free, and always will be) program that runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux computers and accomplishes most of what can be done with Photoshop, and in some ways more! Even if your school district provides Photoshop at school, you and your students may not have a copy at home due primarily to its high cost.

Chromebooks now number about half of the available computers for students in the American classroom, so this class will provide additional support and instruction on how many of the same skills and educational approaches can be completed using the Chromebook version of GIMP and Autodesk’s Pixlr.

Students will explore both the technical aspects of image manipulation, as well as the educational values and applications in the classroom. They will become familiar with digital imaging skills by watching video screencast demonstrations created by the instructor and completing structured assignments as well as open-ended assignments and projects. The recommended textbook will be a valuable tool for work during the course and a fantastic resource to help students advance their skills long after this course is completed.

Some of the topics that will be covered in this class are:

Digital imaging basics such as size, resolution, file type and properties.
Acquiring digital images from multiple sources, including scanning.
Modifying images for improvement.
Combining multiple images when creating montages and collages.
Working with text in digital images.
Creating web-ready graphics.

Three graduate-level semester credits from Fresno Pacific University.
100% online.
Uses completely free, powerful, open-source software.
The textbook is optional, everything else is provided.
Neither previous academic coursework nor work experience is required.

Save Up To $45!
Use this code to save $15 per course: Eric45

Informational Video

Sample Screencast From The Course

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