2016 in Review

Happy New Year!

As 2016 draws to a close and 2017 begins, it is time to look back on tekhnologic and share with you not only the most successful posts and popular downloads, but also my favorite posts and resources. This year, I have brought all this information together and produced this infographic.

Top 3 Posts of 2016

How to create a countdown timer in PowerPoint was viewed 69,735 times in 2016. This is a dramatic increase from the 5,655 views it achieved in 2015. As a result, it has become the most popular post on the site. I originally wrote this post so the timers could be used for ‘Pecha Kucha’ like events or English speaking presentations.

10 more PowerPoint tips for teachers was viewed 16,412 times. This article was a follow up to 10 PowerPoint tips for teachers. It included tips for using the animation painter, saving a presentation as a PowerPoint show and creating custom slideshows. The idea was to share ways to create presentations quickly and ways that teachers could get the most of their presentations.

Tic-Tac-Toe – Setting Discussion Goals was viewed 9,645 times. This article was actually written in 2015 but it has remained so popular that I decided to create a PowerPoint template to play tic-tac-toe in the classroom. The PowerPoint template can be found in the post 10 PowerPoint Games, which was only recently published.

Top 3 Favorites of 2016

I would say my favorite post of 2016 would be my post about Nomination Cards and encouraging students to speak. Partly because it generated a lot of comments and I received a lot of positive feedback about the activity, but mostly because of the fun I had creating and using the cards.

10 PowerPoint Games has been very popular recently. The reason why I included it is as one of my favorite posts of the year was due to the work it took creating these games and bringing them all together in one post. I put this bumper pack of games together for the New Year and to thank all everyone who has supported tekhnologic over the last two years. The games included tic-tac-toe, mystery squares, battleships, jeopardy, concentration and many more.

Hieroglyphics for teachers and hieroglyphics for teachers – part 2 are also among my favorite posts because they deal with visual instruction. In 2015, I worked with video diagrams to explain activities. In 2016, I wanted to begin to elicit activity instructions through the use of easy-to-understand icons. Although this was a very popular post, it didn’t quite make it into the top 3, so I wanted to include them within my personal favorites.

Top 3 Downloads of 2016

The collection of 20 second timers that I created was downloaded 6,496 times, which makes it the most popular download of 2016. I am glad that people have found these timers useful. I was also pleased to see that the Nomination Cards were one of the top downloads of 2016.

I was really pleased with the success of the nomination cards this year. In fact, I came across a few tweets from educators around the world who had printed out their own set of cards. It isn’t often that I see photos of my resources in use. It is even rarer to see them translated into italian.

The class quiz with score counter was also a popular download this year. I have also seen adaptations of this template using really good (and original) graphics to turn it into a star wars themed quiz.

I am always happy to see the creativity and hardwork that people have put into adapting my material. If you have any pictures or adaptations you would like to share, please get in touch.

Top 3 Videos of 2016

Due to the huge popularity of ‘How to create a countdown timer in PowerPoint,’ the associated tutorials were the most watched videos of the year. For example, the tutorial explaining how to create a wheel timer was watched 26,665 times this year.

Tutorial videos that didn’t make it into top 3 included the class quiz demo, the Easter Egg Hunt demo and the Excel a Seating Plans demo.

As you can imagine, it takes time to produce a tutorial video, but what software do I use? I use PowerPoint to take video screen captures. Specifically, I use Office Mix a free add-in for PowerPoint developped by Microsoft with educators in mind.

Once I have finsihed the screen capure and I have the video in PowerPoint, I can export it as an .mp4 file and open it in video editing software to add images, text (subtitles/captions) and animations. So, if you are looking to create video demos for your class, but can’t afford expensive screen capture software, try Office Mix.

Top 3 Friends of 2016

The British Council – Teaching English Facebook page has been and continues to be the most supportive and influential friend of tekhnologic. Nomination Cards and 5 tips for lesson planning in Word were both nominated for the TeachingEnglish blog award. However, I wanted to limit this list to the websites (not social media) that have linked to my posts. Both Larry (larryferlazzo.edublogs.org) and Tim (freeenglishlessonplans.com) have mentioned tekhnologic in previous posts. Their kind mentions of tekhnologic in the past have continued to support tekhnologic throughout 2016.

I would also like to pay special mention to Svetlana Kandybovich from ELT-CATION, who has collaborated with tekhnologic on several occaisions and who has also been the inspiration for several PowerPoint games (including the Football Game and Battleships).

Sandy Millin is also a frequent commentator on the site, and a source of ideas and inspiration. This year, both Sandy and Elly Setterfield inspired me to write 5 tips for lesson planning in Word. After they shared their own lesson planning habits and tips, I wanted to shared some ideas for teachers typing their lesson plans up on a computer.

I also want to thank friends and colleagues who have shared their ideas, given me feedback and who have generally been supportive of me throughout 2016.

Top 3 Countries of 2016

This year the majority of views came from the United States of America, where tekhnologic was viewed 58,179 times. I think many of these views were associated with the countdown timers. I really appreciate the support. Thank you!

The two top countries this year were the United States of America and the United Kingdom. While I am pleased that my blog is popular in own country (the U.K.), I would like to see tekhnologic increase its popularity around the world.

So, recently I included a Google translate button. As a teacher, I fully understand that Google translate is not perfect, but there is an option to read the article in your native language. Sometimes the meaning may be lost, but the general message should be understandable.

Thank you for all your support in 2016.

My wish for 2017 is that tekhnologic will continue to grow and I hope you will all help me make that wish a reality.

Thanks for reading and happy new year!

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You may also like to read:

2015 in Review was last year’s article reflecting on the most popular posts, favorite posts and most popular downloads of 2015.

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The infographic was created with Microsoft PowerPoint 2016.

Microsoft® PowerPoint® 2016 is a copyrighted product of the Microsoft® Corporation.