Regardless of the tool or set of tools that you use, be sure your communication plan is clear to your students. Online communication does have rules, just like face-to-face communication. Set guidelines as well as expectations, and use only those tools that you’ve evaluated and which clearly enhance your teaching and student learning.
I'm happy to see this point emphasized yet again. Just because a tool is new and shiny doesn't mean it will help your students. Careful planning and a sound pedagogical rationale will, though.
An article by Julie Meloni, published on the Chronicle of Higher Education's (now defunct) "ProfHacker" blog. Meloni offers a quick overview of the distinction between synchronous and asynchronous communication, and suggests ways to make use of both in the classroom.
Unfortunately, this article has been removed. But I like Jennifer's comment: "Just because a tool is new and shiny doesn't mean it will help your students. Careful planning and a sound pedagogical rationale will, though."
OK, this is going to be really useful if you've got a smart phone or tablet with a camera!! Snap and you've got a PDF - of a multi-page article, a receipt, a sketch on a napkin, business cards, etc.
Better yet - register for the full app with a .edu email - and it's free!
You might want to print off the Power Searching quick sheet before starting with this course. "Gaming to learn" - this course is made up of challenges along with tips and tricks and keeping track of how you found things. A good learning challenge!
Wow, this just seems like an awesome idea. I've been toying with the idea of getting an iPad, just for fun, and this makes me want to get one and play around with it before the next school year starts.
I really like this idea! The teacher can give a much more detailed commentary on the assessment and with that the student may come away with a better understanding of necessary improvements.
This is a great idea and I like that there are other gadgets that can be used in conjunction. However I assume this would only be useful if you are a f2f teacher. In Blackboard we have wimba voice authoring which allows us to give audio feedback. I use this tool a lot and I feel that those who actually listen to my feedback profit from it.
IAnnotate (Mac and Android), and a number of other apps for tablet or laptop can help you digitize your grading routine. This article talks about how iAnnotate is used with DropBox for grading, but be sure to read the comments for other ideas and apps, too.
Still not sure about the relationship of all of these social networking tools to FERPA. Can you require students to post work on a site not run by the school ... and if so, what happens if there is a security compromise? These are all tools that I would use personally, but am uncomfortable advocating their use to a wider audience without explicit permission ... which is an incredibly time consuming process.
"they" would say no without even reading/listening to my reasons. Better to ask forgiveness than permission but it may not be worth your job and it's definitely not worth the safety of students.
From this blog post:
"One Twitter topic that we've addressed often is how best to maintain an archive of Tweets, whether your own or those associated with a particular hashtag. In two different posts, Mark introduced readers to what is, arguably, the best free solution for this: Martin Hawksey's TAGS, "a free Google Sheet template which lets you setup and run automated collection of search results from Twitter."
Well, now Hawksey has created a user-friendly site for this tool, complete with a help section and support forums.
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This doesn't really apply to language level exams, but for those of you who are interested in the MOOC (Massive Online Open Course) and how to get beyond Bloom's level 1 in testing, this article has an interesting idea for multiple choice tests.
thanks for the article link, Marlene. I am collecting articles/info about assessment and testing for a board I have going on Pinterest and for a Diigo group I have set up for my students here at my school in Chicago. It's a private group, but I am happy to invite you in if you are interested.
At the college where I teach, professors have the unique opportunity every May to develop a course outside of their typical curriculum. Teachers get to explore their interests in new courses as diverse as "The Chemistry of Cooking" and "Writing a Film Short."