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This article focuses on the use, potential benefits, and best practices of interactive visual media in online education and remote learning. We will discuss: What are the main arguments for interactive visual media in online learning? What are some examples and best practices for creating visual learning materials for students? How can students use interactive visual media for documenting and sharing their learning?

Interactive images, videos, and virtual tours can support online learning by providing an alternative to text-based communication. Here are three arguments for why this is the case.

Humans remember pictures better than words (the “picture superiority effect”)

As a teacher or school staff member, there are things you can do in the battle against online bullying. Support: Provide the person being bullied with support and reassurance. Tell them that they did the right thing by telling. Encourage the child to get help from parents, the school counsellor, principal or teachers. Ensure they know that there is support there for them Evidence: Help the child keep relevant evidence for investigations. This can be done by taking screenshots or printing web pages. Do not allow the deletion of phone messages Inform: Give the child advice for making sure it does not happen again. This can include changing passwords, contact details, blocking profiles on social networking sites or reporting abuse online No Retaliation: Ensure that the young person does not retaliate or reply to the messages Privacy: Encourage the child to keep personal information private on the internet Investigation: The cyberbullying claim needs to be investigated fully. If the perpetrator is known, ask them to remove offending remarks or posts. All records should be kept as part of the investigation. Report: Abuse on social networking sites or through text messaging needs to be reported to the websites and mobile phone service providers Guidelines: Your school will have a number of policy documents which you can refer to. These include the Acceptable Use Policy, Anti-bullying policies and Behaviour and Disciplinary Policies

Vocaroo is a free service that allows users to create audio recordings without the need to install any software. You don't even have to create an account to use Vocaroo. All you need to provide is a microphone. I used the microphone built into my MacBook to make the recording below. To create a recording just go to Vocaroo.com, click record, grant Voca

roo access to your mic, and start talking. After completing your recording, Vocaroo gives you the choice to publish it or to scrap it and try again. Vocaroo provides the option to embed the recording anywhere.

Some of the most productive parts of the class were the weekly take-home assignments that asked the students to post comments on their social networking sites while using connected viewing technology

While the students learned a lot from the class assignments, they were initially anxious about letting an instructor into their social network. I felt it was necessary to preserve the anonymity of the students for the study so I wanted to keep their comments about the connected viewing private.

Unfortunately, the only way to ensure this anonymity was to create a “secret” Facebook group. “Secret” Facebook groups are one of three categories of groups that allow members of the social network to collaborate on a project. Though this setting allows all posts and members to remain confidential it also required me, as the creator of the “secret” Facebook group, to “friend” all of my students so that I could then add them to the group.

have used Twitter to facilitate class discussion and to gauge and deepen students’ interest and level of understanding.

raising awareness of personal branding. “I think it’s really important for students to think about the content of their accounts and the pictures they use,” which form part of a lasting “digital footprint,” she says. Faculty members often must remind students of the permanence of the Internet and its long-term effect on their professional image.

Skype in the classroom Skype in the classroom, launched in March 2011, is a website especially designed for educational purposes. It is a platform where teachers and students can disseminate information about their classes, share educational resources, and find partners to start classroom projects.

Language teachers and learners may find the “Languages” category especially useful because they can search for Skype language lessons that meet their needs (see Figure 4 for some examples of Skype language lessons). These lessons provide opportunities for learning another language or practicing language via language exchanges.

Language teachers and learners can enroll in any language lesson according to their needs and interests

Cell Phones Within the Classroom

But “being safe” shouldn’t mean missing out on a key opportunity to engage the community.

Facebook is an excellent opportunity for a school to connect with families and share information rapidly. If a school is consistent in keeping the information updated and accurate, students and families will likely come to rely on the Facebook Page as a resource to find information about what’s going on at the school.

Remember to give students guidelines on ways they can respond. For example, they should not just say that they agree with what a certain student said. They should be specific and say what they agree with and why. Use specific examples in class of good posts and not-so-good posts.

talk to the other teachers in your school and try to agree on one or two social networking tools you will all use

however, for teachers to regularly monitor the networks, removing inappropriate posts and keeping a dialog open with students about appropriate use of the school social network.

Many professors and higher-education leaders are struggling to strike a balance between their personal and professional lives when using online social media, a realm that encourages widespread sharing of thoughts and opinions. Often that means creating multiple accounts, one for each of the hats they wear. Some professors use Facebook with friends and family, reserving Twitter for professional observations, or vice versa.

There may be a benefit to that kind of sharing. Ms. Johnson recently conducted a survey of 120 students at the college about what they thought of a series of Twitter feeds run by professors. The majority of students found the professors who mixed in personal details with their down-to-business tweets more credible—rating them higher on measures of competence, trustworthiness, and caring. Her theory: Students want to end the semester with a connection to their professors, not just a head full of facts.

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