EdTechWalden

Google Sites are, first and foremost, versatile. Sites can be created for a variety of purposes, and Google has templates to make creation easy. Once a site is created using a template, it can be completely edited and personalized to fit the needs of the user. One way that Google Sites can be used for authentic assessment is to create portfolios. Since templates allow the user to customize their site, the teacher can create a template for the portfolio that each student could adapt to their own taste. Portfolios created using Google Sites can promote generative processing by encouraging students to organize the information they learned and integrate the new content with prior knowledge as they create authentic products. Google Sites is better than other sites for portfolio creation because it is user friendly and can be used with Google Apps for Education.

I created this 2 minute tutorial for building a wall in wallwisher at wallwisher.com.

Durff's Presentation Wiki

Starter Sheets for making templates for your web resources. Many samples are included here.

Interactive comic site explains copyright policies

The multimedia application on this website adequately addresses the learner centered approach in its design. It does so in a number of ways, in particular in how it allows the learner to manipulate the multimedia application and then represents the outcome of that manipulation in the form of a cartoon video. Mayer held that the brain possesses dual channels, an auditory and visual processor, and each processes the information separately, later merging these two experiences together to create knowledge (Mayer, 2009, p. 64). This multimedia site works on both aspects of knowledge building in that it includes both and auditory and visual graphics. However, once the introduction is completed the auditory component does not contain any content related information so the user can chose to mute the sound (Mayer, 2009, p. 64). The strength of this multimedia is that it allows the user to manipulate the video itself. For example, students chose a gas, and then select its level in the atmosphere (high-medium-low). From there, the multimedia video plays and shows them in about a thirty second video what would happen on earth in an accelerated time progression in order for students to see the impact the gases have on the atmosphere. However, it is technology centered as well because it includes lots of different graphic elements within the same application, some that can be directly manipulated by the user and others that cannot.

This multimedia application is definitely learner centered. First, it is structured so that there is a repetitive vocabulary so that the learner can tune in and follow along the sequence of the video, which Mayer argues is important to the process of active learning (p. 71). It is also structured to help the learner organize the information. In this case, it is not as Mayer described his example as learners visualizing cause and effect relationships (p. 71). Rather it is structured so that you have a bland graphic, a man talking, explaining the information which he then repeats essentially as the screen shifts to show a visual of what he is describing. This allows for the third process of Mayer's active learning, integration, to occur because the auditory and visual channels coincide so that the brain has time to merge the two separate sources of input into a single knowledge node (pp. 64, 71).

This site offers a checklist for teachers who are new to project based learning or are evaluating their own projects.

The purpose of this site is to create checklists for multimedia projects, oral presentations, written reports, and science projects. The checklists allow students to stay on track and take responsibility for their learning. This site has templates for writing, multimedia, science, and oral presentations. The site allows users to create their own items or use items the website provides for checklists. Each page has specific instructions and allows for the user to save their created checklist. It is a very user friendly site for simple creation of a variety of checklists.

This website allows you to get a basic tour of the new Blackboard environment (Blackboard Learn) through a tour that includes a narrated screen cast video. It is not interacted, but it is sufficiently detailed to give a thorough overview. It is better than most tours at their because it provides an introduction with the newest Blackboard, whose navigation as a instructor is significantly different from prior versions.

This is a great online alternative to Power Point. It allows you to create power point style presentations that can be shared via a url or downloaded. It is a great alternative first, because its free and still offers most of the common options used in Power Point. Being able to share it via url, and allow the users to download it as an html.

Very easy to use site for creating online, collaborative presentations (a la PowerPoint). The site offers very little in terms of how-to information, and it is primarily at the generative level of cognitive processing, focusing on creating and applying the tool. However, it is a very simple interface, much like PowerPoint stripped down to the basics. Its advantages are ease-of-use, share-ability, privacy options, and the ability to download presentations.

Description: This site requires users to register in order to save and access presentations. It is simple and easy to use. Presentations can be accessed from any computer without downloading special plug-ins. Explanation: This is a good tool for users to create online presentations for sharing or accessing from anywhere. It is preferred to other sites because it is easy to use and free.

This website from UNC has a user test for Blackboard. It includes a discussion forum test, an upload file test, and a quiz test. It is well organized in that you have to pass the first test to get a password to complete the second, and then the second to complete the third. The benefit is that it is open to anyone (you get a universal login) and it is in the real platform, so it is authentic.

Interactive online custom rubric generator. Ideal for assessing essential learning. Explanation of choice: Free, and chosen because it is part of the course management system, rcampus, which is ideal for use with presentations and online learning.

Virtual Dub http://www.virtualdub.org/ Virtual Dub is a free downloadable online movie editing software for PC users that allows the manipulation and revision of avi files, jpeg and bmp files, and mp3 files. It is a website that allows you to quickly and easily design short videos to present to students or to create personal slideshows set to music. Either way Virtual Dub provides an opportunity to educators to take presentations past PowerPoint and to the next level of engaging video presentations. For the students of today we know and understand the importance of presenting our learners with the fast paced and visually stimulating graphics that they have been raised with. I chose to incorporate Virtual Dub because it is a free resource that is very effective that produces high quality presentations with an easy to use format. Another feature of Virtual Dub that I really appreciate and use frequently is the batch operation feature. This feature allows me to upload many photos or files all at once. Virtual Dub also allows users to edit their photos with advanced filters such as blur reduction, sharpen, emboss and many other features giving the final presentation a more clean cut and professional look.