Group items tagged

List of tools to use to gather feedback in class. These tools serve as alternatives to using Clickers.

List of the most popular tech tools for education in 2012. It is interesting to see how some tools have dropped in the past year and how others have climbed. There are also some tools that I have never used before - worth checking out!

"This page features innovative uses of online collaboration tools (OCTs) for teaching and course management. You can browse the full list or use the search criteria to find the examples most relevant to you. Click on any title for a full description or use the Links to watch short videos of faculty describing their teaching strategies and see examples. For a summary of practical recommendations for effectively implementing OCTs in one's teaching, see CRLT's Occasional Paper No. 31: Teaching in the Cloud: Leveraging Online Collaboration Tools to Enhance Student Engagement."

"Social media may have started out as a fun way to connect with friends, but it has evolved to become a powerful tool for education and business. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter and tools such as Skype are connecting students to learning opportunities in new and exciting ways. Whether you teach an elementary class, a traditional college class, or at an online university, you will find inspirational ways to incorporate social media in your classroom with this list."

"Think Twitter is just a waste of time? Think again. Its organizational structure makes it an effective tool for connecting with students and others online" While this article is aimed at K-12, it also applies to higher ed.

"In this course, we will examine the tools and practices associated with networked, open, and digital scholarship. In particular we will investigate the emergent practice of scholars' use of social media and online social networks for sharing, critiquing, improving, furthering, and reflecting upon their scholarship. Recent reports indicate that social media are at an early stage of adoption in academia, even though mindful participation in digital spaces is a significant skill for today's academic and knowledge worker. Participants will study scholarly presence online. They will examine how particular tools and practices may enhance the impact and reach of scholarship, and will explore the challenges and tensions associated with emerging forms of scholarship. By gaining an understanding of modern forms of scholarship, participants will be better equipped to use digital technologies and networked practices in their own work. This course will be of immediate relevance to doctoral students, academics, and knowledge workers. Faculty members who teach research methods courses and faculty development professionals may also find this course valuable."

"Twitter is an online social networking tool in which users post 140 character updates of what is going on in their lives along with links to things they think are interesting, funny, or useful to their followers ("following" being essentially what "friending" is on other sites). People use twitter in many ways, some as a newsfeed by following prominent people or networks, some as a pseudo-chatroom by limiting their followers and whom they follow to close friends and family, and some as a microblog for updating people about the work they are doing and their personal lives."

"'Have you ever written a blog post on strategies, tools or frameworks that a teacher can use to reflect on their past year of teaching?' My immediate response: ' Reflection has to happen all the way along. It's too late at the end of the year.' But here are some questions to ask yourself, as you look back, look within and look forward…"

There are many gems in this brief piece, including the benefits of giving faculty the chance to fail, as well as a bit of an introduction to the tools Hypothes.is and Scalar.

"Whether you're a faculty member interested in using digital tools, a graduate student looking for innovative ways to communicate your research, or an undergraduate student who just wants to learn more, you're welcome to stop in to the DRC anytime. The DRC offers industry standard hardware and software, rooms for you, your class, or your research assistants, support for your project or grant application, and information about new media classes available at the U of S. One of the core principles of the digital humanities is collaboration, so come find out how we can work together to meet your goals. "

This is an interesting post on using Evernote as an ePortfolio tool. It's written by a K-12 educator, but I think much of it could apply in higher ed. Students in my educational technology course used Blogger for their ePortfolios, but i can see this as an option in the future.

"Twitter is a tool that can enable ad hoc conversations and interactions among your students, in ways that you can track and foster. Your students may not all be familiar with Twitter, but its simplicity and availability, much like text messages on a phone, has a broad appeal."

The is a quick online tool to determine the "readability" of your written content. You simply paste in some text and it gives you an indication of how many years of formal education would be needed to be able to understand the reading. This tool is helpful when designing your course content. For example, if you paste in text for a first year course and get a reading level of 16 years of education on the Gunning Fog index; then you should try to state your content more simply. You don't need to "dumb down" the content, but rather re-state it.

"The Wikipedia Education Program's vision is to mobilize and empower the next generation of human-knowledge generators to contribute to Wikimedia projects. Based on the learnings from the Public Policy Initiative, a pilot program to use Wikipedia in university classrooms in the 2010-11 academic year, the Wikipedia Education Program strives to expand Wikipedia's use as a teaching tool worldwide. Professors who participate in our program assign their students to edit Wikipedia articles as part of their coursework. Students are assisted by trained Wikipedia Ambassadors, who help both in the class and on wiki. You can get a quick introduction to how the program is structured at Wikipedia Education Program/A-Z. Additional resources are available at the Education portal."

"Here are five ideas and tools for video projects that you can try with your students this year."

"Evaluating creativity can be difficult: is one evaluating process or product? Achievement or effort? Evaluating creative effort can also be more time-consuming than other forms of assessment. Researchers have developed many specific tools for assessment. This page presents only an overview of the topic." This page is just one part of a section of their Website (Iowa State University - Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching) dealing with creativity in education.

List of tools that can be used to quickly poll all of the students in your classroom. Similar functionality to Tunring Point Clickers, but can be used on any device.

"Students are going to use mobile devices and computers in the classroom, regardless of the professor's level of comfort with technology. It's best to embrace the technology and work with your educational technologist or instructional designer to determine the best tools and methodologies to enhance your course with technology and support the course objectives."

"These FAQs are designed to provide a better understanding of Creative Commons, our licenses, and our other legal and technical tools. They provide basic information, sometimes about fairly complex topics, and will often link to more detailed information."

"Rubrics offer an effective way to guide thinking and learning in any writing-intensive course."