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An interesting piece on effective use of technology by instructors from the students' perspective.

Edpuzzle is a Web-based application that allows instructors (and students) to upload videos or use pre-existing streaming videos from YouTube or Vimeo and overlay test/assessment items to create a more interactive lesson. Instructors can stop videos at anytime and present assessment items to check for understanding. Videos become lessons and engaging presentations. Great for flipped classrooms...............and it's free!

Abstract: As more and more instructors enter the world of online teaching and learning, a body of knowledge is emerging around the challenge of facilitating online interaction and fostering online collaboration. This paper draws from the literature on asynchronous learning and the authors' own experiences with online discussion and collaborative online projects. We identify a variety of techniques for focusing student dialogue, fostering an online learning community, and promoting successful collaboration. Instructors who are teaching wholly online courses or simply integrating online components into face-to-face classes will benefit from the observations and discussion.

This article describes the use of social media as a bridge between students, teachers, and the online course. Many students are currently using social media such as Facebook and Twitter. The challenge for instructors is to learn how to leverage that as as an opportunity to create value for the student, the course, and for the instructor. The growing trend of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is commonplace among many campuses and it is now becoming common for institutions to require students to supply their own technology tools.

Helpful article detailing the reasons that instructor feedback is critical in online classes, along with strategies for how to provide feedback effectively.

Comprehensive list with a brief description of how each tool can help to enhance learning through interaction and collaboration

This is a very good list.

Useful information for instructors

Recognizing the grave consequences for individual opportunity and more generally for our economy and society, the Carnegie Statway ™and Quantway ™Networked Improvement Communities have embraced an audacious goal-to increase from 5 percent to 50 percent the percentage of students who achieve college math credit within one year of continuous enrollment. As a result of the Carnegie Advancement for Teaching (CAT) work, my college will undergo a pilot program for Fall 2012 where I will be the instructor to achieve college math credit within one year on continuous enrollment. The Pathways Blog provides information about Carnegie's work to create pathways for student success in developmental education in community colleges and makes connections between Carnegie's work and that of others concerned with student struggle. Even though I follow the pathways blog, there are several more blogs from the foundation and are listed blow:

Another blog from the Carnegie Foundation. I think that this site is a must read and bookmark for any instructor who is interested in the triple aims of educational improvement: - improving education for all students - effective in advancing learning - and efficient in its use of resources.

One potential casualty when courses move online - or even when face-to-face courses incorporate web-based technologies - is collaboration. Many instructors fear they will lose opportunities to interact with their students - and that their students will lose the ability to interact with one another.

Strategies for using blogs as a writing tool in the classroom.

A description of Diigo

This is a great resource for the instructor and to share with students on how to use diigo.

This website has a great list of top tech tools for formative assessments. Although they are primarily for k-12 teachers, there are many ways to incorporate into a post secondary course such as increase the complexity of questions or have the students write their own assessments. Most of these are free and and are easy to use and teach. Teachers can use these tech tools for easy and interactive formative assessments.College instructors can use these tools to measure the students' understanding of the material and assess if review or re-teaching is necessary. Small assignments can be indicators for instructors and assist in "taking the pulse" of the class.

From this article: Presence is the most important best practice for an online course (Boettcher & Conrad, 2010, p. 53) Research has shown that an important component in students 'performance in and satisfaction with their online course is the active participation of the instructor within their course (Picciano, 2002; Rovai, 2002; Swan & Shih, 2005). ***Because online presence is such a pivotal part of our role as facilitators, social media certainly assists us in actively participating in each course.

Results from one survey suggest online instructors are more likely than on-campus instructors to use social media for both personal and professional reasons. In his University of Hawaii online course, Introduction to e-Learning, associate professor Michael Menchaca requires his students to introduce themselves to each other by creating 15-second videos on Instagram.

An interesting, if somewhat outdated, article about how one instructor uses Twitter in his classroom, even as he is teaching (the horror!)

Excellent article from Inside Higher Ed! What is better than peer advice!!

I hear complaints about the poor quality of student writing today as often as I read stories about the Internet causing the end of higher education as we know it (i.e., frequently). When those complaints come in the form of actual conversations with peers, instead of in print, I feel myself immediately put on the defensive.

Thanks for this post Heather. I liked that the instructor recognized that despite some challenges with using a new technique to promote his students' writing skills the energy that was expressed by his students far outweighed the "mess" that he dealt with the first time trying something new.

The lack of learning transfer is a common mantra in higher education. It's a good article for reflection. Although I've been a proponent of service learning, at the same time, I wasn't sure how students could or if they would transfer their experiences to the academic component. Now, I need to rethink my position on service learning and its impact on connected learning

This abstract written by an engineering professor at Cal Poly Engineering offers research and support for a new trend in education called, "the Inside-Out Classroom." The abstract describes how the inside out classroom is a win-win-win strategy for teaching with technology. Instructors create "chunks" of core content in a digital, lecture-capture format. These resources are then stored online for students. These are short videos that students watch before attending class sessions. Students study core content for a course online on their own, and then complete assignments during in-class sessions.