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I am moving toward more tech and eventually considering textbook-free classes. Step one is trying a semester with Aplia, a text-linked software program that will allow me to entirely design the course using the online version of the text I selected for my students, complete with a grade book and assignment records for each student. I am excited to start using such a technology-intensive approach for my classes.

A great article on how to promote critical thinking through discussion question design and collaboration.

A thought-provoking video-clip on how students feel about their education experience

I have seen this video before and had a lot of thought provoking discussions with colleagues!

... including Edmodo, Google Hangouts, LinkedIn and more ...

Millennials live and breathe on social media, so teachers are learning how to incorporate the medium into the classroom successfully. In doing so, teachers not only encourage students to engage actively in the material, but they also provide online communities for students that might not exist for them in real life.

A description of Diigo

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

Sustained, high-quality student participation usually doesn't happen on its own in the online learning environment. The instructor needs to model participation, create assignments that encourage it, and foster an environment that supports it. Here are some ways that I promote student participation in my online courses.

This blog has followed social gaming juggernaut Zynga's progress for a couple years now. One of its most popular gaming apps is FarmVille, which runs on Facebook and touts an estimated 70 million players, making it one of, if not the, most popular games ever. Testaments to the game's popularity abound. I opted to post this here as we are debating the use of Web 2.0 tools in education. Farmville dominated Facebook games for a number of years, and educators made use of this trend to enhance their teaching. Though it has not been developed for educational purposes, I know even teachers of business studies who used it in their classes with students 13+ of age. This example should encourage us to make use of what is trending and popular with our students to our advantage!

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.

This can be used as an ice breaker (helps to get get your course off to a great start, build community and get students focused on being successful). If feasible, break students into small groups and have them pick a quotation that would be a good "motto" for the course.

This course site and presentation will illustrate how the "Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education" (Chickering and Gamson, 1991) can be supported using the features of Blackboard Learn. Several online course design rubrics will also guide our showcase of quality instructional design options related to course structure, navigation, activities, assignments (individual and group), and communication. "Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education" (Chickering and Gamson, 1991), states a quality teaching and learning environment is one that: (1) Encourages contact between students and faculty, (2) Develops reciprocity and cooperation among students, (3) Encourages active learning, (4) Gives prompt feedback, (5) Emphasizes time on task, (6) Communicates high expectations, and (7) Respects diverse talents and ways of learning.

The image used in this post is of a small group of students sitting in a room together, (seemingly) energetically talking about the issues at hand. This is an example of synchronous discussion-the students are in the same room, ostensibly discussing the same topic (the caption says they are "debating search engine liability," which sounds really interesting to me, at least).

Here is some good information on student engagement using Camtasia.

For any classroom this could work to engage with content.

CourseSites by Blackboard is a free learning management system for K12 and Higher Ed Instructors enabling blended & eLearning. I have used this tool a few times before. This is great because it is exactly like BlackBoard. With CourseSites you can do trial and error, and it's ok because students will not see it. Also, CourseSites allow you to add students, if you do not have BlackBoard or any other online learning site that your campus offers.

Video lessons are one of the primary technology tools used to deliver content in blended/flipped classrooms. The learning happens at home and when students are in class, they participate in active-learning activities or group work. Great to try out with a few lessons in f2f classes as well. It greatly increases student engagement and participation.

Thanks for sharing. This was a nice contrast to a previous article which focused on no video use in a flipped environment.

Below is a great idea from a science teacher who posted this on an NSTA listserv. This is a creative idea to promote student learning of basic foundation knowledge in an introductory level course. This technique promotes "students interacting, thinking, creating, communicating, and applying content/subject knowledge"!

TT1921: (M Oyeleye) I am always researching for ways to improve my teaching, learning and technology know-how. I am sharing this link as it has the following apps information within: 1. Apps for teaching students how to present, create and code 2. Apps for everyday classroom needs 3. Apps for collaborating on school projects 4. Apps for communicating with students and their families Enjoy!