As a recent invitee to Google Wave, I am still experimenting and sampling this new resource [with the help of The Complete Guide to Google Wave]. As more people receive invites and the beta version of Google Wave develops, educators will get involved and as they find value and potential for their profession.
When asked this question in #eci831 last week, the first story teller I connected to as a child was Robert Munsch. I fell in love with almost all his books, especially The Paper Bag Princess, Love You Forever & I Have To Go. These books are great read aloud and audio books, since most stories were created as an oral tradition in during Robert Munsch’s daycare working days. I was fortunate to meet Munsch during my 2nd year of undergrad when he visited my Children’s Literature class at the University of Guelph. Although the audience was older than his usual reading groups, Robert was still able to keep these “kids” on the edge of their seat.
Alan Levine shared some interesting & useful resources for using new media for Digital Storytelling. In both his presentation (you may need to download Cooliris to view in Firefox or Safari) and 50 Way Wiki there are numerous tools to explore for effective online storytelling.
Here are a few examples of digital stories we shared & discussed:
With 2.5 online graduate courses, it’s easy to be consumed with everything digital this semester. In thinking about technology and how to best “keep up” with everything happening online, I stumbled upon a great video from Alan Levine (who will be leading a session in the EC&I 831 course), that reminds educational technology users to:
Establish a network of colleagues & maintain these connections with online social tools, e.g. e-mails, RSS, blogs, Twitter, etc
Tap into a sense of play & willingness to experiment.
Don’t be afraid to continue to grow & learn new things.
Some college students may be introduced to instructors & courses that ENCOURAGE microblogging with Twitter.
Twitter is becoming a fast buzz in both media and celebrity circles, however I think that more teachers are beginning to realize the power this social media tool for learning.
build a learning community inside & beyond the classroom
For those faculty/instructors who might consider tweeting in class, I might recommend that you start up your own Twitter account and play with it. Also, be sure to read up about strategies &tools that to optimize learning with Twitter.
I personally like TweetDeck (an Adobe Air-based app) to organize & categorize my tweets. I can clearly see my messages, replies and content areas I am interested in at a quick glance. Some categories I use for tweets include: Higher Ed, Web Tools, Career Research, T.O., Students, etc.
Here’s a quick tutorial to learn more about TweetDeck:
Are YOU twittering with your students? If so, please share!
For many educators, the use of multi-media is a regular function in the classroom.
I went to an excellent workshop hosted by Carolyn Guertin from the eCreative Lab @ UTA about Moving Teaching Online: Screencasting. This is one of many in their digital workshop series they offer. It was a great (free) workshop for faculty & staff to gain more knowledge about slide & screen casting to best support educational practices.
The wealth of media resources available online is overwhelming. If your objective is to enhance instruction and learning, here are a few tools I use, and a couple new ones I have just begun to play with:
Screen Capture tools
SnagIt – screen grab tool for Window users; purchase required (test out the 30-day trial version)
Grab – a tool included in Mac computers to get screen shots/images
Jing – great for screen capture for image or video for any platform, able to do voice-overs & it’s FREE!
Slide Casting
SlideShare – online community forum to share slides (& audio) with students and others; able to match audio recording with slide content easily [I use this website the most.]
Google Docs or Zoho – great free online tools, but will often have to convert presentations to PPT format for slide casting
Keynote – need to convert to PPT format to use on slideshare
Audio
Audacity – get a solid microphone with headset & start recording and editing tracks for your presentation
PodcastPeople – record your audio & get a link to an mp3; downside: there is no post-production editing feature
GarageBand – Mac users can get this free application to record & edit audio tracks
Screen Casting
Camtasia Studio – record, edit & share on screen activity; costs $
Camstudio – FREE streaming video software for screen capture
Captivate by Adobe – for those who are serious about their online learning and visual screen capture; purchase required (pricey even with education discounts, but worth it if used often)
Windows Media Maker – able to create videos for the screen cast; not part of the new Vista package (down grade OS)
Snapz Pro X - high quality imaging; able to use video, images and save the in a smaller format; time lapse editing, audio voice-over and great editing options
iShowU – records audio & video; tagline = “when words aren’t enough”
Video Content Storage Online
YouTube EDU – YouTube videos posted for learning; great for archiving teaching material for your students
CaptionTube – new feature from YouTube that allows for adding captions via a sophisticated video caption editor – this means that the text transcription sits beside the video
Recommendation: use institutional web portal or closed site if you are using any copyrighted material or content
There are a few online tools that best support the mind-mapping approach for learning. Lifehacker.com recently reviewed the Five Best Mind-Mapping Applications for online mapping action. These tools are FREE & very user-friendly.
These resources are quite useful for both learning and teaching. There are plenty of online mind-mapping resources to support visual learners which makes mapping information fun!
Here you will find a collection of technologies, tools and learning trends emerging in education. There are a many links, bookmarks and collaborations to provide any educator with ideas on their technology projects for learning. I especially enjoy Jane’s Pick of the Day, which is updated consistently in her blog. This website is divided into two main elements:
The best part of this resource is Hart’s interest in collaboration for learning technologies. She wants recommendations from YOU for the Top Tools of 2009. This database of information is regularily updated and contributions come from various educators using technology.
Just when you think you are savvy to the ways of the web… a new tool or application is added.
Every day a new web 2.0 tool is designed & released online. For those of you interested in staying “in the know” with the most recent tools and applications, be sure to check out the Go2Web 2.0 – The Complete Directory of Web 2.0. As of Sunday, February 08, 2009 there are 2796 logos..and counting. The 2.0 story never ends.
