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Tools I use to enhance my instruction-to engage online learners

Posted in cooltools, engage. on Thursday, July 14th, 2011 by alexandrapickett Tags: cooltools, tools

Jul 14

I use a variety of web2.0 tools external to the Moodle course management system in this course:

to enhance the presentation of course content,
to faciltitae your engagement and interaction with course material and with your classmates,
to provide you with access to course materials beyond the end of the term, and
to expose you to tools and utilities that may have potential to enhance instruction.

voicethread – an online media album of any type of media (images, documents and videos). Used in this course as an ice-breaking activity. This example uses a video of my daughter introducing me from her perspective.
diigo – social bookmarking tool. Used to bookmark, highlight, and comment upon and share references used in the course. Also used to create a dynamic link roll of resources that auto-displays latest additions to the shared class annotated bibliography of resources currated by the course participants – that remains available to students beyond the end of the term.
edublogs – education-focused blog. Used in this course to keep metacognative journals and reflections/feedback on the online teaching and learning experiences. I an example blog for the course, where i model blogging, link to student blogs, and post student feedback: http://etap640.edublogs.org
netvibes – to aggregate and display student blogs.
twitter – micro blog. Used in this course for newsflash type announcements, questions, interaction. https://twitter.com/i/#!/alexpickett/etap-640-summer-2012 and https://twitter.com/etap640
jing – a screen capture tool used to provide instructions, feedback, and clarification. (i also use screencast-o-matic for 15-minute screencasts)
screencast – a Techsmith repository affiliated with the jing project that gives me the ability to create a playlist of my “how-to” videos in my course.
meebome – an IM utility to facilitate synchronos extemporaneous interaction from the course homepage and course blog site. Now using digsby as an alternative to meebome.
audacity – an audio recording utility used in the course to record audio comments and interviews with exemplar online faculty.
podomatic – a podcasting utility used to deliver the audio feedback created with audacity to you. See podcasted student feedback examples on course learning activities.
youtube – to record and view course-related video materials. – online asynchronous video discussion to bring “rockstars” into the class and blur the boundaries of the online learning classroom environment “box”. See also the course videos playlist.
vimeo – to post course-related video materials. See the screencasted feedback course reviews.
voki – a speaking avatar used for announcements in this course. Example: Welcome to ETAP640!
breeze – used to create voice-annotated powerpoint course materials.
polldaddy – survey tool used to collect feedback from students on the course.
rate my professor – professor rating tool.
jumpscam – a QR code generator used to create a scan-able QRcode with information about this course.
vyou – conversational video used to ask and answer questions.