So over the last couple of months I’ve been watching a series of posts from different people in response to Jane’s e-Learning Pick of the Day post on top ten tools for learning. It’s been interesting, but mainly because they didn’t seem like tools I’d use at all. For example: why is Firefox the top listed tool? It’s a web browser? How does it help? Is it because of all the widgets and add ins? I don’t know. So what I decided to do was write my list with explanations as to why. But let me explain this: I chose tools based on how they directly effected the LEARNING of my students (either directly or indirectly). With that said, here’s my list (in order of usage and effect):
I’ve posted about my love of Facebook before. But look, we teach these technology integration classes and we tell our students to find out what their students have and work from there. Well, where are my college undergrads? Facebook. Since I’ve started requiring my undergrads to add me as a friend, I’ve had more communication with my undergrads. It’s been crazy, actually. Students who NEVER would have gotten a hold of me before, are now writing on my wall just to say, “Hey Dr. Curry! What’s up?” I love it.
I’m talking just the search engine itself here. They must have the greatest bots in their servers, because is there anything you can’t find on Google? Seriously. When was the last time you heard someone say, “Yeah, well, I yahoo’ed it last night . . .” or “I ask.com’ed it last night . . ..” But what about, “I Googled it last night . . ..” Enough said.
I don’t know that my students are using this, but man, do I. I have also blogged about my use of Google Reader before (read Don’t You Just Love the Smell of Books post), and my love for it and dependence on it have only increased. That’s how I first learned of these lists of tools. As a matter of fact, today my reader is acting somewhat goofy, and I’ve been off my game all day. But my Google Reader is how I keep current, and that in turn, helps me help my students.
Quite simply, I use Garage Band to record the podcasts I use for my classes. For my undergrads, I record podcasts to cover the basic chapter concepts and to give the online students the passwords to the quizzes. They have to listen to the podcasts to be able to take the reading quizzes. For the grads, I use them in somewhat the same way, but mainly to drive discussion on theory articles. I have found them extremely useful, and Garage Band is what gets me there. You can find them on our department website.
Ok, so in number two I said Google, but I’m listing Google Scholar as a separate one. All the same reasons, but just because it searches scholarly articles and you can search for other articles that cite that article, it gets it’s own mention.
I’ve posted about my use of del.icio.us bookmarks as well, and I keep going. Now, I don’t use them as much as my friends Trey Martindale (who, as of this post has 1200+ bookmarks) and Chris Duke (currently 1000+ bookmarks), but I do use them. I currently manage two accounts. One is for my personal use, and the other is a set of links for our EDTC 3123 (pre-service teacher technology) course.
Screen capture software for Windows. I haven’t used it a lot, but when I’ve made screen captures for my classes, I’ve gone to using Wink. It’s easy, and it’s FREE. I’ve also used SnagIt and Camtasia, but they all work basically the same, but neither one of those can beat Wink’s price.
Blogs (in general)
Look, I don’t care if you use WordPress (which is what I use), Blogger, TypePad, or whatever, blogs are the thing. I’ve never used them with my undergrads, but with my grad students, I require them to maintain a blog for pretty much every class I teach. I like being able to read what’s going on in their heads. It’s hard to get them started, but once you do, it’s like a Constructivist’s dream–”LOOK! I CAN SEE WHAT’S GOING ON INSIDE THEIR HEADS!”
So, yeah. Oklahoma State just migrated to D2L last Spring semester, and let’s just say the transition hasn’t been an easy one. However, the tool does have an impact on my students’ learning so I’ll list it. If anyone wants my take on D2L, you can ask me and maybe I’ll post about it.
So that’s it. As I said before, I just tried to come up with which tools have the biggest effect on my students’ learning. It’s not close to Jane’s final list, but at least it’s my list.
So a few weeks ago Dan Meyer, who writes dy/dan, held a four slide contest. The purpose was to see if you could represent yourself completely in four slides. Now the problem for me is that I have NO TALENT when it comes to visual representation, but I want my grad students in my online EDTC 5203: Foundations of Educational Technology course to do it as a way of getting to know each other. So, I made mine to serve as an example. I don’t know how good they are (actually, I know they’re not good), and they would certainly never win any awards, but they do represent me. See them after the jump.
So once again, Jane Hart is running her Top Ten Tools for Learning list. Last year I posted my list, but I was too late to have it listed on her overall list. I’ve looked over my list, and it has changed quite a bit. Here’s a short recap of last year’s list (without annotations):
I’m always on the lookout for integration ideas and how to explain the benefits of Web 2.0 to people. Today as I read the Cool Cat Teacher Blog, I ran across the following slideshow by Adam Frey (founder of Wikispaces) on Wikis in the classroom. See it after the jump.
Today was my presentation for the AECT Teacher Education division’s WAG (web-based brown bag). They had me present on our efforts to put the preservice teacher technology course online here at Oklahoma State University. Angel Kymes and I taught it the first time together (different sections of the same class), and she and I presented it at last year’s AECT conference. So the Teacher Ed division had me do an overview of that presentation and update it so everyone could see what we are doing. It was well received, and the feedback makes me think we’re really doing good work here.
Here’s a link to the Teacher Education divison’s blog, The Playground. You can see Dr. Peter Rich’s comments on the presentation there.
You can see my Slideshare presentation (we actually did it using BYU’s Adobe Breeze server) after the jump.
So yes, my favorite show is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And those who mock that have obviously never watched it and seen how smart the writing is. At any rate, I’ve got the complete seven seasons on DVD, and I’ve been watching them. I decided to put together my top ten list of episodes. Now some were automatics (actually I came up with the first seven immediately), and then I looked to make sure I had at least one episode from each season represented. Here’s what I came up with:
The Automatics: (not in any particular order)
The Zeppo (season 3). Xander defined in the entire Buffyverse. No one ever truly appreciated the strength he brought to the Scoobies. While they send him off to “be safe,” Xander ends up saving everyone else–and they never know it.
The Body (season 5). Buffy finds her mom, Joyce, dead. It’s great that she died of natural causes and not a monster–something Buffy could have controlled. What’s really good? Anya’s speech about Joyce and not understanding death.
Once More with Feeling (season 6). The musical episode. The best part is that it wasn’t gimmicky; it actually advanced the story line as well. And I love the soundtrack.
Hush (season 4). Silent episode–actually nominated for an Emmy. The Gentlemen were just creepy. It was also the first episode where we saw Camden Toy, who played three different monsters on the show (the leader of the Gentlemen, Gnarl, and the Ubervamp).
Becoming, Part II (season 2 finale). Bad Angel–Angelus, Good Angelus–Angel. Buffy makes the hard choice. Buffy: “Close your eyes.” Angel: “Buffy?!?”
Fool for Love (season 5). We see William the Bloody become Spike. He teaches Buffy how he killed two slayers (shout out to Robin Wood in season 7!). “You’re beneath me.”
Passion (season 2). Holy cow. We see for the first time how bad Angelus really can be. Death truly was his art. Not only does he take care of Jenny Calendar, but the whole set up with Giles is masterful.
The Final Three: (not immediate choices, but they round it out–again, no particular order)
The Wish (season 3). Anya is introduced. We see life in Sunnydale without Buffy. Nothing like the emotion of watching Buffy stake Xander to shake you up.
Prophecy Girl (season 1). Buffy takes on the Master. “I’m sixteen years old, Giles. I don’t want to die.”
Beneath You (season 7). Nice play on Fool for Love. Crazy Spike, reformed Spike. “Can we rest now, Buffy? Can we rest?”
At any rate, this is MY top ten. And if you have a problem with them being listed on this here blog, hey–it’s RANDOM musings. I never said this was all about work.
One of my favorite writers is Bill Simmons, or the Sports Guy (you can find him on ESPN’s Page 2). Today he posted his YouTube Hall of Fame. YouTube has long been one of my favorite websites (I love being able to watch all the old 80s videos), but this is just great. You can see his list here.
