Tools and Technologies
Page Name = ExpTools
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Tools and Technologies
- Generic template
- Blogs
- Voting tools, clickers
- Writing tools
- e-Portfolios
- Chat; Instant messaging
- Learning objects
- Mashups
- Podcasts
- RSS
- Social bookmarking
- Virtual learning communities
- Virtual learning worlds
- Games
- Modelling tools
- Simulations
- Digital cameras, Video cameras, WebCams
- Digital audio
- Wikis
- Spreadsheets
- Databases
- Statistical software
- Mind-mapping, Concept-mapping tools
- Discussion forums
- Survey, questionnaire tools
- Presentation tools
- Web authoring tools
- Interactive whiteboards
- Search engines
- Assistive tools
- Mobile devices, PDAs
- Assessment tools, assessment banks
- VLEs
- Learning Design systems
- Repositories, online resources
Given a particular tool, or type of technology, what sort of learning activities can it support? Look here for ideas and examples of different tools and technologies to inspire your own lessons...
Note: This list of tools is provisional only.
Design notes:
Do we want to single out tools for collaboration as a separate section?
Subdivide this into sections? What if there's overlap...?
To what extent do we want to mention actual products? It may be unavoidable, esp if the tool name is synonymous (i.e. defines) with the genre...
Generic template
The following is a generic template for different tools:
- Brief description of tool
- The sorts of activities in which it might be used (student-focused, teacher-focused), and the advantage that this tool can bring wrt 'traditional' techniques.
- The sorts of learning outcomes that use of the tool might support (possibly not -- can get to this via activities...?)
- Example(s) of use:
- Full sequences or case studies
- Tips (lightbulb moments)
- ???? Technical info, including a link to specific tools e.g. Writely, Zoho for collaborative writing tools????
Blogs
Include the terms Weblogs, audioblogs
Text from LTG:
A weblog (or blog) can mean any authored content with an underlying chronological basis that is published on the Worldwide Web. At its simplest it is just an online diary that allows other people to comment on your entries. The content may be about any topic and consist of any media, including audio, images and video, although at present the majority of blogs are largely text-based. The blog can be ‘owned’ (i.e. authored) by more than one person. Owners are responsible for maintaining their blogs.
Blogging is a very easy and useful way to maintain a record of activity; for project work, it can cover thoughts and ideas, notes following meetings, further reflections and so on. It is ideal for a research diary or for writing up a conference, providing content that can be written up later on for more formal documentation. The only obvious drawback is that blogging is an inherently public activity, not suitable for private or otherwise confidential material.
Getting started
To start blogging, you first need to find somewhere that will host your blog, i.e. a blog server. Fortunately, it's easy to experiment with blogging by using one of the many public services. A popular choice is Blogger. If you’re blogging in a group, then you can each have either individual or a shared blog. For a project team, Blogger provides ‘Team Blogs.’ Once you have started blogging then use a syndicated newsfeed reader, such as the Bloglines service to subscribe to a feed (or channel).
Voting tools, clickers
Include the term audience response systems
Writing tools
Include word processing, collaborative writing tools
X-refs to discussion forum, wikis
e-Portfolios
Chat; Instant messaging
Not just text, but also voice communications. Need to mention Skype.
SMS too?
Learning objects
Mashups
Podcasts
Text from LTG
Podcasting is a method for distributing multimedia files, such as MP3 audio files and video files, over the Internet, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers. The term podcast, like 'broadcast,’ can refer to both the content and the method of delivery. Linking to a podcast directory allows you to find new material quickly. The most popular directory service is the one provided by the Apple Itunes software, which is a free download from http://www.apple.com/itunes/.
How can podcasts be used in education?
As downloadable audio and video, podcasts enable teaching staff to make course components such as lectures, scientific experiments, expert interviews or student assignments available outside a conventional classroom environment. Students can access the material either on- or off- campus and, by downloading it to a portable media device (such as an iPod) can listen to or view the material anywhere at a time to suit themselves.
Academic commentaries, interviews, or public lectures could also be published as podcasts and made available either publicly or to a restricted audience (e.g. internal to the institution or to registered researchers from outside). Podcasting technology uses either the RSS or Atom syndication format, the RSS format making podcasts especially useful for lecture series. Individual users can subscribe to the podcast feed and thus receive alerts to download the latest presentation in a series.
A particular advantage of podcasting is that the media can be easily created by most recording equipment (an iPod with an additional microphone adaptor, a computer, a DV camera etc.) and is encoded into an industry standard (MP3) that is universally read by computers and portable media devices.
Broadening the perspective, podcasts can be created and published by students themselves. For example, they might document their learning experience, the development of their knowledge, the course of experiments or progress in their research.
RSS
Text from LTG
RSS is a simple notification system that is used on the Web to provide news, announcements and blogs. You can set up RSS newsfeeds and easily add news or announcements items to them. The newsfeeds can then be presented within departmental websites, portals, VLE pages, content management systems etc.
Social bookmarking
Text from LTG
Sites such as del.icio.us ( http://del.icio.us/) and FURL ( http://www.furl.net/) are becoming popular as places to store website URLs in the same way as ‘favourites’ in Internet Explorer and ‘bookmarks’ in Firefox. However, the advantages of social bookmarking are that the list is available on any computer (not just the one on which the bookmark was made), the ability to categorise lists using tags, and — most important — the ability to share lists with friends and colleagues.
It is well worth checking a bookmark site to see what others with a shared interest may have already found and categorised on the internet.
Virtual learning communities
Elgg
Virtual learning worlds
Games
Modelling tools
Simulations
Digital cameras, Video cameras, WebCams
Good for process capture: PI01 example, also RDM sailing course, teaching practical skills (yoga positions)
Performance portfolios
Digital audio
Wikis
A wiki is a very simple Web-based tool which was originally intended for online collaborative writing. The name is derived from the Hawaiian word for 'fast.' The best known example is the Wikipedia encyclopaedia, and Phoebe itself uses wiki technology.
Wikis tend to have very simple formatting, so they're also a very quick way to create and maintain simple Web pages.
Learning activities which can be supported by wikis include:
- Collaborative writing and editing, especially for assessment tasks such as group projects and reports. They can be useful in helping students to understand that they are writing for an audience, not just their tutor.
- Collecting information to create student-generated resources
- Conducting discussions. Here, a wiki can act as an alternative to a discussion forum, as all the contributions to a particular topic can be seen at once.
By restricting who can see and/or contribute to a wiki, you can preserve your students' privacy and the integrity of their work.
Examples:
- Problem-based learning for law students
- Collaborative writing in English literature
- Using a wiki to develop research skills
Technical notes:
Although wikis run on open source software and are Web-based, they have to be downloaded and hosted on one of your institution's own Web servers (i.e. there's no hosting facility 'out there' on the Web as there is for blogs). So if you want to use a wiki with your students, contact your IT support staff. They can tell you whether there's already a wiki in your institution, or whether they'll have to set one up for you.
Spreadsheets
Databases
Statistical software
Mind-mapping, Concept-mapping tools
Discussion forums
Also being used to 'scaffold' students emergent analytical writing skills
Survey, questionnaire tools
Presentation tools
Include the term PowerPoint?
Web authoring tools
Also use wikis as simple Web authoring tools.
Interactive whiteboards
Include their accompanying software.
Search engines
See recent NS feature on social software
Assistive tools
TextHelp?, Inspiration, Simple things you can do with ordinary, common-or-garden tools. PI05?
Mobile devices, PDAs
Assessment tools, assessment banks
VLEs
Include the term Virtual Learning Environment
These are a bit problematic: if the institution has one, then it should(!) have an implementation policy. If the practitioner is working alone, then a VLE is irrelevant.
Could include a note to encourage them to start by using VLE as repository, but then move on to use the different activities that are available.
Learning Design systems
Oooh dear.
Is this where we put LAMS?
Repositories, online resources
Include reference to images, Flickr?
Flickr ( http://www.flickr.com/) is an informal online image-sharing site with millions of photographs contributed by users. However, you can use other people’s photographs without having to making your own available as well.
How can Flickr be used in education?
Flickr is well worth a look if you’re looking for photographs that can be used in teaching or research. The key thing is to search for material that is released by others under a Creative Commons licence that allows you to reuse the material for non-commercial purposes. See http://flickr.com/search/advanced/
