XtraNormal (http://www.xtranormal.com)
XtraNormal takes the complicated process of creating an animated video and simplifies it to a user-friendly type based platform. The free version of this site allows you to make short, simple videos that students seem to really enjoy. For example, Shawn created a video of superheros discussing why it's important to read the class syllabus. The class enjoyed it and the video only took a few minutes to create. Just pick a collection, choose your characters, and type in the narrative. Once you complete your video you can preview it, but give yourself about four hours for it to render. Completed videos can be embedded on your blog, website, or Facebook account. XtraNormal provides additional credits for educators, but you'll need to fill out this form: http://xtranormal.zendesk.com/requests/new.
Prezi (www.prezi.com)
Prezi is a great alternative to PowerPoint because it allows you to visualize the connections being made in the topic you are discussing. PowerPoints are linear. Once you change the slide, the information is gone. While this is helpful to show before and after sequences, they don't encourage the viewers to make connections as the speech continues. Prezi, on the other hand, allows speakers to create smoother, or at least more animated, transitions between the main points of a speech. Videos are also a pleasure to use in Prezi because they are embedded in the presentation. Prezi offers basic templates to use if you are just getting started, but we encourage you to experiment with the design wizard to create a presentation that really works with your topic. If you are doing a group presentation, try Prezi meeting, which allows several people to work on a Prezi at the same time. Finished Prezis can be downloaded as a .swf file (flash file) or embeded in a website. One thing that we find helpful is that Prezi is cloud based, meaning your Prezis can be accessed and edited on any computer, and presentations can be given on any browser with an updated Flash player.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Collaborate Online: Easy Places to Share Ideas
Google Docs (docs.google.com)
Google Docs is a collaborative Microsoft Office alternative. With Google Docs you can easily share documents, spreadsheets, forms, drawings, presentations, groups of files and even single files. With customizable privacy options, from completely open to completely closed, you and your collaborators can edit each object while others are working on it...or, as the owner of the object, you can let them only view as you make your changes.
Everything is saved to the Google cloud so it is accessible anywhere you have an internet connection, or easily downloaded. Many of the features are the same as Microsoft Office including comments, word count, and spell check. An easy and cheap alternative to those without Office or an amazing collaborative tool between you and students or you and your colleagues.
Blogger (www.blogger.com)
Blogs carry a stigma of being an “online diary”. While this was certainly true, particularly when the accessibility of the internet began to reach more and more people, today blogs can also carry out a cousin of that doctrine: they are an extremely efficient mode of communication and collaboration. We designed our seminar around the idea of the blog as a collaborative tool. Shawn designed the blog and the posts, and I came back later to edit and flesh out content. Not only did we collaborate but we’ve presented our information in a clear, effective manner using the tools Blogger has to offer. The posts are tagged to make information easy to access and we have embedded the numerous videos, documents and pictures necessary to the presentation. Blogs can be used to assign homework, convey information, re-post lectures, or build a class project.
Blogger (www.blogger.com)
Blogs carry a stigma of being an “online diary”. While this was certainly true, particularly when the accessibility of the internet began to reach more and more people, today blogs can also carry out a cousin of that doctrine: they are an extremely efficient mode of communication and collaboration. We designed our seminar around the idea of the blog as a collaborative tool. Shawn designed the blog and the posts, and I came back later to edit and flesh out content. Not only did we collaborate but we’ve presented our information in a clear, effective manner using the tools Blogger has to offer. The posts are tagged to make information easy to access and we have embedded the numerous videos, documents and pictures necessary to the presentation. Blogs can be used to assign homework, convey information, re-post lectures, or build a class project.
Yes! It's Arts and Crafts Time!
Google Art (www.googleartproject.com)
The Google Art Project has used its software to digitize and make available art from some of the greatest museums in the world. Its mapping software, popularized by Google Maps and its street views, lets you “wander” the museum as though you were there.
What you could not do at the museum, however, is zoom in on the detail of the works. See the individual brushstrokes. Read information about the art and the artist. Make a collection of paintings to suit your needs. View the history of the painting itself...how the museum came to acquire it. The level of detail Google has put into its art project rivals a trip to the museums where these works are housed, making it an invaluable resource for art or other humanities classes, and also a great primary source.
Ball dropping (http://balldroppings.com/js/)
Ball dropping is part of the Google Chrome project, which has expanded traditional html. This free interactive website gives you the ability to create music and play with gravity at the same time. The site works by dropping a ball down the side of a blank screen. You control how "heavy" the ball is and how fast the balls fall. By drawing simple lines, you can control where the ball bounces. As the balls hit the lines, they create a sound based on how high or low the line is on the screen.
Ball dropping (http://balldroppings.com/js/)
Ball dropping is part of the Google Chrome project, which has expanded traditional html. This free interactive website gives you the ability to create music and play with gravity at the same time. The site works by dropping a ball down the side of a blank screen. You control how "heavy" the ball is and how fast the balls fall. By drawing simple lines, you can control where the ball bounces. As the balls hit the lines, they create a sound based on how high or low the line is on the screen.
Informative Tools: Online learning and serendipity
Ted Talks (http://www.ted.com)
Ted has thousands of compelling speeches available on a wide variety of topics. Ted stands for "Technology, Entertainment, and Design," but topics also include science and motivational speeches. Chances are, if there is someone who is cutting edge in a topic you are teaching, Ted Talks has a video of them explaining their work to a general audience. Ted Talks are embeddable in your website, and you can even download them as they are part of the Creative Commons movement. The site also features translations and subtitles--which is quite helpful for students who are struggling with a speaker's accent. While we were looking for a Ted talk to embed in this site, we discovered Salman Khan's talk about his online learning resource. See below to learn more.
Khan Academy (http://www.khanacademy.org)
Khan Academy, the brain child of Salman Khan, seeks to bring education to anyone via the power of the internet.
What this means for you as an instructor is two things. It’s an amazing reference for your students if they have problems, because these videos are designed for them. But it’s also a great place for education students to learn to develop lesson plans and use the videos to explain sections of their lesson plans. Currently Khan Academy leans heavily towards mathematics but it does contain videos on sciences, humanities, and test prep resources. The videos are mainly housed on youtube which makes them even more accessible. This is a great resource to encourage learning and greater understanding on many levels.
Ted has thousands of compelling speeches available on a wide variety of topics. Ted stands for "Technology, Entertainment, and Design," but topics also include science and motivational speeches. Chances are, if there is someone who is cutting edge in a topic you are teaching, Ted Talks has a video of them explaining their work to a general audience. Ted Talks are embeddable in your website, and you can even download them as they are part of the Creative Commons movement. The site also features translations and subtitles--which is quite helpful for students who are struggling with a speaker's accent. While we were looking for a Ted talk to embed in this site, we discovered Salman Khan's talk about his online learning resource. See below to learn more.
Khan Academy (http://www.khanacademy.org)
Khan Academy, the brain child of Salman Khan, seeks to bring education to anyone via the power of the internet.
What this means for you as an instructor is two things. It’s an amazing reference for your students if they have problems, because these videos are designed for them. But it’s also a great place for education students to learn to develop lesson plans and use the videos to explain sections of their lesson plans. Currently Khan Academy leans heavily towards mathematics but it does contain videos on sciences, humanities, and test prep resources. The videos are mainly housed on youtube which makes them even more accessible. This is a great resource to encourage learning and greater understanding on many levels.
Capture Tools--beyond print screen
KeepVid (http://keepvid.com/)
This website enables you to harvest video off of YouTube and other popular video sharing websites, allowing you to see these videos without Internet access--perfect for research projects and for conference presentations. You can choose from four or so formats, depending on the video, as well as different resolutions--in case file size is an issue. All you have to do is copy the URL of the video and paste it into KeepVid's website. Follow the directions and the video is yours.
Web2pdf (http://www.web2pdfconvert.com/)
Exactly what it says. It converts websites into pdf documents. What this means for you as an instructor is that you can save sites for use in instruction...whether for handouts, examples, information...anything you could normally do with a document is now something you can do with a website. The website is now available offline and can be read not only in paper but also on many mobile devices, such as a Kindle or iPod Touch. An invaluable tool that can only expand the reaches of your instruction.
As a bonus, here is the web2pdf of our blog here, current as of August 30th. It is hosted on Google Docs.
This website enables you to harvest video off of YouTube and other popular video sharing websites, allowing you to see these videos without Internet access--perfect for research projects and for conference presentations. You can choose from four or so formats, depending on the video, as well as different resolutions--in case file size is an issue. All you have to do is copy the URL of the video and paste it into KeepVid's website. Follow the directions and the video is yours.
Web2pdf (http://www.web2pdfconvert.com/)
Exactly what it says. It converts websites into pdf documents. What this means for you as an instructor is that you can save sites for use in instruction...whether for handouts, examples, information...anything you could normally do with a document is now something you can do with a website. The website is now available offline and can be read not only in paper but also on many mobile devices, such as a Kindle or iPod Touch. An invaluable tool that can only expand the reaches of your instruction.
As a bonus, here is the web2pdf of our blog here, current as of August 30th. It is hosted on Google Docs.
Top 10 under-utilized websites for instructors: an introduction
Welcome to "incredible websites for instructors." This blog is the product of a Noel Studio for Academic Creativity seminar (Incredible Websites for Instructors: Top 10) led by Technology Associate Emily Bayma and Communication Coordinator Shawn Apostel.
As we scoured the Internet in search of the best, most useful websites to use with assignments, group projects, and creative inspiration we thought the best way to compile and share these sites would be via a blog. Hence "incredible websites for instructors" is created.
We also felt that this blog would be a wonderful way to share new websites that we discover. So, while this blog will start with our Top 10 under-utilized websites, stay tuned for more websites to be posted.
As we scoured the Internet in search of the best, most useful websites to use with assignments, group projects, and creative inspiration we thought the best way to compile and share these sites would be via a blog. Hence "incredible websites for instructors" is created.
We also felt that this blog would be a wonderful way to share new websites that we discover. So, while this blog will start with our Top 10 under-utilized websites, stay tuned for more websites to be posted.
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