With all the encouragement to integrate active learning techniques into your teaching, it’s easy to get confused about what to use when. Specifically, deciding which technological tools to use can seem overwhelming. Three of the most common tools instructors use in their classes are blogs, wikis, and dicussion boards. To guide you in the process of choosing which tool to use, we have collected information and dveloped a chart.
It is important that you consider the answer to some important questions as you make your choice:
- What is the purpose of using the tools?
- What features are most important for you?
- What level of privacy do you need?
The answers to these questions and others can be found by looking at the chart. Make sure to use the left-most colomn labeled “Topic” to guide your selection.
You can download the document here.
And don’t forget that you can always schedule a consultation at the Center for help on how to use your tool in class by calling the Center at 372-6898 or emailing the Center at ctl@bgsu.edu.
March 13th, 2009
WBGU provides BGSU Faculty with a wide variety of music that can be used for education projects. Visit http://music.wbgu.org/ to get started. Music is offered in numerous genres and multiple file types. While this is an extremely powerful resource it should be stated that:
THIS MUSIC IS FOR BGSU EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS ONLY.
This music can be used in iMovies, PowerPoint presentations, background music for live presentations and many other uses. If you wish to use this music for purposes other than BGSU educational projects, contact Denise Kisabeth.
How do you use music in your teaching or presentations? Have you used music in your for presentations at conferences? How else could you use this music?
Click on the COMMENTS link below to post your thoughts!
January 10th, 2008
Stock.xchng is a leading, free, stock photo site. This site is great for generic searches, yielding high-resolution images that could be used to enhance student or faculty presentations or applied to any other visual media projects.
Along with browsing over 250,000 quality stock photos by more than 25,000 photographers, you can share your own personal photography as well.
If your search doesn’t yield a large number of free results, there is a linked site, stockxpert.com, which produces results at the bottom of the page showing images available for purchase.
All you need is a free account to begin your search!
How do you use images in your teaching or presentations? What other image sites have you or your students used?
Click on the COMMENTS link below to post your thoughts!
December 10th, 2007
This is a useful article on how our students are using Facebook and things that we should consider as college educators. Listed below are rules 1 and 2 in a list of 10. For more information, please click here: http://chimprawk.blogspot.com/2006/01/how-university-administrators-should.html
1. The Facebook isn’t going away. While Facebook.com may not last forever, a service like the Facebook will always be present and useful on a college campus. The logic to this is quite simple: students are forced to renegotiate their social networks every semester. The Facebook supports and answers the student’s information needs. Put simply, our students are curious; they want to know anything and everything about the students around them. If you had the Facebook when you were an undergrad, wouldn’t you have wanted the same?
2. Almost all of your institution’s undergraduates are on the Facebook. I found that 94 percent of UNC’s Freshman class was on the Facebook. Techcrunch reported in November that 85% of all college students were on the Facebook, and surely that number has increased. You can’t fight numbers like this. More importantly, you can’t ignore them.
Both of these services can provide useful tools that can be utilized from home, office, or dorm room.
Do you have a Facebook account? How can Facebook be used to stay in contact with our students?…Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!
November 9th, 2007
Follow the link below for 23 Learning 2.0 Things. The site gives you tasks designed to make you more comfortable with Web 2.0 technologies. Tips and advice are provided along your journey. Learn more about blogging, RSS, photo sharing, tagging, wikis, and other online tools.
http://plcmcl2-things.blogspot.com/
What tasks have you tried? What ideas or tools you would add to this tutorial? What is your favorite Web 2.0 tool? …Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!
October 18th, 2007
What is your opinion of the video? Do your students have similar concerns? How can you or the University help to change and encourage better student interaction? …Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!
For another great video from this group check out
The Machine is Us/ing Us a short video about the Web 2.0 revolution.
October 15th, 2007
Here are a couple of useful resources that we would like to share:
The Library of Congress offers an Ask-a-Librarian service, where they provide the ability to choose a research area and then ask a librarian via either online chat or email.
http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/
Another option is to use BGSU’s own Ask-a-Librarian service, The library offers help via online chat, email, phone, and one-on-one consultations.
http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library/infosrv/ref/ask.html
Both of these services can provide useful tools that can be utilized from home, office, or dorm room.
What luck have you had with either service? Have you shared these resources with your students? Are there any other similar services that you use?…Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!
October 3rd, 2007
“Office 2007 looks totally different different. How do I use the new interface?”
AL’s answer for Excel 2007
http://www.atomiclearning.com/almovie?key=28638
AL’s answer for PowerPoint 2007
http://www.atomiclearning.com/almovie?key=29120
AL’s answer for Word 2007
http://www.atomiclearning.com/almovie?key=28723
Do you think ribbons are more effective than drop down menus? What other new features have you used in Office 2007? …Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!
September 27th, 2007
(This is a re-posting of a previous post on MyFiles @ BGSU. See the full, original post here.)
BGSU has unveiled a new service for Faculty, Staff, and Students…
MyFiles is a network-based, file storage system. It can be accessed at myfiles.bgsu.edu, simply login using your BGNet Username and password. MyFiles provides 1 Gigabyte of disk space per person and allows an individual to store copies of important documents such as homework, notes, papers, and graphics on a system that is accessible from anywhere on the Internet.
What is MyFiles?
- Files stored on MyFiles can be accessed from any computer connected to the Internet through a web browser such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Safari.
- Files can be shared with friends, colleagues, collaborators, conference attendees, project team members, and others, both on and off campus. File owners are able to provide access that can be read-only or read-write, allowing for controlled access and collaborative editing.
- Files can be tracked to see who has read the file and who has made changes to the file. MyFiles can even store multiple versions of a file to keep a history of revisions.
- Files are secured by BGSU authentication username and password, and can be accessed by others only if the account owner gives permission. Access can be assigned based on BGSU usernames and passwords, or by electronic ticket that allows individuals not associated with BGSU to gain read-only or read-write access.
- Files can be accessed by clicking on a designated web URL. Each file has a specific web URL that can be sent to others through email instead of sending entire files as attachments.
What MyFiles is NOT:
- Not a place for instructors to store class notes for students, Blackboard should be used for this.
- Not a place to share unauthorized copies of media or other digital files.
How could (or have) you as a faculty member or student utilize(d) MyFiles?
–> Click on the COMMENTS link below to post your thoughts!
September 18th, 2007
Previous Posts
