Week 3 Blog - responses to Rob's week 3 blog questions

Week 3 EDUC5101G Blog

Responses to:  http://robpower74.blogspot.ca/2016/01/analyzing-and-categorizing-online.html

1.  What types of tools do you think are missing?

Student assistance tools (tutors, test prep, student study tools), digital textbooks, e-portfolios (career search and planning, resumes), digital marketplaces, financial tools (corporate, public, personal).  These are all specific examples that may fit into one of your listed categories.

2.  What types of tools from the list have you used as a teacher? As a student? (Can you provide examples?)

Honestly, there is an enormous list.  

From my blog, last week in two days I used the following tools:  Wikispaces, Weebly, Padlet, Word, Google Docs, Excel, Chrome, Explorer, Realtime Boards (MindMaps), Videoscribe, Adobe Connect and Adobe Connect plug-in for Word Clouds, Outlook, PowerPoint, Prezi, D2L, Camtasia, SnagIt, Blogger, YouTube, Socrative.

3.  Which of those tools have you found most (and least) useful as a teacher? As a student? Why?

BEST

Teacher:  SnagIt to screencast to YouTube for online lecture and demonstration recordings.  Providing the PowerPoint files and accompanying videos means the content is UDL compliant.  Plus for students with challenges (learning disabilities, ESL, other), they can re-watch as many times as they want.  It's an advantage within asynchronous teaching (I also post the videos for my face-to-face students who miss class, they can catch up).  My student feedback has been very positive about the screencast lectures.  Demos of software (tools, LMS), or explanations of assignment expectations with accompanying exemplars are exceptionally helpful for clarity in the asynchronous learning network.

Student:  I enjoy tools that engage my interactive participation, such as polling tools, and visual tools such as Word Clouds and Padlet (I love visuals).  I think the breakout rooms in Adobe Connect are excellent for collaborative work.

WORST

Teacher:  poorly designed textbook software (example:  to teach how to use Microsoft Office).  These are packaged with textbooks and students complete exercises within the platform which mimics the real Office products (and marks the students' work).  They are often far from intuitive and detract from the learning of the real software (MS Office), a lot of time is spent assisting students within the functionality and limitations of the textbook "mimic software"  i.e. how to advance to next instructions/exercise, save your work, fix an error you catch (and sometimes it grades them wrong).  Makes for a frustrating learning experience for everyone and wastes valuable time.

Student:  LMSs that are hard to navigate.  In some courses I feel like I'm always spending time trying to figure out where things are or what is expected of me.  The functionality of some LMSs (and organization) can be counter-intuitive, which is one reason why some teachers decide to use other tools of their own creation.  Although the self-made teacher LMS replacements are almost always better and my own preference too, the problem with using other tools such as wikis and websites - every teacher has their own system, so it's back to figuring out where things are.  My own student feedback when I was using a wiki was "Why aren't you using the LMS like my other teachers?" - college students don't like the variation.  They also don't like putting things in more than one location (I've taken courses myself where the teacher is using 3 different tools to house course content, work, etc.)  To combat this in my teaching I created a video that demos the LMS and where to find things, how to submit work, etc.

4.  Which types of tools from the list have you NOT personally used as a teacher or student? Why?

I don't use any of the K-12 tools (obviously), and I don't use curriculum specific tools (such as science or math sites designed to match up with curriculum).  For my courses there just isn't anything available that I'm aware of (but I would love to find one!)

5.  Find an example of that type of tool that might be useful in your personal teaching / learning context.

Personal (for something different):  I want a smartphone app that shows me pictures of recipes  based on what's on sale that week in multiple store flyers (or allows me to create/add and choose my own recipes), then I pick the ones I want for the week, it creates my grocery list, includes nutritional information, and matches up within the rewards point for my store.  LOL!  I have lots of ideas for apps, if only I ruled the world :)

Teaching/learning:  I want a tool that helps me teach critical thinking.  I'm not sure how this would work or look, but it's such an important skill...maybe there's one out there already I haven't been able to find yet.

6.  What would be your first questions / steps when evaluating how (or if) you would use such an online tool? (We’ll be looking at more formal assessment strategies for digital tools over the next few weeks!)

How hard is it to teach my students how to use it (perceived difficulty).

How much does it add to the learning experience (perceived value).


Here's an interesting video about the SAMR model for technology adoption, Introduction to the SAMR Model. The video length is 4:22 and provides real samples of applications of transforming your learning design using technology at a higher level (analyzing, evaluating and creating - there are linkages to Bloom's taxonomy).