Changes are a Comin
Posted by Tyler Wall in Uncategorized on October 8th, 2009
You may have noticed a lull in the posts for this blog recently, work has kept me very busy and I have been doing a great amount of research as well. I plan on restructuring the format in which I deliver my blog posts to make a few things better for you.
- I plan on having someone edit my posts, although this may not happen all the time.
- I plan on adding things to a wiki style spreadsheet with predetermined criteria for evaluating a web tools usefulness to education. This chart will be viewable in most posts and also allow you to add tools to it and evaluate it on the pre-existing criteria in the spreadsheet. I don’t want my blog to be a microcosm of information that I push out to whoever, I really see this as being our resource for web tools to facilitate educators who want to leverage these great free tools to make courses more accessible to students.
- Each post will be crafted with a bit more care and have a predesigned format that should make it easier to determine if it is useful to you at a glance.
- I will also be working on the look of it to make the text that is there more readable. I plan on letting a bit more about who I am seep into my posts. The point of this is so that you can see where I am coming from, my skills, background and passions. I am also hoping that this makes you feel more comfortable posting comments.
- I also want to find out what you want, I have always said that what I do is problem solve and this blog is intended to be a resource of problems solved with Web 2.0 tools that instructors can use as inspiration. If you have a classrom problem and think that there may be a Web 2.0 solution for it then let me know about it and I will try and solve it.
So keep a lookout for new posts that will look better, read better, and include more of you in them.
“Teaching Skills: What 21st Century Educators Need To Learn To Survive”
Posted by Tyler Wall in Other Articles on September 22nd, 2009
I found this article on Robin Goods blog and found it immensely interesting. I debated as to wether I should post it or not because it really isn’t a tool for learning but I couldn’t resist. The author is Andrew Churches and the blog is “Robin Good Be Smart, Be Independent, Be Good”. There are a few ads at the top of the page so keep scrolling down to get to the meat of the content.
http://www.masternewmedia.org/teaching-skills-what-21st-century-educators-need-to-learn-to-survive/
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=b5319eff-ab7c-48cd-8d08-6d6d69e0cd17)
Hot Potatoes, E-Learning Games for Free!
Posted by Tyler Wall in Tools on September 15th, 2009
Where I work we often have to build more interactive learning experiences and we played around a few years ago with a demo version of Hot Potatoes. We really liked it and found it easy to use but very limited in the demo version so we put it on the shelf. Today as I was going through my RSS feeds I found out that Hot Potatoes is now a free application along with a web based maze builder Quandry.
For a list of the types of things you can build in Hot Potatoes check out the site where I discovered that it is now free. Here is the site and below that is an exerp from it. E-Learning Curve Blog
“There are five basic programs in the Hot Potatoes suite:
1. JQuiz creates question-based quizzes. Questions can be of four different types, including multiple-choice and short-answer. Specific feedback can be provided both for right answers and predicted wrong answers or distractors. In short-answer questions, the learner’s guess is intelligently parsed and helpful feedback to show what part of a guess is right and what part is wrong. The learner can ask for a hint in the form of a “free letter” from the answer.
2. JCloze creates gap-fill exercises. Unlimited correct answers can be specified for each gap, and the learner can ask for a hint and see a letter of the correct answer. A specific clue can also be included for each gap. Automatic scoring is also included. The program allows gapping of selected words, or the automatic gapping of every nth word in a text.
3. JCross creates word jumble / crossword puzzles which can be completed online. You can use a grid of virtually any size. As in JQuiz and JCloze, a hint button allows the learner to request a free letter if help is needed.
4. JMix creates jumbled-sentence exercises. You can specify as many different correct answers as you want, based on the words and punctuation in the base sentence, and a hint button prompts the learner with the next correct word or segment of the sentence if needed.
5. JMatch creates matching or ordering exercises. A list of fixed items appears on the left (these can be pictures or text), with jumbled items on the right. This can be used for matching vocabulary to pictures or translations, or for ordering sentences to form a sequence or a conversation.These tools are complemented by a program called the Masher, which facilitates the creation of complete units of material (such as multiple-question quizzes) in one simple operation. The utility supports a range of question types including:
• True/False
• Short Answer
• Multiple Choice
• Cloze Test
• Word Jumble / Crossword
• Drag and Drop
• Mix and Match
Hot Potatoes allows you to add:
• Text
• Images
• Audio
• Video
• Question Timer
• Web plug-in objects like Flash Player
to your web server of LCMS-deployed question tests. The tool also adds interoperability in the shape of SCORM 1.2.”
Hot Potatoes is not the most straight forward application to use but once you know how to build each of the games ( a minute or two of investment) they are easy to to do. When I was trying to figure out how to build a JMix I simply Googled “JMix Hot Potatoes” and the first result was a youtube video that was only 3 minutes long. Within another 2 minutes I had created a great instructional game.
The process is very easy but there is that initial confusion as to how to interact with the program.
Give Hot Potatoes a try and I think you will be pleasantly surprised by how much more dynamic you can make otherwise dry learning opportunities.
Screenr an Incredibly Easy Screen Recorder
Posted by Tyler Wall in Mobile, Podcasting, Screen Recording, Video on September 2nd, 2009
Screenr is a free screen recording application that requires no installation and works right through your browser.
I generally do my fair share of screen recordings usually to show people how to use applications. I use the great free tool Jing to do this and have loved it but it does require a few simple steps to install it and get it working. Screenr takes an easy process and makes it even easier somehow.
You literally only need a Twitter account and a browser to be recording short tutorials (5 min max) with Screenr that have a surprisingly great quality. Once you have recorded you are left with the option of Tweeting your recording, although you can elect not to tweet but you still need to sign into Twitter (hence needing the Twitter account). From there you can access the raw files for that you recorded or get the embed code to put it anywhere you like. All this is done platform independent because it is all browser powered.
Screenr also has a bookmarklet that makes it easy to quickly and easily record wherever you are as long as your browser is open. This truly is such an easy tool to easily incorporate into your routine that could save tons of time in giving direction to students or other instructors. Screenr videos will also play on an iPhone and other mobile devices which is great for getting your tutorials to people wherever they are.
I don’t see this tool replacing Jing or Camtasia (the granddaddy of all screen recorders and possibly the most expensive as well) but it does simplify and speed up the process of screen recording and sharing. If you don’t already have Jing or Camtasia then Screenr may be the right fit for you, heck I will probably be using it more often than I use the other tools because it fits so well into my workflow.
Here is an example of a short screenrecording I created.
I would come up with my own reasons to use this in education but honestly early in the writing of this post I found another article that shows great ways of how to use Screenr for education so here it is.
http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/how-to-use-this-free-screencasting-tool-for-e-learning/
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=23d0bb05-59e3-499f-badd-0d41d9175595)
Great iPhone applications for Back to School
Posted by Tyler Wall in Mobile on August 28th, 2009
The new school year is starting and more students are plugged in using iPhones than ever before so I bring you an article from Mashable called “Back to School: Top 10 iPhone Apps for Students”. Enjoy.
http://mashable.com/2009/08/25/back-to-school-iphone/
Heap’n on the Search Results with Heapr
Posted by Tyler Wall in Search engine on August 13th, 2009
heapr.com – Search from Google, WolframAlpha, Twitter, Flickr and other sites all at once! via kwout
Heapr is a great mashing of a couple big dog search engines: Google, Twitter, Wikipedia, Wolfram Alpha, Flickr for images, and for video searching it searches Youtube, Vimeo and Hulu. When you complete a search your main results are from Google featured on the left. On the right side of the page one of the other three contestants is showcased and you can easily switch between these remaining three, which are set up like tabs, with the click of a button while never loosing the ever accurate Google results.
Heapr of course does loose some of the great functionality of Google search like the promote, similar, and comment buttons that add extra value to the original Google engine but the search results are the same because Heapr is powered by Google primarily.
Of course on of the most important aspects of any search engine for me is that it can be integrated into the my Firefox search bar and Heapr does that admirably giving me instant access to their search engine without ever having to go to their site.
I really like all the search engines that Heapr has mashed together and find each of them useful in their own way as they are all very different. Google is a mainstay search engine that always produces results. Wikipedia is a great starting point in researching a topic. Twitter is the best way to get a feel for what the masses are saying about certain topics , Wolfram Alpha is just creepy in how it just answers questions, Flickr is one of the most popular photo sharing sites, Youtube is a huge video sharing site that many people use as a search engine in and of itself, Vimeo is a great video website as is Hulu. The problem with each of those search engines is I forget about them or just don’t want to perform multiple searches on one topic, so I fall back on old Google and it always delivers. That is a problem that is solved with Heapr allowing me to search it all quickly and easily in one page, giving me a better cross section of answers.
Heapr is officially at the top of my search engine toolbar and is likely to stay for a while.
How can this be used for education?
It can save time and paint a more accurate and holistic picture of most internet searches than any one search engine can give because of the search engines it uses. Google gives the most popular results, Twitter is the pulse of the people and can give insight into what the popular belief about certain subjects. Wolfram Alpha is a fact engine that will do it’s best to answer you question as best it can (see my article on W.A.) and Wikipedia as we all know is a great resource used as a starting point for research.
Give Heapr to your students as an alternative to the search engines they are using, perhaps the additional information will spark some extra interest in a particular research paper. Check out my other articles on search engines.
Ideas abound with Mindmapping
Posted by Tyler Wall in Mind Mapping on August 11th, 2009
I found a great article on Robin Good’s blog that goes over several mindmapping tools in a guide format. Although not an extensive list and it doesn’t focus on user friendliness, it does highlight the major players and gives great unbiased overviews of the tools selected. I highly recommend reading the whole article as it is truly a great resource that I have already bookmarked and intend to go back to often.
In the near future I will give a more in-depth review of the usability and functions of some of the tools that Robin Good outlines in his article.
Wordnik the Un-dictionary
Posted by Tyler Wall in Misc on August 5th, 2009
On an initial viewing Wordnik appears to be a dictionary but upon further investigation it is not. In their own words
“Wordnik is not a traditional dictionary (in fact, we’ve seriously considered not calling Wordnik a dictionary at all)”.
The fact of the matter is that Wordnik is a dictionary on steroids that uses words and definitions that are in “traditional” dictionaries and ones that have not made it there yet. It also works much like Wikipedia allowing users to record pronunciation, add images and give their own definitions.
So what good is it then? There are tons of dictionaries on the internet how does this help me? Well what Wordnik does have going for it is a great way of looking at words beyond their definition, synonyms and antonyms. It looks at word relationships and knows when words end up in the same sentence more often than not, like for instance:
“cheeseburger, milkshake, and doughnut are not synonyms, but they show up in the same kinds of sentences.”
Now before you get all huffy and start saying “If it is not official dictionary words and definitions then I don’t want my students even harboring the idea of using it”. Oh on the contrary, here is a list of some of the features that Wordnik employs.
- Dictionary definitions from multiple official sources like American Heritage and Webster.
- Statistics and meaningful information on the frequency and use patters of a word over the past 200+ years
- Real world examples in articles, books, quotes and other great resources to show how professional authors use the word
- Real world examples for social media like Twitter to show how the everyday person uses the word
- The etymology of the word
- Related words such as synonyms
- Words used in the same context, like the word fries is paired with burger
- Audio Pronunciation
- Chart of other forms of a word and their usage.
As you can see Wordnik is a very useful un-dictionary that can easily be integrated into yours and your students every day search for knowledge because we don’t know all the words out there.
How can I use this in education?
Use it like any other dictionary but because of its nature it adds so much more information that can be grasped if you only want to have it. For instance I really enjoy knowing the etymology of words but rarely seek out any of it, now whenever I want a word definition I use Wordnik and get a plethora of value added information that fills that void. So you can use it for yourself and/or pass it along to your students and let them enjoy it, hey you never know maybe they will start using actual words instead of instant messaging lingo 
Easy Group Creation with GroupieGuide
Posted by remster in Communication, Group Creation on July 30th, 2009
GroupieGuide is a great way for anyone to create their own website for groups they are involved with. You do not need any prior programming or design skills to create a sharp group page. Group pages include news, upcoming events, pictures and discussion posts.
Setting up is very straightforward. If you created the group you will have standard user privileges that allow you to post and answer discussion posts and leave comments and then an administrator account that allows you to add news, upcoming events and pictures. You can also change the look of the group site, send out invitations and set privacy levels. Setting privacy levels means that you need to have a password in order to see the group site.
Setting up a fully functional group page only takes 15 – 30 minutes with no prior knowledge of the web application. Groupie Guide can help you make a quick webpage for your groups that look very professional and can be done without spending a cent! Some examples that you could use this for may be social clubs, such as a book club or sports teams.
As an instructor Groupie Guide would work very well for helping guide and document group activities and research projects. Students could designate a leader and use the site to keep track of meetings, events pictures of their research topic! This could be used to help instructors see activity of group projects.
RSS: How to get Started
Posted by Tyler Wall in RSS, Uncategorized on July 28th, 2009
So I have talked about a variety of different services that hopefully cater to different types of people and how you like to learn and discover. In this final article I would like to take it one step further and walk you through how to set up an RSS feed. I mentioned it in my first article how important that I feel RSS feeds are for everyone to save time, continue learning and stay current but I just need to make it known how misunderstood I think they are. They are not suppose to help you read 1000 articles a day, they are meant to help you quickly filter out even 1 article out of a thousand that you find interesting. I go through 300-500 articles a day and only read about 10-20 each of which I find very valuable for myself and others.
So without further ado here is a great tutorial on how to set up with a Google account and using Google Reader in less than 5 min.
Remember to check out parts one and two in this series for important information about RSS feeds.