Category Archives: Technology Integration

I came across Tiki-Toki today, a great tool for creating multimedia-infused timelines. Instructors can use Tiki-Toki to share timelines, complete with images, links, and videos. Students can use it for, well… the same thing! To familiarize myself with Tiki-Toki, I started this simple timeline of the World War II events that took place in 1943.

I was first asked to decide which kind of account I would like. There is one free option and two paid. Here’s an overview of their features:

Of course, I chose to stick with the free version. I was then able to start creating my timeline. This process was pretty easy since Tiki-Toki provided me with instructions as I clicked through the various options.

You first enter the details of your timeline, including the title, start/end dates, introduction, etc. I really like that you can change the background of the timeline by adding your own image. To add an image, you can click on the magnifying glass and search images in Flickr that are labeled Creative Commons or choose your own Flickr images. The image source is automatically credited, which is pretty nifty. You are supposed to be able to enter the URL for an image, but this didn’t work for me (could be user error). One piece of advice regarding images: nothing happens when you click on your image of choice. I kept thinking that it wasn’t working, only to realize that Tiki-Toki had already inserted the image.

Once you’ve finished the settings, you can start creating timeline events, which Tiki-Toki calls “stories.” For each story, you can add a title, date, and basic information. The real beauty lies in how you can enhance the story with links, images, YouTube videos, and additional text.

When you’re finished, simply share the link with others and they can enjoy your timeline! If you have some extra budget money and can afford the educator account, you could have your students group edit a timeline. This would be a great feature for group projects.

The Wolfram Demonstration Project is a free resource that provides interactive demonstrations related to a number of different fields. Check out this screenshot of their searchable topics, all of which expand to numerous subtopics:

The Wolfram Demonstration Project is an open-code resource that allows anyone to create interactive visualizations and publish them.  You can use these visualizations to illuminate certain course concepts.  Using the free Wolfram CDF Player, you can interact with the visualizations as well. Demonstrations and/or their source codes can be downloaded.

Clickers are often used to poll students in large classes. However, not everyone has clickers, or uses them enough to justify having their students purchase them. With Poll Everywhere, you can poll students and gather text-based feedback using just a cell phone or laptop… which, let’s face it, most of your students probably have!

Why might you use Poll Everywhere? Well, maybe you want to quickly poll students and find out what they already know about the topic on which you are about to present. Or, maybe you are going to present and you want them to be able to share their questions so you can address them after the presentation. Perhaps they’ve just completed an assigned reading or activity and you want to give them a little quiz question to see if it was effective. Maybe you just have some housekeeping to take care of, like figuring out a date that works for everyone to take a test. Whatever! The possibilities are endless.

How do you use it? Simply type in your question, how many times each person may respond, and the ways in which they may respond. These include text messaging, web link, Smartphone… even Twitter! Using their preferred method, they type in the code that matches their response choice (or, with open-ended responses, a code and their message) and the poll results are updated immediately. Once the poll is finished, you can even save it as a PowerPoint or Keynote slide.

What are the details? You can sign up for a free account, which allows up to 30 responses per poll, at www.polleverywhere.com. Standard text messaging rates would apply. This will not generally be a problem, especially for students who usually have generous, if not unlimited, texting plans. However, they should still be made aware and given the option of using a computer or (if they have one) their smartphone’s browser. If there are students who do not have phones or laptops, adjust the settings so multiple responses can be made per device and they can share with a neighbor.

The Omaha World-Herald has an article today on the use of iPads in schools. This particular article focuses on K-12, but the topic is relevant in higher education as well, where many institutions are piloting iPad programs. More importantly, there is a statement made in this article that I think applies to the use of instructional technology, in general.

“So far, there are no studies indicating whether iPads can make a difference in education…”

And there never will be. Ever.

As an instructional technologist, I hear comments all the time about money being spent on technology that does not “make a difference.” Well, guess what? It isn’t the technology that’s doing the teaching or learning! Putting iPads in instructors’ and students’ hands will never “make a difference in education” if they aren’t being used in a meaningful way. A pencil doesn’t make a difference if it’s being used to doodle on a desk, and an iPad doesn’t make a difference if it’s being used to play Angry Birds (an educational difference, that is… I know some of you are very proud of your Angry Birds accomplishments… I also know some of you have no idea what I’m talking about).

If you are a person who doesn’t like to use technology, then I get that (although I will try to convert you). However, let’s not blame the poor interactive whiteboard that’s collecting dust for not making a difference, because someone else on campus is using one in ways that do make a difference.

So, I must break the news to you that, should you find yourself with a windfall of iPads, they will not make a difference in your classroom… but the ways in which you choose to use them just might.

Okay, it’s time for another nifty Internet app (remember Jing?). I’m sure you have found yourself wanting to highlight or annotate a PDF at some point, only to find that you need to purchase, sign up for, and/or download software. Well, Crocodoc eliminates all of these steps. With Crocodoc, you can upload a PDF (or PowerPoint, Word doc, image, etc.), annotate it, and share with others. While you do not need to sign up for a free account to use Crocodoc, doing so will allow you to store and manage files.

Crocodoc files can be shared by providing someone with a link, emailing it to them from Crocodoc, or downloading the file and then sending it via email. As an instructor, I think Crocodoc would be useful for providing electronic feedback. However, in order to maintain privacy, I would make the annotations in Crocodoc, save the file to my computer, and then send it to the student via email (watch out for the comment tool though, as the comments didn’t show up on my downloaded doc… text inserted directly on the document did, however).

Crocodoc can be used by groups to collaborate on a document. This opens up some great possibilities for students to do group work or peer editing. It might even be easier than using Google Docs, as students do not need to sign up for accounts, and fewer tools make it more straightforward.

If Crocodoc sounds interesting to you, try it out! All you need to do is visit the site, upload a document, select an annotation tool, and you’re off to the races.

Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/06/28/textbook

An interesting article arrived in my email today. The article, “Student Research: Can Googling Replace $168 Intro to Psych Textbook?“, described a student research project that compared content found in a textbook with content found on the Internet. Among their findings was the discovery that summaries found on sites such as Wikipedia were “equal to or exceeded” those found in the textbooks that were included in the study. They also looked at free e-books and “lower-cost print materials,” ultimately determining that the use of both digital and print materials was the best option. I am assuming that “print materials” refers to the lower-cost option, as opposed to the $168 textbook.

First of all, I am not even going to get into a debate about the quality of Wikipedia. Whether you or a fan or not, anything you can find on Wikipedia can be found somewhere else on the Internet. So, if you don’t like Wikipedia, let’s just assume the information is being found on a more “reputable” site with which you are comfortable. I do believe that much (all?) textbook content can be found on the Internet. However, does this mean we should replace textbooks? I have my own thoughts on this, but I am curious to read your opinions. Please share!