embedded google doc

Vocaroo

One of my colleagues has just shown me Vocaroo http://vocaroo.com/ which is a cloud based recording tool. It works great with the chromebooks we are using and did a nice 8 minute recording of the work he's doing at the moment. Quality seems pretty good seeing as he used the inbuilt mike and it comes with an embed code. Here's his post which includes an embedded vocaroo.


http://akashbltasks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/using-blended-approach-in-series-of.html

Try a MOOC

You might want to consider the issues raised in this very clear BBC article http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-23069542  before trying it for yourself and if you're unclear about what a MOOC is you can watch this video:





Here are a few that I thought might appeal if you do want to give it a go:

Teaching in higher education 101 (Coursera)

e-learning and digital cultures (Coursera)

World War 2 (Harvard)

or less HE

adding two digit numbers and a whole bunch of maths (Khan Academy)

essay and report writing  (OU) 

Directly related to teacher education 

Teachers sharing resources online (OU)

Inclusive education (OU)

MOOCs

What better way than to define this phenomenon than with an infographic. This one comes from here: http://www.onlinecolleges.net/

Curated Newspapers and push technology

The easiest 'news aggregator' out there (in my view) is addictomatic

here is an example http://addictomatic.com/topic/newham+college#suavq.wd.bh

search for stuff, edit the sources (lose the twitter one; it's broken!) the copy the link- the link changes each time you edit a source.


Kuratur focusses on twitter users, hashtags and content BUT you can also link to facebook pages and any site with an RSS function. AND you don't need to be a Twitter user to harvest the content,

see this one I made yesterday: http://www.kuratur.com/eteachingx3/newham-college.html 


If you are a Twitter user and you want something more sophisticated then either of paper.li or rebelmouse might be the tools for you. Go to the full resources below so you can see them in full as well as the embedded headline thing.

Paper.li is pretty straightforward- you can link to a daily update or copy the embed scrip and paste it into your blog or VLE if you like- this is one of mine http://paper.li/eteachingx3/1374943150 or embedded: this is another from Rebel Mouse: here's the link: https://www.rebelmouse.com/teachertrainer/ I can't embed the whole paper but I can embed one item and it looks like this: paper. li allows for subscription whilst rebelmouse enables e mail alerts. This means that these things use PUSH technology in two ways:


1. The material is pushed to you (the curator of the newspaper) based on parameters set when you set the thing up. You may have set it up so that it posts things that include a specific # (hashtag)... or from a Twitter account (for example) if so then things are PUSHED to that hashtag or account THEN pushed to your newspaper.

2. If people subscribe then the automatic alerts are a form of push tech alerting them to updates.

• any subscription that generates alerts is push tech any social medium that allows following uses push tech 
• any social medium that uses a 'wall' or 'timeline' is using push tech 
• "readers"/ "aggregators" or "curation tools" like 'scoop it' use push tech 
• RSS feeds are special web links (look like this: https://audioboo.fm/users/38785/boos.rss) that can be used in 'readers' or VLEs such as Moodle to have a place where new material automatically populates the page

if you have a smart phone you may have seen a message similar to this:

"this program would like to send you push notifications"

then you have to accept or decline. This is the same sort of thing- instead of you asking 'Angry Birds' or 'Candy Crush Saga' if they have any new levels, games, add ons or products they will helpful push them onto you without you asking. This may not be something you crave but think about the ability to automatically push messages onto your trainees - twitter enables you to do this and you can get the students to set it up in such a way that your message appears as a text message on their screens. You could really get into their brains and play havoc with their out of college personas with a couple of carefully timed direct tweets!

Martin Compton

top tools conveniently linked and explained

This website has a great collection of links with brief overviews of the tools- it's a little dated in places (for example 'stixy' - a former favourite of mine- is still there) and not all are cloud based but the effort is much appreciated (advertising and layout may be a little off-putting but still well worth  bookmarking). Thanks GK for sending the linking on too. 

cartoonist

I made this using the tool at Creaza http://www.creazaeducation.com/ Free space is limited but the effect is excellent.