1. Office Mix— Enhance PowerPoints by adding video recording of yourself, screencasts, and quizzes all from within PowerPoint. Mix is a free plug-in that is downloaded and a tab added to the PowerPoint toolbar. Post finished PowerPoint with quiz to Office Mix cloud and click on analytics to display student names and results. If just using audio and video recording, export to YouTube to add captions.
2. Piktochart— Of the tools listed, this is probably my favorite. With this tool, build infographics that visually displays information usually with graphs, charts, and numbers. Easily work with templates or create one from scratch. The end result is a colorful, poster-like display that calls attention to critical points. Could be used as an alternative format for student presentations.
3. TedEd— On this website, search a vast library of visual lessons created by educators and approved by TED staff to incorporate into courses. Each lesson includes a video, questions about the video, additional resources to explore, and discussion questions. You can also search through TED Talks and educational videos on YouTube to create your own lesson with questions. Existing lessons can also be customized.
4. Voicethread— A collaborative presentation tool that strings together pictures and allows comments from the viewers. On each slide, the presenter narrates first and viewers follow with comments that come in a variety of forms including voice, text, and phone messaging. Conversations are built asynchronously with the author given control over the comments and able to delete inappropriate remarks.
5. Zaption— This tool turns watching videos into an active learning experience. Questions are embedded throughout a video to gauge student understanding and, possibly, serve as an incentive for paying attention. Search through appropriately licensed videos from YouTube and Vimeo that can be trimmed in length. The published video with added content is called a learning tour. The free account allows for six elements including questions, discussion, and images with the instructor able to view results on the Zaption website.

A free download that adds a toolbar to PowerPoint to make your presentations more engaging and interactive. You’ll be able to record video of yourself that easily embeds into slides. You can record screencasts, add quizzes and polls, and export as video or store in Office Mix cloud. We’ll discuss optimizing these features and output strategies to meet your needs.

My 2 favorite tips:

Use the space bar to scroll down the page; shift + space bar to scroll up  (I still like navigating with the arrow buttons.)

In PowerPoint or Keynote, keep attention on you rather than the screen when talking by pressing “b” on the keyboard to blackout presentation or “w” to whiteout.

Form tutorials and other Google Apps help can be found at: http://goo.gl/KgyGGd

Remind allows instructors to send out bulk SMS messages (one way text messages) to students. Great for sending out exam reminders, test reviews, or notifications for any upcoming events.

• Easy to sign up for instructor and students
• All phone numbers are kept private
• Messages are sent one-way, so students can’t see your number or reply
• Schedule texts to be sent out at a later date
• Free

Download Android and IOS

*Apple Users – The ‘Delete‘ key on your keyboard is in the same place and serves the same function as the ‘Backspace‘ key on a PC keyboard. If you wanted to delete text to the right like a delete key on a PC press Fn + Delete.

Directions for setting up your CFCC Gmail to your iPhone or iPad.

After the myCFCC gmail account has been synced to the iPhone or iPad, use a computer or your mobile device to setup syncing multiple calendars to the iPhone/iPad.

Computer Instructions

Using a desktop or laptop computer, login into myCFCC at my.cfcc.edu

Select the Mail icon to access the myCFCC gmail account

The mail account will open in a separate tab.

Open an new tab in the web browser and visit the calendar select page

https://www.google.com/calendar/iphoneselect

Select from calendars owned or shared with the user to sync to the iDevices native calendar app. Click Save to finish.

Mobile Device Instructions

Use the iPhones web browser to login into myCFCC at my.cfcc.edu

Select the Mail icon to access the myCFCC gmail account. The mail account will open in a separate tab.

Open an new tab in the web browser and visit the calendar select page

https://www.google.com/calendar/iphoneselect

Select from calendars owned or shared with the user to sync to the iDevices native calendar app. Click Save to finish.

MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Course; meaning, free and open enrollment to anyone, anywhere. The traditional MOOC typically touts student enrollment from hundreds to thousands of students for one class. Yes–thousands.

Courses are developed and delivered by faculty at prominent institutions like Duke, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, etc. These institutions are partnering together with organizations like Coursera, edx and Udacity to create a unified course delivery system for the MOOCs.

While MOOC courses don’t offer the same level of credit that traditional university courses offer, some provide certificates upon successful completion of the course. There are rumors of MOOC certificates earning street cred, particularly for hiring purposes in large technology corporations around the globe. If you have certificates in Computer Architecture and Computing for Data Analysis then you will be a more desirable hire than the guy with none.

I am currently enrolled in my second MOOC, Gamification, taught by Kevin Warbach from the University of Pennsylvania.  The course is designed with a series of video lectures, quizzes, and discussion forums.  I enjoy the open format. People from all other the world are enrolled and right away you get a sense of community with the other participants.  It’s easy to enroll in a course and if you don’t have time to finish it, you didn’t waste your money! New courses are starting all the time, there are no traditional semesters.

Check out available MOOCs at:

• Coursera – a company who has partnered with 16 of the world’s top universities to offer a wide range of free courses across disciplines. (Stanford, Princeton, Michigan…)
• edX – originally developed by MIT. They have recently partnered with Harvard and Berkeley. Most of their courses are technical.
• Udacity – courses from a range of universities. Most of their courses focus on the technical.

More on MOOC’s

Good MOOC’s, Bad MOOC’s @ Chronicle of Higher Edcuation

Instruction for Masses Knocks Down Campus Walls @ NYTimes

What It’s Like to Teach a MOOC (and What The Heck’s a MOOC?) @ The Atlantic