Quizlet

Understanding almost any subject or discipline begins with building a foundation of basic terminology.  You can't think in new ways without new language.  Yikes, that means memorization.  

A lot of folks dread memorization tasks because they simply don't know how to do it in a quick, pain-free manner. Once students know the tricks of memorization, it's not that bad. The essential trick is to practice, practice, practice. That means every day, several times a day, if possible.However, this will only work if we can get our students to spend just a few minutes at a time practicing.

One of the easiest ways we can help students memorize terminology or other basic facts painlessly is to make and use flashcards. 

My friend Monica Hall-Woods (another "electronic professor") reminded me recently of a website called Quizlet.com where students and professors can easily make a set of flashcards online (for FREE) and use it to quickly learn the basic terms or other facts needed in a course.  In fact, Quizlet.com gives users several alternative methods for students to quiz themselves, including some fun, game-like activities.

The more practice sessions theyt do on Quizlet.com, the more your students will almost effortlessly pick up the basic facts they need to learn before they can move on to higher-order thinking.  Quizlet.com helps them keep track of what they've studied and how they are doing.

They (or you) can also upload photos from Flikr.com . . . which means that you can take photos of your models, specimens, maps, locations, etc., with your smartphone, then upload the images into a set of flashcards!

Another great feature of Quizlet.com is that your students can form study groups.  This allows one or more users to post and share sets of flashcards related to a particular topic. Or you can use it to share flashcards you've prepared with the students in your courses.

Quizlet.com also lets students use flashcard stacks that others have created.  (Warning: they need to be careful those they adopt are accurate before using them to study.)  Here's a stack of cards that I created simply by cutting and pasting a list I already had into the Quizlet.com editor:

Bone Marking Types

Try it!  Use different options for quizzing yourself and playing games. I think you'll have fun with it. Which is the point . . . the less pain, the more gain.  At least in this case.

A simpler variation of this service, but with less features, is Word Stash. With this service, professors can set up a "class" if they register a free "teacher account" then you can load in word lists for your students to practice.  You can either copy in the terms and definitions or you can create them in the system, opting to borrow existing definitions from their database for any or all of the terms.

I created a class called, you guessed it, The A&P Student . . . and loaded in a word list to show you how it works. Join this "class" to see how Word Stash works:

http://wordstash.com/academic_classes/190

Password: theapstudent

studyPerfect

Here are some other sites you may want to check out to help your students learn the language of your course quickly:

Kevin's New Terms study tip

Anki Learning System

Study Stack

studyPerfect

Kevin's Flash Card video

 Have any more like this?  Share them with us by commenting!

[Some of this material was also used in my blog The A&P Student]

Do you Prezi?

One of the many alternatives to the ubiquitous PowerPoint presentation is Prezi.

Prezi is a presentation platform that organizes a presentation a more nonlinear way than PowerPoint . . . a feature that can be useful when using a presentation in more informal discussion format, rather than a traditional lecture format.  That's because Prezi gives you more options for unplanned movement back and forth in your projected material.

One of the coolest features it's unique ability to zoom in and out on different parts of your material.  This gives Prezi a unique visual quality not found in other presenters.

Prezi presentations can be easily narrated and can be embedded in a webpage, email, or blog . . . or in your learning management system.

The best way to introduce yourself to Prezi is to try it out.  Oh, did I mention that it's FREE?  Just go to the Prezi website and get a free account and start playing around!

And be sure to hit the Explore tab, to see all the crazy kinds of Prezi presentations that can be created.

In the mean time, you may want to watch this video to get a feel for the whole Prezi concept.



In a nutshell, here's how Prezi works.

Drop.io dropped dead!

I've gushed about the Drop.io service for a while to my colleagues and in another blog.  I was actually getting ready to gush about it here, now that I've had some time to use it and be more specific about ways to use it for teaching and learning.

It was a great service for educators, allowing us to post large media files (podcasts, slide presentations, images, videos) in password protected "drops."  But as of mid-December 2010, drop.io is dead!

As I've lamented before, the downside of using third-party (meaning not you) software and websites to build resources for teaching and learning is that sometimes they change drastically or disappear completely with no warning.  Leaving one up the proverbial creek.

Apparently, the founder of Drop.io got a better offer from Facebook, which also bought the rights to the Drop.io technology.  Pulling the rug out from under the rest of us.  They couldn't have known the drop-dead date is two days before the end of my semester. But it is . . . and so what do I do now?

Unlike many other services, who recommend clients to another service, Drop.io declined to do that.  Perhaps they were obligated by contract (is Facebook planning to unveil their own version of Drop.io?).  They even disabled the comment feature on their blog, so stranded users cannot share with each other possible solutions. I cannot wait for the next incarnation, if that's what's planned, because my students need access to files now.

The solution I found, at least for now his Mediafire. This is a similar "drop" site.I've just started using it and because it is organized in a different way than I am used to, it is taking some time to become familiar with all of the possibilities. But I wanted to post this option now so that others who are stranded can find a place to land quickly.

Mediafire is a free service that allows you to upload files, even very large files, into folders that can be private or that can be shared publicly. The public folders may contain files that are password-protected. This is very useful to me because I have files that include images and other materials that I have permission to use in my course but do not have permission to distribute publicly. The password protection allows me to post the files for my students in a way that prevents others from accessing them.

I found that the uploading process in Mediafire is much simpler than it was in Drop.io. Organizing my files into groups is also easier. Because I have a very large collection of files to post, I've opted for the "pro" upgrade. There is a small charge for this upgrade. But it also comes with some very handy features, such as the ability to create a custom URL for each folder. Thus, I can use one URL for one course and a different URL for another course. That prevents students from getting mixed up and using the wrong files.

On the other hand, there were some nifty features in Drop.io that I have not yet been able to find in Mediafire.

So I'm really glad to have another place to drop files for my students. If you are looking for a Drop.io alternative, you may want to check out Mediafire.

If any of you have some experience using Mediafire, I'd love to hear from you. or if you have some other drop sites that you have been using an education, let us know about those.

If you want to see how it works, go to http://www.mediafire.com/TheElectronicProf and see what I've posted for you there.  To download a file, you must use the password JohnDewey  (FYI, passwords are attached to files--not folders--so you can have some files that are password-protected and some files that are not).

Want to take a quick tour of Mediafire? Try this video.

There's a price to pay

Adopting new electronic tools and the interactive strategies for teaching and learning that they enable has a hidden price. Not just the obvious price: the time and effort it takes to learn, implement, and assess any new teaching/learning tool.  But the hidden price that you incur with an ongoing implementation of that new tool.

What is this hidden price? Well, if you spend several years building . . . and assessing . . . and tweaking . . . and upgrading . . . and expanding . . . a set of tools in a particular format, or in a particular platform, or requiring particular equipment, then you are really on a big hook when powers beyond your control pull that format, platform, or equipment out from under your feet!

This has happened to me in overlapping waves over the last couple of years.

It started with my lionden.com website . . . I'd spent a decade building a website of more than 300 web pages using Microsoft's website creator FrontPage.  Well, a couple of years ago, Microsoft decided to pull it from their lineup.  So why not just keep using it?  Because they also pulled support for FrontPage and also pulled the availability of the server-side extensions needed to run a FrontPage website.  Although each page was mostly standard html, some of it was unique to FrontPage . . . and some of it was just old and/or crappy.  But my entire navigation structure collapsed without the FrontPage server-side plug-ins.

Several well-meaning and competent webmasters advised me that converting my page for use with Dreamweaver or other popular website creator (or plain vanilla html editor) would be relatively easy.  Turns out, they were wrong.  They'd never actually done it themselves.  They had only theorized about it.  The truth is, I've had to completely rebuild everything.  Two years into it  . . . and it's still not quite done.  I have a day job, after all.

Then my college decided that they were going to completely rebuild the college website, converting from a standard in-house web setup to a hosted, proprietary CMS (content management system).  Which means that I have to convert all the faculty web pages I've built.  Turns out that the hundreds of flash files needed to play the in-service presentations on my faculty web pages can't be uploaded to the new system . . . at least not in any way available to faculty.  Thank goodness, our webmaster found someone to convert webpages for the handful of us that have a large, complex set of resources on the college website.  And I moved the most complex stuff off the college website and into one of my own websites. But still . . .

While all that is being hashed out, our college then decided to move from Blackboard CE (the old WebCT 4) to Moodle as our LMS (learning managment system).  A test with the fancy migration tools shows that my courses pretty much completely fall apart.

After a decade of building several courses with complex sets of student resources, I now face converting them all quickly to a system that is very unlike the system they were originally built for.  I'm looking forward to having the help of our wonderful support team . . . but it's going to require a LOT of hours to get everything converted and running smoothly.  And there's that day job I still have.

Now don't get me wrong . . . clearly, I'm a big proponent of experimenting with new tools in education.  But as you build or collect such resources, keep in mind that some day you may have rebuild everything.  Either that, or give up that teaching/learning strategy that you have come to rely on to help you and your students achieve your goals.

In other words, when you implement a new strategy, I think it pays to think about . . . and plan for . . . the likelihood that you may have to rebuild sometime in the future.  A price to pay . . . maybe . . . someday.  So building in transportable modules where possible, keeping raw files of documents and images tucked away in your archives, and recording sources of your borrowed resources seems like a good strategy to reduce the time and effort that may be needed should the rug be pulled out from under you. And where possible, you may want to create and maintain your own website and other resources rather than relying on your college or university system.

Coming soon . . . a nice shortcut that I found to quickly rebuild online tests, quizzes, and exams, in a new platform.
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Free webinar for teachers

I just learned about a FREE webinar for teachers that highlights some nice tools that you may not be aware of yet. It's called Free Tips, Tricks, and Technology Tools for Teachers and is hosted by Innovative Educators.  

I'm not sure how long this webinar will be FREE . . . usually Innovative Educators charge a substantial fee for their products.  So I'd take advantage of this quickly.  And it does give you an idea of whether the usual fee charged by this company is a good investment for you (or your school).


It's an "on demand" product, which means that you can access it when you want to . . . there's no specific date or time.

Some of the resources featured in the webinar include:

Open Office
Google Docs
Google Apps
Google forms
Flickr
Wikipedia

Wikimedia
skype
GIMP
Audacity
 Windows Movie Maker
My DropBox
Prezi
CoMapping
wordle
jing    
irfanview

Here's the URL to gain access to the webinar http://my-ap.us/a2BedP
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Share your world

One of the increasingly popular ways to share your PowerPoint slides and handouts with your students and colleagues is the web service SlideShare.

You can use SlideShare to upload your slides and share them publicly or privately.  Private sharing, where you give you students a secret URL, may be useful when using copyright images that you shouldn't be broadcasting widely or when sharing presentations that you don't necessarily want the whole world viewing.  Such private sharing is not a particularly strong wall against misuse of your material . . . but is pretty effective most of the time.

Presentations that you've uploaded to SlideShare can later be narrated, which is a great feature.  That means that you could use SlideShare to host virtual lectures or introductory previews.  You can even embed them in your online syllabus or course management system.

Your students and colleagues can either view your presentation on the SlideShare website in a viewer (or full screen), or they can download the file and play it in PowerPoint directly.  Colleagues could perhaps edit and add to your presentation, then upload their version for sharing.

One of the best features of  SlideShare is that it's FREE!

Here's a sample of a narrated presentation from SlideShare that you might want to share with your colleagues.

The Art Of Listening

View more presentations from Phil Wylie.

Ustream for professors

Have you been to Ustream yet?

It might be the biggest thing for providing videos to your students since YouTube (or the education-oriented knock-off TeacherTube)--both of which I recently told you about.

Ustream  is a website where you can use your webcam to broadcast live from your computer.  For FREE!

Because Ustream allows unlimited internet broadcasts, you can broadcast to an unlimited number of students or colleagues.  Here are just a few ideas:

• Broadcast your class to students who are ill, or are at a distant location.
• Broadcast help sessions or tutorials to students.
• Hold online orientations to your courses (especially useful for distance education courses).
• Broadcast demonstrations that would be difficult in the classroom.
• Visit remote locations to which you cannot bring the entire class (virtual field trips).
• You know that already-answered question you still keep getting? Broadcast it and forget it!
• Broadcast "preview" introductions to lectures or demos before class time, so students are better prepared.
• Host live webinars with students or colleagues . . . anywhere in the world
• On a field trip or research trip . . . or stuck in your lab?  Broadcast back to the classroom live from your location.  Bring your scholarly activity to the classroom, without having to take the whole class along.
• At a conference?  An out-of-town funeral?  Hold class anyway by broadcasting from your location back to the classroom.
• Hold a virtual meeting with colleagues on other campuses.
• Your entire class can watch live or recorded broadcasts of current events such as political debates, rocket launches, disaster sites, sporting events, wildlife activity, etc.

Because you can record your live broadcasts on Ustream , or upload previously recorded video from YouTube or your computer, viewers can access your content asynchronously.  So you have to put your head into the lion's mouth only one time for that dramatic demonstration . . . and never again after that.

If  you teach at a school where cutting-edge teaching technology is frowned upon as too risky for the network, you'll be glad to hear that neither the sender nor the receiver of a Ustream broadcast has to have any special software installed.  Well, you do need a browser . . . but all you need is a browser. OK, a webcam helps if you are the one broadcasting.

However, you can opt to download a FREE desktop application called Ustream Producer, which helps you import movies, audio, screen captures, and more, into your broadcasts more easily.  They also have iPhone and Android apps you can use to broadcast from your smartphone.

Hmmm, wouldn't that be great when you have a chance to meet a hero in your discipline, such as a famous scientist or historian, to be able to broadcast a quick chat with them and share this with your students?

You can embed live or recorded broadcasts in your webpage or a PowerPoint slide, or simply link to them.

Check it out for yourself at ustream.tv

And here's an example of a live feed of a hummingbird nest.

Live Broadcasting by Ustream

Retaining and satisfying online students

Although I'm a bit new at teaching entirely online courses, I've been teaching web-enhanced courses for years.  Yet, I still feel like I have a lot to learn.  For example, how do I keep my students engaged when I'm not face to face with them?

Our friends at Faculty Focus have new FREE report available that will interest you . . . Strategies for Increasing Online Student Retention and Satisfaction.

Despite the tremendous growth of distance education, retention remains a troubling problem. As an increasing number of colleges and universities identify online education as a critical component to their long-term strategy, the issue of retention can no longer be ignored. It is mandatory for everyone who touches the web-based learner to understand why these students leave their online courses, and what it takes to keep them there.

Free to Faculty Focus subscribers (a FREE registration), this timely report provides practical strategies for improving online student retention, engagement, and satisfaction. Articles include:

• 11 Tips for Improving Retention of Distance Learning Students
• Taking a Holistic View of Student Retention
• Eight Suggestions to Help You Get Your Retention Act Together Now
• Online Mentoring Builds Retention
• Finding Helpful Patterns in Student Engagement

Download this FREE report now:

Strategies for Increasing Online Student Retention and Satisfaction

Intererested in other FREE reports from Faculty Focus? 

Try this link: FREE REPORTS

{some of the above material comes directly from Faculty Focus}

Why faculty need their own websites

Over ten years ago, I decided to get my own independent website to use for teaching and other faculty purposes. I am SO glad I did! Let me tell you why I did it, why I'm glad I did it, and why you should get your own website, too!

The main reason I created my first independent website for students back in olden times is that our college then had a policy that if I posted a syllabus or any other material on the web it had to be sent to my dean for approval, then to the VP for marketing, then to the webmaster, THEN I could go ahead and post it. Not only when I was posting new material, but even when I wanted to change a typo or add an assignment! Clearly, the benefits of immediate publication were lost in this process. And talk about a disincentive to keep your pages current! So I completely avoided cumbersome policies and procedures at my college.

Another reason that I went in this direction was because I was teaching another course at another school. Some of the same resources could be used by students at both schools. Using two different websites, I'd duplicate much of my efforts. Using resources at one school for students at another school had its problems, too. So may own website allowed me to consolidate my efforts.

Also, being an author of educational material, I know how important it is for faculty to maintain ownership of their work. I don't want my school to own my work, because if they do then I can't use it at another school and I can have a textbook or software company publish it for me. There is a lot of legal precedent on my side, but web pages independent of any school can help avoid any claims on my work.

Of course, the down side to moving in this direction is that I'd have to be my own web page programmer and be my own webmaster.

But it turned out that this was not such a big deal. One can easily build a website with approximately the same skills as using a word processing program. Also, there is the up side to being your own webmaster . . . you are in control. You can do pretty much anything you want to do with your web pages. The only really hard part is getting over that huge hump of deciding to just go for it.

OK, this worked for Kevin . . . but why should I have my own website?

Here are some thoughts:

1. You are in control. No college policies or procedures. No standard design or limited web space or bandwidth to adhere to.

2. You can use it for more than one school or organization.

3. Helps you maintain ownership of your intellectual property.

4. You can password-protect your site (or certain pages) if you need to.

5. It's cheap. Often FREE.

6. It's flexible. You can change your design, your content, your format, any time you please.

Next time, I'll summarize some of the options you have in starting your own website.

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