Resources
Create inclusive teaching resources
A suite of new learning materials for lecturers, covering aspects of teaching inclusively, has recently been produced by JISC’s TechDis service. Teaching Inclusively Using Technology consists of a set of five modules each of which contains a 10–20 minute tutorial which can be used directly or adapted for your local context. The five modules are: Preparing Your Learning; Delivering Learning (Lecture/Classroom); Delivering Learning (Practical/Fieldwork/Placement); Delivering Learning (Online) and Assessing Learning.
www.techdis.ac.uk/getTeachingInclusively
Use Twitter in your teaching
Are you thinking about using collaborative web 2.0 type tools for research or teaching? A new set of user guides have been produced which explain how emergent web technologies like RSS, micro-blogging (e.g. Twitter), podcasting and social media can enhance your working practice. Each guide currently consists of a short animated video explaining the key concepts, supported by a more in-depth overview of the topic, including potential uses, risks and how to get started. Each guide will soon also have a supporting A5 version for download and printing.
http://web2practice.jiscinvolve.org/
Publications
Effective Practice in a Digital Age – A guide to technology-enhanced learning and teaching
’It’s no use going back to yesterday because I was a different person then.’ Lewis Carroll’s prescient quote introduces this new JISC publication that updates the first edition of ’Effective Practice with E-learning’. This is a guide for those who seek to better understand how to integrate technology with their teaching, with a focus on blended teaching. The guide is divided into pathways depending on your level of experience and/or institutional resourcing. Video clips are used to augment many of the case studies in the guide. You can download the guide, watch the clips and order a hardcopy from the URL below.
www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/documents/effectivepracticedigitalage.aspx
Higher Education in Web 2.0 World
This is the report of an independent Committee of Inquiry into the impact on higher education of students’ widespread use of Web 2.0 technologies, chaired by Sir David Melville. The report looks at the projected future trends in the use of technology in higher education.
www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/documents/heweb2.aspx
Tools
Create your own screen capture videos
Many academics are finding that the ability to capture what is happening on their screen as a short narrated video clip can be a great way to record visual help for students, for example, when navigating the course VLE for the first time, navigating a complex research archive or providing class or individual feedback (see our case study http://tinyurl.com/ot6uhe). Screentoaster is a free online tool that enables you to record videos of your mouse movements on any program or website that is on your desktop then save them to either the Screentoaster website or YouTube (e.g. in a private channel). Once you’ve signed up and you have your headset ready it is very easy to use.
www.screentoaster.com
Tired of PowerPoint? Try something different ...
Prezi is an interesting new presentation system that lets you create zoomable presentations that resemble mind maps rather than bulleted lists. It is really easy to use and you can use the free version and save the file to the Prezi website or pay-for versions that allow you to restrict viewers and save bigger files. The uses of Prezi may stretch way beyond the traditional. Digital storytelling or departmental information packages for new students are just two possibilities. The software would also appeal to dyslexic students.
http://prezi.com
Organise and manage your research
Zotero is a free Firefox plug-in that enables you to extract bibliographic information from web pages, keep an offline version of a current version of a web page, store multiple JSTOR items and then attach annotations, tags, link items etc. This free piece of software is a worthy competitor to the commercial products you may be familiar with (e.g. Endnote and Reference Manager)
www.zotero.org/
Focus On …
Finding the most recent version of your files
Working with a desktop at home, a desktop at work and a laptop on the move can make locating the most recent version of a file you are working on a complex business. Carrying a
USB stick or mailing things to yourself can help, but another way is to install Dropbox software on all your computers and assign one folder on each as the ’shared one’. After that,
every file you update or place into this folder will simultaneously update on all of your computers.
Dropbox also has a public folder where you can place a
file you want to share via a URL. This is a very useful tool
for personal file management. The free version gives you
up to 2Gb of storage.
www.getdropbox.com/
Other Bits ...
What is a Tiny URL?
The URLs that you see on this page, and throughout this issue, were generated by a free utility which takes long URLs and resizes them for you. Access the utility yourself at
http://tinyurl.co.uk
... and Bobs
• You may need to consult your humanities librarian about access to some of the resources mentioned in this area
• Where possible, I try to recommend software that is open-source, free of charge, copyright cleared, shareware or freeware
• All URLs on this page were last accessed in September 2009
• You can access all the links on this page directly in the online version of WordPlay
