Using technology to engage your students
There are many different kinds of technology available to online instructors to engage students. What technology have you used to engage your students, and most importantly, did it work?
Nizar,
Great tools! I have also found video to be a very effective media. Traditional age students are coming to education expecting more media, more interaction, more flair - do you see online education "connecting" to these students?
Herbert Brown III
Nizar,
I create many, many instructional videos for classes. The students really connect well to the media. I use Camtasia (TechSmith's commercial version) and have used the free Camstudio software (windows only). Both work well. There are others available as well. Many synchronous learning tools also have "recording" features that would allow you to create something similar. The quality resources are almost endless on the Internet. It just takes time to find them, Evaluate them, and keep links, etc. updated.
Herbert Brown III
Hi Julie,
YouTube contains a myriad of educational videos, however, I prefer to create my one. Please try TechSmith's Jing. It's a small application to create short video tutorials, and it's free, and very easy to use.
Hi Dr. Ernst,
I like tools that help me create video tutorials. I used Camtasia a few years back to create very helpful video tutorials. The response has been overwhelming, and one school bought them from me, for a nominal fee. Students do learn at different rates and through multiple styles, and this is just one of them. I also began using Jing, which is a small version of Camtasia. It allows for short video creations, and easy publication. Very helpful :)
I'll have to check out Tegrity. Thanks for posting these ideas.
I have utilized a lot of you tube videos that are relevant to the course content. The students seem to enjoy viewing these videos.
I used Adobe Connect to give live lectures. I have also created training modules using Adobe Captivate as well.
Podcasting is a great tool to use. Another one that I use in my class is video creation through animoto.com. The student identifies slides and music that illustrate their thoughts and ideas on a topic. My students enjoy their Animoto assignment a great deal.
Engaging students with technology is very important in the online environment. Podcasting has been one technology I have taken advantage of to keep my students attention on the course. It gives them an avenue to listen to online instructions on devices they are familiar with.
It's a great learning tool.
Wow, I imagine that would be very exciting to the students. Great idea!
I teach health care courses. One of my favorite is to post OR live videos for the students to watch. The vast majority of my students love these as it places them right in the OR environment allowing them to hear medical terms and see the going's on.
That is a great suggestion Jennifer! Thanks for sharing it with the group!
I have used exerpts from youtube.com videos to get a particular process across to my students or an illustration of what to do or NOT to do. My excepts are short, no more than 3 or so minutes. It's also an effort to stay with the times and sometimes utilize humor in my lessons.
Jennifer
I just started to integrate technology into my classroom by placing a 'Fan page' on Facebook for my Medical Terminology and Anatomy and Physiology students.
So far, we have 22 'fans' and only a couple of them are my current students. In fact, most of the fans are friends of students as far away as California (we are in Kansas). I'm excited to see where this takes us and the 'fans' from my class are participating in discussions and posting 'Fun Facts' about the body systems that we are learning in the classroom setting.
I plan on doing the same for my Healthcare Law and Ethics classes next semester and try to spread the word to all of the students that attend PCI that this is a viable tool for discussions, additional information about subjects that are being studied, and reputable links that may help them with their education.
The only drawback that I have encountered is that a few of my students are older adults and do not have access to a computer or do not use Facebook at home. This does limit their access to this resource. But, with encouragement from the other students about what a useful site it is, maybe we can turn some of them around!
Wendy
PS: If you're on Facebook, the 'Fan page' is called 'Blood, Guts, and other stuff.' I tried to make the name catchy for our students!
David,
I started using Skype recently.. Interesting. My favorite is yahoo messenger with the video feature. Thanks for the piece of info.
TD
I have used the recommended school courseroom tools. The greatest technology that seems to do the work for me are:
1. telephone
2. chat
3. email
4. webcam with phone.
Amazing how a simple technology as phone and camera brings students close to the instructor.
Thomas
I have used on-line survey tool in my live chat time to let students participating in a short quiz to help them understand the difference between some conceptsand models. It was well received by students as long as I told the students that no one would lose any grade even the answer was incorrect.
Great suggestion Kim. I also think it is very important to document the conversation like you suggest.
