Mapping Technologies for Student Learning
In recent years, new mapping tools such as Google Earth and Google Maps have made it much easier for students to relate points on a map to topics in any discipline. Subjects such as music, history, literature, and biology can be mapped as easily as geography, architecture, and geology. For example, locations of historical events, along with details about the event, time, images, and other information, can easily be plotted on a map; students can then look for relationships and trends from the mapped data.
Files with the filetype of kml can be downloaded to use as layers on Google Earth and Google Maps; many of these files are freely available online. A great source of historical map data is Rumsey Historical Overlays; the New York DEC has a pageful of overlays such as bird conservation areas, hiking trails, lake contour maps, ecological zons, and more on their site.
For students and instructors who are out in the field: various devices including iPhones and Android devices can be used to geotag pictures with their associated latitude and longitude; the data can then be pulled up on Google Maps and Google Earth for study.
GIS software such as ArcGIS is useful for high-end mapping applications.
Here are some mapping tools that are available online. Most are free or very inexpensive:
- ArcGIS http://www.arcgis.com: A source for creating your own map or accessing ready-made maps.
- Google Maps (web application): http://maps.google.com
- Google Earth (desktop application): http://earth.google.com
- ScribbleMaps (web) http://scribblemaps.com: Mark up and save a Google Map
- Simply Map http://simplymap.com: A Web application that creates thematic maps and reports using demographic, business and marketing data provided by the vendor. SimplyMap requires a subscription, but is available at no charge with login from computers on the Cornell campus or through VPN.
- BatchGeo http://batchgeo.com: Upload a CSV data set to create a map. Very easy to use!
- GPS4Cam http://gps4cam.com/: iPhone and Android app that geotags pictures taken with your smartphone
- GeoCommons http://geocommons.com/home: Upload your own dataset or use one that has already been added. Features include temporal animation (animate your data over time).
- GpicSync (desktop application for geotagging): http://code.google.com/p/gpicsync/
- GeoSetter (desktop application for geotagging): http://www.geosetter.de/en/
And some resources with teaching ideas to get you started:
- Carnegie Mellon “Information Visualization Tools” (http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/technology/tools/informationvisualization/index.html)
Addresses questions such as “How do I know if a particular tool is appropriate for my course?”, “What are some possible pitfalls – and strategies to mitigate them?”, and “How can I assess student learning and performance?”. - Carleton College “Why Teach with Google Earth?”
http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/google_earth/why.html
In addition to answering the question in the title, this article also addresses the question “Google Earth or GIS?”. Also see “How to Teach with Google Earth”: http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/google_earth/how.html which provides several examples of mapping in math, geography, food science, and geoscience.
How to Use Smart Mobile Devices for Teaching
Thinking about using smart mobile devices for teaching but not sure where to start?
Here are specific ways faculty members can use smart mobile technology to save time and share practical classroom activities that promote student creativity, connectivity, and collaboration.
Mobile learning to encourage social interaction, active engagement, and self-motivation:
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Apps for iPads/iPhones/Smart Devices:
- Polling Systems: webClicker, eClicker, iResponse, many others
- Assessments: Essay Grader
- Reference: Cornell Libraries App, Lab of Ornithology’s BirdsEye and Bird Q&A
Social Networking Use for Lecture Content
How to get started?
Academic Technologies can help to…
- Prepare: Blackboard, Power Point
- Teach & Lecture: clickers, videos
- Engage & Discuss: blog, wikis, web discussions
- Assess & Feedback: Bb quizzes, clickers, surveys
- Assist in selecting technology tools for presentations and lectures.
Links & References:
- Information and links for this session can be found on the Innovation blog at: http://blogs.cornell.edu/innovation
- “Mobile IT in Higher Education 2011″ EDUCAUSE http://www.educause.edu/MobileITinHigherEducation
- “The Educational Potential of Mobile Computing in the Field” EDUCAUSE Quarterly http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/TheEducationalPotentialofMobil/225863
- “7 Learning Models for Mobile Learning” Mobl21 Web Site http://www.mobl21.com/blog/08/7-learning-models-for-mobile-learning/
- “Universal Instructional Design Principles for Mobile Learning” Educause, 2009 http://www.educause.edu/Resources/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutColla/182641
- “The Evolution of Mobile Teaching and Learning” Retta Guy, Informing Science, 2009 http://www.google.com/books?id=Cz5SCEaHNAMC
- Cornell CALS College Collection of Apps and other web links http://calsnews.cornell.edu/2011-spring/exclusives/tech-tools.html
How to Teach Students to “Self-Assess” and Reflect on their Learning
This information was shared at the co-sponsored event (Academic Technologies and the Center for Teaching Excellence) on self-assessment in learning and teaching on November 07, 2011.
“The most fruitful lesson is the conquest of one’s own error. Whoever refuses to admit error may be a great scholar but he is not a great learner. Whoever is ashamed of error will struggle against recognizing and admitting it, which means that he struggles against his greatest inward gain.” – Goethe
Tools and Services for Self-Assessment at Cornell
- Cornell University Blog Service
- Confluence Wiki Service
- Blackboard CMS
- Turnitin Assignments via Blackboard
- Polling Service
- Qualtrics/Assessment Service
- Tutorial Service (SoftChalk)
- ePortfolio Service (Mahara)
How to get started?
Academic Technologies can help you to…
- Prepare: Blackboard, PowerPoint, ePortfolios
- Teach & Lecture: polling, video
- Engage & Discuss: blog, wikis, web discussions
- Assessment & Feedback: Bb assessments, polling, surveys
- Assist in selecting technology tools for presentations, lectures, and other educational purposes.
Links & References
- Information and links for this session can be found on the Innovation blog at: http://blogs.cornell.edu/innovation
- Teaching & Research Site for Cornell CIT. http://www.cit.cornell.edu/teaching/
- “131 ePortfolio Resources” Educause, 2011. http://www.educause.edu/Resources/Browse/eportfolios/17180
- “Using Self and Peer-Assessment to Enhance Students’ Future-learning in Higher Education” Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 2011. http://ro.uow.edu.au/jutlp/vol8/iss1/5/
- “We Must Teach Students to Fail Well” The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2009. http://bit.ly/v1vVtc
Uses of Video for Teaching & Learning
Video and multi-media has been available for teaching over the years, and there are many examples of how this can enhance teaching and learning activities. With more readily available videos through sources such as YouTube, new media can be accessed, created and shared easily. Mobile and tablet technologies have made it easy to record, mix and share, even for a relatively novice user.
Examples of use for Teaching may include-
- Video-blog repository as the A-V Collection for Organizational Behavior
- Demonstrations such as the Physics Video Database “You can review demonstrations shown in lecture to look again and more closely.”
- Record lectures for Student Review
- How-to video’s: see the series of video’s for learning Blackboard
- Record Site Visits and create “Virtual Field Trips”
- Use as Discussion Triggers and embed video clips in lectures
- Interview of Experts
- Simulations
- Student assignments and reflection
Text-to-Video
A new type of tool has emerged that can create video animations from text. See a medical school example using xtranormal.
- GoAnimate
- Animoto.com a video slide show creation tool
- xtranormal text to movie technology
- Stupeflix
Webcasting tools to create how-to video’s:
- Jing (free online): “make a picture or make a short video of what you see on your computer monitor.”
- Camtasia
Questions?
contact Academic Technologies (email: atc_support@cornell.edu)
This posting supports the fall 2011 Teaching with Technology series co-sponsored by Academic Technologies, and the Center for Teaching Excellence.
Making the Most of Lectures
Powerpoint has been available for teaching for more than twenty years. It originally was the digital replacement for overhead slides, and over time practices have evolved to enable new lecture and presentation approaches.
New “tools are emerging that allow instructors to craft presentations that more closely reflect new approaches to teaching and learning. Presentation tools based on new models of representing information also encourage instructors to rethink learning activities in ways that can improve learning. These tools might also bring about a more thorough merging of in-person and remote classroom audiences.”
- From 7 Things You Should Know About Next Generation Presentation Tools,
Educause Learning Initiative, 2010.
Seven Key Principles For Improving Your Presentations
(from Prof. Amy Newman’s “Using Visuals to Support a Presentation: PowerPoint”, CyberTower study room)
- making the main point clear
- making the presentation easy to follow
- choosing an attractive and appropriate design
- replacing text with graphics
- replacing numbers with charts
- writing simply and clearly
- making sure that PowerPoint remains a tool that supports the presentation, rather than becoming the focus of the presentation.
Resource for presentations and emerging practices
- “… ideas are much more likely to be remembered if they are presented as pictures instead of words or pictures paired with words. (Picture Superiority Effect)” – from “Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs” on Slideshare.com
- Presentations can incorporate other tools to meet diverse learning needs, this presentation “Sticky Lectures: Digital Tools You Can Use to Encourage Engagement & Retention” highlights some ideas. (from SlideShare.com)
- “Beyond PowerPoint: Trends in Presentation Technology” provides an overview of presentation practices and evolving technologies.
- The “Lessing Method” of presentation that “has popularized this approach to presentation that relies upon quickly changing slides, often featuring a single word, image, or phrase”.
- Ubiquitous Presenter “uses Tablet PC ink to allow instructors to annotate pre-prepared slides and students to create submissions for in-class activities.”
- Flipping Lectures: A new approach to teaching is emerging to “flip” the lecture. “Instead of a traditional classroom lecture, students instead watch video lectures before class. Then, class time is used to review challenging concepts and collaborative problem solving.
Presentation Tools:
- Animoto: Pulls text, video and images together to make unique videos which can be used as presentations.
- Prezi: non linear presentation tool. Click for an example.
- Google Presentations
- Zoho Show
- Slide Boom
- SlideShare
There are other tools to assist you in converting numbers to graphs and dates into time lines. See other blog postings for ideas.
Questions? contact Academic Technologies (email: atc_support@cornell.edu)
This posting supports the fall 2011 Teaching with Technology series co-sponsored by Academic Technologies, and the Center for Teaching Excellence.
Social Media & Other Interactive Tools for Teaching
Incorporating Google Moderator, Twitter, and others….
In recent years, there has been a proliferation of new social media and other interactive technology tools. So how do you navigate this ever changing landscape? How can these tools be used for teaching and learning activities?
Backchannel Communications
“Backchannel communication is a secondary electronic conversation that takes place at the same time as a conference session, lecture, or instructor-led learning activity… the allure is its immediacy as a real-time conversation in parallel with the formal presentation.” – EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, 2010. Examples of backchannel tools include Twitter.
- 7 Things You Should Know About Backchannel Communications.
- A framework for teaching with twitter.
- Teaching with Twitter: “Teaching With Twitter: Not for the Faint of Heart”
- Horton hears a tweet. Dunlap, J. C. & Lowenthal, P. R. (2009). EDUCAUSE Quarterly, 32(4).
- 7 things you should know about microblogging.
- The Twitter Experiment
Idea Generation, Collaboration & Feedback
Google Moderator “ is a Web-based tool that lets a user set up a series of one or more topics to which people can post questions… [It] is a way to accept and filter questions and ideas in a course. It is also a way to create a record of what students understand, question, and would like to explore further.” From 7 things you need to know about google moderator. Teaching and Learning with Technology at Penn State.
Related Tools
- Cornell supported blogs and wiki‘s.
- GoogleDocs at Cornell
- GoogleDocs; GoogleGroup; Using GoogleDocs
- OpenStudy.com: online study groups
- MindMeister: online mind mapping and brainstorming
- Ning.com: online community collaboration environment.
- Ideascale.com: collect ideas and a community can identify most important ideas.
Potential Teaching & Learning Activities
Considerations for Teaching & Course Planning
Using new technology tools in teaching have some planning considerations to keep in mind.
- What will students need? For example if using a tool like Twitter, who will manage the backchannel?
- Are there privacy or FERPA considerations? Review related Cornell guidelines.
- If using a third party vendor, what are the terms of service or other “cloud” considerations?
- Access: do students have accounts? Are they willing to use it for a class?
- Technical Skills/support – do they use these tools? Or do they need to learn? How will technical questions be answered?
- Time- how much class time for this?
- What can students do? Don’t make any assumptions!
- Expectations: what are the required activities? Will the activities be graded? If so, how?
Questions?
For teaching support: Center for Teaching Excellence (email: ctecornell@cornell.edu)
For teaching with technology support: Faculty Support Services, Cornell Information Technologies (email: atc_support@cornell.edu)
This posting is part of the spring 2011 Teaching with Technology series co-sponsored by Faculty Support Services-CIT, and the Center for Teaching Excellence.
Teaching with Tools in the “Cloud”
There are many new and innovative tools for collaboration, creating content and sharing information with others. A 2011 Educause Learning Initiative white paper “Privacy Considerations in Cloud-Based Teaching and Learning Environments” provides practical suggestions for how faculty members can use innovative instructional strategies and engage students while considering privacy issues while using web 2.0 cloud-based technologies.
Some examples include…
New ways of doing presentations and student projects:
- Animoto: Pulls text, video and images together to make unique videos which can be used as presentations.
- Prezi: non linear presentation tool. Click for an example.
- Google Presentations
- Zoho Show
- Slide Boom
- SlideShare
“Beyond PowerPoint: Trends in Presentation Technology” provides an overview of presentation practices and evolving technologies.
Video Chat and Collaborating:
- Google Talk
- Skype
Creating Content “mashups” and other tools:
- Build timelines
- Visualizations: Wordle, Taxedo
- Open source audio
- Jing
See more examples….
As more web 2.0 resources emerge the list continues to change. The challenge for teaching is to evaluate emerging tools and determine how does it fit with teaching best practices.
Visit our blog periodically to see what’s new and how it could enhance teaching practice.
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Jing!
Of the many great free tools that are available online, one of the most useful is Jing (http://www.jingproject.com) by TechSmith. Jing lets you create a screen shot or a short (up to 5 minute) video of your screen and then save, upload, or email it. It’s incredibly easy to use.
Here are some of the ways it can be used:
- Capture some screen video to provide quick instructions on how to use software;
- Get screen captures in a hurry. Jing is always ready to go. If you have more time, SnagIt – also from TechSmith – is a more robust tool that provides more editing tools for your capture;
- When you need to reproduce a bug for a vendor, a screen video is worth a thousand words.
Really, there’s nothing not to love.
Watch a quick (2:36) video about Jing
The Free Sound Project: Open Source Audio
Sounds enhance immersive experiences and add punctuation to multimedia projects and presentations. Searching for just the right sound effect? Try the Free Sound Project.
from the Free Sound website:
“The Freesound Project aims to create a huge collaborative database of audio snippets, samples, recordings, bleeps, … released under the Creative Commons Sampling Plus License. The Freesound Project provides new and interesting ways of accessing these samples, allowing users to
- browse the sounds in new ways using keywords, a “sounds-like” type of browsing and more
- up and download sounds to and from the database, under the same creative commons license
- interact with fellow sound-artists!”
The Free Sound project is not about sharing music – it’s about all kinds of other sounds! Register for a free acccount and access this unique collection of sound bits.
You Can Put Anything on a Timeline
You can create your own timelines! Timeline generators allow you to create timelines on any topic you can imagine. They also let you add information in different formats such as video, audio, text, and images. A timeline is a unique interface for presenting information; it can even serve as a shared knowledge base when students and instructors continuously update it.
These service providers offer free timeline generators and will host your timelines.
TimeGlider http://timeglider.com/
TimeGlider is “a data-driven interactive timeline application built on the (Adobe) Flash platform.” It is used by the New York Times as a way to display the results of an article search. TimeGlider developers are working on a Plus version based on feedback from educators and students but the current application is free.
TimeRime http://www.timerime.com/
TimeRime invites users to “create free time lines and share them with the world.” Developed by a Dutch company, TimeRime also offers an Educational version that can be purchased and supported locally so that access to content can be restricted within an institution. The web interface that displays publicly accessible timelines also allows users to rate them, leave comments and use a keyword search to find timelines with a particular theme.
Dipity http://www.dipity.com/
Dipity is a free timeline generator that claims to be in the alpha stage of development. Each point in a Dipity timeline opens a window with tabs for video, pictures, description and comments. Dipity offers widgets that pull in videos, images and updates from other sources automatically and connects to social networking sites. And if you want a different view – Dipity can display your timeline as a list, flipbook or map.
As with all externally hosted services take copyright and privacy into account before submitting course-related content that may be publicly available as a condition of using the service.