Teaching in Higher Ed

tools

My back-to-school purchase

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back-to-school-purchase

I was one of those kids: So excited for the start to school, especially the purchase of all the school supplies.

I don't go quite as crazy for the start of school these days, but every year does tend to bring with it one fun new thing to add to my collection of teaching tools.

The problem

Let me start by sharing one of my biggest challenges to finishing a class.

There's often a line of about ten students waiting to ask me something. There's another professor waiting to set up his/her class, which starts in 10 minutes. I need to get to a different classroom and setup and test my laptop. And the clock keeps ticking…

More times than I care to admit, something gets lost in the shuffle. In the past, I've left behind my cell phone, my laptop power cord, a water bottle, or the cord I use to connect my laptop to the projector.

These are not inexpensive things to replace, as you can imagine.

The potential solution

I'm hoping that the back-to-school purchase that I made is going to make a difference.

gridit

I purchased a Grid It bag organizer, in the hopes that I'll stop leaving things behind in the classroom.

This organizer is extremely flexible and allows you to find the perfect spot to store key essentials for your teaching (electronics, or otherwise).

griditwithtxt 3

I've got my Grid It mostly packed now, with:

  • VGA to projector cord
  • Mobile device power cord
  • Binder clips
  • Tape
  • Writing implements
  • Powerpoint remote clicker
  • Macbook power cord
  • USB to Cat5 cord

The final essential item to be packed is a container of mints. When I was searching on Amazon, they seemed awfully expensive, but perhaps it has just been a while since I purchased mints.

The plan

My plan is to remove this Grid It from my bag as I'm setting up for class. Then, when I'm done teaching, I'll put any items that I removed back into the Grid It and will place it back in my teaching bag.

My hope is that I'll notice an empty spot in the grid, if something is missing, which will prompt me to look around and replace the item. This won't help me if I leave my phone behind, since I tend to keep my phone in my purse and not in my teaching bag.

I use my phone a lot when I'm teaching, especially for the Attendance2 app. That's the app that helps me call on students randomly, or place them into random groups. I use it at least a few times during each and every class.

I suspect that if I could just get in the habit of only placing the phone down on the same table where my laptop is, I wouldn't have as much of an issue. However, I'm not as confident in that “fix” as I am in the Grid It's potential for helping me not leave other stuff behind.

[reminder]Do you have any back-to-school purchases that you've made to help your year of teaching go better?[/reminder]

 

Applescript for starting and ending presentations

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apple-script

You know how it is…

It is your first day back after a vacation (or, in our case, a staycation). You're ready to rock and roll.

But, you run into all kinds of road blocks.

Today, I finally figured out the problem with my contact syncing that I've been experiencing. It first required being on the phone with an Apple tech support person for more than 45 minutes, though.

In the middle of the call, I had to ask the guy to hold on, since there was a devious looking spider that I had tried to kill earlier in the call. He was not about to be defeated.

I finally texted Dave and asked him to please come help. Dave was heroic and the Apple tech didn't seem irritated by the slight wait.

When the contacts issue was resolved, I finally got to my tasks on OmniFocus. One stood out to me as not urgent, but a potential time saver during the school year.

Apple Script for Starting and Ending Presentations / Classes

I finally allowed myself to experiment with Helmut Hauser's Apple Scripts for when you're starting and ending a presentation.

When I run it, the script quits various applications that I wouldn't want running when I'm giving a presentation. The script also launches and activates an application called Caffeine that makes sure my laptop doesn't go to sleep or run a screen saver when I'm in the middle of teaching a class.

The end-of-presentation script brings back all the applications that I want to have running when I'm not presenting (such as dropbox and OmniFocus).

It took me quite a while to set it up. This was mostly because I've never used AppleScript before today and I was in unchartered waters.

Helmut has also included on his post a link for an Alfred workflow that runs the scripts off of a keyboard shortcut. I hadn't installed Alfred on my Mac, since upgrading my hardware about a year ago. It is back on and I'm excited to familiarize myself, again, with some of the efficiencies it offers.

It is 5:05 pm… and I'm so pleased to report that when I press option-shift-9 on my computer, it takes care of everything I would normally have tried to remember to do before beginning a class.

Now, if only I could get everything else to the point of “done.” Summer is going to end all too soon.

 

My vote for the top 10 tools for learning

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Jane Hart has invited our participation in the 2015 Top 100 Tools for Learning. If you want to have your say, you can submit your top list here.

top100

Top 10 Tools for Learning

Here are my thoughts on the ten most important tools in learning (not in any particular order):

Twitter

From time-to-time, I'll have friends threaten to stop using Facebook, as they just no longer see value in it. I don't hear those same threats from those who are using Twitter and have a strong personal learning network (#PLN) established for themselves. Twitter offers a constant stream of news and information that is most relevant to me (primarily on the professional front, with some personal in there, as well).

PollEverywhere

The PollEverywhere service provides an excellent way to both gather real-time input from students, as well as assess their understanding. I like how many ways there are for students to engage (tablet, phone, text/SMS).

Remind

This video has all the reasons why I love using Remind to keep in touch with my students.

GoAnimate

GoAnimate provides an easy way to build animated videos. You choose a background, add characters and other objects, and include text and/or audio. The video on Remind, above, was created using GoAnnimate4Schools.

Attendance2

This app does just what the title implies (takes attendance), but does a whole lot more. My favorite feature is the ability to call randomly on a student who is marked present for a given class session. Attendance2 helps me avoid calling on the same people, without realizing it.

Planbook

I like to ensure that each class session is somehow connected to my course learning outcomes. Planbook helps me organize all my handouts, PowerPoints, and links in one, central place. Plus, you can have it publish that information on a free site for your students to access, so they have information on what they may have missed, or for additional reinforcement of their learning in your classes.

Adobe Captivate

The two best products to use to create interactive, SCORM-compliant eLearning courses are Articulate's eLearning Suite and Adobe Captivate. The reason that Captivate has made my list and not Articulate is purely because Captivate is available on both the Mac and the PC.

SnagIt

Camtasia's SnagIt is also available on the Mac and PC and is the best screen shot tool I've ever used. I also spoke at the beginning of the Mac Power Users episode #240 about how I use SnagIt for screencasting feedback during the grading process.

LiveScribe Smart Pens

I've had a love/hate relationship with LiveScribe smart pens. On one hand, it is incredible that you can record what you're saying/hearing/writing and have it all be in sync with each other when you go to play it back. It's also a great method for creating what I refer to as micro-lectures. The biggest downside, though, has been that they've changed their playback methods so many times over the years. Currently, a user has to play them back by dragging a PDF to a website, to enable playback (or play it via an app, but that doesn't work as well for sharing). If only MP4 was offered as an alternative publishing method; I would be “sold” for good.

Overcast

The tool that contributes more to my learning than any other these days is Overcast, which is one of many podcast “catchers”/players. One thing I like about Overcast is the smart speed function, that skips over pauses in the recordings, but doesn't leave the speakers sounding like Alvin and the Chipmunks.

 

New tools page added

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I added a new page to the Teaching in Higher Ed site. My hope is that the tools page is constantly changing, as I have new productivity or educational technology tools that I add into the mix.

In the meantime, check out the newly-added tools page.

[reminder]What are some of the essential tools that you use in your teaching or personal productivity?[/reminder]

Podcasts’ Contribution to My Personal Knowledge Management System

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I've been creating some courses around the subject of personal knowledge management (PKM). One aspect of my own lifelong learning system that I didn't address comprehensively in those modules is the subject of podcasts.

Below are the podcasts I find most integral to my PKM system.

waitwaitNPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me

This podcast entertains my husband and I each week, as they review the week's news in a light-hearted, humorous way. I look forward to listening to it more than any other podcast I subscribe to…

http://www.npr.org/programs/wait-wait-dont-tell-me/

 

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