I work as a Programme
Leader for De Montfort University in Leicester and I am
currently “e-tutoring” a module on Virtual Team
Leadership. I also moonlight as a salsa teacher!
Jane Top 10 Tools as at 4 September
2008
Netvibes – my
personal pin board and something I would now not cope
without – like your filofax in the 90’s, but better. I can
watch students’ updates to our wiki, link to my favourite
blogs, collect all my favourite websites and bookmarks with
a Delicious widget, check my i-calendar, see updates on
Twitter and watch Facebook updates when I have a break -
all on one very pretty page on my desk top….
Delicious:
already mentioned above, but deserves a number of its own: I
could not be doing the job I am doing without it. I work in
different locations so “favourites” would not be enough to
organise my essential websites, and tagging makes everything
findable (eventually!) Not sure about the new site yet…..
Wetpaint – ad
free wiki for education, nice templates, easy edit, and my
students love it.
Blogger – I use this for a private learning log, a
public “salsa” blog, and members only discussions on the
module I am teaching.
Facebook – mainly
for my salsa students to keep in touch with other fans
worldwide. I add links to salsa music videos and other
resources, publicise social events by other promoters:
creates a great “club” atmosphere. But I ban most
applications – they are just irritating! I have not yet
incorporated into my university teaching…..but I think the
day is coming!
Grou.ps –
never really seen this spoken of (I found it by accident)
but its amazing: blog, wiki, discussion board, photo
gallery, links, file uploads – no ads, private or public:
already incorporated into my teaching as a flexible “use for
anything” site. I managed to get some “old school” academics
using it as a tutor development site and they love it!!! Now
I recommend it to students who are looking for free sites to
keep in touch with their virtual teams.
Jing – I use the video capture relentlessly to teach my
students how to handle web tools and show our IT dept the
problems I am having!.
Freemind – to
plan projects, to outline the module curriculum for students
– free and publishable as a pdf so it can be sent to anyone
without special software needed to read it.
Survey Monkey
– the free version, for quick and small scale surveys of
students and colleagues
New Favourite I found through 25
tools: Udutu
– I have only used this once so far but I plan to come back
for more. Incredibly easy and attractive course authoring
tool, free, uploadable onto Blackboard….I think this will
change how I present e-learning programmes.
