Distance Learning, mLearning, Digital Education, Technology

Since they first appeared almost three decades ago voice recognition technologies, also known as speech to text technologies, have come along way in the way they have transformed out interaction with the digital. They have become much more sophisticated with a higher degree of speech recognition accuracy and a wider accessibility to the general public. Their benefits in the field of education are well documented. According to the  National Center for Technology Innovation (NCTI), speech to text technologies  can tremendously help individuals  with severe "learning disabilities including dyslexia and dysgraphia, vision impairments, and limited English language". 

Awesome Table is a good add-on to use on Google Sheets to easily create educational apps that can help you convert the data from your spreadsheets into lively visuals. Awesome Table supports various types of visualisations including tables, cards, Google maps, charts, gant charts, org charts, geocharts, and slideshows.

One way to boost your distance teaching during (and post) this pandemic is through  creating and sharing screencasts and instruction videos with your students. In today's post we are sharing with you some of our favourite Chrome applications that you can use to record your screen and create instructional video materials to share with your students or embed in your virtual class.

This morning I received an email from a reader who was looking for an alternative to ABCya's word cloud generator. ABCya's word cloud generator was a good one. Unfortunately, it is no longer available. Here are some other word cloud tools to try. 

As more and more teachers and educators resort to the services of the web to help with the delivery of their teaching, the question of how we can best use technology to serve our pedagogical practices become even more persistent. In this regard, SAMR model as conceptualized by Dr Ruben Puentedura (2006)  is a good analytic framework you should definitely consider.

As we have stated elsewhere, 'SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition) is a four-level conceptual framework developed by to help teachers make effective use of technology in their instruction

If you are looking for a good and free tool to create educational posts, Anchor is definitely one of the options I would recommend and here is why. First, Anchor is easy to use: simply log in to your account on the web or install the mobile app (supports both Android and iOS) and start recording using your device-integrated mic or an external one. You can also import recorded audio you have on other apps and use it with your own recordings. Most importantly, Anchor allows you to invite friends and colleagues to record with you provided they use the Anchor app.

Video Puppet is a new tool that you can use to quickly turn your PowerPoint presentations into narrated videos. If you have less than twenty slides in your presentation you don't even need to create an account on the site to turn your slides into a narrated video.

The Rice University-based publisher OpenStax announced Thursday that it will provide free teaching resources through the end of the spring semester to support faculty transitioning to online course delivery in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

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I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our blues, our metropolitan madness." So said Porgy and Bess composer George Gershwin of Rhapsody in Blue, the orchestral piece he wrote back in 1924 and which has remained in the American canon ever since. It will surely become even more widely heard from this year on, since 1924 plus 95 — the term of a copyright under current United States law — equals 2020. 

With thousands upon thousands of videos added to the service every hour, YouTube can be an unwieldy service to parse through for college professors looking for useful and applicable content. With that in mind, we decided to highlight the 10 best YouTube channels for college professors looking for an extra dose of material or inspiration.

Brainstormer is a new online brainstorming tool that is easy to use and helps solve the "what do we do now?" problem that often arises at the end of group brainstorming sessions. Brainstormer solves that problem by letting members of the brainstorming session vote for their favorite ideas. 

One way to boost your distance teaching during (and post) this pandemic is through  creating and sharing screencasts and instruction videos with your students. In today's post we are sharing with you some of our favourite Chrome applications that you can use to record your screen and create instructional video materials to share with your students or embed in your virtual class.

Breakout Rooms is one of the most popular features of Zoom. A similar feature is now available in Microsoft Teams. Just like in Zoom you can assign your students to a specific breakout room or have them randomly assigned to a room..

My sophomore students have just started learning how to use the ping command to analyze various aspects of network connectivity. Reviewing that lesson with one of my students last week gave me the idea to create a short video that demonstrates using a ping command. 

The launch of Vimeo Record earlier this week made me think that perhaps it was time to write a comparison of popular screencasting / screen recording tools. For this comparison I selected the five options that pop into my head whenever I'm asked about screencasting (which has been almost daily since March). With the exception of Flipgrid all of the tools in this comparison have free and paid options. This comparison only addresses the features that are available to educators for free. If you'd like to see the comparisons in a chart format, I have embedded a chart at the end of this post (if you're reading this in email or RSS you'll need to click through to the website to see the chart). 

Timelines are key elements to use in your instruction. They allow you to visually organize data and draw attention to the most important pieces of information (e.g., dates, events, project milestones etc). We have already shared a collection of web tools that you can use to design your own timelines. However, if you rather avoid the hassle of creating one from scratch, the free timeline templates below are some good options to start with. These are  PowerPoint templates curated from Microsoft Templates Gallery that you can download and adapt to your own teaching needs.

With online teaching and learning becoming the norm for so many teachers and students during the COVID-19 climate, it is important to be aware of what makes an engaging, creative and effective web-based teaching and learning experience.

For those of you who haven't seen it yet, here is a collection of some good web tools to help you create digital quizzes. You can use them to design interactive quizzes, questionnaire, forms, polls and many more.  The tools are easy and simple to use and no software installation is required. Check them out and share with us your feedback. Links of the tools are under the visual.

Students are now engaging with the world through their keyboards more than ever before, recording notes, completing homework assignments, and even taking standardised tests. For today’s kids, learning to type from an early age should be alongside learning to write, read, and perform arithmetic. Here are some of the secrets to teaching touch typing to your student or child as part of their early childhood education.

After posting about  iPad apps for librarians, we are featuring another equally important visual comprising some of the best web tools to help librarians in their everyday work. We have arranged these tools into 10 main categories: Database portals, research tools, curation tools, animated video tools, poster creation tools, note taking tools, timeline creation tools, tools communicate with parents, presentation tools and reference tools.