Web and Instructional Technology

Feedback is an essential component of student learning. In fact, it is one of the most effective tools an instructor can use to improve student achievement. (Hattie, 1992) One of the drawbacks of providing extensive written feedback is the amount of time it takes to accomplish the task.  Even in this technologically advanced age, providing traditional feedback can be a daunting proposition. One method for deferring some of the time and effort involved in providing effective feedback is to create audio feedback. Not only does audio feedback improve student learning, it also makes the student feel more involved with the course and more connected to the instructor (Ice et al, 2007).

Going one step further, an even higher level of feedback is possible through the use of the screen recording tool Jing. Jing is free software from TechSmith, the makers of Camtasia. With Jing you can record up to five minutes of audio and/or video of anything you can show on your computer. Whether it’s an essay submitted in MS Word format, a math problem on a quiz, an Excel file or even programming software your students use to create their homework assignment, Jing helps you record and annotate it all. What’s even more inviting about this process is the way Jing uploads your recording to the ScreenCast server. No filling out complicated forms with metadata and tags – simply click the upload button and Jing places the link to it on your clipboard. Just paste the link into an email, discussion forum or the comments area of a dropbox or quiz.

A number of SPC Faculty are using Jing to provide feedback to their students. If you are one of them, please feel free to leave us a comment and share with us how you are using it. (Maybe you could even Jing it! ♥)

For more information on how you can begin providing effective audio/video feedback to your students using Jing, contact your campus Instructional Technologist.

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The Web and Instructional Technology Services Department is proud to announce the release our new blog. Hooray! So, what is a blog anyway?

A Web log (most often referred to as a blog) is a website with frequent entries of commentary, event descriptions, or other material such as graphics or video. This blog, though maintained by your instructional technologists, is really all about you.  Our goal is to provide news and information on a number of instructional technology topics, with new entries occurring on a regular basis. Topics we plan to cover include critical thinking, iTunes, workshops, RLOs, ANGEL and more.

Two outstanding features of blogs are the ability of its readers to provide comments about the content and the blog’s ability to tell the readers when new content is available.

To comment on a post, simply click into the Leave a Reply box of the post you are reading, login using your MySPC account information, type your comment, and click the Submit comment button. We look forward to your input. Note: If no other comments have been made on the post your are attempting to comment, you will need to click on the No Comment link to begin this process.

Receiving notices that new content has been added to the blog is equally as easy, once a reader has subscribed to the blog.  For more information visit our Google Reader tutorial.

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The term Web 2.0 was coined at a brainstorming session between Tim O’Reilly and MediaLive International at a conference in 2005. Many people feel that the term is just a marketing buzz word but it really does not matter because your students are utilizing these new social networking applications by the millions. For the record, Web 2.0 is a term describing new trends in Web technology that aim to enhance creativity, information sharing, and collaboration among users.

The main question for faculty is: “How can I use these tools to increase student learning or interactions in my classroom?” At this young stage of development, there very few empirical studies that show how Web 2.0 applications benefit student learning. However, there a great deal of anecdotal evidence. Below are few examples found by doing a Google search:

• Reflections on Web 2.0 tools and student learning
• Back to School with the Class Web 2.0
• Web 2.0 applications as alternative environments for informal learning – a critical review

At this point in the development of Web 2.0 applications, it is important that educators not wait for research to verify that increased student learning or interactions are occurring but instead should jump at the chance to create new virtual learning environments for students. Keep in mind that many SPC students are already on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

The first place to begin to truly understand the Web 2.0 world is with an explanation in plain English of how these tools work. The best place to see these explanations is from a group called Common Craft. Their videos are short, less than 3 minutes, fun and easy to understand explanations of Wikis, Blogs, RSS, Twitter, etc.

One of their examples can be seen below: “Blogs in Plain English”

Blogs in Plain English

Your Instructional Technologists have been exploring many new Web 2.0 tools and are looking forward to helping instructors find the tool(s) that best fits their needs.

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