CandCBlog » Teaching Tools

Teaching Tool: Wix

Joe Erickson — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:19:35 +0000

Wix is a really cool, free, and easy to use tool for creating Adobe Flash based websites. It’s as easy to use as a Blogger account, and there is no coding of any kind required. For as easy as it is to use, it is a pretty robust tool that could potentially empower and enable novice web designers (students) to create some pretty sophisticated websites. Worth a look for anyone teaching any kind of course with a digital media component:

http://www.wix.com/

JUMP: Publication Venue for Undergraduate Multimedia Writing

Joe Erickson — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:32:53 +0000

The JUMP: The Journal for Undergraduate Multimedia Projects is an online journal focused solely on publishing multimedia projects produced by undergraduates. I think this is such a great idea considering ho much work is produced by undergraduates in various writing programs around the country every semester. A journal like this can not only inspire ideas that will help spur creativity among burgeoning undergraduate new media writers, but it also provides a place to share and validate their work. For anyone who teaches new media writing courses to undergraduates, this could be a great resource to introduce to your students. Check it out.

Are Computer Labs Necessary Anymore?

Joe Erickson — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 03:45:09 +0000

The Chronicle of Higher Ed is running a story about the University of Virginia’s plan to phase out public computer labs on its campus. They claim that 99% of its students have their own laptops, and that a large percentage of the computer lab usage only involves basic computing programs like web browsers, PDF document readers, and office applications, all of which most of their students have access to on their personal computers.

This story struck a chord with me because for the last year we have been piloting a laptop program in the FYC program I teach in. In addition to a number of computer lab sections, as well as tech free sections, we have been offering several laptop only sections, for which students must agree to bring their own computers to class with them every day. The university loves the idea because it frees up a lot of the demand for lab space on campus and it keeps the FYC director happy. Also, the students seem to like working with their own computers more so than the school’s computers – at least for the purposes of FYC.

I’m not sure how I feel about the potential of phasing out computer labs all together, though, as Virginia is planning. I can see the financial benefits, but I wonder how well the decision really serves the needs of the student body.

Teaching Tool: Writing Spaces | Readings on Writing

Joe Erickson — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 23:07:31 +0000

The Parlor Press and the WAC Clearinghouse have teamed up together to present the composition community with a new Web site called Writing Spaces | Readings on Writing.The purpose of the site is to provide online texts for teachers to use in composition courses like first year writing and, eventually, writing across the disciplines, and professional writings. Basically the site will consist of a series of peer reviewed essays written by scholars in the field for undergraduate students. Instructors can pick and choose readings from the site on an individual basis or choose a collection of the essays for inclusion and a printed course reader that could be sold at university bookstores. All of the texts on the site are available for free via a Creative Commons Copyright license.

http://writingspaces.org/

Teaching Tool: Flowgram

Joe Erickson — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 03:15:58 +0000

I just stumbled across this relatively new Web 2.0 tool that looks pretty cool. It’s basically a sophisticated screencasting tool, and, best of all, it’s free. Definitely worth a look for those interested in multi-modal composition – teaching or practicing.

http://www.flowgram.com/

Teaching Tool: Jing

Joe Erickson — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:56:27 +0000

My friend and colleague Toby Coley introduced me to a really cool new digital tool this past weekend. I’t called Jing. The free version of it allows you to easily record 5 minute long scree/audio captures. This could be particularly useful for providing writing feedback to students. The one problem is that the files it creates are pretty large – about 20 megs for a full five minute clip. However, the program has some built in features that help to overcome this problem. In addition to simply saving the file to your hard drive, you can set it up to automatically upload the file to your own server via FTP or it can upload it to its free storage and sharing service called screencast.com. Whichever option you choose, it automatically copies a link to the file’s location to your clipboard so you can easily paste it into a message for directing students, or others, to the file for viewing.

(Even More) Watson 2008

Joe Erickson — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:25:13 +0000

I had the great pleasure of sitting in on a panel presentation given by Ehren Pflugfelder and Cristyn Elder from Purdue University on Plagiarism Pedagogy. Drawing on quite a bit of recent research on the subject of plagiarism as well as their own experiences addressing this issues as teachers, Pflugfelder and Elder walked us through some of the key features of a wonderful web resource they created for helping teachers more effectively teach studetns about plagiarism. There argument was basically that policies for dealing with plagiarism should not come from top down – university down to the classroom – but that they should be developed in the classroom context with students. In other words, the teaching of plagiarism should be part of the teaching of writing, and students should be involved in determining what would constitute plagiarism in their classroom context and what the consequences would be for committing this definitition of plagiarism.

The site offer some great, downloadable lesson plans and exercises for engaging students in this porcess. According to Pflugfelder and Elder, their site may soon become part of Purdue’s famous OWL. For now, though, you can access the site here.

Electronic Commenting Tools

Joe Erickson — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:21:58 +0000

It seems like more and more of us are moving toward electronic commenting methods for providing feedback on student writing. Having recently transitioned to electronic commenting myself, I can honestly say that it has definitely been a positive experience. My comments tend to be more thorough and completely formed, and the process of exchanging and keeping track of student documents is much more efficient – not to mention environmentally conscious.

So far, I have been relying on the native MS Word commenting feature, which seems to work pretty well. It allows me to make comments on student writing without actually interrupting the writing, and it seems to be going over pretty well with my students.

However, I recently stumbled upon a useful piece of add-on software for MS Word called Annotate. Essentially, it allows users create pre-written comments, organize them by category, insert them effortlessly, and tailor them easily to individual student needs. It even allows users to easily provide links to online resources like Purdue’s OWL.

The one catch is that it is not available for the latest version of MS Word for Mac (2008). Because Microsoft decided not to support Visual Basic for its latest version of Office for Macs – to the frustration of many – it doesn’t support many of the automated features that are available for the Windows version (2007). Additionally, many of the software add-ons like Annotate are built with Visual Basic, so Mac users are out of luck in this regard for now it seems.

However, there are some glimpses of hope. One work around, of course, would be to work with one of the many Window’s emulating programs now available for Macs. This would allow users to run the Windows version of MS Word, which would be compatible with Annotate and other add-ons and functionalities. Moreover, Craig Eisler, the General Manager of the Mac Business Unit for Microsoft, has recently indicatedthat the next version of MS Office for Mac will support Visual Basic.