Are you a Tech-Savvy Teacher?

Have you ever been asked if you are a tech-savvy teacher? Probably not. Have you ever wondered to yourself if you are a tech-savvy teacher? If you answered 'yes' then this link I am providing below was meant for you. In November 2009, Staff at Rasmussen College in the United States have compiled what they believe are the Top 100 Apps (50 for the Web and 50 for the iPhone) for Tech-Savvy Teachers. After looking it over, I must say it is a pretty good list.

I consider myself a Tech-Savvy Teacher and I have used some of the applications on this list. My top four favourites from this top 100 list are:

1. Flickr: I've used it as a graphics repository for classes. I also routinely use it to obtain Creative Commons licenced graphics for use on this blog and in my powerpoint slides.


2. TeacherTube: Not all the great educational videos are found on YouTube. Always check TeacherTube out as well.


3. Wikipedia: I can't say enough about it. If you are a Wikipedia-lover then you know where I am coming from. If you are a Wikipedia-hater then I give the following challenge to you: if you find an article on Wikipedia on a topic related to your subject matter expertise and you feel the article is innacurate then PLEASE take the time to fix it. YES! *YOU* can fix Wikipedia. Stop hating Wikipedia and start fixing it instead. Your children will thank you for this when they grow up.


4. Facebook. If you are a teacher and you are not on Facebook then you are out of the loop. Get into Facebook if you want to be Tech-Savvy and you want to learn how your students use digital communication. Let your students contact you on Facebook mail or chat with you using instant messages on Facebook chat. You'll be amazed at how many quick questions can can answer for them in an evening. This definitely promotes their learning!

Every Tech-Savvy Teacher will have applications that they love that are not on this Top 100 List. So my Top 4 favourites that are NOT on this Top 100 list are:

1. Blogger: I've been writing this blog, eLearning Acupuncture, using Blogger since 2004. It's a great blogging tool that's easy to use and stable.


2. Twitter: I have learned so much by watching other people's Twitter post on the subject of Educational Technology. If you want to be Tech-Savvy get into Twitter.


3. Delicious: It organizes all your Internet bookmarks (you can check mine out here) and it serves as a sharing tool for information on the web. I love looking at what web pages people in the field of Educational Technology are bookmarking. I have found some hidden gems this way.


4. PollEverywhere: If you are doing presentations and you want to engage the crowd with a 'clicker question' then get them to use their personal cell phones or laptops to participate on the fly. Fantastic tool that has wow-factor every time.

I could go on and on but I promissed myself I would stop at my Top 4 (*smile*)

Are you a Tech Savvy Teacher? What are some of your favourite apps? Leave your ideas in a comment below.

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Web 2.0 can knock your socks off!

I participated in a great online talk yesterday by James Falkofske, Director of Online Learning, St. Cloud Technical College (here's a link to James' blog). His talk was titled: Easy Steps for Expanding Desire2Learn with Web 2.0 Tools. In general, I love talks like this. There is always some little gold nugget that I can take away and use. Well, in this particular talk, I took away two:

1. A web application index that catalogs all kinds of examples of Web 2.0 tools: Go2Web20.net. If you go to that page you will see that each application indexed has a short description, is tagged with key words for searching and has a link to the site where the application resides. Go2Web20.net even has an RSS feed so that you can keep track of recently added applications. Nice! There are lots of goodies here and with the increased pace of appearance of Web 2.0 tools, the RRS feed gives you a great way to stay informed.


2. A slideshow application that will knock your socks off! Seriously. It’s called Animoto. Using the photos you provide, it will make a 30 second professional looking slideshow (with fancy transitions) and a soundtrack. It has a few ways to output the video for you – including automatic export to YouTube! Slick! It even has an iPhone App so that you can build your video on your iPhone instead of your computer. Neat. For a fee, it will let you make much longer videos. It’s a great application to add to your digital storytelling toolbox for you or for your students – the production value is high. Want to see a demo of a video I made myself using Animoto? Check it out here.
   
   Also, Animoto itself keeps a small collection of case studies showing Animoto videos being used in education to give you some ideas.

Do you have a favorite Web 2.0 app, or do you have experience with Animoto? If so, let us know by leaving a comment below.

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