Teachable YouTube, Teachable TED

TED has a great new and free tool that allows instructors to personalize YouTube videos and TED.com talks with additional content like discussion questions and links to resources.  Check out this link to learn more about it!

In TED's own words, "TED-Ed's new video tool allows anyone to create video lessons online.  TED-Ed’s new free platform allows anyone to "flip" any video on YouTube by adding custom content to play alongside it, making it possible to turn any piece of video content into a teachable moment."

This is a great new feature and something I could see as having multiple benefits in the online classroom.  I encourage you to give it a try yourself or maybe have students themselves create a "teachable" moment by adding content alongside a video as part of a discussion or project.  The opportunities are limitless.

Let me know what you think and let me know how it goes!

Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Happy Thanksgiving!

As we come upon the Thanksgiving holiday this week, I want to take a moment to say thanks!

• Thank you to all of you for reading and learning from my blog posts;
• Thank you for sharing your thoughts, insights, resources with me so that I can share with others through this blog;
• Thank you for teaching me how to be a better teacher by sharing your thoughts, insights, and resources; and 
• Thank you to GEN for caring for students, staff, and faculty so that we can focus on educating our students in the best ways possible.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  If you are looking for a fun and inspiring way to embrace Thanksgiving for yourself, I encourage you to check out and take the Gratitude Challenge.

Keep sending me your teaching tips, insights, and resources!

Thank you again,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialistgrati

Blogs to Explore

During the main session of last Friday's in-service, several sites were shared as blogs instructors frequent; a request for a repository/listing of them was made, so here is my attempt to share all of them with you.  If I missed some from the chat box, please forgive me and simply let me know and I will add to the list.

Blogs to Explore:
http://blogs.globeuniversity.edu/category/online/
http://www.makeuseof.com/
http://www.marcandangel.com/
http://gizmodo.com/
http://lifehacker.com/
http://lawprofessorblogs.com/
http://legallad.com/
http://taxprof.typepad.com/
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/

Other great resources for blogs would be on company or product web sites.  And if you are looking for images for a blog article you write, check out Flickr.

For assistance with Search Engine Optimization, Key Words, and to find even more popular blogs, check out Alltop.

Thanks!
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

The New Look of Prezi

In the past I have talked about Prezi and how it can turn basic presentations into aesthetically pleasing and engaging experiences.  Well, Prezi has streamlined the process making it even that much easier for you to create a great Prezi presentation!

Click here for the new look and process of Prezi!  And click here to once again see what I've previously shared in terms of the traditional benefit of what Prezi can do for you, for your presentations, and for your students. 

Check Prezi out and let me know what you think of it!

Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Twiddla This...Twiddla That

Do students work in groups in your class?  Do you want to collaborate with other instructors in your area of teaching?  Are you looking for a free web-based meeting platform - or playground as Twiddla calls theirs - to share with your students or use yourself to make these meetings and interactions more productive and user-friendly? 

Check out what Twiddla is, what it can do for you and your students, the various features it can offer you and your students, and for a chance to try it out for yourself on the public playground.

A key aspect to note is that it is free to students and teachers by following these instructions:   "Sign up for a Free Trial, then send [Twiddla] an email from a .edu address,... and [they'll] hook you with a Pro account free of charge. [They're] at info@twiddla.com. Be sure to include your username!"

Let me know what you think and happy Twiddla-ing!

Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Prezify Your PowerPoints!

Are you looking for a way to jazz up your publisher created PowerPoint slides?  Why not Prezify them using Prezi's new PowerPoint feature?  You can quickly and easily adapt those static slides into an aesthetically engaging and interactively pleasing presentation using the tutorial and guides found here.

And, if you are really looking to add more value to these slides, you can go one step further by then using Jing or Screencast-o-Matic (I recommend Screencast-o-Matic as there may be some user access changes to Jing in the near future) to record an audio screencast as you go through and guide students through your Prezi PowerPoint.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!!!

Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Articulate...Expert Perspectives

Welcome to Fall Quarter!

As you embark on the start of the new quarter, I encourage you to surround yourself with fresh ideas and fresh perspectives on e-learning.  To help you do this, I'd like to share a great resource that our Campus Director, Seth Tesdall, shared with me awhile ago.  It is called Articulate.com and I've been following this e-learning community for awhile and find it really interesting and insightful.

To use the words from Articulate.com directly, they deem themselves as E-Learning Heros offering a "high-powered community where you’ll find" David, Jeanette and 107,816 e-learning professionals.

They have:

• "Step-by-step tutorials for building better courses
• Fast answers to your e-learning questions
• Advice and opinions from industry experts
• Free downloads for your projects"

As you start the new quarter, I encourage you to reach out to this community to get new ideas and new perspectives to then take back with you to your online course(s).

Have a great start to the quarter!

Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist