Assessment of 8 tech tools on the Web

1. MOODLE

1. I have been using Moodle off and on since October 2010 depending on the instructor.
2. It is very useful if:
   

i. Instructor is organized

1. For an online course one of my instructors has set up an assignment page but has craftily stuck additional assignments in the topic page and in the forums. It takes a great deal of effort and cunning search to find all the assignments for that instructor. I’m still not sure I have them all.

ii. Student has to understand how to use the site

1. If you do not know where to look and how to contribute you cannot make full use of the site.

2. It can be more hindrance than friend.

3. It is easy to mistrust the site when it is used for an online course.

iii. With that understood the use of the site really makes it easy to communicate from the instructor to the student. The instructor can place notes, presentations, reading assignments, handouts, etc., on the topic page and the student can download them at his leisure.

iv. I rate this three pirates out of five because usage is very dependent on the ability of the instructor.

2. Firefox
1. As so many did I started out with Internet Explorer but it did not satisfy. I moved on to Netscape but that too failed to satisfy. Firefox was the answer for me. The controls are user friendly and do not require a lot of mouse usage. I prefer hot keys whenever I can get them. Using the mouse interrupts the flow of work on the keyboard.
2. Starting at the top we have an easy to see and use tab system. You can cycle through the tabs with a ctrl-pg command. Tap the alt key and you have access to the working menus. It is easy to add apps to the menu bar and access them from there.
3. I give it five pirates because it beats any other browser hands down for ease of use. I understand other browsers may have useful features too but I do not see the value of using multiple browsers.
3. Google apps
1. The value of a tool is whether or not you are going to use it. My problem is that ADHD gets in the way of being a consistent user. Google has a very nice calendar function that others can access if allowed, that can have overlays of calendars to account for other facets of our lives, that can do lots to coordinate the days of our lives… but you have to use it and keep it up to date. So calendar is useless to me.
2. Google docs might be a better fit. If I get into a situation where I need to work with someone else on a document it will do well.
3. The photo album is pretty good. My sister-in-law uses it to document their life in Alaska and I like the notifications I get when she adds another block of pictures. The system is easy to use but once more my use would be intermittent.
4. Google Reader looks pretty good. I can use it to follow blogs. When I opened it for the first time I found the blog I had to create for ED641 waiting for me. I have since added the blog for ED609. I can also open RSS feeds for those sites that I want to watch but that do not run a podcast.
5. I give it five pirates because it may do more to help me in class management than any other tool I have seen.
4. Jing
1. My ADHD interferes with my ability to concentrate when reading. I have found that I need to take the text and disassemble it and then reassemble it into individual lines and put them back together. Generally I scan the text into a photograph, read the text from the photo with Microsoft OneNote, paste the text into Microsoft Word and edit out the mistakes made by the software. In the process I end up absorbing the text. I can highlight important items for further study and get the job done. This is a time consuming process and difficult but it is the only way I’ve found that will allow me to read the dry texts I have needed to read. Say what you will this process, in one form or another, played its part in getting me from a GS-1102-5 to a GS-1102-13.
2. Jing allows me to copy text off the screen for pages that do not allow copying by any other method. Then I can inject the picture into the process I outlined above. It also allows me to pick up pictures and whole web pages for further study. Jing is my new best friend.
3. I give it five pirates based on its full head-on usefulness.
5. Wix
1. I have never thought of having a website. I did look at how to make a website once upon a time out of curiosity’s sake but gave up the pursuit because of the programming languages needed. I should have known it would be simplified tremendously given time and technology.
2. Wix is about as simple as it gets. Choose a template and replace all the filler pieces with your own content and you are off and running. I have begun construction on a website for my classes for the coming school year and the only thing slowing me down is the content. It’s hard to come up with all those words and pictures.
3. I give it four pirates based on nothing more than the persnickety way I do things. It may not have a future with me because I am lousy at keeping things going.
6. Animation and cartoon sites
1. In the course of the course I experimented with a number of cartoon and comic strip sites. I did not develop a favorite but I can see how these would be popular with the students. I can foresee cartoons and comic strips being a preferred medium for projects.
2. I tried one site that makes cartoon strips, Make Beliefs Comix. The student creates a comic strip with up to four panels. The site provides characters in different poses along with various backgrounds and speech/thought balloons. It has great potential for students to make their own strips with insights on the subjects under discussion.
3. It is a little complicated to use, though. The controls allow a lot of freedom in placing characters but there is very little room in the panels for characters, background, and speech.
4. I rate it, and the other cartoon sites, four pirates for the interest it will hold for my students.
7. Animated Atlas of African History
1. I am a history teacher and Africa is one of those areas of the world that does not get enough time in high school classes. With the Animated Atlas of African History I can illustrate my teaching time. I can also send students to that site to coordinate their homework and reports with a view of what was happening in that area. It’s a good idea overall but it is not well thought out.
2. The map is pale grey on grey with controls similarly understated. The controls are not intuitive at all. In order to turn on one of the features you need to UNcheck a box. There is no explanation of what the viewer is looking at. Though it is a good idea it seems to be an idea as yet unrealized.
3. I give it a rating of two pirates now but I will keep an eye on this site. For a history teacher it has a lot of potential.
8. Son of Citation Machine
1. This is possibly the most useful site I know of when I have a paper due. In this age of computer access to so many different forms of media valuable information may be found in boos, magazines, as pages on a website, in a podcast, etc. Buying a style guide or looking up the information on O.W.L. may work but you still need to find exactly the right style for each choice. Son of Citation machine gives the student a form to fill out with easy instructions on what to put where.
2. The site covers four of the styles required by most colleges, MLA, APA, Turabian, and Chicago. Selecting one takes you to a list of source types in both print and nonprint forms. From books (either straight book, anthology, or reference work like an encyclopedia) to journal, magazine, and newspaper articles, down to electronic versions of books, online journal and magazine articles web pages, university documents and a range of government documents. There is a method to adjust the form for multiple authors and instructions in red for each of the entries. At the bottom pressing “submit” forwards the student to a page with both the citation and an illustration of how that citation is to be included in the body of the paper.
3. I give it five pirates for sheer usefulness as well as appreciation for the number of times I have relied on the site.