Teaching and Learning Conference: Empowering Students With Necessary Tools

Today, I was able to attend a teaching and learning conference along with other instructors and librarians across the campuses of the community college where I am employed. Much of what I took away from the conference are concepts that I have already been toying with - the idea that educators need to be empowering students with necessary technology tools that will enhance learning outcomes and instill a sense of pride and success in the classroom and beyond. As a librarian, many of the technology tools discussed are tools that I'm already using daily, but there were definitely ideas that I have taken with me that I can implement very soon.

I must preface the list that I am about to give with the fact that I am not an advocate of using technology just for the sake of using technology. Working in the public library systems of my past, I saw technology adopted often that maybe wasn't the best technology for that particular community of people. In the education sector though, I do feel that students should be exposed to technology (and many different forms of technology), not because it's cool (it is!), but rather because it will enhance the curriculum. The challenge, therefore, is finding the right technology for those participatory classroom sessions.

The session I attended today that was most intriguing was conducted by Corinne Hoisington, a professor at Central Virginia Community College in Lynchburg, VA. Again, many of the technologies I am either currently using as a librarian, or I am teaching to my information literacy students - but you may find a few here that you didn't know about. So read on!

Actually, before I get into the list of technologies, I want to share a video with you. Corinne shared one that was similar, but this will get the point across even still:

She talked about the future of technology that is coming down the pike faster than we think. Much of the mobile technologies we're currently seeing are already headed in this direction - no keyboards, no mouse, finger swipes, etc... This video is indicative yet again of the fact that information is everywhere. How our students are accessing information is changing daily, and now more than ever, we as instructors need to continue finding ways to meet students where they are in the online social realm. But enough about that... on to the list:

Wolfram Alpha
This search engine is unique in the sense that it gives statistical information, as well as mathematical equations that can be beneficial to the research process. This is one search engine that I cover with my students when we look at online resources, but I now have a few more examples that I can use when searching for next quarter. Examples include:

• Algebra equations - Can be used when checking work
  
• Mortgage calculations - Determine monthly payments
  
• Nutrition information - Find restaurant nutrition information

There are so many more uses for this search engine, but these are a few that I may add to my own sch-peel.

Join.Me
If you haven't ever used join.me, it's one technology that you have to see to believe. Students are always amazed when I use this with them, mostly during chat or phone reference conversations when I need to see their computer screen to get a better idea of their problem. It really is the coolest thing since sliced bread!

Xtranormal.com
I was first exposed to this technology when a few librarian videos began circulating the twittersphere. I'm not sure that I will use this one often...but since I am the administrator for our campus Facebook page, I may dapple with a few videos to promote campus events. I can't see me using it much for the classroom setting...but it's still fun.

Docs.com
This is one that I really need to ponder more. Microsoft and Facebook have partnered together to provide word, excel, and powerpoint web capabilities - right in the Facebook platform. I've been thinking for a while now that Facebook could very well be the next LMS. With tools like join.me and docs.com, it's moving even quicker towards that possibility of creating a classroom setting right inside the walls of Facebook. This quarter, I created a class website with Google Sites. It was effective, but I'm going to now be researching docs.com further to decide whether Facebook could be a more useful avenue for sharing class documents, etc...

Qik.com
This is the last tool that I want to touch on, and it's one that I do think is a neat concept, but I'm not sure how I would use it in the classroom either. To me, it seems it's just an alternative to youtube - capture video and upload directly from your portable device to the qik server. There's a location feature that is kinda cool... but I'm just not sure it will work for my classes.

In addition to this session that I've referenced here, I also attended a session on Turnitin, the plagiarism checker widely used in academia. This session was presented by 2 of my librarian colleagues, and they did a fine job! Much of the information I knew and have used, but it is always nice to be able to support your fellow colleagues and friends in their professional development endeavors.

That's it for now. If you have found something here that you haven't used before, please let me know if and how you plan to use it. And if you have any other cool technology tools, pass those along as well!