On the Road: Humans Need Humans

This happens to our students every day, not just during the holidays. Students need human support as much or more than academic support. Imagine what we could accomplish if every student we taught had a human support system!

HOT TIPS: Holiday Buying Advice

Whether a learner or a teacher in the world of e-learning (and ideally, aren't we all BOTH?), there's a great chance that technology is on either your wishlist or the list of someone you love. But how to make the best decisions? It's overwhelming even for the veteran e-geek to determine that all available options are being considered and only the best possible choice made from a global technology market!

Where to turn? CNET. This site has provided the best in technology reviews for years. It's where I always start and where I always end up on those tough investment decisions.

What's on your list this year?

Newbies' Guide to Computer Symbols

THIS FABULOUS EDUDEMIC GUIDE to common computer icons/symbols is most helpful! And not just for newbies! I will link this in our resource sections for easy reference later as well.

(Viewing note: When you click on the link, the graphic will likely be too small to read the type. Your cursor will be a magnifying glass that will allow you to enlarge it and then you can scroll through the Web window to study it! The same cursor will SHRINK the graphic if it is already ENLARGED.)

Sir Ken Robinson: How to Escape Education's Death Valley

Let's Play Jeopardy!

I found this great free Jeopardy simulator that allows you to enter your own questions/answers and play this game with your students! It was a breeze to build one, too!

It could be used in a class discussion/review as well as for individuals doing self-assessment in an online environment.

What fun!

Wicked Cool App Alert!

Anyone who uses BOTH Google Drive AND Microsoft Office to create and manage documents knows the hassle of trying to made edits to an Office document on your mobile devices.

Enter Quickoffice, a free app from Google that allows you to access your Google Drive account and EDIT the Microsoft Office documents contained therein. Yes, really!

It works beautifully and my life just got a whole lot better. Big thanks to Dr. Brian Leonard for the technology tip of the week!

Blackboard accepting submissions!

Everyone familiar with Blackboard's Exemplary Course program? In addition to acknowledging and highlighting best practice in e-learning within the Blackboard community, the gallery is a great hunting ground for tips and ideas for our own course designs. I often send faculty there to peruse and browse the best of what other course developers have created so that they have a better sense of their goal.

The Exemplary Course program is now accepting submissions for 2014! Each entry is developed via a video tour of the course and a fairly extensive application for inclusion. I participated last year as a volunteer course evaluator for the program and learned so much about what Blackboard can do, in addition to getting some great e-learning ideas relevant to any LMS (Learning Management System)!

Do you have an amazing course built in Blackboard? Enter today!