The list below has been curated based on the expressed interests of the 2019-2020 Innovation Institute fellows. These innovative technologies are widely used in higher education and can be used for a number of pedagogical purposes. This page is intended to provide a quick overview of the tools, please contact Mike Weston (mikesw@stedwards.edu) or David Cuevas (dcuevas1@stedwards.edu) for assistance in getting started. For a quick overview, Mike and David put together a short video:
Creating High Quality Images, Pages and Videos with Adobe Spark
Adobe Spark is a versatile tool you can use to create graphics, stories, and animated videos you can post in your Canvas course and your website. Spark is also incredibly easy to use, so feel free to check it out here: http://spark.adobe.com
For a more in-depth primer on how you can use Spark in your own teaching practice, you can view the LinkedIn Learning course:
Welcome from Learning Adobe Spark by Sandee Cohen
How do we support and amplify the “Quiet Voices” in our classes?
In the “Teaching In Higher Ed” podcast linked below, you’ll learn more about issues that arise in the online classroom and how a tool like Flipgrid can help address these challenges. It’s a great podcast that discusses a variety of important topics to educators in higher ed:
Here’s an explanation of the video discussion tool, Flipgrid, that’s referenced in the podcast:
What exactly is Social Annotation and how can I use it?
Social Annotation is a great way to promote student-to-student learning and critical engagement with literally any web page on the worldwide web. The tool explained below is called Hypothesis and it’s one of several popular tools for social annotation.
What is Panopto and how can I use it?
It’s hard to believe that we’ve had Panopto for over three years now but in that time it has become one of the most popular teaching technologies on campus. In this video, Mike Weston provides an example of a popular use case: recording a video from your office or home. Instructors who use Panopto to grade presentations tell us they love the ability to speed up the video (hover over the bottom right corner when the video is playing and click the “1x” to select a faster speed), give it a try!
CATME Smarter Teamwork
The CATME system was designed to help instructors manage groups in their courses easier. There are two main parts of the CATME system: Team-Maker and Peer Evaluation.
Team-Maker allows you to automatically create groups based on survey questions sent to your students. Metrics such as availability, the type of role students are comfortable within group work or instructor-created questions can be generated. The Peer Evaluation system provides a way for group members to rate their peers based on different metrics. Instructors can select pre-made questions to rate their peers by such as how active group members were on projects, deadline issues or instructor generated questions.
Watch the CATME overview video below to learn more!
Portfolium – Electronic Portfolio’s
Portfolium is a platform to create digital learning portfolios. Learning portfolios (ePortfolios) are collections of student work and other evidence from their career in higher education — often accompanied by reflections — that demonstrate broad skills and competencies possessed by students. E-portfolio’s can be used upon graduating to send to potential employers to show off the skills and accomplishments during their educational experience.
Watch the video below to see if Portfolium is right for you!