tools

Showing 69 posts tagged tools

obitoftheday: Obit of the Day: Scantron Inventor A piece of paper with lettered circles or open rectangles and a number 2 pencil. These have become two of the most important pieces of equipment in education throughout the United States and the person to thank - or blame - is Michael Sokolski. Mr. Sokolski, a Polish native, lost his mother at the age of sixteen when his home was destroyed by the Nazis. He fled his country carrying only a loaf of bread. Making his way west, he enlisted in the British Eighth Army Command. He would serve in Italy, earning a medal for his actions during the Battle of Monte Cassino. After the war, Mr. Sokolski would emigrate to St. Paul, Minnesota and attend the University of Minnesota, earning a degree in mechanical engineering. Over the next twenty years, he would work for IBM, found Datronics and sell it to 3M, and become a U.S. citizen. But education history would change forever in 1972 when he would founded Scantron, a company that created optical scanning test sheets that would haunt students from elementary school through college for the next forty years. As of 2012 80 of the 100 largest school districts in the United States use Scantron. And like Kleenex, Band-Aid, and aspirin Scantron is a brand-name that has become a proprietary eponym. (All scanning forms are referred to as “scantrons”) Michael Sokolski died at the age of 85. (Image is courtesy of lytrod.com) And for fun: (From xkcd.com) High-res

obitoftheday:

Obit of the Day: Scantron Inventor

A piece of paper with lettered circles or open rectangles and a number 2 pencil. These have become two of the most important pieces of equipment in education throughout the United States and the person to thank - or blame - is Michael Sokolski.

Mr. Sokolski, a Polish native, lost his mother at the age of sixteen when his home was destroyed by the Nazis. He fled his country carrying only a loaf of bread. Making his way west, he enlisted in the British Eighth Army Command. He would serve in Italy, earning a medal for his actions during the Battle of Monte Cassino.

After the war, Mr. Sokolski would emigrate to St. Paul, Minnesota and attend the University of Minnesota, earning a degree in mechanical engineering. Over the next twenty years, he would work for IBM, found Datronics and sell it to 3M, and become a U.S. citizen.

But education history would change forever in 1972 when he would founded Scantron, a company that created optical scanning test sheets that would haunt students from elementary school through college for the next forty years. As of 2012 80 of the 100 largest school districts in the United States use Scantron. And like Kleenex, Band-Aid, and aspirin Scantron is a brand-name that has become a proprietary eponym. (All scanning forms are referred to as “scantrons”)

Michael Sokolski died at the age of 85.

(Image is courtesy of lytrod.com)

And for fun:

Copyright xkcd.com

(From xkcd.com)

Digital Storytelling

Nice list of key resources and tools from @courosa!

In a nutshell, digital storytelling is “using the tools of digital media to craft, record, share and value the stories of individuals and communities, in ways that improve our lives” (Center for Digital Storytelling). In many ways, teaching is like storytelling, and learning to use the digital tools of storytelling, can make create a richer learning environment.

Multimedia Lectures: Tools for Improving Accessibility and Learning

Great list of tools you can use to record and transcribe lessons and lectures to “improve retention and success for all types of students.”

At the most basic level, Bain said, an instructor could record a presentation with little more than a good lavalier mic or headset and a digital recorder. A more intermediate approach could include using audio recording software like Audacity, PowerPoint narration, or tools such as mp3DirectCut or Power Sound Editor. If the institution has invested in lecture capture systems such as Camtasia Relay, Mediasite, Tegrity Campus, Echo 360 or Panopto, there are even more options and much less work since the recording and synchronization are all automated.

Once the presentation is digitized, the next step is to transcribe it, Bain said, noting that this is often the most difficult aspect of offering students truly accessible course media. Some of the tools Bain recommends for converting speech to text include Dragon Naturally Speaking, Media Access Generator (MAGpie), CapScribe, and InqScribe.

YouTube also offers a captioning feature that Bain called “promising” and there are a few research prototypes with speech recognition based transcription, including an IBM Research’s Hosted Transcription Service and Synote.

10 Free Tools to Support Faculty Research

Web 2.0 Tool/Link Functionality

  1. BibMe · Create fast and easy bibliographies
  2. bubbl.us · Brainstorming made simple· Visual data· Flow charts
  3. CiteULike · Easily store references you find online· Discover new articles and resources· Automated article recommendations· Share references with your peers· Find out who’s reading what you’re reading· Store and search your PDFs
  4. Confolio · Store files, links, ideas· Collaborate with others by sharing info· Publish opinions on contributions of others
  5. Connotea · Save and organize links to your references· Easily share references with colleagues· Access references from any computer 
  6. Gapminder · Interactive, dynamic data visuals· Trend analysis· Statistical analysis 
  7. Google Docs · Co-construction and online creation· Manuscripts, interview transcripts, spreadsheets, presentations, etc
  8. Mendeley · Sharing, building online research libraries· Collaboration. 
  9. Mindmeister · Mindmaps· Schematic diagrams 
  10. Zotero · Bibliographic plugin for organizing research
Planbook EDU Planbook EDU is a great cloud-based (a.k.a online) lesson plan book.  Because Planbook EDU is hosted in the cloud, all you need is an Internet connection, your plans travel with you.   Planbook EDU is listed in the Google Apps Marketplace and is a natural fit for schools already using Google apps for education (email, calendar, documents, etc.).  The free version of Planbook EDU has nothing to install, let’s teachers access their planbook from any internet connection, is easy to use with word processor like editing, is fully customizable, works in all major web browser and is iPad/iPhone supported (word processor editing doesn’t work on these devices).

Planbook EDU

Planbook EDU is a great cloud-based (a.k.a online) lesson plan book.  Because Planbook EDU is hosted in the cloud, all you need is an Internet connection, your plans travel with you.   Planbook EDU is listed in the Google Apps Marketplace and is a natural fit for schools already using Google apps for education (email, calendar, documents, etc.).  The free version of Planbook EDU has nothing to install, let’s teachers access their planbook from any internet connection, is easy to use with word processor like editing, is fully customizable, works in all major web browser and is iPad/iPhone supported (word processor editing doesn’t work on these devices).