Allerton Polytechnic College Newsletter |Vol 1|Issue 1
Dear Teacher Feature
by: Aleia Beecher (Principal-Change Leader)
April 13, 2021
Tools for Sharing Online
Collaboration | Presentation | Multimedia Creation
With the recent declaration of a global pandemic, precipitated by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, our College, like many schools worldwide, has been forced into shutdown mode. As there is an even greater imperative for education to continue, schools have been grappling to maintain normalcy and as such, the spotlight has been focussed on the virtual environment. While this has existed for a while and is by no means as novel as the Coronavirus is, we at Allerton are just discovering how useful tools of the virtual environment are, for sharing and collaborating remotely. Today we will examine some of the tools available, which you the Allerton Polytechnic staff may use to complete projects and support learning, despite the geographical separation mandated by social distancing.
Collaboration Tools
Very simply put, collaboration tools help people to collaborate. Opportunities for collaboration become necessary when at least two persons need to work on the same goal, but they are in different locations. At the moment, our students are buckling under a blended mode of learning as we are not as equipped as would hope, to provide a fully online suite of engagement options. Additionally, our leadership and academic teams may need to collaborate through virtual meetings and conferences, documents, or the sharing or transfer of files. Thus, certainly, the tool selected must be guided by criteria to ensure it is the best choice. Some thoughts you might want to ponder when considering a collaboration tool, is whether it is reliable, affordable, easy to use, and generally suitable for your purpose. Tools for collaboration may include Skype, Zoom, Google Hangouts, WikiSpaces, pbwiki, Google Drive and Dropbox. Additionally, instant messaging, chats, email and teleconferencing platforms also facilitate collaboration experiences for teams and student groups wishing to engage over virtual spaces. In the video below, The Digital Project Manager (2020) summarises the key features of some popular tools for collaboration that you may want to consider for your classes.
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” — Helen Keller
Presentation Tools
Presentation tools are highly engaging supplements to the rote of oral communication, that Duarte (2020) believes helps us to communicate our message visually and perhaps even more persuasively. Particularly as instruction is disseminated across virtual spaces, it behooves instructors like us to make them engaging for our students. Thus, presentation tools should be considered inter alia, for their quality, usefulness, ease of access, manipulability, capacity to engage and propensity to procure feedback (Rode, 2011). As you plan to share your work or story with your students or team, considering tools such as Prezi, SlideShare, Google and Zoho may be suitable, especially if you are a beginner.
Below, McGrath (2018) shares a short compilation of what he perceives to be the 10 best online presentation tools which can be harnessed for effective presentations.
“The brain doesn’t pay attention to boring things” — John Medina
I know as a lecturer, steeped into traditional methods of instruction, it can be difficult to even consider moving to fully online delivery. However, in the articles below, D’Angelo (2018) also encourages you to share your story in novel ways through employment of a suite of presentation tools suited for organisations, while Scoo News (2018) wraps up some of the best that teachers like us can employ within online classrooms!
Multimedia Creation Tools
Many tools and technologies exist which can be harnessed to enhance virtual instruction. Sahoo and Sahoo (2018) underscore multimedia as a very powerful means of imparting information and praise authoring tools which have helped even novices to link text to various types of media to develop products of high quality (p. 4.1). Multimedia creation tools are extremely engaging and teachers may find their application as infographics, podcasts, vodcasts, games, simulations, riddles, puzzles and quizzes, easy to manipulate for use online student instruction. Additionally, Sahoo et al. (2018) suggest their alternate usefulness within school settings for faculty, parent or administrative audiences (p. 34) as options such as Infogram, Piktochart and Canva, make for interactive engagement.
Edge (2016) shares a cadre of 20 multimedia tools which you can use to maximise your creativity in information creation, delivery as well as interaction for your audience. And, guess what…the best part is that they are all free!
“There is a great satisfaction in building good tools for other people to use.” — Freeman Dyson
Allerton Polytechnic College — Teacher Vox-Pop
I know that there are some courageous ones out there who are already utilizing collaborative tools for learning! What are some of the tools that you use to make your online presentations stand out? Leave a clap and share your comments below with your colleagues.
Best,
Your Principal,
Aleia Beecher
References
D’Angelo, M. (2018, July, 23). Beyond PowerPoint: Presentation tools for small businesses. Business News Daily. Retrieved from: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6525-business-presentation-tools.html
Duarte. (2020). Presentation tools for new communication needs. Duarte. Retrieved from: https://www.duarte.com/presentation-tools-for-new-communication-needs/
Edge, A. (2016, February 19). 20 Free tools for creating multimedia and interactives. Shorthand Social. Retrieved from: https://social.shorthand.com/abigailedge/3CupXGAcVvf/20-free-tools-for-creating-multimedia-and-interactives
McGrath, T. (2018, June 18). 10 Best online presentation tools|Message to millions. [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_3TP0kyAPQ
Rode, J. (2011, March 1). Presentation Maker- Top 5 Selection Criteria. [Blog post]. Retrieved from: http://www.sliderocket.com/blog/2011/03/presentation-maker-selection-criteria/
Sahoo, R. & Sahoo, G. (2018). Multimedia and web technology. Daryaganj, New Delhi: New Saraswati House.
Scoo News. (2018, May 22). 5 best online presentation tools for the classroom. Scoo News. Retrieved from: https://www.scoonews.com/news/5-best-online-presentation-tools-for-the-classroom-3200
The Digital Project Manager. (2020, February 8). 10 Best collaboration tools. [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RheAIFth-bo