Current Landscape in Learning Technology Tools
The learning technology tool landscape never stays the same from one time I survey it to the next. New tools come, and old tools retire, fall out of favor, or disappear. Every now and then, it is worthwhile to perform a fresh scan of the learning-technology panorama to identify the most flexible, user-friendly tools with good support available to CON instructors. Here is a snapshot of the tools I believe are worthy of recommendation for general use at the moment of this posting. Contact the TIES Academy if you have specific questions about refreshing one of your course activities or assignments with these learning technology options.
Tools for Teaching and Learning
Tool |
Examples of teaching and learning activities |
Support |
| Supported by OSU and available to faculty, staff, and students; work well for either content creation or student submissions | ||
| Qualtrics | Quizzes (using the scoring feature), escape rooms, lessons, self-assessments, and of course, surveys | Qualtrics Support |
| Zoom | Synchronous meetings with polling, breakout rooms, whiteboard, etc.; asynchronous videos and video screencasts | Zoom Support |
| Office 365 tools | Other than standard Word and email, Office 365 also offers collaborative documents and applications such as OneDrive, OneNote, Forms, Teams, Sway. If you need your students to create a collaborative presentation in PowerPoint, this is a good choice. | Office 365 Tools Support
|
| U.OSU | WordPress blog and website creator | U.OSU Support |
| OSU Pressbooks | eBook creator generally intended for open textbook creation by OSU faculty and staff, but whole-class projects for which students create content can be carried out in this tool also | Pressbooks Support |
| Flip | A website and app that allows teachers to facilitate video discussions. Students are organized into groups and then given access to discussion topics. NOTE: Flipgrid is only partially supported by OSU. |
Flipgrid Support |
| Tools not supported by OSU, but which work well for content creation; free and subscription options are usually available | ||
| Screencast-o-matic | Easiest to use and most flexible screencast application I know of, outside of Zoom; biggest advantage over Zoom is the ability to pause and start recording again; closed captioning is available | Screencast-o-matic support
|
| Lucid | Lucidchart allows creation of diagrams, flowcharts, concept maps; Lucidspark is a feature-rich whiteboard | Lucidchart support |
| TED-Ed | Lesson creation using existing or new YouTube videos; stop points and questions can be embedded in videos | Support is integrated: start with Create |
| Kahoot | Quiz game tool used in the CON typically in face-to-face classes, but can be effective in online synchronous courses also | Kahoot Support |
| Nearpod | Student response system (SRS) tool used in the CON typically in face-to-face classes, but can be effective in online synchronous courses also; sign up for a free account to try it out at https://nearpod.com/signup/ Explore sample lessons (Nearpod is one of my favorites due to flexibility, engagement, and ease of use!) | Nearpod Support |
| Tools that are trending now and have a strong reputation among educators (but I have not used them myself—yet—and they are not necessarily approved for security or accessibility by OSU) | ||
| Google Jamboard | Interactive whiteboard | Tutorial (this creator’s tutorials are K-12 focused, but they are very good tutorials on Google tools |
| Explain Everything | Digital whiteboard for explaining . . . everything | Explain Everything Support |
| Adobe Spark (endorsed by OSU’s Digital Flagship initiative) | Creates beautiful presentations and websites and is available to OSU students. I have used Adobe Spark (but not in direct teaching/learning applications) and found it to be user friendly and a lot of fun. | Adobe Spark Support |
