Research: Find five instructional web tools that offer a variety of opportunities for learners.  Link to each web tool considered in your blog. Answer: What is the intended use for each tool? How might you use each tool in online teaching? How might a student use the tool? Is there a cost associated with the tool? 1. Screencast-o-matic - This freemium screencasting software makes it easy for students, teachers, or anyone else to capture a video of part or all of their computer screen. It available as a web tool, a download, or a Google Chrome extension. According to the website, education plans are available that integrate with major LMS providers and that provide single sign-on (SSO) student accounts where students can create and curate their content. Users on the free plan get 15 minutes of recording, including their computer screen and/or webcam, if desired. A paid plan gets you more recording time along with a suite of editor tools like transitions, text overlay, blur (g...

Answer:  What synchronous vendor application/tool did you select? Using the application, what did you experience using the synchronous learning tool? Was the task easy? Challenging? Did the process present problems? As I've shared in previous posts, my choice for synchronous sessions has been Google Hangouts (specifically Hangouts on Air). I choose Hangouts because it is a part of the GSuite apps that my students and I already have access to. Our in-house instructional tech team also is available for support with this particular tool. Overall, my experiences with Hangouts and Hangouts on Air have been positive. Hangouts on Air (via YouTube Live) allows me to run synchronous sessions at home or work with my students wherever they are. I used this twice during a two week absence when my child was born, as well as for a few at-home review sessions the night before students had a big test. I create the Hangout in advance and share a link to the Hangout through one of my communicati...

Answer:  When would an open source application take precedence over a commercial product? What are the issues when choosing between Open Source vs. Commercial Software? In this lesson, I have researched the open source and commercial the virtual classroom options presented and evaluated each from the perspective of a teacher looking for options for synchronous learning. When comparing the open source options with commercial options, I have found that most of the features are comparable. The main reasons I would say that open source options may take precedence over a commercial product would be cost and the ongoing collaboration among users and developers. I foresee though that t hese advantages would, of course come with concessions.  Many open source programs are free or "freemium," meaning you can get all of the basic functions with some additional features for a cost. Commercial software offers some free trials or "freemium" versions too, but commercial softw...

Create:  Using the information from this lesson, create a digital resource that explains the differences in the asynchronous and synchronous methods of delivery. I have really enjoyed this section of the navigate course. I have found that many of the ideas in this section are relevant not only to teaching online, but also to teaching in my blended classroom. I currently use technology tools to provide students with both in-person and online learning experiences. I've even begun using synchronous online learning experiences, such as YouTube Live study sessions , with my traditional students. In this module, I created the following slideshow to illustrate the differences in synchronous and asynchronous learning experiences that I would hope to one day implement if teaching totally online.