What's the best way to present content to engage students? Any teacher will tell you that is a constant challenge when it seems there is always so much to cram in and only so little of a students' attention span available. Most of us are not blockbuster filmmakers or Netflix stars, and love the discipline … Continue reading Leveling up your online presentations
Category: Technology Tools
“What are the top three things you love about technology?” is a question I’ve posed to hundreds of pre-service teachers I’ve taught as part of an icebreaker for the overview to ed tech class. “Netflix” has made the list of almost every one of them. 92% of college students have access to a Netflix … Continue reading Netflix: When words are not enough
“Over my dead body!” This was the response of Dr. Roy Mason, Professor of Biology at Mt. San Jacinto Community College (MSJC) in 2003 when the concept of teaching online science courses to non-science majors was discussed because students could not get to their remote campus to take classes. Dr. Mason and his colleagues were … Continue reading Online Science Labs
FEELING BLUE? STRESSED? Mid winter weather, long semesters and busy schedules can lead people to feel isolated and lonely by limiting the amount of contact and interaction one has with other people. It may be challenging, yet making intentional effort to keep connected with others is important to reduce these feelings. Although staying connected through … Continue reading Social Emotional Impact of Online Courses
Are you using the smart parts of your phone, or just the phone part? Beyond the typical texting, talking, and picture sharing features, today's phones offer many smart tools to help us with teaching and learning. The ten ideas shared below are only the beginning of uses we can make sure our students know about. … Continue reading 10 smart ways to use smart phones
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC comes equipped with an Accessibility tool to assist with remediating accessibility issues. To access the tool and add it to your tool pane: Open Tools Scroll to Protect & Standardize Find Accessibility and select Add Add the Accessibility tool to your toolbar The tool is now easily accessed in the right … Continue reading Acrobat Accessibility Tool
Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint have a tool available to help identify and remediate accessibility issues. The tool is available at File > Info > Check for Issues > Check Accessibility. The Accessibility Checker will appear in the right-hand sidebar. When you highlight the error two things happen: Additional information about the error, warning, or … Continue reading Microsoft Check Accessibility Tool
I’m biased, I’m not patient, and I live in an industry with an innovation and adoption cycle that has never been sustained for so long in human history. The Innovation Adoption Lifecycle has been the mantra for technology my entire life. The only problem with this is that as soon as the Early Majority is … Continue reading Innovation Version 42.8
The reading order of slide content is important for anyone using a screen reader. It allows them to hear the content in the order it was meant to be read. Sometimes you may need to add content to a slide that may affect the slide reading order. Content is read in the order it is … Continue reading PowerPoint Slide Reading Order
“Innovation” is a buzzword that some people love to hate. As a technologist, I find the word relevant, but I struggle with the applied meaning. The word shows up everywhere, most notable in vision and mission statements. It is Ferris’ vision to be “the preferred choice for students who seek specialized, innovative, career- and life-enhancing … Continue reading This is What Innovation Looks Like
