It is important that we OM teachers find new ways to incorporate technology to stay current, enhance students’ educational experience, and support teaching and learning. Here are two tools from Faculty Focus (May 6, 2019) that may help:
Adobe Spark Adobe Spark is a web and mobile based tool that allows users to design visual content in the form of posts, videos, and web pages. It has three components: spark post, spark video, and spark page. Spark post creates a visual storyboard that represents what the user is desiring to convey. With spark video you can use images, video clips, and symbols to create a one-of-a-kind learning tool. The spark page allows you to insert pictures, videos, and text to curate content that reflects their unique perspective. Go to https://spark.adobe.com/ and sign up for a free account or download the mobile application via the iOS app store.
Remind A recent study examined the effects texting had on college students. Findings showed that students who received text message nudges from their instructors perform better than students who didn’t receive text message nudges. One tool/application that allows educators to communicate with students via text is Remind. Once you creates a course, students can sign up, send and receive messages by text, app, web, and e-mail. It is an excellent way of keeping students on track, even with a Learning Management System such as Blackboard, Canvas or Desire2Learn. Remind: (1) provides a way of communicating with students for any reason; (2) provides a method of communication to you and the students when life events happen; (3) is a great way of sending friendly reminders about assignments; (4) establishes a healthy student-to-teacher interaction regardless of whether the course is totally online or is a traditional face-to-face course. To get started go to https://www.remind.com and sign up for a free account.