On Wednesday, March 5, 2014, we had our third Ten-minute Tech Talk event of the Spring 2014 semester, which was attended by 16 people.
Elka Kristonagy from the English Language Program opened the meeting with VoiceThread, a web-based application that allows for combining textual and multimedia content in a slideshow, and commenting on each slide using audio, video, or text. To give the audience a better understanding of this web 2.0 tool, Elka showed some activities, in which her students from the summer language program used this tool to collaborate and provide comments on each other’s presentations.
Anna Iacovella (Italian) introduced Poll Everywhere, which she had recently discovered for herself. This real-time audience response system can be used to display different types of questions to students and elicit their immediate answers in class.
Our last presenter, Theresa Schenker, showcased Blogger, a blogging system, which she had been using with her students in German classes.
Each presentation was followed by the audience’s lively discussion of features and pedagogical applications of the three tools. We are grateful to our presenters for their ten-minute tech talks and sharing with us information about these exciting tools!
At the end of the meeting, Dave Malinowski from the CLS suggested the Diigo challenge to all attendees by inviting them to join the CLS Diigo group and contribute a link to a tool or resource not listed in the group that might be beneficial for language instructors and/or their students.
Our last Ten-minute Tech Talks this semester will take place from 1 until 2 p.m. on Wednesday, April 2, 2014, at the CLS library (and if you are interested in giving a short tech talk, you still have a chance to do so by adding your name and topic to our sign-up sheet here).
We hope to see many of you on April 2! Enjoy the two-week Spring break!
P.S. If you have missed any of the previous tech talks, check our archive here.