Personalized Learning: Find Your Inner 2.0

EducationWorld is pleased to present this article by Pat LeMay Burr, Ph.D., digital media professor and Distinguished Chair at University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio. Dr. Burr describes several easy, accessible online platforms that can simplify educators' everyday tasks and build tech skills in the process.

This article originally appeared in TechEdge, a quarterly magazine published by Naylor LLC for Texas Computer Education Association members. To join or for more information, visit www.tcea.org.

If you feel stuck in a technology rut and eager to move on beyond standard, reliable software, you don’t have to enroll in a group workshop to surge ahead in personalized learning. So many new learning options appear everyday online that personalized learning can be endless. Here are some fun and risk-free options.

Chop a Long Video to Your Chosen Starting and Ending Point

Remember how many times you have played a long video in class just to make a key point related to a small part of the video? Or the times you have fumbled to set the video to start at a critical point, only to have someone change the settings? The waste of time that leads to your own frustration and student distraction can be unnerving.

Now you can chop a YouTube video via www.tubechop.com and control the start and stop point. After the chop, you have a short video that starts exactly where you want it to start and ends exactly where you want it to end. Yes, from an hour-long video, you can chop and save the critical two or three minutes that make the key point for a class.

How does it work? At this free online utility, enter the URL or keyword of the video to locate the video you plan to chop. Select and cut the part of the video you want to keep. Once the process is complete, TubeChop will give you the link to the newly-cropped video. Then you can share it, post it, email it, etc. or save it on a flash drive for class viewing. (Study YouTube’s Terms of Service, as well as your district’s policy on use of YouTube videos in class.)

Access Your Primary Computer from Anywhere

Away from your main computer much of the day? Then invest in LogMeIn Ignition for remote access. Rated high for its simplicity to use, it allows you to access files on your home computer from, say, your iPad.

The “listener client” that you install first on the computer you plan to access does not slow down that computer’s performance. The app that you download to your iPad opens access to that “listener client.” Think of the iPad as knocking on the door of your home computer for access and the “listener client” as opening the door when it recognizes the knock. No special settings are required on your router, and the free version is powerful.

Access works when you are out of the country or just across town. Your primary computer to be accessed remotely is left turned on. If it is turned off, then LogMeIn-Ignition will not provide access.

See an overview, iPad access information, a video tutorial, and a tutorial of iPhone connectivity via LogMeIn-Ignition

Be Invisible when you Choose

With rumors that after you sign off Facebook, it tracks your Web footprint, including every site you visit, maybe your inner 2.0 would like some privacy. If so, consider the Web search service via free www.proxify.com, where you can opt to remove all cookies and all ads during the search.

There is no software to install or complicated instructions to follow. When you enter a URL in the form, Proxify hides your IP address. Subscribers receive a higher level of access to special features. The FAQ is open to all free users.

Jazz up a Presentation File

If you’re looking to create a little more spice in your presentations beyond the traditional PowerPoint format, you can convert your file into the look of an online book that has page-turning flair. Try Page Flip-Flap, a free site that requires no registration.

This site easily converts a DOC, PDF, or Word file into an interactive flipbook. You upload your file and then receive an email with the URL for your newly-converted file. You can then share the file in class, on your blog, on Facebook, on Twitter, or by email.

Study a Trend

Have you tried Google HotTrends lately? This amazing database shows how many times a chosen topic is mentioned in an online Google search, and how the search frequency is associated with the number of news articles about the same topic.

Just type into the small window the topic of your search interest, and results appear immediately.

As an example, check out a search results page for a HotTrends search of “EURO CRISIS.” The regions of search, cities of search, and languages of search are noted. And when you click on, say, “India,” you will see the sub-regions, cities, and languages of search for India, alone.

Many topics in any class could be searched, and the results could lead to a class discussion of why the topic is such a popular search topic, or why it is more popular in some parts of the world than in others, or why the search is conducted in certain language or why people are even searching for the topic at a certain point in time.

Open Some Hangouts

Now that Google+ (Google Plus) is open to the public without requiring an invitation from someone already inside Google+, you can open your own account at any time.

One of its best features is the free video conference feature—Hangouts—that can include up to 10 participants. It is not dependent on shared WiFi (as is the iPad’s Facetime), and offers much more inclusiveness than do other sites that only allow one-to-one video conference.

See a thorough discussion of how Hangouts fits into a Gmail user’s experience.

• Open a free Gmail Account, and then search the Google subdirectories for instructions on accessing your Google+ options. In the Hangouts options, you will see the icon to open a circle. Consider these “circles” as groups of contacts clustered together for communication purposes on a specific topic. You can open multiple circles, and any person in your Gmail contact list may be included in more than one circle.
• To coordinate, set and distribute a future date and time when you will request that members of your circle join an online Hangout discussion. Or, you can simply send out an invitation link on-the-spot to join your Hangout in progress. Recipients click on the link, and there you are—you and nine friends—online together in living color with audio and chat options.
• Anytime you are working inside Gmail or in Google Docs, you will see in the upper left corner of your screen an icon indication that you are a Google + member. Participants must join an online Hangout via individual Gmail accounts.

Create a Mobile App

Even with no prior development experience, you can do this at free www.appsbar.com.

“Me? A developer?” you might say. Yes, this is a site where you can learn to become an app developer. Even a newbie can create a functional app to be published to the world, or published only to your students (users can’t use the site to make money).

The site’s Gallery includes hundreds of apps created by the site’s users. And the FAQ answers questions in conversational English. Plus, your work can be saved at the site, even prior to its completion.

When you click publish, Appsbar submits your completed app for Apple App Store and Android approval. Twenty minutes to build a simple app? That’s what the site says. Use is restricted to age 13 and above.

Summary

Why bother with these projects? Because discovering your Inner 2.0 and playing with a “beyond my immediate interest zone” project is a critical part of personalized learning. The project outcome need not have an immediate use in the classroom. Yet, you have it on mental file for that someday when it can bring new energy to the classroom experience.

In addition to providing technology leadership in the classroom, you can have some real fun and soar in the learning process when you commit to personalized learning of new topics of choice.

Dr. Pat LeMay Burr is Distinguished Chair at University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, where she teaches Digital Media and directs the campus iPad Program. She discovered her inner 2.0 a few years ago and has never since been the same!

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