It’s a new year, and with it come additional courses to teach in our wonderful world of distance learning. Of course, what makes this all possible is that marvel of technology the computer, and the more we know how to mine the riches of the Web the better we can make the computer work for us—and thus offer our students the best in an online educational experience. So, to help you in this ongoing pursuit I offer my annual collection of cool tips and websites chosen to make the life of a distance educator easier and more effective. (And while this is an annual list I will eagerly include helpful tips and websites you send me in future columns, so please—don’t be shy: drop me your choices at erroldisatancelearning@gmail.com)
Always be on Top of Your Schedule
The distance educator has many deadlines (student assignments, discussions posts, exams, attendance, grades, etc.) and responsibilities; and if one is teaching more than one course—and especially for more than one school—these can become almost overwhelming to follow. Two effective online reminder sites will keep you on track daily. The first, Freminder.com, allows you to create a free digital appointment book; each time you enter a deadline, task, or appointment this service will e-mail you reminders (daily, weekly, monthly, or annual). Also very effective is Google’s Calendar feature (you need a Google e-mail—Gmail—account for its calendar, and the Calendar is located at the top of the page). Here, the appointment book is already set up; you simply add the item for which you wish to be reminded, and you can choose to be reminded X number of minutes, days, or weeks prior to the item.
Drastically and Effectively Reduce Spam—Before you Read it
Teaching online equates to much time spent on a computer, and thus more unwanted e-mails can find their way to your inbox; deleting this takes time, and some may accidentally get through and cause damage to your computer. To build on top of any spam filter you may already have try Cloudmark Desktop One http://www.cloudmarkdesktop.com/—it checks incoming e-mail, determines whether it’s spam, and automatically channels suspect messages to a spam folder.
Catalog Your E-Book Collection
More distance educators are using e-books in their courses, and this trend will only grow. It’s important to keep track of these; not doing so can cost time and frustration—neither of which an online teacher ever needs. Enter Calibre (http://calibreebook.com/)—it surveys e-books and other relevant files on your hard drive or ereader, and then inserts them into Calibre’s main directory. Once in the directory you can use the app to organize, categorize, and save to disk.
Use Online Reminder Notes to Keep Your Ideas Always at the Ready
If you like those yellow sticky notes you’ll find DeskNotes (http://desknotes.codeplex.com/) a great online version. You can create notes and move them around with ease—and as one teaches, online ideas of how best to teach, a new topic to discuss, a student that needs a follow-up, etc. happen all the time. Rather than jotting these down on a paper sticky note (or any type of paper) use DeskNotes to keep your ideas organized and categorized—and leave your desk note free! (Bonus: this software can also be used to remind you of upcoming appointments, deadlines, and events.)
Never Again forward E-Mail With Unwanted Prior Addresses
A major “oops” many distance educators have experienced is forwarding an e-mail but forgetting to delete e-mail addresses (from the original e-mail) you don’t want to receive the e-mail. This can result in major embarrassment—and more than one online instructor has lost employment or injured his or her reputation as a result. To be sure this never happens to you, click Forward, insert your own address in the To field, and place all addresses of folks you wish to receive the e-mail in the Bcc (blind carbon copy) field. Then, highlight and delete all previous addresses.
Get the Latest Information Daily Relating to Your Course Subject and Distance Learning
Google Alerts www.google.com/alertsallows you to create alerts on as many topics as you choose (one topic = one distinct alert), sending you an e-mail whenever new information appears on the Web specific to your topic. If one teaches English, for example—as I do—one can create an alert for Strategies for Teaching English Online; any time such an item is added to the Web you will receive an alert giving you a brief summary and its URL. This gives you the opportunity to build up your information on any number of topics to stay current with your subject, teaching strategies in distance learning, upcoming distance learning conferences, et cetera.
Engage Your Students With Fun Stuff not Necessarily Related to the Course Subject
Sugar is used to sweeten all sorts of food stuffs, and we can learn from this: use “sugar”—some interesting and intriguing websites—to add a more relaxed, fun, and upbeat feel to your class. Balanced with the core subject taught, as well as assignments, discussions, et cetera, and your course can be one students will want to visit more often. The content of these sites might also be incorporated into assignments and discussion, depending on your subject: Happy News www.happynews.com offers uplifting, positive, and hopeful news stories … Mind Games (http://playwithourmind.com) has more than 100 word games, typing games, memory games, math games, logic puzzles, et cetera … Optical Illusions (www.michaelbach.de/ot) presents and analyzes optical illusions from a scientific perspective (rather than a simple “Hey—that’s cool!” approach) … Radio Lovers (www.radiolovers.com) lets you listen to hundreds of old radio broadcasts, including Groucho Marx, Bob Hope, Blondie, Bing Crosby, Gene Autry, and many more … You Were How OId When? (tinyurl.com/1z4v) shows one his or her age when a variety of events took place and how much older or younger one is than various personalities. Simply enter your birth date and press “submit.”
Never be Without a WI-Fi Hotspot—Anywhere in the World
Distance instructors are connected to their computers, and whether on vacation, at a conference, am emergency family visit, or work-related having wi-fi access is crucial. Enter Wi-Fi Finder (tinyurl.com/cqsek5>) —you will get more than 400,000 wi-fi access locations, in 144 countries; it tells you if the wi-fi is free, gives you street addresses, directions, and a map for each one.
Help Your Students, Help Yourself With Shorter URL Addresses
Many website addresses—URLs—are lengthy, especially those embedded deep in the web. These can take up premium space in e-mails, tweets, text messages, and other such mediums; also, the longer the URL the greater the tendency is to either not copy all of it or type it incorrectly. Two services are especially good at chopping these down to more manageable sizes. Bit.ly (http://bit.ly) has you type in or copy/paste the URL in its original form, press the Shorten button, and a new, much shorter URL will appear. Goo.gl (http://goo.gl) does the same: paste the long version of the URL into the input field, click the Shorten button, and the site delivers a new, abbreviated address you can copy and paste.
Create a Blog
More distance instructors are introducing blogs—online journals—to their classes; it gives students (and instructors) an opportunity to offer on-going conversations—opinions and information—about a specific subject or topic related to a course. Blogs can add richness and depth to any course, while offering an additional learning resource. The best blog services on the Web to help you create and maintain your blog: Blogger (www.blogger.com) … WordPress (www.wordpress.com) … Windows Live Spaces (www.spaces.live.com) … Weebly (www.weebly.com) … Tumblr (www.tumblr.com).
Use Keyboard Shortcuts for Quick Commands
The quicker we can type the more time we save—and time management and solid efficiency are always important in any online course being taught. When an opportunity comes along that helps with this it’s important to grab it, and one of these that many people don’t use are common Windows shortcuts. What follows is a complete list for Windows XP (Windows 7 is still a work in progress because of its newness): Open Run box—WIN-R … Open files and folders/Search window—WIN-F … Minimize all windows—WIN-M … Lock computer—WIN-L … Open Utility Manager—WIN-U … Switch among open programs—ALT-TAB … Permanently delete an item—SHIFT-DELETE … Open Task Manager—CTRL-SHIFT-ESC … Open a Help file—F1 … Take a screenshot and save to Clipboard—PRINT SCREEN … Select all … CTRL-A … Copy—CTRL-C … Paste—CTRL-V … Print—CTRL-P … Open—CTRL-O.
Increase the Number of Documents in Word 2007’S Recent Documents for Quicker Access
Each online course taught equals a multitude of assignments graded and returned to students as document files, and while Word 2007’s default setting of Recent Documents will list 25 of these you can increase this number. The advantage: quickly find—then open—recent files and find files that you saved but forgot to save to their desired locations. To do this, Launch Word 2007, click the Office button (upper left corner of the Word window), click the Word Options button, then click Advanced. Scroll down to the Display area, then click the up arrow next to Show this number of Recent Documents to select a number more appropriate for your needs (max is 50).
Download Audiobooks
Audiobook titles are growing at an enormous rate, with online courses often incorporating them into courses in lieu of texts, in addition to texts, or merely to offer students another resource to augment what they already have. For an impressive selection of these visit BooksShouldBeFree (www.booksshouldbefree.com)—it is an online library of audio books available in .mp3 and iTunes podcast formats. (Other such sites include thoughtaudio.com, podiobooks.com, and librivox.org)
Remember: While a hammer can pound a nail, a toolbox can build, fix, redo, and finish.
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