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Software roundup

Time to take a look at applications and other technology I use in my teaching.

MS Office

I've discussed it plenty in previous posts, but the Office suite is hands down my most used piece of software. There's PowerPoint of course, Word for making all the handouts, official docs etc, Outlook for most communications and Excel for marking, tracking student progression and so on. With the exception of Outlook I couldn't say they are all used every single day, but it's unusual if Word doesn't get launched at least once. 

The Web

The Internet is central to most things I do in education. It's a subject I teach, it's a research hub for myself and students, its a source of a wealth of material. My childhood took place just before the rise of the Web so I have this position where I remember what the world was like before (more innocent, I'd say) but still having become part of the Internet generation. Nobody I teach any more remembers a time before the Internet, in some ways I actually feel quite privileged in that respect. Now get off my lawn.

Adobe Suite

Adobe's suite of creative apps sit at the core of many of the subjects I teach but beyond that I also use them (Photoshop in particular) when creating teaching resources. That might be a bit overkill sometimes, but you use what you know right?

Moodle

Since it's our official e-learning platform I'm on Moodle quite a lot. I tend to really use it too, more than most others I've seen. Moodle modules I'm maintaining tend to have a lot of content from presentations and handouts to useful links and media for tutorials, organised by topic with a lot of accompanying notes.

Google Drive

We're supposed to have something like a terabyte (1000 gigabytes) of storage space each provided by work, using Microsoft's OneDrive cloud platform. Unfortunately I gave up on it when I hit the limit on the total number of files and it refused to upload various types of file I rely on in teaching. Instead I use my own Drive account to store (and back up) all my teaching materials and administrative documents. I share folders with various cohorts rather than have to deal with restrictions from going the 'official' route.

Android

As I teach a lot of mobile-centric subjects I don't tend to use smart devices directly as teaching tools as they are already in use. However I go to great lengths to ensure all the resources I teach with are mobile friendly, so students can use their phones or tablets if they choose. For my teaching I also use my own Android phone as a teaching tool, including using various niche apps (such as the excellent Green Screener), quickly bringing up information during one-to-ones and (my favourite) wirelessly broadcasting presentations to compatible TVs so I can wander around the class while still lecturing.
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Comments

  1. Jan12 February 2016 at 14:20

    Interested in looking at Green scanner - love to have a chat sometime

    ReplyDelete

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