In the interest of getting the discussion going about what should be in the teacher’s toolbox to teach at a distance, here’s my list of the basic tools necessary for TEACHING online. Note that I don’t think every class needs to use all of these, but I think a teacher needs to know this stuff as a minimum in order to teach online.
- Email (including a Listserver)
- Discussion Boards
- Blog (mine)
- Aggregator (with my own feeds in it)
- File repository space
- Web server space
- Text chat
- Word processor
- Graphics software (like Photoshop or The GIMP)
- Spread sheet software
- Firefox web browser
- A broadband connection in the home
Tools that need to be removed from TEACHING toolboxes.
- PowerPoint
- Integrated gradebooks
- Lecture-ware like Elluminate, Centris, and the like
Discuss. What did I miss from the basic teacher toolbox? Do you agree with the three items I think should be removed?
September 18th, 2006 at 10:07 am
Enjoyed our chat session last night. I first questioned why you listed PowerPoint on the tools to be removed. I understand your reasoning now. It is amazing how many tools are free online. Thanks for sharing.
September 13th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
I am still a person that likes to see faces so I would also want to see webcams included in the teachers toolbox. I like to know who I am dealing with!
September 15th, 2007 at 8:35 am
[...] See My Basic Toolbox for the items *I* need to be effective. [...]
September 15th, 2007 at 9:35 am
PowerPoint has been abused in the classroom. I’m guilty of doing it myself. But, it can still be used as an effective tool by reducing the number of instances you use PowerPoint. Students will become desensitized to it if used for every lesson you teach.
September 15th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
+1 on the removal of integrated gradebooks. Students worry too much about the grades and not the learning that is taking place ,but don’t we do the same thing?
September 15th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
I don’t know what half of the things you are keeping in your toolbox are, but I feel that a projector or a way of projecting things onto a big screen for others to see is vital in a classroom. What do you think?? I think the removal items are fine. I wish I could teach without grades, but that is my driving force that keeps the students working right now. I hope to work away from that a little and have students do assignments because they are fun and they want to do them. (hope I do get to that point)
September 16th, 2007 at 10:58 am
I think you left out Podcast websites such as Audacity. This is a neat way of addressing your students with your voice… over the computer.
September 16th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Actually, no. I left off audio editing tools like Audacity on purpose. I dont believe there’s anything magical about listening to a teacher’s voice, in fact, I believe it to be counter productive.
I *do* see the value in audio for some selected applications – foreign language, audio performance, and speech therapy are some examples. But those are so rare that I left off audio from my basic tool box because I believe 99% of educational applications, audio is actually a hinderance to understanding and comprehension.
And, just for the record, I *am* intimately familiar with the tools, their use, and application. See Quarter Share as an example.
September 16th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
I use projectors all the time. But in most settings, I don’t count that as “educational technology” any more than I count electricity or lighting.
And it’s not something I recommend that a teacher owns for him/herself.
September 13th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
[...] my original toolbox post. My Basic Toolbox. In the interest of getting the discussion going about what should be in the teacher’s toolbox to [...]
September 13th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
I think PowerPoints can still be effective if they are used correctly. I have made a power point with video, my voice recording, and some student work along with text. The students were excited to get started and used the information. I have used PowerPoint to make a webquest. Students click on buttons and use the software interactively. That is one tool that I would use in the classroom. For distance education I have used PowerPoints from a class to review information. The visuals were better than just reading text.
September 13th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Dr. Lowell,
What about the tools that do not require electricy? You had mentioned before that it was important to include ALL items needed (and to think outside the box). The tools you have listed are very imporant to DE; however, there are some that should be included such as your simple paper and pencil. I use paper and pencil to write notes after reading blogs (before posting). It helps me gather my thoughts. I also used paper and pencil to write down all my feeds for this class. Any thoughts?
September 13th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
When I did my tool box list I thought of the very basic tools to teach in distance education considering distance education in my setting of the regular classroom. My list included some of the same things, but there are many on this list that I did not consider in mine. I do agree that PowerPoint is overused. Some teachers do not use it in the right way. I still use it as a template for Jeopardy and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, but I do not use it for boring presentations. I am not familiar with any of the lecture ware so I’ll gave to look into it. I agree 100% that the internet connection needs to be high speed. If all you have is a dial up connection then you might as well not even have Internet.
September 13th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
I agree that all of the tools listed above are essential. Before beginning this class, I had never used several of these tools…but I was very familiar with powerpoint:). I know that I have mentioned before that I was ending my great love for the program. I used it a too often during my internship to meet the technology standard. But now I am adding new tools to my toolbox and I am able to throw out some old ones, or at least lower the number of times I have to use them.
September 13th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
I see paper and pencil as a “supply” – something to be used up … not a “tool” – something that provides leverage.
And for what it’s worth, I very very seldom ever use paper for anything. I have a notepad program running on my computer and I just put whatever notes I need into that. This extends to textbooks. I really don’t like most of the textbooks that are out there. By the time they’ve gone thru the writing, editing, publishing, and printing, they typically describe a world that no longer exists. There’s a book in this course. It’s not a great book, but it’s something you can read and we can discuss.
And remember this list is the TEACHER list.
Dialup works fine for students, but the teacher needs more bandwidth to support all the students. This course, for example, is designed to run on 56kbps dialup. Everything we’ll be doing works on dialup.
September 13th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
A tool i have found interesting is Classroom Presenter. Seen it used and my husband has had several classes that use it and thinks it is great. Presenter gives the ability to write, post questions, and receive feedback and answers all in real-time. This could be real useful in many fields that really need a way to provide real-time instruction regularly.
September 13th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
[...] phaedrus » Blog Archive » My Basic Toolbox. [...]
September 13th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Seems like a fair list, for you. I could see instances of each of them being used in my own classroom, even in a real non-distance ed kind of way. there would be a way to integrate them all, if you sat and thought about them enough. I wouldnt have survived my first year teaching were it not for my laptop, projector, and powerpoint-i was a “floater” and taught six classes in five different rooms, across three buildings on the campus. Technically, I didnt survive my first year, though. I got pink slipped without the opportunity to re-interview, so maybe I held on to those things too much.
September 13th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
I agree integrated notebooks should be removed, as students are always wondering about grades, rather than learning. As a student I also get caught up in this, but as a teacher I hate it. I do think that some form of feedback is necessary on projects, but not necessarily a letter grade. As far as adding things, I think this would be personal for the teacher depending on the class. The things included would definitely be a good “basic toolbox” to teach any online class.
September 14th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Dr. Lowell, is there some reason that you say Firefox browser? Is there a major advantage over, Opera, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Safari, etc. Also as far as sound, in my content area of social studies, speaches are often better spoken if found by the original speaker or a good actor, rather than written. It provides a better setting and realism than just text. It is the same concept as a good movie, watch it without sound effects or background music and see how boring some hollywood hits can be. I do not think that just the voice of the teacher is effective, unless it is to meet accomodations for those students with vision problems.
September 15th, 2008 at 8:58 am
The advantage of Firefox is that it’s free, standards compliant, has a rich plugin toolset, and runs on any platform.
Internet Explorer is not standards compliant, and the target of a multitude of harmful exploits.
Opera is not free.
Chrome lacks plugins for common functions
Safari will not run on all platforms. While Apple rolled out a Windows version, it does not run on Linux as far as I know. If that’s not the case, then I may have to revise my stance on this one.
Yes, audio DOES provide a valuable component if used properly. For educational purposes, the majority of teachers use it because they don’t understand how boring they are to listen to and are unaware of the bandwidth limitations on speech (about 100wpm) compared to text (in excess of 400 wpm for most people).
Disclaimer: I produce audio – both my own novels and the works of others. After producing almost 40 hrs of finished audio, I have a fairly good idea of what it takes to make it compelling.
September 15th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
I see a lot of similarities between your toolbox and mine but I did not factor in bandwidth, server space, and web browser. I do not like the lecture-ware and I would love to do away with gradebooks but it is a handed down task and many times, a motivational tool. PPT, I would like to keep. I do think that it is widely overused and misused, but I like it for outlines, pictures, and basic review. I do not use it very often but I do think it enhances some of the lessons. Like with any thing else, it can become old and boring if used too often, but I would not just toss it completely.
September 15th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
I think that I didn’t answer this question as detailed in the last post as I should have. I do feel as if your list is appropriate. However, I really like PowerPoint for notes and such. Like many of the others, I probably wouldn’t take that out of my teaching toolbox.
September 17th, 2008 at 11:09 am
In teaching and in military settings we have called it “death by PowerPoint”, I loathe it. I don’t EVER use it in my teaching. I never will. I find little that is beneficial from it as the student or the teacher. There are so many other ways to get the information to the student. I think it is done most of the time because there is a mass number of students or soldiers and a lot of information that needs to be regurgitated to the students or soldiers. I think because I have spent hours upon hours looking at someone reading a PowerPoint to me that I have such ugly feelings about it. I have yet to have someone prove to me the benefit of having someone read a PowerPoint to me or worse than that have a hand out of EXACTLY what the PowerPoint says and then read it to me. I think I would rather have someone use a tranquilizer dart on me and put me out of my misery then make me sit through that. Of course this is just my opinion –
September 20th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
I agree that powerpoint should not be used in Distance Education classes. It can be effective for in class presentations. Yet, just like Dr. Lowell has mentioned, if it is used incorrectly it can be awful then. Powerpoint should not be the focus of a presentation. I have seen teachers use powerpoint as an interactive tool with students. We used it once to teach about the Salem witchcraft trials. It was almost like one of those books where you could make choices and turn to a certain page to see the consequences of the choice. It was used to illustrate to the students why the situation was so hopeless for those on trial. Powerpoint was not used in the traditional sense in this case.
September 30th, 2008 at 8:44 am
Powerpoint and it’s desk bound friends Word, Excel and Publisher are the legacy of a decade of procrastination in the the ICT classroom.
SlideRocket – easier and shareable – and there are more. In fact Adobe Air platform is changing the idea of online applications beyond anything we’ve seen before.
Powerpoint is a linear tool, and often linked to linear teaching. Teacher writes questions on the board, kids Google the answers and knock out a presentation. Way too low level. Its all about creating discourse, engagement and authentic interest. Asking questions they can’t Google or solving problems they can’t Wikipedia. Instead, teach Google, teach Wikipedia.
If you have to download or install it – search again, learning requires tools that allow ridiculously easy ways to create, share and collaborate – as reflective, individual learners, Elluminate, Connect Now, Flash Meeting etc SHOULD be in every teachers toolkit – its the best way of connecting to other teachers and building an effective personal learning network.
If a teacher can read and send an email, then they can teach online. Its not the tools, its about rethinking how you undertake formative assessment and support students online – and often outside the classroom.
September 16th, 2009 at 7:03 am
[...] I posted mine in 2006 and the list hasn’t changed much. [...]
September 16th, 2009 at 11:04 am
My projector in my room has been connected to our cable television line, my document camera, my computer and my dvd/vhs player. I do use mine quiet a bit because of this. I no longer have to use my overhead unless I choose to do so. But I can incorporate a lot more “technology” into lessons because of this new hook up in my room. Plus I got to get rid of that big tv and tv stand that took up space and looked hideous!
September 18th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
I’m with you on getting rid of integrated gradebooks and lectureware. Grades just cause problems. Instead of focusing on learning, students focus on making the grade. Wouldn’t it be nice if for once people would allow teachers to throw out grades and really focus on helping students learn? I think it would be great. As for lectureware, I do not see the point. If you make us sign on to the internet to watch you lecture, I’m going to have to find something else to do while listening to you lecture. I don’t know that I should admit this, but I talk on the phone, chat with other people, etc. during our class chats. Although it makes things more difficult, I still manage to keep up, so I don’t see it as a problem. The telephone is the biggest problem because I can’t hold the phone with my hand and still be able to type.
September 20th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
I agree with your list for your toolbox, however, I was a bit surprised by the removal of powerpoint, not that I disagree. I rarely use it, since I have a smartboard and its tools at my fingertips within the classroom. I have had many instructors post powerpoints for students to view throughout my online classes experience began.
(I am glad to see the lecture ware marked as removed. )
September 20th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
No doubt e-mail is a necessary tool. Since my first online class it’s pretty clear why discussion boards are important to distance learning. However, there seems to be a great deal of problems with BlackBoard. I am in agrrement with the rest of your tools, but like a few others, am surprised at your views about Powerpoint. I feel that it is a great entry level tool for student created presentations. I have students create one slide show presentation each year. They create their own presentations using a combination of textbooks, comprehension from hands on activities and demonstrations, as well as online sources. These are created during computer lab time at school so it’s with my supervision. As 4th graders, they take a great deal of pride in their work and like to share their work with ohters. I definitely think Powerpoint is overused and I don’t personally use Powerpoint to teach a concept very often, but have found them useful if interactive. I would also like to add the use of podcasts and webcams to my toolbox.
September 21st, 2009 at 10:37 am
See Why Powerpoint is Evil for my take on it.
The main arguments are:
- Powerpoint is an expensive product. OpenOffice is free and has a tool called “Impress” that has all the functionality required to do presentations, but schools don’t use it because “Everybody uses Powerpoint.” We can’t afford to spend that kind of money to outfit school computers when free, high quality alternatives are available.
- Powerpoint is taught as tool and not concept. Instead of focusing on “how to do a good presentation,” people focus on “how to change your bullets in Powerpoint.” (yes. i’m exaggerating but only slightly. This is wrong thinking. We should be teaching large ideas not small (and expensive) tools.
- Powerpoint is often used as a benchmark diagnostic for “technology integration.” This is a poor metric, but it’s easy so it’s used.
See the post for my full argument against Powerpoint.
September 21st, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Based on my experiences, I don’t think you were exaggerating much.
I was so bored in the basic computer class I had to take as an undergraduate. As you mentioned, we were never taught how to do a good presentation using PowerPoint. We basically learned how to change bullets and font. I guess some people need to start with the basics because they don’t know how to change bullets and font, but at some point you need to move beyond the basics and learn to do something useful. I hated the class. I felt like it was a waste of my time. If I ever get to teach, I hope I make learning enjoyable and worth while so that my students don’t feel like class is a waste of their time.
September 24th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
Mr. Lowell,
Back to the PowerPoint comments I made… I should clarify my previous statement. Like you, the district I previously worked at, felt that PowerPoint was too expensive a program to be using so we switched to OpenOffice and I had my 4th graders create a slideshow presentation on Simple Machines. Again, like you, I agree that often times too much information is presented per slide and too many slides per presentation. As a class, we discussed what makes this tool effective, so students were aware of the requirements for a a good slideshow and they were given a rubric that followed most of Nate’s 5 Rules. The end results were pretty amazing for 4th graders. Their focus on content was pretty exceptional and their perception of the fact that a “good” presentation contains minimal information to “cue” the presenter during the presentation. I felt that it was an effective teaching/learning tool
October 9th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
I was wondering if you thought that a site like ning could replace the aggregator on your list. If each person in a class is in a group, they could simply post their blogs on the website.
October 9th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
If all we were doing was aggregating the class, yes, certainly.
But the aggregator is your window on the larger world outside the class. it’s where you can tune and tweak your information flows to pick out the streams you want to pay attention to. As such, they’re much more valuable than a Ning in terms of managing one’s personal learning network.