ICT NOTES

Audio

The radio has been around for a long time and has been used in educational classrooms. Recent technologies have allowed classroom teachers to stream audio over the internet. There are also webcasts and podcasts available over the internet for students and teachers to download. For example, iTunes has various podcasts available on a variety of subjects that can be downloaded for free.

Video

Videos may allow teachers to reach students who are visual learners and tend to learn best by seeing the material rather than hearing or reading about it. Teachers can access video clips through the internet instead of relying on DVDs or VHS tapes. Websites like YouTube are used by many teachers. Teachers can use messaging programs such as Skype, or webcams, to interact with guest speakers and other experts. Interactive video games are being integrated in the curriculum at both K-12 and higher education institutions.

Research on the use of video in lessons is preliminary, but early results show an increased retention and better results when video is used in a lesson. Creating a systematic video development method holds promise for creating video models that positively impact student learning.

Computers, tablets and mobile devices

Computers and tablets allow students and teachers access to websites and other programs, such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, PDF files, and images. Many mobile devices support m-learning.

Blogging

Blogs allow students and teachers to post their thoughts, ideas, and comments on a website. Blogging allows students and instructors to share their thoughts and comments on the thoughts of others which could create an interactive learning environment.

WebCams

Video cameras that allow you can connect to the internet and see other internet users. Allows students to become engaging and be able to see who everyone is.

Whiteboards

Interactive whiteboards ("smart boards") allow teachers and students to write on the touch screen, so learning becomes interactive and engaging.

Skype,

The Internet is making the world a smaller place for everyone, and teachers are discovering how to use the latest video chat applications to break down classroom walls. From hosting guest speakers to creating opportunities for homebound students to have an online education, emerging tech is changing how schools approach learning.

Three of the hottest video chat apps are Skype, FaceTime and Google Hangouts, and here’s a few ways that schools are putting them to use.

Skype
As an early VOIP (voice over IP) provider, Skype has become one of the most popular ways to talk for free over the Internet. Created by Europeandevelopers in 2003, the app was acquired by Microsoft in 2011.

Skype is free to download and calls to other Skype accounts are free as well. The company operates a Skype in the Classroom website which offers more than 2,700 Skype lesson plans and nearly 800 resources created by teachers as well as organizations including NASA Digital Learning Network, Penguin Books and the British Council.

Teachers can also use Skype to connect with other teachers and classrooms. For example, Herrick Park Elementary School in Tecumseh, Mich. has used the app to help students make global connections. Last year, the second grade class skyped with a class in Chile while third graders used the app to talk with students at a Haitian orphanage.

“Both classes sang songs while on Skype and were able to ask questions to each other,” said parent Jennifer Cornish, who had a son participate in each chat. “It was a great learning experience for my boys and the whole class.”

FaceTime
FaceTime could be described as Apple’s answer to Skype. It is a video chat app that is compatible with Apple devices such as the iPhone, iPod and iPad. Newer devices may come preloaded with FaceTime but for those who need to download the app, it costs a mere 99 cents.

While FaceTime does not offer centralized resources like Skype in the Classroom, teacher forums, blogs and wikis are full of stories regarding how the app is being put to use in the classroom. Examples include allowing parents to remotely view student presentations and bringing in video guest speakers.

Danbury Elementary School in Lakeside-Marblehead, Ohio is taking use of the app one step further. According to the Peninsula News, the school arranged to use FaceTime to allow a preschooler with a rare autoimmune disease to participate in class.

Using an iPad hooked to a SmartBoard, the preschooler can see her classmates and they can see her as they participate together in activities such as singing songs and attending school assemblies. During learning stations, an aide carries the iPad around the class as the stations rotate. In addition to working on school tasks at home, the preschooler uses FaceTime for social interactions to talk with her friends and share details about favorite toys and activities.

Google Hangouts
A relatively new addition to the world of social applications is Google Hangouts. Like Skype and FaceTime, Hangouts offer a free way to video chat, but the service comes with one big advantage. The other services are limited to two participants, but Hangouts allow multiple people to talk at once.

Attached to the social media service Google+, Hangouts were originally envisioned as a way for groups of up to 10 friends to chat together. However, schools quickly saw the potential of Hangouts to facilitate study groups, remote seminars and teacher office hours. In response, Google expanded the number of participants allowed in school sponsored Hangouts to 15.

Hangouts also have an advantage over other videoconferencing options in that they can be broadcast using the Hangouts On Air option. In addition, chat sessions can be uploaded to YouTube to be accessed by other students at a later date.

Perhaps because participants need a Google+ account to access Hangouts, their use seems to be concentrated at the college level. Last fall, Google Students posted a video of Ghetto Film School using the service for its master classes. A subsequent discussion of the video found, among other uses, Hangouts were also being used by geography classes at the University of Alabama to let distance learners sit in on classes. Meanwhile, the University of Michigan reports on its website it has engineering instructors who use the app to hold virtual office hours.

The latest apps are doing more than allowing family and friends to connect with one another. They are also opening up new educational opportunities for students at every level and giving the term online schools a whole new meaning.

Digital library
"An informal definition of a digital library is a managed collection of information, with associated services, where the information is stored in digital formats and accessible over a network. A crucial part of this definition is that the information is managed. A stream of data sent to earth from a satellite is not a library. The same data, when organized systematically, becomes a digital library collection. Most people would not consider a database containing financial records of one company to be a digital library, but would accept a collection of such information from many companies as part of a library. Digital libraries contain diverse information for use by many different users. Digital libraries range in size from tiny to huge. They can use any type of computing equipment and any suitable software. The unifying theme is that information is organized on computers and available over a network, with procedures to select the material in the collections, to organize it, to make it available to users, and to archive it."
There are many definitions of a "digital library." Terms such as "electronic library" and "virtual library" are often used synonymously.

• The digital library is not a single entity;
• The digital library requires technology to link the resources of many;
• The linkages between the many digital libraries and information services are transparent to the end users;
• Universal access to digital libraries and information services is a goal;
• Digital library collections are not limited to document surrogates: they extend to digital artifacts that cannot be represented or distributed in printed formats.

Google Earth is a desktop application for Mac, PC, or Linux computers that allows you to navigate planet Earth from multiple views. Google Earth combines satellite photos and maps with a search engine to allow you search to find directions and specific addresses or general locations and services.

Google Earth is a virtual globe, map and geographical information program that was originally called EarthViewer 3D created by Keyhole, Inc, a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) funded company acquired by Google in 2004. It maps the Earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite imagery, aerial photography and geographic information system (GIS)3D globe. It was originally available with three different licenses, but has since been reduced to just two: Google Earth (a free version with limited function) and Google Earth Pro ($399 per year), which is intended for commercial use. The third original option, Google Earth Plus, has been discontinued.

Archive

a collection of historical documents or records providing information about a place, institution, or group of people.

In general, archives consist of records that have been selected for permanent or long-term preservation on grounds of their enduring cultural, historical, or evidentiary value. Archival records are normally unpublished and almost always unique, unlike books or magazines for which many identical copies exist. This means that archives are quite distinct from libraries with regard to their functions and organization, although archival collections can often be found within library buildings.