We live in an age of rapidly changing technologies. As such, it is important that educators incorporate these tools in their practice to meet the diverse needs of learners. One multimedia resource that I have found very helpful as a learner is the Adobe Connect. It is a web platform that can be used for online teaching from anywhere. http://www.adobe.com/products/adobeconnect/elearning.html
Having attended live webinars and viewed the archived event, it is a tool that can be used on any device such as the smartphone or desktop. Students can access it from anywhere and can engage in a live chat during the webinar. The instructor has the ability to use slides, demonstrations from the computer desktop and also to allow students to ask questions and respond to them immediately. For example, this can be incorporated in an accounting class to demonstrate a concept such as Cost, Volume, and Profit Formulas where I would explain what it means and also show how the formulas are calculated. This resource can also be used to illustrate the preparation of a classified Balance Sheet, describing the various sections and how the information is listed in an excel spreadsheet. Learners then have the ability to be engaged visually as well as audibly while connecting online with other students.
Another application that can be used to enhance learning is the screencasting tool called Jing. http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html. It is a good tool for capturing what you do on the computer on tablet and making it into an instructional video or a tutorial. For example, if I wanted to explain how students can include citations in their paper, I would prepare a video showing the steps I would take to include the quoted materials and citations in the body of the paper and the reference page at the end. It can also be used “as support materials when teaching complex skills on the computer”. (Richardson, 2010, p. 123). For example, if I were explaining Pivot Tables in Excel, this tool would be extremely helpful to show students how it is done directly from the computer.
References:
Bonk, C. J. (2009). The world is open: How web technology is revolutionizing education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases
http://c4lpt.co.uk/top-100-tools-2012/
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Educational Technologies 