While there are many benefits to online instruction, and indeed the online enrollment is growing quickly in many schools, instructors often feel that they lose the sense of connection with their students. One reason for this is that we don't "hear" from our students the same way we do in a face to face classroom.
Instructors are often comfortable using voice tools for content presentation or other one-way communication from them, but what about students? It's important to hear from them as well, and many free Web 2.0 tools allow this verbal communication from students to easily take place. Web 2.0 tools make it easy to connect and collaborate with others, and these traits are becoming increasingly desirable in today's online courses, and ultimately in the professional workplace.
This presentation will cover some free voice recording tools to use with students, including Voki, Voice Thread, Jing, and Photostory. Discussions of the various tools will focus on actual classroom examples and best practices, instead of on how-to directions. Audience members will be engaged through Q&A, brainstorming and idea sharing.
