Educational Technology Tools
UAA Core Tools are technology tools for teaching, learning, and productivity which are supported by the UAA Technical Support Center (786-4646), and can be used by all UAA faculty, staff, and students at no cost.
Many of our tools are changing: Blackboard, Zoom, Kaltura, VoiceThread, and Google Jamboard! I have hightlighted key technology tools below and provided detailed information about Blackboard Learn on the Home page.
Student Engagement Tools
When looking for technology tools for student engagement, start with UAA core tools. There are many options available through UAA’s Microsoft and Google and Zoom subscriptions!
UAA Core tools with "real-time" engagement
Zoom Participant Engagement Features include polls and quizzes and whiteboards
Microsoft Whiteboard "provides an intuitive and flexible platform for collaboration and ideeation. Its like an infinite piece of paper that can be expanded at any time." (user review)
The Collaborative Tools listed below allow you to log in with your UAA login (look for the option to log in with Google or Microsoft)
Google Jamboard Transition to Figjam
Google Jamboard app is winding down. Starting on October 1, 2024 the Jamboard app will become view-only. You’ll no longer be able to create new or edit existing Jams on any platform.
Google is working with Figjam by Figma, Lucidspark by Lucid software, and the visual workspace Miro to provide whiteboarding capabilities that cater to students and educators. FigJam by Figma is available to educational institutions at no cost. Log in with Google using your @alaska.edu account. From the pricing page, under Professional, click "free for students and educators" and then fill out the form.
Zoom
Online Meetings at UAA
At UAA, the primary web conferencing meeting and teaching tool is Zoom. Google Meet and Microsoft Teams provide additional options. UAA faculty, staff, and students are provided Pro Zoom accounts. Learn about NEW Zoom Workplace >>>
Get Started with Zoom: Sign in to our web portal at alaska.zoom.us with your UA credentials to configure your Zoom Pro account, including Profile and Settings.
NEW Zoom Workplace
Zoom: Go to https://alaska.zoom.us/download and download the newest version of Zoom called “Zoom Workplace desktop app.” After it downloads, install it! Sign in with SSO, authenticate, and try it out.
Some of the meeting updates include:
ability to change the colors/theme and appearance of the Zoom meeting controls
multi-speaker view automatically adapts the video layout to feature participants who are actively speaking
lots of new options under "share screen" such as choosing from a variety of layouts, sharing two screens, collaborating on documents
Record a Fancy Face Video in Zoom
The best way to set up Zoom in Blackboard Original
Kaltura Media
Kaltura is UAA’s media streaming solution. You can think of Kaltura as UAA’s YouTube-like platform. It makes storing, editing, and sharing videos (and audio files) to Blackboard easy. After logging in to Blackboard, click Tools to find Kaltura My Media. UAA faculty, staff, and students can use Kaltura.
Important update to Kaltura at UAA May 2024
Katie's Kaltura Faculty Guide (includes Video Quiz basics)
UAA Mediaspace (home base and for sharing publicly)
VoiceThread
VoiceThread is an asynchronous engagement tool for presentations and collaboration with your students. You can think of VoiceThread as a multimedia learning platform. It allows for video, audio, and text comments to slides and works well for interactive lectures, student presentations, and more. VoiceThread is integrated into Blackboard and can be connected to the Grade Center as an assignment.
Features of NEW Voicethread (after June 2024 everyone will be on the new version) to learn more, review this recording of a recent VoiceThread Workshop
Generative AI Resources
It is important to discuss generative AI with your students. Here are some resources.
Teaching AI Ethics (Leon Furze)
Artificial Intelligence Resources (WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies)
Google
The University of Alaska uses Google for basic office communication. Google Workspace includes many useful tools for productivity including Mail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Meet, Keep (Notes), YouTube, Google Earth and more.
Manage your files in the cloud and collaborate with others in Google: How to use Google Drive and Katie's Google Drive Guide
Find more Microsoft training videos on LinkedIn Learning
Microsoft
UAA provides Microsoft products free for faculty, staff, and students. Microsoft Office 365 includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, OneDrive, Teams, and more. You can install the full version of Microsoft Office on up to 5 computers at no cost.
Communicate with UAA colleagues via UAA Microsoft Teams
Level up your Microsoft Word skills
ScreenPal
ScreenPal (formerly Screencast-o-Matic) is a tool for making a video screencast (your voice and screen). The free version of ScreenPal is perfect for student use (log in with UAA Google credentials or don't create an account at all). Review the tutorials provided by ScreenPal.
Once you have recorded the screencast video and saved the MP4 file to your computer, you have several options for sharing it: Kaltura, YouTube, Google Drive, etc. Videos provided to students must be accurately captioned; Kaltura and YouTube auto-caption videos, but you will need to check the captions for accuracy.
UAA pays for a pro version for faculty which allows videos longer than 15 minutes and some editing features. See my ScreenPal guide for faculty and staff.
Flip
Flip (formerly called Flipgrid) is a free video discussion tool from Microsoft and a great alternative to Blackboard's discussion board. Log into Flip using the Microsoft or Google option and your alaska.edu email account.
Review the video on the left and find more Flip help online. Note, when you share a topic, anyone with a link can join (which makes it easy to set up for a class without having to add individuals).
Resources:
Foxit PDF Editor
Foxit PDF Editor can be used to make PDF files more accessible (check/fix accessibility errors and convert scanned PDFs to text), export PDF files to MS Word for editing, combine a variety of files into one file, create fillable forms, and more.
Resources:
UAA Knowledge Base Foxit Installation Instuctions
Surveys
Qualtrics or Google Forms work great for collecting information from students, community partners, etc.
Resources:
eWolf ePortfolio
An eWolf ePortfolio is a space where students, faculty or staff can collect and curate a collection of digital artifacts geared towards a particular purpose and audience. Learn more about eportfolios at UAA
Tips for Selecting Technology Tools for Teaching
When selecting technology tools to facilitate learning, it is important to consider your learning outcomes, your students, support, costs, interaction, accessibility, privacy, and more. See the Teaching with Technology guide from Pivot for more information.
Choose technology tools that facilitate the learning process (KISS)
Choose a variety of types of tools (asynchronous/synchronous, text-based/multimedia) but keep the total number of tools to a minimum
Start with UAA Core tools; also work for consistency within your program/department
“If your course has needs for technologies beyond those that are institutionally-supported, it is incumbent upon you as the instructor to understand the privacy and data protections for students in addition to the accessibility level of the tool that will impact your students” Quality Matters Bridge to Quality
Provide students with clear instructions, opportunities for practice, help resources, and expectations for using technology
Provide students a choice of tools (Universal Design for Learning)
“Digital Pedagogy is precisely not about using digital technologies for teaching and, rather, about approaching those tools from a critical pedagogical perspective. So, it is as much about using digital tools thoughtfully as it is about deciding when not to use digital tools, and about paying attention to the impact of digital tools on learning.”
Rubric for eLearning Tool Evaluation has been designed for instructors and staff as a formative tool to evaluate eLearning tools in higher education (Educause)
Rubric for eLearning Tool Evaluation by Lauren M. Anstey & Gavan P.L. Watson, copyright 2018 Centre for Teaching and Learning, Western University is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/