A Short Guide to Taking Screenshots on Your Laptop and Tablet

Great post from FTFT:

“Visual aids can be very helpful when you’re introducing a new website, app, or software to students or colleagues. Being able to take and send a screenshot is also helpful when you’re trying to explain a problem to your tech support person. Here’s a short guide to taking screenshots on your iPad, Android tablet, Windows computer, Mac, or Chromebook.

Chromebook:
A quick search in the Chrome store will return a bunch of options for taking screenshots on a Chromebook. Of those results there are two options that I have used and recommend. Diigo’s Awesome Screenshot tool and TechSmith’s Snagit. Awesome Screenshot will only capture things that are displayed in your web browser. Snagit will capture everything on your screen. Snagit requires that you download the Snagit Chrome app and the Snagit browser extension. Awesome Screenshot is a simple one step installation. Both tools allow you to draw and type on top of your screenshot images. Continue reading

Plan B for Internet crash

The Internet connects billions of people, businesses,  and machines; it’s the backbone of modern life. But tech pioneer Danny Hillis thinks the Internet just wasn’t designed to grow this big — and he fears that one big cyber-attack or glitch could shut it down and take civilization with it. To head off a digital dark age, he sounds a clarion call to develop a Plan B: a parallel system to fall back on if — or when — the Internet crashes. Want to know plan B? Watch the TED Talk.

Harvard and MIT Are Sued over Closed Captioning for Online Materials

A new lawsuit accuses Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology of failing to provide closed captioning in online teaching materials, in violation of federal anti-discrimination laws, The New York Times reports. The lawsuits were filed by the National Association of the Deaf, and seek an injunction requiring that closed captioning be provided for all online materials.

Accessibility is critically important for all online materials we create!

Professors Know About High-Tech Teaching Methods, but Few Use Them

The Chronicle:

“Innovation is sweeping the world of higher education, but not all faculty members are embracing it in their classrooms.

A new survey from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has found that 40 percent of the professors surveyed use or are interested in using innovative techniques and technologies. But of that 40 percent, only half—or 20 percent of the overall survey sample—have actually used them.”

3 Things Academic Leaders Believe about Online Education

Only yesterday we had a discussion at the Academic Council about blended and online initiatives at NU.  I also shared the results of the survey of our faculty related to their prior experiences and interest in this area.

The Babson Survey Research Group released its annual online-education survey recently  and the report based on 2014 activities  is available here. In a nut shell, here are three things academic leaders believe about online education:

1. Online education has become mission-critical, even at small colleges.

2. “Hybrid” courses are at least as good as face-to-face courses.

3. Most professors still don’t think online courses are legit.

And what is your view?