Web Apps: Teaching Tools

Here at Treadwell, we're exploring a few new tools that we think will be really useful for teaching, training, presenting and online collaboration and may find roles in the hospital, other libraries or really anywhere these things happen. We wanted to share them with you, and tell you a little bit about how we envision using them, so that you might be inclined to check them out for yourself!

Jing
Jing is a dynamic alternative to a standard screen shot; take just a quick picture of a screen or window (especially useful if you're using a version of Windows that doesn't do screen grabs), or make a more in-depth video of yourself performing an action - can even include audio! Perfect for sharing something you're trying to troubleshoot or to serve as a guide for hard-to-explain tasks.

Prezi
An elegant alternative to PowerPoint. Use this intuitive web app to create engaging, visually-driven presentations; get rid of those texty slides, incorporate images and impress your audience! I used this in a final presentation, and not only did the entire class asked me how I made it, I actually had fun doing it!

Sketchcast
A little like Jing, except this app creates a video of what you sketch, draw or write. Can also include audio. Great for working collaboratively to solve problems and brainstorm.

TodaysMeet
This online platform is perfect for harnessing the potential of the backchannel created by live tweeting, blogging and otherwise sharing content and questions at meetings, conferences and conventions. It pulls in relevant hashtags from Twitter and provides a chat-like experience for anyone who wants to participate in the conversation. As we've mentioned before, social networking is becoming a larger part of the conference experience - including medical conferences - and this app provides a great way to embrace that.

VoiceThread
Medical publications are increasingly available online, which has led to a much broader range of media in which information is presented. BMJ and NEJM, just two name two of the biggest, offer access to videos as part of an online subscription. VoiceThread offers the capability to share and mark up different kinds of media - I think this is especially neat for video - with multimedia comments, including voice, video and doodling. Great for brainstorming and working collaboratively, especially on presentations.

Wiziq
This online platform creates digital spaces that can be used as venues for cooperative learning. In a whitepaper on Wiziq as a virtual classroom, Wiziq describes itself as a "teaching environment that delivers media-rich content while removing geographical barriers." This is a full-featured, easy-to-use solution for distance learning, collaborative work, and tutoring.

All in all, there are a lot of really neat teaching tools cropping up, all of which emphasize sharing and collaborating on easily accessible, multimedia content. We'll be experimenting with some of these tools to help users with our resources, so keep your eyes out!