Teaching is hard. I mess up every day. Teaching is a complex, multifaceted, and dynamic. New ideas, new best practices, new tools, and new strategies are coming at us all the time. On top of that, there’s the challenge of the pandemic which has compelled us to change.
Trying to keep up is like drinking from a fire hydrant. There’s so much that it is hard to swallow anything.
With this in mind, we’ve been hesitant to share too much more in the way of tech with teachers this year. We get it.
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I am prompted to write in spite of this because I’ve come across two tools that have made my online and blended teaching more productive, Gathertown and Perusall.
[wmd-slider animation=”0″ autoplay=”1″ autoplay_speed=”3000″ arrows=”1″ dots=”1″ interface_color=”#333333″ width=”100%” height=”0″ ls-id=”6058bf053b874″][wmd-slider-tab]%3Cp%3EPerusall%2C invented in part by Eric Mazur%2C%C2%A0 is a social annotation tool that integrates directly with Canvas. Perusall allows students and teachers to collaboratively markup . pdf documents%2C videos%2C and more. Instead of reading a document and discussing it%2C Perusall brings the discussion to the text.%3C%2Fp%3E%0D%0A%3Cp%3E%3Ca href%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fgking.harvard.edu%2Ffiles%2Fgking%2Ffiles%2Fph.pdf%22%3Ehttps%3A%2F%2Fgking.harvard.edu%2Ffiles%2Fgking%2Ffiles%2Fph.pdf%3C%2Fa%3E%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0D%0A%3Cp%3EUsing discussions in your class can be critical to increasing students%5C%27 enjoyment of the class and strengthens students%5C%27 understanding of concepts. Perusall as an annotation tool that allows students to annotate PDFs and share comments to each other within the document%2C Perusall can be used to replace or continue the use of a discussion based on PDF readings.%3C%2Fp%3E%0D%0A%3Cp%3EI%5C%27ve been using it for a few weeks now and have found it to be very useful. At the very least%2C it offers an easy change of pace.%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0D%0A%3Cp%3E%5Bembed%5Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2F_PfAc0D2erk%5B%2Fembed%5D%3C%2Fp%3E[/wmd-slider-tab][wmd-slider-tab]%3Cp%3EGather%2C also known as Gather.town%2C simulates buildings and classrooms on campus where students%2C professors%2C and teaching assistants can interact with one another through personal avatars during office hours. Its main feature%2C %22Interaction Distance%2C%22 launches a video call between users whose avatars are within five steps from each other in the virtual space. As the users%5C%27 avatars walk away from each other%2C their video and audio quality decrease%2C simulating an in-person interaction.%3C%2Fp%3E%0D%0A%3Cp%3EDeb Skapik%2C Alex Pearson and I have all vetted and used Gather in our class. For small group discussions%2C it is far superior to Meet and Zoom. A teacher can easily embed all sorts of things into the Gather room such as assignments%2C videos%2C padlet walls%2C readings%2C and more.%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0D%0A%3Cp%3EGather features 1990s style 8 bit graphics that have a certain retro cool to them. Be warned that at first%2C students will want to explore. There will be distracted at first by the interactive features. I%5C%27ve found that if I am giving direct instruction%2C Meet %28and Zoom%29 is my go to tool. But when I want student interaction%2C Gather is fantastic.%3C%2Fp%3E%0D%0A%3Cp%3E%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E[/wmd-slider-tab][/wmd-slider]