ATDOP Online Tools
Online tools and resources used in the course
The ATDOP course uses several different tools for communication and completion of tasks. Tools were chosen with several factors in mind:
- Easy to use
- Free or very inexpensive
- Usable by teachers with their own students
- Persistent: they don’t disappear when the course closes
Primary course tools
- General communication between teacher and participant: Email
- Course website: Google Sites (free), http://sites.google.com/
- Online discussion: Google Groups (free), http://groups.google.com/
- Real-time (synchronous) small group discussion: Skype (free), http://www.skype.com/
- File sharing:
Google Docs (free), http://docs.google.com/
Google Sites (free), http://sites.google.com/
DropBox (free), http://www.dropbox.com/- Audio recording:
Vocaroo (free), http://vocaroo.com/
Audacity (free), http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Sound Recorder (free; built into Windows)
Save as ogg format in Vocaroo for smallest file size
Save as mp3 in Audacity for smaller file size than if saved as wav
No compressed file saving options in Sound Recorder, so use this as a last resort – saves only as wav- Audio playback for ogg files: VLC Media Player (free), http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ , Audacity (free), http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
- Whole-group webinar: Elluminate (commercial program), http://elluminate.com/
Large-group, free webinar spaces are rare. Anymeeting says you can have up to 200 people in their free, the ad-supported version http://www.anymeeting.com/
For up to 20 participants in a room, try the free version of Vyew http://vyew.com/site/index2
Additional tools
- Rubric creator: Rubistar (free), http://rubistar.4teachers.org/
- Social bookmarking: Delicious (free), http://delicious.com/
- Graphic organizers: Freeology (free), http://freeology.com/graphicorgs/
- Group audio discussion board: Voxopop (free), http://www.voxopop.com/
- A variety of useful websites – see the Useful Resources page