Education Tools Assessment
Today we will be discussing 8 different tools for Education. I will evaluating each tool looking for key features such as friendly user interface, availability (Free, paid-subscription or one-time payment), and how effective they are generally when it comes to Education and Teaching. I will point out the pros and cons of each one and by the end of each assessment the tool will be giving a "moon" rating (you'll see what I mean). To start off our list of tools we will begin with...
As a student, using Moodle can at times be easy to use and navigate, but other times difficult and frustrating. Let me explain, Moodles interface is actually really friendly for users, its simple design and well-spaced out tiles are easily understandable and can navigate from page to page easily. So what is the problem you may be wondering. It is some functions that moodle does not have for the user. For example, written assignments can be done on moodle, however one quick power surge or outage and you lost all your progress and work as moodle does not have an auto save function. Another problem facing the platform is that there is not formal introduction of the features. Making a moodle account is easy and best of all free but when you create a group or classroom it does not give you any proper introduction to how to effectively use the platform and requires users to be more proactive in finding its many hidden features. Speaking of features, moodle has a built in calendar, personalized notification system and direct chat with individuals in the same group or class which are very helpful to both student and teachers.
Overall although moodle needs a little more polish on some important details such as an introduction and auto-save features the platform is a very useful easy to use tool and is free giving it a rating of...
🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 Moon Rating! (That means 3 1/2 out of 5 🌚). Next up is...
Google Chrome is a well-known internet browser that one of its core strengths is that it connects with a gmail account. Downloading google Chrome is easy and simple task, but to make full use of its features creating a gmail account and signing into the browser with it. With that you can save bookmarks, have access to gmails applications such as docs, slides, sheets etc at a few simple clicks of the button. Like Moodle it has no formal introduction/ tutorial of all its features requiring users to spend some time looking through the setting. Like every browser you can create new tabs but what is unique with chrome is that each tab has an individual process meaning that multitasking is easy. However this can also be a bad thing as if you have multiple tabs open and doing something whether its watching a video, downloading a file or searching for something it takes up processing power and can ultimately freeze or crash but the good thing is its only that tab and does not effect the others.
Google Chrome has many useful features but it is definitely recommended that you create a gmail account so make more use of its variety of features and applications and best of all its free. Though it may take up a lot of processing power and can at times crash and freeze it is still regarded for how fast and responsive the browser is and so it gets a rating of 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 moon rating (I think you get it now).
Speaking of Google Applications. We mentioned that with gmail account you gain access to applications. Such applications (referring to the image above) include Drive, an online storage for doc and pictures; Docs, Sheets and Slides, that are very similar to Microsoft word, power-point and excel & BLOG (this thing we are using right now :D). Google Applications offers many useful tools that are for most part free to all users who create a gmail account. Google+ being the only paid for application but compared to the other options you'll most likely be using the free ones. Interface is familiar to other applications such as Microsoft own but the main difference is that you can work on Docs, Sheets and Slides with other people. Lots of pros but whats the cons, its very minor. With Drive you only allowed a certain amount of storage for free users so eventually it will fill and would have to either delete or transfer files but if you have the spare cash you can get google+ giving youy unlimited storage. Another problem is that and I have experienced is though Slides, docs and sheets are similar to Microsoft's versions it lacks some features that were very prominent in Microsoft's own .
Despite its minor cons Google Applications are very useful and handy tools for anyone with a gmail account and best thing its mostly free if we are counting google+ so this gets 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗 moon rating.
Livebinders is probably more well known and used for and by academic purposes and businesses. Starting my path as a Future Educator I was introduced to Livebinders and I find there are some good things about Livebinders and some bad things. Livebinders is a website that individuals can collect resources from all over the internet and compile them into a "binder" for free. The binder can have multiple main tabs with many sub tabs in between but what makes Livebinders so special is that when you click on these tabs that has already has a resource in it, it will show the website within the tab and does not redirect you to a new tab on your respective browser, this is very handy as having multiple broswer tabs open can be confusing, but livebinders makes it feel more manageable. Though if there is a con to this feature and that is depending on your browser it may not display the website within the tab. For example I use Firefox and when i access my livebinders for school I cannot see certain sites and it asks me to open the source on a new tab so depending on your preferred browser some websites in your tabs may not show up. When starting Livebinders, users are giving a introduction/tutorial which is nice because beginners such as myself found it difficult to use so that is a point in itself.
With that Livebinders though it may not function properly on different browsers it is still free and provides a space for individuals to share resources they have collected and found helpful and may be helpful to others giving it a rating of 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 moon rating.
Microsoft Teams is very focused on providing a online space for Educators and Business to share and communicate with each other easily and effectively. Microsoft Teams is free for everyone to use and create their own "Teams" or groups though it is limited. With Microsoft teams you can invite people into your Team and organize them into subgroups fitting their category. This makes it easier to organize and communicate with individuals or groups between different sub groups. It has a built in calender/event system. What is impressive is that you can have a voice chat or video call with thousands of individuals though there is a limit. I keep mention limits and that is because though Microsoft Teams is free it also has a paid subscription where the features such as creating more Teams, increasing storage of media and doc files or having a voice call with hundreds if not thousands of people does come at a cost, but these are minor grievances as you can still do most of this activities and I believe that you can still have a group call of up to 2,600 people, thats the free version. Another key feature is the inclusion of google applications such as slides, doc, etc. I believe one issue facing Microsoft teams is that the interface is not very user friendly as it can be difficult to understand and navigate the tool. It will take time and trial and error to finally master it
With that being said I would personally use Microsoft teams over other online group tools but I cannot overlook the problems it also faces so I give it a 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 moon rating.
Powtoon is very unique compared to Microsoft Powerpoint and Google Slides in that you are creating a powerpoint that plays like a video. Powtoons is re-imagining ways presentations are being used to teach a variety of different lessons. It adds audio and colorful visuals that are guaranteed to grab your audience attention. There are many pre-made templates that beginners can start using and many resources as gifs, animations and videos to add to your powtoon creation. However there are two major setback and one being that in order to fully make use of all the features Powtoons has to offer you would need to pay a monthly/ yearly subscription. You can create a free acount to which you are given a trial run but eventually it will run out and then you are not only limited to the resources available to you but since the powtoons works like a video presentation you are limited to only 3 minute long presentations which can be troublesome for presentation that really require further elaboration. And the last problem is that it is not beginner friendly. I spent a good 2-3 hours trying to figure out how to use Powtoons and even now I still have some question about what I can do.
Powtoons is inventive and creative new method of presenting almost any topic in a colorful and visually appealing way. However it definitely needs to be make an effort in convincing people to use powtoons rather then free options available elsewhere such as google Slides. The Learning curve is a bit challenging so maybe making a powtoons presentation on how to make powtoons is probably necessary. So with that in mind the rating for this is 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 moon rating.
Midway through my Spring semester at the University of Guam our classes were moved to online due to the global pandemic COVID19 and so Teachers and professors scrambled to find a tool for communication with students. One such tool I was introduced to was BigBlueButton. BigBlueButton is another kind of communication tool that is similar to the famously known Skype. What makes it much better then Skype are the utilities available. First off this tool is free which is a awesome thing and offers much more tools then Skype such as whiteboard, screensharing, polls, uploading and sharing documents and recording sessions. BBB has a very user friendly interface and the introduction is very handy for those who are not experienced with the tool. if there is one major problem facing BBB is that video quality and its consistency to stream is in desperate need of improvement. People who use video appear to be fuzzy and at times tend to freeze or halt all audio from outputting. These are vital parts of this tool and it definitely needs to be improved upon.
Though BigBlueButton is lacking in video quality and consistency it makes up for it in providing easy-to-use utilities that make online learning a bit more manageable and readily availability to all audiences. So it gets a 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑. Last but not least...
Office 365 is a tool gives users access to all of Microsoft's tools online and anywhere. With OneDrive you can store files and access them anywhere and on any device. This is useful for individual who are away from home or where it is convenient for them. Users have access to Word, Excel, and even Teams. With Teams integration you can easily share and collaborate with others on projects or documents. It is much more organized to keep files and documents in a quick and easy to access online database known as the cloud. For any business these Office 365 is essential but what about regular users. Well that's where it becomes tricky because since office 365 is always online some services may not be available to you and it does require an monthly/yearly subscription. With these factors in mind it slowly becomes more challenging to recommend this option to not just others but if as a teacher, to students to use.
Though Office 365 has many great features it is out-shined by many free alternatives such as Googles Applications. Although user files are accessible for anywhere it still need that online connection. So with that in mind, Office 365 gets 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 moon rating.
Overall these are all very well known tools and are my personal judgements based on how available it is to consumers, the ease-of-use and unique features. Each one has a great pro but it was also important to point out the concerning cons. Hopefully this is helpful in making a decision on any of these 8 tools, but if I could recommend any of them it would be both Google Applications and Microsoft Teams as they offer the most for free.
RESOURCES
Images used from Google
Hi:
ReplyDeleteExcept for the one instance of a punctuation error (internet-->Internet), the assessment was very well written. You share very important points for educators to consider.
You are encouraged to try technology tools that new to you. Be brave; stretch yourself; step outside of the box. Familiarity with new tools comes with practice. You owe it to yourself to try something new.
It was a pleasure to read.
-j-