My name is Glen Gatin and
I'm from Manitoba, Canada. I teach a MEd. Course called ICT for
Teachers. The main emphasis of the class is exploring web based
tools used for teaching and learning. I've also been team
teaching an undergrad course in AV Method.
I am also working to complete an EdD program with a media focus.
I hope to complete my dissertation in the summer of 2008. I plan
to use a wiki to compose and share my dissertation process and
results. I hoped to be able to submit my dissertation as a wiki.
My dissertation committee is in agreement but the university
still wants me to go broke getting 4 copies printed up on
cotton-bond paper and bound so that it can moulder in their
library.
I started using web based
tools when IT administrators wouldn't allow me to do the things
I needed in a networked environment. Much of my career has been
trying to figure out how to "work around" people who really
don't think that computers should be used for teaching and
learning and if they are used, only within the walled gardens of
a LMS. I'm not a programmer and I only know enough about
HTML to cut and paste code in the appropriate spot.
Glen's Top 10 Tools as at
7 September 2008
Many of the tools are the same although I
have been using Twitter (through Twhirl) and SecondLife a
lot more.
I quit using Bloglines because of the picture wall and now
use Google reader exclusively for RSS. I find that I have
dropped a lot of RSS feeds as more updates become available
in Twitter.
I've moved away from Wordpress and I'm using Blogger mostly
to introduce people to blogging.
Mindmeister and Zotero have been incredibly useful in my
dissertation work.
I also use Google calendar,
Google maps, Google earth, Google Aps, iGoogle, Jotwiki,
(anything Google) Pikiwiki, Yugma, Jing, Facebook, Ning,
Twitter, Zotero, Gcast, YouTube, iTunes, Newsgator, Survey
Monkey, Audacity, Pamela for Skype, Second Life, CmapTools.
I use a few Firefox extensions
like Greasemonkey, Gspace, Google Docs Bar, BetterGmail.
I use a few proprietary products, Camtasia, Snagit, Blazemedia,
EndNote, Atlas.ti
