Maria's Top 10 Tools as at
11 March 2009
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Jing gives students and instructors the ability to
capture an image of any graph or equation they see on their
screen and share it anywhere else (message boards, emails,
papers, digital assignments). Using Jing you can also record
videos of up to 5 minutes in length. [Free, Mac/PC]
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Wolfram Demonstrations provides close to 3,000
interactive demonstrations on
mathematics. Students and instructors can play with
demonstrations by downloading Mathematica Player.
Demonstrations can be written by anyone with a copy of
Mathematica and are reviewed before they become part of the
Demonstrations Project. [Free, Mac/PC]
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WebAssign is a publisher-independent site for online
homework. It was designed originally for physics and does a
particularly good job of handling the problems unique to
learning math-based content. Publishers work with WebAssign
to create online homework for their texts. [$ for students,
PC/Mac] Note: You can write your own problems for WebAssign,
in which case, there would be no cost for students.
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WizIQ provides a platform to easily hold online office
hours. You have the option of audio and video on both ends,
multiple users, interactive whiteboard, and file upload.
Sessions are recorded and can be accessed for 30 days.
[Free, Mac/PC]
- Windows Journal combined with a tablet are incredible
for
enhancing the content of a math lesson. Unfortunately,
you either have Windows Journal, or you don’t (it comes with
Windows Tablet XP and with most versions of Windows Vista).
Luckily, there are other free
alternate versions alternatives like
Jarnal. A commercial alternative to Windows Journal
(which has a lot of fans) is
Microsoft OneNote.
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Camtasia Studio 6 gives me the power to record my
lectures live, edit them after, and produce them to a
variety of formats. Version 6 is built with some features
that work better with tablets. [$, PC] If you’re on a Mac,
check out
Adobe Captivate. [$, PC/Mac]
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Pen Attention solves the
problem of the tiny cursor when you are projecting from
a tablet program in your classroom. [Free, PC]
- The
Wacom Bamboo tablet is an inexpensive option to join the
Tablet PC world. Combine this with the programs from #5 and
#6 to create great online content. [$, PC/Mac]
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Screencast.com lets me liberate my videos from a
learning management system. I upload all my videos to
screencast, then I can insert the link to one of my videos
in an email, put it in an online course, place it on a
message board, or share it on my blog. [$, PC/Mac]
-
MathType Lite is an oldie but goodie. Combine MathType
with Jing and students can share equations anywhere. After
the 30 days of the 30-day trial, MathType becomes MathType
Lite. For students, this is ideal. [Free, PC/Mac]
