Omeka is a web-based system for creating digital collections of media (especially images) and organizing them into exhibits. The Instructors, both from the University of Rochester River Campus Libraries, were invited by the Memorial Art Gallery to present a workshop as part of its Teacher In-Service professional development program, which is targeted towards K-12 teachers and library media specialists in the Rochester area.
VoiceThread is an asynchronous discussion board that allows content to be loaded and placed at the center of the conversation. In this workshop, it encourages a team of professionals to come together to learn more about what each other does and how they could work more collaboratively.
ChildEx is used alongside the Blackboard website as students embark on their group projects. Technical skills for interacting with open-source database are introduced throughout the semester and students present their own research questions, methods, and outcomes of their projects in an oral and a written format.
Visual Molecular Dynamics (VMD) is an open-source program designed for modeling, visualization and analysis of biological molecules such as proteins, nucleic acids, etc. It is also a tool to view and analyze the results of molecular dynamic simulations.
Infographics - This iteration of the assignment used Piktochart with an educational license. Canva is another online infographic program that is currently free. Both are online visualization platforms to create infographics using easy-to-use templates and drag-and-drop organization; accessed under educational licenses.
Yellowdig is a social media-like discussion board that can be used to supplement your Blackboard course. It offers a more social experience for students and faculty by allowing participants to “like” and “love” each other’s posts, and offers a game-like experience by offering points for weekly activity in the discussion board. The faculty member can set up the board to provide topics for students to assign to posts, with points based on different activities (posts, comments, receipt of comments, etc.). Students earn points as they post and comment, setting up an environment that encourages interaction and learning.