Comments on: Five tools for the world's best teacher

It's the final stretch of the academic year. We have a list of online tools teachers could try out to make their jobs just a little easier.

[j_ten_man]

Blackboard is far from intuitive. Blackboard was designed before the Web 2.0 kick got in and it is not user friendly. I disliked using it as a student and have heard teacher's complain as well. It's time to move away from Blackboard to save your students.

[stevenmarx]

I have to agree with you, as an educator who has used it extensively and been driven crazy by its poor, non-intuitive interface. It makes me wonder how much time Mr. Reisinger could possibly have spent with it. My wife, who is still a professor, continues to be plagued with its interface glitches and has to spend some of her class time teaching her students how to do what should be relatively simple things.

[adam.white12]

I also agree as a Student. I was in college for about 6 years and saw several version of BlackBoard, they were all terrible. Not only were they confusing to students, but it seemed they were more confusing for professors. There was also a lack of knowledge on blackboard's "training staff" part. I went with a professor to one of the BB training sessions once and the consultant was attempting to teach most of the professors basic JavaScript. In sum, both students AND professors hated it. It's nice in theory, but in practice it's just plain terrible.

[Angmarr]

I believe that all Middle school, High school, College students will agree. Blackboard definitely is farrr from being perfect. I might even go as far as to say that it is not even all that useful - just so happens that its what many teachers.professors use.

[mrmjct]

Blackboard is currently 2 products. One, a re-branded version of the old learning management system WebCT, the other, the latest version of the original Blackboard software.

I have used the WebCT line extensively and agree with other commenters that it lacks intuitiveness. Alternatives such as the opensource Moodle would certainly be worth considering over this.

[joeythibault]

I'm shocked that Moodle missed the list, it's beating up on Bb because it's free and open source, yet it does all that Bb does.

Anyone at a school thinking about Bb should also at least review the docs and resources available with Moodle, there are enterprise editions, professional support and development to make the system better and lots of already developed content available on the web. Not to mention that it doesn't cost $500 per classroom.

[jeffmcneill]

Seriously? Wow. Someone had a deadline approaching. As a university instructor who has used all of these tools, they are not for the "world's best teacher" by any means. Those folks create magic in a classroom and then simply video podcast it out to the rest of the world. Good instructional tools? Mediawiki, YouTube, SlideShare, Google Docs, and MindMeister.

[scout2i]

I think the article should be titled the Five Tools for the World's RICHEST Teacher since all of the seem to cost. I personally like the free apps and websites like Classroom2.0 was a great suggestion. Here are some others I like.

www.tokbox.com and www.skype.com for video conferencing

Google Apps: For the office suite

www.spellingcity.com: for cool games to learn your spelling list

www.phunland.com: teaches physics by building your own 2d projects

Create your own classroom wiki: www.wikispaces.com or www.wetpaint.com

See other ideas at www.classroomnext.blogspot.com

[Richard_Byrne]

To endorse Engrade in this list is a disservice to your readers. Last fall Engrade suffered long service outages locking students and teachers out of their gradebooks. Numerous emails to Engrade went unanswered. You can read about the problems here http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2008/10/engrade-disappears-at-crucial-time-for.html
To call it the best gradebook service you have seen shows a lack of experience with other gradebook services

[zenwaves]

ARD 3 - Apple Remote Desktop allows me to have students demo their work to the rest of the class' screens, install software, help students remotely, etc.

WorkGroup Manager - allows me to set specific desktop appearances, application settings for specific grades and classes.

[Icer5k]

I use SchoolTube in my class instead of TeacherTube. All the ads on TeacherTube make it hard to use the site...

[beacantor]

I can't believe anyone still thinks technology in schools is keeping an electronic gradebook. Students don't learn from looking at their grades; they learn from creating something on their own.

Mr. Reisinger, I think you should take a look at the LoTI framework for technology integration in schools.

http://loticonnection.com/lotilevels.html

[remtheory]

I agree with all the above comments. I really think the author should consider redoing this with a bit more thought. TeacherTube is a trainwreck because of the ads. I wish more would push YouTube as a teacher site so that we can move away from blocking them in schools. There's got to be a way to use it without censoring in the classroom. I'd vote for gCast, definitely Moodle, and Google Apps (which includes Google Sites). There's a new site called betterlesson.org in public beta that will be a great teacher resource too, sharing lesson plans online.

[ahmedakhalil]

I think you are missing a great FREE online tool that i used last year to teach my courses:
http://www.edu20.org/
it contains allot of tools like: blogs, wikis, class grades, assignment manager, quizes, embedded video and links, export to excel, message boards, chat, message system, resources, notifications. and all for free. I enjoyed using it allot and so did my students.

[Jake_OL_Team]

How about including an online document management application? Microsoft's Office Live Workspace is a free storage location that securely holds your uploaded files. A teacher can upload important documents and give access to students, therefore eliminating the need for paper handouts, worksheets, reading assignments or project descriptions. You don't even need to download or install anything because it is a web application used through your browser's interface. See for yourself at www.officelive.com .

- Jake

MSFT Office Live Outreach Team

[KarenMaginnis]

Thibault nailed it! MOODLE! Edmodo even! But Blackboard? Why endorse an adequate commercial product when there is such a superior (OSS!) free alternative like Moodle? Let's have Brian Tong do a blow-by-blow comparison and see who comes out alive from that smack down! I'm in my sixth year of double happiness, problem free, never down Moodle groovin' and going strong.

[krossbow--2008]

I can't believe anyone in education would include Blackboard in this list.

[GardnerCampbell]

I'm frankly astonished by this list. Putting Blackboard on the list at all, let alone at the top, is shocking by itself. But then to omit any of the resources committed to open education, or emerging from Web 2.0, or connected to social media generally is inexcusable. Teaching and learning are about far more than managing class administration or tracking grades. "beacantor" has it exactly right, in my view.

Sadly, I must agree with several of the commenters here that the wrong reporter was assigned to this story.

[geoffcain]

Blackboard is at the top because CNET is a corporation. How were the "Top 5" chosen? Are there guidelines? A rubric? A contest? A poll? Research? There is no information given in the "article" - it is a declaration of some kind. The man who has "written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems" as decided it to be so and some editor (who probably also has no background in education) decided to run this. What corporations like Blackboard do is try to guess where things are going - blogs and wikis for instance, and then figure out ways to lock down, monetize and render those tools useless. If the author and editors had any interest in education they would research this first before they jeopordize their own journalistic credibility.