economics ict talk_june_2010

Reflections on using ICT in teaching EconomicsTalk to the Trinity Group

Geoff RileyEton College2nd July 2010

Which business has these locations in this area?

Which business has locations here?

Digital tools in Economics Teaching

A selected guide

• Drop Box for file sharing (superb)• Reuters EcoWin (for real time economics data

charts)• Expression Engine (for blogs)• Wordle.net (for word clouds)• Data Visualisation sites (FT, WSJ, World Bank)• Google Wave, Google Docs and other Google

Apps• Twitter (incredibly useful!)• You Tube – great for embedding resources!• Snag It (brilliant screen capture) or Zing (for the

Mac)• RSS feeds (for streaming news stories)• Moodle (for a great open-source VLE)

My day to day digital toolbox

Drop Box

Superb for online back up and file sync

Eco Win

Real time macroeconomic and financial data

Paste-Linked to PowerPoint

Automatically updates charts in my main teaching presentations

Wordle.net for word clouds

Word clouds can be very effective for student input and engagement

Data Visualisation

These sites (inc the one from the FT above) are likely to become ever more popular and effective in the months ahead

The potential of Google Wave?

Now available to all with an email address – real time collaboration

A wave on the fishing crisis

Joining the Twitterattzi

A selection of twitter feeds

Podcasts for Economics

TED talks – inspirational material

RSA animate – a wonderful idea!

Moodle – My E-Learning System of Choice

The Tutor2u Economics VLE

Building a more Interactive VLE for Economics – Some Ideas to Try

Student Blogs

Peer Assessmen

t

Revision materials

Student Glossaries

Different Forums

Self mark Quizzes

Embedded Videos

Wikis

Conditional activities

AS Macro Course – Home Page

Assignments and online grading

Organised by topic

Online quizzes (very popular!)

Subject Glossaries

•Course-wide glossaries•Topic-based glossaries

▫Freedom for students to generate their own entries and link them to other web content

▫And rate those of others (peer assessment)▫Give students responsibility for a topic /

area?•Auto-linking entries means that glossary

terms appear throughout the Moodle course

•Glossary can embed other digital content such as You Tube videos

An example from the AS Micro Glossary

Include links to blog articles

Auto links glossary to fresh content

Linking content to keep a glossary fresh!

Student-generated glossaries

•Give the students a topic▫E.g. Monopolistic markets▫The global recession

•Generate a cluster of concepts for research

•Allocate or get students to choose•Researched and written in text format•Encourage them to support with examples•And link to other resources•Ideal for revision – print out as a booklet

Example – behavioural economics

Behavourial Glossary

Anchoring

Framing

Altruism

Each student contributed two items – duplication allowed

Encouraging Students to Blog!

• Encouraging a different style of writing• Helps to build a narrative / apply new concepts

▫ “This week your blog should be on a market of your choice”

• Builds some web skills▫Tagging of blog entries▫Linking to articles on the web

• Reflections on the learning experience• Effective for students on a new course• The challenge is to sustain it over a course!• This is one of my big targets for 2010-11

Within the VLE students can read the blogs of other people in their groups

Forums are a great way of getting students to use Moodle

Another example – from AS macro

Developing the forum concept

•Great opportunities here for extension and enrichment activities

•Reading “by stealth” ! •Real potential for improving data

response technique e.g. Responses to charts / tables

•Embedding video or podcasts into a forum question and asking students to reflect on what they see

•Student comments on forum posts of their peers

•Moodle has a range of different forum options

A Year with Moodle

•Building content and community is key•Aims for 2010-11

▫Embed more audio visual into the VLE▫Set different types of assignments using

blogs and forums and other options▫Develop new styles of online quizzes▫Encourage student collaboration e.g.

embedding Google Wave into Moodle▫Encourage colleagues to try it!

•And utilize a VLE to stretch gifted & talented

Trying more challenging activities

Looking ahead• A Martini web - delivering fresh learning

content through ubiquitous mobile devices – anytime anywhere

• Students encouraged to be non-linear in their approach to schoolroom work

• Proper macroeconomic and micro simulation games

• A new generation of “no-fear teachers” with their ICT

• Genuine and sustained collaboration through digital tools by students and by teachers

• Webinar software to become standard• Linking social networks to teaching & learning

software• Face to face interaction more not less important• No diminution in the power and importance

of good classroom teaching!

Please contact me

•VLE is at http://vle.tutor2u.net

•Email: geoff@tutor2u.net

•Twitter: www.twitter.com/tutor2u_econ