The Hottest Ed Tech Company?

by seanmcminn

That’s not my title, but someone else has posted something about the company Techsmith, which I do like and use. How they evaluate the conpany may interest everyone … although, cubing it may be better.

http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology_and_learning/the_hottest_ed_tech_company

I have been thinking of ways to use Jing for creating machinima — a creatve way to have students practise their language skills through storytelling. If you want to watch some good examples of machinima, go here.

Sean

4 comments


1 David Vogt { 10.01.09 at 10:28 am }

I’m also a fan of Techsmith. The most important consideration in identifying them as the “hottest edtech company” is that they wouldn’t classify themselves as an “edtech company” to begin with. Given that the web’s current evolution is mostly about tools for communication, it isn’t surprising that such tools are fabulously useful for learning. An interesting tension is whether such tools are as useful for “education” as for “learning” – could they be as valuable in ‘sage on stage’ environments?


2 Sean McMinn { 10.01.09 at 4:53 pm }

Very true. They aren’t an edtech company. But a lot of tools like this do allow for educators to adopt and adapt them for pedagogical uses. And one of the dangers of these is that some teachers may use them for similar reasons as using them as PPT presentations; hence, I’m guessing, this is what you meant by “sage on the stage”.
But this brings me a new issue (and something the director at our Center for Enhanced Learning and Teaching mentioned to me the other day). Ventures in online software develop (at least from the intraperneurial sense at our university) may becoming less feasible because of the growing number – and the constant advancements – of online tools. While not all free online tools fit neatly into anyone’s pedagogy, I’m thinking that these companies (both edtech and not) create quite a competition.


3 James Richardson { 10.02.09 at 5:59 am }

I have used Snagit regularly. I’ll give Camtasia a try for creating faculty development podcasts. While my personal uses do fall into the sage on the stage approaches I can definitely see potential for formative guidance or Peer to Peer collaboration using this technology (a picture is worth a thousand words or 2MB)


4 Eveline Yu { 10.05.09 at 9:20 pm }

Thank you for the introduction of Jing and Techsmith. This is the first time I have seen it and it seems that it could be a very useful tool in the classrooms – easy to use. I am inspired to try it out. Do you have any samples of how you have used it or seen it used in teaching?

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