Do you have files that you want to to access from anywhere?  Would you like to share and collaborate on documents with your students and colleagues?  Well, there’s a great tool for that.  I know what you are thinking…Google Drive.  But, that’s not it.  “Dropbox?  iCloud?” you say.  Nope, those aren’t it either.  You can now use Microsoft’s SkyDrive to collaborate with GSU colleagues, edit Microsoft documents using a Microsoft interface directly within your browser, or simply store files so that you can access them anywhere.

Although Google Drive, Dropbox, and iCloud allow you to do similar things, only SkyDrive is integrated directly with your GSU webmail account.  Also with SkyDrive, when you edit documents in your browser, you can do so using the Microsoft ribbon and familiar editing tools.

You can access SkyDrive through the Outlook Web App, available through http://gsu.edu/email.

With SkyDrive you can:

• Have students collaborate in project groups to create PowerPoint presentations, reports and papers in Word, or analyze data using Excel.
• Create a brainstorming document for students that is set to allow anyone with the link to edit.  Then place the link in your D2L course.  When students click on the link, they’ll be able to contribute to the brainstorm directly within the document.
• Create an Excel form to collect data from students.

For more information on SkyDrive, or other Cool Tools that solve pedagogical problems, contact the Exchange in Library South room 106.

• Email:  exchange@gsu.edu
• Phone:  404.413.4700
• SkyDrive – Getting Started Fact Sheet

Please join us for one of the upcoming Cool Tools sessions in Collaborate.

2/11/14 – Collaborate

Teaching a fully online course with a synchronous component?  Want to hold virtual office hours or exam reviews?  Interested in having virtual meetings or inviting a speaker to your class who lives out of the area?  Collaborate can do all these things and more!  This session will demonstrate the functionality of Collaborate and offer some tips for facilitating engaging and meaningful online sessions.  For a more in-depth presentation, consider enrolling in one of our 1-hour Collaborate ONLINE sessions.

2/18/14 – TurnItIn & GradeMark

Teach your students about plagiarism, find out how much of a student’s work was taken from outside sources, and learn about an easy and quick way to give students comments on the papers they submit via the D2L Dropbox.

2/25/14 – Polling Online and Face-to-face

Whether you are checking for understanding, assessing prior knowledge, or gauging student interest, polling in both face-to-face and online environments provides instantaneous, formative assessment that meaningfully inform your teaching.

3/4/14 – ThingLink

With this easy to use image annotation tool, you and your students can provide contextualized audio, video, text, and links that help to explain or add to a visual representation.

3/11/14 – VoiceThread

Peer review student work, debate, discuss, or problem-solve using the VoiceThread media-centric conversation space in the cloud.

3/25/14 – MindMeister and MindNode

Organize your thoughts on an idea or project using these easy-to-use mind mapping apps.  Users can explore ideas and the relationships that exist among them.

4/1/14 – Evernote, Skitch, and Penultimate

With Evernote, you can type, create reminders, and access them anywhere. With Skitch, you can take notes directly on images or pdf files. With Penultimate, you can take notes as if you were using a pen and paper, store them, and then, thanks to the tool’s handwriting analysis capabilities, search the text of your notes.  And, by leveraging the syncing capabilities of Evernote, you can view all of these products’ notes and annotations anywhere.

4/8/14 – Padlet, Lino, and Google Drawing

Are you looking for ways to encourage collaboration and interaction at a distance?  Padlet, Lino, and Google Drawings make it possible for your students to brainstorm, plan, and draw using shared online workspaces.

4/15/14 – Lynda.com

Members of the GSU community can access Lynda.com’s entire library of software and programming training at technology.gsu.edu/lynda.  Instructors seeking to integrate technology into their teaching can build playlists and then share them with their students, making it easier than ever to try something new.