Lecture Tools from University of Michigan's Perry Samson

Dr. Perry Samson is renown as the "guy on the Weather Channel!" He and some of his students created, refined and now have presented for data collection a fabulous integrated lecture arsenal called: Lecture Tools. Mind you, this is not intended for nor can it serve as a Course Management System as does Web CT or Blackboard. The Lecture Tools program was simply a solution to a long-lived problem -- how do I do all this "technological stuff" in my classes with limited funds. The answer -- Lecture Tools. To be coy: 1) Power Points with animations - free but boring and not comprehensive; 2) Video and Clicker Systems in class -- innovative but rather expensive 3) LECTURE TOOLS - Priceless -- literally IT IS A FREE system at the present time to any and all faculty. What can Lecture Tools do for you? Well, you know how you struggle every semester with should I let the students bring their laptops to class or not? Lecture Tools might be the interactive attention keeper you've been longing for. It is a program designed by students from their perspective of how they learn and want to be taught. It features capabilities all-in-one that include: power point slides .jpeg versions; animation viewing; an advanced clicker system with polling and multiple choice options; the ability to upload podcasts; both student and faculty may draw on slides in Lecture Tools; and finally a really cool aspect of being able to monitor students' comprehension of lecture real-time by use of an anonymous polling and dynamic bar graph output. The tool is designed for in class or asynchronous learning but is not a course management system and does not have grading capability. You can learn more by contacting Dr. Perry Samson who is looking for faculty participants by emailing him: Samson@umich.edu