Tools and Resources relating to: Develop Your Professional Identity

  • SUNY Create - SUNY provides students, faculty, and staff with the opportunity to register a domain name and create a digital presence through various mediums such as blogs, portfolios, and wikis. You can easily install open source applications such as WordPress, MediaWiki, Drupal, Scalar, and Omeka to your own domain, and use this space to create your digital identity and express your creativity. (Note: SUNY Create is only available to SUNY students, faculty, and staff. Check with your own institution to determine if similar platforms might exist that you can take advantage of if you are not affiliated with SUNY.)   SUNY Create Review Accessibility/Security Info
  • bulb Digital Portfolios - Build a beautiful, powerful digital portfolio. No Coding Required. Bulb started as a platform for students to show they’re more than a test score; it still is the simplest digital formative assessment tool on the market. As the product has grown, it has turned into a global hub where all kinds of people showcase their skills through beautiful, multimedia content on an incredibly easy-to-use platform. bulb Digital Portfolios
  • Class Dojo - ClassDojo connects teachers with students and parents to build amazing classroom communities. Teachers can encourage students for any skill or value — whether it's working hard, being kind, helping others or something else. Students can showcase and share their learning by adding photos and videos to their own portfolios. Get parents engaged by sharing photos and videos of wonderful classroom moments. Instantly share photos, videos, and announcements on Class Story, or privately message with any parent. Make random groups of students. Class Dojo Review Accessibility/Security Info
  • 123Apps – Online Video Cutter - The Online Video Cutter web app comes in handy when you need to cut a small video file. It does not require installation, and it works in your browser. This online software also allows you to crop and rotate videos in almost any format. Audio and PDF editing options are also available through the 123Apps, the company that's behind Online Video Cutter.   123Apps - Online Video Cutter
  • Guide to Digital Security & Privacy – Consumer Reports - Consumer Reports believes digital innovation brings many benefits to consumers. But that innovation also carries new threats to personal privacy and data security. In our nationally representative CR Consumer Voices Survey, 65 percent of Americans told us they are either slightly or not at all confident that their personal data is private and not distributed without their knowledge. To help you navigate the complexities, this guide highlights risks, solutions—and easy-to-follow tips to protect you and your family.\   Guide to Digital Security & Privacy - Consumer Reports
  • Microsoft 365: Here’s how to get it for free - This blog post by c|net explains how anyone can use Microsoft's Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps without spending any money.   Microsoft 365: Here's how to get it for free
  • SlidesGo - SlidesGo contains a great collection of Google Slides and PowerPoint templates, tutorials, and tips about how to design effective presentations. We also want to highlight the Minimalist styled templates that have a very simple and professional look and feel.   SlidesGo
  • Microsoft Sway - Sway is a Microsoft Office application with which you can create portfolios, presentations, websites, newsletters, interactive reports, and more. First of all, Sway is free - you just need to have a Microsoft account (Hotmail, Live, or Outlook.com), and it's easy to use. Formatting is very easy and the transitions they use in the presentation are very attractive and modern, offering three different variants of appearance (vertical, horizontal, or slide type). Microsoft Sway is a part of the Microsoft Office family of products. Sway sites are stored on Microsoft's servers and are tied to the user's Microsoft account. Sway presentations can be viewed and edited from any web browser through Office for the web.   Microsoft Sway   What is Microsoft Sway, and What Can I Do with It? How to use Microsoft Sway   Keywords: Flipped Learning, Presentations
  • Crevado - One of the easiest free portfolio websites, Crevado lets you use a simple drag-and-drop tool to upload your projects and rearrange on the screen for true ease-of-use. The site is also automatically optimized for any device, so your portfolio can be viewed on a smartphone or tablet as well as a desktop. Best of all, you can customize your design to suit your preferences without writing any code.   Crevado  
  • Jimdo - Jimdo provides two products including the standard editor, Jimdo Creator, and Jimdo Dolphin which falls under a new category of website builder systems. These two products live side by side: Jimdo Creator enables building a website from scratch or running your blog or online store, and Jimdo Dolphin is used to get a beautiful website that's ready to go in just a few minutes.   Jimdo
  • Scalar - Scalar is a free, open-source publishing platform geared toward long-form scholarship with embedded multimedia. It also provides the capability for multimedia tagging and annotation, as well as for interacting with stories in a nonlinear way through different path structures. Scalar allows for the easy creation of a website using a book-type format. It was created by the Alliance for Networking Visual Culture at the University of Southern California.   Scalar    
  • ResearchGate - ResearchGate is a collaboration tool you can use to connect with other researchers. You can learn about new research and post your new research by following and being followed by other researchers in your field. It a good way to know about recent publications and who is working in your field. You can also ask questions and experts can post answers to questions.   ResearchGate
  • Association for Authentic, Experiential, & Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL) Collaboratory - A collection of ePortfolio examples, tools, and resources shared through community contributions to the Association for Authentic, Experiential, & Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL) 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting's Collaboratory. Association for Authentic, Experiential, & Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL ) Collaboratory
  • Medium - Medium is a publishing platform with a social twist. The platform has 120 million readers that are able to directly follow the publisher or the writer they want and read their articles. The platform encourages writers from all over the world to become a member and publish on its platform. The social aspect of the platform makes it easy for readers to follow the writers. The more followers you have, more widely your work will get published. The writers can also choose to publish freely or for a fee. This management is done by the Medium platform that has either free membership of paid membership with only the paid members able to view materials that demand fees.   Medium
  • Design for non-designers: five visual principles to give you a head start - A concise overview of five key principles of design including White space Typography Grids and alignment The power of contrast Colour and images Design for non-designers: five visual principles to give you a head start
  • GraphicSprings - A logo maker application that enables non-designers to create beautiful logos, whether that's for an entrepreneurial venture, school project, presentation or charitable cause. Another element available in the online interface is the ability to design graphics to use for digital badges (like the badges used in #EmTechMOOC).   GraphicSprings How to Edit Logo Graphic - this how-to video shows how users can easily edit graphics How to Edit Logo Text - this how-to video shows how users can customize their name and slogan        
  • Binumi - Video platform. Easy-to-use and free. Create a video in seconds from a vast video library. A collection of 4 million multimedia clips. Select frame-by-frame to create your storyboard.  Add voice recordings, edit in seconds. A great way to create. Videos can be public or private. Share on Binumi site, social media or YouTube. Mobile App too.   Binumi
  • Directory of Learning & Performance Tools – Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies - This searchable Directory has been compiled by Jane Hart. The directory contains over 1,000 entries categorised into 35 headings. This directory compliments the website that shares the Top Tools for Learning compiled from an annual survey sent out through the Centre.   Directory of Learning & Performance Tools – Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies
  • Portfolium - Portfolium's online platform is an academic-oriented social networking service, mainly targeting university students and recent graduates. Users can showcase their work through a profile and an ePortfolio by uploading media files such as images, PDFs, videos and other media files onto their profiles. [Wikipedia]  Portfolium   Keywords: portfolio, ePortfolio, resume
  • Seesaw - It is an app and website that offers instructors different assessment methods of students and ways to create interactive lessons for students.  Like other websites that allow for portfolios, students can create their own portfolios while allowing for communication between students, parents, and teachers.  Students can use online tools to demonstrate their creativity and learning.   Seesaw   Keywords: ePortfolio Review Accessibility/Security Info
  • Remix Project – improving media literacy across the curriculum - The goal of the Remix Project is to improve media literacy across the curriculum so that all students are better prepared for the media-rich world of the twenty-first century. The Remix Project is a collaborative effort of the Hesburgh Libraries and the Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning from the University at Notre Dame. The Remix platform supports the creation of media as part of college coursework. Remix provides resources for students and faculty. The website provides step-by-step instructions for assignments, along with links to tutorials and other resources. The projects fall under four categories: Audio, Image, Video, and Data, with projects, such as infographic, scientific research posters, and public service announcements.   Remix project   Keywords: tutorials, lesson plans, audio, podcasts, video photos,
  • PebblePad - An ePortfolio platform for students, it simplifies the process of collecting, managing and demonstrating evidence in digital form of lifelong learning.  Students gain initial access to PebblePad through their learning institution. For learners, there are interactive workbooks, ePortfolio builder, reflective templates, collections, and integration with different cloud solutions (eg Google Docs).  For educators, there are customizable templates, activity logs, assessment, external assessors, grading, reporting & analytics, feedback collections.   PebblePad
  • Nine Themes of Digital Citizenship - Mike Ribble identified Nine Themes of Digital Citizenship that comprise a digital citizen and he explains each on his website. The updated Digital Citizenship definition is "the continuously developing norms of appropriate, responsible, and empowered technology use."   Nine Themes of Digital Citizenship   Keywords: Digital literacy, Digital Fluency
  • Populr.me - Populr.me can be used for social media, business, education, or many other uses. Build websites with templates for networking, sales, marketing, etc. Drop in text, video, pictures, embeds.  Upgrade for additional features, or keep it free.  Great for building interactive syllabi, professional profiles, ePortfolios, and other online information.   Populr.me   Keywords: web editing, websites
  • Edulai for employability skills development - Edulai is an Educational Technology software that offers the possibility to university students and teachers to access freely available learning materials for improving 8 key employability skills such as critical thinking, communication, team-work, leadership, problem-solving, interculturalism, digital technology, and English language. Edulai makes use of artificial intelligence and has a dynamic library that suggests different content according to the level you have developed a specific skill. Edulai also allows you to add resources to your library space if you find some new useful material!   Edulai  
  • Adobe Portfolio - As one of the free tools included in paid Adobe Creative Cloud plans, Adobe Portfolio enables designers to quickly create beautiful and high-quality personal portfolio sites in minutes. It also offers users a free Creative Cloud subscription service.   Adobe Portfolio   Keywords: ePortfolio
  • Behance - Behance is an Adobe app that lets you take a look at the portfolios of some of the most interesting artists of the moment. If you are creative yourself, you can create your own account and share your work with other users. It is one of the most widely-used free online portfolio websites in the designer communities, Behance attracts artists and photographers from around the world. “Find what you want in a graphic design near you with Behance, a global catalog of graphic design.” Search for graphic design from throughout the world.   Behance   Keyword: ePortfolio
  • PixStori - PixStori™ is an app to record stories about your smartphone photos. It links voice and still images in a multimedia PixStori that can be instantly shared on social media, uploaded into searchable cloud collections of family or group memories, and collected as crowdsourced field data for organizations and businesses. It is Oral History meets Instagram. PixStori is a very useful app to combine pictures with audio. This is a great tool where we can take pictures with your phone and add audio to explain the picture, or even music and environment ambiance sounds related to it. This is a very easy alternative to recording videos and to create mementos of moments or voice note for poster/academic/class presentations. Every picture has a story to tell. Now you can tell that story in your own voice and share it now and for the future. ...
  • Wakelet - Share articles, videos, images, tweets, and other great content with one link. Save them for later and create collections, called wakes, at any time. Organize the web, the way you want it. Save, curate, and share from a wide variety of sources to create very visually pleasing presentations. Also very suitable for creating a personal portfolio. This page has a collection that serves as a Wakelet ePortfolio template and also includes a helpful video.   Wakelet   Keywords: portfolio, pictures, social media, presentations  
  • SurfSafe - Defend the internet. Bring the world to the Internet without false news. If you see something that is false, report it! Supercharge your browser to catch fake news! SurfSafe is protecting users from misleading, photoshopped, and fake news throughout the Internet. The extension marks the level of safety of an image or article on the corners. Never again will you be misled by photoshopped images scattered throughout the Internet. You can also decide which organizations to base the truth off of. Add the extension to Chrome for free!   SurfSafe
  • 9 Ways to Be a Good Digital Citizen – using technology appropriately - This webpage from Digital Citizenship, developed by Mike Ribble, shares Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship. They fall into three categories, which are listed below.   Respect Your Self / Respect Others Etiquette Access Law Educate Your Self / Connect with Others Communicate Literacy Commerce Protect Your Self / Protect Others Rights & Responsibilities Safety (Security) Health and Welfare   9 Ways to Be a Good Digital Citizen   Keywords: digital literacy, digital fluency
  • RealtimeBoard - A simple whiteboard platform for cross-functional team collaboration. Data, images, spreadsheets, tasks, graphics, videos and more. The Realtime Board combines all of these parts in one place to allow teams or the entire organization to collaborate with each other. There are plenty of collaboration possibilities. Agile & Lean, Action plan, Strategy & Management, Kanban board, Meeting organizer, User story mapping, Gantt chart, Milestone chart, Retrospective, Product Management, Business model canvas, Persona, Product backlog, Six thinking hats, Random words, Empathy map, Timeline, Mindmap, UX & Design, Sitemap, Affinity diagram, Ideation, Wireframing, Lean UX. The image below visually shows just a few of the examples of how this tool can help to visually organize your ideas and processes. RealtimeBoard    Keywords: whiteboard
  • How to Improve Audio Quality with Audacity - This blog post from LearnUpon has a few practical tips on how to improve sound quality in audio recordings. The tips are targeted to using Audacity and they are also applicable to the use of other audio authoring tools. Poor audio quality is one of the most frustrating things you can subject your learners to. Not everyone has access to studio-quality equipment, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have great audio in your training courses. In this post, we’ll show you how you can use a free audio program to create high-quality audio for your eLearning courses.   How to Improve Audio Quality with Audacity   Keywords: podcasts
  • Knovio - Knovio is a web-based application that can record web camera video and attach that video to presentation slides from Microsoft PowerPoint or image files. Overall it's a great way to get “virtual lectures” created in a quick and efficient manner. Educators: Deliver highly interactive, video-led teaching experiences with video presentations. It's the fast and easy way to share lectures and research insights, teaching notes and classroom instructions. Quickly measure learning outcomes with a 360° view of student engagement and activity. and have students record their own video presentations. Students: Add your personality and passion to your next assignment using video, audio narration and interactive features. Record your assignments and share them with team members and professors. Rehearse and review your big presentations and create unique multimedia experiences for job applications and internships.   Knovio   Keywords: Media, Presentations, Quiz Recording, Screencast, Video
  • OverLeaf - Overleaf is an online LaTeX and Rich Text collaborative writing and publishing tool that makes the whole process of writing, editing and publishing scientific documents much quicker and easier. Real-time collaboration in your browser: The convenience of an easy-to-use WYSIWYG manuscript editor, with real-time collaboration and structured, fully typeset output produced automatically in the background as you type. Prefer to edit directly in LaTeX? Overleaf provides a full collaborative online LaTeX editor you can switch to at any time.   Overleaf   Keywords: Collaboration, Presentations, Productivity Tools, Publishing
  • Grammarly - This online grammar checker corrects mistakes and other writing errors across a variety of programs and directly in the browser.   Grammarly   Keywords: Lifelong Learning
  • Atavist for Education - Atavist is a publishing and storytelling platform to turn your ideas into stunning projects & portfolios.   Atavist for Education   Keywords: Blogs, Wikis
  • Credly - Credly is one of many digital badge platforms that can be used to design and award custom badges. Credly badges can be displayed on personal ePortfolios, social media sites (such as Facebook and LinkedIn), on websites, and in your Credly profile. Credly's platform is the badging system that SUNY and #EmTechMOOC use to issue our badges. Learn more about badges and how they are used within #EmTechMOOC. After earning #EmTechMOOC digital badges, you can access additional instructions, including the video tutorial below, about how to claim your issued badges and how to share them in your ePortfolio and on your social media networks. * Note - After June 30, 2020, the free version of Credly was discontinued. Anyone wishing to issue Credly badges needs a paid account. There are no costs to badge earners for accepting badges issued through their platform.   Credly Keywords: Digital ...
  • Public Records and Factual Research (Harvard Law School Library) - This website maintained by the Harvard Law School Library has numerous resources to find public records consisting of business, property, and personal records. Many of the resources are freely available and some provide more in-depth information for a fee.   Public Records and Factual Research (Harvard Law School Library)   Keywords: Digital Footprint/Identity
  • LinkedIn - LinkedIn is the most well-known social networking platform for your professional career. Make connections with colleagues (actual and potential) around the world. Employers may seek out new hires, and individuals may find new positions. Engage with groups and organizations to add your voice to the conversation.   LinkedIn   How to make a LinkedIn page that wows recruiters, according to the guy who overhauled its design - Use the tips in this article from Business Insider to make the most out of your LinkedIn profile. Social Media in Higher Education: Strategies, Benefits, and Challenges - This article from Hootsuite, a social media management platform, addresses some of the primary questions on social media and higher education. Keywords: Collaboration, Digital Footprint/Identity, ePortfolios, Social Media Review Accessibility/Security Info
  • Facebook - Facebook is a well-known and free to use social networking platform. Utilizing Facebook can help you connect, share and market to people. User groups based on common interests, workplace, and more can provide you new methods to communicate. Now very often seen in news media, Facebook and other social media platforms are commonly used to give voice to social issues, customize marketing on an individual level, and further the spread of both news and fake news.   Facebook   Facebook tutorial - This tutorial will walk you through the set-up process, available features through the privacy settings and controls, essential to any social media platform. Branding in the age of social media - Learn more about branding yourself via social media from this Harvard Business Review article.   Keywords: Collaboration, Digital Footprint/Identity, Media, Social Media
  • Wix - Wix.com is a cloud-based web development platform that was first developed and popularized by the Israeli company also called Wix. It allows users to create HTML5 web sites and mobile sites through the use of online drag and drop tools.   Wix   Wix Help Center - This site has many articles organized into twenty topics plus several trending topics. There is also an opportunity to search. Landing pages 101 - Landing pages are an important marketing tool. This site focuses on creating effective landing pages.   Keywords: ePortfolios, Productivity Tools, Publishing, Websites
  • Pipl - Pipl identifies itself as the world's largest people search engine currently with over 3 billion people in its database. It is the place to find the person behind the email address, social username or phone number.   Pipl   This Tool Will Help You Clean Up After Your Online Footprints - A recent article discussing how PiPL can be used professionally. Focused on journalists and other people who write for the Web, but the advice applies to everyone.   Keywords: Digital Footprint/Identity, Digital Literacy
  • 7 Things You Should Know About Creative Commons – EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) - This concise and well-organized document by Educause explains Creative Commons and its relationship to copyright. Creative Commons allows copyright owners to release some of those rights while retaining others, with the goal of increasing access to and sharing of intellectual property. It further discusses who's using it and how; and the implications for teaching and learning. The 7 Things You Should Know About... series from the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) provides concise information on emerging learning technologies. Each brief focuses on a single technology and describes what it is, where it is going, and why it matters to teaching and learning. Use these briefs for a no-jargon, quick overview of a topic and share them with time-pressed colleagues.   7 Things You Should Know About Creative Commons   What we do - What is Creative Commons? - Information about how Creative Commons works, its programs, platforms, and ...
  • Four Reasons to Care About Your Digital Footprint - This enlightening 8-minute video demonstrates the lesser-known issues that can arise from our trips around the Internet. It discusses how extensively our online views are tracked and shows how this information is of commercial value to various entities, how little control we have over who gets access, the possibility of identity theft, and the potential impact on our reputations.   Four Reasons to Care About Your Digital Footprint   Keywords: Digital Footprint/Identity, Digital Literacy
  • Ten Basic Rules of Netiquette or Internet Etiquette - The rules of etiquette are just as important in cyberspace as they are in the real world -- and the evidence of poor netiquette can stick around to haunt you for much longer. Following these basic rules of netiquette, to avoid damaging your online and offline relationships.   Ten Basic Rules of Netiquette or Internet Etiquette   Keywords: Digital Footprint/Identity, Digital Literacy
  • Google Alerts - You can get emails when new results for a topic show up in Google Search. For example, you can get info about news, products, or mentions of your name. This Google support page below provides clear instructions.   Google Alerts   Five Creative Uses for Google Alerts - Discussion of the power of Google Alerts and five specific ways it can be useful.   Keywords: Lifelong Learning
  • Digication -   You are encouraged to use any available platform or tool to create your EmTech ePortfolio. A few of the many freely-available ePortfolio tools that you can use to build your portfolio can be located through EmTechWIKI and searching the ePortfolio category. Digication is a leading provider of ePortfolio and assessment management systems. Digication develops its platform with students, faculty, programs, and institutions' needs in mind, and enables institutions to close the loop that links student learning to institutional assessment and reporting.   Digication's Official Website   Digication Tutorials New Digication (This version is used in #EmTechMOOC) Quick-Start Guide for the New Digication ePortfolios will provide basic information about how to get started using the New Digication. Getting Started with New Digication video tutorials introduce many of the features you will use to create and edit your ePortfolio. Digication Student Guide contains more in-depth information about creating your ePortfolio.   Publishing and Permissions You ...
  • FolioSpaces - FolioSpaces, powered by "Mahara", enables you to create an online portfolio. It was developed by faculty at the University of Ballarat, AU. It is a fully-featured electronic portfolio, weblog, resume builder and social networking system, connecting users and creating online communities.  You do this by assembling a selection of your resume (curriculum vitae/CV), files, journals, and links to your files onto a web page and sharing the page. FolioSpaces ePortfolio also provides you with the tools to set up a personal learning and development environment.   FolioSpaces   Keywords: ePortfolios, Visual Design
  • Strikingly - Create a beautiful website for you & your business, in minutes. Zero code or design skills required. You can also convert a LinkedIn profile to a personal website in just a few clicks. Add a Blog section to any of your sites to start blogging right away. A separate page is created for each blog post.   Strikingly   Discover Strikingly Sites - A link to the Strikingly community to see what sites have been built recently.   Keywords: Blogs, Collaboration, ePortfolios, Publishing, Websites