Laura Costello

Tech Spotlight: Formative

Formative is a realtime feedback app that lets instructors connect with their students in moments of learning. Instructors can load questions into the formative app and students can log on with their own devices using a classroom key. Once everyone is connected, the instructor can watch as students work through

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North Reading Room Opens!

The North Reading Room is now open. While furniture placement and construction continues, please test out the new furniture and spaces and let us know what you think at bit.ly/LibraryFurniture. The Central Reading Room will be closed for construction through the summer and will reopen in Fall Semester 2016. Thank

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Tech Spotlight: Tableau

Tableau is a data visualization and sharing tool that makes it easy to create meaningful charts and stories around all kinds of data. The tool, which is available in both free and paid versions, has a simple drag-and-drop organization that can help all levels of users look like data wizards.

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Tech Spotlight: 2U

2U has seen a lot of excitement lately! They lost their president, Jim Shelton, to Mark Zuckerberg’s education initiative, but they also recently announced impressive profits and exciting continuations with their higher education partners. 2U is an online education platform that uses synchronous engagement and real world experiences to provide

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Tech Spotlight: Robot TA

Students in an online course at Georgia Institute of Technology got a surprise recently when they were told that one of their TAs wasn’t quite human. Jill Watson, so named because she was built on IBM’s Watson analytics system, answered questions convincingly enough that most students were unaware they were

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Tech Spotlight: Data USA

Data USA is a visualization platform to help regular Americans make sense of government data. The data comes from a variety of sources including the American Community Survey, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the University of Wisconsin County Health Rankings, and the Integrated Postsecondary Education

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Tech Spotlight: StoryMap JS

StoryMap JS lets users tell stories through maps. The tool has two major branches; SnapMap, a feature that uses your Instagram geotags to create an interactive map, and “gigapixel” StoryMaps, which let users annotate and augment contemporary and historical maps as well as other large images. StoryMap has many teaching,

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Tech Spotlight: Teachable

Teachable is a site for creating online courses aimed at teachers, authors, and other content creators that want to easily and beautifully monetize their content. The site works like a blog or learning management system, giving creators control over the display of their content and the ability to create course

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Tech Spotlight: Rafter

Rafter is a suite of tools aimed at lowering textbook costs by targeting each particular part of the textbook lifecycle from faculty adoption to bookstore buyback. Rafter offers data to help faculty members choose sustainable textbooks, offers a competitive rental and buyback program to students, and helps bookstores connect to

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Tech Spotlight: American Film Scripts Online

American Film Scripts Online contains over 1,009 scripts by 1,062 authors. Many of these scripts show the facsimile images of the original scripts that allow users to view notes and directions from the scene. The scripts are also indexed to allow for subject-based studies across a range of films and

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