Q: Can I use twitter to interact with students during the lecture?

A: There is a real need to make sure that students remain engaged. Twitter could get students interested.
Guide to Using Twitter in Your Teaching Practice
http://blogs.kqed.org/education/how-to-use-twitter-in-your-teaching-practice/

"Twitter could be used as another method to reach students, to share content and provide information. The social nature of Twitter means you can ask questions, have conversations, and join discussions or debates.
Questioning and debating teaches us to think critically – a key skill no matter what you're studying – and online debate is a way to develop these skills. Hashtags create online communities where you can discuss a topic with your peers."
Source:  
Universities should use Twitter to engage with students

Q: I am looking for more interactive ways of teaching a big size class. It is challenging to engage students with clickers because they are limited to multiple choice. Could you recommend more modern engaging platform to use?

A: Use Top Hat's response system to engage students via their cell phones. No Clickers Required.

Top Hat: Student Response and Engagement System

https://tophat.com/features

• Students can text their answers if they don't have smart phones.
• professor and 30 students are free.

Please read more here

Q: Do you know a technology to make a process of watching video materials for students active?

A: The researchers from Leeds University, Vania Dimitrova and Lydia Lau, designed a system I-CAW that gives you semantic linked data at the end. Meanwhile you can use this tool to have your students posting comments while watching the video on Youtube.  Students are labeling their comments with a corresponding aspect. You as a teacher design the aspects to emphasize the outcomes. This tool transforms students experience from passive to active. Read more

Q: What is a status of MOOCs?

A: Failure. What did we learn from it? I am following the results of this experiment.  See the article by Rebecca Schuman: The King of MOOCs Abdicates the Throne How long the inertia of implementing online on a big scale will go? No status report yet...

Q: Please refer me to the examples of teaching approaches which are based on game design principles?

A: The scavenger game http://www.scvngr.com/ developed by Seth Priebatsh aims to envision education as a game ecosystem. 
The Center for Game and Impact at Arizona State University  http://gamesandimpact.org/ has exact same goal.
If you are interested in embodied games visit SMALLab Learning http://www.smallablearning.com/

Q: What technology is available to improve students' writing strategies?

A: There is an option, as I discovered, to contact local researchers at the university who are developing educational technology tools. At Arizona State university we are fortunate to have a Learning Science Institute. Recently I started implementing W-Pal, a writing tutor, in collaboration with Danielle McNamara group at LSI ASU, in the student success class for freshmen. This intelligent tutoring system helps students to make their written communication more effective. http://www.soletlab.com/ I encourage you to expand your network in the direction of artificial intelligence in educational technology - the resources are there.

Q: I'd like to stay tuned in my career as a teacher. Do you have any suggestions how I can squeeze a professional development training into my busy schedule?

A: You can have fun playing video game during your coffee break and refresh the best practices in teacher education. The following article describes “Teacher Leader: Pursuit of Professionalism”. It is the first in a series of interactive, three-dimensional video games being designed by ASU’s Center for Games and Impact and the Sanford Inspire Program.
https://asunews.asu.edu/20130924-future-teachers-games

Q: In my class about student's success I'd like to use My Map tool in Google Maps. How do I create personalized, annotated, customized map?

A: Follow this tutorial : How to create a "My Map" in Google Maps   

Q: Where I can find good quality classroom ideas?

A: The Interesting Ways series continues to be a great example of crowdsourcing good quality classroom ideas

Q: Where I can find reviews and recommendations about educational tools?

A: edshelf has well organized resources. For example, if you are interested in teachers toolkit for video the search will take you to this page: https://edshelf.com/profile/jonnywathen/teachers-toolkit---video

Q: How to stay tuned with all changes in social media?

A: Conversation Prism will help you: https://conversationprism.com/whats-new-with-version-4-0/

Q: I need to create a meaningful interactive data visualization for the class project. How to choose the right tool? What technology is used to create interactive and dynamic data visualizations?

A: Look at the list offered by http://selection.datavisualization.ch/
Retrieved from Liz Dorland's scoop: A Carefully Selected List of Recommended Tools on Datavisualization.ch

Q: What Social Web applications for creating and sharing mind maps are available? I want students to use mind mapping for group projects to generate, visualize, and organize ideas, and develop stronger problem solving, and decision making skills.

A:  Try bubbl.us https://bubbl.us/ and Mindomo http://www.mindomo.com/

Q: I want to learn Analytics to build my online courses in the most effective way. Where to start?

A: this Mindmap will help you to see a big picture and all resources available: http://www.mindomo.com/mindmap/learning-analytics-62e500f49d144638b444cc5f26275e0e

Q: I want to find an alternative to clickers. What tool I can use in class to show the bell curve in real time?

A: You can use technology that students already own (laptops, cell phones). See the list of compatible tools below:

AdobeConnect: http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-adobe-connect/creating-a-poll/
Poll­Daddy: http://polldaddy.com Socra­tive: http://www.socrative.com/ Piazza: https://piazza.com/ ​ https://piazza.com/features#​
Lec­ture­Tools: http://www.lecturetools.com/ Ques­tion­Press: http://www.questionpress.com/ Learn­ing Cat­alyt­ics: https://learningcatalytics.com/ pollev­ery­where: http://www.polleverywhere.com/highered-student-response-system men­time­ter: http://mentimeter.com/ Celly: http://cel.ly/ eClick­ers: http://www.eclicker.com/ Turn­ingTech­nolo­gies Respon­se­Ware: http://www.turningtechnologies.com/studentresponsesystems/mobiledistancelearning/higheredresponseware/ Socra­tive: http://socrative.com/# Google Forms: docs.google.comhttps://sites.google.com/a/pjrprojects.co.uk/sitesguide/google-sites/how-tos/create-a-poll-using-google-formshttp://www.demogeek.com/2009/04/01/polls-made-easier-with-google-docs-spreadsheet/Top Hat Mon­o­cle: http://www.tophatmonocle.com/ GoSoap­Box: http://gosoapbox.com/tour iClicker Web Clicker:  http://www.iclicker.com/products/webclicker/ Click­er­School Vir­tual Clicker by Eduware: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/clickerschool-virtual-clicker/id444020820?mt=8 Soda­Head Polls-WP plug-in:  http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sodahead-polls/ Pin­nion: http://www.pinnion.com/References:
http://blogs.princeton.edu/etc/2012/04/10/alternatives-to-physical-clickers-in-the-classroom/http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/10/three-alternatives-to-clicker-response.html#.UXm7AcolHuQ​

Q: Where I can find a free footage to make my presentation in class more engaging? My students are copiyng images from Internet for their projects. How to make sure that they are copyright free?

A: In a situation when students are assigned to use the pictures for power point presentation project I will advise students to search in public domains.

How to use Creative Commons to find free images, audio and video tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvsbJaJeFGY
The instructions are at Creative Commons wiki page: http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Public_domain
and here: http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Frequently_Asked_Questions

Not all the links are working but it is a good place to start your search for free footage.
CC free video search: http://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?title=Special:Ask&offset=50&limit=500&q=[[format%3A%3AMovingImage]]&p=mainlabel%3DName%2Fformat%3Dbroadtable&po=%3F%3DName%23%0A%3FMainurl%3DWebsite%0A%3FSize%0A

and films: http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Video

Example: http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Blip.tv
http://blip.tv/

Q: I'd like to follow the discussion about today's emerging technologies. Where I can find the most recent information?

A: EDUCASE is the best conference to learn first hand about innovations in higher education. 2013 Horizon Report has some answers to your questions.
2013 Horizon Report | EDUCAUSE.edu
http://www.educause.edu/

Q: I'd like to use some tools to engage students in analysis of data. What is out there?

A: Lucky you! - Hans Rosling helps to see a joy of statistics (literally) with Gapminder software. It is available for download for free: http://www.gapminder.org/world-offline/
Enjoy!

Q: I heard a new term "gamification". What does it mean?

A: It is new way of incorporating games in your teaching style and mostly applicable for online learning environment. judge for yourself - this article is presenting all arguments for defining "gamification" as the use of game design elements in non-game contexts: bit.ly/o6aX1U

From Game Design Elements to Gamefulness: Defining “Gamification”

Q: developing online course is a project. Do you know any free project management tools available online?

A: this article gives you a list to choose from: http://www.smashingapps.com/2010/02/15/10-free-tools-for-effective-project-management.html
The additional links are in the comments below:
http://www.oneplacehome.com/
https://launch.unifiedinbox.com/
http://openatrium.com/
http://www.gtdagenda.com/
http://www.teamworkpm.net/

etc.

Q: Do you consider using Gamification and emotion-sensing software for teaching in near future?

A: Welcome to the future: Gamification and emotion-sensing software

Q: I want to put something on the internet, but how do I do that.

A: I want to introduce you to the digital representation of a sticky wall - a drag-and-drop interface - Padlet: http://padlet.com/ (in case you didn't know about it).

It is available in Chrome browser. If you consider using more interactive tools with your students online it is a good addition to a blog. It gives your students more control on building a group website.

Resources:
http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/21/yc-backed-padlet-brings-drag-and-drop-to-collaborative-web-site-creation/
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2013/02/wallwisher-is-now-padlet.html#.USucjWej-MQ

Check more creative tools at Chrome:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/app/89-creative-tools?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon

such as
Balsamiq Mockups (wireframing tool - not free)
bomomo - drawing tool (free)
mind map - mapping tool
Autodesk 123D Catch - turn your photo into 3D model
etc.

Q: How learning occurs?

 A: Read more about connected learning here:
A New Culture of Learning by Doug Thomas & John Seely Brown

Q: What is Playful Learning?

A: Follow the Learning Games Network. Alex Chisholm, Executive Director of Learning Games Network, said: “We established Learning Games Network to fill the gap between research and practice and are excited to be playing a role in helping to expand the marketplace, as well as the quality of games and resources available to educators and students.“ http://www.learninggamesnetwork.org/newschools-venture-learning-games-network/

Q: What Should Students Learn in the 21st Century?

A: I just heard Charles Fadel's talk at the Learning &the brain conference. You'll find an answer here: https://vimeo.com/50409698
Charles Fadel shares his findings from across many disciplines and groups about what students should learn in order to be prepared for the 21st century. He discusses the exponential growth of technological capabilities, the continued automation of traditional tasks and professions as well as the impact of technological innovation. Looking at the race between technology and education, he urges teachers to consider how best to provide students with higher order skills in order to prepare them for success in the communities and workplaces they will participate in.

Q: I am implementing the inquiry based approach to teach science. Could you share some examples of the best practices?

A: There is a successful project at Arizona State University - Virtual Field Trips: http://vft.asu.edu/#

Q: I am looking for more effective video conferencing technology. What would you recommend?

A: Vidyo - Desktop Conferencing is the answer. vidyo platform is demonstrating never-before-seen video communications. http://www.vidyo.com/about/
For ASU:

ASU has licensed VidyoConferencing as an Enterprise service for use by ASU Faculty, Staff, and guests involved in teaching, learning, administrative functions and research.  ASU’s Vidyo license does not currently include the student body.

http://help.asu.edu/sims/selfhelp/SelfhelpKbView.seam?parature_id=8373-8193-4613&source=Selfhelp&cid=147832

Q: How can I improve my online course?

A: the Quality Matters workshops are now available online! Join the session to improve the quality of your online materials: http://www.qmprogram.org/professional-development-web-conferencing-workshops-available-now