Deadline

• Deadline: Home

  Can't remember when your next paper is due, or when your next meeting is scheduled? This might just be the website/app for you. Alerts can be set up to notify your mobile device.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

EasyBib

Midterm has come and gone for Fall already. But there will certainly be more papers to write and perhaps EasyBib.com can assist you with one piece of the paper puzzle. I often agonized over where all those periods and commas and indents would appear in my References page. This site makes it easy. Chose the reference style preferred by your instructor (APA or MLA), fill in the form and out comes your perfectly formatted reference for inclusion at the end of your next paper. 

Math Tutor Alternative

Personally, I enjoyed just about all of my math courses as a student. I was somewhat good at it, so it fed my ego. I can't claim to remember all those formulas I once did, but I feel lucky that I do not have a fear or dread response when encountering a math problem. I know people who do - and they often give up before even getting started. The traditional institutional response to such students is to place them in a more remedial course or find them a tutor. And while I am sure this can and does help many (who chose to accept it), for others, here is another approach... play a game.

DimensionM.com has several games to chose covering pre-algebra to algebra, individual and multiplayer. They aren't free ($20-$70), but they also do not cost more than a textbook. And if they mean the difference between passing and failing or otherwise just offer a more engaging way to practice your skills than the odd problems in your text, I'd say it's a good investment (of course, if your instructor assigns the odd problems in your text, you should do those too).

Animoto Video

A quick vid created from images already on the web. Animoto has some slick functionality. With the right group of photos this could be educational and fun.

Ubiquity

Are you a Firefox user? Firefox is a web browser like Internet Explorer only better in many ways. One of those ways is the ability to customize the browser with add-ins. This might be the add-in to end all add-ins. It's still very alpha at this point, but it already looks like it has the potential of becoming a killer app.


Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Looking for other reasons to start using Firefox? How about built-in spell-checking!? Compose discussions or emails in CE6 or anywhere on the web and never again worry about embarrassing misspellings.

Update: After installing ubiquity my FastDial add-in no longer seems to function. Darn it. Why can't everyone just get along?!

Second Life at Kirkwood

Virtual worlds are springing up on the Internet and educators have been quick to see some educational applications. Second Life is one such virtual world. Kirkwood has signed up for space with Second Life to explore its learning and teaching potential. Over the Summer, we were working on a little landscaping and building - now the space is open to the general public. I expect it will be changing as projects and plans continue to grow.


You experience the virtual world as an avatar - a digital representation of yourself. Above is Kirkwood Alter (styled to resemble Samuel J. Kirkwood) posing in front of an informational kiosk. With the arrow keys on your keyboard, you can control the movement of your avatar (avatars can fly too!). Movement is fairly simple, but interaction is where the magic happens.

How might you use SL to learn:

• Explore locations with specific learning content (aerospace museum, genome island)
• Join groups focused on special interests (poetry, literature, animation)
• Practice a second language with native speakers
• Collaborate on a project in the virtual environment
  
• Enhance a class project with building and scripting objects in SL
• Find a tutor in SL
• Student groups meeting in SL
• Attend a lecture in SL
• Host a lecture!
  

If you are already signed up in Second Life, here is a SLURL to take you to the Kirkwood Island. Let us know if you have ideas.

Distance Learning eLibrary

Welcome back students and instructors! Always plenty of announcements to share on the first day back to classes, so here is one more:



The Distance Learning eLibrary is now open for business. Resources have been collected and linked to one clean page... all resources are at your fingertips. Some of my favorite additions include the Ask a Librarian live chat and the social bookmarking under Search the Web. The plagiarism information is also extremely helpful. If you ever have a question about how/when to give credit to others in your writing, this page will help you!