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!

Dipity - Timeline Generator

Have you even found it difficult to remember event sequence? Timelines are a great study tool and dipity.com can help you create an amazingly functional and fully sharable timeline. And it doesn't have to be limited to just Historical events like World War II battles (although that might be good too). This might be useful for an English literature course to map out a plot sequence for a story. Or in a science course to better demonstrate the process by which the sun's energy is converted to nutrients in broccoli...

And then the functionality of this site can really pay off, and this is where things get a little geeky, if you have an RSS feed from a blog or twitter or anywhere really. The RSS can automatically generate a timeline for you. Create a blog for a class project and direct the feed to dipity and with little extra effort you will have a multimedia timeline to share of your entire project. That might be a lame example. You can do better!

Social Sites

Chris Brogan posted a list of application sites from blogging to social searching that makes me feel a little older. I know I am not of the social net generation, but at times I like to pretend that I am. I wonder which of the apps on this list students at Kirkwood favor? I only ever see students using Facebook when I pass by the kiosks in Linn Hall, but which of these other sites might be most useful? I'm toying with the idea of setting up a twitter account for Distance Learning. Not sure though what kind of updates I would have on a daily basis. Might be fun to try though.

Trauma Center

I've said it before, and I will say it again, I think there are real applications for what have been traditionally thought of as video games in the world of academics, i.e. learning. Look beyond the fantastic and see the content and repetition that makes these games so amusing and addictive. Bring this content into your classroom and push the real in beside it. Point out any inconsistencies and let students practice their knowledge through play. Well, that's the idea anyway. I haven't really played this one... yet. Anyone in the health science department want to play?

Review at yahoo.com. For more information on gaming in education see Serious Games Initiative. A branch is also available for Games for Health.