This has got to be one of the coolest, most useful teaching tools I've seen in quite a while. It is not only a method of teaching, notetaking, and/or concept designing, but it does it in a way that is natural to that way we often describe or try to do things. Consider this, have you ever tried to explain an idea or device and ultimately just grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil and drew it?
That's what this MIT professor has done. As my Mechanical Engineering boyfriend pointed out, I'm sure there are all kinds of settings that have to be set (gravity, friction, etc.) before it can be used as demonstrated, but as a relatively simple start to exploring statics (think buildings) and dynamics (think spinning wheels), it's a pretty cool way to go. The best part is that you wouldn't necessarily have to set up the room with actual carts spinning down ramps. (Which can be really time consuming and a bit chaotic!)
Le Boyfriend, has also suggested for further interest into virtual prototyping software, you'll want to check out Working Model 2D and/or Adams.
Cover it Live: http://www.coveritlive.com/
At first, I was skeptical and confused. First off, how do you make a "live blog" more live than updating information as you go? Second, on a technical level how would a "live blog" be done?
The Cover It Live Demo explains it and shows off its strengths very well. I cannot help but think this is like Wimba, or Centra, or many other live-capture-record sessions often used for synchronous distance education programs. Only, this appears easy-to-use and doesn't require any kind of special software or hardware. A smaller-scale joe-blow version of interactive virtual environments.
I'm going to try it out and when I do I'll let you know what I think of it.
The Backchannel Bouncer
I learned a new-to-me term today: Backchanneling. I find it interesting because the concept is absolutely nothing new to me. When I worked for Distributed Learning Technologies at Chico State, any assistant that was worth their weight automatically performed the duty of a backchannel bouncer. It came to be because the classroom-versus-online interactions were too unwieldy to manage otherwise. With the assistant, or a "backchannel bouncer", the teacher could present the material while in-class students could ask questions alongside the online students asking, posting, contributing, and fact-checking in the chat area of the HorizonWimba (now Wimba) screen. If you don't have somebody backchannel bouncing, you're either wasting time combing the chats or your ignoring your online audience. A presenter between worlds cannot do it all. It really nice to see that this role is (finally) being taken seriously during online conferences and presentations.
What I have to say about CrowdAbout.us - Conversational Player
CrowdAbout.us is very professional looking and easy-to-use. It's podcasting meets an audibly gabby forum. You really should just go see it to get what I'm talking about.
I have to say, I find it fascinating. I've mentioned to more than one person that I'm seeing a (rapidly) increasing trend to make all interactions as two-way as our real life interactions. Social networking is simply the same as what we do in RL, only we can do it faster and farther-reaching with the technology at hand. With CrowdAbout, I find myself staring at a podcast or video that lets me literally talk back to it. I can even video record my response. I'm not sure I'm really ready for that ... are you?
Additionally, I'm curious to know what research (if any) the folks of CrowdAbout have cited to support the concept for the development of it? I'm wondering because I've recently read The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning (Edited by Richard E. Mayer) and suggested to the developers to consider some of the principles listed in the book to help further develop this product. (In particular, most anything in Part II).
On a gut-level, I actually like the move towards two-way participation/engagement with the video and/or podcast. If nothing else, I like the "Wow!" coolness factor of it. That's not enough, of course. Despite that, I've shared the site with my advisers, friends, and colleagues.
What are your thoughts? Comments?
