I stumbled across an online booklet discussing Web 2.0 alternatives to traditional lectures. It's called "A New Way to Lecture: Using Web 2.0 to Create Interactive Lecture With Your Students" and I think it's worth a look.
There are times when I'm terrified of what the future brings (i.e., implanted RFIDs such as Mikey Sklar), and then there are times I can hardly wait for it to arrive. For this latter case, it's very impressive to see what Cuidado Grupo Santander, Madrid has established within their bank walls. I can't help but feel a little bit like we're looking at our realization of iRobot, but without all the rebellious creepiness (so far) ...
Exclusive: Meez Finally Launches Virtual World
http://mashable.com/2008/06/18/meez-virtal-worl/
I'm not surprised. Second Life couldn't have the market share all of the time ... and it's nice to know that it's going to be more than hands typing on an invisible keyboard ...
"Meez users have been requesting a virtual world in which their custom avatars can roam around and become more social with each other for some time, and now they finally have what they’ve always wanted. Meez Nation is the brand new virtual world made just for Meez avatars. [...] Unlike most other virtual worlds that have grown out of an avatar-creation and sharing site, Meez has layered in a good deal of functionality, activity and interaction for the avatars. For instance, there’s chat capabilities in every virtual room, and similar to an IM chat client that converts the characters “;” and “)” into
Meez avatars will act out certain commands that you type into the chat window. Type in “rofl” and your Meez avatar will roll on the floor laughing."
Wired Campus: Project Aims to Build Online Classroom With Latest Web 2.0 Features - Chronicle.com
The Chronicle of Higher Education: The Wired Campus noted that Howard Rheingold has won a grant in the Digital Media and Learning Competition to put all of the social-collaborative community tools (aka, Web 2.0) together in the classroom.
As Howard Rheingold commented back, "For those interested in a more complete description of the project, which includes the toolset, curricula (syllabi and teaching notes), resource repository (started here), video documentation and instructional material (in the vein of the first several entries), and the community of practitioners: the text of the award application."
Gever Tulley: 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do
Gever Tulley, founder of the Tinkering School, talks about our new wave of overprotected kids -- and spells out 5 (and really, he's got 6) dangerous things you should let your kids do. Allowing kids the freedom to explore, he says, will make them stronger and smarter and actually safer.
This talk comes from TED University 2007, a pre-conference program where TEDsters share ideas.
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.
Face Research: http://www.faceresearch.org/
Per the website:
FaceResearch.org allows you to participate in short online psychology experiments looking at the traits people find attractive in faces and voices. Register to participate in experiments if this is your first time at FaceResearch.org or login if you have been here before.
Make your own average faces with our new interactive demos!
In addition to participating in facial attractiveness experiments, you can also complete lifestyle and personality questionnaires about characteristics that may be associated with face and voice preferences and see how you compare to others. We post all our study results after we have finished collecting data.
You can also learn about our computer-graphic technology and read about some of the findings of our previous studies.
Take part in an online questionnaire about Drinking Water and Soft Drinks by Moira Cruickshank, a student who is learning to program online experiments with us.
