I love these because the only thing that is constant is change. (Don't fear it, embrace it!)
Did You Know (1.0):
Did You Know 2.0:
Did You Know 3.0:
Did You Know 4.0:
Every Laptop Should Steal This Privacy Display
6 hours ago
Showing posts with label multimedia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label multimedia. Show all posts
Sneak Peek: Yahoo Buzz
In competition againt Digg.com, Yahoo is launching it's own voteable stories page(s) of popular stories based upon reader votes, searches, emails, and more at Y! Buzz. See the image below for some screenshots of the Y! buzz beta.
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.
Lusk, D. L., Evans, A. D., Jeffrey, T. R., Palmer, K. R., Wikstrom, C. S., & Doolittle, P. E. (in press). Multimedia learning and individual differences: mediating the effects of working memory capacity with segmentation. British Journal of Educational Technology.
An article having to do with multimedia learning (about segmentation and working memory capacity) that I am second author on has been accepted for the British Journal of Educational Technology! Not only that, but it was accepted without revisions!
How absolutely fantastic is that? It is beyond fantastic!
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.
Big Think - We Are What You Think
The Internet + Big Bandwidth = We all have a voice that can be heard, but what do we SAY? We have soundbites, snips, superficial blurbs of information floating around, but does any of it get to the heart of the matter anymore?
We can do more; we can think bigger than the current media journalists and existing YouTube mud pie. We can ask (and respond to) the big questions that are out there. Here's a site offering a chance to join a global community to share, challenge, to listen, and to learn from these interactions. It wouldn't be hard to imagine that this could lead the "intellectual YouTube" movement towards mass collaborative multimedia projects across the world.
What will you say? What do you think?
Also read Big Think: YouTube for Smartie Pants?
20 Tools For Creating Your Own Games
This is AWESOME! Forget Second Life! Make your own RPG or Flash-based game without any knowledge of programming necessary. I think I'm going to try to add this as an FDI workshop to the Spring/Summer roster.
The best part? The storyboarding and writing (because everyone knows that good games come from good writing).
How fun!
Sony Buys Into Virtual Movie Theaters; Invests in Gaia
Interesting, but not too surprising to hear about this. Gaia is a bit like Second Life, but for those who are more into the anime genre. In any case, the idea of virtual world movie theatres is a different and more social approach to the solidatary iPod world we live in today. I'm curious to see how it comes along.
SECOND LIFE TOOLBOX: 50 Resources for Second Life
Here you go! A place that lists the places and faces of SecondLife who will help you do and build whatever it is that you want.
Skipping the Boring Parts of Faculty Lectures - Chronicle.com
This may change the approach to recording and listening to lectures, don't you think? I've always thought that 20-minute or less lecturettes were more effectual anyway. Now, it's just 1 minute and 43 seconds that people want.
Hmmm ... Does it make you ponder about how everything is "on-demand" and only "just in time"? Is there still depth in this kind of availability and reference? (I would assume there would have to be.)
What do you think?
As teachers, when do we take the time to look at how they learn with what we prefer to do? Is there any kind of answer to satisfy these questions?
Is there anyplace that Google isn't at or involved in? I have to say, you'll want to download the latest version of Google Earth. Google now has a new feature called Google Sky which allows you to venture and visit into the heavens. I see this as being quite useful for the science and astronomy classes and lectures out there. Check out YouTube for Google's mini tour and enjoy!
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?
UPDATE: It works! I got TwitterBox in SL to work and I now sing my Tweets out loud! Hooray!
- - - - - - -
"Join Twitter! Everyone else is doing it. It's the cool thing to do."
Between the "peer" pressure and my own sense of growing old in an increasing technological divide of me, the young, and the even younger, I'm guilty. But, hey, I'm still cool! (Or is it "tight"? "Phat"? Whatever.) "Sure, I'll try it. Why not?"
I pause before asking, "So, um, what was it called again?" Famous last words.
Twitter is interesting. When you first try to figure out what it is, there isn't a clear definition of it. It's a site that simply contacts you (via IM, cell phone, email, web, etc.) to ask you, "What are you doing?" You reply in 140 characters (that's CHARACTERS, not words), it is then posted and distributed amongst your friends, family, or the world to read.
Why would anyone want to do this? More so, who gives a damn?
I asked that very same question. It's a bit like micro-managing or babysitting a 5-year-old. Constantly Twitter may ask, "What are you doing?" What seems like five minutes pass, and I'm asked again, "What are you doing?" Again, "What are you doing?" "What are you doing?" "What are you doing?" And, "Now?"
"I'm thinking about killing you Twitter." (Hey, that's less than 140 characters!)
I was about to uninstall it when I stumbled across Clive Thompson's article in Wired.com. In "Clive Thompson on How Twiter Creates a Social Sixth Sense," I came to understand how Twitter works and why people would want it. If you haven't a clue about why you'd tell the world (and send a bazillion text messages to your friends) about your every little passing thought, action, or whim, Thompson is able to give some perspective.
FYI: Twitter exists as a HUD on channel /282 in Second Life, too. There's a great blog post about Twitter in SL by Ryan Bretag. If you're interested in using Twitter in SL, grab TwitterBox from http://ordinalmalaprop.com/twitter/.
AmsDiane Gustafson tweets away at http://twitter.com/amsdiane/
SlideShare.net offers something of interest. It's a slideshow sharing site, like Flick'r or YouTube, where you can upload your PowerPoint, Keynote, or other slides to share with others. Upload the slides, tag them with keywords, and open them up to be viewed (and used) by others.
SlideShare describes itself as a "a cool place to host and share presentations. Upload all your slide decks, and find / download interesting presentations."
As sent in a Group Notice for the NMC Members group, Larry Pixel informed us of the fact that "As of today, all of the central sims on the NMC campus estate have been voice enabled, including NMC Campus, Learning, Research Park, and NMC Campus 1, 2, 3, and 4. Teaching and a number of our university neighbor simms are also voice-ready."
The rest of the grid will be ready to go with voice as of Saturday, from what I hear.
If you're an NMC Member and you want a First Look, download the FirstLook viewer and begin using the voice IM/Chat, go to http://secure-web3.secondlife.com/community/firstlook.php.
I'm reading about Digital Storytelling for my Multimedia Cognition course. It's very interesting. It reminds me of the scriptwriting courses that I enrolled in (twice) at Chico State. The first time I signed up for the class, I took it from Fred Thorne and was enthralled by his dramatic approach to everything. He would vigorously pace at the front of class, raise his right arm in an old man's fist shake, and in a deeply passionate voice bellow, "See it--write it! It's in your mind's eye!"
The mind's eye has often been the key to my own self-growth. A scant 20 years of age, but embittered by the loss of fertility due to uterine fibroids a year before, I was delighted to finally get a chance to use and verbalize my overactive "mind's eye." It was in that class--of all the Technical Writing courses I had to endure--that I was given the freedom to be creative. No, that's not correct. I was allowed to be creative and expressive, yet with a directed purpose.
I crafted Public Service Announcements against smoking and for supporting yearly OB-GYN exams. I crafted advertising for radio and television; I created a product jingle that would go on to win my classroom competition. I completed the semester with a full feature-length film script about a fireman who loses everything except his will to overcome the odds. It was cathartic.
During my second go-round in the course, I had Barbara Meldon--a tough, but admirable woman. I learned the finer art of subtlety and humor from her. One thing I remember in particular is that not all topics can be made humorous. For example, rape, incest, and suicide are never (generally) funny, although Wes Anderson tries and succeeds to some degree (with The Royal Tenenbaums). It's Russian Roulette for the writer. It may hit, it may miss, but I'm not sure which one of those two choices I'd really want.
What would my digital story be? ... it could be anything.
It could be anything ...
... even --*gasp*-- triathlon related. Now, how cool would that be?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
