The REAL Emergent Technologies 3

Second Life

So, because of a misunderstanding, I'll be doing another emergent tech post. This time, on a fad I'm rather familiar with personally known as Second Life.

A big place for groups large to small, Second Life is a social networking-slash-gaming tool wherein "players" create a virtual avatar so they can interact with each other in a virtual environment.

It's like Myspace but with graphics! And thought!

But this isn't just a tool for friends, but it can be used constructively. This program is an excellent way to gather your students together in a virtual classroom to teach any supplemental material (Who wants to count the number of times I've used that word?) or introduce concepts outside of the main curriculum. Of course, this should not be used as a substitute for classroom learning, but it can be a handy after-class tool for learning or just general recreation. When your teaching is done, introduce them to some nice age-appropriate bands that regularly play on Second Life! Or have an online game tournament! Maybe you could get to know your students better!

Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, Second Life seems to have some lag issues, as it takes a FEW lives just to get to the login screen. Also, the graphics can range from great, to not-so-great, appealing to a wide range of computers. But don't expect your Swan computer operating on DOS to handle this! But when you've gone through the rigamaroll of making a profile and downloading the program on your computer, you're set to teach in the interwebs! Yay!

I'll be there...will you?

Image courtesy of westcomm.org and Second Life

Emergent Technologies 3: A few little tidbits

Instead of the usual format of my emerging technologies assignments, I'm going to use this chance to show you a few programs useful for the classroom in various ways. Some of them you may know, but I just might surprise you with a few new innovations!

First of all is a site I discovered recently called Rainy Mood. This website is simply a 30-minute audio track of the sound of rain. A light thunderstorm to be specific. Many people know about the effects of white noise on the human mind, creating a relaxing ambiance. Using Rainy Mood, you can create that environment for your class, comforting them while they study or do their work. Play some relaxing music at the same time to enhance the effect!

Rainy Mood

Second is Endless Youtube. Using this program, you can loop any youtube video or certain parts. This is useful for presenting a video, or playing music, possibly for the above site. Also, you can emphasize a particular point in a video, such as a mistake or a point in a documentary you want your students to remember specifically.

Endless Youtube

Lastly is Divshare. Those who have listened to my podcast may have noticed this is what I used to host my episodes. The program is an easy, easy way to embed your own audio on a forum or a blog. Teachers who like to keep a blog for their class can leave supplemental audio material for their students using this program.

Divshare

Photosharing

Here is episode 2 of Tech Teach, now about photosharing.



As promised, here are links to information on SD cards and photosharing.

http://www.sdcard.org/ Here, you can find information about SD card formats.

Here are three image sharing sites for your perusal.

http://www.photobucket.com/

http://www.imageshack.us/

http://www.zoto.com/

Gimme an R! S! S! What's that spell? Nothing!

Continuing the trend of things being much easier than I thought, gathering useful RSS subscriptions was simple, simple simple! Most blogs and websites can be subscribes to, allowing the user to know when his favorite sites are updated quickly and easily. The easiest to subscribe to are blogs, since they have a tool right at the bottom of the page.

Most of the sites I subscribed to I'll be checking periodically. Sites like The Spoony Experiment, Dr. Ashens, Gizmodo, and Atop the Fourth Wall. Of course, my educational blog, I may be less likely to visit periodically, but that doesn't mean it won't be a helpful tool in my academic career.

Go on to your own favorite blogs and follow them! Let them know you care.

Delicious!

I've created a del.icio.us account, finally. I'll be setting up more bookmarks soon!

http://delicious.com/artimus2015

Here is my first episode of Tech Teach, educating on the use of podcasts.



Surprisingly, this experience was not as easy as I thought it would be. Writing the episode was simple enough, but recording with Audacity, if you don't really know what you're doing, can be intolerable. Mainly because it crashed on me at random. However, it's kind of fun when you get past the technical difficulties, and from a writing standpoint, I enjoyed this a lot.

Really, though, if you're going to do a podcast, make sure you understand Audacity. This episode appears unedited, but only because I was satisfied with what I had. If I were to put music under it, that's an entire other bag of worms. Take any tutorial you can get to make your podcast sound as professional as possible.

Also, just have fun with it. If you're doing something like this with the attitude of being forced, that will come off on to your audience, but if you're having fun, your listener will understand the feeling and they'll enjoy it as well.

Information gathered from:

Van Orden, Jason. "How To Podcast." 2005.
http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/history-of-podcasting.htm

Technology Mediums In Education

I've crafted a post examining three different technology mediums, showing how computers, television, and the internet can educate:

Technology Mediums In Education

View more presentations from artimus2015.