Presentation on Wikis, Blogs, and Social Networks

In a recent post on his blog, Karl Kapp included links to handouts and slides from a presentation he did on wikis, blogs, and social networks. Both can be accessed on a page in the wiki for the book he just had published: Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for Learning: Tools for Transfering Know-How from the Boomers to the Gamers. The wiki includes a glossary for the book.

I'm still trying to decide whether or not to buy the book. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who's read it.

Web 2.0 Tutorial

I recently ran across a link to a Web 2.0 tutorial for teachers. The author explains what Web 2.0 is and also discusses blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, and social bookmarks. For each of these applications, he includes lists of and/or links to popular tools of that type, educational benefits, classroom applications, concerns and solutions, real-world examples from teachers, further reading, and tutorials (including videos).

Help for Educators in Second Life

Right after I joined Second Life back in May, I learned about SLolar Central, "a place where [educators] can experiment with modes of communication, movement, etc., to enhance their SL experiences, offering free temporary 'homes' for people to use as they explore." Yesterday I checked with KJ Hax, one of the founders, who told me that there are still spots available. Anyone who's interested should go to their Google Group page and download, complete, and submit the Temporary Office Space Residency Application.

My Adventures in Second Life

If you'd like to read more about my adventures in Second Life, please go to my main blog.

Co-Author at Tek Trek Blog

I'm going to be co-authoring the Tek Trek blog with Bethany Bovard. I hope to post my first entry next week.

The Crystal Cave

About a month ago I finally bought some land in Second Life (from a private party not Linden Labs). My property is on an Athurian-themed sim named Logres, which is one of the historical names for Arthur's kingdom in England. I bought a cave with crystals, so, naturally, I had to name my lot The Crystal Cave, after Mary Stewart's novel about Merlin.

Emerging Technology Applications for Online Learning

According to an e-mail message sent to the SLED (Second Life EDucators) listserv this morning, the Sloan Consortium "has embarked on an initiative to help online educators gain a better understanding of how the technologies available today can help make their classrooms better." To accomplish this, Sloan-C has launched a new website. The site was designed to support Sloan-C's upcoming conference on emerging technologies for online education, but the site and its forums are open to anyone interested in this subject, not just people who attend the conference.

List of Podcasting Tools

Thanks to the Savvy Technologist for pointing out this great list of podcasting tools at Mashable.

50 Ways To Tell a Story

Alan Levine is using a wiki to prepare workshops for his cross-country tour of Australia this month. The first workshop is titled "50 Web 2.0 Ways To Tell a Story." Participants in the workshop will use one of 49 Web 2.0 tools to create a story.

In another workshop titled "Precious Web 2.0 Gems," participants will select a tool from the "Web Gems Starter List" or "Web Gems Other Lists" to try. He's used the tag "webgems" to identify these tools on del.icio.us.

His other two workshops are still "on the drawing board," but I intend to check back later to find out more.

Presentation on Using Second Life for Higher Education

An overview of Second Life, how it works for education, and examples of SL uses for a selection of subjects.


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