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School districts in Florida and Alaska have been the latest to initiate Twitter accounts to keep students, parents, and the public updated with news and information about their schools. Broward County Public Schools in Ft. Lauderdale and Anchorage School District have both joined the social networking and messaging site to post updates, called "tweets," on their Twitter home pages. Subscribers can be informed about new tweets through text messages, RSS feeds, and third-party applications.

Clearly, the note-taking factor contributed to the overall scores. As someone who was in college before podcasting became popular but after sending students home with PowerPoint printouts became all the rage, I know from experience that many students think that printed slides are merely notes in prepackaged form.

McKinney acknowledged that the students who downloaded the podcast simply seemed to do better with taking notes and paying closer attention to what was being said, as they were able to go back and repeat parts of the lecture they had trouble understanding. "It isn't so much that you have a podcast, it's what you do with it," she told New Scientist.

As for whether podcasts can replace professors, McKinney stops short of suggesting that all classrooms become virtual. She refers to them as a supplemental tool to a traditional lecture that can help students gain a better understanding of the material and also help free up professors from answering repetitive questions. The takeaway? Go to class, take notes, listen to the podcast, and take more notes.

I like the idea that children could use this to devise activities which, rather than testing or extending their skills by doing the activity itself, does so by requiring them to design the activity themselves

For example, when creating a quiz they may have to think about issues like the path taken by the user, how to frame the question, show the scoring will work, and what sounds (if any) to use for the feedback.

News & Views A Preview of 2DIY By Terry Freedman Created on Wed, 14 Jan 2009, 09:33 Email this article  Printer friendly page Email the author Listen to this article if ("">"") { document.write (""); document.write (""); document.write (""); } I've just received a link to download the latest program from 2Simple. Called 2DIY (for non-Brits, DIY = do-it-yourself, a shorthand term for home making things like bookshelves for the home), it enables users to create their own games and exercises.I've had a quick exploration, and it is looking very good. Read on for a quick thumbnail sketch, and why I think you should look into it.Back in the 1990s I used to love looking at shareware games developed for the educational sector. Some of the games were quite fun, but the problem for me was either that the game wasn't really educational at all, or that it didn't quite do what I'd have liked. Unfortunately, I never had the time to develop my games programming skills in order to rectify the situation.I think 2DIY would have been a step in the right direction.I think the best way of describing the program -- bearing in mind I've had it installed for less than an hour -- is that it's the programming equivalent of a painting or desktop publishing program. What you have  is a suite of specialised  tools, and you can use them to build yourt own games and activities.You can see from the screenshot that the range is quite extensive. The manual is easy to use, and there are videos and examples available.It has the ability to let you import pictures or select from a range of ones provided. Indeed, there is quite a lot of control over what your completed game or activity will look like.What's more interesting to me, however, is what boxes it ticks if you put it into the hands of youngsters -- and I use the term "youngsters" rather than "children" for reasons which will become apparent