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I don't know much about Second Life, and while it might have some elements that I could do without, I was thinking that this could tie nicely into a formal or informal Web 2.0 learning platform, game based learning, and Produsage. What do you think?

Second Life creeps me out too. I've tried exploring what it is, but I think it just boils down to me thinking that I would have to be dissatisfied with my first life to indulge in a second one. There was a season of The Office devoted to this, I think. It also doesn't help that the only Second Life example I have ever seen was the one that shares the thoughts and visuals of a schizophrenic and that the graphics look like the Grand Theft Auto video game (one that my little brother played WAY too much). I know all of what I just typed is silly (although true for me) because some really great things are coming out of Second Life. I have a friend who is working on her doctorate in ISD at the University of Southern Alabama, and she put a lot of work into a research on using Second Life to rehabilitate long-term prison inmates, prior to their release. She ultimately chose another topic for her thesis, but her work showed astounding results. Before learning about her work, I assumed Second Life was nothing more than a glorified Sims game.

To some degree, I agree Denise that its a little creepy. Especially since there are a lot of undesireable elements (at least to me) that seem to permeate the S.L. landscape. However, I am fascinated with using a virtual world setting to encourage learning because people tend to "get in to it" better when its in an environment that they can relate too.

A Google a Day provides daily trivia, and can be a fun way to teach your students important online research skills.

Hi Fabrizio, I just tried the Google a Day and I like the concept very much. However, unless I was doing something wrong, I found it cumbersome to do the research and get back to the original question. In addition, when I tried to access Google Map, which was needed for answering today's question, it said it would not support it in the Google a Day window. So I opend GM up in another window. Did you experience something similiar? With that being said, I think the idea is great, especially since they give you tips and hints at how to find the answer. I think researching tips and exercises are very important, even for graduate students. You can never get enough practice in researching topics. Thanks for sharing this, I really liked it.

When I type a research on the search box it opens a pop-up window with the data, so I have two pages open, the A Google a Day one and the search one. I think it works pretty well on Chrome, I didn't have any problem, but I haven't tried it with other browsers. A Google a Day is fun and challenging; however, I don't think you can learn too much from your answers, they are too general. Maybe in the future there will be a way to customize it and create your own challenges, it would be really interesting to use with our students/learners.

This is a very informative blog post that examines the difference between collections and curations. Admittedly, I have never given the subject too much thought, but the author explains it in a way that highlights concepts that differentiate the two. Some notable points made are that curations involve deeper critical thinking skills, they can be defined as "purposeful collections" and subjective based on the understanding of the curator.

I have been thinking about collection versus curation in our readings this week. Your article made me think about a discussion we have at home. My husband is a collector and he talks often about how museums only show, curate certain pieces. He often comments that he hesitates to donate to a museum because it could be such that the pieces are never shown or are sold. I think this ties into the subjective nature.

Reddit is quite popular, though many people don't connect with it. It has a devoted user base that is often less friendly to outsiders. I think this is part of the appeal for people that do use it. Here is something that I think is accessible for others. The AMA's (Ask me Anything) can be really interesting. Matt Damon has some really interesting answers that go beyond stand surface-level answers. The comments based on his answers are part of the fun of reading it. For anyone who checked out Reddit and didn't care for it, I think this a good for giving a taste of what reddit can be.

Couldn't reply to Vanessa's Post, created new one....It makes sense that researchers are taking steps to understand the role of the educator when considering Web 2.0 tools. I don't think this is a simple task for an educator to incorporate these tools into their cirriculum. In addition, I think great thought is needed to make sure that the tools are not just being used for the sake of using them but that they add/enhance learning. While the article suggests that the burden has fallen on the teacher to make use of this, I think it would be wise for institutions to develop a support system that works with the educators. After all, the institution provides them with a chalk board, a classroom, an overhead projector, etc. Why not provide them with proper training and course design suggestions using Web 2.0 technology?

This takes the popular Inspiration concept/mind mapping one step further : Designed for professionals and college students, WebspirationPRO™ is a visual thinking and cloud-computing productivity tool, dedicated to promoting success in a knowledge-based society. WebspirationPRO gives you everything you need to brainstorm ideas, organize information, solve problems, plan projects, write, study and communicate more effectively. With WebspirationPRO, work is always available and securely stored online.

We are introducing a new module, the XPATH Fetch Page. We are also going to deprecate the Fetch Page module at the end of June. So please convert your existing Pipes that use the Fetch Page module to the XPATH Fetch Page module...more In this talk from YUIConf 2011, we demonstrate the features of the Yahoo!

This was recommended by the professor at the beginning of this week. I tried it out. I think it has a lot of good uses. It has a bit of a learning curve as I had trouble getting to work the filters. However, I think once I master this, it could be a very good tool for social interaction perhaps in a community of practice, on a blog. I have one on my blog, it was meant to only filter articles about global warming and going green, but didn't work just yet.

In this article, two Australian researchers investigated whether Twitter can be used to foster enhanced student engagement within a university level sport marketing course. 68 students participated in the study. 59% of the class did not have an existing Twitter account and had to sign up for one to participate in the study. There were two aspects of Twitter user during the course. First, students would participate in two discussion lectures, which was structured much the same as a Twitter chat, with questions posted in advance of the actual discussion. The second aspect was to regularly post contemporary issues in sport marketing that coincided with the course content. Much like EME 6414, students used a hashtagged course code to be able to track the activity and respond to their classmates. I thought it was interesting that the researchers explicitly advised existing Twitter users that they did not have to censor their regular Twitter activity, as the instructor would only follow the course hashtag. This appears to be a clear acknowledgement of the potential for context collapse when social media is incorporated into an educational setting. Questionnaires were administered to broadly measure aspects of student engagement. The results suggest that Twitter was effective in the university classroom as engagement levels increased over the semester. Twitter made it easier for students to connect with both the instructor and other students and extend that connection beyond the lecture time in the classroom. These networking tools also allow students to take on a more active role in the co-creation of the course content. I think this is one of the most significant advantages of incorporating social networking elements into the classroom. The biggest limitations of the study were its small sample size and homogeneous population. Future studies should include more students from various disciplines.

It took me a very long time to find the comment button to add another thought to my original post. Not nearly as noticeable as other discussion platforms. Anyway...I wanted to add that this article was very appropriate right now because the TA for EME 5608 is currently conducting research on a very similar topic, specifically "when and how social media apps like Instagram are used by students (without instructor participation) to support social interaction and build social connections in online courses." I know some of you are also in that course and I'm curious what your opinions are on the experiment? Do you think that interacting on Instagram has increased your social connections and added benefit to the learning experience?

It also took me a long time to find the comment button! You are not alone in that!

Adam Conover, comedian, discusses the dangers of stereotyping generations. We can't describe all millennials because they are the most diverse people to date. He claims that history shows that older people always talk down to practices of the younger people... it is a trend that has been around for years. Our view of generations reflects our own prejudice and opinions as our lens that we see the world.

I always love Adam Conover's videos. This was great. I think his commentary on generational views of technology. It relates with my article about rethinking how we study "screen time". I think educators can easily fall into generational stereotypes when targeting learners. Great find!

Honestly don't know how no one laughed at that "baby boomer" joke but this was such a great video. Such an interesting point to note that we label this whole generation as one, but they truly are the most diverse when it comes to everything from background, culture, interests, etc! Thanks for sharing!

Pinterest usage statistics. I knew this before using it, so I was a little hesitant. It didn't immediately "click" with me. After trying it out again, I have found it much more interesting. I added my wife as an editor to the board and it has proved to be a good way to share information about a topic of mutual interest.

I totally believe it! Many women have alternative lives on Pinterest. It's a world many of us probably wished we lived. LOL!

I have a friend who works in advertising. He uses Pinterest when doing research for ad campaigns. I think this is a good example of someone "working in a visual medium" as Dr. Dennen suggested.

Two men fell off a cliff Wednesday in San Diego's North County while playing "Pokemon Go," the Encinitas Fire Department confirmed. San Diego Lifeguards reported that someone had fallen off a cliff at E Street around 1:12 p.m. When the Encinitas Fire Department arrived, they found a man around 80 to 90 feet down the cliff, on the beach. Be aware of the surroundings while playing this game! Safety first!

I just wish I could play it. It is only available in one remote city in South Korea due to antiquated laws dating back to the Korean war.

As an avid pokemon fan I definitely tried the game out. I wasn't super impressed by it. I think most of the mobile phone apps are too simple for me to enjoy playing regularly. I will say that people getting hurt while engaging with them seems to be on the rise. Maybe there should be some sort of a warning when these games boot up. Something along the lines of "PLEASE LOOK WHERE YOU ARE GOING" might be helpful. lol.

Thanks for sharing this video! It was a helpful walk-through of how to use Diigo.

This is great! Thank you ~

This video laid out a great explanation of how using this platform can be helpful. I am already envisioning the possibility of using it in my Media Center. Theoretically, I would like to see all of our students through their Social Studies classes. I think it would be very cool to use this site during initial media center presentations to allow students to compile resources they can easily return to. I think it will be especially helpful during science and history fair. Students will have a simple way to compile and return to their resources when putting together their projects and annotated bibs.

EdSurge recommended this editorial by the founders of wikispaces. As a teacher and future edtechnologist, I think it's interesting.

Just found this journal and it just might be of interest to some of you. Articles on CoP in higher ed, teaching with wikis ...

Thanks for sharing this journal! Just when I wanted to learn more about this topic :)

Shuang, check out the first issue -- I want to read every single article in that one (and downloaded them all). Think I'll start with the Engstrom one.

Use of twitter to share or re-enact great novels

I think web 2.0 storytelling is a great way to keep the students motivated, to help their knowledge construction through collaboration, and to enable the teacher to formative evaluate and monitor the learning process.

Cool article. I love storytelling, both telling and listening. This would take it to the next level of not just telling/listening but actively involving yourself in a story with others. Its like the produsage of storytelling where people, while not changing the outline of the original story, get to create, organically, all the inbetweens. Thanks V.

Animoto turns your photos and video clips into professional video slideshows in minutes. Fast, free and shockingly simple - we make awesome easy.

Sounds really cool. I'll have to play with this one. Thanks for sharing.

I used it for a goodbye message to a friend of mine and it's pretty cool. However, the free 30" are not enough for any project. I think that, if you have a big presentation, it's worth the small fee.

After checking out Vanessa's post on Creative Commons, I googled the title of this post and found an easy to read article that sheds some light as to the power of our tools and providing Open Education. There is mention of C.C. as I think the two are interlinked. When I see stuff like this, it gives me hope that we're moving in the right direction (maybe taking a side step or two along the way).

Interesting site that explores the future of teaching and Web 2.0. I think the creator of this site did a good job making it easy for educators who are not technologically savvy.