This site is an invaluable collection of Web 2.0 Tools for educators. On this Wikispace are links to free sites that provide teachers with some exciting and engaging tools. It is now possible to easily create SMS-based real-time responses to discussion questions, allow students to easily create Flash-based cartoons and Flash-based online posters with a ton of functionality, and even create beats online that they can then record text over (perfect for my "Romeo and Juilet Rap" assignment). Links to all of these tools and more are available from this site.
Blackboard's interface for discussion boards is very clunky -- it isn't at all visually appealing, doesn't group topics, doesn't have tags, doesn't provide a good search facility and doesn't support formatting
"I really like the visual layout, with a timeline of post summaries on the left, and the post itself on the right, with annotations about responses, statistics, poster, etc. Being able to tag posts is very helpful. It's easy to get all of the posts on a particular topic or associated with a particular assignment."
In light of our recent Blackboard Collaborate class during Sandy, I got curious as to what other good online delivery platforms are out there. I am preparing to teach the MIT App Inventor curriculum to some high school girls on the other side of the world and am wondering if maybe there's a better alternative to Skype.
I came across Piazza, which is free and seems to be gaining traction in higher ed. I also once took an online course with Kaplan and really liked their interface, but don't remember what it was and now it seems they are moving toward a platform called "KapX."
If anyone can recommend additional platforms, please let me know.
This is going to bring out the inner nerd in everyone....
The Layar browser (video above) looks at an environment through the phone’s camera, and the app displays houses for sale, popular restaurants and shops, and tourist attractions
Where does this information come from? Who creates this information? Selected sources/companies who pay to have their information posted? A whole new competitive marketing strategy in the making.
it’s not truly real-time: The app can’t analyze data it hasn’t downloaded ahead of time.
I can only imagine crowds of people walking the streets staring at their apps, running into people and lamp posts, not to mention getting run over by cars... I think this technology might weirdly affect the health insurance industry.
You know more, you find more, or you see something you haven’t seen before.
this is supposed to be the advantage of using AR from a commercial perspective... it is still self-centralized.
Nokia is currently testing an AR app called Point & Find, which involves pointing your camera phone at real-world objects and planting virtual information tags on them
This can be a really cool feature for teachers if they have a closed-group option. If you are part of the large network, there is all sorts of things people might plant that you don't want to see or know about... Another thought, if there is a closed-group option, perhaps this will create a whole new way of drug trafficking and helping illegal organizations hide information from authorities.
the hardware is finally catching up to our needs
Nvidia Tegra, a powerful chip specializing in high-end graphics for mobile devices.
place (real) Skittles on the physical map and shoot them to set off (virtual) bombs
"But Yim suggested things will soon go beyond that. For instance, he said that an iPhone user might be able to walk up to an AR-enabled poster, point their device at it and automatically unlock some sort of prize. Similarly, a user could take their iPhone into a McDonald's, or some other partner restaurant, and get a free french fries, all because the device knows where it is, and syncs that awareness to some sort of marketing campaign. And if that was built into a game of some sort, it would give players an incentive to participate. "