Why Web 2.0

An interesting new video about what's going on in Web 2.0

Pageflakes

I've been curious about Pageflakes as a "homepage" for web content in classrooms, especially as an alternative to IGoogle, which I use.

Here is a great Pageflakes on Web2.0 research tools from USC.

Caution: there is a LOUD video that starts upon loading.

melding skype and ustream

So, I've mentioned a few times that I want to test out UStream, for live video streaming, but know that UStream doesn't permit the kind of interactivity that Skype offers (even while allowing a bigger audience.

Well here, from a 14 year old kid, is a blog post about melding both -- at least on the sound side.

Looks cool.

Being under the weather today gives me an excuse to sit with my laptop catching up on my feeds...

Texting as an Educational Tool

When I pressed my teacher ed students last quarter to come up with ways to use cellphones for learning, many were appalled at the very idea.

Here's one cool application that looks promising. Given that it's yet another Windows product, I can't check it out, but I'd love to play with BaselsReply sometime.

Alternative to Skype?

Given our challenges of video conferencing cross-platform, I'm wondering if this is an alternative. Anyone interested in trying it? Maybe later in the quarter -- we could have a virtual meeting?

Jane

Writing with Video

This is not really a web 2.0 tool, but I was intrigued by this course at U of Illinois on writing for video/visual projects. I was mightily impressed by the website supporting the course.

In a much less developed way, this is what I had been trying to do with the Digital Storytelling class and what I've done in smaller pieces with the teacher ed cohorts: To encourage students to think about multiple literacies, to become more skilled at visual communication, to explore how verbal communication is deepened by incorporating images and sound.

I especially like this quote:

Writing is positioned as an integral part of the process of thinking, problem solving, and creating.

When I read such things, I grow more impatient with how we're still teaching writing (when we teach it at all) as if our students were going to write only for an academic audience.

How would we begin conversations about a cross-programmatic course that could address some of these themes?