Second Life

Today I read the 7 Things You Should Know About Second Life, which is a virtual place that you can purchase "land" or you can use it for free but then you can't own "land".  It creates images in 3D.  When I started reading it, the first thing I thought of was video games, but now I tend to look at it as more of a CAD software tool that you can use online.  I was amazed at how you could use it in the classroom.  I thought it would be great to teach Economics or Marketing or for the K-12 students how the economy works with buying and selling items in a store.  It also reminded me of a game my grandson plays, Mindcraft.  :-)

7 things you should know about Second Life, http://www.educause.edu/library/resources/7-things-you-should-know-about-second-life

Social Networks, Facebook and Ning

While reading about Facebook in the classroom, I did not think to utilize it as a learning tool.  I had only thought of using Facebook more as a entertainment mechanism.  I didn't like the idea of teachers and students being "friends" because it can blur the lines between the two.  Also, I didn't know that Ning existed.  If I had to choose between the two, then I would choose Ning for the classroom.  It has the feel for a more instructional environment than Facebook.

Richardson, W., Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (2010),  Chapter 9, Social Networks: Facebook, Ning, Connections and Commuinties, pgs. 131-146.

9 Learning Videos

This is article with a list of nine links to get kids geared up for school again. This is a great list to get students back into the flow of learning since it's only a couple more weeks left before school begins.  I think this will help even those students who don't even want to think about the "S" word!  Of course that could also apply to teachers too. :-)
 

Borovoy, A.E., Five-Minute Film Festival: 9 Boosts for Late-Summer Learning. retrieved on August 2, 2013, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/film-festival-late-summer-learning-boosts?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EdutopiaNewContent+%28Edutopia%29.

Collabrative Editing

The article 7 Things You Should Know About Collaborative Editing from the Educause website reminded me of Sharepoint.  Except Sharepoint keeps track of the last version edited and maintains a copy of the original document.  Collabrative Editing allows everyone to edit the document but doesn't keep track of the original document, so you don't know what was changed.  As a paralegal working with attorneys being able to track the original copy is a must, and the option to download the original document prior to making a change defeats the purpose because everyone would be downloading a copy of the document every time there was a change to it.  I think being able for students to collaborate on a document would be a good idea, but again, I find that not knowing what the previous document content could have everyone going back and forth.

7 Things You Should Know About Collaborative Editing
http://www.educause.edu/library/resources/7-things-you-should-know-about-collaborative-editing