new tech & teaching workshop

Finished day 2 of the technology workshop I'm taking. Yesterday we spent the morning reviewing the Horizon Report produced by the New Media Consortium and the Educause Learning Initiative. The report identifies current and upcoming applications of new communication technologies to the classroom. In the afternoon we learned about using wikis and blogs in the classroom. I'm also interested in applying wikis in other ways. For example, I set up public wiki we can use to promote the department and develop as a resource for students. I also set up a wiki just for faculty to serve as an organizing tool and repository of institutional memory.

Today we had a presentation on Second Life. I've attended panel sessions on Second Life at the Association of Internet Researchers conference and attended a half-day workshop on teaching in Second Life. I'm sold on the idea, but need the time to learn how to use it and teach my students how to use it as well. What I liked is the presenter referred to SL as a synthetic world rather than a virtual one. So SL is real like email, IM, chat, and other online activities are real and meaningful.

We spent the afternoon learning about podcasting and developing our own podcast. The process seems a bit complex at first, but has many applications, such as podcasts of workshops, short courses, and student presentations. Looking forward to tomorrow when we find out about Elluminate.

--Prof. Cyborg