Title

Content……

Youtube

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Test blogger import

Just a test post to see how (and if) the blogger import works.

Test pictobrowser

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Animoto

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New link

let’s see…

testing allowed tags

testing tags… this is a link.

tokbox

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Contact!

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tokbox test

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Test animoto

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Test Post

Test post!

Test contact form

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Overfed on Blogs

I love… and hate… this cartoon by Dave Walker (he has so many really great ones). It represents what I have been feeling for some time now. It’s nobody’s fault… just the nature of the beast. I think the title “Overfed” is not quite accurate for me. It is more the “need” I feel to have to read so many blogs – or keep up with them. I don’t think that here is anything intrinsically harmful about reading too much. However, I find that it sometimes takes me away from 

other, more scholarly reading in journals and other places that I should be keeping up on. I think partly it is a little difficult keeping up with the conversational aspect of blogging. It is one thing to read them, but when you go in and want to maintain active discussions through commenting and then have to go back to all of your comments to see if anyone responded to them… well, it all takes time. I think I just need to pick the few that I want to participate in while having others that I just read. And, I’m not even bringing technologies like Twitter into the picture here. I don’t know… 

How do you manage your time with the presence of the blogosphere in your own personal sphere?

 

 Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

VoiceThread

Shared Voice with VoiceThread

I have been trying out the collaborative storytelling service VoiceThread and I have to say, I love it! For those who don’t know what it is, in a nutshell

 it allows registered (free) users to upload pictures, record commentary, use a digital marker to annotate photos, and invite others to comment on the same photos. The service adds their comments to the comments that you have already made. In the end, you and whoever you have invited can collaboratively tell a story, share memories or thoughts, give presentations,… And, there are a number of excellent privacy options that allow you to really protect your content or share it freely with the world, allowing anyone to comment as well. I can think of so many applications of this in the classroom. Students could retell their experiences after a field trip or school event once you have uploaded the photos. Pen-pals could share their experiences. Students could collaborate on projects or ideas. Parents could comment on classroom activities. Students could react to questions and visual content for homework. Just a few ideas… Do you have any to offer?

Collaborative Video

Google has pitched a new form of video authoring, done collaboratively, but asynchronously. They have an ongoing challenge for individuals to video a 10 second video clip with the Google Mail icon moving from left to right across the frame and they are stitching together the most creative clips to form one video short highlighting Gmail. What a cool idea. We have seen so many collaborative 2.0 learning activities that have occurred online, but collaborative video brings a whole new form of collaborative authoring. Think of the creativity that could be unleashed if a digital story, for example, was researched, written, storyboarded, filmed, and edited by groups of students who do not even live in the same country or continent. What rich perspective in the form of video could be achieved. Think of the authentic discussions that would be going on behind the scenes as the final product was negotiated. Logistically, there would be some hurdles to overcome, but the idea is fascinating! The learning potential is astounding!

Collaborative Gmail Video Challenge

Test ning

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How do we prepare kids for all of this?

According to a recent report in the UK, YouTube is being accused of not enforcing its acceptable use policy with humiliating and inappropriate video content remaining accessible, including video clips that serve to bully and humiliate students and teachers. The report concludes that YouTube has joined a governmental anti-bullying task force. It is too bad that with almost every new and exciting tool that comes out, there are those who seek to use it for evil. Human nature. Even the OLPC laptops deployed in Nigeria to bring illumination and empowerment to the children there are being used by some to look at porn. Human nature. Now filters are having to be put on all of them and successive builds of the XO laptop. With all of the wonderful potential with all of these web-based tools how do we really prepare a generation of children to use them in a positive manner. How do we teach them to make right choices with so many seductive, destructive options at only a click away… and a private click at that? Internet predators aside for a moment, it is the private nature of such personal behavior that makes evil so enticing, I think, especially for those who would never engage in such types of behavior publicly. I think more discussion needs to be placed on these types of issues within the educational technology community. My fear is that a whole new generation is arising, both empowered by information and deceived by an increasing flow of destructive information. How to we tackle this?