Posts tagged wiki
Collaborative Research @ Digital Ethnography
Mar 15th
Hopefully, you are familiar with the videos produced by Dr. Michael Wesch and the Digital Ethnography project at Kansas State; if you haven’t seen A Vision of Students Today or Information R/Evolution, I recommend you take the time to view those and others.
However, Dr. Wesch’s February 27th post is just as valuable a resource, to me, as the videos he and his students have produced. The post describes the mashup of various collaborative tools he and his students are using to conduct their research, and of course, the workspace is publicly available. It’s an incredible opportunity for any faculty member to browse through the work they are doing, and more importantly, how they are accomplishing it.
The most personally revelatory aspect of the research platform is how they are using NetVibes to juxtapose the data collection point (YouTube) and the data entry point (Zoho Creator form on the right) on the same web page. Within that, the use of web-based forms isn’t new, but I’ve not looked closely enough at the Zoho tools in the past to consider how the forms and spreadsheets could be used to collect the data in that manner. Of course, this time around, a better personal familiarity with that concept following Google’s release of the same feature – forms attached to Google Spreadsheets – made the idea sink in a bit more. Seeing it in action certainly helps.
Anyone working with or working to promote the use of collaborative documents and tools should take the time to browse through the research platform created by the Digital Ethnography working group at Kansas State.
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Loading ...Presentation for the Greater Houston Education Collaboration
Apr 27th
This morning, I delivered the MUVE Forward: An Educator’s Introduction to Second Life presentation for the first time; I’ve been working on it for a while. I had the opportunity to present as part of a regular series of educational technology related presentations coordinated by the Greater Houston Education Collaboration: a local group that’s doing great things in the area and will likely expand in scope.
The presentation was an interesting experience; we had several different technologies running over the top of one another. There were roughly 20 individuals attending the meeting in person at the AT&T Technology lab at the College of Technology at the University of Houston; we had a number of attendees that were participating via live streaming audio/video; there were members of both of those audiences that were also logged into Second Life, and I believe we had one individual that attended in SL only, which we weren’t expecting and didn’t support very well this time around. Furthermore, our audience was an interesting blend of educator’s that had used SL to some extent (anywhere from 1 day to 2 months) along side those that had perhaps heard of the virtual world. The GHEC site has the archive of the video stream; the web-based version of the presentation is online at http://topherzwiers.wikispaces.com
Depending upon interest from those that attended the meeting in person, I may offer the same presentation/tour of SL via SL only on May 25th: blending that activity into my attendance at the SL Best Practices Conference.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...A few random thoughts
Jan 15th
I do have several future posts in mind that are more focused on particular educational applications of Second Life, but for today, I have more of a collection of random thoughts regarding SL.
First, I’ve been asked to deliver a presentation that will introduce other educators to Second Life and its potential educational applications. To begin organizing that presentation, I’ve created a Topher Zwiers space at wikispaces.org. Anyone can view and use those resources, as they’re posted.
Second, the Second Life Insider is now taking nominations for the Best of Second Life 2006 awards. There’s not an education category, but I encourage others to write one in and vote for real life education related resources.
Third, the number of commercial entities engaging Second Life continues to amaze me. In particular, news posted today indicated the first ever virtual presence for a Convention and Visitors bureau will be launched in the near future; it’s particularly relevant to me because of the proximity of the RL location. The article on Second Life Galveston Island notes:
Second Life Galveston Island is about promoting Galveston Island tourism to a new audience, as well as providing an escape from the ordinary and reinventing everyday experiences,” said Cordell. “Our debut within Second Life will give digital travelers a chance to introduce themselves to the best aspects of Galveston Island, and unwind their virtual selves in our social areas, beaches and concert venues. They will be able to take guided virtual tours, learn about Galveston history, view Galveston Island tourism videos, provide feedback and interact with new virtual friends from around the globe.
Finally, if you haven’t already, notice the shared news feeds and del.icio.us bookmark rolls running down the right side of the blog page here. These are the news articles and sites I’ve encountered recently that may be of particular interest.
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