New Developments

Vkontakte (Russian version of the Facebook) is constantly developing. Recently they put the announcement that you can put as many videos on your page as you want (not just 5 as it was earlier). Then the graffiti thing appeared. You can draw a graffiti on the wall, and it's cool! I don't know now how to put pictures on people's walls yet. I asked one of my friends about it and was shoked to learn that the picture that I thought she copied somewhere, was her creation! It took me hours to draw something very simple using just 2 colors! Amazing, isn't it?!

Publishing first podcast

Today we worked on uploading our podcasts to podbean.com. My first Introduction podcast is right there!

Leveraging Web 2.0 in the Redesign of a Graduate-Level Technology Integration Course

Dr. Zeitz gave me an interesting article to read about how web 2.0 tools were tested in schools and what the teachers' opinion is about that experience. 5 assignments are described in the article. They are: Blogging Assignment, Google Docs & Spreadsheets Assignment, Multimedia Presentation Assignment, Trailfire Assignment, del.icio.us Social Bookmarking Assignment, and Cmap Tools Assignment. The article also gives considerations for using web 2.0 tools in the coursework.
This article brings theory close to life and gives some information about the possible ways of using web 2.0 tools in the classroom or when working with groups of people.

WOW!

How much do you know about The Warld of Warcraft? Patrik Leerman is an expert in this sphere. If you go to his page, you can find links that will provide you with the useful information. I just add some more links that I found on this topic:

Wikipedia explains: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_warcraft
A video that can give a general idea about this game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z72_-yAPhlc&mode=related&search=

These are the links that show how WOW is seen in American and Russian cartoons: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAJYQOANDCk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0te6-wJqYU

In Plain English

While looking for different articles (and videos as well) on Web 2.0 and Social Networking, I found a series of short videos explaining such things as Social networking, RSS, Wikis, and Travel Blogging in a very understandable, "plain" way. Later I found that Lois put the link about Wikis on "The Official Emerging Instructional Technologies Wikispace" page. So I'm happy that I'm not the only one who met these videos in You Tube. I hope they'll be helpful for every one.

Social Networking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_KF7TYKVc&mode=related&search=
RSS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU&NR=1
Wikis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY&mode=user&search=
Travel Blogging: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoQOUiJpvw4&mode=user&search=

Google Docs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRqUE6IHTEA

Podcast

We already made podcasts at Dr. D's class, and it was great! The following link will provide you with the 5 steps of making podcast.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/ec2podcastinstructions

The article about the structure of the podcast broadened my knowledge about it. The Willowcast is an amazing example of what creative work students can do under the guidance of their teachers. That gave me some nice ideas of using web 2.0 tools in my project.
The video podcast looks fascinating to me, and I want to figure out how it works and how much it differs from the podcast.
TED TALKS turned to be really addictive because the videomoments are professionally made and well prepared. They are full of interesting, exciting information and humor.
I watched the episode with John Maeda talking about simplicity and complexity of the things around us. John Maeda is a graphic designer and computer scientist as well. He spreads his philosophy of "elegant simplicity".
This vodcast also made me think of not overwhelming my project with things. All genious things are very simple ones.

Picture retrieved from: http://docinthemachine.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/podcast.jpg

Earn Money in SL

There are many unusual and funny ways to earn easy money in SL. You can dance, paint, just sit on a bench, or even hang and play scrubbles at the same time. I did it in Odessa.

Of course, making chairs is more entertaining and... creative!