Second Life Makes Tax Time Less Taxing
The Kansas City Star has taken note of the work H&R Block and the University of Kansas Medical Center is doing in Second Life.
Gaming for Life
This Forbes article notes:
It's a classic innovation--a novel way to use a tool created for an entirely different purpose, namely to have a good time. That's still the reason why most players come to "Second Life," but English-language instructors who spend time with students there say they're combining fun and learning--and getting excellent results.
Smallpox or Facebook?
From Slate Magazine: Smallpox or Facebook?
Text Generation Gap: U R 2 Old (JK)
This New York Times article assesses what many of us see on a daily basis - students so tuned into their gadgets that they don't interact as well with their immediate physical world, including while they are driving. Sadly, this means that a sometimes awkward stage in developing interpersonal skills in the physical world is pushed aside and many simply lack the understanding of knowing how their actions impact others around them, primarily in a negative way.
Interest in Facebook expands
I haven't been on my Facebook account lately. In fact, I'd been doing more with Linked In than any other social networking assignment. One of our grant teachers "friended" me on Facebook. I had previously joined because of recent graduates who had friended me and it was a good way to keep in touch with them - esp. given that we are expected to by accrediting agencies for the university when we don't really have an effective way to control that access.
I checked around at a "friend's" site who is a bit older than my other students who I work with at an outside agency. She is using her network to get in touch with friends old and new to share the news of her engagement. And, without Facebook, I doubt I would have known until after the fact. It will be fun to share her excitement ten states away. She's an engaging young woman who is definitely going places. I know her through work but not well enough to be invited to the wedding but this is still a way to be involved.
While I as there, I explored a bit more and joined some of the organizations linked to my university, my state, and my interest - poodles. I still don't have my picture up - just our state flower instead.
It's becoming clearer why students like these type of sites better than email and even better than blogs - they are multimedia interaction and lay the groundwork for connecting for weekend get-togethers - not only planning them but reminiscing about them later - sharing the experience over and over again.
I guess I should check my My Space account but apparently Facebook is winning in this category.
Twitter in Education
Ryan has an interesting exploration of Twitter and its educational applications.
a new world on the web
KJ Hax points to an article with this important observation/assertion:
“The World Wide Web will soon be absorbed into the World Wide Sim: an immersive, 3-D visual environment that combines elements of social virtual worlds such as Second Life and mapping applications such as Google Earth. What happens when the virtual and real worlds collide?”
social networking for professors
I just received an email from, Pronetos, a social networking site for professors that appears to be headquartered in Idaho. I know one person listed and the history angle seems to be environmental history. I do know one person IRL (in real life) so it might be interesting to see where it goes. I'll have to add it to my list and see if there are any similar sites that might fit my areas of history study more closely but this is certainly an area to explore.
CSI: New York comes to Second Life
It looks like CSI: New York has an upcoming episode dealing with Second Life. Thanks for the lead, KJ!
Second Life in Higher Education
It's clear from this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education that the lines are continuing to be blurred between "pedigrees" and that Web 2.0 tools like Second Life level the playing field and emphasize the "what have you done lately" not what brand is on your diploma.
The only mistake that educators have made that I can see is spending way too much money to buy entire islands and lavishly building them using high-priced programmers and designers. They could get a fraction of the land and spend a fraction of the cost and still get value. Of course, if you spend the roughly $10,000 to get a private island and pay the maintenance fees for a year, you have more control, it’s like buying your own network and servers for a small office.There’s a simple explanation for the bitter nastiness of a post like Navin’s, which isn’t encumbered with much experience in Second Life: it’s not a platform that requires MMORPG gaming skills or pedigrees — they are irrelevant. And it’s not a platform that needs IT guys to hold your hand all the time — it’s pretty simply to use after the initial steep ramp-up, not always made easier by a gaming background in fact.
This comment indicates that we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water. Just like we didn't need to learn to program computers to use them, we don't have to know how to design and build in Second Life. While it works well for those incorporating student hands-on projects, it's not as necessary for those in higher education looking for a different type of experience in Second Life. Look how fast designing webpages evolved - now Contribute and even the web publishing features in Office are SO different from having to utilizing programming languages or even command line code.
