Tadge has been up to some serious good with his wiki project. You should give it a look the next time you’re planning a training. For example, this Bloglines tutorial is solid, and there’s plenty more where that came from. Of course — it is a wiki — which means if you see something that needs fixin’, go ahead and fix it already. (I’m sure they won’t mind.)
Check out the wiki — and give thanks to folks like Tadge and his team.
I’m not sure if this will develop into anything, but I discovered Grou.ps a little while back, and I went ahead and created the Edublogger group. Check it out and join if you think it’d be a worthwhile thing to do.
John‘s been playing a lot of Worlds of Warcraft lately, ostensibly as research. Clarence talks from time to time about educational gaming. Others have mentioned the idea that we can teach with immersive games, too. I got it, and agreed, intellectually speaking. But I didn’t see us quite there in terms of logistics, practicality, and technology. Then I read this story about James Cameron’s current projects in Businessweek today:
Cameron has more than a passing interest in simulation and
next-generation games. A former physics major at California State
University, he once served on the board of NASA. Aiming to shoot all
his future films in 3-D, he has helped pioneer a whole suite of 3-D
cameras, tools to capture actors’ performances and import them into
simulations, and various post-production techniques. Cameron now sits
on the board of Multiverse, a startup that helps developers create
their own games in return for a cut of the subscription revenues.
"You’re seeing what hundreds of thousands of people in this game
environment can create," he says.
Other big directors are glomming onto MMOGs. Imagine Entertainment, the
company run by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer that created the TV show 24, has teamed up with producer Jim Banister, Halo
creator Alex Seropian, and others to develop a sci-fi reality show
called XQuest. If it flies, contestants will occupy a cramped
spaceship-like module for a month. Its flight simulators will subject
them to rocket-like conditions, including six Gs of thrust. Players
will ply the galaxy while following the rough contours of a plot.
Outside the ship, online gamers will track the crew’s mission and
ultimately board their own PC-based spaceships to rendezvous with
contestants in shared, simulated space. The next season’s cast, in
theory, is chosen from those who show the most skill playing the game
at home.
Boy was I wrong. I totally get it now. More later.
On Thursday night, on the way home from parent night at school, I recorded this podcast about some of what we’re doing with Moodle right now, some of what I wish Moodle could do, and also some of my thoughts about the EducationBridges work to create wikibooks. A nasty virus and the weekend kept me from posting it until now. As always, I’m curious to know your thoughts.
The tools for making good movies and telling important personal stories are getting cheaper and cheaper. I found this via the Rocky Mountain News:
Mike Potter racked his brain for weeks for the perfect idea. The
Broomfield native’s college was holding a contest for movies shot
entirely on cell phones.
The film could only last 30 seconds. And with such a small screen
and such challenging video and sound quality inherent in the medium,
Potter knew he needed his segment to capture a beautiful moment that
was larger than life.
He found his subjects one evening at dinner, in the form of his
grandmother and grandfather, who were seated across from him. Something
about the way they interacted felt priceless.
Potter’s film, Cheat, stars his grandparents. This week, it won the $5,000 grand prize in Ithaca College’s first CellFlix Festival.
From further down the article:
All it cost him to produce was the $100 he paid for the phone.
One judge called the film "Fantastic. Timeless. Inspiring. Contagious. Lovable. Effective. Visual economy at its best."
And while the film convinces viewers that it’s about a game the
elderly couple really plays, it’s actually something Potter made up,
based on the playful way he’d seen his grandparents interact.
The film’s quite good. Well worth the $5,000 prize. The other finalists are interesting, too.
Today’s podcast features some thoughts about anonymity, both with students and with teachers. Curious to hear what you think. Does anonymity have its place in the classroom? How about anywhere else?
On a side note — I’ve been doing about one podcast a month for a little while now. Should I be doing more? Fewer?
If there’s an interest, I’ll keep trucking away — but if I’m only entertaining Ani and myself, I’ll quit uploading the files — although I can’t guarantee that I won’t keep recording.
Links from the podcast:
Justin’s Faculty Room.
