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As technology and teaching becomes more and more important, so does the need to teach others to use that technology.  For a while the standard in the industry has been Camtasia.  Don't get me wrong, the program is great, but it costs around $300.  Not always feasible for educators like us. 

A couple days ago Doug Edmunds from the School of Law here on campus sent out a link to a new, free (for now) screen capture program called Jing.  I was so impressed that I wrote this article that looks at how to use the program, some of the features, and some missing features.  I hope this is useful to some of you. 

Recently I posted an article questioning the usefulness of Second Life in education, to which I received mixed feedback. Last week I had the opportunity to see Dr. Julian Lombardi and Dr. Marilyn Lombardi of Duke University demonstrate a open-source peer-to-peer virtual world application called Croquet. Croquet is basically Second Life, but much more.

This article looks at 7 ways Croquet is better than Second Life. I also explore some of the con's of this alternative virtual world and some questions I still have.  Enjoy!

Yesterday I came across an article about the listed off ten ways to use a camera phone. As I read through this list I realized that a lot of these would be useful in education. It really got my brain turning too. The past couple of years have seen an explosion of cell phones. As I walk around campus now almost everyone has one, and more and more younger kids are getting them as well. Most schools ban them, but some are starting to see the potential. The average phone now a days has more computing power than many of the computers of 10 years ago. So… how can we harness that power in education? Let’s start with the camera phone since there are no additional fees associated with its use.

Here’s my list of 8 things you can use a camera phone for in the classroom, in no particular order.

1. Whiteboard/Blackboard Archive

I ran across Zoho Notebook a while ago, but it was only in private Beta… well today it went public. Here is a short video introducing some of the features!

Now just imagine what you could do with this in education! Students keeping track of not only notes but all of their online content… video’s, RSS reads, webpages (marked up), audio, embedded html (like an online calendar) that automatically updates… WOW! Beyond all that, it is accessible everywhere and backed up on Zoho’s servers!

Well... I finally decided to take the plunge.  I have officially taken one of my machines and installed a Linux operating system on it.  I decided that since I was in education, edubuntu would be a good place to start. 

Likes:

• FREE!  Need I say more.  Free OS, Free Software, free free free!
• Applications Installer (just select the stuff you want from a HUGE list and it installs automatically).
• Windows Selection - there is an option you can enable that activates windows as soon as you mouse over them. 
• Networking capabilities - I was able to connect to a windows share server and FTP site directly and edit stuff on them directly without having to FTP back.  NICE!
• Panel Widget's - Like applications, there are a bunch of built in widgets and a totally customizable toobar to put them on.  I installed some little eyes that watch my mouse where ever it goes.
  

Almost all of the students in classrooms K-12, and a large percentage of students in colleges are ‘digital natives,’ or students who grew up with ubiquitous access to digital media. These are those who can’t remember a time without e-mail and the internet. Because these students are intimately familiar with computers, the web, and the latest and greatest technology we can benefit by teaching them differently than students in the past… they are a new generation of learners.

4 Things to Get ‘Digital Native’ Students REALLY Involved

1. Make the Final Product SHAREABLE!

If a student knows that their work is going to a larger audience they will naturally take more time to work on it. The easiest way to do that is use Web 2.0 technologies like blogs, wiki’s, podcasts, and online video. Of course, you will need to be comfortable with those technologies yourself.

2. PROJECT’S, not Assignments!

On the back end of Haptic devices and Multi-touch displays I ran across this article and video this morning that demonstrates another possible way to manipulate computers with your hands. 

As more and more possibilities present themselves for physically manipulating data on a computer, the more and more it will become mainstream.  I really like this option because, as it says in the video, all you would need would be a USB camera device and software.  This is potentially much more affordable than Haptic devices (although they are getting super cheap too) and certainly more affordable than a multi-touch display.

I ran across this great video this morning (on a blog in my RSS reader) for those of you who aren't using RSS yet... now's the time.  Get on board! 

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