What a long road it has been...

I am actually glad this month is almost over. Not because of the workload for this EDMT class as much, but due to having to do most of the group work for this month on my own. Needless to say, I am burned out on any and all group related work at this time. On a brighter note, this month has proved fruitful in allowing me to progress in my Action Research and really hammer out what I want to do. Now all I have to do is finish writing the revamped curriculum for my Computer Science and Internet online course and show the proposal to my Course Director for approval. Once I get approval, I can then start implementing Second Life into the class and see how well it will be received as a tool for a more engaging online experience. This is just a quick update to the site here, but now it is time to go back to finishing up the Literature Review.

W4_Reading

And here are my next 4 readings I did for Week 4 for my Action Research project. It was kind of hard to do all the readings because I had forgotten which ones I had done previously and I did not mark them so I would know either. Silly me, but here are the next 4:

Using advanced learning technologies to revolutionize education

In this blog, the Federation of American Scientists, or FAS, talked about how education is still not utilizing the new technology out there that we use constantly in our everyday life. The FAS ended up putting a plan of action to show educators just how to be able to incorporate games and technology into their curriculums to bring education out of the "test and tell" phase that it seems to still be stuck in. The blog pointed out many different speakers that were going around to talk to different educational institutions on the benefits of using the new technology and how to use it to enhance the student's learning experience.

Watching the watchers: power and politics in second life 


In this blog, the author delves into the politics and power that happens in Second Life when certain groups become a nuisance and those who step up to combat them. This parallels an article about a college that was in Second Life that held students who would go out and cause grief to other residents in the virtual world. The author then describes the different groups out there who 'police' Second Life and file abuse reports on the residents causing the issues to Linden Labs to get them removed from the virtual world. In all, this blog shows just how important it will be for a school who uses the virtual world to keep a good level of standard so things like this will not happen.


Compounding the results: the integration of virtual worlds with the semantic web


In this journal, the author talks about how the World Wide Web is no longer just a static means of gathering information anymore and that it is now moving into the 3D aspect through everyone using avatars to collaborate and share information now. The author then explains that the challenge now is to be able to find more meaning to this new and vast technology. Afterall, virtual worlds are not about what they look like, but what is in them. A virtual world can look amazing, but if there is no true engaging content in them, then meaning would be lost. I found this journal review to be very engaging and relevant to my Action Research.


Building knowledge in the virtual world – influence of real life relationships


Another literature review that talks about how the classes of today do not fulfill student's needs and education needs to adapt and evolve to fill those needs. The author of the journal specifies that a way to better students in this day and age is through the use of virtual worlds, but to do that, is to first show how the social interaction is in these virtual environments. Social interaction in a virtual world would give students the ability to learn how to implement that in a real life setting as well. 

FV_The AR Pitch

Here is my AR Pitch for this blog post. I still am much better at writing things than doing video of myself.

PE_6 Second Life Mesh Viewer (Part 3)

Time for the finale! In the last installment of the Second Life Mesh Viewer, I just exported out the 3D model I made into the format that will allow Second Life to import it in using a Collada plug-in for 3D Studios Max. Now I will talk about how it goes into Second Life and what all can be done in the import options.
Now that I had the mesh I wanted to use, I logged back into the beta mesh viewer and instantly started to try to upload the mesh into Second Life. Selecting Model from the Build menu options, I chose the table mesh I made and was instantly greeted with a new mesh window that had a lot of different options on it. I was able to generate the Level of Detail of the mesh (LOD), normalize the normals on the mesh making it look smoother, or I could go in and manually set each LOD as I saw fit through the input boxes next to each LOD sample. It is quite detailed in how you want the mesh to look in Second Life which I find a very exciting feature. I left the LOD samples at their default as I was more interested in seeing the final result of the mesh in world, so I pressed the Upload button and...nothing happened. I started over, double checking all the settings in the model window and pressed the Upload button again with the same results. Hmmm...

Undaunted, I delved into the Second life forums, scouring for the information I need to find out why my lovely model was not uploading. I finally found the reason...I needed to be on a specific sim that allowed the rezzing of the model. Oh, that makes sense, so I whisked off and landed in a Mesh sandbox sim where I was greeted with quite a few mesh models scattered around the place. I was at the right place! So, I quickly repeated the procedure on importing the mesh into Second Life, got the Mesh window, saw the mesh preview, played with the different options, then hit upload! I was suddenly greeted with two objects in my inventory, one was the mesh import and the other was the actual object to rez out in world. Immediately, I dragged out the object onto the ground and watched it rez up before my happy little eyes.

After some manipulation and resizing, I now had the model I made in Maya in Second Life! I took a look at the model from all angles and the model translated perfectly into Second Life without any loss in detail. I am now looking forward to making even more detailed models into Second Life and and very impressed with the way this new mesh viewer is coming along. The mesh viewer uploads meshes using the .DAE format, which is handled by Collada and so far, just about every 3D program is able to now export their models into Second Life, something that many of us have wanted for so very long. I am extremely excited to be able to use this tool now and hope that Linden Labs makes an official release of it very soon!

PE_5 Second Life Mesh Viewer (Part 2)

In my last posting, Linden Labs finally came out with a beta viewer that would allow for meshes to be created in third party 3D modeling software, such as Maya and SketchUp, and be imported into Second Life. This is what I wanted to test out and see just how well this new mesh viewer would work in helping make the Second Life experience even more profound. And so I went about testing it, first I had to find the proper plug-in that would work with my 3D programs and that was a bit of a chore, to say the least. I ended up having to do a search in Google until I found a Collada plug-in that said would work with Alias Maya. I do not have the current version of Maya so I am stuck with Maya 7, the program I was using back when I was learning Maya at Full Sail. The plug-in claimed it worked with older versions of Maya, but when I installed the plug-in onto my computer, it only located my 3D Studios Max program...no Maya. Drat!!

Rather than let this plug-in problem thwart me, I decided to do something a little different. Since Maya can export models out in .obj and .fbx formats and 3D Studios Max can import those files, I just went about modeling in Maya and then just export the model out, where I would import it into Max then export it out using the Collada plug-in. So, I went about doing some 3D modeling. I decided to try for something pretty quick and simple, yet have some detail to see just how the beta viewer would handle the mesh. What I ended up doing was taking a cube, extruding out its sides, then extruding it down making a simple table. I figured this would be a simple enough model but yet give me an idea of how the viewer would import meshes before I went and did anything really detailed. Once I got the mesh all made and cleaned up, I exported it out as a .fbx file then started up 3D Studios Max and imported the mesh into the program.

In 3D Studios Max, I went and checked the mesh, making sure that it imported without any problems and that it was still showing the proper geometry. With that done, I exported the mesh from Max using the Collada plug-in, saving the mesh as a .DAE file that Second Life only accepts. I was now ready to get into Second Life and see just how well this will work. Stay tuned for the next posting where I talk about my results and show some pictures of it as well!

PE4_Second Life Mesh Viewer (Part 1)

This new tool actually came out at a very opportune time. As I am moving along in my Action Research on Second Life, I have been steadily building up a new campus for Full Sail University that I believe will be more conducive to learning and engaging students who hopefully will be using the Second Life sim in the future. Well, Linden Labs just put out their beta viewer that allows for meshes in many 3D programs out there today to be imported into Second Life, which can create even more fantastic user created content. Once I heard the news, I immediately went to the Second Life website and proceeded to download the new viewer. First thing is first, it is currently a beta viewer so when I logged in, I was instantly sent to the beta testing grid where I saw quite a few new mesh buildings scattered around the small testing sim I was on. I proceeded to wander around a little bit to see what all the new meshes were about.

My first impression with the new viewer is that it still has a lot of work. I was experiencing quite a bit of lag just moving around the sim and it was not even completely populated. Aside from that, I noticed in one of the menus at the top, it had a new upload feature in there called Meshes. This is where you can upload the meshes you create in a 3D program, such as Maya or even SketchUp, and be able to place them down in Second Life. The new mesh feature handles polygon models now so I will no longer have to fiddle with NURBS surfaces to make any custom models in Second Life anymore. This is a feature I have been hoping for for a long, long time. For this to work, however, you need to download a plug-in or converter from Collada that will change the mesh coming from these 3D programs into the proper format to be uploaded. I went to the Collada website, got the plug-in for Maya and I am now ready to test just how well this new feature is for Second Life! I am totally excited!

W3_Reading

V-Learning: How Gaming and Avatars are Engaging Online Students

I found this study done by a group of three quite interesting. Their whole study focused around avatars in virtual environments and how gamers, and in reflection students, become highly engaged when they have an avatar that they can change to show their moods as well as personality they want. This attachment to their avatars is what causes them to want to learn as they are feeling more a part of what is trying to be taught to them. It also shows that students do desire the social interaction between one another as they use their avatars. I was quite captivated in reading this whole case study and it did click for me and my action research project.

Woodbury U. Banned From Second Life, Again

 This is one article I had to add in here as something to definitely look at if and when Second Life does start getting used more frequently in classes here at Full Sail. The author of this article goes and talks about a supposed university that was banned from Second Life for a second time due to it not enforcing a code of conduct for its students who use Second Life. Woodbury University was one of the first colleges to use Second Life in some of their college courses, however, they were banned when a few of their students decided to see just how much they could do in Second Life without regards to other residents in the virtual world. A few of them ended up causing a lot of griefing around the virtual world, either by causing sims to completely crash or just to harass other residents to the point of them leaving Second Life completely. This is a very real concern that I feel needs to be addressed if Full Sail does start to utilize virtual worlds as a teaching tool.

The six learnings of Second Life: A framework for designing curricular interventions in-world

This was a wonderful literature review on how a college or any education facility could go about implementing Second Life into their curriculum. The author of this study gave me much to think about to add to this existing formula as well as show just how cost effective it will be to have Second Life integrated in the online curriculum at Full Sail. I would highly recommend this reading to anyone who is interested in Second Life and what benefits it can bestow upon education.

* News * Technology * Virtual worlds Virtual worlds are getting a second life

The author of this article talks about how virtual worlds are constantly on the rise in popularity despite what critics claim as a passing fad. The author points out that virtual worlds are pulling in a lot of money, while places like Facebook and Twitter have not quite found a way to truly make money. The author also points out that the popularity is mainly due to people getting attached to their avatars, which they can create to be a virtual representation of them or whatever they want to be. I find that it makes sense, many people do not want to be themselves online, they want to either re-invent themselves or create an ideal fantasy version of themselves. This allows people to be more engaged when they have an avatar to interact with others.

PE3_Adobe Flash CS5(Part 3)

Wrap up time! Yay! I have to say that Adobe Flash is not for the faint of heart and I am surprised at just how much I lost in way of knowledge of using the program. Lynda.com had nice tutorials, though I could not access all of them due to not having an account for them. I think I was supposed to get a subscription there through the Masters program but, I am like the red-headed step-child, I seem to almost always get passed by on getting things like that. Anyway, this time I went and focused on just finishing up what would be the main page to my website, where I wanted to make my logo, that I had on my current website, be able to slide out some images of some level designs I have done. I will say right now, I never try and make things nice and simple and this proved to be a huge challenge.

Logo in place

 

Honestly, this was hard but somehow I did stumble through it and ended up kind of getting what I wanted. Ah well, I guess I am going to really look forward to the class we have that will allow me to fully focus on learning this program again. This week has been soo hectic that I know I could have done much better had I been able to focus completely on Flash. Flash is definitely a great program and I can see why it is an industry standard and many people use it for games and websites, though there is a big learning curve in using it properly. I am glad that I was able to at least take a small plunge back into the program and look forward to using it more later.

Final layout of the main website page

PE2_Adobe Flash CS5(Part2)

Making the Navbar...Flash style

So, after taking a day to watch some video tutorials, I went and started working in Flash some more.This time it was to tackle more of my personal website, so I started making the navigation bar. Let me tell you, I literally had to go back and forth a couple dozen times between the tutorials on that and in Flash to start getting this to work. Just creating a simple navigation bar was quite the chore as I had to first make the background bar, then convert it into a symbol, then make a mask of it and convert that to a symbol. Seems like everything had to be a symbol with complex masking on it to be able to get a proper navigation bar system in place, which I found completely tedious as I could have whipped up a nice fancy navigation bar in no time using Photoshop and Dreamweaver. So, I slogged through the creation of this new navigation bar and, after many undos and redos later, I finally got the navigation bar done! Yay! Go me! Though, if this is any indication of what is to come, I knew that there is much more frustration ahead.

To be honest, I think this is why I dropped Flash all together and stuck with working in normal HTML coding as I could do it a lot faster that way. Anyway, I pretty much stopped for the day after making the navigation bar as I felt my brain needed a cooling down period from that ordeal, so I stepped away and worked on other assignments and things and would come back to this later to get the rest of the Flash page done.

Finished Navbar...Whew!

BP12_OMM Collanos

Collanos

This time around, I wanted to do something a little fun as I was showing off Collanos. Instead of opting to do another infomercial on the program, I decided to kind of mix another program into this while talking about the other. I used GoAnimate to make a little cheesy Star Trek like episode where the Captain and Mr. Smirk were searching for a good collaboration software. Needless to say, they found one, the only problem was that it was being guarded by an evil No Share monster! Will the Captain and Mr. Smirk get their collaboration software or will they be doomed to spend the rest of the episode not being able to communicate, collaborate and file share with their peers? Watch and find out on this episode of...The Collanos Experience!

GoAnimate.com: A Collanos Experience by imarran

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

PE1_Adobe Flash CS5 (Part 1)

For this experience, I decided to go with working with Adobe Flash CS5. The last time I actually worked in Flash was way back in 2003 so I thought it would be a good idea to get reacquainted with the program (and to maybe spruce up my own personal website for later!). I always loved seeing neat Flash websites with all their interactive buttons, sliders and animations.Needless to say, when I first delved into Flash way back when, it was quite daunting as it is pretty much similar to making a full on animation from my time in the computer animation courses. This time proved no different, however, as I booted up Flash CS5 on the Mac, ready to go to town on it. The very first thing that greeted me was a totally redesigned work area in the program, with all the useful tools in different positions than what I was used to back in the Macromedia Flash 2004 days.

Macromedia Flash 2004 look

Adobe Flash CS5 look

Needless to say, I had to take a little bit to just look over all the tools again and get a feel for the new layout of the program. Once I got an idea of where everything was, I started tinkering in the work area to see if it was like riding a bike and all my knowledge from before would get me up and going. Well, needless to say, it took a lot longer than I expected to dredge up just some basic knowledge of how to work in Flash, but so far I was able to get a few things on the work area as well as get a few layers going.

Wow! Rough times!

Just getting to that took was not easy and I knew I was going to start needing help in kick-starting my brain so it would remember my learning in Flash. It is amazing just how bad we become when we let a skill we used to be good at go unused for so long. I completely felt like a novice at Flash when before I was creating some very interactive websites for companies up in Chicago almost 9 years ago. So, swallowing my, by now, trashed pride, I went and started searching for some tutorials online, where I finally just went to lynda.com. I am still watching all the tutorials and lessons they have to be able to tackle this program and get my skill back up to par! Check back to see how well I did after all the tutorials!

BP11_Comment to Lionel Jacques

Please follow this link to my post on Lionel Jacques' blog.

BP10_Comment to Michael Wood

Please follow this link to my comment on Michael Wood's blog on GoAnimate!

BP9_Collanos

Collanos

Still on my quest to find a tool that will allow students to collaborate and communicate with each other, I ran across another program that does just that. Introducing Collanos, a Web 2.0 tool that allows people to communicate, file share, collaborate and be put into groups to work on assigned projects. Collanos is a peer to peer program, meaning all work is shared on each individual's computer where it can be downloaded to another's computer for easy modification. Since each file is stored on the individual's computer, it allows for one to work on the file while offline and not have to worry about having to be online, unlike other web based collaboration software. When the person connects online, the software automatically updates  everything that was added to Collanos so everyone in the group will be up to date on files and discussions.  Collanos installs on the user's computer and is a fairly small file that needs to be downloaded.

The interface for Collanos is pretty easy to use. Everything on the program has large icons that are self explanatory on what they do. Setup is very quick as well as it has a quick workspace creation tool that will have you making your specific workspace for your group in no time. The program comes free for the basic version of it, though there is a premium version that will cost money for more features, but the basic version pretty much has everything one would need to get student collaboration going well. One downside to this program though, is that everyone will need to download and create a user account for Collanos before they can be invited to another's group workspace. This can cause some issues due to making sure everyone downloads the program and sign up otherwise the program would be useless until that step is done. Collanos is a pretty intuitive collaboration software for those who want to have something installed locally and not use a web based collaboration tool. This is another definite useful tool for teachers who need that functionality without it costing a ton of money to implement.

W2_Reading

Welcome to my week 2 reading and here I am going to show you a couple websites I am using that focuses  on my Action Research project on Second Life and online learning. I do hope you all take a nice visit to these sites to see some of the exciting things that can be done with Second Life for education.


Is Second Life a brave new world?

In this article, the author discusses how Second Life is currently still being kept at a distance just like in previous years when the internet was mainly run by geeks who were the fount of information, but now the internet has changed to the point where anyone can put out information and receive it just as easily. This is how Second Life is evolving too. The author then lists a few companies that are already using this technology, such as IBM and Cisco, and have paid employees to man their in-world areas. Ultimately, it is up to those who use Second Life to see how it can augment their real life rather than just be a complete recreation of it.

Introducing your RL students to Second Life

This is a blog by an instructor who works with Second Life and has it mixed in with their own curriculum. In this blog, the author talks about the main do's and don't's on how to introduce students to Second Life and be able to use it well. Some methods in this blog are very insightful as the author points out having students work in groups while doing assignments in Second Life will allow them to be able to adjust and learn how to work the program more efficiently as well as have at least a couple days to do a Second Life orientation for them so they can learn the basics on how to move around in the virtual environment. Other points are to also mix real life research with Second Life exploring so students can find relevance in what they are trying to accomplish. It is all about finding the balance to make using Second Life an asset in education today.

Educational Uses of Second Life

This is a good video that was created by three different teachers showing the many different educational uses of Second Life.  The teachers talk how Second Life can be used for many different classes in helping the student have a more visually striking experience in their learning. Whether it be sending them to a sim that has a museum on it where they can look at classical paintings to having them visit a virtual mock up of different locations around the world, Second Life can be tailored to just about any class out there. All it takes is a focus on what the teacher wants the students to learn while they explore through Second Life. The teachers also show different areas in Second Life to help bolster what they are talking about in the video as well as showcase what other teachers have been using Second Life for.

The Power of Second Life

In this article, the author transcribes the speech given by Mitch Kapor, one of the chairmen of Linden Labs. The speech given by Mitch Kapor talked about how Second Life got started and how it progressed through the early years of its existence and where it will be heading in the future. Mr Kapor also talked about how Second Life is considered a disruptive technology. Disruptive technology is any technology that instantly causes skepticism and negativity. One such disruptive technology was the advent of the internet and PCs where skeptics thought that those would never truly amount to anything, but look at where it all is now. Second Life is going through that disruptive technology phase right now, where many still do not believe what Second Life can do for education as well as training.

BP8_OMM Wiggio

Here is my little informercial on the Wiggio Web 2.0 tool. I tried to make it sound like a nice, though comedic, infomercial style thing you would see on late night TV.

I have been having some very good success so far in using Wiggio that I do think this will be a big focus of mine throughout the blogs as it has just soo many features and since it is free, I have found no major problems with it or downsides as of yet. I do think that this Web 2.0 tool will be very useful to add to my class curriculum so students will have a much easier way to share and communicate with each other for their group project. I also posted this up to Viddler as well and the link to it can be found here. That way, if the video is not playing right here in the blog, I have another way of showing it to those who want to watch it.

BP7_Karl Peterson

Please follow this link to my comment on Karl Peterson's blog...

BP6_Lionel Jacques

Please follow this link to my posting on Lionel Jacques' blog.

BP5_Second Life

Second Life

Second Life is a virtual environment that was created back in 2003 by Linden Labs to give users a place to go and create their own immersive virtual world, all built by the users themselves. In 2003, the Second Life world was a complete blank slate and since then, users have gone in, utilizing the tools that the creators of the virtual world created, and built up a thriving community of designers, creators and content makers all for the benefit of other residents in Second Life, who then go and buy or use the created content. Due to all this user generated content, a huge social network has developed and countless number of user groups have been formed within the Second Life environment. Quite a few colleges and universities have started to tap into this new virtual environment in hopes to enhance their student's social connectivity as well as giving them a place to expand their creativity and networking.

Second Life has made a huge presence as one of the most widely used, if not the top one, virtual environments for their users. Even the Second Life viewer, the interface to interact with the environment has been customized by users as they make their own interfaces like the Imprudence Viewer or the Phoenix viewer. Linden Labs has constantly encouraged users to expand the world as they liked and now when a new user logs in for the first time, they see the culmination of years of collaboration and user generated content all around them. One downside to Second Life, however, is that it does have a pretty steep learning curve on how to use the viewer as well as getting around in the virtual environment.  It does take time to actually start doing the more complex content creation to learn the tools available, but there are many different websites and wikis out there written by other users giving helpful tips and tutorials to make learning the tools easier.  In all, Second Life is one of the most comprehensive social networking and user content created virtual worlds in use today.

BP4_Wiggio

Wiggio

For the last three months, I have been wanting to find a tool that would help the students in the class that I teach be able to collaborate and communicate with each other more effectively without having to use multiple programs to do that in. The group project that my class has needs to have the students in constant communication with each other and be able to share files, schedule meeting times and meet milestones so they can accomplish the group task for the month. Most of the Web 2.0 tools that I looked at either wanted you to pay a hefty monthly fee for their product or it only had limited access, which would not work. I finally ran into this program, called Wiggio, which incorporates a message board, calendar, file sharing, instant message service and an archiver all for free.

In the Web 2.0 tool, I went about seeing what all it could do. I created multiple group listings for each and every group I have in my class; I uploaded huge files to see what the limit was and it accepted them all with no problems that I saw. I messed around on the calendar and even invited a co-worker to the testing of the program to see how the chat worked. I was suitably amazed at this highly robust tool. Wiggio is pretty much a one stop collaboration and file sharing system that allows groups to be able to keep in touch with each other in real time so there is no wait for people to get back to other group members through emails or having to use multiple programs to collaborate. My next test for this program is to see if it would actually work for my class, so I am doing a test run of this system with one group currently. They will be using Wiggio throughout the month while working on their group project and I will be able to monitor their activity quickly and efficiently to see how well this works.  I even created a small video podcast showing what Wiggio looks like and all its features. I have embedded it here for viewing:

The video can also be watched here on Viddler.

In all, I am quite impressed with this Web 2.0 tool and I look forward to seeing the results of my test this month with my test group to see how this works for Computer Science and Internet Online here at Full Sail University.

W1_Reading

Welcome to my week 1 reading and here I am going to show you a couple websites I am using that focuses  on my Action Research project on Second Life and online learning. I do hope you all take a nice visit to these sites to see some of the exciting things that can be done with Second Life for education.

Advantages/Disadvantages of Online Learning

First up is this article, titled "Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Learning." The author in this article lists all the advantages and disadvantages of the online learning process. These pros and cons are just the first step in showing how online learning still needs to be refined so the students that are doing online classes get the most out of their educational experience. I am mainly focusing on how to improve the disadvantages listed here by utilizing Second Life as a new online media for hosting courses or to integrate Second Life into existing online courses to enhance the overall online experience for students.

Campus 2.0 

In this article, the author talks and interviews a few teachers who are using Second Life as a platform to be more creative in their learning. The author then shows that many teachers still see Second Life as just a game and not a useful tool to enhance their classroom environment and most colleges still do not know how to use the technology nor are willing to truly understand it. There are also a few interviews with some of the teachers using Second Life and show how they have adapted it to their curriculum though they still have not fully embraced the full capabilities as of yet.

Second Life: Engaging Virtual Campuses

The author of this article focuses on which schools are starting to take off in Second Life and gives descriptions of some of the work that is done in them. The author also points out that though there are few schools actively using this virtual world, most other schools in there are completely empty, most likely abandoned due to lack of interest. The article shows that there can be success in using Second Life as long as it is used properly and those who seek to use it do not overreach in what they want to do.

Real Life Teaching in a Virtual World

The author in this article talks about how education is thriving in Second Life though there still needs to be more of a push to be able to fully make use of this technology. The author explains that with the technology inherent in Second Life, a shift needs to be made away from message boards and older, outdated teaching and into the newer technology to better push students and motivate them as virtual worlds are starting to be a place where business can and will happen not to far in the future. I find this article to be the main basis of what my Action Research project revolves around as we are still using antiquated technology, which does not stimulate nor motivates the student anymore.

These four websites are just the start of many sites I have found that I will be using for my Action Research project.

BP3_Diigo Groups

Here is the screenshot of my Diigo page. As you can see I do already have a few bookmarks in it as I put the first 4 websites I have for my AR project in there for my Critical Friends to peruse and comment on. I guess I still have to play with the site some more to see if it truly will be of good benefit to me when working on my AR project so the judgement is still out on it. I am not above trying new things, I just need to see if it will benefit me and make things easier when I am working or not. If anyone wants to be a part of my group, please feel free to place a comment below with email information and I will work to add you to my group on Diigo. I will still have to test this Web 2.0 tool out but so far, I am having a little trouble with keeping track of all these new tools at my disposal as I already have most of my bookmarks organized and available. I am hoping to see what comes out of this tool and hope my invites I sent out will be accepted so I can see just how well this tool works for me. I do like the fact that Diigo allows for comment marking in the bookmarks I have supplied so I can see my Critical Friends advise and comments, which will help me be able to focus more on refining my Action Research project more until it is a nice concise project. Ultimately, I am hoping this Diigo Web 2.0 tool will become something that I will use a lot in the future.

BP2_iGoogleScreenShots

BP2_iGoogleScreenShots

Here are my screenshots of the iGoogle setup. I found a few of the links to be redundant due to them being on multiple pages but overall the iGoogle thing can be handy. This did take quite a bit of work to setup but overall, I am glad it is setup in the way it should be.

HOME

Here is the home page for the iGoogle page. It has my Twitter account that I use for my class for me to keep in contact with my students. It also has my Facebook account on it though I really do not use Facebook all that much. I find the To Do list handy for me to keep up with what I have to do for the day or week.

FSO

This is the FSO iGoogle page. It has all my links I need to access my FSO portal, nettime for clocking in as well as all other useful links for my class as well as my Masters program that I am in. I like keeping all my links nice and handy and within reach so I do not have to go navigating all over the place to get to these websites.

AR/CBL

This is the Action Research iGoogle page. It has my Diigo search on it as well as all the valuable web links for my AR project as well as other references within one simple click of a button. The My Listy I still have not used yet as I have my To Do list on the Home page that suits me just well at the moment, but soon I will attempt to test it out to see how it is.

ETC

Here is the ETC page for iGoogle. It has all my links that are useful for the ETC class as well as my RSS feeds so I can see what is going on in the areas that interest me. It also has the blogger widget to allow me to do quick blog posts from here without having to go to the main blogger site though to do anything really fancy, I would still need to go to the main site to do.

These four pages encompass my own Personal Learning Environment for this month of my EDMT Masters degree program. Hopefully they will get good use out of them. It did take a bit to setup, but I am glad that it is fully setup and available for use. I will try and see if I can work on using it more though I am quite used to just clicking on my bookmarks and using my Entourage calendar for my events lists.

BP1_Google Reader

BP1_Google Reader

Good afternoon everyone! My name is Kristopher Newton and I am a course instructor for Computer Science and Internet, an online course at Full Sail University.  Today I am going to be showing a few of the RSS feeds I keep track of to see where technology is heading in both gaming and in education.  These RSS feeds keep me updated on all the new and interesting gadgets coming or new features that are being added to some of my favorite topics and interests.

http://www.macworld.com/

Macworld is a website I keep going to where I can get the latest and greatest news on Apple and their products.  The website also have very useful hints and tips to making tasks using Macs and their corresponding programs easier and more efficient. I find it to have a wealth of valuable information contained within it that helps in keeping current for the course I teach at Full Sail.

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/

Gamelife is but one blog among many that the website, Wired hosts.  This blog here is where I can keep current on all the new games and gaming technology that is coming out in the industry as well as what new trends are forming.  The blog covers all types of gaming, from games and sounds on iPhones to the broader console based games and tech out there currently.  The blog also goes over relevant mods that show up from independent creators as well as tips and tricks to make your gaming life more enjoyable. The best part is that viewers can also leave comments and feedback on the blog giving their views on the items being showcased so I can get a nice varied opinion on what people are thinking as they see these new trends and games coming out. In all, I do find this blog very helpful and of great value in what I am interested in.

http://nwn.blogs.com/

NWN, or New World Notes, is a blog site devoted to special events  and features that happen in Second Life.  Second Life is a virtual world that I am highly focused on for my Action Research project as well as how it can be utilized for education. I use this blog site as a way to see what other residents are doing and creating in Second Life, that way I know if what they are doing has value towards what I am wanting to accomplish in Second Life or not. Since it is a blog, I also have access to other viewers comments and reactions so I can gauge if new features or creations that are being implemented in Second Life will eventually pan out or will just be a passing fad that will be phased out within a few months. This is one site I would recommend to anyone looking to learn more about Second Life from a resident’s point of view.

http://blogs.secondlife.com/index.jspa

Second Life Blogs is the official blog for Second Life. I use this to see all the new technology that will be coming out for Second Life as well as what is happening within the Second Life grid. This spot is also where you can go to sign up to use Second Life as well as see all about what this virtual world is about. It has many helpful tutorials and features on the website that can help you get started in the virtual environment to learning more advanced things to become better at using the interface. This is the number one spot to go for all things Second Life related and I use this site extensively for research in my Action Research project. So, if you want to know more about Second Life, I would highly recommend starting here.

http://justincc.org/blog/

This blog site is the official blog site for the OpenSimulator Project found here: http://www.opensimulator.org .  This site is a comprehensive place to learn all about the features, inner workings, and other technologies that encompasses OpenSim. OpenSim is a virtual world software that can allow pretty much anyone to create a virtual world setup themselves, providing they have the hardware to back it up.  My main focus is virtual worlds and my Action Research project delves into an aspect of this to see how it can be used to benefit education. OpenSim would be a huge step in that direction to allow schools to create their own virtual world where they can create their own content to help engage the students they teach and give the students a place to flourish creatively.  I do firmly believe that the virtual worlds are the next evolution to online education and this site shows just how close we are to fully realizing that idea.

These are just 5 of the RSS feeds I use to keep me apprised of the new technology that is in my industry and helps keep me current in all the happenings that are going on.  These sites have a plethora of valuable information that anyone can use; all they have to do is go have a look. I hope this was informative and gave some people ideas as well as new areas to tap and view for the ever-changing world of technology.

Welcome!

I first would like to welcome you all to my little blog area where I will be going over many different Web 2.0 tools as well as any other specific content that I find interesting and fun to use. So please do come in and enjoy the reading!