In regards to Blogging...

I find that through blogging an individual is able to express themselves and voice their opinion. However, I do feel that blogging could be done in a manner that displays more feedback and encourages more discussion between bloggers. Even for our class I know that it wasn't as easy as I would have hoped that it was for me to avidly blog. I wasn't as engaged in the blogs of everyone in my class. I did not feel like I was an essential part of the blogging world. Maybe that is why many users like it though? Because it is not as intimidating when comments are somewhat private and not displayed along with the blog? I'm not quite sure what need to be or even could be done but it seems like this format could be revamped and create a community where students are actively involved in discussing what they are doing now, what they did before, and what they have left to do. I still believe that blogging could be very effective in a middle school classroom and am excited to incorporate it into a unit and see what/how they were able to do with it.

Virtual Worlds

When I think back to some of my first interactive computer programs I think of Instant messenger as being the first computer program that encouraged me to spend more than 1 hour at a time on the computer. Virtual Worlds creat an environment that keep people at their computers for hours on end! Although the virtual worlds that we are learning about are much more complex now it is very interesting for me to see that they were based on online chatting services. The site below mentioned MUSH wich is a very old program.Mush

Wiki Def.
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wikki/Virtual_world">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_world

An example of a virtual world:
http://secondlife.com/whatis/

Here's an interesting class project that uses virtual worlds:
http://moses.creighton.edu/vr/

Wikis

Wikis seemed to have a format that was a little less acccessible and I was a bit overwhelmed by how many options there actually were for wiki instalationSo again, I looked for advice online and the "Wiki Matrix" seemed to have most of my questions answered in this question and answer section...
http://www.wikimatrix.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=394&action=new

In this site's discussion I really enjoyed the format of the class discussion and having all of the posts that were in regards to this issue and how the viewer can see a large amount of information and how it is connected to the original question.

http://www.brightlycoloredfood.com/2004/01/14/wiki-advice-wanted/

Other Sites that may help:
http://katrinahelp.info/wiki/index.php/Recovery_Relocation_Advice

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_world

Podcasting

As I prepared to create my podcast I researched online to try and find advice on creating a podcast. However, what I found was many interesting sites that did not include advice on podcasts, but rather they were advice on specific topics. I thought that navigating through podcasts was a bit more difficult to find the specific material that I was researching. This made me question if avid Podcasters had considered making a navigation system through the process of podcasting and podcast "types" / categories. It seems as though podcasts are always connected to something. What if there was a directory for a specific type of podcast on a given subject?


One good piece of advice that I found from "Podcasting Advice from Spencer Critchley"was the below comment that I found useful...

Another skill podcasters can learn from radio is how to write for the ear rather than the eye, Critchley says. “There's a lot to unlearn about writing long, multi-clause, abstract sentences like we're taught in school,” he explains. “Instead, radio writers write short, active-voice sentences using concrete nouns, punchy verbs, and very few adjectives or adverbs.”


This is an interesting idea incorporating a lot of what we talked about in class...
http://www.blogarithms.com/?n=Main.AudioProcessing


Another tip that many sites had was to include video with your podcast. And this may be a very good idea for some types of podcasts...
http://videos.webpronews.com/2006/11/16/podcamp-podcasting-advice-with-chris-brogan/