February 27, 2007
Integrated voice coming to 'Second Life' - CNET News.com
Virtual world's publisher to roll out beta trial next week of voice chatting built directly into the client software.
read more | digg story
Posted by mlindema at 11:03 AM
February 24, 2007
Second Life Spills Over into Mobile World
Your avatar can do this using an IM, an SMS, or even an MMS, depending on what your phone is capable of. That capability has to include Java-based Internet connectivity as well.
read more | digg story
Posted by mlindema at 03:07 PM | Comments (0)
January 16, 2007
Centric Announces Second Talk Voice Chat System for Second Life
Here is an image of a second talk kiosk in SL
read more | digg story
Posted by mlindema at 09:28 AM | Comments (0)
June 15, 2006
Sneak Preview of Elluminate Live! Version 7.0
I just attended a webinar titled “Sneak Preview of Elluminate Live! Version 7.0.” Elluminate is a web conferencing system that allows instructors and students to communicate and collaborate synchronously. Illinois Online Network (ION) uses Elluminate for webinars, the Faculty Summer Institute, and the MVCR Courses.
Here are some new features that I am looking forward to in Version 7.0, which will be available in early July.
1.Full duplex Audio
a. Can set the number of simultaneous talkers (1,2,3, or 4)
b. Works in breakout rooms
2. User Profiles
a. Users can create a profile (name, contact info, image) that can be viewed by other participants
3. Application Sharing
a. Preview mode that shows the moderator what is being shared to participants
b. A Mini-Controller
4. Whiteboard
a. More control over monitor resolution
5. Breakout Rooms
a. Allow automatic random or assigned distribution into breakout rooms.
b. Automatically creates breakout rooms
6. Polling
a. Better publishing of poll results
7. Blended Session Enhancements
a. An “Only the Whiteboard” layout
Posted by mlindema at 02:21 PM
Sneak Preview of Elluminate Live! Version 7.0
I just attended a webinar titled “Sneak Preview of Elluminate Live! Version 7.0.” Elluminate is a web conferencing system that allows instructors and students to communicate and collaborate synchronously. Illinois Online Network (ION) uses Elluminate for webinars, the Faculty Summer Institute, and the MVCR Courses.
Here are some new features that I am looking forward to in Version 7.0, which will be available in early July.
1.Full duplex Audio
a. Can set the number of simultaneous talkers (1,2,3, or 4)
b. Works in breakout rooms
2. User Profiles
a. Users can create a profile (name, contact info, image) that can be viewed by other participants
3. Application Sharing
a. Preview mode that shows the moderator what is being shared to participants
b. A Mini-Controller
4. Whiteboard
a. More control over monitor resolution
5. Breakout Rooms
a. Allow automatic random or assigned distribution into breakout rooms.
b. Automatically creates breakout rooms
6. Polling
a. Better publishing of poll results
7. Blended Session Enhancements
a. An “Only the Whiteboard” layout
Posted by mlindema at 02:21 PM
June 07, 2006
How P2P Will Change Collaborative Learning
Once associated with illegal file sharing and RIAA lawsuits, peer-to-peer services may now be the future of eLearning.
Good Article. My favorite quote is "As learning experiences shift from a focus on reading prepackaged content to more active learning where students explore, research, problem solve, and create, the P2P capabilities of file sharing and collaboration become ingrained in the learning process."
read more | digg story
Posted by mlindema at 08:45 PM
May 31, 2006
Elluminate and Unicon Provide Low-Cost Trial Option for Sakai Collaborative Learning Environment
I think this is interesting…
Elluminate, Inc., a leading provider of live eLearning and Web collaboration solutions for the real-time organization, and Unicon, the leading independent provider of open-source enterprise portal, collaboration, learning and integration technology for higher education institutions, today announced a partnership. The two companies will collaborate to deliver a joint product and service offering for the Sakai Collaborative Learning Environment (CLE) for academic institutions at the K-12, community college and higher education levels.
ION has an Elluminate license and we use it in conjunction with Moodle, an open source course management system, for our online courses in the MVCR faculty development program. One of the first customizations we did in Moodle was to create a single sign-on solution so that our students who login to Moodle can with a single click enter Elluminate – without having to enter a username and password for Elluminate.
After the Moodle presentation at ION and ILLCO’s Course Management Systems days, a small group met and discussed the possibility of working with a Moodle partner (e.g. ClassroomRevolution.com) to host a Moodle institution that would be used by multiple institutions. I hope Elluminate is talking with Moodle partners to create similar partnerships.
Posted by mlindema at 02:00 PM
May 30, 2006
Google Trends
Google Trends
I just read about a new Google service called Google Trends, which allows you to “compare the world's interest in your favorite topics. Enter up to five topics and see how often they've been searched for on Google over time. Google Trends also displays how frequently your topics have appeared in Google News stories, and which geographic regions have searched for them most often.” To learn more about the service, click here.
I searched for the following terms: moodle, sakai, webct, blackboard. Not surprisingly, Blackboard was the leader in both search volume and news reference volume. I was interested to see that globally the term “moodle” generates more search volume than Sakai:
Click here
But if you limit the geographical region to the United States, the two CMSs are virtually even.
Click here
Time will tell if this new Google tool will be helpful to online educators. Like most Google Tools, I imagine we will find some creative uses for the tool that were not even considered by the creators!
Posted by mlindema at 10:23 PM | Comments (2)
March 23, 2006
Web-based file transfer services for students and instructors
Recently a student in an MVCR course was having difficulty sending her final project to her instructor. The project consisted of several video and flash files and was quite large (almost 200 MB). She was hoping to be able to attach the files to a message in the course discussion board, but Moodle (MVCR’s course management system) is configured to allow attachments smaller 2 MB. The attachments were also too large to send via Gmail, or her other email accounts., which usually have a 5 to 10 MB limit.
When she called me for help, I recommended using a web-based file transfer service.
These services are cross platform, easy to use, and free. The sender simply fills out a form, indicating the file to be uploaded and the email of the recipient(s). The recipient receives an email with a link, which when clicked, allows the file to be downloaded. While these services are very easy to use, it does take a long time to upload and download the files. For example, it took me about 10 minutes to upload a 1 GB file.
The student I was helping created a single zip file of her video and flash files and used YouSendIt to send the zip file to her instructor and her classmates.
Here are three free services you might want to try.
YouSendIt
http://www.yousendit.com/
No registration required; 1 GB limit
SendThisFile
http://www.sendthisfile.com/?rc=transferfile
Registration required; no limit for file size
Dropload
http://www.dropload.com/
Registration required; 100 MB limit
Posted by mlindema at 07:37 AM | Comments (0)