My selection of tools for teaching 2013

I have spent some time looking for applications that I would use for teaching and learning. Just in case somebody asks me to do so. I stopped teaching in a daily routine in 1993. So it is 20 years without doing so this year. The list I share with you is my selection of resources that I would use today. Share your impression and the ones I missed with me!

Chilbo

Visited the Chilbo Oracle Tree this morning. Spent a few minutes in Ohio Unviersity as well and was looking for Fleep Tugue, one of the educationalists I interviewed in SL some years ago. The place is still there but unclear if and what happens on a regular scheme. I was looking  for a beautifully shaped tree where we met and was pleasantly surprised by a giant tree which nested a place for contemplation. Wonderfully colourful design. Well done.

Da Vinci Gardens, Kalepa - General

I downloaded the last build of the SL Viewer, updated my preferences and profile and needed some time to oil my rusty controls. Teleported and sat on a dragon for the first time in my life. Dragons are good flyers, I can assure you. I am going to explore the educational activity in SL again. CYA! BTW if you want to have a go yourself, go to top of the volcano and open the iron gate.

My network

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I love visualisers!! They make me happy, it is a thrill to see large quantities of data in a cloud, stats turning into images, and so on, so on, so on. This LinkedIn cloud shows my network connections. Zooming in I meet my own history and the people I enjoyed working with. I feel honoured with the interest of all these people in me and and all the others. I makes me happy to know that we are not alone

Mininstructs: Where has it gone?

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Animals do get extinct. Not a nice thought for a species it considers to be on earth for ever. What happened to this bird can happen to us. How did it go, and why?

Mininstructs: How to feed the world?

How will we feed our coming generations? This mini-instruction gives the basic facts on the consumption of eggs and poultry world wide. What will it take to produce No 1 protein resource worldwide?

Mininstructs: Limitations breaking borders

Sometimes the limitations of a tool brings you on your knees to make something. Animoto is free and gives you the opportunity to deliver a 30 second - video. Yes, you read it right: 30 secs and not more than 12 sequences within that timeline. So I ve put in 3 images and 6 textframes and produced a 30 second introduction on a result to be delivered by High School students on contempory history. What do you think? Will this work?

Angel in Immersiva

This beautiful angel towers above a scattered landscape. Nothing refers to real life in a sense that there is an idea that everything is logically conneted. I am sure it is and that makes it exciting and me curious.

Open Wonderland

Many institutes migrate from SL (commercial) to a full blown alternative OpenWonderland. Money is the issue here, as there are drawbacks too. SL services all and in a professional way. If you move to DIY open source environment you get all the Sh.. that the entrepreneurs encounter on a daily basis and learning process towards 99.999% uptime. I have not seen examples of calculating the cost of DIY in education and probably they will not come as we are not used to calculate our costs in our 'business'. Still a good thing we have a choice.

Merlot

I walked the web since 1994, professionally and with great pleasure. Still amazed by its richness and development so far. Stumbled upon Merlot, the University of Oregons' virtual campus through a new connection on LinkedIn. The campus shows a magnificent learning model around virtual safaris in nicely visualized settings. They also show some awesome 'cutting edge' designs on blended learning environments on linked webpages The development since early days in 1994 in integrating materials and means is immense and unexpected, as this one on Geoscience shows you.