Justin K. Reeve
Insights Into Educational Technology
Encouraging Collaborative Digital Learning
Jun 5th
A great voice thread with educators discussing the growing importance of digital media literacy in our schools.
Presenting Pictures with PicLens
Jun 3rd
PicLens is a great eye candy tool for web browsers, and can turn any collection of videos and pictures on a site into an engaging, dynamic presentation. It comes in two flavors: the non-browser plugin version and the browser plugin version. It also lets you search for videos and pictures on YouTube, Flickr, Photobucket, and more. Weber School District’s own WeberTube has PicLens support built-in (click on “Slideshow”).
If you do not download the browser plugin for either Internet Explorer or Firefox, you will be treated to a slideshow format of your media. It’s pretty, to say the least. But download the plugin and you get an immersive 3d viewing experience.
Use PicLens on your interactive whiteboard when you want to show a video or photo to your students, and watch their eyes and ears perk right up.
[flv]http://www.webertube.com/media/video/188.flv[/flv]
Utah State University Joins OpenCourseWare Project
May 17th
More and more universities are joining up to offer a variety of course materials through the OpenCourseWare project, and Utah State University is now one of the partner institutions involved in this laudable venture. This site is made possible by funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and visitors will be delighted to learn that they can make their way through course materials from over a dozen departments, such as anthropology, economics, electrical and computer engineering, and wildland resources. Within each department, visitors will also note that there are tabs that allow them to email a friend about the course and also link up to an RSS feed. There are some great course materials here, including those from “Introduction to Writing” and the “History of Utah”.
From The Scout Report