Getting Web 2.0 With It

After a night off from class, a group meeting, and margaritas, it seems like our group project is well underway. But while it is exciting to have identified roles and deliverables, a lot of challenges still remain.

One of the big advantages of the web 2.0 wave is that a lot of tools and templates exist that can really cut development time. The challenge with using these templates is gauging how well they can be customized to meet your client's needs. Our client would like a multi-user blog that can be password protected. He is also looking for other features, such as a home page that shows the latest posts.

Right now, we are trying to compare a few applications to see which would best meet the organization's needs. We are looking at Moodle, Drupal, and Wordpress's Multi-user blog template. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. If we were building a tool from scratch, we would design it to meet the client's needs - but it would take a lot longer than six weeks to build! By using a template, we can meet most of his needs in a relatively short time, but we sacrifice some control over the final product. It's an interesting consideration for designers in the Web 2.0 era.

Empathy

Web 2.0 Presentation - Second Life

For my web 2.0 technology presentation, I wanted to explore the much talked about world of Second Life. While everything with my first life is going alright, I was curious about this virtual world in which people can do pretty much anything they can do in everyday life.

Since I am not a gamer and frankly had some trouble getting off orientation island (though I finally succeeded!), my presentation may be less than I was expecting. I thought perhaps I'd have a house on an island that I could show you, but instead I still can't even pick a hair color I like. So I thought I'd share some links to resources so you all can explore on your own.

Second Life - Come here to create an avatar, learn how to chat & move objects, and start your second life!
http://secondlife.com/

Second Life Education Wiki - Resources for educators in Second Life, including other schools, universities, & programs that use SL
http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life_Education_Wiki

Sloodle - a project that integrates Second Life with Moodle courses (like iLearn!)
http://sloodle.com/

Visuals and Learning

During last week's exercise in class about telling a story visually, it was interesting to hear all the different stories people wrote from the same images. It raised questions for me about how much we bring to our learning based on our own experiences. Given that, the readings for this week were useful - to have a vocabulary for discussing graphics and a beginning understanding of how to best use them in instruction.

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