Online Social Gaming & Networking

Facebook

I initially set up my Facebook account because my oldest daughter really wanted one.  Personally I found the most challenging part of Facebook the friend requests.  I don’t feel the need to have everyone I have ever ridden a subway with or walk past on the street part of my friends.  Kids actively seek out higher numbers but it is not about the quantity it is about the quality.  This was one issue that my daughter and I faced.  There are those acquaintances that are not particularly a good friend that are requesting access to your life for sometimes their own reasons.  I told my daughter that if you wouldn’t share something with them at school that you would share with your circle of friends, then don’t accept them.  This becomes its own sticky social issue.  We came to a compromise and she has different levels of friends limiting who sees what.  I very infrequently go on to “see what I have missed.”

MySpace

The MySpace home page was visually over stimulating with all of its content crammed together.  MySpace claims to allow you to customize your own space.  It connects you with games, music, video, TV, celebrities.  I found a friend that had a space and used it to include his blog.  After already having a Facebook account I felt that MySpace was somewhat inferior to Facebook.  One video about the new MySpace logo really focuses on creating a space that is representative of you.

LinkedIn

This is professional networking site that makes it easy to be part of a business community that allows you to find past colleagues, find a new career opportunity, and ask advice of others within your field.  This site really takes the saying, “It’s all about who you know.” to a new level.  The nice thing about LinkedIn is that it sends you daily updates to your designated email if there are any changes, posts or new professional connections with people in your group.

Ning

Ning is a social website that you can use to inform individuals and encourage conversation while allowing for money raising opportunities for an organization or cause.  This site is presently being used by the Republican National Congressional Committee, Ellen Degeneres, the Epilipsy Foundation, and Hershey’s just to name a few.  When I went to sign up for the free 30 day trial, they wanted a price plan commitment.  Since I don’t foresee myself using this tool, I didn’t sign up for an account. 

This tool seems like it really protects its members from non-members searching and viewing member info available.  I didn’t like that I couldn’t really view actual examples of pages to get a better understanding visually of what Ning offered.  I feel like a better visual example even of a mock one would be very helpful. (What little I could see was viewed from the 2 inches of screen homepage above and below the box to sign in.) Anne Rice's site was down for maintenance, and both Barry Manilow and the Christian Authors and Readers had a sign in for members on their pages.  I also didn't want to give credit card info in case I forget to cancel my "free 30 day subscription," so I didn't.  It did seem like a blog to me. My only thought in regards to the social aspect is that you have to be really committed (monetarily as well) to join and will definitely find people with similar interests.

World of Warcraft

The installation took over 2 ½ hours.  After the first ½ hour I decided it would be a better use of my time to multi-task by making dinner.  Every page offered an upgrade to the pay version.  I chose to be a human huntress because my main purpose in this role playing game was to have a bow and arrow.  I had the hardest time trying to talk to people and then getting my reward.  On the 10 day free trial you couldn’t ask others for help, so I just kept clicking buttons until a right mouse click on the person gave me the quest.  I found it unfair that I could only target one person at a time while the ork’s were double-teaming me.  I saw my spirit at least 5 times in the hour I played it.  The first time I died I lost my wolf and I really miss him.  Marshal McBride keeps sending me on these missions that it seems his own troops can’t handle.  I feel like ork fodder!  I recovered some cool weapons, coins, and clothing.  I went to training for my new sure-shoot crossbow and I claimed a quarter-staff.  At the request of one of my bystander daughters, I hit the space bar and learned how to jump.  I used this skill in my fighting.  I’m not sure how effective it was, but I think I freaked the ork out, right before he killed me.  It was a busy day in the realm.

GaiaOnline

The hardest part of this online world is coming up with a name.  Just when I think I have one I like, someone else has it!  Uggh!  Like I couldn’t tell the airplane wasn’t going to blow up.  Not a very safe land if the person parachuting next to me says, “Don’t worry, this happens all the time.”  I felt very controlled when Bob the cat landed on my parachute.    I wish money did grow on trees.  Barrett tried to steal my hermit crab.  Ok, I actually gave it to him by mistake but he didn’t argue when I took it back.  Thankfully, both of my younger daughters are sitting over each shoulder so not a move goes by that isn’t heavily scrutinized.  Oh yeah, I’m having fun!  I think my capacity to make any rational decisions about hitting the save button is limited by their constant advice.  Help!

Ragnarok

From the sound of the name I expected Vikings of yore or something out of Lord of the Rings, but what I saw on the home page looked more like an edgier version of Japanese Animee than on GaiaOnline.  What a nightmare to get into!  The initial download was easy, the installation took a while, and then I was presented with 3 different versions.  It was hard to find any information about how to go about installing and setting up the game.  It was not user-friendly.  The help that they did provide was very simplistic and not very helpful.  I finally figured out that I had to register before I could finish the set-up.  The registration didn’t actually register you for Ragnarok, it instead registered you for Warpportal.  From there you then had to sign up for the game Ragnarok.  Accessing the game from Warpportal allowed you to buy points to “power up” your game to get added stuff.  Through trial and error I came to the realization that Valkyrie was the free version.  Exhausting!

Now for the game…I should have stopped before the installation.  There were 6 traits that you were able to change, however if you wanted a higher intelligence score, your strength score went down.  For every point increase there was a counter decrease.  I couldn’t seem to find how to enlarge the graphics bigger than a 4 by 5 inch window.  Within that window there were other pop up information that you needed.  When a message from someone in the game like my guide Sprakki appeared, it took up just about all the remaining screen space.  While I only made it to Level 3/Novice Level 2/Experience 3.3% I feel that I got a good idea of the game.  I like the idea of quests, but these seemed overly simplistic.  When I finally was done playing, I couldn’t leave the game because my curser was trapped within the limited screen of the game along with me.  I had to call my husband for help.  This wasn’t on the help screen, but then again, not much was.  I can’t image that anyone would buy the cost game after a marketing tool like this.

Chat Roulette

The site was very simple, meet random strangers and talk to them.  The simple green wallpaper screen, similar to something you would see at your grandparents’ house, with your visual and audio choices was the priority of that screen.  I needed to download the newest Adobe player but compared to the role-playing games it didn’t take very long at all.  I was not comfortable having my camera turned on or mic so I just viewed who was on there.  I only saw guys ranging from probably teens to maybe 40ish with one group of mixed 12 year old boys and girls.  Without a picture, most of the 10 people skipped me until I came to one teen.  Once I realized that I was watching something extremely indecent, I quickly ended my session on Chat Roulette.  I think that this is a good tool to be aware of and I am glad my children were not in the room.  On this site, you really are playing roulette with what you will see and hear.  Be warned!

Omegle

Simple premise, start a chat, text or video with a stranger.  On the main page they even mention that you can say as little or as many personal details as you want.  Here we go again!  On my third chat I was told by a stranger to, “Try the fun, adult version of Omegle!” I will pass.  The 4^th person I met seemed normal and was not overly friendly.  He said that he liked and dislike Omegle because of the people.  Because there was the option of no video on either side I felt more comfortable when I chatted with a stranger.  I am still not a fan of these chat rooms.

Second Life

Second Life (SL) is a very complex online virtual reality.  After creating my virtual me, I went through a 6 step training program to learn the basics of operation.  While I took to flight right away, there were many other things in SL that were challenging.  The hardest thing for me was trying to wear something or changing clothes.  My virtual me even had her scalp exposed because I didn’t know how to edit my hair.  Thankfully, the two friends that I made on my first day were extremely helpful and were often available to walk me through another catastrophe.  While other interactive experiences this week seemed awkward or scary, I found this experience to be fun.  I used my time to approach random individuals and start up conversations about just about anything.  I found that everyone I met was at the very least polite.  

I told many people that I was using my time to explore SL for an assignment.  Many gave me suggestions to various sites or took me there.  My new SL friend, Sosuke, was very generous.  She helped me immensely and even gave me a Porsche and a Sailboat, among other things.  Sailing was so much fun.  I sometimes explored with a new friend or sometimes went alone.  (I even went zip lining and road a killer whale, as you can see from my pictures below.)  I was extremely lucky to run into a doctor that told me about his SL medical teaching class that uses SL patients and a hospital to simulate a real medical environment and patient symptoms.  His program is only in its second semester, but has received great reviews so far.  My conversation with him sparked my interest in the educational aspects of SL, so the next day I took a tour of the Imperial College in London.  After changing into scrubs, scrubbing in, and checking on the patient I earned a medical facemask.  The educational potential for this type of environment is still evolving.  I was very impressed. 

Online Mulitmedia

IPod & ITouch

Playing with the IPod was very easy.  It is still so hard to believe that something so small and so thin has such an amazing capacity to hold a large number of songs, store them on separate playlists, and provide a visual with text component.  The portability is such a wonderful aspect of this tool.  

I was pleasantly surprised by the number of educational apps that were available on the ITouch that my daughter has.  I was very impressed with the app by Appcylon LLC that could turn your ITouch into a graphing calculator.  I can see why “Time magazine selected it as one of the top 10 back-to-school apps.”  After spending over $90 per calculator for each of my three daughters this definitely has a cost appeal.  The app has a graphing display, calculator, equations, and table as some of the various features.  I think that this is an excellent use of technology in a learning environment.  My only concern is whether or not it would be allowed in a testing environment.  Even if it were not allowed, not having to bring the actual calculator to class each day would mean less to carry.  Now that we have the technology, being able to use it in a school environment only seems like the next logical progression.

Another app that I found creative and helpful was the Fractions App by June Infrastructure Pvt. LTd.  This app was geared towards younger children who struggle with fractions and the concept of comparing different fractions.  This app uses kid friendly, familiar visuals like chocolate bars and pizza to relate to them.  The difficulty level increases as the child masters the skill.  Working with 2^nd and 3^rd graders, I know that this is a math concept that is particularly challenging.  For those children that do struggle, I would definitely recommend this app.

I noticed the Basic Spanish for Dummies app by Skava.  The video tutorials really appealed to me.  In addition to learning Spanish, it is great for business travel or to refresh your knowledge of Spanish.  It comes with popular phrases that you can bookmark, a dictionary, greetings, flashcards, the basics, and videos to name a few areas of concentration.

I also liked the Flashcards Deluxe app by OrangeOrApple.com.  My oldest daughter uses this feature for her Spanish words and phrases.  When in study mode, the app shuffles the words or phrases and gives you 3 seconds to answer.  If you get the card wrong you can flag it.  Knowing how many index cards that we typically go through in a year, the savings of one tree is definitely worth the $3 app.

 ITunes

While you can’t physically touch the music on your ITunes account (unlike a CD, tape, or for those that have a really good memory…a record), once it is purchased on your ITunes account it will never get scratched, break, or wear out from overuse.  Initially I only thought of ITunes as a way for my oldest daughter to download songs, instead I found this site to have a wonderful educational value with the variety of podcasts available.  I was very impressed with the podcasts available through this site pertaining to the start of the American Revolution.  I found an incredible example of teaching and technology with the Project Revolution ’07 series of podcasts that were researched, written, and reenacted by this talented 5^th grade class.  I found this site very easy to maneuver and my only difficulty was finding the URL for the individual podcasts.

Richland School - Project Revolution

YouTube & TeacherTube

YouTube and TeacherTube had some great videos and podcasts.  Granted the content wasn’t always age appropriate and some videos that would have been perfect were unfortunately edited so that adult commentary was posted on the actual screen.  It seemed like the 100 Acre Wood all over again!  I know that TeacherTube is more educationally geared, but I found YouTube actually easier to use and found more sites that were similar to what I was looking for.  On TeacherTube the most challenging thing for me was figuring out how to save my favorites.  This was not nearly as challenging on YouTube.  I also found YouTube a fun way to relive my youth.  I found old School House Rock clips that I used to love watching between cartoons on Saturday mornings…”No More Kings” was my favorite. 

Pandora

I am writing this while listening to Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd.  I like how you can rate the songs you like so that they will offer other similar songs.  The genre stations are great because while 80’s Pop Radio sounds great now, I could easily find myself hopping between the various stations depending on my mood.  This somewhat delivers on its claim to be “personalized internet radio.”  I was happy to find that I could skip some songs that I didn’t like, after a while I received a message that told me that there was a limit on the number of songs per hour that I could skip.  I was advised to create another station.  I found the ads to be very distracting.  While the Netflix is prominently displayed, it is the Just Fabulous shoes ad that keeps flashing and catching my attention.  I guess that is why you can pay to upgrade to the ad free package.  In an educational setting, you would need to have the upgraded package so the children wouldn’t hear the ads or see them.  While the classical music could be used for some nice background class music or as an example in a music class I think an IPod or ITouch would allow more flexibility.  This could be a tool for a teacher to find the music that they want before buying it.

  

Europa Film Treasures

As a child I discovered an early love of old movies, so I was like a kid in a candy store with so many different films from various parts of the world and time periods.  They are truly treasures.  I am watching a Macedonian film titled Ritam I Zvuk- 1955 that reminds me of my Albanian heritage.   Ritam I Zvuk - 1955  It shows women and men in traditional outfits enjoying life through song, work, and dance while showcasing the amazing scenery of the country.  It portrays a simpler but harder time that I had only seen in home movies of much lesser quality.  I think that this is a great site for teachers to help children experience different cultures.  They can see how the cultures maintained or evolved with their customs and traditions over the years.

Vimeo

I was very interested in learning about this tool after seeing Joyce Valenza’s “Read It” video a short while ago.  The series of tutorials, while simplistic in nature, are very helpful.  I was really excited about the editing potential that this tool offers.  The words like “blending, fading, and overlapping” when it comes to making a Vimeo production, seemed like something I would have thought only accomplished by a professional.  I also found the 4 levels of private settings very comforting.  This is something that you could definitely use with a class or personally with your family without worrying about unwanted exposure.  I think that this is a great classroom tool.

Voice Thread

I like that the home page very clearly has the products by market listed.  Their motto that “children’s work is worthy of public attention” because it is great really is obvious.  Their “safe and accountable environment for publishing” is possible with comment moderation where the creator(s) must view the work before the other users on the network can view it is a nice safeguard.  The hardest thing for me to do was to figure out how to save student work that I particularly liked through the menu on the thread I wanted to save.  

There was a wonderful 1^st grade reading analysis from Leanne Windsor where the teacher took a picture of the child with their book (or just the book) and then the children gave the details of the story (setting, characters, problem, solution, & feedback).  The teacher meant for this to be part of their electronic portfolio.  I also found some examples of digital storytelling surrounding a picture or student generated book that allowed children to add a voice to the person or page shown.    This tool really does let students find and use THEIR voice and take away a potential roadblock to the traditional paper and pencil writing projects.

Education Podcast Network

I liked that this site made it very easy to locate the age group, topic, & program that you were looking for.  I did like that you had to apply to have your podcast listed on the K-12 approved site.  I felt that this acceptance by nature has more oversight built into this tool.  I was surprised that there were only about 700 subject specific podcasts listed from 75 schools.  I am guessing that this number will definitely grow with the desire to share information and show student work in a larger forum.

Online Applications for Everything!

I started this week’s exploration into the world of Online Applications with Flickr.  While I had heard of Flickr, I had never bothered to sign-up for it.  I think I felt it would be a huge undertaking.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  I found it very easy to upload all of my photos.  The hardest part for me was linking it with my blog.  Trial and error helped me figure it out.  I loved Richardson’s tip on GoogleEarth and geotagging.  It is an incredible feature and relatively easy to use.  While the photos didn’t have a great deal to annotate (and I didn’t want to use my children’s names), I decided to have some fun with what was in the pictures namely the reactions of my children to better understand the course of our trip.  

Once I was finished with Flickr, BigHugeLabs was a perfect transition to further play with my photos.  There were 15 effects that were available with the free package, but some required an image viewer.  I wished that they had more effects to offer, but I really liked the mosaic maker.  I used the same photos to make a lovely 4 by 3 mosaic of our day.  From there, Dumpr had some other neat features associated with photos, so in addition to linking BigHugeLabs with Flickr I also linked Dumpr with Flickr and took a photo of 2 sailboats and turned it into a pencil sketch.  The only negative was that the sketch was very light.  I found that even with the darker background photos, this was also the case.

Still playing with my photos, I enjoyed taking the same sailing ones and using them in an Animoto thirty second video.  I liked how I could pick the background and the music to better convey the feeling of the day.  It turned my 2D pictures into a 3D experience!  Before signing up for an account, I felt that the type of editing done here was something that was only available to professional photographers and videographers.  I can definitely see myself using this for other occasions.

Voki offered so many fun ways to incorporate its tool with learning.  I liked how you could personalize your visual image and then add your own voice.  I was surprised to find that the hardest part of creating a voki was to record exactly what I wanted to say and then not hit the cancel button out of habit.   My children saw my voki and wanted to create one of their own as well.  My only wish was that they had more creative capability to further individualize the image.  I would have liked to see historical figures as well.

Bubble.Us was exactly what it said it is…simple.  I liked how they did keep it simple to help organize complex minds.  I made a family tree with my 1^st sheet.  I could see this being used in a science class to map out an element, a family tree project, in a foreign language for verb conjugations, storybook mapping, or to map out a food chain or food web.  The simplicity really does lend itself to many application possibilities.

Rollyo seems like a perfect introductory search engine when teaching children how to safely search the web.  I liked how you could chose what sources you wanted Rollyo to search and feel confident with children that the results would not reveal anything inappropriate.  This search engine also saved valuable search time and wasn’t as overwhelming and distracting as a Google search.  I did wish that there weren’t that many ads on this site.

My first two attempts to get on Doodle ended in an internal error.  The error page did offer some FAQ info.  While I did gain access the next day, that error made me question the availability of the site and its use.  A tool isn’t very good if you can’t use it.  The site is supposed to be fun and it offers group planning of events and scheduling.  I did like the example showing various time slots available for a meeting and each person specified which ones they could attend.  This tool seems like it would save some planning time but I think that there are other sites that would be able to do the same and even more. 

Survey Monkey was a very helpful site.  Feedback is so important whether you are planning an enrichment event, field trip, recital, or open house.  The anonymity of the responses and ease of answering the survey, I feel will give valuable feedback to the teachers and school.  It is a great way for a school to assess parent concerns as well.  I liked that there were templates available.  I am sure that this would be a helpful tool for someone who has never used this application before or someone who needs a little structure with their survey.

Zamzar was unique to me because I never realized that there were sites that could convert files to another format.  In the past if I received a file that my computer could not open I would let the originator know and ask to send it in a format that I was compatible with or I would just ask them to print me a copy.  This approach isn’t so bad for single pages but for extensive documents this site offers an invaluable service.  Immediately, I thought about an older computer that we have that doesn’t have Power Point.  I realized that this service could convert the Power Point PPS file into an html file so that I could still view the individual slides.  This was definitely a site I bookmarked.

StumbleUpon really tries to tailor their search information to their customer based on gender, age and previous preferences.  This can be a helpful tool for an individual but it could also waste a great deal of time with the sites presented that you have to wade through. It uses a thumbs up or thumbs down feedback to fine tune your interest level.  While my criteria had to do with hobbies, families, cooking, and computers, there was some content that was inappropriate for younger audiences.  This is a tool that will take a while for it to really be able to deliver sites and articles that are really relevant to a customer.  If you need something specific and quick this is not the site for you, but if you have time to meander, you could find a really neat paper folding project that might be a nice addition to a math geometry unit like I did.  

Google Docs makes collaborative projects much easier to create.  Unlike Windows, your document is no longer tied to a specific computer.  In my house, everyone wants to use the computer that is linked to the printer.  In the past when I worked on a different computer and my flashdrive was not available, I would have to attach my document to an email and then open the email on the computer with the printer.  If something were to happen to my computer, I would not have to worry about losing all of my files if I used Google Docs.  I liked the fact that Google Docs is a word processing tool that can accommodate images, videos, and comments while allowing you to choose the level of privacy you want.  I also found the template gallery feature helpful to get you started with a document.  Google Docs also features Google Translate that can translate words or a document into 57 languages.  Once you have a Google account, it is just so much easier to use the applications that come with it rather than using a different application.  

Zoho was another tool that allows for collaborative use.  This on-line word processing application allows the use of comments and tags.  The tags are a seen as a more convenient way to retrieve a document that could typically fall under two different categories or folders in the traditional sense.  Zoho like Google Docs allows the users to link the document to the blog.  While Google Docs is more appealing for this type of application, I could see the possible benefit of a foreign language student taking advantage of the 75 language spell check feature.  

Jing is a wonderful tool to further explain a website.  This tool is downloaded to your computer and a yellow sun is visible in the middle top of your screen.  This allows you to capture video or individual pages and record the information you want.  You can stop and resume recording and then preview your content.  Jing offers many ways to share your finished product such as through Facebook, Twitter, or your blog.  I chose to add a video tutorial with accompanying audio to my wiki that I embedded on the first page.  I feel that this tool has many classroom applications and that children of all ages will find it fun and creative.  This tool can also easily add value to a professional development workshop.  Along with Animoto, this was one of my favorite sites.

MY VOKI

I am so excited to create my very own Voki! It was a really fun tool to "play" with.

Sailing Away

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

These are the same picture but the music, background, and effects give you a better idea of the day.  It gives the 2D images a 3D quality. Enjoy!

dumpr.net

 
This awesome sketch was done from a picture that I downloaded from Flickr to Dumpr.  I chose the photo to sketch option.  While they did have limited other effects, this was by far my favorite.  The only negative that I found after playing with several photos was that no matter how dark the background, the sketches were light.

A Three Hour Tour

A Three Hour Tour
Originally uploaded by sails4fun

Big Huge Labs is really a fun way to present the photos in a mosaic arrangement. You can choose up to 36 photos to include and can have a 36 by 36 grid if you choose.