Week 7

I appreciated the presentations on Second Life, Video Blogging and Tagging last Thursday. I'm having trouble keeping up with my First Life . . . but Second Life is very intriguing. I've become more aware of simulation software that uses avatars so that students can experience a scenario and learn at the same time - there is one I was talking to a colleague about called "River City", developed by Harvard. It is designed to teach students about environmental concepts, pollution, problem solving/scientific method.

The Tagging was something that really didn't resonate with me. I tend to be very linear and organized in my thinking and for myself, I could see it as something that would hinder rather than help me. However, I did see that it could be helpful to people whose minds work in a more abstract - random fashion.

Mary, Kate and I met with Joel at 826 Valencia and I think we may have found a match for ourselves with a project with them. 826 National would like to have a site where students from different 826 locations can share their creative writing with each other. I hope we can fulfill their needs. A related question is, how do we access our server space at the university? Maybe you can go over this with us Dr. Foreman.

I liked the short and sweet article about visuals and text. What I really enjoyed leading up to class on Thursday was going through the color and design web site. For a non-artist, it was really informative and enjoyable.