Two technologies I’m still not 100% sold on yet, but finding that I really dig ‘em.
First is Twitter. Despite the fact that it has been pretty wonky, and sometimes painfully slow, I’m still hooked on it. I’ve been using it daily for the past couple of weeks and still enjoy it greatly. I’m more in touch with many of my online friends than I’ve ever been before. It makes me feel connected, which is important. I’ve actually dropped a few people off my friends list simply because I didn’t really know them well or they were flooding my feed. Now updates come at a fairly sane pace, and I’ve been updating it about 4-5 times per day. Sometimes I post requests for help or information, other times its nothing more than silliness.
I’ve tried a few clients, like Twitterirific and Twiteroo, but I’ve wound up settling on Imifed. It let’s me keep up with Twitter through my IM windows, even when Twitter’s IM bots are flaky. So far, it has worked flawlessly!
I know some people would cringe to hear me put Second Life in the same category as Twitter, but it I feel both under “Really cool but I’m still not 100% sold on their educational value”. I spent a bunch of time exploring Second Life over the weekend and am starting to see the light, but still have my nagging doubts. If you want to meet up with me on there, my SL name is “Demb Oh”. Real creative, eh?
I do have to admit that people in SL are incredibly helpful. I had several people give me extensive tours of their favorite areas, showcasing some of the best things SL has to offer. I spent about 20 minutes watching a live piano recital. I still have no idea where the musician was actually located in the world, but does it really matter? I think my next steps are going to be figuring out how to build objects and structures, in particular how to incorporate digital media into them. Obviously a key point for me is whether Discovery Education should have a presence in SL or not. I want to say “Yes” because I think its cool and I’d love to spend more time in there, but I still have yet to find that compelling reason that would make me say that we must take action and get ourselves in there.
If you’re a Second Lifer, or a Twitter-er that I’m not connected to yet, comment your contact info so I can meet up with you!
I’m trying both
Second Life: Wildwood Wildcat
Twitter: GEMalone
Check out Eduisland on SL.
twitter: http://twitter.com/TechWarrior.
Got bored with second life. First life is hard enough. Saw some stuff about using it for education as http://www.bionicteaching.com, but most schools will block it.
I stepped into the world of Second Life about a year ago, and spent all of 2 hours playing and flying around. I haven’t been back since.
Not sure if it’s the gamer in me, but without the ability to blast annoying spammers with a Gauss Rifle or complete quests to gain new abilities, I was really let down by Second Like. Don’t get me wrong, a free online persistent world is cool, but I prefer to do a lot of my networking and learning from people in the real world, face to face. That and the general “everybody’s doing it” excuse is enough for me to stay away until it seems a “must do” like you said.
7/16/2007
I use SL quite a lot. What would be great is the ability to share applications and see virtual PC screens in SL. I often work with people remomtly and having a sense of being together works well in SL it is just a shame it is limited to simple chat commands and maybe a shared whiteboard
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