YouTube as forum for academic discussion?

Digital Ethnography (Kansas State) is one of the links in my right column, the “blogroll.” Some time ago the site featured a video titled “A Vision of Students Today.”  Now on YouTube, a visual response to the original, taking another view of the material. Rather than try to explain it all, I’ll provide a URL so that you [...]

Trying to find us in SL?

If you have difficulty finding University of KY island in Second Life or if you are unsure how to get started, here’s a webpage that is basic now but will eventually grow. It will get you started. It’s a link off http://www.uky.edu/TASC/ (or go directly there at http://www.uky.edu/TASC/IT/SecondLife/sled.htm.)

the island’s been busy

We have had many new visitors to and inquiries about University of KY island in Second Life, thanks to the article in the Kentucky Kernel. That’s great! Come and visit! A couple of things I would add for your information:

The island is in its infancy, and so it is really in a testing phase. Please be patient [...]

on viruses

Viruses. Of the computer kind, I mean. Yuck. We arm ourselves with antivirus software and personal firewalls, and we hope for the best. If you’ve ever lost data, irretrievably, to a virus then you know the consuming fury or anguish that inevitably follows. It happened in my household years ago after we first began exploring [...]

virtual worlds

ABCnews.com carried a story this weekend about academic study of virtual worlds, like Second Life. Researchers are “following players down the rabbit hole” to learn more about the real world by observing a virtual one. An interesting thought … but what sort of conclusions can you draw in a world where you may or may [...]

le book

This has been a difficult week to get a post in. But of couse I could not miss Friday fluff. Yesterday I had the pleasure of participating in a presentation for University of Kentucky Libraries. We started the hour off with this amusing video of tech support for “le book.” Enjoy, and have a good weekend!

blog-based peer review

“Blog-based peer review.” It’s an experiment that began yesterday (see the Chronicle article) on a small scale. (Well, that’s perspective speaking. If you run the blog, it’s definitely a large-scale project.) Great opportunity for multiple voices? Flame-throwers’ paradise? Check it out: Grand Text Auto

free stuff from the government (seriously)

When you are an educator, finding quality free stuff can be a life-saver. Sometimes it can be closely guarded secret. You don’t want all your free stuff snapped up before you can gets yours. Here are two sites our government provides for free educational materials. The first one is all online, so share it with [...]

it’s all in the packaging

Macworld was this week, so I can’t resist a little fun with Microsoft and Apple for Friday fluff. Here’s a what-if video: what if Microsoft packaged the iPod?
Even funnier, I think, is that apparently the video was created at Microsoft and internally shared as a laugh on itself. But as all good things do, it [...]

you can never be too thin…

You may have seen it in the news yesterday … yes, the thinnest notebook computer yet. Jobs and company continue to bring us amazing things, and you can see them this week at Macworld.
Some other places to follow the story:

Steve Jobs Apple Keynote on YouTube 

MSNBC: Pound for Pound, Macworld Outweighs CES

CNET coverage