11.5: Thing 5

GREAT ideas for backchanneling during conferences. Especially the idea of having a friend monitor the chat so it doesn't get out of hand like the sxsw 08 interview of facebook's boy genius by Saray Lacey....I would've just died. And the transcripts can be archived so the feedback is immediate - you don't have to wait for those pesky eval forms. I like the idea of their eyes being on their screens instead of me (during presentations)...I don't like the attention as it is so I certainly wouldn't mind keyboard tapping as long as they weren't looking at me! As for a classroom, I think you would have to BIG TIME set boundaries at the beginning. Otherwise, they would be all over the place in their comments. I'm just as guilty!
As far as Twitter goes, I'm still not quite ready to share my every move with anyone yet - I like being under the radar...LOL Seriously, my Facebook account has been a HUGE step for me...and I go through little spurts of being super visible to leaving the country for two weeks and not touching a computer....I know! I'm a baaaaad girl.
Maybe I'll start tweeting. Arghhhhh.

11.5: Thing 4

I'm back and now that the jet lag is practcally gone, I've hit the beach again. Uploading to youtube. My first experience with video uploading went well. However, I uploaded straight from my camera and found that the audio file uploaded at a different speed. Catastrophe, right? No! It actually worked out better because the video shows my kitten and dog playing or I should say my kitten attacking my 60 lb. white german shepherd. I am laughing through the entire thing so my laughs and commentary are sped up like Minnie Mouse on crack. It's hysterical! I did figure out that I should've dumped it somewhere else first and then uploaded to youtube so at least there was a lesson there. But my mistake came out much better than the intended product :)

I didn't know about SchoolTube - only TeacherTube. Another great place for ideas and an easy place to upload student products. Did you see the list of sponsors????? WOW!

11.5:Thing 3

Skyppe hype - it's real. Out of my circle of friends, I know one couple that uses it to communicate while he's overseas. It (or a facsimile of Skyppe) was utilized in The Taking of Pelham 123 with Denzel and John Travolta. It's really easy to use and free for the most part. I see it being used in the educational and business arenas. One of the unique educational uses I discovered by exploring Vaughn's list of resources is Mixxr - really cool place for language learners to hook up. The list is continuously growing (ways for schools to use it) - virtual field trips, meet an author, collaboration with schools on the other side of the world, etc. And of course business meetings all but require face-to-face meetings so these tools can save loads of money in travel expenses.

One thing I worry about is that we're bringing up generations of kids that won't know how to sit across a table from another person and have a conversation. They would rather text or IM - even sitting literally across the library from the other person. At least with video conferencing, they have to be able to carry on a conversation and speak their thoughts as they flow instead of filtering them as they type.