The Wii is a video game system that uses a wireless controller capable of sensing position and motion, allowing users to interact with the game applications through physical movements. The controller has captured the interest of academic researchers and hackers, who have used the technology to create applications such as a collaborative choreography tool and an inexpensive, interactive whiteboard. Wii technology is used as an input device in virtual worlds and as a training tool that allows learners to perform physical tasks in a digital, risk-free environment.
July, 2008:
7 Things You Should Know About Second Life
Second Life is a virtual world with tens of millions of square meters of virtual lands, more than 13 million “residents,” and a thriving economy. Large numbers of colleges and universities—or, in some cases, individual departments or faculty—are active in Second Life, not only for academic purposes but also for campus visits, recruiting activities for prospective students, and fundraising. Second Life lets educators easily build and modify learning spaces to test how different strategies for a physical space affect learning, and a similar approach can be taken toward educational activities in those spaces.
Martha Groom Uses Wikipedia
Just call her Wikipedia wonk: UWB prof in spotlight for guiding students through online editing process
Peter Kelley / University Week
Maybe you’ve read about Martha Groom. An associate professor of Interdisciplinary Arts at UW Bothell, she won some media attention recently for involving her students with Wikipedia, the publicly edited online encyclopedia. Get to know this interesting teacher.
Link: http://uwnews.org/uweek/uweekarticle.asp?articleID=38236
Using Wikipedia to Reenvision the Term Paper
Martha Groom and Andreas Brockhaus
The structure of the traditional term paper can limit its educational value. To make the assignment more meaningful, students published their papers in Wikipedia. This session will examine how publishing for a large online community motivated students to do better work and deal with issues of voice, knowledge, and community.
UW Catalyst Web Tools
The Catalyst Web Tools are a set of Web-based communication and collaboration applications designed for use in teaching, learning, research, and everyday work. Use of the Catalyst Web Tools is free to anyone in the UW community. To access the Catalyst Web Tools, click Web Tools Login and log in with your UW NetID.
- Collect It: File dropboxes
- CommonView: Class or project workspaces
- File Manager: Web-based file management
- GoPost: Discussion boards
- Group Manager: Participant groups
- Peer Review: Collaborative forums
- Portfolio: Online portfolios
- Portfolio Project Builder: Portfolio template building
- QuickPoll: One-question polls
- ShareSpaces: Spaces for file sharing
- SimpleSite: Web sites
- UMail: Web-based email forms
- WebQ: Surveys and quizzes
bFree Blackboard Course Content Extractor
bFree is a free java-based tool for Blackboard™, created by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which can be used to open a course archive file and display an outline of the course. It can also preview and extract individual content items, or extract any or all content as an independent web site that mimics the original Blackboard™ course.
