Do You ooVoo?

I've been a fan of Skype for some time. I've used it in a variety of ways from staying connected to my daughter, who is away at college, to collaborating with teachers from around the world. Although I've used only a few of the features that Skype has to offer, such as audio only conference calls, video calls, and collaborative games, I really like the power of staying connected that it affords.

However, ooVoo, the new kid on the block, has caught my attention. I was looking for a tool which allowed more than 1 video connection to be displayed at once and came across ooVoo. The basic, free account, allows up to 3 video callers to be displayed, while the upgrade allows up to 6. I've found the video to be much cleaner than Skype and with a simple click you can transmit a higher quality image.

There are additional features to ooVoo that make the experience quite fun. Sending video messages and altering your image with the webcam max program that can be installed along with ooVoo, is just one example. Sending files and placing free calls to land lines and mobile phones are some of the features that may be "bumped up" to the paid version soon.

I suppose that you have to take the good with the bad and be willing to put up with the advertising window that runs along the bottom of the interface, but to me it seems a small price to pay for such a quality experience. So in short, if you're a fan of Skype, try out ooVoo and make your own comparison.

Z

Animoto offers free educational accounts. Check it out!

Quest Atlantis

I was online the other night for the first of a series of professional development training sessions for Quest Atlantis. Quest Atlantis is one of the newer online virtual worlds that capitalizes on students digital nature and love of gaming. QA combines the rich problem solving aspects of a well written webquest and the virtual environment of Teen Grid. For those of you unfamiliar with Quest Atlantis, you may want to watch the overview below.


Although my colleagues and I are just in the beginning stages of exploration of this international virtual world, we all agree that it has much to offer. While Quest Atlantis lacks in the rich graphic display and flexible use of Teen Grid, it more than makes up for it with the comprehensive, modern curriculum. There are currently over 600 quests from which to choose! Questers are actively involved in solving engaging curricular tasks which explore each of the 4 different worlds created around 7 social committments.

Wisdom

Creative Expression

Environmental Awareness

Personal Agency

Healthy Communities

Social Responsibility

Diversity Affirmation

QA is more open to the outside world as compared to Teen Grid which not only opens the particpants to more opportunities for collaboration, but it also poses some additional challenges. I look forward to using this curriculum with the students and will keep you posted on all the latest developments.

Taste of Technology

The kids were a big hit! Yesterday some students and I presented at the first annual "Taste of Technology" event hosted by Farmington Public Schools.

I like to thank those of you that attended our session and for all the positive feedback. Here is a sampling of some of the responses that we received:

• Great to see the kids so involved.
• I thought the podcasting was really interesting
• The kids were great in the podcasting session!
• The Podcasting thing was amazing
• The Podcasting was very interesting!!!!

Being that our audience was both community members and Farmington employees, it was an interesting mix of conference goers. This created a difficult balancing act of choosing the correct point of view from which to share. Some participants wanted to hear about the educational application of podcasts while others were looking for an overview on how to locate and listen to podcasts. We tried to give them a little of both, but with just 30 minutes per session it was an interesting problem to resolve. Anyway here is a quick summary of what we choose to present.

Do you find yourself asking the questions “What is a podcast and how do I create one?” or “How do I find a podcast?” or “Do I need an iPod to listen to a podcast?” If so, this quick introduction to podcasting will help to answer those questions. Students from Farmington Public Schools will share podcasts that they have created and demonstrate the basic techniques for developing one on your own. In addition, participants will discover resources for finding podcasts on subjects ranging from golf to technology gadgets.

Session Agenda:

• What is a podcast?
• How do you listen to podcasts?
• How do you locate and subscribe to podcasts?