A blogger at New Scientist magazine highlights two interesting uses of Second Life related to astronomy.

Students in the course “Life in the Universe” at the University of Arizona have created a “Timeline of Earth Exhibit” that features a spiral display of earth’s geological time.  Anthony Crider, a faculty member from nearby Elon University, has developed a planetarium in Second Life as part of an astronomy class.  Students in the class use it to give presentations to fellow Second Life users.

Crider also developed an observatory in Second Life that students can use for practice before using real telescopes at the school.  Students don’t have anything in particular to observe, however - Second Life doesn’t have a realistic night sky.

blog post at New Scientist

Share This

Clickers, cell phones and computers come together to turn a large lecture class into a lively discussion in a Physics course taught by Eric Mazur, Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics at Harvard University. Mazur explains how the educational effectiveness of clickers (also known as Personal Response Systems) depends on how he structures the class as well as how he uses the technology in this article in the Harvard Gazette. Asking the right kinds of questions and getting students to explain their thinking are key factors in improving understanding of concepts. You can observe Mazur in action and hear students’ reactions in a video taken during one of his classes.

Share This

Podcast People is a new podcasting site not just for finding podcasts to listen to, but for recording, managing, and promoting your own podcasts. Not only can you upload video and audio to the site, but with a microphone or web cam, you can record directly into your Podcast People account. There’s also the ability to add widgets to your podcasting site, including Flickr streams (or your photos) and other information. They currently have free and pay accounts, with various options to choose from.

Speaking of podcasting, Mashable also has a very, very lengthy (but informative) post with links to an overwhelming amount of podcasting info currently online.

Share This

Wired has posted a new section on their website called “Wired How To’s“. Based on content created and written for their annual “How To” issues, topics run the gamut from really useful (Replace Your iPod’s Battery) to the offbeat (Bake a Wii Cake). Along with the information already provided, Wired has also made the section a wiki - meaning anyone can login in, edit, modify and add to the articles posted. Overall, a pretty good, simple example of what makes wikis so useful. By the way, iPhone owners should find this “How To” particularly interesting:

Hacks That Will Make You the Master of Your iPhone

Share This

Feri Zsuppan in Arts & Sciences passed along this interesting list of Top 10 Favorite Tools of e-Learning professionals at the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies in the UK. It includes a number of familiar things - such as Firefox, Google - as well as some niche tools (e.g., Gliffy for drawing and sharing diagrams on the web), utility tools such as media converters, and web-based tools for social networking.

What would be on your top ten list?

Share This