Have you twitted? Twitter can be used to track friends and send short messages either to a select group of people or the world, online and by mobile phone. My colleagues use it as an in/out board. Can it be used to facilitate learning? Apparently, yes. AcademHack: tech tools for Academics describes a Twitter assignment in which students virtually followed classmates over a weekend to explore new media. The success of this assignment inspired 13 (thirteen!) ideas for using Twitter in the classroom.

For more, see the Educause Learning Initiative 2 page document “7 things you should know about Twitter“.

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Some 200 science bloggers, scientists, journalists, educators and readers met on Saturday, January 19, 2008 for the second Science Blogging Conference organized by Bora Zivkovic and Anton Zuiker and held at Sigma Xi in Research Triangle Park, NC. Others participated online via streaming video (many courtesy of Wayne Sutton) and chat rooms.

The format was an “unconference”, where discussion, dissent and debate is crucial for each session; some sessions achieved this. As most of the attendees were bloggers, the sessions have been recorded in blogs, photos, video and audio. Below are descriptions of sessions with links to selected summaries.

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For the serious techie, there is now a T Shirt which displays the current wi-fi signal strength to yourself and everyone around you. The glowing bars on the front of the shirt dynamically change as the surrounding wi-fi signal strength fluctuates. Available for $29.99 from ThinkGeek.

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Google recently started an invitation-only beta test of a new service called “Knol”.

Pages at Knol are similar to Wikipedia entries, with expert authors writing articles on a variety of topics.  A columnist at ArsTechnica notes that despite being one of the top sites on the web, Wikipedia is the one space where Google can’t make money through ad placement - he speculates that Google’s motivation is to create a “Wikipedia-killer”.

Regardless of the motivation, Google’s approach is to highlight the authors of the articles.  They want to encourage individuals that are experts on a topic to write articles and let users examine information about the author to determine how trustworthy the information might be.  (Wikipedia, of course, works on a “crowdsourcing” model where multiple authors - sometimes anonymously - create and edit entries.)

Currently, Google doesn’t have Knol open to the public, but has posted a blog entry and sample screenshot.

blog entry at Google

sample screenshot at Google

A range of thoughts about Knols and the future of Wikipedia can be found on various blogs:

listing of posts at Buzzfeed

An article about Google’s Knol effort has also appeared at Wikipedia.

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Amazon.com will be soon releasing their highly anticipated e-book reader device, code-named Kindle.

The CIT tested the Sony Reader earlier this year and the Amazon device has many similar features - a screen that uses E Ink technology that resembles a printed page and the ability to hold up to 200 titles. However, Amazon’s entry into the market will include wireless capability that allows for purchase of titles directly on the device without a computer and can even be used to update purchased titles with new information. It can also search through books for particular words and phrases. Amazon has several partners in the publishing industry, providing what promises to be a wide range of content.

feature article at Newsweek

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The Social Science Research Network has announced the creation of the Humanities Research Network (HRN). Humanities Research Network is intended to be a world-wide, comprehensive online resource for research in humanities, providing scholars with access to current work in their field and facilitating research and scholarship.

HRN will begin with the following networks:

HRN CLASSIC RESEARCH NETWORK (Director: Lesley Dean-Jones, University of Texas at Austin)

HRN ENGLISH & AMERICAN LITERATURE RESEARCH NETWORK (Director: Susan Heinzelman, University of Texas at Austin)

HRN PHILOSOPHY RESEARCH NETWORK (Directors: Lawrence Becker, Hollins University and Brie Gertler, University of Virginia)

A list of the eJournals abstracted by each of these networks is at: http://www.ssrn.com/update/crn/crnann/annA001.html

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ConvergeSouth is an annual blogger conference in Greensboro, NC, held October 19 and 20^th 2007. From the website, it’s a “combination of a blogger-con and a creativity center”

My questions about why people blog and how blogging can shape someone’s world were answered in a keynote presentation entitled “Changing Your World with Blogs” by Elisa Camahort, founder of BlogHer. Even if you don’t have your own blog, you are part of blogging community, by reading blogs and commenting, so your world is changing because of blogs. This session gave specific examples of blogs changing the world and I took many notes, summarized below.

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This is a recently posted video that examines the way information organization is changing with digital media. It compares physical media, which requires a physical location, with digital media, which requires perhaps no more than tags. According to its creator, this video “was created as a conversation starter, and works especially well when brainstorming with people about the near future and the skills needed in order to harness, evaluate, and create information effectively.” See the video on You Tube.

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Verizon has announced the Verizon LG Voyager to be released in the Fall of 2007, a product that will directly compete with the Apple iPhone. Verizon’s Wireless Chief Marketing Officer claims, “It will kill the iPhone.”

The Voyager has a touch screen exterior (like the iPhone but smaller), but users will be able to unclamp the phone to reveal a second screen that comes with a full QWERTY keyboard. Other features include:

* HTML browser
* Full V CAST-capabilities
* V CAST Mobile TV
* V CAST Music
* Ability to play .mp3, .wma and unprotected .aac files
* V CAST Video
* High-Speed Wireless Broadband Access
* Removable microSD memory (8GB).

Verizon says the Voyager should be in stores for the holidays.

You can see photos of the Voyager or watch a video demo of the phone. No word yet on the price, but reviewers say they expect it to be in the $300 and up range. One reviewer gushed, “The Voyager is so awesome, your hand will tremble in fear.” (Maybe he works with the Verizon Marketing Officer.)

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“Authentic learning”—or learning-by-doing— engages students in the multidisciplinary problem solving and critical thinking researchers and experts use every day. Advances in technology enable access to a greater range of real and virtual environments. Why Today’s Students Value Authentic Learning, a white paper from the Educause Learning Initiative (ELI), explores student attitudes toward authentic learning, highlighting its benefits as well as potential concerns.

Haptic technologies are one way to make learning more realistic for students. Haptics simulate physical properties such as weight, momentum, friction, texture, or resistance through interfaces that let users “feel” what is happening on the screen. For example, medical students may use haptics for a simulation of giving an injection or performing a surgical technique. ELI’s paper on The 7 Things You Should Know About Haptics provides a simple overview of how haptic technology can enable authentic learning.

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