Technologies

The last few days have been fun. I learned how to participate in Second Life. I teleported into some strange places, was kicked off some islands (I didn't know they had security devices on their homes; if I got too close, I was flung away like unwanted trash), and danced for an hour to great Celtic music straight outta Dublin. As I learn about some interesting places, I'll post the slurls here.

Today, I also was cleaning out my email inbox and read an old newsletter from a listerv I subscribed to. It contained a link to Screencast-O-Matic, a software program to capture video of one's computer screen. I have been looking for this! I knew this was possible but hadn't found good free, easy-to-use software. Yes, I will admit, I even tried to video record it with a camcorder, even though I knew the refresh rate of the screen would allow for that to work. C'mon! I was desparate!

Not only is Screencast-O-Matic free, it is easy to use. Within ten minutes of creating an account, I had produced my first screen cast. Yes, it was a rough draft--no sound/voice-over and some awkward pauses--but it was just a test to see how easy it was. And it was. Easy, that is.

Since many of my online students struggle with written directions for how to save their Word files as .rtfs, creating a blogger account (yes, really), and accessing, as well, as participating in, the course wiki, this will be a life saver. Man, oh, man. Talk about appealing to the visual learners! The applications for this tool are overwhelming! Woot!

In related news, I've been pondering the increasing number of accounts I have to log into just to do my daily work. Blog, wiki, D2L, work and home email, my computer workstation, print servers, copier codes, and so on. In a few minutes I brainstormed quite a few! When I add the non-daily accounts (FaceBook, MySpace, Flickr, Wordpress, etc.), I was a bit overwhelmed.

Then I turned back to the papers on my desk, picked up my pen, and got busy grading again.