Drenched with Ink

The technologies I chose for this assignment are Skype, Wiki, and You Tube. I think that these are the most influential and instrumental in establishing and maintaining an e-learning site. These technologies allow for the ability to communicate thoughts and ideas rapidly and in a variety of ways. They allow for collaboration on long term projects and allow users to reach each other quickly and efficiently.

Skype

This is a really great program. The ability to talk to partners and project collaborators instantly via instant messaging, video, and through voice is an invaluable tool. The fact that you can IM someone allows partners to go over important data and changes instantly, then if they have questions or concerns to be able to ‘call’ each other or send video is awesome. An example- A project is due tomorrow, Bob and Mark have been working on it all not, and Bob forgot to add an important piece to the presentation. Bob Skypes Mark and then Mark adds the information and gets the presentation up to speed. This is much faster than an email, and allows communication in a variety of ways.

Blogs about skype..interesting things-

http://share.skype.com/sites/en/

Wiki

What can you say about Wiki? This is an awesome advancement in collaborative media. This program allows for users to get information, and with the use of wikispaces and wikimedia to share ideas and information on assignments. A few quarters ago we used the wikispaces to work on a project and it was great.  The big advantage here is the allowance of multiple users to work on the same project conceivably at the same time. This is great for group projects and allows everyone to have access to the project materials online.

A cool blog about Wikispaces working for 2.0

http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topics/classroom-20-the-book-a?page=5&commentId=649749%3AComment%3A219437&x=1#649749Comment219437

You Tube

This technology took off and hasn’t stopped yet. The social learning application of this technology has yet to be fully tapped, and I’m not sure if it will ever stop innovating. The great thing about You Tube is that anyone can use it to showcase their talents, their ideas, their opinion, etc. When I was thinking about the various uses for e-learning I came across information that said that You Tube EDU has been launched. Information from over 100 universities and schools are on You Tube now. Amazing.This technology allows students and people who are interested in certain topics to get information from trusted experts in the field.

Here is a blog about You Tube and E-learning with some nice links

http://elearningweekly.wordpress.com/2009/03/28/youtube-edu/