EDUCEDGE,

ok, that’s really cool. But I really can’t take the credit for discovering this. I saw this ppt presentation tool used by Jeremy Kemp at his dissertation research discussion yesterday and I HAD to have it. I LOVE gadgets and I LOVE ratpacking so I had to try this when I saw an awesome way to present slides in a more dynamic way that the regular pre-loaded single panel. I present the Slide Toggler:

*video by Peter Bloomfield (1:15)

AngryBeth Shortbread’s Interactive Whiteboard has been a favorite for many. In fact, many tools and sims that AngryBeth creates are positively exciting. Her Interactive Whiteboard is a communal slide presenter in which people can drop, delete and even write over images (anything you download as textures, really, such as ppt). It can also be used as a brainstorming tool in which everyone can add their notes.

The ppt tool i used for my dissertation proposal defense was Dudeney Ge’s presenter. It allows me to pre-load all my ppts (downloaded as textures) and the HUD allows only me to preview the following slide. It actually pre-loads it so that the slide does not take for ever to rez for everyone else (pending THEIR technical performances). It also responds only to the presenter’s touch, which means that anyone touching the ppt presenter won’t trigger a change of slide. (check here other tools created by Dudeney Ge)

I also saw another panel that allowed a pointer to be used outside the slides. I saw it used once with Jeremy Kemp at his previous presentation on SLoodle 2 weeks ago, and by a NCI instructor Protomas Ludwig (SL) on Boomer Island during a gesture workshop. Once I dig this up, i’ll be ready to offer a workshop on presentation tools for the following social presence in 3D session. Stay tune.

Since I’ve been volunteering in my son’s class (1st grade), I’ve been looking for web-based educational games for that particular audience. I realize how my professional training and experience has absolutely NOT prepared me for this (Obviously. I never thought that I would be interested in K-12 education). However, this has become quite fun, but at time frustrating because I really REALLY have no clue where to look. So I started by the RezEd-based SIG K-8 Virtual Worlds. For those of you who have not checked out the RezEd.org site, you are really missing an absolutely awesome resource. Do yourself a favor and join (it’s free. and no, i have not personal interests in promoting it besides the fact that the more educators join, the more brains I can pick

http://www.kidscom.com/ is pretty cool. Thanks to Sally Schmidt, Executive Producer at KidsCom.com, for pointing me toward this site. It is well organized. It offers a virtual community (with a purpose) as well as online games.

Sally Schmidt (01/15/09, RezEd communication): “On KidsCom.com kids play educational games to earn Virtual Points they can use the take care of a virtual pet or buy stuff for their house, character, etc. in our virtual world. Many of the games would be appropriate for 1st graders–we have a math game called Math Monster Crunch, Tangrams game, Maze game, Appetite Attack nutrition game (although it is probably a little advanced for 1st graders). You can find these games easily by going to KidsCom.com and clicking on the Games tab in the top nav.”