Week the third: What's half-baked? My video.

For this week, we were to

1. Create a wiki page and read about and write on two "emergent" technologies, and
   
2. Create a brief educational video and upload it to YouTube.

Let's just dive into this, shall we?

Wiki
The aspect of creating a wiki was itself not a big deal. Reading the instructional wiki and not grating at the grammar was another matter. I am, if I haven't already mentioned, an English major seeking license to teach English. And I am a very major "Grammar Nazi," to use a popular term.

Then there's this whole concept of "emergent" technology. I am obviously using quotes intentionally. Google "emergent" and you get a few definitions for the adjective:

In the process of coming into being or becoming prominent
(of a property) Arising as an effect of complex causes and not analyzable simply as the sum of their effects
Of or denoting a plant that is taller than the surrounding vegetation, esp. a tall tree in a forest
Of or denoting a water plant with leaves and flowers that appear above the water surface
Arising and existing only as a phenomenon of independent parts working together, and not predictable on the basis of their properties

Now, I could see possibly manipulating definition 5 to this purpose of speaking about technology, but the context in the assignment is clearly using definition 1. The problem with that is that the list included such "coming" or "becoming" technology as Skype, which has been around since at least 2005. Several other items on the list had information from 2008. Granted, it's not all that old, except that we are talking about technology, where 6 months is a long time and most hardware and software is updated every 6 to 18 months. So 2008 is a long time, and Skype has been around forever.

At any rate, I did find a couple interesting items that are fairly emergent. One was Voki, which is an animated avatar that the company itself says has been around for years. Voki, as a site and as a marketed educational product, though, has only recently been introduced. They tout the infinite possible uses for their tool. I am personally slightly creeped out by being talked to by an avatar, but I do like the many options, such as recording audio via phone or computer microphone or simply typing the text and choose a voice and an accent. Lots of customizing features and some usefulness in a classroom setting. They also promote community by having a forum where experienced teachers can offer help to new teachers, along with a page where teachers can look up lesson plans using Voki which others have shared. Very nice features.



The other technology I looked at is Udutu, a website for collaboratively creating online courses with ease. Easy on the eyes and easy to use, it's like something made by Apple. This would be a really cool technology for schools or classes with regular access to computers for all involved students, which is obviously not all schools nor all students, sadly.

I spent several hours tweaking links and text for the wiki. I generally don't do anything halfway. Then I did the next assignment.

Desktop Video
Well, I think I did a pretty good job, but I also think I could have done a lot more and perfected the little details a lot better. I just didn't take the time to do it. It's a decent, if silly, video that is short and to the point. I think it meets all the demands of the assignment well enough. But, to me, it has way too much text, mediocre transitions, my horrible voice, and is cut slightly short at the end.

Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.