BP3_Diigo Group

This is my Diigo group, ARP - Game On. I have invited all of my critical friends and left it open to anyone else who wants to join it. It's all about using MMORPG's, like Guild Wars, to teach social skills to teens preparing them for the workforce. I have already found some great resources and articles to add to it.

I loved that we were able to make a group for all of our Action Research links with Diigo. I already had an account there, but had no idea that you could make groups with it as well. This will help me be more organized with my ARP and I can also see it as a useful tool for the classroom as well. I recently saw that they have education accounts as well and I will be looking forward to signing up for one of those once I have a teaching position somewhere.

With the Diigo group feature you can add your own group logo and invite friends as well. These are great additional features. I also installed their toolbar for my web browser and their iPhone application so that I have an offline reader as well. In my opinion Diigo is one of the better social bookmarking applications out there. The ability to highlight the articles that you bookmark make it a great educational tool. You can even save images and notes to it. To me it is an all around user friendly application that I can use no matter where I am or what platform I am using.

BP2_iGoogleScreenShots

iGoogle Home Screenshot

I made the required changes to my iGoogle home page per the directions.
I had not realized that there was an add-on for Facebook, so that will
come in very handy since I use it all the time.  I added the Twitter add-on
as well, but I do not have a Twitter account. I will have to look into that one.
For the most part this page pretty much stayed the same with the exception
of the two add-on's mentioned above.

iGoogle FSO Screenshot

I was glad to see with this assignment that there was a way to add additional
tabs on your iGoogle page. That was a feature that I was completely unaware
of. It is also great that you can customize the background for each of the tabs
as well. My Listy is a new one to me, so I will have to look into it more to learn
the features of it. That way I can use it to its full potential.

iGoogle AR/CBL Screenshot

I think this tab is going to be one of my most useful tabs out of the new ones
that we added. I am constantly switching back and forth between my PC and
my Mac, so having all of these links in one place is going to be great because
right now they are everywhere. Luckily I already had a Diigo account, so I got
an early start on bookmarking with it. I love that I was able to find a Guild Wars
background since I am using it for my ARP. What a great find!

iGoogle ETC Screenshot

I was very excited about the tab for this course because it had several great
add-on's that I was unaware of. I always love finding new add-on's that make
my life easier. I guess that is the whole point of this assignment though. I will
have to try out the Blogger add-on for my next post. Also, having the ability
on this tab to look-up pictures on Flickr and read my RSS feeds without having
to go locate each link should be great time savers for me. I look forward to trying
out all of these great add-on's and finding more that will help make my Personal
Learning Environment (PLE) one that saves me time and keeps me informed.

BP1_Google Reader

I found so many different and interesting RSS feeds while searching for the five feeds needed to meet the requirements of this post. I had hoped to find more that may have directly related to my Action Research project, but did not seem to have much luck in that search. Below are the top five from my search and why I chose them.

edurealms.com  - This is one of my favorite sites.  I stumbled across it while researching my Action Research project. Lucas Gillispie has this site and the Wiki below. He has wonderful information on how to use gaming in education with a special focus on MMORPG’s (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplay Games). Since I am doing my Action Research project on MMORPG’s this was a natural fit with great presentation resources and a wonderful post showcasing his newest project highlighted in his SlideShare below. 

WoWinSchool: Anatomy of A Weekly Module

View more presentations from Lucas Gillispie.

WoWinSchool  - This site is about a project that Lucas Gillispie has been conducting using World of Warcraft for an after school program focusing on at risk students. There is so much here to explore. He has lesson ideas for various subjects, supporting research, video links, discussions and more. This site prompted me to contact him about my Action Research project. I find what he is doing very inspirational and a great model for me to work from. 

Virtual Learning Worlds  (Exploring the power of games and other forms of media) – Barton Pursel has over 100 posts about gaming. He explores new games that he believes have educational value. I totally agree with his statement that in order for you to know what educational value a video game may or may not have you have to actually play it. Being an avid gamer myself and conducting my Action Research project on one type of game, I find this site very helpful in seeing what is new out there and can possibly be used in an educational setting.

Educational Games Research  - This site is great because it is from an educator who discusses various topics relating to academic research on the use of video games in the classroom. He even has links to the top journals for video game research. This will be a great resource for me and my Action Research project.

Teacher JOB Blog  - I chose this site for the simple reason that I have been out of work since February 2010 and looking for a teaching position. This site offers current job postings as well links and resources for anyone who may be looking for a teaching career. I have tried many other websites and resources, so why not add another one to my arsenal to give me more opportunities to find a position somewhere.