BP5_doTemplate

Are you looking for a way to change the look of your blog or create your own website? Then this week I have just the web 2.0 tool for you. 

At doTemplate.com you can look through their many templates and customize them to create your own.

Being a web designer myself I decided to check out just how quick and easy it was to create my own website in minutes.  

I first chose one of their stock templates.

After clicking on the customize and download button it opens the template in the online editor. You are then able to edit the background color, text colors, image, and fonts used on the site.

 

When you hover over an area that can be edited a red box appears around it and then you can click on it to open the editor for that particular area. 

You can then easily choose the colors you would like to use, change the background image, your title and slogan. Within minutes I was able to change the image, colors, font and text to create my own template.

Here is the original template from doTemplate.com.

 Here is my completed template after the editing process,

which literally only took minutes to do.

Once you get your template to look like you want it to you simply click on the download icon and another box opens to ask you what format you would like to download it in. 

Choose which format you want and you have a ready-made website or blog template that only took minutes to make. I have to say that I was impressed with how easy this template editor would be for even a beginner and the ability to download multiple formats of your finished template makes it a very worthwhile tool. You should definitely check it out.

BP4_Skype

What is Skype? It is a software program that allows you to make FREE Skype-to-Skype video and voice calls that are available for your computer (Linux, Mac, or PC), mobile phone (depends on your service plan), and now even on certain TV’s. 

I had used Skype before and pretty much thought that it only did the video and voice chat, but when digging deeper I found that it could do so much more. Users can send instant messages, screen share and share the files on their computer with another Skype user all for FREE. When I downloaded it I put all of my contacts into easy to find categories. 

I have used Skype to talk to family and friends. I have also used it during the program at Full Sail to have meetings with my group members. We have had conference calls, transferred files, and instant messaged one another in order to meet the needs of all group members. Especially since one of our members was all the way in Saudi.

It can be used by regular home users to talk to family members or friends who live far away or who may be out of town on business. What better way to connect to a sick grandparent than by making a video call where she can see you and all the grandkids wishing her well? You can even use the instant messaging feature or Skype-to-Skype conference calling to talk to a group of friends you haven’t seen in awhile.

 

It can be used at your place of business to make conference calls, meetings, transfer files, and calling contacts from around the world. You can also use it to screen share in order to better explain something to a business contact that might take longer to simply type out. By downloading some of their extra apps you can also record calls, forward calls from Skype to your mobile phone, integrate it with Outlook and use the voicemail feature. 

You can even add a Skype Me button to your company website. Now that’s what I call keeping connected!

It can also be used in the classroom for educational purposes. One of the best benefits of using Skype in the classroom is the ability to invite guest speakers from all over the world to speak to your students. You can even connect to other classroom for group projects or virtual science fairs. The possibilities are endless and with an interactive white-board it is easy to make it easy for the whole class to see. This link provides you with 50 different ways Skype can be used in the classroom: http://www.teachingdegree.org/2009/06/30/50-awesome-ways-to-use-skype-in-the-classroom/.

It can even be used by Gamers to talk to one another while they play video games on their PC. I have used it for this to enable me to talk to other gamers all over the world while playing games like Guild Wars, World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, and more.

As you can see there are many applications for Skype from personal to business to education. All of which are mostly FREE to use. So if you haven’t tried it out yet then what are you waiting for? Go download Skype today and connect to the world of possibilities around you.

Visit Skype.com to download it today.

W1_Reading

MMORPG's to teach Social Skills
Images courtesy of: Creative Commons & www.lumaxart.com

References

Brown, J., & Thomas, D. (2006, April). You Play World of Warcraft? You're Hired! Retrieved October 01, 2010, from http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.04/learn.html

Cole, H., & Griffiths, M. (2007). Social Interactions in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Gamers. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 10(4), 575-583.

Hsu, J. (2008, October 03). World of Warcraft Video Game Succeeds in School. Retrieved October 01, 2010, from http://www.livescience.com/technology/081003-school-games.html

Squire, K. (2005). Changing the Game: What Happens When Video Games Enter the Classroom? Innovate, 1(6). Retrieved October 01, 2010, from http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=82

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.