Attention Deficit Weblog

Can a weblog actually help someone with A.D.D./A.D.H.D.?

Wednesday, March 3, 2004

Blogs, RSS, Trackback and "Learning Objects"

An opening slide gives the presentation title.

Ways I spend my "continuing education" time: This 20-minute online presentation (plus link-browsing time) uses a Macromedia system called Breeze to combine "voiceover" sound with a slide show and Web links to demo blogs being used by hypothetical college faculty. Similar technology (and Alan Levine) are being used for a New Media Centers online conference next week, on topics including weblogs in education, Creative Commons licensing, and more. I was skeptical about the Flash-based Breeze system, but Levine and his colleagues put their presentation together well and the software worked nicely, even on a dial-up modem connection slower than what was recommended.

Hint: Use the "pause" button at the bottom of the screen before you click any links or switch to another application. Otherwise the sound will continue, but you might miss some visuals, even if the multiple applications don't overtax your computer.

A slide saying that explaining RSS is like
explaining sex; you just don't get it until you do it.

If you're not a card-carrying "educational technologist," don't be discouraged by the jargon on the opening page. ("Their blogs are connected to the RSS feeds and provide a component of object contextuality that is beyond the meta-data.") The presentation itself is clear, the examples are good, and the ersatz faculty demonstration blogs even have authentic misspellings. The advice about learning about RSS by using it is so good that it was worth taking this picture... if nothing else so that Scripting or Dowbrigade can borrow it for their blogs.

Update: Coincidentally, Macromedia is offering a special trial of that Breeze conferencing system this month.

3:11:40 PM

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