Can you "feel" me now?

How cool is this? There's a new product out, two as a matter of fact, that allows you to hug from a distance.

The "Hug from a Distance" is a vest that can be electronically controlled to give someone a hug over the Internet. The hope is that children with autism spectrum disorders who calm with pressure might benefit from this type of vest.

The second is the "Hug Shirt" where the user hugs themselves, then uses their cellphone and bluetooth technology to send the hug to someone else wearing a hug shirt. The shirt stimulates the feeling of a hug.

Ok. so this isn't directly related to eLearning, but you have to admit it is super cool!!
And who knows, maybe they can reinstate corporal punishment in the virtual classroom :o)

To find out more about these new "toys" check out these sites.
Hug Shirt - http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/01/08/wearable.digital/index.html
Hug from a Distance - http://floydmueller.com/portfolio/hug_over_a_distance.htm

Game Show Software

During this week I have spent a lot of time working on my game for our final class in Centra. I have had fun creating pictures and other materials in Power Point, but realistically this would be pretty hard to do for the classroom. With all of the lesson plans and grading that needs to be done, teachers rarely get time to sit down and design their own games on Power Point. But as I searched the internet I came across a very cool tool that allows teachers to use pre-made templates to create game shows for their classroom. I think this would be a great tool for reviewing before a test or even providing remediation for students in need. The software runs for about $79 to $149 and offers a discount for educators. You can visit http://www.almorale.com/classroom.html to learn more about the software and pricing.

While checking out this software I also came across a web page that has some cool articles about E-learning in education. On this site one teacher reviews her use of the software in her classroom. By following various links you can also find other articles about integrating technology into the classroom curriculum. Visit http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/teacher_feature/teacher_feature075.shtml to read more about the article and technology integration.

I have had a wonderful time Blogging with everyone and I look forward to having classes with some of you in the future. Good Luck in your future endeavors.
Kabrene

ZLoop

I am sure that many of you are familiar with and / or have one of the many popular networking accounts such as myspace and facebook and today I would like to show you another one that is picking up pace for corporations and I think will start rank in popularity. I would like to introduce ZLoop. It was introduced to me through my family and I think it has some great potential for learning environments.

Short Background
ZLoop is a small company based in Portland, Oregon founded by Jim Bisenius. The ZLoop is currently in it's Alpha development stage but still has great functionality and nice features.

An Overview - so what is a loop?

From the ZLoop site - Each loop is a private, secure online environment that enables social interaction and collaboration between designated people. Use it to create an online community for your entire organization or to collaborate with the members of a single team. You may create an unlimited number of loops for anything and everything; or easily join loops others have invited you to. Each loop is only accessible to invited members. The information you share may only be seen by other invited members of the loop.

This collaboration and communication tool is easy to use and provides a secure connection. Loops can be a group of family members, a class or group members for an organization. Some possible uses could be project managements, classroom communication, corporate training, etc.

Administration of Course
Loop creators assign admin privileges to others members such as editing the layout and content, adding / removing members.

Neat Feature - Customize Profiles
This tool allows the user to centrally edit and update personal info in "full identity". From there various types of information can be filtered to derive multiple "limited identities" so the user can choose to apply a social or professional identity label depending upon what loop is selected.

Here is a screen shot of the interface

So in a nutshell, this free, secure tool allows customizable group affiliation and profiling. It uses an in-box email type format for new messages and allows for the viewing of users based on their customized profile. Documents and multimedia elements such as pictures, audio and video can be uploaded and shared. Quick chat and conversion threads allow for additional communication, event scheduling and commenting. Members can change loops like clicking on tabs and did I mention it is free!

I use this tool to communicate to busy family members and has proved it's value to me. I can comment on pictures taken by my Uncle Joe on the other side of the state, hear about news and information from my Aunt Chris in Oregon. I just got an in-box message from my Uncle Steve about his trip to Arizona and I can read about the new motorcycle my dad bought or the dancing lessons my mom is taking in Pittsburgh. I wonder if my brother in Columbus will be in the loop at some time but in my eyes has always been a little out of the loop! Again, I recommend it's use and if you are interested in this tool in a classroom or other educational / corporate setting, I would contact company about how to get started.