• Minecraft is a game about breaking and placing blocks. At first, people built structures to protect against nocturnal monsters, but as the game grew players worked together to create wonderful, imaginative things. 

   

    It can also be about adventuring with friends or watching the sun rise over a blocky ocean. It’s pretty. Brave players battle terrible things in The Nether, which is more scary than pretty. You can also visit a land of mushrooms if it sounds more like your cup of tea.

• Why Ubisoft thinks gamers will want always-online games

    

    By Brian Crecente    on Jul 18, 2013  at 10:15a    @crecenteb
• Far Cry 3, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, The Crew, Watch Dogs, Tom Clancy's The Division: Ubisoft's slate of recent and upcoming games increasingly seem to have one thing in common: Open worlds.
• That's not a coincidence.
• "So having a connected experience is very important, this is something that next-gen consoles are pushing," he said. "We had to make sure it was part of the game, not just an add-on."

2 more annotations...

• Embrace mobile technology in the classroom
• Smartphones could be valuable education tools
• President Barack Obama was on the right track when he called for Internet access in all schools. I applaud his focus on digital literacy, but investing billions in infrastructure solves a problem we don't have. Students already have plenty of Internet access. It's in their phones.

• A kid struggling in U.S. history, for instance, could take video of the teacher talking, then review it at home to master the subject. If that's not enough, the student could view a different (and maybe better) teacher from an online school. The founder of Sun Microsystems and his wife have created the CK-12 Foundation, a collection of free online textbooks, videos, exercises and flashcards. We should encourage kids to use this electronic library.

  As Sal Kahn, an e-learning pioneer, told Forbes magazine, "Now that there are these tools, where students can learn at their own pace and master the concepts before moving on, can we rethink this educational model that has been standard practice for hundreds of years?"

  •Smartphones can let students learn in their own way.

2 more annotations...

• Unlocking the Power of Internet Collaboration: Adjusting Concepts So More People 'Get It'.
• Educators, supervisors and mentors strive for the 'eureka moment', the moment when someone, "gets it". As we move more of our lives into online interaction and collaboration, there has never been a more important time to 'get it' than now. Teamwork between humans has provided an advantage to groups and societies which profoundly affect their levels of achievement. Online collaboration opens avenues for people to leverage themselves. Those who fall behind will be disadvantaged. The theme of this paper is assisting the 'eureka moment' in a digital environment so that the power of online collaboration can successfully be unlocked. The collaborative power of Web 2.0 and the pervasiveness of the Digital World into all walks of life have increased the urgency for advancements in this area in order to capitalize on the rapid uptake of collaborative technology. How the revelation of core concepts, time, space, virtuality and trust, affects new participants in online collaboration is explored. There is also discussion on the impact of participant identity which requires a 'persona' to act as a lens in collaboration and how this leads to an 'anonymity paradox'. The dynamic nature of virtual collaborative projects is also considered; in particular the impact on group leaders. The paper concludes that in order to unlock the power of online collaboration it is necessary to change focus from current solutions aimed at symptoms such as 'rules and guidelines' towards solutions addressing the underlying conceptual causes which result from the Internet's virtual nature. Addressing these issues has the potential to profoundly change our thinking and will be beneficial to organizations and communities

• Closing the Communication Gap.
• Dropbox (https://www.dropbox.com/) is a cloud-based document management service that works to synchronize a user's files on the Internet, as well as the user's computer and mobile device. The free service gives subscribers space in the cloud and access to the most current versions of their files, regardless of the device they have on hand.
• Zoho (http://www.zoho.com/) is another cloud-based service that allows users to share in the creation of files, chat, and work on projects collaboratively. Zoho users can engage in either synchronized or unsynchronized editing with multiple group members, with simultaneous updates to each member's Zoho account (Bradley, 2011). One of the many features in the software--Zoho Docs--allows you to import files from your computer; there are also tools for "creating a new document; uploading files; sharing, moving, copying, or deleting them; or taking action on a document, such as renaming, mailing, or zipping it" (Wollman, 2009, ¶ 8).

1 more annotation...

• Beth Rubin, director of distance education at DePaul University School for New Learning (Ill.) (SNL), wanted a way to make her online classes more interactive and collaborative. Her instructors needed a flexible way to improve collaboration, both inside and outside the classroom.

• Collaborate or Die: The Future of Education

   

  The Challenge of Developing an Institutional System that Serves the 21st Century

   

  By:

   

   

    Chris Yeh

   

   

   

   

  University Business, Nov 2008

• Adding a Social Component to Distance Learning

  Beth Rubin, director of distance education at DePaul University School for New Learning (Ill.) (SNL), wanted a way to make her online classes more interactive and collaborative. Her instructors needed a flexible way to improve collaboration, both inside and outside the classroom.

  SNL chose a hosted collaboration suite from PBwiki because neither their teachers nor students were trained technologists. SNL used PBwiki with existing distance learning tools from Blackboard and Wimba to improve the distance learning experience and increase the interaction between students and faculty.

  In the classes, the new collaboration platform lets instructors do a variety of things that the previous technologies could not, including:

  -- Referencing back coursework, discussions, and resolutions

  -- Collaboration outside the classroom

  -- Creating a portfolio that students can access after their class is complete

  -- Pulling together weeks of class work into one place, allowing students to see the evolution of the class

  -- Enabling new faculty/student interaction for required internships and externships.
• Beth Rubin, director of distance education at DePaul University School for New Learning (Ill.) (SNL), wanted a way to make her online classes more interactive and collaborative. Her instructors needed a flexible way to improve collaboration, both inside and outside the classroom.
• The key attraction is that PBwiki enables enduring communities, including connections between different cohorts of each class, even across different school years. These connections broaden the opportunities for students to collaborate and build ideas together, and to develop networks with one another and even with alumni. In this way, the online technology enables connections that previously could not have existed, and channels those interactions in productive ways.

• When Textbooks Seem Obsolete, a Professor and Her Class Write Their Own

  Delta Cavner of Southwest Baptist University (Mo.) found herself in a quandary. As an expert on educational technology, she found herself getting increasingly frustrated with the available textbooks. With the rapid pace of change, any textbooks she ordered were essentially obsolete before they arrived. The mass media paradigm failed to provide the kind of flexible, continuously updated content she needed for her classes. Then Delta had a brainstorm: she would use Web 2.0 technology to let her students create their own textbooks.

  Not only would they always be up to date, collaboration on creating their own textbook would teach her students more about the subject, and engage them in active learning. Now, her students are writing an educational technology textbook with a hosted collaboration solution from PBwiki and each semester's students will edit and add to the content.

• Collaboration Across Boundaries

  In the end, the greatest impact that collaboration will have on education might be its ability to break down boundaries. Part of the power of the internet lies in its universality. Anyone anywhere can find any piece of information or communicate with anyone and everyone else.

  While the classroom has typically functioned as an isolated unit, wikis and Web 2.0 offer the possibility of erasing those (figurative) walls and allowing collaboration across boundaries.

  How much more powerful will teaching become when students can share their work with other students anywhere in the world, or even with people outside the academic sphere? Will universities be able to extend learning from their classrooms to their alumni, to their surrounding community, or even to the vast audience available on the other end of the internet? And how quickly will new teaching techniques and tools evolve and spread when they can be transferred from student to student, course to course, and campus to campus with a single click?

  It is true that Web 2.0 has had little to offer educators and educational institutions so far, but the age of collaboration is coming. Over 250,000 educators already use PBwiki, and the number is growing. In this new age, education rather than entertainment will take center stage, and institutions that pioneer collaborative learning will be well-positioned for this and subsequent centuries.

  Chris Yeh is vice president of enterprise marketing for PBwiki.

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• JAMMIN' OVER THE NET
• Make music with anyone from anywhere around the globe!

• EFFECTIVE collaboration with design partners via the Internet is fast becoming an important competitive metric in electronic business.

  • nullAs a result, salespeople need to spend countless hours getting the customer's desired product configuration, which is typically very complex, in synch with what the design and manufacturing teams are able to deliver. Up-to-date product information and customer configurations, passed down the supply chain and into ERP systems, are also crucial for on-site support, because the life of a turbine engine is longer than 30 years, Lewis said.
    
    Although Parametric's flagship product, Windchill, primarily addresses the business-to-business marketplace for sharing the design information of industrial products, the race to fulfill customized orders is on --driven in part by the consumer market.
    
    Shoe and apparel maker Nike last week made a major leap toward the build-to-demand ideal with the introduction of NIKEiD, a Web-based service that allows consumers to design their own running shoes. -- 2013-09-12
    
    
    95.8% Credibility, although I was a bit generous with sources yet the Vice President of NikeiD is credible to me.
    
    
    
    Content
    
    3.3 Enough; high quality, clear? 3.3
    
    3.3 Entertainment or research (scholarly) Primary or secondary resource? 3.3
    
    1.1 Is the content up to date (2008 or 2013?) monthly updates? 3.3 This is an out of date Volume 1999
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Credibility
    
    3.3 Author coming from a source reliable? 3.3
    
    With a reputation that is credible? 3.3
    
    Peer reviewed .edu, .com, .org publisher? 3.3
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Critical Thinking
    
    4 Logical fact, prior wisdom, does it sound right? 5
    
    4 True and factual? 5 It is a business strategy so it may have bias opinions
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Copyright
    
    Is it primary and original?
    
    Is it a public domain? Did it fall out of copyright….anything created after 1923?
    
    Fair use considerations…defense against copyright infringement-use for education? (parody) 3.3
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Citation
    
    Is the author using citation (important) 10 Yes but not from other sources, just opinions of the Vice President of NikeiD who is reputable among others of course.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Continuity
    
    Is the website being updated and maintained? 10 Yes you can check the RSS feed from the infoworld.com
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Censorship N/A
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Connectivity
    
    Ebscohost/lexusnexus- credible and factual-behind a paywall? 3.3
    
    Is it time frame based- access from all connectivity? 3.3
    
    Does everyone have the same accessibility? 3.3 (not ubiquitous)
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Comparability
    
    Full text? Backed up with New York Times newspaper (must more sure because once its in print its in print…think of that as finalized. 10
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Context
    
    Is your quest satisfied? 2.5
    
    Definitions – did you find it? 2.5
    
    Opinions good like from an expert or from Jon Doe 2.5
    
    Can you find anything or do you have to sort through it? 2.5
    
    -- 2013-09-15
    

• Sound pretty threatening to anyone invested in the status quo? You bet. Indeed, as the title of Rheingold's book implies, there could be a dark side to this new cooperative force, especially if it results in mob rule. Quite often, the best solution to a problem comes from the sudden flash of insight from a solitary genius such as Charles Darwin or Albert Einstein. It would be a tragedy if these folks, sometimes unpopular in their times, got lost in the cooperative crowds. Clearly, peer production has its limits. Almost certainly, it will never build railroads, grow wheat, run nuclear power plants, or write great novels.

    

  Yet this cooperative force may spread beyond such easily shared commodities as information, knowledge, and media. People are starting to use the Net to pool tangible goods as well. In a sense, Skype enables people to share computer hardware. Thanks to the Web's ability to serve as a meeting ground and scheduling coordinator, it's becoming economical to share cars, for example. Services such as Zipcar Inc. and Flexcar let members use the Net to reserve one of a fleet of autos in crowded cities, almost on demand, for an hourly fee.

  • nullWeb design and programmers have created the next social revolution making companies competition peak due to fast response times with the use of applications like skype and other social media groups instantaneously update status like capitol investing -- 2013-09-12
    http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-06-19/the-power-of-us
    
    -- 2013-09-15
    
    
    86.7% Overall Credibility
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Content
    
    Enough; high quality, clear? 3.3
    
    Entertainment or research (scholarly) Primary or secondary resource? 3.3 Research is done thoroughly with the involvement of many different high end corporations.
    
    Is the content up to date (2008 or 2013?) monthly updates? No this is 2005 so 0 on up to date.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Credibility
    
    Author coming from a source reliable? 3.3
    
    
    
    Bio
    
    Hof is BusinessWeek's Silicon Valley bureau chief. Robert D. Hof is the Silicon Valley bureau chief at BusinessWeek, a position he assumed in 2002. Prior to this, he was a senior correspondent, responsible for covering semiconductors, telecommunications, and other technology. Hof has covered a wide range of beats since joiningBusinessWeek in 1988, including tech, state politics, retailing, and environmental issues. He now covers Internet media and e-commerce as well as tech-influenced innovation across many industries. BeforeBusinessWeek, Hof spent five years as a business writer for thePeninsula Times Tribune in Palo Alto, Calif. Hof holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from San Jose State University.
    
    
    
    With a reputation that is credible? 3.3
    
    Peer reviewed .edu, .com, .org publisher? 3.3
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Critical Thinking
    
    Logical fact, prior wisdom, does it sound right? 5
    
    True and factual? 5
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Copyright
    
    Is it primary and original? 3.3
    
    Is it a public domain? Did it fall out of copyright….anything created after 1923? 3.3
    
    Fair use considerations…defense against copyright infringement-use for education? (parody) 3.3
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Citation
    
    Is the author using citation (important) 10 CEO of Amazon is credible
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Continuity
    
    Is the website being updated and maintained? 0
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Censorship N/A
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Connectivity
    
    Ebscohost/lexusnexus- credible and factual-behind a paywall? 3.3
    
    Is it time frame based- access from all connectivity? 3.3
    
    Does everyone have the same accessibility? 3.3 (not ubiquitous)
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Comparability
    
    Full text? Backed up with New York Times newspaper (must more sure because once its in print its in print…think of that as finalized. 10
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Context
    
    Is your quest satisfied? 2.5
    
    Definitions – did you find it? 2.5
    
    Opinions good like from an expert or from Jon Doe 2.5
    
    Can you find anything or do you have to sort through it? 2.5
    
    -- 2013-09-15
    

• Technology Will Make Collaboration Your Next Competitive Advantage

   

    New tools are changing the way people work with each other, their companies’ partners, and their customers.
• As businesses cut back on workers and resources, the number of professionals who defined themselves as freelancers increased to 30 million in the United States alone, and many of them turned to social-networking sites, such as LinkedIn and Facebook, to build their businesses. Many people who remained employed used the same strategies as an insurance policy against the next reduction in force. They also compensated for leaner IT budgets by supplying their own hardware, leading to new acronyms such as BYOD (“bring your own device”) and BYOC (“bring your own computer”). In fact, Kraft Foods “coöpted” employee-owned smart phones and tablets, explicitly welcoming and supporting “third-party” devices not directly purchased by the company.

  • null It’s all about the culture. International Data Corporation, an IT research firm, argues that we’re entering “a new phase of business collaboration” based on the “intersection of Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, and collaboration tools to form the social business.” 
    
    
    
    Information has never spread this fast so we are trying to catch up.  -- 2013-09-12
    Content
    
    Enough; high quality, clear? 3.3
    
    Entertainment or research (scholarly) Primary or secondary resource? 3.3
    
    Is the content up to date (2008 or 2013?) monthly updates? 2.2 because it is not up to date to 2013
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Credibility
    
    Author coming from a source reliable? 3.3
    
    With a reputation that is credible? 3.3
    
    Peer reviewed .edu, .com, .org publisher? 3.3
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Critical Thinking
    
    Logical fact, prior wisdom, does it sound right? 5
    
    True and factual? 5
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Copyright
    
    Is it primary and original? 3.3
    
    Is it a public domain? Did it fall out of copyright….anything created after 1923? 3.3
    
    Fair use considerations…defense against copyright infringement-use for education? (parody) 3.3
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Citation
    
    Is the author using citation (important) 5 I don’t see the sources at the bottom but there is a lot of ranting and the one opinion is from a journalist who I never heard of.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Continuity
    
    Is the website being updated and maintained? 10 5 No this is not updated, you can purchase it though.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Censorship N/A
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Connectivity
    
    Ebscohost/lexusnexus- credible and factual-behind a paywall? 3.3
    
    Is it time frame based- access from all connectivity? 3.3
    
    Does everyone have the same accessibility? 3.3 (not ubiquitous)
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Comparability
    
    Full text? Backed up with New York Times newspaper (must more sure because once its in print its in print…think of that as finalized. 10 I can give it like an 8 because I am not sure about the actual MIT Tech review author and editor but it sure has good information and relates to companies that are relevant.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Context
    
    Is your quest satisfied? 2.5
    
    Definitions – did you find it? 2.5
    
    Opinions good like from an expert or from Jon Doe 2.5
    
    Can you find anything or do you have to sort through it? 1
    
    -- 2013-09-15
    85.4% Total Credibility with hits on context, comparability, citation and content. -- 2013-09-15