I have spent a few good hours fruitfully reading other blogs - going back to older posts to catch those parts that didn't get enough attention first time round. I have commented on Del.icio.us and the reviews by Pam and Diane, and was also interested to read more about Wikis by Sue (thanks Sue). I was perplexed by the review comments by Ginger - on SnagIt or Sputtr to deploy all search engines simultaneously in your search. My own view (posted to Ginger) is that I believe search engines are becoming more specialised, and we discover specific ones most suited to our search topic and the effectiveness that derive from the returned results on improving our learning or teaching ;-) I am not sure I can handle Google-plus-Yahoo-plus-plus results. On another blog, I teach deaf students and blind students, so Mary Jane's discovery and review on www.TagDeaf.com is very useful for me, and for my colleagues. I will add more later after visiting that site.
Well, what did catch my attention was Facebook , reviewed by Bessie, as Social Apps. I do appreciate clear English. And Bessie is a model for us all especially for native-speakers too. The Camtasia powerpoint presentation was professional. I couldn't find words to write notes and describe my impression, so I went over to Facebook to sign up immediately ; entered my real name, real age, and said I was a first-year student at college (thanks WestGa) trying to avoid the FBI as far as posssible. And visited various pages there. It is a social chat area similar to MySpace though it would tend toward being for students in higher education. That said, their English is a foreign language to me. I can read most of the phonics and decode most of the lol junk, but in a free writing space, surely this died out with pocket-bell SMS twenty years ago. Do they think they are inventing something new ? I read through pages and pages - like a dating service it seemed to me - Are students really that lonely they need this ?? And do they really have so much free time to do this ?? That 19 million students are members must give us a wake up call. Most of the conversational chat was in English, with a few percent in regional languages depending on the region-specific area you choose. Nonetheless those in the Japan area were 99% in the States, talking mostly about Okinawa - which is part of the States already or was it returned ?? Must avoid politics. My main concern here is how Facebook can be used in distance education. I need to study more, and will post up my findings later.
It seems a lovely face picture is de rigueur on Facebook - hence I guess its name ...
Thanks everyone for great articles and reviews.
All Best Wishes
Paul
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