Well I almost did it. A few minutes ago I felt a slight pain in my stomach as I remembered that I hadn’t checked by Bloglines account today. Sure enough I had 92 unread items. I almost clicked “Mark All Read,” but fortunately a touch of guilt prevented me from pulling the trigger. Near the top of my list (organized alphabetically) was an early morning post from David Warlick about iCue. This joint venture between NBC News and the MIT Education Arcade targets “learners” 13 and over with video and social networking and works on the premise that video will eventually replace textbooks.
After about 20 minutes of fiddling I have to say iCue is pretty cool. Users can watch video clips, save their favorites, review transcripts, post comments, participate in discussion forums, and even play a few games. Imagine the product of a romance between the History Channel and Facebook and you’ll sort of get the idea of what’s happening on iCue. I highly recommend watching the 6 minute video tour for a much more complete summary.
Since January my students and I have discussed the current Presidential Election using video clips nearly every morning during Advisory period. I’ve seen how they respond to this medium and how annoyed they get when we don’t enough time to watch the latest clip about Obama, Hillary, or McCain. Based on my observations, I think NBC and MIT might have a success on their hands.
Okay, back to reading – only 91 posts left to go.
Joe
Related posts:
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Hi Joe
Just had a quick look around icue and I also like it. I think it is an interesting and innovative learning environment and it should appeal to the students of today. Will have to wait till next term to test it out though!
Patricia