Virtual worlds might seem like a game for tech savvy teens, but at The University of Georgia, a virtual world aficionado is educating professors about the benefits of utilizing Second Life in the classroom.
Today, David Miller, from the Center for Teaching and Learning, introduced two of the university's Second Life projects and explained avatars, islands and Linden Dollars. Second Life is a free virtual world built by its members who can create anything from schizophrenia simulators to replicas of the Sistine Chapel.
The Center of Teaching and Learning leads lectures that cover different education topics to help insure that university continues to maintain dynamic academics. Out of an audience of 15 adults, two took notes on their computer and only a few had explored Second Life.
According to Miller, "A lot of Universities are beginning to make use of virtual worlds, and they are building campuses in Second Life and other virtual worlds that are replicas of their own campuses. They are doing education environments where people can go and participate in scientific experiments and other types of experiments."
Two of the main projects that Miller introduced are The Georgia Museum of Art's virtual museum and a learning facility replicating Anse Bundren's house in William Faulkner's novel "As I Lay Dying."
According to Jenny Williams, the Public Relations Coordinator for the museum, she assisted in beginning the virtual museum because the actual museum closed for an expansion. The virtual museum allows the permanent collection to be accessible to the world.
Williams explained: "We're really excited about this being more than an educational tool for museum studies and art history students. It's also for those who may never get to visit The Georgia Museum of Art."
The virtual house dedicated to "As I Lay Dying" includes resources for visitors to learn more about the novel. Resources include Web pages, student monologue projects, a map of Faulkner's mythical Yoknapatawpha County, and monologues by other professors.
Paul Quick, the professor sponsoring Bundren's house, highlighted two of his top problems in Second Life: grading and copyright. Quick believes that students need more instruction when it comes to experimenting with Second Life. Quick said "I like the monologues, but this was certainly an experiment. I learned that I need a better rubric."
Quick also commented about copyright concerns associated with having a Great Depression room. In a similar situation, Williams discussed copyright issues for The Georgia Museum of Art: "Copyright is something we're dealing with a lot with this project particularly because we are putting real images in the gallery."
According to Williams, a large concern is the ability for people to capture virtual work through screen shots, but she said the resolution is usually too low to copy. Williams advised the audience to protect themselves against copyright issues by researching and following fair use guidelines.
Kelly Foster, a Research Professional at Carl Vinson Institute of Government, felt that the lecture focused too much on the basic elements of Second Life, but was excited about an opportunity to see the virtual projects. Foster attended the event because she plans to use Second Life to research the polling of young adults. She feels Second Life is more interactive than other media.
Miller believes that virtual worlds are changing communication, and educators must explore how to use these outlets for both research and communication. Miller began his closing statement by saying, "In the big picture of human culture, we're full of virtual worlds, but this one allows you to do some things that other virtual worlds do not. The interactivity and engagement with your avatar are very powerful."
Friday, April 10, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Bloggers Attract Audiences, Spread Information
Today two different bloggers gave their opinions on how to create a successful blog and how to carry journalism to the blogosphere.
Bethany Keeley is a graduate PhD student at the University of Georgia, and writes for ThinkChristian as well as authoring the popular Unnecessary Quotes blog. Unnecessary Quotes gets between three thousand to four thousand hits on an average weekday, and around two thousand hits on weekend days.
Keeley said: “I guess I’m sort of a professional blogger, but it’s a side job for me. I’m really a professional scholar.”
She added that Unnecessary Quotes has an audience because the topic matter of the blog is “absurdly specific.”
The Internet is a large place and users do not want to wander around in cyberspace frantically searching through a blogger’s archives for a post on a specific idea. A focused blog draws a bigger audience than a blog that spreads itself over many subject areas. The audience knows what to expect and can look in certain places to find concentrated information on a particular topic.
Also speaking was Morgan Josey Glover, who has journalistic experience, is now the content manager for the Web site GoGreenTriad. Part of her duties include maintaining a blog. She said that the purpose of a blog was to direct readers to information available on other Web sites.
Glover said, “I would just say that journalism today is a lot more entrepreneurial.” She urged students to know how to work many different kinds of technology and feel comfortable interviewing with several different methods.
Her advice points out the nature of journalism today and how multimedia is affecting reporting. Reporters and news outlets must pay attention to more than just their print editions, because audiences want news in different platforms. Web sites, Twitter accounts, and blogs can be used to disseminate information and point readers back to the newspaper or magazine’s own site.
As new technology continues to attract audiences, reporters in the future will need to develop skills and practices for utilizing the technology. Reporters must follow the readers and speak to them in the ways they are using to speak to others.
Bethany Keeley is a graduate PhD student at the University of Georgia, and writes for ThinkChristian as well as authoring the popular Unnecessary Quotes blog. Unnecessary Quotes gets between three thousand to four thousand hits on an average weekday, and around two thousand hits on weekend days.
Keeley said: “I guess I’m sort of a professional blogger, but it’s a side job for me. I’m really a professional scholar.”
She added that Unnecessary Quotes has an audience because the topic matter of the blog is “absurdly specific.”
The Internet is a large place and users do not want to wander around in cyberspace frantically searching through a blogger’s archives for a post on a specific idea. A focused blog draws a bigger audience than a blog that spreads itself over many subject areas. The audience knows what to expect and can look in certain places to find concentrated information on a particular topic.
Also speaking was Morgan Josey Glover, who has journalistic experience, is now the content manager for the Web site GoGreenTriad. Part of her duties include maintaining a blog. She said that the purpose of a blog was to direct readers to information available on other Web sites.
Glover said, “I would just say that journalism today is a lot more entrepreneurial.” She urged students to know how to work many different kinds of technology and feel comfortable interviewing with several different methods.
Her advice points out the nature of journalism today and how multimedia is affecting reporting. Reporters and news outlets must pay attention to more than just their print editions, because audiences want news in different platforms. Web sites, Twitter accounts, and blogs can be used to disseminate information and point readers back to the newspaper or magazine’s own site.
As new technology continues to attract audiences, reporters in the future will need to develop skills and practices for utilizing the technology. Reporters must follow the readers and speak to them in the ways they are using to speak to others.
The "cool-ness" of Blogs
Professional blogger and phd student Bethany Keeley spoke to Geoffrey Graybeal's journalism 3410 lab Wed. April 7 on her experiences with blogging and writing for the web.
What began as a simple hobby to try and get attention and perhaps become cool, blogging quickly caught on with her friends and numerous followers alike. Keeley's personal blog is read by less than fifteen people which include her boyfriend, close friends, and family members. Her fame came with the popular site "The "blog" of "unnecessary" quotations".
"The "blog" of "unnecessary" quotations" earned her fame through collegehumor.com and a feature story by the AP. On days she was featured in news articles her blog hits soared and then returned to relatively normal a few days after.
Keeley confirms that she doesn't advertise for her site but interviews with MSNBC Online, MSN Online, and The Chicago Tribune helped her blog hits soar. "I have many imitators out there. People are afraid to make grammatical errors around me now- Don't be!" Keeley exclaims.
She enjoys reading such blogs as The New York Times , anything lefty or feminist , and keeping up with her friends personal blogs. Spending around 2-3 hours a day working and reading blogs flies by she explains. Keeley dedicates around 1-2 hours simply working on her quotations blog. Whether it's responding to comments or checking her 700 emails of photo submissions, she always finds herself spending far more time than she realizes dealing with blogs.
"If you ask me what I wanted to be famous for, punctuation definitely wouldn't have been it!". Keeley explains. She admits that if it weren't for the money and attention she probably wouldn't still be keeping up with the blog.
Another project Keeley is working on is blogging for a site called thinkchristian.net. She writes a group blog every other week on topics dealing with the intersection of faith and our culture. This new project is just another blog that spreads her name and gives her the opportunity to earn some extra cash on the side.
From the beginning blogging was meant to secretly try and earn some cool points but it ended up turning into so much more. "When you set out to be cool you almost never will be" Kelley comments.
What began as a simple hobby to try and get attention and perhaps become cool, blogging quickly caught on with her friends and numerous followers alike. Keeley's personal blog is read by less than fifteen people which include her boyfriend, close friends, and family members. Her fame came with the popular site "The "blog" of "unnecessary" quotations".
"The "blog" of "unnecessary" quotations" earned her fame through collegehumor.com and a feature story by the AP. On days she was featured in news articles her blog hits soared and then returned to relatively normal a few days after.
Keeley confirms that she doesn't advertise for her site but interviews with MSNBC Online, MSN Online, and The Chicago Tribune helped her blog hits soar. "I have many imitators out there. People are afraid to make grammatical errors around me now- Don't be!" Keeley exclaims.
She enjoys reading such blogs as The New York Times , anything lefty or feminist , and keeping up with her friends personal blogs. Spending around 2-3 hours a day working and reading blogs flies by she explains. Keeley dedicates around 1-2 hours simply working on her quotations blog. Whether it's responding to comments or checking her 700 emails of photo submissions, she always finds herself spending far more time than she realizes dealing with blogs.
"If you ask me what I wanted to be famous for, punctuation definitely wouldn't have been it!". Keeley explains. She admits that if it weren't for the money and attention she probably wouldn't still be keeping up with the blog.
Another project Keeley is working on is blogging for a site called thinkchristian.net. She writes a group blog every other week on topics dealing with the intersection of faith and our culture. This new project is just another blog that spreads her name and gives her the opportunity to earn some extra cash on the side.
From the beginning blogging was meant to secretly try and earn some cool points but it ended up turning into so much more. "When you set out to be cool you almost never will be" Kelley comments.
Journalism in Online Media
Online journalism has been on the rise through outlets such as Twitter, blogs, and podcasts. Journalists are now able to cover the news almost instantiously by just the click of a button, or a "tweet."
Bethany Keeley, a popular online blogger and PhD student at the University of Georgia, has her own blog titled "Unnecessary quotations." Keeley's blog on average receives 2,000 to 4,000 hits a day. Featured are posts, accompanied by a picture of the use of unnecessary quotation marks. The blog can be found at www.unnecessaryquotes.com.
Today, Keeley can make up to $500 a month in advertising revenue on her blog. Keeley says, "I never would have thought that I would be known as a punctuation blogger." However, Keeley continues the blog because of the advertising revenue and attention.
Keeley can also be found on Twitter, under username bethaniqua. Currently, Keeley is in the top 25 Tweeters in the city of Athens, Georgia. Her followers total around 250.
Online journalism has become a popular media outlet for bloggers like Keeley. She says on a typical day she will spend a few hours reading other blogs such as the New York Times, Bitch PhD, feminist blogs, and thinkchristian.net .
Keeley's blog also takes up a few hours of her day. This includes sorting through email and posting to her blog.
Although Keeley does not consider herself a professional blogger, she receives several followers and fans. She recommends posting links to other similar blogs to generate publicity. Keeley enjoys blogging and social media, while at the same time being a student.
Bethany Keeley, a popular online blogger and PhD student at the University of Georgia, has her own blog titled "Unnecessary quotations." Keeley's blog on average receives 2,000 to 4,000 hits a day. Featured are posts, accompanied by a picture of the use of unnecessary quotation marks. The blog can be found at www.unnecessaryquotes.com.
Today, Keeley can make up to $500 a month in advertising revenue on her blog. Keeley says, "I never would have thought that I would be known as a punctuation blogger." However, Keeley continues the blog because of the advertising revenue and attention.
Keeley can also be found on Twitter, under username bethaniqua. Currently, Keeley is in the top 25 Tweeters in the city of Athens, Georgia. Her followers total around 250.
Online journalism has become a popular media outlet for bloggers like Keeley. She says on a typical day she will spend a few hours reading other blogs such as the New York Times, Bitch PhD, feminist blogs, and thinkchristian.net .
Keeley's blog also takes up a few hours of her day. This includes sorting through email and posting to her blog.
Although Keeley does not consider herself a professional blogger, she receives several followers and fans. She recommends posting links to other similar blogs to generate publicity. Keeley enjoys blogging and social media, while at the same time being a student.
Journalism in Mass Media
Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, along with online blogs, are rapidly changing the face of journalism. Mass amounts of information are being shared through a touch of a button, and online journalism is slowing turning into the new "fad" for many ordinary users of the internet.
For Bethany Keeley, current creator and sustainer of 3 blogs on the internet, online journalism is a "part-time job". Her blog www.unnecessaryquotes.com receives upwards of 4,000 hits on a given day. The blog is updated everyday with a picture showcasing an example of a blatant misuse of quotations; Keeley, also known as 'bethaniqua' for Twitter addicts, also provides links to other blogs she enjoys and makes money on advertising posted on her website. While her blog may sound like a job, Keeley only spends "an hour or two a day working on the blog." She is a graduate student in the Department of Speech Communication at the University of Georgia and considers this her full-time job. For Keeley, www.unnecessaryquotes.com was started as something "funny and unique", but clearly this blog has turned into a classic example of the changing face of online journalism. Her blog was even featured in AP writer Jocelyn Noveck's article "Blogger `exposes' Annoying Quote Abuse".
The gap between print and online journalism is becoming more distinct as technology allows more information to be disseminated faster. Content manager for www.gogreentriad.com, Morgan Josey Glover has slowly transitioned from working in the print journalism arena to a full online journalist. Glover "still follows the principles of journalism, but now has the ability to get information out quicker"; this advantage has been created by using various online sites such as Twitter.
With opportunities constantly arising among the internet, graduate students and traditional print journalists are paving a new avenue for online journalism. Utilizing past journalism techniques with newly created technology tools, the future of journalism on the internet is intact.
For Bethany Keeley, current creator and sustainer of 3 blogs on the internet, online journalism is a "part-time job". Her blog www.unnecessaryquotes.com receives upwards of 4,000 hits on a given day. The blog is updated everyday with a picture showcasing an example of a blatant misuse of quotations; Keeley, also known as 'bethaniqua' for Twitter addicts, also provides links to other blogs she enjoys and makes money on advertising posted on her website. While her blog may sound like a job, Keeley only spends "an hour or two a day working on the blog." She is a graduate student in the Department of Speech Communication at the University of Georgia and considers this her full-time job. For Keeley, www.unnecessaryquotes.com was started as something "funny and unique", but clearly this blog has turned into a classic example of the changing face of online journalism. Her blog was even featured in AP writer Jocelyn Noveck's article "Blogger `exposes' Annoying Quote Abuse".
The gap between print and online journalism is becoming more distinct as technology allows more information to be disseminated faster. Content manager for www.gogreentriad.com, Morgan Josey Glover has slowly transitioned from working in the print journalism arena to a full online journalist. Glover "still follows the principles of journalism, but now has the ability to get information out quicker"; this advantage has been created by using various online sites such as Twitter.
With opportunities constantly arising among the internet, graduate students and traditional print journalists are paving a new avenue for online journalism. Utilizing past journalism techniques with newly created technology tools, the future of journalism on the internet is intact.
Professional Bloggers Distinguish Blogs as an Important Medium for News and Information
Blogging is quickly becoming a popular and important source for information. Many newspapers and other media are using blogs to supplement their own stories in order to get the information to the public more quickly. Other than reporting stories, using and creating blogs for personal use is beginning to grow in popularity as well among web-users.
Morgan Josey Glover, a Content Manager and reporter for GoGreenTriad.com explains that blogs are not only important for getting information to the public quickly, but it is also important to point people in the right direction of other sites and professionals with more information.
In comparing newspapers and blogging, Josey explains, "newspapers need a lot of groud-work completed before they can actually start writing a story. Blogging is quick and provides immediate access to information even if it is not a full story." She goes on to add that blogging makes it easy to expand upon a story later when more information is obtained.
Bethany Keeley, a graduate student and professional blogger, started her own blog when she was in college. Her blog, which focuses on the humor of unncessary quotation marks, now has over 2,000 hits a day, and she may be considered a mini celebrity in the web-world. Keeley says that she finds blogs an important means for reactionary commentary on news and other information versus its common use as a means for reporting stories.
Keeley makes up to $500 a month from blogging on her site, where she posts up to four times a day. She laughs about being known as the "quotation girl", and snickers at the fact that "it is a fun party conversation versus talking about politics or religion that people sometimes find hard to relate to."
Both Keeley and Glover agree that blogging is becomming vastly important for companies and people everywhere to promote themselves and distribute information for the public.
Morgan Josey Glover, a Content Manager and reporter for GoGreenTriad.com explains that blogs are not only important for getting information to the public quickly, but it is also important to point people in the right direction of other sites and professionals with more information.
In comparing newspapers and blogging, Josey explains, "newspapers need a lot of groud-work completed before they can actually start writing a story. Blogging is quick and provides immediate access to information even if it is not a full story." She goes on to add that blogging makes it easy to expand upon a story later when more information is obtained.
Bethany Keeley, a graduate student and professional blogger, started her own blog when she was in college. Her blog, which focuses on the humor of unncessary quotation marks, now has over 2,000 hits a day, and she may be considered a mini celebrity in the web-world. Keeley says that she finds blogs an important means for reactionary commentary on news and other information versus its common use as a means for reporting stories.
Keeley makes up to $500 a month from blogging on her site, where she posts up to four times a day. She laughs about being known as the "quotation girl", and snickers at the fact that "it is a fun party conversation versus talking about politics or religion that people sometimes find hard to relate to."
Both Keeley and Glover agree that blogging is becomming vastly important for companies and people everywhere to promote themselves and distribute information for the public.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)