Archive for February 28th, 2008
Growing up online
by Darren on Feb.28, 2008, under Uncategorized
This is a pretty good program which was aired on PBS recently…now available online for your viewing pleasure!
World Wide Telescope
by Darren on Feb.28, 2008, under Media, eLearning
Microsoft have begun spruiking their latest creation the WorldWide telescope.
Normally I wouldn’t be overly impressed but here is what Robert Scoble had to say:
Lots of people are asking me questions about what made me cry at Microsoft a few weeks ago.
If I told you “a telescope” you’d make fun of me, right? Tell me I’m lame and that I don’t deserve to be a geek and that I should run away and join the circus, right?
Well, that’s what I saw.
Or, more accurately, the WorldWide Telescope.
UPDATE: the official site is now up.
Like I said, sounds lame. How could that possibly be the most fabulous thing I’ve seen Microsoft do in years? And that’s not just me talking. My friends who’ve seen it say that I actually underhyped it. That’s the first time anyone has said I underhyped something when I was trying to be so over-the-top with hype.
Like I said, it isn’t the product that’s impressive. You’ve gotta see this thing to really understand. My video will be up on Monday.
But, I’ll try to give you an idea of what made me so impressed.
Think of Google Maps or Microsoft’s Live Maps. How dragging a map around lets you see the world in a new way. Zoom in. Zoom out. You have the whole world in a window on your screen.
Now, think of the sky.
When Brian Cox, physicist at CERN, spoke at LIFT last year he told us to hold our hands out, put our thumb up and realize there are hundreds of thousands of stars in just that small patch of sky.
Now you’ve probably looked at imagery from the Hubble Telescope. So you know there are entire galaxies out there. But what are you missing?
The testimonials on the site are pretty impressive too…we’ll look forward to the results and see how it can influence our learning and teaching!
