Archive for the ‘’ Category

BuzzLion for the week of December 2

Winter is definitely here, so time to warm up with a hot update on innovation at ETS. Here is the BuzzLion for the week of December 2…..

ETS instructional designer Elizabeth Pyatt talks about the difference between “browse” and “search and which is better.

“But I am a strong advocate for Browse for most databases and this is why….”

ETS programmer Chris Stubbs offers an interesting look at the social potential for video games and why it hasn’t been met.

“Back in October, Dr. Ian Bogost (Georgia Tech) speaking at the SIEGE conference, attempted to answer the question of what would be required in order for video games to be relevant in a cultural sense. His answer, in a highly oversimplified form, was that the importance of games could only be determined with the help of historical perspective, and would be predicated on their ability to accurately capture some aspect of the human condition.”

It’s hockey season, and ETS Director Cole Camplese scores a hat trick with three very interesting blog posts: the Making Podcasting Easier, Selective RSS, and Facebook AS the Intranet.

“As we get ready to really start making podcasting easier on campus, we’re going to be looking at a host of technologies. We are also participating in the OpenCast group looking at creating a scalable, open set of podcasting tools/frameworks.”

ETS virtual world expert Brett Bixler alerts us to a conference that would be of interest to those involved in educational gaming here.

“Living Game Worlds IV will focus on the theme of networked play and engage dialogues on the rapidly growing domain of multiplayer games and virtual worlds, including online networked entertainment as well as pervasive, mobile and tangible gaming.”

ETS ANGEL documentation team leader Jeff Swain posts this month’s ANGEL Short.


“RSS stands for “really simple syndication” and is a Web format used to gather frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, or podcasts. Content in an RSS format is read using a feed reader, also called an RSS aggregator, such as the RSS Headlines tool in ANGEL.”