XplanaZine

Here’s our take on news that matters for Tuesday, January 17. Today’s theme is doubletake and here are a some links to headlines about technology that is changing the way we live and learn.

• Gaming — And then there’s the hands-on approach to gaming. This past weekend, the International Rubik’s Cube Competition was held in San Francisco and a new record of 11.13 seconds was set.

• Blogging, Podcasting, and Vodcasting — It was only a matter of time. Creative, in its ongoing attempts to shadow Apple, has launched ZENCast. This is similar to the iTunes podcasting and to Yahoo’s service.

• Handhelds –
  Portable devices helped offset weak sales of gaming consoles and drove
  the video game industry to record sales in the United States last year,
  according to a report from the NPD Group. Portable gaming was the clear winner, with sales of games for Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance and the Sony (NYSE: SNE) PlayStation Portable (PSP) climbing 42 percent to $1.4 billion. NPD Group said more sophisticated and new devices such as the Nintendo DS helped expand the market to older players as well. “The real story for 2005 was the incredible expansion of portable gaming,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.
• Social Networks – Here’s a good twist on social networking and Google Maps. BuddyMapper.com allows you to use Google Maps to meet people with similar interests in your own area. Nice blend of visual and text-based connection (a la Facebook.com).

Now, here’s a recap of our favorite posts from the edublogging community from the past 48 hours.

• From Brian Lamb : Post on the Stanford iTunes project.
• From Santiago Iñiguez: Post on the brave new world for management education.
• From EdTechTalk: EducationBridges #1 post on Wikibooks as a textbook solution.
• From Ray Cha : Post on an overview on the future of the book.
• From Lanny Arvan : Post on acting and learning and effective teaching
• From Clarence Fisher: Post on the Movies Game as a classroom teaching tool.
• From Rob Wall: Post on building a school Web site one blog at a time.
• From Will Richardson: Post on classroom blogs and other stuff.