XplanaZine

Here’s our take on news that matters for Friday, January 27. Today’s theme is evolving education and here are a some links to headlines about technology that is changing the way we live and learn.

• Gaming — Everyone wants to produce an iPod killer that has music games etc . Sony ventured first with the PSP and now it looks like Microsoft will be the next to try. Also, it looks like video games are the next important step for musicians who want to make it big.

• Blogging, Podcasting, and Vodcasting — Of course, blogging made its big splash in the 2004 elections. And, as with everything, congress is finally catching on to their value two years later.

• Handhelds – It was only a matter of time before we started seeing ad-supported free video and music services (following similar Web trends in other areas). And, today yesterday we got the news that
  SmartVideo and the Digital Music Video Network announced they will offer free, commercial-based video music content to Internet enabled mobile devices. Also, here’s a good analysis form PC World regarding the pros and cons of new music services that allow you to download music directly to your phone (Sprint and Version)
• Social Networks – Businessweek has a good article on how companies are reaching the Myspace generation. Finally check out this interesting article on the Internet’s new social order.

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

• From Dave Warlick : Post on the US losing its edge in terms of broadband usage and the Web.
• From EdTechTalk: Post on Wiki textbook project (#3).
• From Doug Johnson : Post on holding kids to higher standards.
• From D’Arcy Norman : Post on his Edublogs reading list.
• From Stephen Downes : Post on how to do what you love.
• From Ray Cha: Post on experiences as a newbie in Second Life.
• From Ben Vershbow: Post on what he heard at the Economics of Open Content symposium, hosted in Cambridge, MA by
  href=”http://www.intelligenttelevision.com/” target=”_blank”>Intelligent Television and
  href=”http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html” target=”_blank”>MIT Open CourseWare.