XplanaZine

Here’s our take on news that matters for Friday, February 3. Today’s theme is making things better, and here are a some links to headlines about technology that is changing the way we live and learn.

• Gaming — Deloitte’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) industry group predicts that, in 2006, girls will hit the video
  games. In the wake of the success of new
  video game platforms, the industry will strive to sustain its growth by
  creating a considerably larger audience. It will reach out to new
  demographics, most notably young girls. In a strange new convergence category, Fuji has released a new digital camera that comes with four games installed.

• Blogging, Podcasting, and Vodcasting — So the New York Times is now podcasting and, according to them,
  their daily podcast summarizing front page newspaper stories has already breached into the top tier of iTunes Music Store podcast downloads.

• Handhelds – According to a recent music survey, 75% of users polled say that music costs too much. 71 percent of people polled thought that 99 cents was a good price for digital
  downloads–only four percent lower than the number of people who think that music is generally too expensive.
• Social Networks – Is Amazon.com moving towards social networking? Don’t scoff at the idea. The online retail giant is spending money like crazy trying to compete with Google, Microsoft, eBay, and Yahoo for customers. And all of those companies understand the need to create bigger and more loyal communities (hence social networking).

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

• From Stephen Downes : Post on how to make Wikipedia better and why we should.
• From Doug Johnson : Post on technology-enhanced schools.
• From Alan Levine : Post on the Listen/Speak Web and podcasting.
• From Albert Ip : Post on how to make Wikipedia better and why we should.
• From Clarence Fisher: Post on vlogging in the classroom.
• From Anne Davis: Post on blog comments among her students.