Cool Tools

The world of online education is evolving and changing every day! From Second Life to Twitter and Red Rover to Delicious there are many new and exciting ways to get the most from your distance learning experience. Below is a list (that will continue to grow) of various ways you can get more involved in your own non-traditional learning:

* Facebook- this social networking site became the rival (and some would say superior) of MySpace. The set up process is very user friendly and allows for a great deal of customization and privacy. It has many ways to help you find people you know who are already using Facebook. There are a variety of educational tools such as alumni groups, campus organizations, and Red Rover (an application that connects to Facebook which matches you up with other students who like similar things you do). You can find Brighton on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/brighton.brooks.

* Delicious- This site allows you to collect and share your internet bookmarks from any computer! You can also subscribe to someone else's bookmarks to see what sites they are finding useful, or to a description like "online psychology degree" to see what other users find on that subject!

* Twitter- This free online program lets you share brief thoughts or tweets with other users who subscribe to follow your updates. You can also follow other people or groups to get the latest updates. You can follow CDE on twitter as http://www.twitter.com/CDEMAIN

* Second Life- This is another free networking program that connects you to a virtual world called Second Life. It allows you to create a custom avatar that walks (or flies!) through the world interacting with other people and objects. It is being used by many universities such as Stanford and Penn State to teach actual courses and provide additional methods for students to collaborate from all over the world. You can find CDE's Rhetorica Island in Second Life at the coordinates 168*91*54* or by visiting this location link.

* The Purdue Online Writing Lab- Purdue University hosts this free resource site which contains loads of information on topics from literary terms to proper e-mail etiquette, interactive exercises, mail-in tutors, a grammar blog, podcasts, and hundreds of examples. Check it out!

* Plagiarism.org- This site is powered by turnitin which is a program for use by instructors and students to check papers for (often accidental) plagiarism. CDE & the College of Rural & Community Development support academic honesty and integrity and abides by UAF's Code of Conduct.