Augmented Reality

Re-posting from Goodbye Virtual Reality, Hello Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality or Web Squared, is the next iteration of the Web and also desktop and mobile applications and is indicative of the future hybrid Web and device experience. And no, it’s not called Web 3.0.
"Augmented Reality joins the likes of the Semantic Web, Geo-Location, Artificial Intelligence, among many other emerging technologies in what the father of Web 2.0, Tim O’Reilly, refers to as Web Squared".
Augmented Reality (AR) refers to the live direct or indirect view of a real-world environment whose elements are supplemented with, or augmented by, computer-generated imagery. The augmentation is conventionally in real-time and harmoniously displayed through meaningful context with environmental elements".

It is easy to fall in love with technology

Danah Boyd, on her article writes:
**It is easy to fall in love with technology. It is equally easy to fear it.
**Technology does not determine practice. How people embrace technology has less to do with the technology itself than with the social setting in which they are embedded.
**Without educators, technology in the classroom is useless.
**There are also no such things as “digital natives.” Just because many of today’s youth are growing up in a society dripping with technology does not mean that they inherently know how to use it.
**Along the same lines, keep in mind that the technology that you adore may hold no interest for your students. They don’t use del.icio.us or Second Life or Ning or Twitter as a part of their everyday practices.
**Technology is a wonderful tool but it is not a panacea. It cannot solve all societal ills just by its mere existence. To have relevance and power, it must be leveraged by people to meet needs. This requires all of us to push past what we hope might happen and focus on introducing technology in a context that makes sense.

Developing by the Nile:Innovative Online Trends for Teacher Professional Development

I have conducted a workshop about Web 2.0 for Teacher professional development which targeted EFL teachers at the University of Khartoum, Sudan. I gave the workshop the title of Developing by the Nile: Innovative Online Trends for Teacher
Professional Development. It was a hands-on practice workshop for English Language teachers at the Administration for University Requirements (AUR),University of Khartoum. All about it here on the pbworks I created for the workshop here.It was considered the first workshop of its type in Sudan about Web 2.0 tools. I am preparing now for another one about integrating technology into the Sudanese EFL classroom. My friend, Hala Salih, the head of the English Department, was the one who took the burden of the workshop to see the Sudanese morning light. Hala has blogged about the workshop and talked about how she ran around to find the fund and the venue needed. Thanks Hala!