Chanatown

Article first published as Exclusive Preview of TheBlu: Where Art and Entertainment Meets the Ocean on Blogcritics. What do you get when you put the ocean onto the Internet?  According to several computer programmers, animators, artists, and the director of MIT's Media Lab, it would look something like this: I was treated to a private demo preview of TheBlu, a new artistic venture that combines art and entertainment, and had a chance to chat with one of  TheBlu's  co-founders, Neville Spiteri.

Perhaps, it's because I use Groups mostly through our school domain, which is not currently set for pre-release features, or perhaps, it's because I've been so consumed with other work, but I was pleasantly surprised to see the new Google Groups features when logging into my personal Gmail account this morning. Apparently, users were given opt-in options starting late last year , but I swear the link only popped into my account recently. Anyways, here's three reasons why educators may be particularly interested in the new Groups.

Last year, I made my first foray into the presentation circuit by delivering a poster session on Google Apps at the Illinois Computing Educators conference in February. Over the course of the two day conference plus a pre-conference workshop on Garageband, I enjoyed picking up new ideas to integrate technology in the classroom as well as having the opportunity to network with others in the field. This year, the conference is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and I'm sure the lineup of presenters will be outstanding. However, after seeing this year's schedule and speakers, I'm particularly excited for the event. Find out more after the jump.