I chose to actually show off one technology with another technology this time. First, this screencast below was created with Jing. Jing is a free screencast tool that allows you to record audio/video/computer screen movements for up to 5 minutes (you can go longer but you must buy the full version). It is very user-friendly and quick to learn and work with. The only issue that I see is that you can't really edit in the free version and so if you mess up you either need to keep going or start over. There is, however, a pause button that you could use to gather yourself and continue.

What I used Jing for this time is to walk you through learning about what a WebQuest is and showing how easy it is to create one. Check out the video and then go to the WebQuest to explore!

There has been a lot of talk about creating storyboards this week and so I wanted to share Google Doc's take on it. Many people thing Google Docs is just for items like documents, spreadsheets, slides, etc. Tip of the week: click on "create new" and select "from template." There are all sorts of categories that come up including ones for teachers and students.

For this example, search out "storyboard" and see what you get. The top one on the list is amazing. Students can work at the same time from anywhere. No need to be in class to see who did what. Everything stays online and everyone sees the latest version.

Here's a sample pulled from one I did for a class last semester:


It almost begs the question, "Is the first draft dead?" It's just one big revision. A work in progress... but working toward greatness.

In researching Web 2.0 tools that I was unfamiliar with to this point I came across Cacoo. What's neat about Cacoo is that it is a free diagram creation tool that allows multiple users to collaborate in real time. It also has a chat feature so that users can discuss their changes. Another plus for Cacoo is that anything you create can be embedded straight into your Web page or blog post.

Here is the embedded chart that I created:



While my example above is obviously very simplified, it shows how easy it can be to create diagrams and add them to your work. Cacoo also gives the user the ability to download the file if it would be better to be attached than embedded. It is interesting that Cacoo is basically an old concept that has been "Web 2.0-ified." Collaboration is key these days and this is one more free site that allows you to do so.

If interested in how Cacoo is used for learning, check out this blog post I found.

In yet another sign of the power that social media has on us (and the world), Facebook became the most visited U.S. Web site last week. Google has held top honors since September 15, 2007 when it beat out (wait for it) Myspace.

"It shows content sharing has become a huge driving force online," said Matt Tatham, director of media relations at Hitwise. "People want information from friends they trust, versus the the anonymity of a search engine."

I found it quite interesting that two sites that I perceived to be used for vastly different reasons could actually be a bit more connected than I had previously thought. The "friend feed" on Facebook allows for users to post potential questions and receive instant feedback. And this feedback isn't general in nature like a search engine. It is straight from trusted sources. Friends, coworkers, and acquaintances.

Do you think Facebook can maintain its current growth and popularity or will it fall by the wayside just as Myspace has? My thought is that if they continue to evolve the site, they'll be fine. The news feed that was added last year seems to me to be a total ripoff of Twitter (without the 140-character limit). But that's good for Facebook. Why use anything else if you can do it all in one spot? As stated in the article, "By nature, the Web is ever-changing," Tatham said. "The Internet can be a fickle crowd." It is the jobs of these social media outlets to grow with the crowd.

I read an interesting article  today about "The new way students are applying to college." Started by Tufts University, several other schools have now joined the list of those accepting videos as part of the application process. Dean Coffin, dean of undergraduate admissions as Tufts says, "...This is all about a conversation between a kid and an admissions officer. You see their floppy hair and their messy bedrooms and you get a sense of who they are...The videos let them share their voice."

So the question is, is this fair? Does making a video favor a certain demographic of student over another? I obviously don't have the answer but think that it is a valid argument--not necessarily because of Internet access issues, but more so because some students may have had a good deal of training in high school video classes while others have not had that opportunity. Would you be able to consistently "grade" videos against each other without notice the professionalism of the production?

A couple of interesting tidbits from Tufts:

• Roughly 6.6% of applicants submitted the optional video
• About 60% of submissions came from women
• About 2/3 of submissions came from those seeking financial aid

If you're a Twitter user at all you've probably seen some posts that end with #foursquare. While it's not Twitter-specific, that's where I come across the posts. Foursquare is an interesting little social media/location awareness game that you can play with others in your same geographical area. Basically, you travel to a destination and "check in" to that place. Be it work, the grocery store, a restaurant, a gas station, whatever. If you happen to be the person that has checked in most often, you get to be mayor of that spot. Make sense? Hope so 'cause that's all I got.

I am not a Foursquare user. For one, I refuse to be caught up in more than one game. I still choose Mafia Wars. Sorry Foursquare. Two, face it... my friends, coworkers, and Twitter stream have pretty much all of State College, Central PA, (and probably the East Coast by now), wrapped up. And three (possibly 2a), I like playing games that I win at.

Enter Fauxsquare. Get it? Faux for fake but it still sounds like four? Yeah ok. It was 4am on my first day of vacation when I came up with the brilliant idea. I decided I was going to poke a little fun at my buds and their little game and started posting that I was mayor of the airport, the plane, the row I was sitting in, the Star Wars-esque people mover at Dulles International Airport, all airspace above 30,000ft between LA and Hawaii (my final destination) pretty much everything silly or stupid I could think of.

And then the power of social media took hold.

My Twitter stream decided to play too. People were mayor of their closet, kitchen, a stapler, truck exhaust, jealousy, and eventually... the universe. Nothing was out of reach now. And people who thought they had no shot (or no care) in the real game came out to play. But better, those that play the real game switched too. Why? I think we realized that while social media is fun sometimes, games sometimes, and serious sometimes what we really use it for is the "social" part. Social is fun. Social is games. Social is serious. But social is social. I traveled for 17 hours on 3 airplanes through 5 timezones with my husband and the kid. But due to social media, my entire Twitter stream made the trip as well. Too bad I can't share the weather!  

When bookmarking on the Web, it is important to follow some basic rules. Robert Andrews provides some advice in his piece "Tips From Top Taggers."

•    Tag sparingly and with focus, using words that are highly descriptive
•    Pick a core set of keywords that can be used long into the future.
•    Try to have at least two tags for any post.
•    Pick keywords likely to be already used by other users.

The above bullets are just a short summary of his thoughts, but are quite important and powerful to someone relying in social bookmarking. When you first start to blog, bookmark, load/share pictures, etc. it doesn't seem like a big deal to tag at all. Then you enter the stage where you think, "hmm you know, it might be helpful if I start to put my things into a category each time." Finally, you get to the point where you realize that a single category is not enough. You want multiple categories in order to be able to sort easier. Unfortunately, by this time you have so many pieces of media that it can be quite the chore to go back and create proper tags. So, word of warning. Do it while you don't think you need too.


From Rashmi's Blog post entitled, A Cognitive Analysis of Tagging, we learn that tagging is not as simple as straight categorizing. It is more "drilled down" and specific. Also, "We need to consider not just the most likely category, but also where we are most likely to look for the item at the time of finding. These two questions might lead to conflicting answers, and complicate the categorization process."

Basically with digital artifacts we need to come up with and stick to a categorization scheme. It's not just us personally that use the categories. It's our audience. Putting something in the wrong category can make it "virtually" lost for good. If people can't find it, then how do they know it exists? Tagging allows you to add multiple other "categories" to the object that already is in its real category. You don't have to worry about someone not checking the right spot because now it can be found using several different words. "The challenge for tagging systems is to then do what the brain does - intelligent computation to make sense of these local observations, and an efficient, predictable way to ensure findability."

I was both really excited and really disappointed with the technologies that I took a look at this week. The first was amazing. If you've never played with Prezi you don't know what you're missing. I am now determined to dedicate some time to actually learning this tool and using it for my future presentations. Here it is, embedded for easy viewing.


What a concept and unique way to spice up (or "millenniumize") a typical presentation. We're looking at PowerPoint of the future. The Web 2.0 culture is about reuse, repurpose, remix. I think it's hard to think openly and then try to jot your thoughts down in something like PowerPoint that is so rule-oriented. Prezi, however, breaks these norms. There isn't a "next slide" to be had. Space? Area? Maybe. It's like one big drawing board. The topic, Social Learning, Participation, and Emerging Technologies, has a lot of good info itself. It talked about how people learn through interaction but suggests that typical classrooms were not made for this. They were instead created for a transaction of knowledge from teacher to student with little room for expansion upon ideas. Just like Prezi rethinks PowerPoint it is time for teachers to rethink the time and effort spent inside the classroom.

After my excitement with Prezi, I was a little less than excited with Diigo Webslides. Perhaps I haven't quite yet grasped its full potential, but to me, Diigo Webslides seems like a clunkier version of many easy-to-use screencast tools that just happens to let you make your screencast with Diigo bookmarks. I had trouble on the site even figuring out what to do at first. I'm not sure there's much of a benefit in sharing slides with someone when they already have access to the bookmarks. I also question how long the information and Webslides would remain valid as the site tells me that the presentation actually takes people to the live sites. Live sites change. If I have audio I'm not sure that change is good. I'll be interested to hear from others that have more experience with the Webslides feature though. Interesting concept... just not sure it's for me.

This week for INSYS 498 we watched a VoiceThread that included several quotes and dialogue about Web 2.0 and its use in education.

 


There are many interesting quotes from both instructors/practitioners as well as young students. It is neat to see how a 12-year-old relates to the technology compared to someone of an older generation. They want a challenge. That which used to challenge us is mainstream, day-to-day life for them. We need to realize this and continue to push the envelope. You'll notice that I commented on the first slide. This is because in my job I think a lot about digital literacy. It's not just about making class fun for students while they're in school, but making class relevant. Making it worthwhile to attend. Making it an extension of their learning... something they can look back on and realize that it was a step in preparing them for the future.