Thing #17

Tagging and social bookmarking with Delicious


Tagging is an open and informal method of categorizing that allows users to associate keywords with online content (webpages, pictures, and posts). Unlike library subject cataloging, which follows a strict set of guidelines (i.e.Library of Congress subject headings), tagging is completely unstructured and freeform, allowing users to create connections between data any way they want.

In the past few weeks, we’ve already explored one site – Flickr --that allows users to take advantage of tagging and we use Diigo in class as a tool to share or Web sites of the Day. For this thing, we want to take a look at how tagging enables people to share their favorite web sites with others by using a social bookmarking site.

There are several social bookmarking sites available (for example Diigo), but one of the most popular and widely-known is called Delicious. Delicious allows you to bookmark a web page and then add tags to categorize your bookmarks. Many users, however, find that the real power of Delicious is in the social networking aspect, which allows you to see how other users have tagged similar links. It also allows you to discover websites on topics that interest you that other people have found. You can think of it as peering into another users’ filing cabinet, but with this powerful bookmarking tool each user's filing cabinet helps to build an expansive knowledge network.

For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a look at Delicious and a couple of other social bookmarking sites to see how this tool could be used in your school.

Discovery Resources
1. Start your exploration of social bookmarking by watching this video by the Common Craft guys.





2. Watch the Delicious tutorial
3. Check out Digg and StumbleUpon - two other social bookmarking sites.
4. Watch a Digg tutorial here.
5. There's a StumbleUpon tutorial also.

Discovery Exercise

1. Review the resources above to get a good overview of social bookmarking - especially the Delicious tutorial.

2. Join Delicious. 

3. Type in the tag "educational technology" in the search box. Explore the results and try clicking on a bookmark that has also been bookmarked by a lot of other users. Can you see the comments they added about this bookmark or the tags they used to categorize this reference?

4. Create a blog post about your experience and thoughts about this tool. Can you see the potential of this tool in the classroom? Or just as an easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere? How can teachers take advantage of social bookmarking sites?


Image by cambodia4kidsorg, http://www.flickr.com/photos/cambodia4kidsorg/260004685/
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Thing #16


Get Organized with Web 2.0 Tools


While it may seem that the Internet is populated by people with endless time on their hands who are out to torpedo our productivity, there really are Web-based applications that can improve productivity--or at least make some things easier.

These applications fall into a variety of categories including online office tools like the spreadsheets and word processing tools we learned about in Thing #13, calendars, start pages, project management tools, to-do lists, personal organizers, sticky notes, online collaboration tools, and much, much more. A search on “online productivity tools” turns up many lists of these tools.
RSS aggregators like Feedly from Thing #10 also help your productivity by helping you keep up with the news and information you need.
In this Thing, we have selected several organizational tools for you to try. These are tools that have use in schools and libraries, as well as at home.

1. Customized start page

A customized home—or “start” page— like the one above, lets you collect and organize all of the information that is important to you on one page that displays whenever you open your browser. Since it is online, you can access your start page from any computer anywhere. Netvibes, UStart, and Symbaloo are three examples. Each lets you choose headlines, weather reports, links to your email and RSS feeds, and dozens of other widgets (or gadgets, in Google) to manage information—or your life. Note that many widgets require a download.

2. Online calendars

Online calendars all offer similar features—add events, get reminders, search, repeat events, coding, etc. and of course, the hallmark of Web 2.0, the ability to share your calendar with others. Google and Yahoo! Calendars integrate with their other services and features. Other calendars include 30 Boxes and Upto.

Discovery Resources:
  • PDFConverter - converts files to portable document format (PDF) so they can be read on any computer
  • Zamzar - This program will covert one file type to another.
Discovery Exercise:
1. Look at the intro pages for each of the customized start page tools and choose one to create your own customized start page. Add, delete, and re-arrange the features and widgets on your new homepage.

2. Create an online calendar or to do list using one of the tools above.

3. Choose one other tool from the lists above to explore.

4. In your blog post for this Thing, address the following questions:
  • Which start page did you choose? Why did that one appeal to you? Will you make it your permanent home page?
  • How can the online calendars be useful to you?
  • Did you find a tool that has some uses for you at the school or at home? Which tool(s) would you recommend to others?
Challenge (optional)
1. Have a big project that you need to complete? Online productivity tools can help with complicated tasks involving multiple people, deadlines, and activities. Compare and contrast these project management services. Write a blog post and let us know what you think.
Project Management Services
2. Explore more tools from any of the lists above. Share any you find especially useful.

Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tidalotter/538731706/
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Thing #15

What in the World is a Wiki?


A wiki is a collaborative website and authoring tool that allows users to easily add, remove and edit content. Wikipedia, the online open-community encyclopedia, is the largest and perhaps the most well known of these knowledge sharing tools, but with benefits that wikis provide, the use and popularity of these tools is exploding.

Some of the benefits that make the use of wikis so attractive are:

  • Anyone (registered or unregistered, if unrestricted) can add, edit or delete content.
  • Tracking tools within wikis allow you to easily keep up on what been changed and by whom.
  • Earlier versions of a page can be rolled back and viewed when needed.
  • Users do not need to know HTML in order to apply styles to text or add and edit content. In most cases simple syntax structure is used.
As the use of wikis has grown over the last few years, schools, libraries, and individuals all over the country have started to use them to collaborate and share knowledge. Among their applications are pathfinder or subject guide wikis, book review wikis, professional conference wikis and even best practices wikis.
Discovery Resources:
Use these resources to learn more about wikis:

Wikis in Plain English





What is a wiki? - from about.com

Discovery Exercise:
1. Take a look at some ways libraries and schools are using wikis.

2. Sandbox is a term that wikis often use to describe the area of the website that should be used for pure play and exploration. Add or edit an entry in the APSU 23 Things Sandbox wiki. Select some of your favorite curriculum ideas from your own blog, copy and paste them into the appropriate page in the 23 Things Sandbox wiki. Add pictures, change the font size, color, format....whatever. This is your chance to experiment.
3. Create a post in your blog about the experience. How might you use a wiki? What did you find interesting about the wiki concept?
Challenge (optional):

Create your own wiki! There are many sites where you can create a free wiki of your own. Here are three that offer ad-free wikis to educators.

PBWorks
Wetpaint
Wikispaces

Choose a topic, create your wiki, add information, then post the link and let us know what you are doing.

[Note: Please remember to include THING# in your heading posts.]
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Thing #14

Go with the Flow











Who loves flowcharts? They can make concepts easy to grasp and solutions easy to find. When describing complex relationships or presenting a variety of choices and outcomes, they're wonderful at keeping important points from getting lost in translation.

Mind maps (an offshoot of the same idea) are similarly useful, though I think they work better for the creator than the reader. They're good at uncovering the relationships between multiple ideas and are not restricted to linear concepts like time and work flow.

So, here are some web-based tools that suitable for educational purposes.

Gliffy (flowchart)


Bubbl.us (mind map)


Flowchart.com (flowchart)


mindmeister (mind map)


Discovery Exercise:
  • Choose at least two of the above (one flowchart, one mind map) and set up an account.
    • Note that flowchart.com will have you request an invitation which should arrive within the day.
  • Explore the differences between mind maps and flowcharts, and consider using (or at least testing) one of these tools with a real project that you may have coming up.
  • Describe the tools you chose and why you chose them on your blog. Discuss how you might use these tools in your future classroom.

(originally posted on Explore...Discover...Play: Learning 2.1 and used here under a Creative Commons license)
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Thing #13

Google Drive



The availability and use of online productivity web-based applications (think word processing and spreadsheets) has exploded over the past two years and for good reasons! These powerful applications provide users with the ability to create and share documents over the internet without the need of installed desktop applications. Some experts speculate that this emerging trend may mean the death to Microsoft Office and other software-based productivity tools, while others think web-based applications have their place, but not in the office. But no matter which side of the office suite platform you side with, on this both sides seem to agree; web-based applications ("apps") have their place.

One large benefit to web-based applications it that they eliminate the need to worry about different software versions or file types as you email documents or move from PC to PC. Another bonus is that they easily accommodate collaboration by allowing multiple users to edit the same file (with versioning) and provide users the ability to easily save and convert documents as multiple file types (including HTML and pdf). And, you can even use many of these tools, such as Google Drive, to author and publish posts to your blog. It’s this type of integration with other web 2.0 tools that also makes web-based apps so appealing.

For this discovery exercise, participants are asked to take a look at Google Drive and a similar tool, Zoho, create a simple document, and then write about your discoveries in your blog.

Discovery Resources:
Google Drive

Discovery Exercise:

  1. Watch this video about Google Drive, and take a  look at the apps described on this page.
  2. From your Gmail account, click on Drive at the top of the page.
  3. Explore all that Google Drive has to offer, and create a test document, drawing, spreadsheet, presentation, and form.
  4. In a a Google Drive document, create a blog post about your discoveries.
  5. Follow these directions to post a link to the document on your blog.
  6. Create a document, spreadsheet, or drawing and share it in your blog
  7. Discuss in your blog how your students might work collaboratively using Google Drive.
  8. Compare Google Drive to another web-based application, Zoho. Which do you prefer? Why?




Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/niallkennedy/374276243/
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Thing #12

Google is Not Just for Searching Anymore


Google is the most famous search engine on the web these days, with the very name becoming a verb in our language. Here's Wikipedia's entry on this phenomenon:

The verb to google (also spelled to Google) refers to using the Google search engine to obtain information on the Web. For example, "Mary googled for recipes." A neologism arousing from the popularity and dominance[1] of the eponymous search engine, the American Dialect Society chose it as the "most useful word of 2002." [2] It was officially added to the Oxford English Dictionary on June 15, 2006,[3] and to the 11th edition of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary in July 2006.[4] The first recorded usage of google used as a verb was on July 8, 1998, by Larry Page himself, who wrote on a mailing list: "Have fun and keep googling!"[5]
Although we generally equate Google with web searching, that's not what this "thing" is about. Google also has a variety of free web tools that can be particularly useful in education. 

 Discovery Resources

 Google Scholar - Search scholarly papers

 Google Trends - Explore past and present search trends

 Google Books - Search the latest index of the world's books. Find millions of great books you can preview or read for free.

Google Alerts - Will e-mail the news to you as it happens. Just enter a search term (news topic, person, event, sports team, etc.) that you would like to keep tabs on. Whenever that topic appears in a news item or on the web, Google Alerts will send you an e-mail.

Google Calendar - Lets you organize your schedule and share it with family and friends.

Google Translate - Translate text, Web pages, or documents


 Google Plus Photos - Similar to Flickr; Google's version of photo sharing.


Discovery Exercise
After looking at each of Google tools, choose two of them to explore further. Try setting up an alert, calendar, translate, or Google Plus photo album and using it. If sharing is an option for the tools you choose, make them public. Blog about your experience with both tools and include a link to your creation. Be sure and include possible educational uses.
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Thing #11

Finding Good Feeds


Now that you have an RSS reader (your Feedly account), you can begin adding other feeds that interest you. Technorati, a blog tracking site, reports that they are currently tracking millions of blogs. Out of all these blogs available, how do you find the ones that are of most value to you? There are several resources that you can use.

First, read this post from The Cool Cat Teacher blog for some great suggestions on how to select good RSS feeds: How to Create Your Circle of the Wise.

Next, explore some other options for locating appropriate RSS feeds.

Discovery Resources
  • When visiting your favorite websites -- look for RSS feed icons (like those on the left above) that indicate the website provides it. Often a feed icon will be displayed somewhere in the navigation bar of the site.

  • Consider Edublogs' award winners

  • Other Search tools that can help you find feeds:

    • Google Blog Search - See what appears when you search "instructional technology" or "Austin Peay State University"

    • Blogsearchengine.org - This search tool allows you to locate recent newsfeed items based upon keyword or phrase searching.
    • Technorati - Technorati is a popular blog finding tool that lets you search for blogs. Since RSS feeds are inherent to all blogging tools, Technorati Blog Search can help you find RSS feeds for topic specific blogs in which you may be interested.
Discovery Exercise
  1. Explore some of the search tools noted above that can help you locate some RSS feeds.

  2. Add any feeds you like to your RSS reader.

  3. Create a blog post about your experience that answers these questions:
    *Which method of finding feeds did you find easiest to use?
    *Which was more confusing?
    *What kind of useful feeds did you find in your travels?
    *Or what kind of unusual ones did you find?
    *What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds?
EXTRA STUFF -- Feed icon information:

In February of 2006, the adoption of a standard feed icon among websites and browsers finally began to assist in stopping the madness and confusion caused by so many variations. So far this icon has been adopted by most websites and browsers.
Internet Explorer has something like this as well. For more information about this emerging new standard, see Feedicons.com
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