Monkey Hunter

The value and potential of a social networking tool like Ning is pretty clear. To some extent, it’s an old idea. When I was in high school, I used my 2400 bps modem to dial up to BBS’s, where groups of people with shared interests could leave messages on forums, play games, share files, etc. As the web became popular, bulletin boards have moved to the web but those tended to be primarily discussion forums. The Ning networks I looked at remind me a little bit of the “old days,” in that they combine forums with other tools and resources.

I explored some of the networks but haven’t found any that I want to join yet. The networks devoted to topics that interest me tended to be pretty quiet. The idea that teachers can gain something by interacting this way seems new enough that it hasn’t really taken off yet. Of course, that means that if we want to be part of it from the beginning, we still have that chance.

I don’t foresee myself trying to use Ning with my students, but I do think it may be a useful way for me to connect to other teachers to share ideas. For me, it will just be a question of finding time to get involved.

Ways my life is better after the Web 2.0 class:

• I’m using Firefox and tabbed browsing.
• I’m getting my news all in one place through Google Reader.
• I’m keeping up with blogs written by people with great ideas about education.
• I’m using wikispaces for my computer science class.
• I have another wiki project in the works that I think will be even better.
• I’m using del.icio.us to store bookmarks and share links with my students.
• I’m even thinking about using PageFlakes (which I initially didn’t like) to collaborate with my department in various ways, all in one place.
• I’m inspired to rework my computer science class to emphasize the skills my students will need to take part in building Web 2.0 instead of just using it.

It’s been fun.  It’ll be nice to have to try to keep up with these assignments anymore, but it was well worth doing.  Even the tools I didn’t like helped me to see the incredible variety of tools out there.  One big lesson I’m taking away from this class is that, if there’s something I want to do, chances are there’s a Web 2.0 site that will let me do it for free, collaboratively.

The Crisis in Darfur page is a great example of what Pageflakes can do in the classroom. You open it up, and you’re bombarded with information from dozens of sources. It’s like being in a newsroom. What a great way to give kids a starting place for research on a topic, and to help them keep track of developments as they happen.

Beyond this example, though, I’m not a big fan of PageFlakes. Most of the examples I looked at (and even that one) were just overwhelming. Three columns of tiny print, with almost no visual cues to help you find the “Flake” you’re looking for. The whole page looks the same, so I have to hunt to find the wikipedia search box or the google search box.

It’s not intuitive to me that you click on the asterisk in the upper right corner to change your settings. I had to make two major changes to make my pageflake tolerable: first, I changed it to a two-column format with one narrow and one wide column. Then I changed the font to a size I could read without straining my eyes. (And I’m only 30– do other people really like those tiny fonts?) This should really be easier. If anyone else wants to do change the font, here’s how:

1. Click on the asterisk in the upper right corner
2. Choose “Change Theme” in the left column
3. Click the “Create Your Own Theme” button
4. Choose the “Advanced” tab
5. Put this text in the “Custom CSS” box:

* { font-size: 10pt; }

Easy, huh?

I can see the appeal of this sort of all-in-one page, but I’m going to stick with a wiki for making pages for my classes.

The potential value of Google Docs became clear to me the first time I used them in this course, as I wrote about in my first blog post.  Since then, I’ve decided that a wiki is a better tool for that idea (helping kids collaborate on lab reports).  But the ideas keep coming.  Google Spreadsheets will be great for collaborating on the data analysis that goes into those lab reports.  A Google Form is the perfect tools for students to do a survey in a statistics class.  I may use one for an alumni survey I’m thinking of doing next year.  A few months ago our Director of Studies sent out scheduling information to the science department in the form of a Google Spreadsheet.

Part of the beauty of Google Docs is that the software is free, and works more or less the same on any computer, regardless of operating system.  Students only need a web browser in order to work from home.

While I was playing with Google Docs this morning and preparing to write this blog post, I got an unpleasant reminder of one of the drawbacks to using any of these Web 2.0 services in a class.  A power surge screwed up my school’s network and I found myself unable to do any work.  The network was back up just in time for my students to work on their wiki pages during 6th period, but it sure slowed me down during my planning period.  I guess it’s important to keep some back-up plans ready for when you unexpectedly get cut off from all your cool tools on the Web.

No one has to try to sell me on YouTube. Ever since I learned about it, it’s one of the first places I go for videos that show things I can’t demonstrate in class. Like this one, showing the vapor cone created by a fast-flying jet:

My students also frequently come across things on YouTube that they want to find out more about or do themselves. A few weeks ago, a student found this video of a Rubens Tube, and we ended up building one ourselves. (Aside: I tried to embed this video, but edublogs chokes whenever I try to embed two videos in the same blog. It screws up the embed code when I save it, and the formatting goes crazy.)

There are plenty of uses for teacher- or student-produced videos. I’ve already made a few videos of demonstrations. I still do the demonstrations live in class, but students can see them again later on the video, and students who were absent can still see them too. YouTube and TeacherTube aren’t strictly necessary for this– I’ve just been posting the videos directly to my class website. But posting them on YouTube might allow students to find them more easily and share them with friends outside of the class.

Thank goodness I never … what was I saying? [clear]

Thank goodness I never tried to be a mumble mumble [clear]

Thank goodness I always tried to oh crap [clear]

Thank goodness I never tried to be a radio broadcaster. I found recording my own podcast frustrating. I guess I should have written out what I was going to say. I ended up having better luck when I used Audacity so I could easily cut out my long pauses and mistakes. My ideas for the classroom were a little contrived, but here they are:

I started subscribing to podcasts earlier in the course when we learned about RSS.  I found some of my favorite shows at npr.org: “Cartalk,” “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” and “This American Life,” and I subscribed to them with iTunes.  Now I don’t have to worry about tuning in at the right time.  I can listen to them when it’s convenient.  I rarely have time to sit down and just listen to something like this, but I can play a podcast while I’m cooking or doing other work around the house.  I also took a few on my iPod to listen to during my road trip over spring break.  It’s perfect for those long stretches of highway through rural areas without any good radio stations.

Today I browsed a few of the educational podcasts listed on the wiki.  I found a few decent ones (I particularly like the movies such as Dr. Carlson’s Science Theater) but at this point I haven’t found anything I want to subscribe to or use in my classroom. Finding worthwhile material is hard for me, since podcasts suffer from the same skimming problems I’ve mentioned earlier.  I don’t doubt that there are good podcasts out there, but I think I’m going to have to stumble on them or read about them on someone’s blog.

Nope, I just don’t see the point of 43 Things.  I keep a list of things I need to do.  It’s in my calendar on my computer, where I can see it and check things off as I do them.  If I wrote about them on a website, I would never get anything done.

What this site does show, though, is that someone out you can put a social networking spin on just about anything.  It makes me want to spend more time thinking about what new, creative things one could do with Web 2.0.  Surely I can come up with a better idea than this.

LibraryThing:  It’s a cool idea.  I can imagine it being useful and fun for people who read a lot of books, are members of book clubs, etc.  I just don’t find time to read that many books, so I can’t see myself using it that much, either in my personal life or as part of my teaching.

I started bookmarking some sites on my del.ici.ous page.  After reading PiLibrarian‘s post
about setting up a “linkroll,” I can see myself using this for my classes.  It would be a very convenient way to make current links available to my students without having to republish my web page each time.  It probably won’t happen this year, but over the summer I’m going to try to find time to redesign my web pages and incorporate some of my new ideas about student blogging and wikis.  Adding a linkroll will be part of that.

I didn’t find searching on del.icio.us to be all that useful.  Google works better for me.  I can imagine subscribing to someone else’s del.icio.us feed, though.  I’m starting to see that one of the benefits of Web 2.0 is as a way of separating the wheat from the chaff among all the content on the web.  By sharing links, blogs, etc., with people you have come to trust to recognize when something is worth reading, you can maximize the amount of “quality time” you spend on the web.