Here we are in week 3 and on to our Thing 3: Wikis.
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 likely the most well known of these knowledge-sharing tools. Wikis have many benefits, are easy to use and have many applications.
Some of the benefits of wikis:
Anyone (registered or unregistered, if unrestricted) can add, edit or delete content.
Tracking tools allow you to easily keep up on what has 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.
Multiple pages can be added to one wiki.
For an overview of wikis, watch this video:
Educational uses of wikis are as diverse as the educators using them. Check out these examples:
University of New South Wales: Censorship & Responsibility (course). This wiki was created collaboratively by students taking the course - click links to the entry page of The Theory Book, and you'll see this (along with The Case Study Book) was created collaboratively by the students in the course. If you are interested in seeing how many authors contributed to a particular page, click "History" in the upper right.
The French Revolution Wikipedia and Ant Farm Diaries: Clay Burrell, teaching World History in Seoul South Korea first has his students create a wiki (Wikipedia fashion) for the French Revolution. Then the students adopt characters from the time, and write diary entries the characters. Mr. Burrell's description: "...using the background knowledge compiled in the class mini-Wikipedia, students "write to learn" by writing role-play diaries of characters from the different social classes during the French Revolution. All characters interact with other characters in diaries written during the main events of the French Revolution."Scroll to the bottom of the page to get links to the actual diary entries.
Coe College May Term 2009: The Psychology of Peace & Conflict. Sara Farrell's May Term course used a wiki prior to traveling to Ireland to better understand the inter-relationships of various political and civil conflicts within the country. Students researched and wrote about primary topics, and then combed through each others' research to make connections.
Discovery Exercise:
Go to Wikipedia: look up a topic you have interest in or know something about (it can be anything...knitting, dog care, astronomy, Greek mythology...there are over 3 billion articles, you are sure to find at least one you are interested in or know something about). Do you have anything to add? If so, click "Edit" on the upper left hand side and add your knowledge.
Visit some of the above links to course wikis.
Now, contribute to the 13 Things @ Coe wiki. Read the directions and answer the questions on this wiki page. Then copy & paste your comments from the wiki into a posting on your blog. This will be your official "Thing 3" post.
Yay - we made it through Week One! You've successfully set up your blog and posted. You can officially add the title of "Blogger" to your list.
Thing 2: Cloud Computing (Week Two: June 7-13)
Do you ever find yourself working on a document, spreadsheet or PowerPoint at home and wishing there was an easier way to access it on campus, or vice-versa? Have you ever lost a flash drive (I know our students have!) or had your computer crash, erasing all of your work? Are you tired of emailing yourself the same document again and again? Or have you ever had to work on a project and had to email a document around and around so everyone could edit? So cumbersome! Google Docs is a Web 2.0 application that is part of the new wave of "cloud computing", where documents are saved in a "cloud" (on a server somewhere), and can be accessed from any computer around the world. Watch this video below for a quick explanation:
Because Coe became a "Google" campus last year, you don't even have to create a Google account to use this tool!
To get us started, I've created a document, 13 Things, where I've asked people to add a note about Web 2.0 applications they've used or heard of. I have saved it as a "Public" document that ANYONE can edit, just to make it easier for this exercise, but you can also choose to allow only certain people editing rights. Open this document and add an idea or two.
To access your own Google Docs:
Login to Coe Gmail
Look in the upper left-hand corner of your gmail page. You'll see a link to "Documents"
From here, you can upload a document you already have, or create a new one.
Note: you can also upload/create a spreadsheet or a presentation (PowerPoint).
And it's not just about documents (or spreadsheets or presentations!). You can have a shared calendar or even create forms and share the results within Google's cloud. Think about the possibilities: anything from sharing a grant proposal with the primary writers, to sharing a document with your department or office mates to sign up for Food Day! Your students can use Google Docs for group presentations. If they share with you, you can look at the revision history to see who has contributed what content.
Discovery Exercise:
Add an idea or two to the 13 Things shared document
Open up your Coe Google Calendar (click 'calendar' instead of documents), add at least one event (you can delete this later if you decide not to use this calendar).
Open your Coe Google Documents (directions above). Create a document you can share with someone in your department/office - even if it's just for practice.
Post a short reflection on your blog. Can you see yourself using Google Docs and calendars? Have you used this function already? For what?
Just for fun (optional): Zoho.com is another online application that allows you to create documents, spreadsheets, and slideshows (and more!). You can login using a Facebook or Google (but not Coe Gmail) account.
Scribd is slightly different; it's a social publishing and reading site. So instead of having document shared by a select group of editors, your document can be publicly available for reading. Readers can interact with you by adding comments to your document. I saw the KCRG Online used Scribd to embed a document into one of their recent news stories. In this case, the document was uploaded to Scribd by the Waterloo school district (perhaps in an effort to help educate the public and draw feedback), and KCRG embedded the document into the story. You can often find excerpts of recently released or about to be released books on Scribd.
Check either of these sites out and post about the differences you noticed, and which tool you liked best.
Welcome to 13 Things @ Coe! This is our 12 week overview of what Web 2.0 is really about. Some of you have a good idea (you're probably tweeting about it right now!), but you're looking for some new insights. Some of you haven't got a clue and are sick of hearing all this techie gobbledygook! Whatever your reason for joining, I hope you gain a better understanding of how this concept is changing the way we work, play and even educate.
To set the stage, please watch the "Did You Know? (Shift Happens)" video below. This video is in it's 4th version, and was actually created by one of Iowa's own, Scott McLeod. Scott is a professor at Iowa State, and is a well-known professional in the world of educational technology. I subscribe to his "dangerously!irrelevant" blog. Check it out.
So, we know our students are coming in with cell phones, iPods, laptops, Facebook accounts and more. We understand they are inherently different than we are in their use of technology. They were born with a remote in their hands, and they've never experienced not being connected. Think about the year after you left your parents' home; whether it was to go to college, join the military, moving in with friends and getting a job...most of us did not have a 24-hour-a-day connection to our parents and to our high school peer group. Most of us were not able to punch a button or two and get turn by turn directions, with landmarks, to our new homes or the closest pizza delivery place. Most of us might have been lucky enough to have a phone conversation with a future dorm or bunk mate, but we certainly didn't have access to multiple photo albums, a history of daily quips and comments, and insight into his or her likes/dislikes and friends. Author Marc Prensky ("Digital Natives/Digital Immigrants") calls us immigrants into this land of technology. Our younger counterparts, the digital natives, have spoken the language (technology) from birth. We can learn it, we can even master it, but we'll always have an accent, because we are, of course immigrants.
Whether you buy that or not, one thing we can't deny is the effect these technologies have on the economy. Personally, you have probably invested in a cell phone and the accompanying service package. Perhaps you have cable TV and a cable modem at your house. How did you choose these products? The video below, Social Media Revolution, is based on a book called Socialnomics.
Now that we've got some background and insight, let's get started!
THING 1: Building Your Blog You'll use your blog to record your discoveries as you progress through the 13 Things. I recommend you use Blogger*, a popular free online blog hosting service that is easy to use.
Create a blog using Blogger takes just three steps:
Create an account. Use your Coe email address (or a personal email, it doesn't matter). The "Display Name" can be anything you want. How you choose to identify yourself on your blog is your choice. You can blog under a screen name, anonymously, or as yourself.
Name your blog. Be creative.
Select your template.
Once you've created your blog here are two important things to know:
To add posts: the interface you will use to add posts, edit or change the set-up of your blog is accessed at http://www.blogger.com. Be sure to write down your login and password.
To view your blog: Your blog address is http://(xxxx).blogspot.com (xxxx)=the unique identifier (name) you entered in Step 2. Be sure to also write down your blog address.
If you run into questions or would like more information about blogs and using Blogger, check out Blogger's Quick Tutorial (just follow the orange arrows to learn more).Discovery Exercise:
Get your blog set up
Add TWO posts (I know, this is a long one...the next Thing will be shorter, I promise!)
a) Your first post: Write about anything you wish. You might explain why you are participating in 13 Things @ Coe, or about your previous experiences.
b) Your second entry: Blog about what interests you about Web 2.0. Watch the above videos for inspiration.
Email me (lstrosch@coe.edu) the name of your blog's address (for instance, this blog is coe13things@blogspot.com)
*Use of Blogger is only a recommendation. If there is another blog hosting site with which you are more comfortable, please feel free to use it.
