etc@bmc
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Feelings of Inadequacy
I must apologize, dear readers, for the lack of new posts on the ETC blog since Laura's departure. The problem is that none of us interns really have anything informative or intelligent to write about.
But that doesn't mean we don't have interesting offerings for you. Today, whilst browsing the interweb, I stumbled upon indiepodder.org, which lists thousands of new podcasts. While perusing the recent updates, I came across this hilarious podcast, courtesy of asininepoetry.com.
Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. If not, you can't blame an intern for trying.
But that doesn't mean we don't have interesting offerings for you. Today, whilst browsing the interweb, I stumbled upon indiepodder.org, which lists thousands of new podcasts. While perusing the recent updates, I came across this hilarious podcast, courtesy of asininepoetry.com.
Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. If not, you can't blame an intern for trying.
Excitement
Today everyone in Guild had to evacuate the building because (as I understand it) some construction workers at Dalton broke a gas main.
While Cathy ran around freaking out telling everyone that they had to "GET OUT, NOW!" the interns sat at their desks amidst buzzing fire alarms. Finally they got up and left the building, but not before taking their laptops with them.
The building is now clear, but still permeated with fumes. Apparently they're even stronger downstairs... I think the ETC crew has relocated for the day.
Oh, what an eventful morning! The fun Laura misses out on while she's away...
While Cathy ran around freaking out telling everyone that they had to "GET OUT, NOW!" the interns sat at their desks amidst buzzing fire alarms. Finally they got up and left the building, but not before taking their laptops with them.
The building is now clear, but still permeated with fumes. Apparently they're even stronger downstairs... I think the ETC crew has relocated for the day.
Oh, what an eventful morning! The fun Laura misses out on while she's away...
Friday, July 22, 2005
Going on Vacation
I'm leaving for vacation today, which means, of course, no blogging from me. But . . . not to despair . . . my students will hopefully pick up the baton and carry it on. Look for interesting posts about their last weeks in the SMDI program, their trips to NYC, thoughts on technology or other interesting topics.
I'll see everyone in August!
I'll see everyone in August!
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
New Click and Double-Click
We've created a new episode of Click and Double-Click. While you're at it, check them all out:
July 20--SMDI
May 5--iPod Shuffle
April 22--RSS
March 11--Spyware, Podcasting
Februrary 28--Email, favicons, googling
Also check out the home page for resources and more.
podcasts, click and double-click
July 20--SMDI
May 5--iPod Shuffle
April 22--RSS
March 11--Spyware, Podcasting
Februrary 28--Email, favicons, googling
Also check out the home page for resources and more.
podcasts, click and double-click
Learning Spaces
In about a year, Dalton Hall, the building immediately adjacent to the computing center, will reopen after undergoing a dramatic transformation. It's also possible that in a year's time, Guild Hall (the computing center) will be renovated as well to seamlessly integrate into the new Dalton building. We are at a point now where we are beginning to discuss how the "smart" classrooms will be constructed.
Fortuitously, the Educause Review's latest issue is all about learning spaces. The most interesting article was about the future of learning spaces. Although I am only peripherally involved in the planning for space both in Dalton and Guild, thinking about the future use of "smart" classrooms is not something we do well. It's difficult to do, no doubt about it. Not only do we not know what the future will hold, we are also balancing the needs of faculty and students who may not want every technical gadget in the book--or at least they don't want to have it shoved in their face.
One of the key elements mentioned in all the articles is the need for flexibility and I have been discussing this since I started working here. The space I use for training is completely inflexible. Desks are nailed down; computers are wired (wires are everywhere!). There's no way to have students do group work or even for me to easily move around and monitor student work. The space is temporary, awaiting the completion of Dalton and Guild, but it's still a frustrating experience to teach in there (at least for me).
As a small liberal arts institution, we need the ability to teach both in ways that are considered traditional and in ways that may incorporate more technology into teaching. In a single class, one may have a fairly straightforward discussion, followed by in-class blogging or creating content for the class wiki, followed by beginning work on small group projects. Classes may use video, web sites, powerpoint presentations and "surface writing" whether that be on a whiteboard or a smart board. I think a classroom should allow a faculty member to teach their class any way they wish without having to think too much about the physical setup.
I'm unsure how the Dalton/Guild project will turn out, but from conversations I've already participated in, it seems that some of the principles mentioned in the Educause issue have already been considered, including the need for informal learning spaces within Guild. I think well-designed technology centers and classrooms could go a long way in making the educational experience of students much improved.
smart classrooms
Fortuitously, the Educause Review's latest issue is all about learning spaces. The most interesting article was about the future of learning spaces. Although I am only peripherally involved in the planning for space both in Dalton and Guild, thinking about the future use of "smart" classrooms is not something we do well. It's difficult to do, no doubt about it. Not only do we not know what the future will hold, we are also balancing the needs of faculty and students who may not want every technical gadget in the book--or at least they don't want to have it shoved in their face.
One of the key elements mentioned in all the articles is the need for flexibility and I have been discussing this since I started working here. The space I use for training is completely inflexible. Desks are nailed down; computers are wired (wires are everywhere!). There's no way to have students do group work or even for me to easily move around and monitor student work. The space is temporary, awaiting the completion of Dalton and Guild, but it's still a frustrating experience to teach in there (at least for me).
As a small liberal arts institution, we need the ability to teach both in ways that are considered traditional and in ways that may incorporate more technology into teaching. In a single class, one may have a fairly straightforward discussion, followed by in-class blogging or creating content for the class wiki, followed by beginning work on small group projects. Classes may use video, web sites, powerpoint presentations and "surface writing" whether that be on a whiteboard or a smart board. I think a classroom should allow a faculty member to teach their class any way they wish without having to think too much about the physical setup.
I'm unsure how the Dalton/Guild project will turn out, but from conversations I've already participated in, it seems that some of the principles mentioned in the Educause issue have already been considered, including the need for informal learning spaces within Guild. I think well-designed technology centers and classrooms could go a long way in making the educational experience of students much improved.
smart classrooms
Monday, July 18, 2005
Keeping up--Some vacation reading
I've added what's called a blogroll on the right. Right now, it lists blogs associated with educational or instructional technology. If you're interested in keeping up with trends in teaching with technology, this list is a good place to start. Through these blogs, I find out about events, software, research, and case studies related to instructional technology.
In addition, I've updated the Academic blogs that I track here. I know none of you really need more to read, but consider it vacation reading.
If you're looking for an interesting place to start, you might start with this article in T.H.E. that discusses 20 technology skills educators should know. Do you know all of these things? How much should you know? It's something David Penrose is discussing on his Educause blog and that I think is worth considering. Both the T.H.E. article and David's blog point to tutorials so that you can learn more about each skill. It's something to think about, too, when it comes to local workshops you might be interested in. Don't know how to manage images? Ask for a workshop about it.
In addition, I've updated the Academic blogs that I track here. I know none of you really need more to read, but consider it vacation reading.
If you're looking for an interesting place to start, you might start with this article in T.H.E. that discusses 20 technology skills educators should know. Do you know all of these things? How much should you know? It's something David Penrose is discussing on his Educause blog and that I think is worth considering. Both the T.H.E. article and David's blog point to tutorials so that you can learn more about each skill. It's something to think about, too, when it comes to local workshops you might be interested in. Don't know how to manage images? Ask for a workshop about it.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Social Software Series: Blogs
I saved the best for last! I should say, though, that I've barely scratched the surface of social software. New things are cropping up all the time and there are plenty of hacks for existing services. In the fall, I plan to have a couple of my students helping me to explore new bits of social software and think about ways we might use it. And I didn't even cover things like Facebook and Friendster (social networking software). And maybe there is software out there that you're using that I don't know about. I don't know everything!
So on to blogs. Blogs have been around for a really long time (by internet standards). They have existed in some form since about 1997. They originated primarily as a collection of links, but eventually evolved into a variety of forms, from the collection of links to diary entries to political commentary to cat blogging to knitting blogs and more. Blogger, the software I'm currently using to blog, began in 1999 and was purchased by Google in 2003. Blogging got increasingly popular, both because folks like Blogger were creating tools that made it unneccesary to know html and because there suddenly became more to blog about. The 9/11 attacks generated a lot of blog entries and the wars that followed generated even more entries, including some from the soldiers themselves (known as war bloggers).
The 2004 election also brought blogging into the forefront of many people's consciousness. For the first time, bloggers were given press passes to the political conventions and they were actively pursuing news stories similar to "real" journalists. Though there is still tension between journalists and bloggers, bloggers are increasingly called upon to speak on news shows. CNN has added an "Inside the Blogs" segment to its "Inside Politics" show. It's a little silly to watch people reading blogs on tv, but it shows that mainstream media is increasingly interested in what bloggers have to say. For more about the history of blogs, see the Wikipedia entry.
I'm relatively new to blogging, having only been blogging for a little over a year. I have used blog-like things in classes since about 2001. Doug wrote a course management system that allowed students to create blog-like entries in the discussion area. I was dissatisfied with the short entries that discussion boards encouraged. The result was something that looked a lot like blogs, with expandable entries and comments. And it worked really well. The students wrote longer entries and got interesting feedback from their fellow classmates.
So how do blogs work and what's so great about them? Well, as I mentioned above, it's a medium that can encourage thoughtful (and more lengthy writing). They're very easy to use. Typically blog software requires you to set up an account and name your blog. To start blogging, you usually create a post, or a single time-stamped entry. To create this entry, I clicked a "new post" button and was presented with a web form, which I'm now typing in. When I'm finished, I will click the "publish post" button and this entry will show up on the etc web site. The nice thing about most blog software is you can keep it as simple as you want, using default templates and settings or you can customize to your hearts content. I know some of my students have used their personal blogs to experiment with web design.
So blogs allow you to easily create content that is available to the world (or not; some software allows you the option of keeping content private). But blogging is not just about creating content; it's also about reading that content. If you remember a few entries back, I talked about RSS. Most blog software automatically publishes an RSS feed for your blog. People can then include that feed in their news aggregator and be notified when your blog is updated. I follow about 100 feeds right now, about half are instructional technology- related blogs and the other half are blogs written by faculty and staff at a variety of different kinds of schools. I've followed as many as 200 feeds.
Reading blogs is a lot like going on a journey because despite most of the blogs I read being more journal-like or journalist-like, they still often included links. So I'll read a post, follow a link to an interesting post or article, which includes more links, so I follow those, and pretty soon I've gathered a lot of information about a particular topic. Services like technorati and blogpulse allow you to search for content on a particluar topic and see at a glance all the content related to that topic. Check out what they show for "educational technology". Further, you can interact with the content. Disagree with what someone says? Submit a comment. Find it interesting, want to point out something similar you wrote? Comment. Usually the author will comment back and soon you have a discussion going.
How to use blogs in classes? Lots of ideas can be found at Weblogg-ed (one of my favorite sites). Use it instead of discussion boards. Use them for writing rough drafts of papers. Use them as a reading log. Require students to read blog content and write up their thoughts on their own blog and invite the author to comment. Require students to comment on entries. Or let the students figure out a good purpose for the blog. Here's a hint: lots of students already have blogs.
Bryn Mawr is experimenting with blogs and we have a site set up for faculty, staff and students to use. I was blogging on that site until we decided to switch software. If you'd like to use that site for blogging, simply sign up for a password and start blogging. Let us know what you think.
More info and sites of interest:
Michelle Francl's blog (are you a blogging prof? Let me know!)
Tim Burke (Swarthmore)
A handout on wikis and blogs
My talk on blogging and science
My talk on weblogs and education
Blog, Blogging, education
So on to blogs. Blogs have been around for a really long time (by internet standards). They have existed in some form since about 1997. They originated primarily as a collection of links, but eventually evolved into a variety of forms, from the collection of links to diary entries to political commentary to cat blogging to knitting blogs and more. Blogger, the software I'm currently using to blog, began in 1999 and was purchased by Google in 2003. Blogging got increasingly popular, both because folks like Blogger were creating tools that made it unneccesary to know html and because there suddenly became more to blog about. The 9/11 attacks generated a lot of blog entries and the wars that followed generated even more entries, including some from the soldiers themselves (known as war bloggers).
The 2004 election also brought blogging into the forefront of many people's consciousness. For the first time, bloggers were given press passes to the political conventions and they were actively pursuing news stories similar to "real" journalists. Though there is still tension between journalists and bloggers, bloggers are increasingly called upon to speak on news shows. CNN has added an "Inside the Blogs" segment to its "Inside Politics" show. It's a little silly to watch people reading blogs on tv, but it shows that mainstream media is increasingly interested in what bloggers have to say. For more about the history of blogs, see the Wikipedia entry.
I'm relatively new to blogging, having only been blogging for a little over a year. I have used blog-like things in classes since about 2001. Doug wrote a course management system that allowed students to create blog-like entries in the discussion area. I was dissatisfied with the short entries that discussion boards encouraged. The result was something that looked a lot like blogs, with expandable entries and comments. And it worked really well. The students wrote longer entries and got interesting feedback from their fellow classmates.
So how do blogs work and what's so great about them? Well, as I mentioned above, it's a medium that can encourage thoughtful (and more lengthy writing). They're very easy to use. Typically blog software requires you to set up an account and name your blog. To start blogging, you usually create a post, or a single time-stamped entry. To create this entry, I clicked a "new post" button and was presented with a web form, which I'm now typing in. When I'm finished, I will click the "publish post" button and this entry will show up on the etc web site. The nice thing about most blog software is you can keep it as simple as you want, using default templates and settings or you can customize to your hearts content. I know some of my students have used their personal blogs to experiment with web design.
So blogs allow you to easily create content that is available to the world (or not; some software allows you the option of keeping content private). But blogging is not just about creating content; it's also about reading that content. If you remember a few entries back, I talked about RSS. Most blog software automatically publishes an RSS feed for your blog. People can then include that feed in their news aggregator and be notified when your blog is updated. I follow about 100 feeds right now, about half are instructional technology- related blogs and the other half are blogs written by faculty and staff at a variety of different kinds of schools. I've followed as many as 200 feeds.
Reading blogs is a lot like going on a journey because despite most of the blogs I read being more journal-like or journalist-like, they still often included links. So I'll read a post, follow a link to an interesting post or article, which includes more links, so I follow those, and pretty soon I've gathered a lot of information about a particular topic. Services like technorati and blogpulse allow you to search for content on a particluar topic and see at a glance all the content related to that topic. Check out what they show for "educational technology". Further, you can interact with the content. Disagree with what someone says? Submit a comment. Find it interesting, want to point out something similar you wrote? Comment. Usually the author will comment back and soon you have a discussion going.
How to use blogs in classes? Lots of ideas can be found at Weblogg-ed (one of my favorite sites). Use it instead of discussion boards. Use them for writing rough drafts of papers. Use them as a reading log. Require students to read blog content and write up their thoughts on their own blog and invite the author to comment. Require students to comment on entries. Or let the students figure out a good purpose for the blog. Here's a hint: lots of students already have blogs.
Bryn Mawr is experimenting with blogs and we have a site set up for faculty, staff and students to use. I was blogging on that site until we decided to switch software. If you'd like to use that site for blogging, simply sign up for a password and start blogging. Let us know what you think.
More info and sites of interest:
Michelle Francl's blog (are you a blogging prof? Let me know!)
Tim Burke (Swarthmore)
A handout on wikis and blogs
My talk on blogging and science
My talk on weblogs and education
Blog, Blogging, education
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Social Software Series: Wikis
If you walk into the ETC, you'll see on the whiteboard behind Dave C.'s head the words "Wiki, wiki, wiki . . ." When I interviewed at Bryn Mawr almost 3 years ago, I mentioned wikis as a technology to watch. When asked what a wiki was, I had a difficult time explaining it properly. A wiki, I said, is a web page anyone can edit. This didn't make sense to some on the committee. I could tell by the puzzled looks around the room (though there were some nods). I went on the explain that wikis could be used to create content collaboratively. In fact, I learned about wikis from my husband, Doug, who uses them in all of his classes and for many of his research groups.
My definition of wikis is accurate, that it is a web site that is editable by anyone, but it doesn't quite explain why it is such an interesting bit of social software. The Wikipedia, one of the most amazing uses of this technology out there, offers a thorough definition of wiki and how it works. The thing about wikis is that one relinquishes control over the content (hmm, didn't I mention this control issue before?) But, at the same time, you may have hundreds of editorial eyes looking at that content and making sure its accurate. And its easy to change. If one of those sets of eyes sees a mistake, they can fix it immediately and not have to go through a lengthy editorial process. Want to see how this works? Watch the screencast (.mov; 40 megs) of the London bombings entry being created (or at least the first 900 or so edits; ultimately there were thousands).
How to use this in education, aside from a simple way to create a syllabus? In yesterday's Chronicle (subscription required), comes one answer. One professor used wiki technology to energize discussions about romantic poetry. Rather than use a discussion board, which is rather static and not very interconnected, he opted for a wiki. The students wrote about specific bits of language, linking straight from a full text of a poem. The result is here and it's pretty interesting. I'm amazed by the depth of information here and lots of interlinking between information so that students learn to make connections between the texts they're studying rather than view them as isolated from any context.
Wikis are also used in writing classes, both creative and traditional composition. Instead of using traditional word-processing software, students can use a wiki, which makes them look at writing differently, according to M.C. Morgan, a professor of English at Bemidji State. Wikis can encourage revision, peer editing, and making connections between earlier work and later work.
If you're interested in trying a wiki at Bryn Mawr, you might test the waters with the wiki software included in Blackboard. It's simple to use. Instructions for using it can be found here. If you want to try a more traditional wiki software, just e-mail me (lblanken {at} brynmawr {dot} edu).
wiki, education
My definition of wikis is accurate, that it is a web site that is editable by anyone, but it doesn't quite explain why it is such an interesting bit of social software. The Wikipedia, one of the most amazing uses of this technology out there, offers a thorough definition of wiki and how it works. The thing about wikis is that one relinquishes control over the content (hmm, didn't I mention this control issue before?) But, at the same time, you may have hundreds of editorial eyes looking at that content and making sure its accurate. And its easy to change. If one of those sets of eyes sees a mistake, they can fix it immediately and not have to go through a lengthy editorial process. Want to see how this works? Watch the screencast (.mov; 40 megs) of the London bombings entry being created (or at least the first 900 or so edits; ultimately there were thousands).
How to use this in education, aside from a simple way to create a syllabus? In yesterday's Chronicle (subscription required), comes one answer. One professor used wiki technology to energize discussions about romantic poetry. Rather than use a discussion board, which is rather static and not very interconnected, he opted for a wiki. The students wrote about specific bits of language, linking straight from a full text of a poem. The result is here and it's pretty interesting. I'm amazed by the depth of information here and lots of interlinking between information so that students learn to make connections between the texts they're studying rather than view them as isolated from any context.
Wikis are also used in writing classes, both creative and traditional composition. Instead of using traditional word-processing software, students can use a wiki, which makes them look at writing differently, according to M.C. Morgan, a professor of English at Bemidji State. Wikis can encourage revision, peer editing, and making connections between earlier work and later work.
If you're interested in trying a wiki at Bryn Mawr, you might test the waters with the wiki software included in Blackboard. It's simple to use. Instructions for using it can be found here. If you want to try a more traditional wiki software, just e-mail me (lblanken {at} brynmawr {dot} edu).
wiki, education
Monday, July 11, 2005
Social Software Series: Social Bookmarking
Do you still bookmark web pages in your browser? I don't. Why? Well, because I use at least three different computers and it's difficult to sync those bookmarks across those computers. If you're strictly a Mac/Safari user and have a .Mac account, you can sync your Safari bookmarks between computers. But, that leaves out a lot of us. I also tend to bookmark things I run into during the day to read later when I get home. Before social bookmarking, I would have to email these to myself or jot them down, not exactly efficient.
What is social bookmarking? Bascially, it's the process of saving web pages to the web, categorzing them using tagging and then sharing (or not) with others. I personally use a service called Furl. Like most bookmarking tools, I can add a tool to my my browser's toolbar that allows me to "furl" a website with one click. So I might be reading an article, decide it's worth saving and click the furl button on my browser and add it to my list. I then have access to that list from any computer connected to the internet. I can rate my links, categorize them, make notes about them, or pull a snippet to remind me of the content. In addition, furl creates a copy of the page so if the link goes dead, I still have the content. The social aspect comes from two sources. First, I share my list with the public. Anyone can see my list (as you can see by clicking on the link to it above). In addition, on many individual links, I am presented with "recommendations." Furl tells me what other people who "furled" the link have also saved and I might find related articles to add to my collection. Or I can see the collections of the people who furled the same link I did. It's likely their interests are similar. Using furl has really helped me collect information and organize it.
There are other services out there, of course. The Wikipedia has a pretty complete list. Other services I've used include del.icio.us and jots. Of interest to academics is CiteULike, a way of collecting academic articles. Not only can you collect your articles, you can format the citation properly and you can find other articles in the same way one does with Furl, by looking at an individual link or by searching. And for those of you in the sciences, you can import from BibTex.
Like RSS, social bookmarking services have changed the way I use the web. As for its application to education, you could collect articles for a particular class, incorporate that list into your Blackboard course or course web site, making it easy for your students to find that list. You could also have your students use a service to either find articles or collect them. It's a good way to learn how to search and evaluate sources in addition to using library sources. Most of the services allow you to generate separate feeds for each topic or tag, so you could organize articles for your students in that way also. Many services allow for commenting (I know Furl does), so you could require students to make comments on particular articles. Lots of possibilities.
social bookmarking, education
What is social bookmarking? Bascially, it's the process of saving web pages to the web, categorzing them using tagging and then sharing (or not) with others. I personally use a service called Furl. Like most bookmarking tools, I can add a tool to my my browser's toolbar that allows me to "furl" a website with one click. So I might be reading an article, decide it's worth saving and click the furl button on my browser and add it to my list. I then have access to that list from any computer connected to the internet. I can rate my links, categorize them, make notes about them, or pull a snippet to remind me of the content. In addition, furl creates a copy of the page so if the link goes dead, I still have the content. The social aspect comes from two sources. First, I share my list with the public. Anyone can see my list (as you can see by clicking on the link to it above). In addition, on many individual links, I am presented with "recommendations." Furl tells me what other people who "furled" the link have also saved and I might find related articles to add to my collection. Or I can see the collections of the people who furled the same link I did. It's likely their interests are similar. Using furl has really helped me collect information and organize it.
There are other services out there, of course. The Wikipedia has a pretty complete list. Other services I've used include del.icio.us and jots. Of interest to academics is CiteULike, a way of collecting academic articles. Not only can you collect your articles, you can format the citation properly and you can find other articles in the same way one does with Furl, by looking at an individual link or by searching. And for those of you in the sciences, you can import from BibTex.
Like RSS, social bookmarking services have changed the way I use the web. As for its application to education, you could collect articles for a particular class, incorporate that list into your Blackboard course or course web site, making it easy for your students to find that list. You could also have your students use a service to either find articles or collect them. It's a good way to learn how to search and evaluate sources in addition to using library sources. Most of the services allow you to generate separate feeds for each topic or tag, so you could organize articles for your students in that way also. Many services allow for commenting (I know Furl does), so you could require students to make comments on particular articles. Lots of possibilities.
social bookmarking, education
Friday, July 08, 2005
Social Software Series: Why Flickr is Great!
I briefly pointed you to Flickr yesterday to see the pool of photos related to yesterday's tragic bombing. Actually, there are several pools set up now and the media is using some of these photos, especially the ones taken underground with cellphones. How does Flickr work and how can it be useful to education?
I started using Flickr to publish photos to my blog. I have a personal blog and I didn't think it would be kosher to use Bryn Mawr web space to host my personal photos. I set up an account and began uploading. Flickr is completely simple to use. It's free (though I now use their paid service). You can upload pictures from your computer, from your camera, or from your cellphone (even while you're in the middle of the London tube). It's a great place to store and organize your photos. You can use the Organizr to create sets, which can then be displayed as slideshows.
Here's an example of a set created for an art history class. You can view the set as a slideshow, which can play automatically or you can click through it manually. If you take a look at a single picture, you can begin to see the real potential for this technology. Flickr allows you to select areas and add notes, a great tool for analyzing art! In this picture, you can see a number of areas have notes that when you move your mouse over them. The notes were added by both the students and the instructor. Further, the students have commented on the picture, prompted by specific questions from the instructor. The students can then actively engage with the image and think about and discuss specific aspects. (link via Weblogg-ed)
Besides allowing you to create your own image sets and slideshows, you can also take advantage of Flickr's tagging system to find images to use as content. You can browse tags or you can search both tags and titles and descriptions. For example, I did a search for photos tagged with "Philadelphia" and "buildings" to find pictures of Philadelphia buildings that might be used in a Cities or history of Philadelphia class. The result is probably too broad to be of use but you could narrow your search by looking for a particular building, perhaps city hall. It takes a little bit of work to do these searches, to figure out how images might be tagged. Clicking on a particular photo will also reveal all its tags, which might give you more ideas for how to narrow your search--much the same way subject headings in a library search lead you down the right path.
Much of the content is covered by a Creative Commons license that allows for non-commercial use. When you click on a specific image, the license is displayed on the bottom right. The default is "All Rights Reserved," so if you really like a photo and want to use it, contact the creator and ask. One of my students did this this summer and got permission to use a photo for a web site.
You can also follow a particular tag or person's photos using RSS. Here's the RSS feed for Philadelphia, which will look like jibberish in anything but a reader, but can be included in a web page using some of the available display tools. There are lots of tools available to help you take advantage of Flickr. Quick Online Tips has a continually updated post with tips and links to other resources.
I think there's a lot of potential for something like Flickr in education. Though we have ways of using images currently within Blackboard or through Visual Resources, Flickr is a lightweight and simple tool that people can use to quickly add images to their courses. And it gives you lots of ideas for how to use and improve existing tools.
flickr, social software
I started using Flickr to publish photos to my blog. I have a personal blog and I didn't think it would be kosher to use Bryn Mawr web space to host my personal photos. I set up an account and began uploading. Flickr is completely simple to use. It's free (though I now use their paid service). You can upload pictures from your computer, from your camera, or from your cellphone (even while you're in the middle of the London tube). It's a great place to store and organize your photos. You can use the Organizr to create sets, which can then be displayed as slideshows.
Here's an example of a set created for an art history class. You can view the set as a slideshow, which can play automatically or you can click through it manually. If you take a look at a single picture, you can begin to see the real potential for this technology. Flickr allows you to select areas and add notes, a great tool for analyzing art! In this picture, you can see a number of areas have notes that when you move your mouse over them. The notes were added by both the students and the instructor. Further, the students have commented on the picture, prompted by specific questions from the instructor. The students can then actively engage with the image and think about and discuss specific aspects. (link via Weblogg-ed)
Besides allowing you to create your own image sets and slideshows, you can also take advantage of Flickr's tagging system to find images to use as content. You can browse tags or you can search both tags and titles and descriptions. For example, I did a search for photos tagged with "Philadelphia" and "buildings" to find pictures of Philadelphia buildings that might be used in a Cities or history of Philadelphia class. The result is probably too broad to be of use but you could narrow your search by looking for a particular building, perhaps city hall. It takes a little bit of work to do these searches, to figure out how images might be tagged. Clicking on a particular photo will also reveal all its tags, which might give you more ideas for how to narrow your search--much the same way subject headings in a library search lead you down the right path.
Much of the content is covered by a Creative Commons license that allows for non-commercial use. When you click on a specific image, the license is displayed on the bottom right. The default is "All Rights Reserved," so if you really like a photo and want to use it, contact the creator and ask. One of my students did this this summer and got permission to use a photo for a web site.
You can also follow a particular tag or person's photos using RSS. Here's the RSS feed for Philadelphia, which will look like jibberish in anything but a reader, but can be included in a web page using some of the available display tools. There are lots of tools available to help you take advantage of Flickr. Quick Online Tips has a continually updated post with tips and links to other resources.
I think there's a lot of potential for something like Flickr in education. Though we have ways of using images currently within Blackboard or through Visual Resources, Flickr is a lightweight and simple tool that people can use to quickly add images to their courses. And it gives you lots of ideas for how to use and improve existing tools.
flickr, social software
Thursday, July 07, 2005
The Power of Social Software
A demonstration of the power of social software: a Flickr pool of photos from the London bombings. To watch it as a slideshow, click "View as Slideshow." I'll explain more about how this works tomorrow.
social software, london bombing
social software, london bombing
Social Software Series: RSS
RSS is not necessarily a phenomenon strictly of the social software movement, but it has become a key element of it, especially in the way it enables connections to be made between sources and allows one to follow "feeds" from different sources very easily. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary, depending on who you talk to. Neither really quite describes what RSS is or why it's such a cool technology. Basically RSS is a way of interpreting a web site so that it can be read in what's known as News Aggregators. These Aggregators display each site as a feed, interpreting certain elements to show up in your reader as headlines or text. The effect is much like reading email. Generally, along one side is a list of sites. Sites that have been updated will show up as bold, much like new emails. Clicking on a site shows all the new headlines and summaries of those stories underneath the headlines. Using a reader makes it easy for you to keep up with news sites and blogs because you are alerted when a site is updated rather than having to simply visit every site every day. For more information about RSS and readers and how they work, listen to our podcast or view the screencast of how to use a reader. The wikipedia also has good information on RSS and all its permutations.
How does this relate to social software? Almost all social software programs generate an RSS feed and also will generate a simple script that allows you to include that feed in a web page in addition to following it through an aggregator. So, for example, I'm interested in letting others know what kinds of information I've found under the topic of "blogging and education," so I have included the feed on this site (on the right). Others might decide that I tend to find interesting items and so "subscribe" to my feed or include it on their own site. Or, if you look at the main ETC site, you see I've included the feed for this blog there and I plan to add it to Blackboard as well, so that this information can appear in multiple places and be continually updated without any extra work on my part. And because just the headlines are usually displayed, the feed doesn't take up much space and you can quickly see if you're interested in reading the full article, saving you time in the end. As I discuss other software, I'll be showing how this can be taken advantage of to its fullest, including following specific tags.
RSS has quite honestly changed how I surf the web. I can follow news sites and blogs and other web sources in one place, allowing me to track a lot more information. I can also track the information I collect in the same place. RSS is also being used in calendars, to-do lists, and project management. There's a lot of potential for collaboration and sharing via RSS.
social software, rss
How does this relate to social software? Almost all social software programs generate an RSS feed and also will generate a simple script that allows you to include that feed in a web page in addition to following it through an aggregator. So, for example, I'm interested in letting others know what kinds of information I've found under the topic of "blogging and education," so I have included the feed on this site (on the right). Others might decide that I tend to find interesting items and so "subscribe" to my feed or include it on their own site. Or, if you look at the main ETC site, you see I've included the feed for this blog there and I plan to add it to Blackboard as well, so that this information can appear in multiple places and be continually updated without any extra work on my part. And because just the headlines are usually displayed, the feed doesn't take up much space and you can quickly see if you're interested in reading the full article, saving you time in the end. As I discuss other software, I'll be showing how this can be taken advantage of to its fullest, including following specific tags.
RSS has quite honestly changed how I surf the web. I can follow news sites and blogs and other web sources in one place, allowing me to track a lot more information. I can also track the information I collect in the same place. RSS is also being used in calendars, to-do lists, and project management. There's a lot of potential for collaboration and sharing via RSS.
social software, rss
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Miami
Due to our amazing sleuthing skills, we are now planning to go to Miami. For free. The reason for this is being edited for the purposes of a professional blog.
SMDI Students are so great!
Just finished a meeting with the smdi students. They are so great! They've learned so much over the summer so far. Their projects seem to be coming along and I know things are going to be hectic toward the end, but I think we'll have some nice projects by the end.
One thing I was thinking about was how important I think it is for women to tackle these technology projects and learn along the way. Unfortunately, the number of women in the IT field is decreasing and this program is one way for women to learn about one aspect of the IT field. We've had lots of our "graduates" go on to work in web design, e-commerce, or educational technology. Personally, I think the well-rounded knowledge that liberal arts graduates bring to the IT field is important. They can think about how technology will be used by non-technologists and bring fresh ideas to the table.
I hope some of this year's students end up in the IT field. Even if this experience simply adds to their college experience, I think it's worth it! And they've done such good work and as always, I learn just as much from them as they learn from us.
One thing I was thinking about was how important I think it is for women to tackle these technology projects and learn along the way. Unfortunately, the number of women in the IT field is decreasing and this program is one way for women to learn about one aspect of the IT field. We've had lots of our "graduates" go on to work in web design, e-commerce, or educational technology. Personally, I think the well-rounded knowledge that liberal arts graduates bring to the IT field is important. They can think about how technology will be used by non-technologists and bring fresh ideas to the table.
I hope some of this year's students end up in the IT field. Even if this experience simply adds to their college experience, I think it's worth it! And they've done such good work and as always, I learn just as much from them as they learn from us.
Social Software Series: Tagging
Before launching into some specific software, I want to cover a few key concepts. The first is tagging. Here's what the Wikipedia has to say about tags:
Lots of social software makes use of tags to categorize information. Those of you in the library field or used to making use of libraries are used to information being categorized using a controlled vocabulary--Library of Congress keywords and subjects, for example. The thing about tags is that the exact tags are determined by individual users. There are no lists to choose from; there is no central control. Another term often used for this way of organizing information is folksonomy. While it's true that this can lead to miscategorization, making information hard to find, I would argue that it's no harder than finding information in the library.
To the left, you'll see and example of what tagging typically looks like. This particular image comes from Technorati's tagging system, which categorizes blog posts. The larger the tag, the more popular it is. Clicking on a tag will take you to all the posts with that tag. You will also see related tags and can keep following the links at will. Go ahead, try it. Just come back when you're done.
Librarians are not going to like what I'm about to say. And I should preface this by saying that I love libraries. I am a veteran library user, having done all the research for my dissertation using both online and offline sources and becoming very familiar with using databases and library search tools. It still takes a long time to find good information. The interfaces of library search tools are not very intuitive. I have to guess what vocabulary will give me the best results. Doing a keyword search often gives too much information, but if I do a subject search I have to know what words to use. Now, there are plenty of librarians and libraries interested in the idea of tagging and letting regular folk do the tagging.
The great potential of tagging is not only finding information through the use of tags, but organizing information for yourself using tags. How many of your computer files are categorized? If you're like me, not many. And tags don't care whether you're tagging photos, music, blog posts, peer-reviewed articles, web sites, newspaper articles, or videos. If you're doing research in an area, you can collect all different kinds of information under one tag or several related tags. If you want to find out more about tagging and what people think about and how they're using it, start with the Technorati tag, folksonomy.
tags: folksonomy, Tags, tagging
Tags are pieces of information separate from, but related to, an object. In the practice of collaborative categorization using freely chosen keywords, tags are descriptors that individuals assign to objects.
Lots of social software makes use of tags to categorize information. Those of you in the library field or used to making use of libraries are used to information being categorized using a controlled vocabulary--Library of Congress keywords and subjects, for example. The thing about tags is that the exact tags are determined by individual users. There are no lists to choose from; there is no central control. Another term often used for this way of organizing information is folksonomy. While it's true that this can lead to miscategorization, making information hard to find, I would argue that it's no harder than finding information in the library.
To the left, you'll see and example of what tagging typically looks like. This particular image comes from Technorati's tagging system, which categorizes blog posts. The larger the tag, the more popular it is. Clicking on a tag will take you to all the posts with that tag. You will also see related tags and can keep following the links at will. Go ahead, try it. Just come back when you're done.Librarians are not going to like what I'm about to say. And I should preface this by saying that I love libraries. I am a veteran library user, having done all the research for my dissertation using both online and offline sources and becoming very familiar with using databases and library search tools. It still takes a long time to find good information. The interfaces of library search tools are not very intuitive. I have to guess what vocabulary will give me the best results. Doing a keyword search often gives too much information, but if I do a subject search I have to know what words to use. Now, there are plenty of librarians and libraries interested in the idea of tagging and letting regular folk do the tagging.
The great potential of tagging is not only finding information through the use of tags, but organizing information for yourself using tags. How many of your computer files are categorized? If you're like me, not many. And tags don't care whether you're tagging photos, music, blog posts, peer-reviewed articles, web sites, newspaper articles, or videos. If you're doing research in an area, you can collect all different kinds of information under one tag or several related tags. If you want to find out more about tagging and what people think about and how they're using it, start with the Technorati tag, folksonomy.
tags: folksonomy, Tags, tagging
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Social Software Series: Intro
I'm planning a series of posts on different social software and how I use and what potential I see it having for education. I invite you to submit your uses at any time and suggest other software, other uses. That's the great thing about social software: it allows for audience participation!
First, I thought some definitions were in order. Going to one of my favorite demonstrations of social software, the Wikipedia, one finds the definition of social software as follows:
A simpler definition might be simply, as Shirky also says, "software that lets people connect." A very thorough history of the evolving of social software can be found on Life with Alacrity. Allen traces the roots of social software back as far as the 40s with ideas of as yet to be conceived computer devices, through the internet and beyond. It's a good way to start thinking about social software. Another great article on social software is Shirky's "Social Software and the Politics of Groups." Shirky considers there the social aspects of the software--how our social dynamics and group behavior affect how we interact with the software and how that software is developed.
Just as there are lots of different ways of interacting with people in the "real" world, there are just as many ways to interact with people online. Think about, for example, sharing your vacation or wedding photos with friends and family. Pre-internet, you might have hauled around a big album or packets of pictures and sat next to your friends or family and leafed through the album and explained each one. Or perhaps, you had slides. Now, I don't want to begrudge anyone their right to show off their photos, but sometimes, you just don't want to interact with people in this way and you'd like to view the pictures on your own time at your own pace without their running commentary. A tool like Flickr allows for that. And there are many more examples.
And just because the word "social" is in the name doesn't mean that the uses of this type of software is strictly for fun and social activity, although that's certainly part of its appeal. For example, I am writing in a blog right now, software that is considered "social" and it is fun, but I'm writing for work. I'm sharing my thoughts and pertinent information with my constituent community and beyond, something I might do via a newsletter or email. Because it's fun, I'm more likely to actually write something. I might share information that someone at another university finds useful (and if my logs are correct, they do). Someone here at Bryn Mawr might read it and decide to call and ask about something that's a tangent to a post I've written here. When things are fun to use, people use them and find ways to make them useful.
Another aspect of social software is the idea of emergence. And the way I view this in two ways. One is something that Shirky mentions in his "Politics of Groups" article above. That is, the software is often developed for one thing, but ends up being used for something slightly different. Uses of the software emerge as people use it, and if it's open source, hack it, to suit their purposes. Perhaps more importantly, groups and connections emerge through use of social software. An example might be my personal blog. I began a blog, then I began reading other academeic blogs and linking to them. The writers of those blogs discovered my links, started reading my blog and linking to me. Eventually, I became part of an interconnected community of academics and former academics. These connections evolved. And new ones are being created all the time.
Over the next few days, I'll explain how to use some of the social software tools I use and how you might use them in teaching and research or how you might have your students make use of them for their own work.
social software, higher education
First, I thought some definitions were in order. Going to one of my favorite demonstrations of social software, the Wikipedia, one finds the definition of social software as follows:
Social software lets people rendezvous, connect or collaborate by use of a computer network. The term came into more common usage in 2002, largely credited to Clay Shirky who organized a "Social Software Summit" in November of that year. Shirky defines social software as "stuff that gets spammed."
A simpler definition might be simply, as Shirky also says, "software that lets people connect." A very thorough history of the evolving of social software can be found on Life with Alacrity. Allen traces the roots of social software back as far as the 40s with ideas of as yet to be conceived computer devices, through the internet and beyond. It's a good way to start thinking about social software. Another great article on social software is Shirky's "Social Software and the Politics of Groups." Shirky considers there the social aspects of the software--how our social dynamics and group behavior affect how we interact with the software and how that software is developed.
Just as there are lots of different ways of interacting with people in the "real" world, there are just as many ways to interact with people online. Think about, for example, sharing your vacation or wedding photos with friends and family. Pre-internet, you might have hauled around a big album or packets of pictures and sat next to your friends or family and leafed through the album and explained each one. Or perhaps, you had slides. Now, I don't want to begrudge anyone their right to show off their photos, but sometimes, you just don't want to interact with people in this way and you'd like to view the pictures on your own time at your own pace without their running commentary. A tool like Flickr allows for that. And there are many more examples.
And just because the word "social" is in the name doesn't mean that the uses of this type of software is strictly for fun and social activity, although that's certainly part of its appeal. For example, I am writing in a blog right now, software that is considered "social" and it is fun, but I'm writing for work. I'm sharing my thoughts and pertinent information with my constituent community and beyond, something I might do via a newsletter or email. Because it's fun, I'm more likely to actually write something. I might share information that someone at another university finds useful (and if my logs are correct, they do). Someone here at Bryn Mawr might read it and decide to call and ask about something that's a tangent to a post I've written here. When things are fun to use, people use them and find ways to make them useful.
Another aspect of social software is the idea of emergence. And the way I view this in two ways. One is something that Shirky mentions in his "Politics of Groups" article above. That is, the software is often developed for one thing, but ends up being used for something slightly different. Uses of the software emerge as people use it, and if it's open source, hack it, to suit their purposes. Perhaps more importantly, groups and connections emerge through use of social software. An example might be my personal blog. I began a blog, then I began reading other academeic blogs and linking to them. The writers of those blogs discovered my links, started reading my blog and linking to me. Eventually, I became part of an interconnected community of academics and former academics. These connections evolved. And new ones are being created all the time.
Over the next few days, I'll explain how to use some of the social software tools I use and how you might use them in teaching and research or how you might have your students make use of them for their own work.
social software, higher education
