Tales from the Web 2.0 Zone

Web 2.0

For many of us early adopters of technology it has a nice kind of ring to it, as if our visions of future collaborative practices had at last come out of beta. For others, the moniker might bring sardonic snickers, as it parades its ostensible newness like the proverbial emperor. Others, having slept through Web 1.0, may assure themselves daily that it’s just another internet fad, destined to disappear after its allotted 15 minutes. Whatever our attitudes, it constitutes an enormous part of our students’ lives and experiences, and we would do well to at least take the time to look at it. To that end, I invite everyone to contribute their success stories (and their perhaps not-quite-as-successful stories) about their encounters of the 2-ish kind with current web 2.0 apps. Feel free to use the comments feature to simply respond to some of the ideas here!

What’s What with Web 2.0

No one is still quite sure what exactly web 2.0 is or means, but we all know that it sounds great! Service providers and retailers hawk their web 2.0 capabilities as if waving that magical wand will call forth a multitude of users—and it often does. The geeky and the nerdy among us know that the term was first coined during a meeting between O'Reilly and MediaLive International in 2004 as a way to differentiate the pre-dot.com internet from the domains remains that remained after the dot.com bust. To try to pin down this slithery concept further, consider the difference between Netscape (the king of web 1.0) and Google, the beloved search engine and wizard that customizes and tailors each of our surfing experiences. “Web 2.0,” then, is a way to refer to a change in the philosophy of the web, a move to seeing the web as a platform upon which to work and play collaboratively.

Google, open-source software, social networks, blogs, content managements systems (think Wikipedia), social bookmarking sites such as Del.icio.us and Technorati, YouTube , Flickr, E-bay, Facebook, all share the same fundamental approach; in
O’Reilly’s words and map, “they have embraced the power of the web to harness collective intelligence.”

Harnessing Collective Intelligence

So the web has finally arrived to a place so many of us envisioned in the early days of the internet, a place and space to work and play together. The web has morphed to a platform upon which to collaborate in building knowledge and sharing knowledge to create a more democratic, open exchange of perspectives. Over the next few weeks, I plan to take a closer look at some of these services, delving more deeply into the possibilities these new spaces offer for our classrooms. I hope these forays into the wilds of 2.0 will challenge us to again rethink our pedagogies in light of the developing technologies.

Video Downloader

Looking to record, convert, download streaming video or video from Google or YouTube? I found a great service to do all of these! It’s Video Downloader. Using the tools available I captured a video from YouTube and converted it so that it could be embedded in a PowerPoint presentation. The Video Downloader can be used on the web or you can download an extension for Firefox. I used the Firefox extension and found it to be quick and easy to use.

Free Screen Recording Software

CamStudio is a powerful and easy program to create tutorials and training documents by recording mouse movements and keystrokes. Rather than creating a file that contains detailed instructions for performing tasks in Word, for example, CamStudio allows you to create a "movie." CamStudio will also allow you to save your training movie in *avi and *.swf formats so you can post it on the web. I plan to create some of these training modules for my students' use with non-Microsoft programs, thus recovering the 2-3 class sessions I generally must devote to learning new software.

Category: Other Cool Stuff_

101, 102, 103, 104

That last post was #100 in our ongoing effort to share the free and the fabulous. Here's some more free stuff worth looking at:

25 best free quality fonts
Free image searching from FirstGov -- a good way to locate those copyright friendly government pictures (think NASA, Library of Congress, and read the fine print for reproduction permissions)
111 free Photoshop plug-ins
500 free music collections from Internet Archive

Category: Images_, Fonts_, Audio_

Speaking of PDFs

PDFpad is a sort of online stationery stop that lets you download everything from graph paper to storyboards, staff paper, calendars and sudoku templates. Pretty slick stuff.

Category: Utilities_, Web_

Ubiquitous Google

Collaborative office tools from Google, merging spreadsheets and Writely. You can also convert documents to pdf in Google Docs.

Category: Utilities_

Allo?

Might be worth a look although it sounds too good to be true. Free international calling via Futurephone.

Category: Other Cool Stuff_

Can I Borrow Your Notes?

Ah, it's hard to be the person who always takes the notes while the rest of you slack. A new collaborative service, Note Mesh, is a class-based wiki that lets students share notes -- a great way to study, as pointed out in this Lifehacker post.

Category: Web_

Mojo Rising

Mojopac is an interesting application that Brian Danielson and Russ Dively first told me about. It costs around $30 and you can basically save your entire PC to a flash drive. Sounds like an excellent solution for presentations on the road, using applications with limited licensing, etc. Brian pointed out some disadvantages: you must have Windows XP and USB 2.0, Mojopac has to be installed on all of the computers you are using, and I forget the third. Brian, are you listening? Can you refresh my memory (pun intended)?

Category: Utilities_

Google for Educators

Google just launched a new site for educators. No nifty icon for this one...maybe it's still in development or maybe they forgot that teachers like icons too. In any case, it includes teachers guides for 12 Google tools (like Picasa and Blogger) along with lessons integrating the tools.

Check out Google for Educators.

Reading and Research

Our elementary education students are completing action research projects as part of their student teaching semester. Several have selected research topics that involve technology and reading. Here are some products they've been asking me about:

The Reading Pen which is held like a pen and used to scan text. The pen will pronounce words and has a built in dictionary so that the definitions can be accessed. There are two versions of the pen for elementary and secondary students. I saw it demonstrated and tried it at NECC this summer. We are considering purchasing one to use for demonstration purposes.

Read Please, downloadable from online (for free or for pay...depending on your needs), reads electronic text (word processed documents, webpages) aloud for students. I've found it to be helpful in reading my own papers aloud to me as I sometimes miss errors when I proofread.

The IRISPen is a handheld pen scanner. It works like a highlighter but as it highlights a word or sentece scans it into a computer application (you can choose any application you like...I prefer Word). I've used it extensively while working on my dissertation. It saves me time in retyping material and allows me to have accurate quotes.

I'm anxious to see their presentations at the end of the semester. It's interesting to see how they've incorporated technology into their research!

Say Cheese!

Yotophoto searches for free (Creative Commons) stock photography on the web. Search by tag/category and color.


Category: Images_

Coming Soon...Recharge Your Batteries

USBCELL has created a battery that is recharged by connecting directly to a USB port. It's currently available in AA size batteries but will soon be adding AAA, C, D, and others to their inventory.

This will certainly help me. I've always like the idea of rechargeable batteries but never have a charger for handy when I need it. They are available in the UK now and will become available in the US soon. Something to watch for!