Emma Duke-Williams :: Blog

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2009/06/blogging-from-wo

I was on the train yesterday, with very poor mobile broadband - so thought I’d test out Blogging from Word, by creating a post, in order to posting it when I got back here.

Some of the issues I had weren’t Word’s fault - this laptop has a (finger print print controlled) Password Bank. It was desperate to save my blog details - the very reluctant to let me edit them when I realised I’d got the URL wrong.

That sorted, I then managed to publish it! Awful! The formatting was sucked in from Word, badly. It couldn’t cope with lists at all. Finally in desperation I saved it as text, opened in Notepad & pasted in here.

Am going to experiment with Google gears instead!

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2009/06/web20-or/

I’m recently starting to think more and more about Web2.0 and teaching; more specifically how much is actually “web2.0” (on the assumption it can be defined) and how much is what I’m getting the students to do (or, indeed, what I, as I extend my own knowledge am doing). Is just looking at videos on YouTube any different from looking at them in the VLE? What happens when they start to upload them / attach them to a discussion posting in the VLE?

So, (and I think this is where my research is increasingly going)

• Who should the audience be? (self / select group/ class / uni / world … and various stages in between!)


• Where should it be hosted? (What backup do we have if it goes down [internal or external!]
  
  
  
  • Who’s funding the hosting?
  
  
  
  


• Why are we using it? Is it primarily to gather information; to disseminate; to organise personally; to collaborate (because we have to?)
  
  
  
  • Are the roles of all users the same – or does the original user have a different reason to all/some of the audience
  
  
  
  


• What do we want to do? (Before/during/post using tool?)

Clearly, there are a lot of overlaps … but equally as the task/meaning etc., becomes more important, so the actual tool may become less important.

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2009/05/web20/

UoPw2

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2009/04/whos-following-w

I’ve read a few posts recently in the blogosphere (such as this one by Mike Arsenault) about “twitter snobs” - and basically whether one should, or shouldn’t, automatically follow everyone who follows you.

As with so many things, some people will argue vehemently that their way is “right”; others will be more pragmatic - explaining why they’ve got the approach they have & why they realise others have different views. 

My personal view is to look (periodically) at new followers & decide on an individual basis. The most recent person to follow me, well, I’m trying to work out her strategy of following. She’s only following me & Ellen Degeneres; she’s only made 1 update & hasn’t got a profile. I don’t think I know her (she’s from Colarado for starters); however, as she said in that one update she’s looking at using Twitter with her (doctoral) students, and given that she has selected me to follow, I decided to follow her back. 

(Most people who follow me & only have 1 update are either gloating about the fact they’ve got a laptop for free [I ignore them] - or someone I’ve encouraged to have a look - & I generally know them for real. [Tend to follow them!)

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2009/04/laptops-vs-compu

Several in the blogosphere have pointed to the Ars Technica report this week about the decision of the University of Virginia to re-think computer labs, after only 4 new students arrived sans computer (didn’t state if they were laptops or desktops).

Naturally, the reaction was mixed - mostly anti the decision; based on aspects such as weight, printing, specialist software etc. Views I generally agree with.

However, there have also been increasing numbers of reports of individuals/ departments banning the use of laptops in class. (None that I’ve seen so far from Virginia). So we have an interesting dilemma; some would prefer students to have laptops on campus, but not everyone wants them to use them.

As far as I know, no UK universities have yet thought of removing open access computer space, nor have I heard of any banning students from using laptops - though mobile phones tend to be frowned on - presumably because most assume students are texting social messages, ignoring  the fact they can be used for internet access; for translation tools [international students]. I tend to restrict myself to a glare when the things actually ring. (The student is generally to busy turning it off in an embarassed manner to notice!)

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2009/03/ada-lovelace-day

Ages ago, I signed the pledge to write a blog post for Ada Lovelace Day - about a woman in technology that I admire. I then wondered who on earth I’d write about; there are quite a few I could think of off hand, but trying to think of someone who I felt had really made a difference to many - wasn’t so easy. About two days after I’d signed the pledge, the January issue of the BCS magazine arrived - a special on Women in computing. One they featured was Mary Lou Jepsen. And my mind was made up!

As those of you who’ve read this for some time will know, I’m very impressed with the OLPC - it’s not just the hardware (and certainly not the keyboard - thought I’d give up on rubber ones when I gave up on the Speccy!) - nor is it just the software - it’s the combination of both, and more importantly the concept that I find fascinating.

I started to do a bit of research - Jepsen’s the same age as me (also a good reason for writing about her!) - and it’s a lot! Time magazine have listed her as 49 in their list of 101 influential people. (She’s 10th in the sub-list “scientists & thinkers”).

She was an LCD screen designer and had done a range of innovative work (HDTV, large scale holographic displays, minature displays etc., etc., etc.,) - so when Negroponte came up with the idea of the so called “$100 laptop” - with low cost and low energy use being prioritised, she became the chief architect of the project. Her particular innovations were the screen, with its minimal energy requirements & readability in sunlight.

The mesh network (again, something she contributed to) - while minimising the number of computers that need to be online (and sharing the data around the class/ village) has also allowed the software teams to really look at software that enables collaboration - and encourages children to work together. Having worked in Papua New Guinea (which, I understand now has some OLPCs) I’ve seen some of the problems of schooling where there’s no electricity, limited resources etc., and feel that the OLPC offers a wealth of information, potential, opportunity - you name it, it offers it - so thank you Mary Lou!

Useful references:

• ACM: An interview with Mary Lou Jepsen:


• Wired: The net book effect (The impact Jepsen had on netbooks in general).


• Wikipedia


• Interview with Groklaw


• Other Ada Lovelace Day posts

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2009/03/teaching-with-tw

A whole range of ideas from Steve Wheeler for Teaching with Twitter. I can see several having uses here. There are also links to others who’ve experimented with Twitter for teaching.

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2009/03/twitter-tools-2/

I’ve recently seen a range of new twitter tools - no doubt there are many more that I’ve not seen!

• http://twitter.mailana.com lets you see friends & also local Twitters; perhaps a little “busy” to easily understand.


• Twitteranalyzer Massive range of stats, though I’m a little sceptical about the “followersdensity” maps. If it is accurate … Hello to my clearly massive Argentinian audience.


• Twitter Stream is rather fun - concentrating on all users, rather than individual ones - but fascinating the difference we get when replacing a “z” with an “s”.


• Twitterthoughts also looks at the community as a whole - and uses the same software as Gapminder.


• Tweetlater was something I found recently - only used it once, but remembering it could be useful in the future.

And there are 1001 other tools that I could so easily mention!

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2009/03/cohere/

The Open University’s Cohere tool looks as if it could be interesting, and I see it’s now in Labspace -alongside compendium. (But hard to tell, the interface has changed since I last went there)

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2009/03/research-about-w

Students often ask about using Wikipedia for research - or, rather, some use it exclusively & then get upset when we ask for other sources. Others are too scared to use it! I often point out that it can be a legitimate source - especially if it is research about wikipedia. There’s a lot of it about … and a fair bit is, as you might expect listed on Wikipedia! 

Includes material that’s not in English.