I was just informed byFiona King of College@Home about a newly published article, “100 Helpful Web Tools for Every Kind of Learner, ” on their College@Home blog today. Christina Laun, the author of the article, did a great job of identifying 100 helpful learning tools and grouping them into three groups of learners with different learning styles. Many of the recommended learning tools are popular Web 2.0 tools. In fact, I have written many of these tools in my blog. I think this is an interesting attempt for identifying helpful Web tools that teachers and students can use to cater to their individual learning style. Christina’s 100 helpful Web tools are grouped into the following categories:
Social networking sites are most popular with teenagers and young adults.
Despite the fact that the minimum age for most major social networking sites is usually 13 (14 on MySpace), 27% of 8-11 year olds who are aware of social networking sites say that they have a profile on a site.
The average adult social networker has profiles on 1.6 sites, and most users check their profile at least every other day.
25% of registered social networking users had posted sensitive personal data about themselves on their profiles (phone numbers, home addresses, etc.).
The majority of adults who had used a social networking site had a profile on Facebook (62%) and this was the most mentioned main social networking site (49%). Nearly half of all respondents reported having a profile on MySpace and one-third had one on Bebo.
Two-thirds of parents claim to set rules about their child’s use of social networking sites, although only 53% of children said that their parents set such rules.
Social networkers fall into five distinct groups based on their behaviors and attitudes: 1) Alpha Socialisers, 2) Attention Seekers, 3) Followers, 4) Faithfuls, and 5) Functionals.
Non-users of social networking sites fall into three distinct groups: 1) Concerned about safety, 2) Technically inexperienced, and 3) Intellectual rejecters.
Social network users create well-developed profiles as the basis of their online presence. They share personal information with a wide range of “friends.”
Only a few users highlighted negative aspects of social networking.
Concerns about privacy and safety are not “top of mind” for most users.
41% of children aged 8-17 and 44% of adults leave their privacy settings as default ‘open’ which means that their profiles are visible to anyone.
34% of 16-24 year olds are willing to give out sensitive personal information such as their phone number or email address.
17% of adults used their profile to communicate with people they do not know. This increases among younger adults. 35% of adults spoke to people who were ‘friends of friends’.
Facebook is the most popular site with adults followed by MySpace and then Bebo. For children aged between 8 and 17, Bebo was the most used social networking site.
A minority of younger women reported creating fake profiles for fun.
Some teenagers and adults in their early twenties reported feeling ‘addicted’ to social networking sites and were aware that their use was squeezing their study time.
A minority of people reported being aware of bullying through social networking sites and some younger users admitted using social networking sites to ‘get back’ at people they had fallen out with.
Robin Blake introduces Ofcom’s research on Social Networking
The term “School 2.0″ started appearing in several articles, blogs, and wikis since last year. So, what is School 2.0? According to School2-0.org, School 2.0 is about the ‘next generation of school’ that can be supported by an integrated technology infrastructure. It is a concept that helps transform schools in order to meet the multiple challenges of the 21st century — accountability, student engagement and achievement, and economic competitiveness. However, how do we create schools that can realize that vision of School 2.0? What is the link between pedagogy and technology? How do we build schools with a pedagogical framework that allows all stakeholders (students, parents, teachers, and administrators) to harness the power of information technologies to change the way we think about schools and create a transformative experience for all involved?
School2-0.org offers an interesting brainstorming tool for schools and communities to help envision the future of education. The tool is a School 2.0 Map showing various possible scenarios or visions of the future with example student, teacher, and parent conversations, classroom activities and technologies, and more. School2-0.org states, “While School 2.0 depicts a variety of educational and management scenarios that utilize technology, the examples, information and ideas included are designed to serve as prompts for discussion and should not be construed as a recommendation of any particular technology or scenario.”
In addition to the School2-0.org site, School 2.0 (a social network created Steve Hargadon) provides helpful info, resources, and forums on school 2.0. Also, a wiki associated with this site is available at http://school20.wikispaces.com/.
I talked about Web 3.0, the “semantic Web” in my blog last June. The concept of a semantic Web is based on the idea that machines can be taught to understand language more like the way people understand it. To get a first taste of a semantic Web, let’s take a look of Twine, the most hyped Web 3.0 application developed by Radar Networks a year ago. Twine is a Web application that helps you organize, share, and discover information around your interests with your friends, family, or the public.
According to the Twine’s Web site, Twine is smart and it automatically organizes information, learns about interests and makes recommendations. Twine enables you to organize information you find or create on the Web including bookmarks, text, images, and videos. As you add information to Twine, it is automatically tagged so that you and others can find it more easily. Twine looks at content and parses it automatically for the names of people, places, organizations and other subject tags. You are then able to navigate between related content, view recommended content and connect with recommended people around your interests.
I think Twine is a cool application and it is a smart way to keep track of your interests.Twine organizes your content, learns as you use it and recommends new things to check out. Twine is no longer in private beta. You can join Twine anytime and check the service out. To get a good started with Twine, I suggest that you visit the Raven’s Twine Tutorials site that provides a collection of Twine tutorials, tips and tricks. Also, you may want to view the How to use Twin Screencast tutorial before starting your Twine.
Posted in Web 3.0 Tagged: radar networks, semantic, twine, Web 3.0
With the recent advances of mobile technologies as well as Web 2.0 technologies that harness the collective intelligence of users, there has been a lot of discussion on mobile 2.0 in Europe for the past year. Mobile 2.0 already started to emerge. Basically, mobile 2.0 provides access to a Web 2.0 service via a Mobile Web Browser or applications that represent one aspect or feature of Web 2.0 such as user-generated content, community, collective intelligence, or rich media. Mobile 2.0 will integrate the social Web with the core foundations of mobility - personal, local, always-on and ever-present. Furthermore, these services are based on a new generation of wireless devices that enable rich, interactive services that integrate the full range of mobile consumer favorite features including talking, texting, capturing, sending, listening, and viewing. Mobile 2.0 could be another revolution that will dramatically change the Web and the mobility landscape that we currently know. Rudy De Waele of m-trends.org indicates that the mobile Web will become the dominant access method in many countries of the world, with devices that become more hybrid and networks that become more powerful and accessible. Mobile 2.0 will soon create new exciting opportunities for mobile learning.
Two weeks ago, Daniel Appelquist delivered his presentation “Mobile Ajax and the Future of the Web” at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. In his presentation, he indicated that the majority of Web usage worldwide will be mobile in next 5 years. Mobile application developers are increasingly choosing the Web as a platform. Mobile 2.0 is finally here. You can view Daniel Applequist’s entire presentation at the Web 2.0 Expo below.
Mobile Ajax and the Future of the Web
Also, Rudy De Waele delivered a keynote at the Over The Air event in London last month. He talked about the current development and the future of Mobile 2.0. Here is his keynote presentation.
Yudu Freedom is a new on-demand publishing service that lets you turn a PDF file into a live, Flash-based Web page within minutes. Like Scribd, Yudu Freedom allows you to publish documents in an interactive, page-turning digital format and host them online at no cost. It is fast and simple to use Yudu Freedom. You first upload your document in PDF format. After uploading your file, you will be sent an email with the link to your publication, along with a jpeg of the front cover and HTML code which will allow you to embed the publication on your Blog or website. Basically, Yudu Freedom service converts your PDF file into a Flash publication which is simple to upload to a website or blog, distribute via email or save to a digital storage device.
You can use Yudu Freedom to create digital publications with up to 16 pages each at no cost. The files can be viewed a little faster than with Adobe’s Acrobat reader, and it runs entirely in Flash with neat page turning effect. The digital publications you create can contain images, audio, video and links back to your Web site. I think the service is great for teachers and students who want to create brochures, newsletter, instructional and learning guides, how-tos, ebooks, reports, manuals, photo books, CVs, portfolios and more. If you need to produce materials that go over the 16-page limit, you can step up to Yudu’s fee-based services, Yudu Pro and Yudu Express.
Like Scribd, Yudu Freedom has also a built in search tool, zoom tool, and a thumbnail viewer. The best part of the Yudu Freedom is that you don’t need to sign up to use the service. You can simply upload the files and leave your e-mail address and it will send you a link when it’s done processing. However, Yudu is lacking the support for other document formats and the capability to embed PDFs on third party sites. In comparison, Scribd supports many document formats (PDF, Postscript, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OpenOffice, Rich text, plain text, and other OpenDocument formats) and allow you to share it anywhere with its iPaper service.
On the Yudu Freedom Website, it states “We want your readers all over the world to enjoy this interactive, online reading experience. We’ll let you publish for free, forever, providing that you follow our 3 simple rules: 1) No adult content, 2) offensive material, and 3) No copyright abuse. We let you and fellow Freedom readers report abuse on each and every publication if they aren’t Freedom-friendly. If we agree, YUDU will take publications down without notice.” I think this is a great policy and it makes Yudu a better place for online document publishing for teachers and students.
With Yudu Freedom and Scribd, anyone can now make professional digital publications. Yudu Freedom’s document viewer is simple and fast.You can view my first test on Yudu Freedom in action simply click on the image below.
Media-Convert is a free Web service that converts audio, video, and text files for you, from and to virtually any kind of format. No software is needed to covert files with Media-Convert. You only need your favorite Web browser. Furthermore, you don’t have to register. I think this is one of the best media conversion tools for teachers and students.
Converting a file is quite easy with Media-Convert since it allows input files to be locally stored or from a URL. The maximum file size conversion is adequate for 150 MB. To convert a file located on your computer: Check File mode, click Browse and choose the file, select input format and output format, submit the form. To convert a file located on a Web: Check URL mode, enter the file URL, select input and output format. Media-Convert converts the file while you wait, and gives a download link on screen when the process is completed.
The conversion formats supported by Media-Convert is very impressive. There’s a good chance Media-Convert supports almost every document on you computer, including most popular video formats (3G2, 3GP, AMV, ASF, AVI, DPG, DV, FLI, FLV, GIF, GVI, MKV, MOV, MP4, MPG, NSV, OGM, RM, SWF, VOB,WMV), audio formats (WAV, WMA, 3GP, MP3, OGG, AAC, AMR, FLAC, MPC, MMF, AU, AIFF, QCP), over 60 image formats, compressed archives (7Z, BZ2, BZA, CAB,GZ, LHA, LZH, RAR, TAR, TGZ, YZ1, ZIP), and documents from Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org, Lotus 123, raw text, HTML, XHTML and more. In addition, you can insert a PDF into your Web page by converting it into an Adobe SWF Flash movie. You can also capture Web pages as images and convert Microsoft Access databases to Excel spreadsheets.
The 19th Annual SITE (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education) International Conference was held in Las Vegas, Nevada last week. I delivered two presentations at the conference and thought both went well. Here are my presentations on Slideshare:
I have introduced SlideShare and ShowBeyond for creating online multimedia slideshows in my previous posts. For the past few weeks, I found several other Web 2.0 applications for creating slideshows which I think they deserve my attention. They are:
Animoto - A web application that automatically generates professionally produced videos using their own patent-pending technology and high-end motion design. Each video is a fully customized orchestration of user-selected images and music.
MyPlick - Like Slideshare, MyPlick allows users to create slideshows and offer an interactive widget for viewers. Images, PowerPoint presentations, and PDF files can be uploaded to create your slideshow. You can add audio narration or music to your slideshow. Also, you can add notes for each slide to provide additional information to viewers.
Slide - A great tool to express yourself and tell stories through personalized photos and videos created on Slide.com and viewed anywhere on the Web.
SlideRocket - A web application that provides users to design professional quality presentations, manage and share libraries of slides and assets, and to deliver presentations in person or remotely over the web.
Kwout is a free, Web based screen capturing and quoting tool. It allows you to get a screen shot on any Web page and you can quote a part of a web page as an image with an image map. This means that any links on the image map is clickable and takes you to the Web location. I tested out Kwout several times and found it is very easy to use. It has three simple steps: 1) Grab a screenshot, 2) Cut out an area by dragging a mouse on the screenshot, and 3) Post the image with the image map to your Web page or blog. So far, I like this screen capturing and quoting tool and think Kwout is a convenient, productive tool for creating Web-based instructional materials for students.
