Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Social Bookmarking - podcast
This is the 3rd of 3 Web 2.0 resource descriptions.
Social bookmark site
http://del.icio.us
Clipmarks
Blinklist
Now that you have all the different web resources try superglu or pageflakes to have a one stop site for all our online resources
Monday, June 19, 2006
Online applications
A wiki post to ced534.wikispaces.com:
gOffice is a free online office application. Users can create, edit and save their files online. The site will allow saving as a pdf or html file back to your local drives. Future improvements are going to include import and export to and from Microsoft Word format files. The authors make their money when user click on ads within the site. They also sell internet appliances that business can purchase and use within their organization. The documents created on the gOffice site need to be kept simple since not all office functionality is available. One of the most noteable missing feature is the tab. If you need to line up text use simple tables which are supported.
AJAXlaunch is another player in the online office application but it does require firefox 1.5 to run. It is written with a new programming language calle AJAX. This project seems to be a little more complete than gOffice and provides a much more office like experience.
Any of these applications will be a great asset to student in education. the folks a gOffice clain in their FAQs they are not taking business from Microsoft. Outlook express is an email application available to windows users, there is still a place for webmail applications. In the end Microsoft, too, will need to provide online apps for all to enjoy. Like many other free programs schools may have the option to get advertisement free connections. More importantly, student will have access to the more expensive programs. The big downfall to these is they will tend to overlook the rural areas that don't have access to high speed broadband internet which will make applications in these forms difficult to use. Those users shouldn't forget about the open source programs like open office to create and edit their office type documents.
gOffice is a free online office application. Users can create, edit and save their files online. The site will allow saving as a pdf or html file back to your local drives. Future improvements are going to include import and export to and from Microsoft Word format files. The authors make their money when user click on ads within the site. They also sell internet appliances that business can purchase and use within their organization. The documents created on the gOffice site need to be kept simple since not all office functionality is available. One of the most noteable missing feature is the tab. If you need to line up text use simple tables which are supported.
AJAXlaunch is another player in the online office application but it does require firefox 1.5 to run. It is written with a new programming language calle AJAX. This project seems to be a little more complete than gOffice and provides a much more office like experience.
Any of these applications will be a great asset to student in education. the folks a gOffice clain in their FAQs they are not taking business from Microsoft. Outlook express is an email application available to windows users, there is still a place for webmail applications. In the end Microsoft, too, will need to provide online apps for all to enjoy. Like many other free programs schools may have the option to get advertisement free connections. More importantly, student will have access to the more expensive programs. The big downfall to these is they will tend to overlook the rural areas that don't have access to high speed broadband internet which will make applications in these forms difficult to use. Those users shouldn't forget about the open source programs like open office to create and edit their office type documents.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Wiki in the Classroom
Today, I will explain different web technologies and hopefully you can comment with ideas of how to use them in a classroom.
A wiki is a document (web page) that is open for a group users to edit and maintain. The quality of the content is monitored and policed by other editors to maintain the quality of the content. Wikipedia is this type of document. People who consider themselves experts on certain topics will add content to the site. The pages can be added or modified by permitted users . The editting can be open to all acounts or the manager of the site can permit certain users to do the editting of the site. The main content of the site is text with links to other sites and a few simple graphics. The wiki is kept simple (programatically) to allow all skill levels to be able to edit and add to it without problem
In class situation, the teacher could maintain the site and permit student in the class as editors. The scenario would give all the student, even if they are in different sections the ability to share ideas with all other involved in the class. It may be necessary to "seed" the wiki to get the postings going. The teacher could also maintain a single site to be used for all classes during the year. The students could then post on commonalities that the teacher may use across classes. One way I have tought about using wiki is to build a site and then continue the same each year. The student could continuously build or correct previous year information. This also may give me a way to see the progress I am making year after year. In subjects where content changes often the pages could be modified to be kept current.
You also then could fairly easily share ideas with other classes. The instructor using the wiki could join forces with another instructor in comparable subject and they could edit hte wiki together. These may be classes in the same school or classes on the other side of the globe. In some cases working with your neighbor is just as rewarding as working with someone across the globe. One site that offers wikis is wikispaces. There are other sites the a google search will quickly turn up, also Moodle Course management software has a wiki option available to be used with a class.
Let me and other bloggers hear your ideas for using wiki in classes.
A wiki is a document (web page) that is open for a group users to edit and maintain. The quality of the content is monitored and policed by other editors to maintain the quality of the content. Wikipedia is this type of document. People who consider themselves experts on certain topics will add content to the site. The pages can be added or modified by permitted users . The editting can be open to all acounts or the manager of the site can permit certain users to do the editting of the site. The main content of the site is text with links to other sites and a few simple graphics. The wiki is kept simple (programatically) to allow all skill levels to be able to edit and add to it without problem
In class situation, the teacher could maintain the site and permit student in the class as editors. The scenario would give all the student, even if they are in different sections the ability to share ideas with all other involved in the class. It may be necessary to "seed" the wiki to get the postings going. The teacher could also maintain a single site to be used for all classes during the year. The students could then post on commonalities that the teacher may use across classes. One way I have tought about using wiki is to build a site and then continue the same each year. The student could continuously build or correct previous year information. This also may give me a way to see the progress I am making year after year. In subjects where content changes often the pages could be modified to be kept current.
You also then could fairly easily share ideas with other classes. The instructor using the wiki could join forces with another instructor in comparable subject and they could edit hte wiki together. These may be classes in the same school or classes on the other side of the globe. In some cases working with your neighbor is just as rewarding as working with someone across the globe. One site that offers wikis is wikispaces. There are other sites the a google search will quickly turn up, also Moodle Course management software has a wiki option available to be used with a class.
Let me and other bloggers hear your ideas for using wiki in classes.
