More Social Software That You Can Use In Your Teaching

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More Social Software That You Can Use In Your
Teaching

• Phil Riding
• E-learning Advisor
• Learning Technologies Support Service
• Information Systems

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Social software tools

• Im going to look at
• social bookmarking tools (furl)
• social networking sites (flickr)
• wikis

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Social bookmarking tools (furl)http//www.furl.ne
t

• You can save and access websites from any
  computer (at home, work, on the road)
• can categorise, rate, give keywords (tags)
• So far, so useful, but theres more
• tells you who else is linking to stuff you are
  linking to (find new people)
• tells you what else similar people to you are
  linking to (find new links)
• can see who else has tagged sites with your tags
• can publish your archive as web link, or as RSS.

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Social bookmarking tools

• Examples are http//www.furl.net and
  http//del.icio.us/
• To bookmark, use a dedicated toolbar icon, or
  right click
• See my furl archive http//www.furl.net/members/r
  idingp

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Nifty stuff

• Can export your archive (by topic if needed)
• As XML
• As ordinary bookmarks
• As a zip archive (for safekeeping)
• As citation formats (MLA, CBE, BibTeX, EndNote
  etc.)
• Can display it on your webpage or blog

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How could we use it in education?

• Class support - make your archive available to
  students, classify by topic etc. Allow students
  to contribute.
• Group project support - students share links,
  comment, rate.
• By publishing your archive you could have a
  Whats Dr.X reading? link on your course home
  page, or wherever
• Research - collect links as browse, follow up
  links suggested by similar people
• Online bibliography for a paper, thesis - create
  an archive for each one
• Discussion group support - collect links
  suggested in one place

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Flickr (http//www.flickr.com/)

• is a free digital photo sharing website and web
  services suite.
• People share photos there.
• Also used by bloggers as a photo repository.
• Its popularity has been fueled by its innovative
  community tools that allow photos to be tagged
  and browsed with user-defined tags.

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Using Flickr - finding stuff

• http//www.flickr.com/
• http//www.flickr.com/photos/tags/
• Browse by keywords
• http//www.flickr.com/photos/tags/mynecktie/

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Open APIs allow interesting developments

• http//www.airtightinteractive.com/projects/relate
  d_tag_browser/app/
• http//krazydad.com/colrpickr/

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Using Flickr - adding your own photos

• From your computer - directly or using Flickr
  tools
• By email
• From camera phones
• Always asked to tag your photos
• Do this by content, or project etc.
• Choose privacy level

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Using Flickr - nifty stuff

• Automatically post photos to your blog, even from
  a cameraphone
• Can access Flickr on mobile phone or PDA
• Get RSS feeds for individual tags
• Zeitgeist - allows you show your Flickr pictures
  on your webpage (blog, homepage etc.)
• Create public or private groups

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How could you use it?

• As a source of graphics for worksheets etc. or as
  content - http//flickr.com/creativecommons/
• Use hotspot tool to draw attention to aspects of
  pictures - http//flickr.com/photos/ha112/901654/
• As a repository for student photos/project work
• Students can comment on pictures

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A word about folksonomy

• Folksonomy - folk taxonomy
• Refers to the collaborative way that information
  is categorised on the Web .
• Contributors of stuff to the Web associate their
  own personal tags with it (instead of relying
  on a centrally controlled set of labels).
• This stuff includes blog entries, photos, URLs,
  etc.

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A tag cloud
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Wikis

• Name derives from Hawaiian wiki wiki quick
• A web site that can be edited by a number of
  people.
• Uses simple formatting rules
• Its easy to create new pages and links between
  pages
• Previous versions are automatically stored
• Theyre never finished

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Examples of wikis

• Out there
• wikipedia.org
• wikibooks.org
• wikitextbook.co.uk
• http//www.wikiville.org.uk/index.php/Main_Page
• At UCL
• Testing Material Culture course (Anthropology)
• An example wiki in Moodle

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Wikis in education

• Were still exploring how they could be used
• They offer exciting opportunities for supporting
  constructivist, collaborative learning
• Allow analysis of the process as well as the end
  product (if you want)
• Use them for
• online brainstorming
• as a place to collect clippings during web
  searches
• to develop collaborative documents (saves mailing
  Word dox around)
• etc.

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Hints from experience

• Students need to be prepared - both technically
  and in the concept
• Better to have narrow focus and specific
  deadlines
• Good wiki problems are open and have multiple
  solutions
• Combine wiki work with face-to-face tutorials
• Best if lecturer keeps out of the wiki - let
  students own their wiki

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Wikis - issues

• Bypassing the publisher - good or bad?
• Quick - and dirty?
• Reliable - more, or less?
• Vandalism
• Wholl contribute? Why?
• Control, or serendipity?

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Wikis - a new way of thinking about teaching?
(Just let go)

• Inventing the World Wide Web involved my growing
  realisation that there was a power in arranging
  ideas in an unconstrained, weblike way. (Tim
  Berners-Lee, Weaving the Web)
• The particular pedagogical challenge is one of
  control wikis work most effectively when
  students can assert meaningful autonomy over the
  process, it involves challenging the social
  norms and practices of the course (Lamb,
  2004)
• http//www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0452.asp?b
  hcp1
• http//www.profetic.org16080/dossiers/rubrique.ph
  p3?id_rubrique110

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• If you have any questions about this presentation
  or would like further information or advice
  please contact ltss_at_ucl.ac.uk