The blog craze started in 2004, MySpace came out in 2002. From then till now, Web 2.0 has penetrated deeply into our lives.
You may have heard the buzz: it’s all about communications, exchange information and expressing the ego.
Have you thought of utilizing all those things for learning?
Recently I’ve been very aggressive on the net to see how we can use the applications for learning, and here I am with my key findings:
The requirements
Let’s imagine a very familiar study scenario: you’re assigned into a group to do a research on topic X.
Traditionally, the group would rely on emails, phone calls and IM to communicate and collaborate. Have you found these media difficult to classify your information?
This is how I would use Web 2.0 for learning
1. Search for information with Search EngineS
Obviously, information searching starts with search engines.
I have some hints for this:
Don’t just use Google. Try Yahoo! search, Live search, Ask search and other engines. They give different results and thus, relevant information might be found from ones other than Google
Try Google on different region settings. google.com/ncr (international version) yields different results from google.com.vn
Try different keywords and keyword combination. Also, exploit the operators
Also search for images. At least Google, Yahoo! and Live support this. Images are useful for illustrating your ideas and, in some cases, give you additional information.
5. Blog your group’s findings on group-blog powered platform
WordPress supports multiple-author. I would want our group members to blog our research everyday on our blog. This is not superficial. It helps us
Collect information, thoughts, findings, analysis and intermediate conclusions
Track each member’s progress
Present to the lecturer our growth
5b. Share micro details
This is optional though. Some information might be very detailed and we want quick sharing methods. I would connect my mobile phone to Twitter and quickly update my thoughts on the way.
Facebook is good to build relationship with your work mates.
11. Publish your research
Publish your research as presentations on slideshare or documents on scribd to share your knowledge engage in discussion on the topic.
12. Consolidate them all into one page
There are just so much!
How’re you gonna navigate around them all?
Well, one solution is to use a homepage service like netvibes to put all these services together.
Why all these?
Too complicated? Well here are the reasons why I would do it this way
Better organization of information. No email confusion
Exhaustive analysis. You write on the way so no information is missed
Better collaboration
Man, isn’t it fun?
I know it would be much easier for you just to email. But how much time have you spent searching for information later on? I’d rather spend the time to get things organized first, then make it easier later to focus more on creating contents.
And I’m pretty sure of one thing: just next year, this entry will be outdated because many new services will come out. Semantic web, mobile apps are just a few to predict.
It’s not a fashionable fad or a time-killer, it’s a shift in the way we can be more effective. Do you want to miss the train trend?
Digital Divide
But you know, all these will never happen if digital divide hasn’t been closed.
Technology proficiency and more importantly, community habit is a big gap. I want my team to do so, but other teams may not, so some of my team members may argue “why do we have to!”
With the internet connection speed in Vietnam, using Google Docs et al is insane.
Today, a world that is flat is till a romantic dream for me.
Resources
I’ve already tried out these services. Kindly see mine as example of how things may end up evolve: taitran.com/blog/resources
I’m on Firefox 3 too, and I utilize addons to enrich my web experience too, like most of you there.
There have been countless of entries to useful Firefox addons, but what’s different about this post is that it measures the costs that can be saved for users when using these extensions.
What are the costs of usability and how much are they?
The descending order of severity of the costs are
Screen loads: this is a pain when internet connection is slow. It usually takes most time of all interactions with the computer
Mouse movements: mouse movements severely damage the wrist and this should be minimized
Mouse clicks: mouse clicks are less severe than mouse movements, but are also expensive
URLs: an URL takes time to type in
Enters: it hurts the little finger
Hot keys: hot keys usually consists of at least 2 keys, but are regarded as less expensive than Enters because they are mostly done with the left hand, reduces damage to the right hand
Now, let’s start with the addons!
The first six in the batch: Google Toolbar, Diigo Toolbar, StumbleUpon Toolbar, TwitterFox, CustomizeGoogle, Better YouTube
I have used Diigo as a replacement of delicious (I still love the old brand del.icio.us)
Though delicious tagging is smarter and usability is better, Diigo supports web-highlighting which makes it an advantage.
Diigo toolbar allows user to bookmark their favorite web pages for later reference. With Diigo, all bookmarks are centralized when users move from computer to another.
If I don’t use this addon
If I use this addon
Costs
Alt+D to move cursor to the address bar
Ctrl+C to copy the link to post
Ctrl+T
Alt+D
Input: diigo
Enter
Wait for one screen load
Move mouse to “My Bookmarks”
Click
Wait for one screen
Move mouse to “Add a bookmark”
Ctrl+V
Enter
Move mouse to “Tags” (assume that I ignore “Description”)
StumbleUpon works on an interesting concept: when you hit the Stumble! button, the addon takes you to a random interesting page that matches your preferences.
The StumbleUpon toolbar makes it more convenient for you.
This powerful addon modifies Google search results and display preferences. It supports options for Web Search, Images, Groups, News, Products, G Answers, G Books, Gmail, G Galendar, G Maps, G Docs, Video, Reader, Cache, Blogger, History, Privacy and Filter
If I don’t use this addon
If I use this addon
Costs
From Google Images Search screen
Move mouse to the thumbnail
Right-click to open context menu
T
Ctrl+Tab
Wait for half a screen load (only need the thumbnail to be loaded)
This Greasemonkey-based addon loads the YouTube video faster and allows downloading the video. Generally it saves me half an hour per day for one video.
Conclusion
With the intensity of these service I use everyday, these addons easily save at least one hour each day for me.
I can use this one hour for other business purposes which can generate other benefits.
What is your experience? What do you think of my approach when analyzing these?
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