Because They Care October 23, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Opinion, Tools.add a comment
Much of the criticism of Wikipedia, and wikis in general, stems from the open authoring design that lets anyone contribute content. There are limitations, but the idea that anyone can be an expert is more than a little unsettling to some. Still, that openness is also the whole point behind wikis. Authorship isn’t an accidental process. Motivation to contribute mostly happens when someone cares about the content. Take for example the linked Washington Post article below. Seems Adam Lewis, an ‘amateur’ historian cared enough about the Washington DC Wikipedia entry to fix it up. I think we should all care about something like Adam does.
How an amateur historian rescued D.C.’s Wikipedia page – washingtonpost.com
Wikipedia
Inventions for the Year 2020 October 8, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Tools.add a comment
The BBC has a nice article on a project asking students to imagine helpful inventions for the year 2020. Among some of the 85,000 ideas submitted are magic pencils to automate their homework so they don’t have to do it, which sort of defeats the point of homework. Seems robots are going to be big in the future too. I’d like to see cars that drive themselves so we don’t have any more excuses for distracted or impaired driving accidents. In the classroom, I’d like to see a device that is a content delivery mechanism as well as a research tool and collaboration device, although I don’t think we’ll need to wait another 11 years to see that. What would you like to see? Besides magic pencils, what would your students like to see?
invention
BBC NEWS | Technology | Children draw own visions of 2020
Certifiable September 25, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Conference Sessions, Tools.1 comment so far
Spent the last two days in Boston attending mimio train the trainer training. And yes, I even rode a train to get around in Boston. Anyway, for those who don’t know, mimio is a less expensive interactive whiteboard solution, one that is simpler than the other, more familiar boards.
One of the reasons for the cost effectiveness is that mimio does not rely on providing a board. There is a bar that attaches to any existing white board, so no need to remove an existing board, or retrofit a complicated room. The capture bar can be attached with simple picture hanging tape strips, so there isn’t any cost for installation either.
The training I received makes me excited to bring what I’ve learned back to the teachers in my district. And now that I’m certified, I can!
One Word August 25, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Tools.add a comment
Of course, if 1400 words is intimidating, try your hand at a one minute write. You get a single word at the top of the page, a simple text box in which to write, and a timer to tell you when your time is up. Might be a nice warm-up for a writing class. From Langwitches Blog list of links for today.
Langwitches Blog » links for 2009-08-25
Twitter, Meet Woofer August 25, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Humor, Tools.add a comment
If you thought 140 characters of micro-blogging at Twitter was mostly pointless, try a site that requires a minimum of 1400 characters. Good thing so many people know about copy-paste. From a MacWorld UK article.
The opposite of Twitter: new site requires 1,400-character minimum – Digital Lifestyle – Macworld UK
Who Are You? Who? Who? August 21, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Data, Tools.add a comment
With apologies to The Who, MIT produced a new way to search for yourself online. Called Personas, you type in your first and last name (I’m guessing the more common your name, the less personally relevant) and after data-mining information about your name, produces a graph of how your name is perceived on the Internet. I’m not sure what the ‘Illegal” section is all about, but here’s my personagraph. From an article by Techcrunch.
Seems to work with screen names too.
I wonder what it says about me that my screen name and real name show different results.
The Personas Project From MIT Is All Kinds Of Cool
Plan B and C and… August 7, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Tools.1 comment so far
I had the pleasure to present a few Web 2.0 tools to a group of Socials Studies teachers today, intending to use a ‘Jog the Web’ collection that a colleague of mine put together. Everything looked great. The accompanying wiki was set up, links to a PowerPoint they can download and use if they want, and links to two ‘Jog the Webs’. 5 minutes before the presentation everything was working just fine. 5 minutes into the presentation and Jog the Web stopped responding. Nothing. Checked the network, other pages were loading just fine. What to do? It is kind of hard to have people explore dozens of web 2.0 tools if the links to those tools are not available.
I started bringing up some of the tools I thought were in the collection. We looked at a couple of timeline tools, like xtimeline and Dipity. We talked about YouTube and how to request a teacher override. We checked Delicious, Animoto, and Blaberize. What tools would you show if you were under pressure to present and your original presentation was not going to work?
Maybe Jog the Web will be back up by the time you read this. If not, imagine a great collection of indispensable web 2.0 tools for the Social Studies classroom. So the simple solution would have been to list the links on the wiki as well to have a backup. It was a good reminder to myself to be prepared for problems. If you are committed to using technology, you always need a plan B and C, and…
http://www.jogtheweb.com/run/3wXQ2av1IcZl
Follow You Follow Me July 15, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Tools.add a comment
Maybe I missed this, but it looks like something new just showed up in Google Reader. When I last checked, I now have a tool that lets me search for people who are publicly sharing their feeds. Probably an idea worth exploring. I haven’t done much public sharing or following in Google Reader. Seems like sort of a Twitter twist on RSS feeds. Are you sharing or following others who share feeds in Google Reader?
