Narrowing On Social Software
Alan Levine aka CogDog barked this February 15th, 2006 2:17 pm
Harry was working on some new internet buzzwords this morning. Later today, I hope to be learning more about GHOS, Mady, and JiLT. Looks like some HTMl tags floating around the table too.
I’ve been just as guilty of doing Social Software / Web 2.0 type demos that are the equivalent of urban strength fire hoses. “Let’s get ‘em bloggin’ and wiki’in and bookmarkin’ and flickrin’ and …”
It seems almost like a techno fools natural tendancy to try and get everyone excited abotu everything.
But the alphabet soup is likely a big bowl to slurp.
In my numerous worthy discussions this week with Brian Lamb, I am rethinking pressuring up that hose in the future. I am thinking that a more in depth experience with one sort of tool would be more effective.
I have seen this in a past session at UC San Diego (thanks Bernie Dodge) that flickr is the ideal candidate because:
* everyone has a personal interest / use for digital photos
* the interface is just plain fun and even sarcastic (remember the reference to “fascinating terms of service” and also elegant (I fell early in love with the pre-AJAX in page editing)
* it makes tagging meaningful
* the groups provide connectivity, discussion, sharing
* comments and favorites are a means of blogging via commenting
* the creative commons pool is soemthing every one should be intimately aware of
* The number of 3rd party tools and apps has more use and interest grab points than anything I have ever demo-ed (Spell With flickr is my all time fave)
* free slide shows from sets, tags, favorites, etc
* Hotspots. Hotspots. Annotated freaking hotspots. I cannot believe that not more teachers have dove into the flickr notes feature. After it being more than a year old, I still find Beth Harris’s Art History example as my only educational thing that uses this! What discipline does not have a use for a tool to created annotated images? And with links one can embed, think about the range of non-linear stories one can weave across images?
That is just my sales pitch. I can see a workshop /activity /session scaffolding first on doing some things with basic photography skills- taking good digital imegs, being creative with using a camera to capture metaphors and symbols. Then move on to basic photo editing in either iPhoto or Picassa/.
In flickr, one starts even before loading images. Teach how to search for photos, how to use tags, how to post comments.
Move on to loading images, writing captions, creating sets.
Advance to topics like using the annotation/notes, creating/using groups and pools, post to blog, embedding an RSS feed or badge in another web site.
There is a lot of social software one can do with just one little flickr.
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite
- Images to Help Children Understand
- Closer Scrutiny Under The Microscope
- Moving sixth grade into the 21st century
February 15th, 2006 at 7:42 pm
Alan,
I love this idea! I think that even those of us who are aware of some of these technologies have not had the opportunity to learn all that it has to offer. Flick’r seems like a fantastic place to begin. So many of GWCC’s faculty are using softchalk to create opportunities for students to practice labelling images but we have yet to have a way to have students interact with an image without knowing the answer - the hot spot feature of Flick’r (which I was unaware of) certainly fits the bill. I also like the idea of getting in depth with using images!!
I can’t wait to learn more!
February 16th, 2006 at 4:15 am
Usando Flickr para enseñar…
Vía CogDogblog.
Alan Levine comenta la dificultad para mostrar en una charla el potencial de las aplicaciones web 2.0 a los profesionales de la educación. La enorme y creciente variedad de aplicaciones hace complicado que el neófito en la cosa 2…….
February 16th, 2006 at 9:32 am
There IS another example next to Beth Harris’. Just look at these pictures from an archeology student in the Netherlands (uploaded july 20050: http://www.flickr.com/photos/meffi/17650387/in/set-422876/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/meffi/23349487/in/set-537086/ (just a few examples from 2 sets of pictures). A field school report was written with links to various pictures for the university teacher to look at.
February 16th, 2006 at 2:53 pm
Great idea! I ran into that pressured up firehouse too ;-), and have had the turn the pressure down. For now, I think of it as the “sampler plate” approach, modular sessions that let me do a quick overview on one piece at a time. Hopefully, once they savour something and like it, they’ll come back for more. Meanwhile, I can take the plunge into Flickr
February 16th, 2006 at 4:12 pm
Thank you Sybilla for the extra examples. Now I have more than one….
February 16th, 2006 at 7:15 pm
[...] Alan’s post on finding a way to narrow and get more depth into his training/demos has been calling to me from my “To Contemplate” news bin (that’s another things aggregator’s should make easy– a way to share our clippings/news bins/etc… more of that attention stream). There’s never enough time to do it, and yet there’s so much about the breadth– the connections and small pieces and (dare I say it) synergy– that is important if people are really going to grok what we already know. [...]
February 17th, 2006 at 2:03 am
[...] Narrowing On Social Software (Via CogDogBlog.) Surprisingly, yesterday (when this was written by Alan), my colleagues suggested adding social software to the presentation we will be giving to the Orange County High School Summit (PDF file) on March 1st. This topic was added to my existing section on blogs, wikis, and RSS. So, I now know which application I’ll share… it seems ” flickr is the ideal candidate.” I used to use flickr more before Blogger allowed us to upload photos. I’ll have to brush up. [...]