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Easy Group Creation with GroupieGuide
Posted by remster in Communication, Group Creation on July 30th, 2009
GroupieGuide is a great way for anyone to create their own website for groups they are involved with. You do not need any prior programming or design skills to create a sharp group page. Group pages include news, upcoming events, pictures and discussion posts.
Setting up is very straightforward. If you created the group you will have standard user privileges that allow you to post and answer discussion posts and leave comments and then an administrator account that allows you to add news, upcoming events and pictures. You can also change the look of the group site, send out invitations and set privacy levels. Setting privacy levels means that you need to have a password in order to see the group site.
Setting up a fully functional group page only takes 15 – 30 minutes with no prior knowledge of the web application. Groupie Guide can help you make a quick webpage for your groups that look very professional and can be done without spending a cent! Some examples that you could use this for may be social clubs, such as a book club or sports teams.
As an instructor Groupie Guide would work very well for helping guide and document group activities and research projects. Students could designate a leader and use the site to keep track of meetings, events pictures of their research topic! This could be used to help instructors see activity of group projects.
A Revamped Communication Tool: Digsby
Posted by Tyler Wall in Communication on June 29th, 2009
A few months back I wrote an article on 3 of my picks for best Instant Messengers (IM) aggregators (http://www.tywallart.com/symanticweb/?p=9) that collect multiple IM accounts into one place/application. Well I have now had to revamp that list and add one more to the mix, Digsby.
Now that is not to say the others are obsolete but Digsby does have a huge advantage at the moment because it offers the added benefit of aggregating your email and social networking accounts as well. To me this is definitely a game changer as I only have 2 IM accounts but I have many more email accounts and am signed into several social networking sites that I can now aggregate from one application without having to switch back and forth. Digsby has been around for awhile but it wasn’t until recently that they upgraded the speed of their application making it far more usable.
Digsby also allows a task manager that alerts you when things need to get done, a handy feature for the absent minded like myself.
So sounds too good to be true right? Actually that is right, there are a few things that don’t make this the best choice for all people. First it is a down loadable application, which isn’t a bad thing but I really like having these kind of applications online and run in a browser (like Meebo) that way I have access to it wherever I go without being tethered to one computer. a temporary deficiency is that it is Windows only, they are developing other versions but they are not out yet and I am impatient (subscribe to my RSS feed to find out when it becomes available for Mac and Linux).
Now something that is despicable for all of them, their mobile presence or lack thereof. I really don’t know why these companies haven’t got a presence on the iPhone or Blackberry. Everything is moving this way and they really need to have a presence that does a better job of the built in IM’s.
All in all Digsby has a huge amount of potential and may be good enough for most people to use but alas I must wait until a Mac version comes out. You can download the PDF of this comparison chart here or click on the image to view it in a browser.
How can this be used for education?
I will refer to a previous article I posted on IM’s for ways it can be used in education.
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The all powerful Google! One Homepage to Rule Them All.
Posted by Tyler Wall in Calendar/Scheduling, Collaboration, Communication, File Management/Storage, Presentation, multipurpose on June 25th, 2009
I know everyone probably has some sort of Google account and if you don’t you have probably have heard about it. But I wanted to make sure that I wrote something about it because it is one of those fundamental online tools that you must tap into and I didn’t want to take it for granted, that and there are so many tools that people haven’t tapped into that add so much to the experience.
Google pretty much owns my life and there is a good reason for that. It’s easy, free, integrated and unified. On top of it I can gather all the Google tools that I use onto one page, my Google Homepage . This is where I have my Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Reader, and many other tools that aren’t even Google tools like the weather, or alternative search engines.
So how do you get a google Homepage? If you have a Gmail account then you already have access to the Google Homepage and ALL of the tools I have listed here and MORE you simply need to login with your Gmail account to access it and it is all FREE!
Let me elaborate on some of the tools that Google offers:
- Google Docs: Word Processing, Spreadsheet creation, online forms/surveys, presentation/slideshow creation. All of which can be fully private or fully collaborative with several people working on the same document at the same time from the same room or thousands of miles away.
- Gmail: Email that offers over 5 GB of storage space (It’s space is ever growing as well depending how long you have had it for, I’m up to nearly 8GB), to-do lists, contact lists, Instant messaging, video chat, and many plugins that increase it’s functionality like GTD inbox, Boxbe, and Google Calendar. And because it is all integrated you send some emails right to your calendar like Entourage and Outlook.
- Google Calendar: Create multiple calendars that you can share with family, friends collegues, co-workers or the entire world if you want. Tap into co-workers (if they are sharing) calendars to help you schedule meetings or events. Break it down into months days or hours. Reminders help you keep track of your life as well.
- Picasa: An online photo storage site like Flickr. Easily organize, find, and share your photos. (Stay tuned for a more in depth look at Picasa and Flickr coming very soon)
- Google Reader: A RSS feed reader that allows for sharing and works really good.
- Blogger: A easy to use blog that integrates into all your other tools, grab photos from Picasa, documents from Docs and populate your blog so others can keep up to date with what you are doing.
- Google Sites: A no code required web builder that utilizes drag and drop modular design. Easily have a website up and running in minutes.
- Youtube: yup your Google account automatically gives you a youtube account.
- Google Maps: A map of everywhere. Get directions and save them to your account so you always have them for accessibility. And check out street view which lets you go down to street level in most major cities in the world and look around as if you are in a car.
- Google Translate: Translate from language to language. Very Handy. 43 languages supported and counting.
- iGoogle: Your personalized Homepage of widgets/nuggets/gadgets. Can house most of the Google tools along with thousands of other tools that enhance productivity or just supply fun.
- and many more like Finance, Scholar, Books, News etc. And they are constantly adding more.
The best part of it all is that it all exists online (but you can have it run off your desktop too if you want) and is accessible from any computer in the world that have computer access.
How can I use this for education?
- Increase productivity.
- Almost everything you do can be online and is sharable.
- Reduce desktop clutter with fewer applications.
- Give students a free alternative to pricey desktop applications.
- Most of your tools can be accessible on one web page. It’s your desktop online.
- It lives online so you have access everywhere and are not tethered to one computer.
- Collaborate synchronously or a-synchronously online whenever or wherever with students, course co-writers, colleagues or whoever.
- Set students up to collaborate online, this works especially good with distance courses.
- View Microsoft Office documents without Microsoft Office.
- and there is so much more but so little space
So what do /would you use the Google products for?
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Voxli: Instant voice chat
Posted by Tyler Wall in Collaboration, Communication on March 25th, 2009
Likely we have all at one point or another used voice chat over the computer. Sometimes it can be difficult and sometimes fairly easy. Most of the time it requires downloading an application and on rare occasions it will exist on the net but still requires sign-up.
Enter Voxli, an online voice chat application that doesn’t require any sign-up or registration and allows up to 200 people to chat at once. To set it up you simply go to their main website and complete a url of your own choosing. Send that url to whomever you want to chat with. It will prompt you to install a plug-in for Firefox and that is it. Extremely simple. The interface is very minimal and will take only seconds to figure out how it works.
I have never ran across a voice chat application that is this easy to use let alone with good quality audio and the ability to “push” your chat outside of your browser to various other devices like video game systems.
Although it doesn’t offer anything new to the arena of voice chat it does make the whole process much easier for admin and end users and that is the kind of power I gravitate to.
How can Voxli be used in Education?
- Easily set up chat groups for distance students
- Make yourself available to students after hours via a chat room for them to ask questions while still having the open classroom concept
- Have distance students use it for collaborative projects
How would/do you use it in your course?
Twitter It!The Hype around Skype
Posted by Tyler Wall in Communication on March 11th, 2009
Skype is an internet phone, a video phone and a screen sharing app (with beta version) that sits on your computer and is free. Now technically it is not a Web 2.0 app because you have to download it but it is the tool that is most entrenched in the market.
With Skype you can phone any other computer that is running it and talk as long as you want for free. Video chat is also included when you call computer to computer. Skype also allows you to to call a land line but it will cost you (pre-paid) a very minor fee (2.4 cents a minute). And of course that means you can make calls worldwide for that price.
An added bonus with Skype is the ability to make conference calls via voice or video. And to round out the features Skype also includes an instant messaging service with the added bonus of being able to text message someone’s cell phone from your computer.
For the brave you can also get a cell phone that is Skype enabled which will let you use it on your cell phone to save money.
How can Skype help in Education?
- Set up a conference call with distance students
- leave your Skype enabled for times when you want to be at home but available to your students
- Record your calls/interviews (yes Skype does that too and remember to get the interviewees permission as well) with important people and play it back for students
As always you can voice your ideas as a comment on this post at the top and keep an eye out here for more information on tools like Skype that are fully fledged Web 2.0 (all online) and are just as good as Skype.
Twitter It!Can you Diigo it?
Posted by Tyler Wall in Annotation/Research, Bookmark, Collaboration, Communication, Presentation, multipurpose on March 9th, 2009
Diigo – Web Highlighter and Sticky Notes, Social Bookmarking and Annotation, Social Information Network! via kwout
I wrote an article extolling the social bookmarking tool Diigo. In my zeal I left out some really important ways that Diigo can and is used so I thought it was worth a revisit.
Diigo’s tools in a nutshell:
- Research tools
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- tagging
- list creation
- persistent highlighting (if you highlight text on a web page it will show up there every time you return and if you make it public anyone else will see it, or only allow people in a group view it instead of the whole world) Try it out yourself by clicking the link no signup required. http://www.diigo.com/04tra
- persistent commenting (same as the highlights )
- archiving bookmarks
- Annotation tools
- persistent highlighting (http://www.diigo.com/04tra)
- persistant commenting
- Presentation tool
- Webslides via lists (add bookmarks to a list as well as your own slides. It all plays back to whomever you send the link to with full web interactivity and they don’t even need a Diigo account, check this one out http://slides.diigo.com/list/tylerwall/web20_applications and you can even print it out)
- Social bookmarking tools
- tagging
- public and private access to individual bookmarks
- search engine
- unread bookmarking functions
- create bookmark lists
- share bookmarks to entire groups
- see bookmarks that your groups post but you retain the right to not bookmark them.
- discover people who have similar bookmarks, tags, groups
- show the sites you bookmark most
- messaging
- cloud lists
- Posting to blogs (I posted this article to my blog from Diigo)
There is more but I only have so much space.
So what can an educator use this application for?
Here are some ideas I came up with,
- Use the annotation tools to keep notes for yourself on important websites, I know sometimes its nice going to a website i haven’t seen in a long while and have a few notes or the important text highlighted.
- Make your annotations public and have your students become Diigo members which will allow your
- Create a list of links that are important to a course, this creates a webslide presentation that you can share with whomever you want. This will then bypass deep linking copyright (as far as I understand the copyright laws). The links in the presentation are still navigable and provide students an overview of resources.
- Broaden your knowledge horizon by joining a group. I have found dozens of E-Learning and Education groups which harness the power of the masses by bringing you all the best resources on the web regarding whatever topic you choose.
- Why not create a web research quiz? Set it up like a scavanger hunt by finding a bunch of websites that your students need to do research on and post questions on those sites using the “post it” annotation tool in Diigo. This displays your questions to them on the page that they needed to research which teaches them research skills and they won’t know the question until they do the research.
- Create a group for your whole class and make the research process a group activity spreading the knowledge around.
These are just some ideas that I came up with but the possibilities are there for the taking.
I want to hear about what you use Diigo for or ideas that you may have on how to use it for education.
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Social bookmarking at its finest
Posted by Tyler Wall in Annotation/Research, Bookmark, Collaboration, Communication, Presentation, multipurpose on March 3rd, 2009
Have you ever been at someone’s house, office, or even using a second computer and you want to bring up a website that you have bookmarked on your main machine and can’t remember the URL? Social bookmarking has set out to eliminate this problem and there are several tools to help you in a situation like this but 2 in particular stand out, Diigo and Del.icio.us.
The big dog on the block is Del.iciou.us which allows you to put all your bookmarks up on the web and accessible wherever you are in the world all you need is an internet connection. It has great functionality and is a great tool for collecting your bookmarks, it even has plugins for Firefox, IE, and Safari that allow for easy bookmarking and access to bookmarks.
My pick for best social bookmarking tool is the young upstart is Diigo (even though I use both). Diigo is a Research tool, a knowledge sharing community, a social annotation tool; you can highlight text (with comments) on a website, add sticky-notes to any page all visible to everyone (if you choose) who has Diigo installed in their browser. It can even create lists of bookmarks that can then be presented as a slideshow that can be accessible to anyone in the world if you so choose. These interactive browsing slideshows take you through a list of urls at predetermined intervals all the while still allowing the user to look through the webpage and be in control of the experience clicking links and using the webpage. Use it to bundle important websites together for students or co-workers. Try out the slideshow for yourself no download required (http://slides.diigo.com/list/tylerwall/web2tools) and here is an example of how to use it (http://wslides.blogspot.com/2007/09/emmbed.html)
Like Facebook you can check out how your friends are bookmarking, send messages to them, share bookmarks with them and create groups (like “web 2.0″ or “good recipes”) to facilitate the whole process.
Both Diigo and Del.icio.us are very well integrated into your browser and use a tagging organizational structure so you can easily find 1 bookmark within thousands very fast and very easily. So long story short Del.icio.us focus is more on strictly the bookmarking functionality whereas Diigo has that functionality and adds to it many different social aspects and annotation tools. If you already have a Del.icio.us account Diigo even makes the transition easier by allowing an easy import and bookmarking to both services through Diigo.
delicoious bookmarks
Meebo, Adium, and Pidgin three communication tools with strange names.
Posted by Tyler Wall in Communication on February 27th, 2009
Many instant messaging tools (MSN, Gtalk, Yahoo, AIM) really bridged the gap that email left by allowing you to have synchronous conversations with people. The only problem with it is that there are so many services out there that it gets hard to figure out which friend/collegue/student is on which service. That is where Adium, Meebo and Pidgin come in. They collect various IM services into one service.
So How could this work for Education?
As an instructor you could make yourself available to all your students by using this service. That way it doesn’t require them to change their ways any and makes you available to them for whatever times you designate.
Set up lectures with question periods and have it open so students with laptops can message their questions in. This engages the more shy students and lets you preview a question temporarily before answering.
If you want a comparison chart that I created of the three services you can download the PDF here.
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