Category Archives: Social Software

Wetpaint wiki – my patience is totally shot! (with happy end!)

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Setting ourselves up for some new things this term (I’ll blog about that next) I did a bit of a ‘will I, won’t I’ excercise with three wiki tools. I like Wikispaces a lot – but the basic interface looks so basic that I wasn’t willing to make the choice to use that tool until I learnt more about customization. For me the exisiting templates are just too ‘home-made’ looking.

My other choice was PBwiki – but I have not used that yet, and in the time I had set aside, I decided not to use that either as it was a totally new wiki platform for me. I will be going back to PBwiki too!

MY BIG MISTAKE

I started a new wiki with both those good wiki companies approved my request for ad-free spaces within 36 hours at the outside, one of them even quicker than that!

What’s my problem? Well as I have said in my tweets – Wetpaint support sucks!

Wetpaint as a wiki tool is quite nice, particularly in the hands of students. Lets face it. If the kids want to build a wiki, then Wetpaint has some template choices that make them feel as if their work is ‘cool’! In other words, it’s more like the kind of choices you get with various blogging platforms.

Nice 🙂

Until you as a teacher decide to jump in there and take advantace of the Ad-Free Education Wikis. 48 hours to have the request processed? Try more than a week and a half and still counting!!! Expect automated replies. Even worse, when you have sent in the requested information in the ‘How To Apply section’, expect to get an email requesting the age of the students! Yes, it’s mentioned in the promotion but not in the information that is needed to apply.

Righto I think..we’re getting close when the email comes asking for the age of the students. Next? another automated reply.

Still no ads removed. We have started teaching with our wiki, which is against my policy entirely.

We even held off for the first lesson waiting for the magic to happen.

I am sure that Jeff Utecht, Wetpaint’s Education Ambassador, (and pro-blogger at The Thinking Stick) is as embarrassed as I am about this whole debacle. Talking to Wetpaint education services is like dealing with call centres – you never know who you are talking to, and when you call back they don’t know you rang before). I’m also wondering – is the company based exclusively in the States? Do they not factor in the fact that we go to school at different times in the Southern Hemisphere?

I had to laugh because my husband’s take on the mess was to ask – Does Jeff get paid to promote Wetpaint? This is a question derived from a business response. He assumes that Jeff would believe in the services he is promoting and would expect it to be efficient – unless of course he is being paid to promote which makes it all a bit more rubbery. I explained that Jeff wouldn’t promote something he didn’t believe in. Must be a business management issue at the moment.

So – Wetpaint take note – if you want to build your business, it would be fabulous if you could be responsive to educators. If we love your platform we will buy into it.

Congratulations to PBWiki and Wikispaces for their extremely prompt response to.

Wetpaint, I very much hope to hear from you soon. As an education consultant I used to promote your product too. I’m embarrased to think that I might have been giving teachers poor advice. I would much prefer to dig into the product and push it to the limits for good use than have to give it up.

Come on Wetpaint – on behalf of all educators let me ask you to speed up your response times.

UPDATE: Less than an hour after this post, Michael Bolognino from Wetpaint has been in touch. See his comment to this post. Thanks Michael. If this problem can be resolved, and if my experience can help streamline things for other educators then it’s a win all around! Perhaps we educators could also help Michael and his team continue to develop a great wiki product for our students to use.

UPDATE TWO: Congratulations and thanks for Michael’s support of educators by resolving this problem less than half a day after I posted this story. The wiki looks fabulous now! I know that things can go wrong But the fact that a blog post reached you Michael and you were kind enough to jump right in and resolve the problem is fabulous. Michael also said that he saw my forlorn tweets of frustration, replied (which I missed being in a different timezone) and assumed the problem had been resolved. A message there too for ed companies. Watch the tweeters 🙂 and don’t forget to send a Direct Message if you need to make contact. I purposefully tweeted the issue early, then vigorously in the last 24 hours before writing this post of frustration. To blog IS to communicate.

UPDATE THREE: Michael remains in contact and is going to do a thorough review of the scripts that they currently use to make sure that they are as accurate and friendly as possible in supporting educators requests. He may also try work with his developers to try to come up with a way to make the ad removal process automated.

A happy and successful solution.

Photo: Elaine’s photostream

Infobabble and my head

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Reading this article about Twitter made my head hurt just a little less.

The story of how Twitter took off reflects how web 2.0 tools are taking off!

Twitter has become so popular, so fast, that keeping up with its fast-growing user base is a real issue. So many people now use Twitter to update friends that the system often crashes. Twitterers, as they call themselves, post their updates at Twitter.com or by using text- or instant-message tools. The service is even credited with breaking news about fires and other natural disasters.The service is even credited with breaking news about fires and other natural disasters.

So for some, Twitter has been a lifesaver in the whole sea of virtual information. I’m finding that there is just so much information available, at such pace, from so many people…well to be honest, my head hurts a lot! When I started out blogging, social networking was easygoing, a friendly bit of patter with superb points of connection.

Now there is almost to much, and I sense a competitive edge that is not in keeping with that easygoing social networking kind of way of learning. It’s no longer about what the latest tool is, but how many of the seemingly vital tools YOU are using otherwise otherwise you are not really funky Web 2.0!

I am having to prune down rather than add to my toolkit. Too many Ning groups, too many flash meetings, too many points of connection. I am certainly over that initial flush of tool grabbing. I use what I need. I read about the rest, and when I need a way of thinking or connecting for my students, I’ll integrate that. After all, we should be focusing on shifts in thinking, not shifts in technology tools. Too often the shift is about a toy tool, not about substantially different pedagogy. Unfortunately, the reality is that we can’t substantially shift pedagogy on our own, or easily, unless we have a whole-school approach to change. That’s where a school approach wins hands down – the most creative, immersive and best example I have seen of this has been the work the Lenva Shearing is doing at Bucklands Beach. Lenva, you are a dynamo, and an awesome example to us all.

So you know what? I’m over the initial flush of social networking.

Why?

Because more and more networks and social connections are being created and maybe, for me at least, there are too many. So I have to be very particular about what I choose and what I follow – and more importantly – WHY! I have a very busy day job that takes me into the night with all my networking and creative planning for change.

Interestingly these concepts were raised in the backchannel of the excellent Knowledge Conference Key Note presentation by Steve Hargadon on “Web 2.0 is the future of education”. (Congratulations to the organisers for a great conference!)

While we are busy social networking, collaborating, and creating a shared language, I believe we are also beginning to fragment the conversation. The culture of participation is pervasive, and even invasive. I love it and I hate it. I enjoy it and am frustrated by it. The teacher librarians in the back channel reflected on the explosion of information that Steve talked about. No solutions, just ideas. An excellent session for my staff to attend.

My personal focus is staying apace with 3D and the metaverse – simply because this is the new frontier and I want to understand it’s potential for learning and teaching – and life! I can’t ‘talk’ or network with everybody. For now, the group of educators involved with Second Life and the like is sufficiently small for me not to have infobabble in my head!

Photo: Headache

MySpace – a quick reflection

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MySpace, Facebook, Beebo – in fact all similar social networking sites are a ‘big’ topic of conversation amongst educators. The conversation more often than not revolves around filtering or blocking access to such sites at school. I am unhappy about being the ‘MySpace’ police – shouldn’t I and my fellow teachers be MySpace teachers instead? Here are a few words on the topic from Will Richardson.

Yahoo for Teachers

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Something new to try out! Will this be one to watch? Like a Web 2.0 content management system – for your school, between schools, between you colleagues, and just sharing. Will this solve some problems for schools, or just create new ones? Check the Yahoo Teachers info page and register for your own beta invitation.

  • Facebook Chat – more talking!

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    Logged into Facebook after coming home from the movies, to discover that my Facebook had acquired a Chat function.

    Yet another thing to think about and integrate into my online communications and organisational tools.

    Actually, I use Facebook quite a bit one way or another – not for the silly game things, but more as a way of quickly staying in touch, and organising meetings, events etc. Using standard email just doesn’t seem to ‘cut it’ for everything anymore.

    Let’s see how it all pans out.

    Facebook says:

    We’ll be rolling this out slowly going forward, but fairly soon you’ll notice our new Chat bar at the bottom of your browser—no installation or assembly required. From this bar you can view your list of online friends and open conversations with any or all of them. There’s no need to setup a “buddy list.” Unlike the Wall or Inbox, the messages are delivered and displayed to your friend as soon as they’re sent, so you should expect a response right away and without any page loading.

    We’re working on pulling other features of the site into the real- time Chat world. Your notifications will now arrive in the Chat bar, and while chatting you’ll see your friend’s Mini-Feed activity thrown into the conversation, as it occurs.

    Chat is by no means a new concept, as instant messaging systems have been around for over a decade. But just as other features on Facebook have allowed friends to communicate more efficiently than before, we hope Facebook Chat will make it easier to connect instantly

    So I’m looking forward to my first chat 🙂 with this new tool.

    Sputtr – or Spluttr!

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    Could have been great for the students! as Sputtr is a very clever multi-search engine.

    We gave it a go, when some students came asking for assistance with their current research topics.

    Afterwards we also looked at the options it has for creating a customized search page by including some of my favourite search tools, as well as allowing us to choose from a variety of Web 2.0 zones – anything from Youtube to twitter to DeviantARt to WorldCat and heaps more.

    Sputtr incorporates websearch, images, video, audio/music, maps, blogs, blogsearch, news, bookmarks, social networks, people search, reference, country information, and more.

    Ah, so it’s great isn’t it?

    Yes, it is.

    But I CAN’T recommend it for use by my students because it has the naughty button which leads to a paid ‘love’ service. What a damned shame. After a good start I spluttered to a halt.

    Be yourself – stand out with edutagger

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    Remember when Del.ici.ous and other social bookmarking sites were new….. and hardly anybody knew what they were let alone used them? Remember when we discovered Digg?

    Well here’s your chance to see something else new with great potential, which is designed specially for K-12 teachers. Edutagger is in its early days (not much there yet) so will depend on us, the online educators of the world, to build up its capacity to store and promote the best resources we can find and share with each other. Think Delicious tagging + Digg and you’ll have an understanding of what it might do.

    Blending the use of categories and tags, Edutagger it is an online organisational space for sharing and pooling our resources. Could this be the breakthrough that we have all been looking for?

    I recommend that you take a look, create an account, and add some links. Before you know it we could build a critically useful collection for us all.

    Edutagger still sports Google ads – like other online tools before it, Edutagger relies on this to get started. Don’t let that stop you exploring and contributing to Edutagger.

    For me the other great thing is that this product is made by an aussie, who works in one of our schools in Melbourne, Australia. Email chatting with Edutagger’s creator today I discovered that he was a wee bit busy preparing a video presentation for parents! Nice touch..someone who ‘gets’ education!

    Our busy life never stops does it? So let’s share the load and ‘be happy’!

    Photo: Be yourself

    Update: Information provided by email by Mark Schuman, from his school in Melbourne. Mark supports and trains staff in the use of e-Learning technologies and has become known as “Mr Moodle” – his name is around the Moodle forums a fair bit. Thanks to Stephen Downes for ‘picking me up’ on not providing information about Mark (blame late-night blogging!). Stephen provides a profile and some comments about the tool.

    Here comes everybody!

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    The grand thing about Web 2.0 and social networking is the opportunities for both serendipity and synergy in the process of networking and collaboration.

    Today I read with interest Beth Kanter’s (from Cambodia) notes about building your network strategically. Beth is writing an article and threw some thinking up on her Facebook notes. She starts by saying that

    Doing “outreach” or adding new friends to your network is a critical part of the work flow. To reap the benefits a using a social networking, you need to build your network, although as some experts say it is a matter of quality, not quantity. You want to avoid random outreach, but remember since outreach can be open-ended and there are opportunities for distractions. Remember to know when to stop.

    While Beth is looking at marketing in the non-profit sector her comments were of interest to educators – Vicki Davis (Southern Georgia, our coolcatteacher!) added a note saying

    In school we tell everyone,”Never add a friend of a friend, only add people you know,” and many of us are building our network in this way. Aren’t kids who add friends of a friend learning valuable networking skills? It is important to remember this, but also that we are creating a vast disconnect between what we tell students and what is going to make them successful in the future!

    So here we had just one of our many dilemmas in education being effectively highlighted and discussed, right in a social networking space, accessible only amongst ‘friends’.

    It didn’t stop there. I also had a message from Ken Carroll (Shanghai & Dublin) about the launch of his new blog Ken Carroll on Learning. Here we have Ken, and astute businessman, doing exactly as Beth advises – using friends networks to reflect and share, manage and promote.

    I am pleased that Ken shared his new blog link with me, because he has some highly relevant issues for consideration by educators. (Consider adding Ken Carroll on Learning to your RSS reader.)

    His post Here Comes Everybody touches on so many issues related to learning – information sharing, communication, gathering, discussion, utilisation etc etc. Yes, Ken, we have all been learning more, faster than we could 5 years ago….that is, if we are immersed in Web 2.0 tools and communication opportunities. As he puts it

    every individual now has a voice in the Big Conversation…. the participative web goes way beyond just high-speed access to information. It also enables us to form learning networks that include people, conversations, and information. This is a crucial development that we need to understand.

    Like Ken, I also connect with people on my network through blogs, social networks, email, instant messaging and more.

    This is what I want to share with my teachers. This is what I want to empower in the learning opportunities for my students. This is what future learning is all about.

    Photo: Casa Batllo, My Social Network

    Real Wired Child

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    A while ago I had the opportunity to speak to the P&F at our largest high school. The topic was Myspace or Yours: Possibilities and Pitfalls.

    Parents wanted to spend time talking about online safety, games, and hacking! Yes, it is true that for some of our students it is hard to provide them with the online and computer challenges that they crave.

    I took with me a copy of Real Wired Child by Dr Michael Carr-Gregg. This is a wonderful guide for parents (unfamiliar with the online world) who want to know what their children are doing online, and what they can do to ensure their children’s wellbeing when they venture into cyberspace. Real Wired Child gives practical advice to parents on how they might manage their children’s online communications, social networking, web surfing, downloading and gaming. The truth is that we need to start teaching our students from a young age exactly how to learn, collaborate and share using blogs, wikis and more as part of everyday learning. I love the work of  Al Upton  and his young ‘mini-legends’ – proving that students are never to young to work in a global online world.

    Michael Carr-Gregg urges parents to venture into the online world inhabited by their children and get in touch with their day-to-day lives. He explains what kids get up to, provides guidelines for family internet safety and advises how to minimise the risks without limiting your children’s freedom to learn, explore and communicate online. At $19.95 I consider this a bargain. Better still, buy some copies for the library, so parents can borrow a copy. More information available from Penguin.

    I prepared a presentation for the evening, to stimulate discussion and thinking about the issues. Thanks to my (online) colleagues Graham Wegner and Sue Waters, whose earlier work provided a basis for this presentation.

    Big juicy Twitter Guide

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    Thanks to Caroline Middlebrook  for compiling this great guide.

    She’s included heaps of information and ideas – no excuse now for not understanding Twitter. Even if you don’t use Twitter, you have to stop and take notice of Twitter – because it’s where lots of good educators are sharing – ripping through the global information repository and picking the best just for you and me!

    Big Juicy Twitter Guide