Wikis in Education

On Monday I am giving a workshop session on wikis, and have really made the assumption that the participants will be newbies.

Here is a list of the sites I am using

• Wikipedia
• Wikipedia selection for schools
• Wikinews
• Wikimedia
• Collaborative knowledge building image
• Today's Meet
• Another Today's Meet page - murder_paradise
• The Story - writing a short story collaboratively using submissions from Today's Meet
• Wiki Wiki image
• Wikis in Plain English - YouTube video
• John Pearce's Digistories Wiki
• Smik09 on WikiSpaces

The presentation is available on my public space on BoxNet as well as in the plugin in the left margin of this page (scroll down)

RSS: Keeping up-to-date and informed

This posting relates to the third session I am presenting in Singapore on Saturday November 15 at the Hands On Literacy conference

RSS is an acronym with several explanations:

• Rich Site Syndication
• Really Simple Syndication
• Really Simple Syntax

RSS is a feature of xml technology and facilitates the transfer of content from one computer to another.

Sometimes these are called news feeds, or headlines

One feature of RSS is that as data on the parent site is updated, so the data on the receiving site is updated.

This process is called syndication

RSS feeds are received as xml and are then displayed at the receiving computer in html.
Thus 'raw' xml' content looks a little like html with similar 'markup' features.

Click here http://api.edna.edu.au/headline.rss?sector=edna for an example (this may behave differently if you are using Firefox)

Sometimes you are able to use a website’s features to display an RSS feed.
Sometimes you have to pull the RSS feed in using JavaScript. More about that later.

RSS feeds may be generated by blogs like this one
They enable to user to monitor additions to the blog

The text version of podcasts are also often available as an RSS feed.

RSS feeds thus enable the user to select sources of information and keep up to date without having to remember to visit the original website.

The source site pushes the RSS feed out, the receiving end pulls the RSS feed in.

RSS in Plain English: http://www.blip.tv/file/205570/

RSS Feed Aggregators
Aggregators are web places where you can identify the RSS feeds that you want to monitor
You access them via the web from wherever you are
• iGoogle: http://www.google.com/ig
• Pageflakes: http://www.pageflakes.com/
• Bloglines: http://www.bloglines.com/
• Blogbridge: http://www.blogbridge.com/
• Google Reader: http://reader.google.com/
• Netvibes: http://www.netvibes.com/
• Newsgator: http://www.newsgator.com/

RSS Readers
are generally software that you download and then install on your computer

A list of RSS Readers that you can download
http://blogspace.com/rss/readers

RssReader - free RSS reader is able to display any RSS and Atom news feed (XML)
http://www.rssreader.com/
Feed Reader3 – free RSS reader
http://www.feedreader.com/
FeedGhost – Requires Windows XP or Windows Vista
http://www.feedghost.com/

RSS by Email

Feed My Inbox: http://feedmyinbox.com
You type in the URL of the page that has an RSS feed and then the email address to send the feed to. It gives you a "daily digest" of feeds from that site.

Creating an RSS feed is not nearly as difficult as it once was.

• The easiest way to go about it is to create a blog and they usually generate an RSS feed.
  http://www.blogger.com/


• Tumblr is a tool that allows you to generate a blog from a "web journey" and the resultant blog is available as an RSS feed.
  http://www.tumblr.com/
  

Other sources of RSS feeds

• Twittr
  
• http://del.icio.us/
  
• Flickr

Feed 2 JS tool
http://feed2js.edna.edu.au/
This is a tool that enables you to feed the content of an RSS feed into a web page through Java Script.

For further information see http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/help/rss_help

Social networking with educators

This posting relates to a session I am presenting in Singapore on Saturday November 15 at the Hands On Literacy conference.

My "brief" for my workshop in Session 1.
Social networking with educators: why is this important? How do I do it?
The emphasis in web 2.0 tools is using communication and collaboration tools to connect with others. This session will focus on where some of these social networking sites can be found and what participants get out of joining one or more of them. What is the potential of social networking for my professional development? This session will look at some social networking sites such as Ning and the edna example of me.edu.au

A word from Common Craft


More Common Craft videos in Plain English on social media, podcasting, RSS, blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, twitter, and online photosharing.

What do educators get out of being part of a social network?

• support from fellow educators, like-minded teachers
  
• new ideas
• information about trends, events, new publications
• professional development, both incidental and intentional
  
• just in time assistance - you can ask questions
  
• the opportunity to "define" yourself
• a place to create an online e-portfolio
• development of your understanding of, and confidence in using, web 2.0 tools
• a wider network of "friends"
• growth of your own reputation
  

Links to follow up:

• me.edu.au: an Australian social network for educators.
• Classroom2.0: a Ning social network for those interested in Web 2.0 and collaborative or transformative technologies in education. This a large network of over 12,000 members with a large number coming from the US. Search for me there. There are 39 people who list Singapore as home.
  
• Ning in Education: similar site to Classroom2.0: a community for those using the Ning social networking platform in education. Look for a block in the right hand column that contains a list of Ning education networks.
• Library 2.0: a Ning network for librarians.
• TeacherLibrarianNetwork: This is another Ning, but this one has a number of defined sub-groups: High School Teacher Librarians, Elementary School Librarians, YA Lit in School Libraries, More Things: Applying 2.0 tools, Information fluency, and more.
  
• Social Networks in Education: a wiki that gives an extensive list of social networks you can join.
  
• Socialnetworking4teachers: a wiki with useful links and ideas.
• CyberSmart! for teachers: a site devoted to interenet safety with advice for teachers.
• Literacy & technology: another Ning, for those interested in the application of technology to literacy learning in the K-3 area of the school.
• Literacy Lighthouse: another Ning community, a place for high school English teachers to become beacons of 21st Century literacy. Join now and share best practices, forge collaborations, and discuss what literacy in the 21st Century entails.This is a small recently created network.
  

What to do

• visit a number of networks and then decide which one (or two at the most to start with) best suits you.
• sign up - usually you have to create a user name, decide on your own password, give an email address, and sometimes you go straight in. In others you won't be able to login until you've confirmed your registration by email.
• usually in the network you will get your own set of pages, with a blog page, and the opportunity to "collect" friends.
  
• work on creating your profile - you can usually add some details about yourself, your interests etc., and add a photo. Defining who you are is really important.
• explore what the site offers, look at the forums, explore other people's pages, collect colleagues, leave comments.
• work out whether you can monitor what goes on in the network by email, RSS feeds, or whether you have to remember to visit frequently.
  
• Always remember that the benefits of social networking for you will depend on your participation. If you "lurk" it is very easy to become a voyeur rather than a participant, and then eventually it will seem less important for you to visit.
  

Things in Plain English

Have you come across Common Craft Plain English videos?
There are some great ones, so I'm going to embed some of them here.
When you run a video on YouTube you will find links to even more videos not listed here.

Social Media in Plain English



Podcasting in Plain English



RSS in Plain English



Blogs in Plain English



Wikis in Plain English



Social Bookmarking in Plain English



Twitter in Plain English



Online Photo Sharing in Plain English