Learning Adventure #10

Web 2.0 Technologies

Professor Stager asked us to work with Web 2.0 technologies for Learning Adventure #10. Specifically, he wanted us to explore such topics as social bookmarking, blog aggregation, and RSS feeds. Fortunately I was reasonably acquainted with many of these technologies so I was able to jump right in.

I had been meaning to work with del.licio.us for a while now as many of the web pages I read use this feature but I was uncertain exactly what it was. I went over and created an account and read through the basic instructions. I tend to create many, many bookmarks on the computers I use at home and at work. Del.icio.us seemed like a perfect way to keep my bookmarks in one place and to have access to them no matter what computer I was using. Additionally, it would allow me to easily share the content that I had found while working in the OMET program.

Josh Burker's del.licio.us page

To populate the bookmarks I opened Safari, the web browser I primarily use and where my Pepperdine bookmarks are located. I ended up loading each of the pages to review their content so I could properly tag the pages and offer a coherent summary of the contents. I tried to generate some broad tags under which I could organize the information. Some items received more than one tag, which makes cross-referencing the sites quite simple.

I have also been working with my wife to take a picture every day this year, and conveniently Flickr.com, where we are posting our photos, offers an RSS feed of our photos, as well. A project such as this seems particularly well-suited to using RSS since I update it frequently but sporadically. People subscribed to the RSS feed for the photos would have an effortless time keeping current with the latest photos.

I have been using RSS feeds for a while now, mainly with my Newton MessagePad 2100 and eMate 300 using an application called Raissa, a headlines and news reader . The light-weight, low-bandwidth nature of RSS is perfect for these computers, and I am able to load multiple feeds and take them with me when I travel or go to conferences, for example. Of course, OS X's Safari web browser has had RSS support since the introduction of OS X 10.4, but I generally prefer to just read web pages on my desktop computer or even my primary computer, which is a laptop. RSS seems particularly well-suited to offline reading, so perhaps that is why I prefer to use my Newton for RSS. I have downloaded BottomFeeder for OS X, an RSS/Atom Feed Viewer written in SmallTalk and will give that a whirl as well.

The second part of the Learning Adventure is considering how OMET might be changed if the technological tools people explored in this challenge "were used as our collaboration and knowledge management."

Currently we in OMET use a variety of tools in order to meet, collaborate, post our reflections, and generally work towards a Master's Degree in Educational Technology. We use tools that are asynchronous and synchronous. Some, like the various wikis that we have set up do take advantage of some of the collaborative possibilities that these authoring tools provide. Others, like Blackboard or Moodle (>shudder<) are more traditional bulletin-board systems, where we generate conversation through our posts. Most learning circles use technologies such as AOL Instant Messenger or Skype to meet; these technologies make collaboration and communication more effortless because groups are able to chat as if using a telephone. This facilitates communication, in my opinion, because conversation is oftentimes more effortless when it is not being typed.

A challenge in a program such as OMET is keeping track of myriad sources of information, staying on top of posts by one's classmates, and aggregating the knowledge that each of us is building into some useable form so the research might be shared and used by others. For this reason I see a technology such as RSS as being an important addition to the toolbox that we have as OMET students. A pull technology, it is possible through the use of application agents to have the computer take care of keeping track of the information. The OMET blog makes use of RSS feeds, and one might easily subscribe to classmates' blogs. But I would find RSS feeds of Blackboard posts particularly useful. Ultimately what I feel OMET would most benefit from is employing more of these pull technologies. Let the computer do the heavy lifting and bring the content to you!

The main hurdle to implementing these new technologies, however, is experience and comfort in diving in and trying something new. Too often I have been frustrated by the limitations of some of the tools that are instrumental to the program. The new technologies are moving targets, so it is difficult to train people to use them, like we learned to use DreamWeaver at VirtCamp. However, experiences and challenges like this are instrumental to the program and the knowledge that we build as we work our way through it.

I am excited by the ability to share information that is offered in these new technologies. It has been very fun for me to work on my photo a day project and to have the photos published in such a public place where people may post comments. Two of the photos that Meg took in Oxford, U.K., and one that I took there were chosen for an online guide to Oxford because they were posted on Flickr. Likewise, it is very nice to have my Pepperdine bookmarks available on del.icio.us because it allows me to travel from computer to computer and still have access. More important, however, is that services such as this allow others to access the information that I have taken the time and consideration to find, saving others the time and effort. It will be interesting to see what new tools we discover and examine next semester and in the future as well.