eLearning Technology: Web 2.0 and eLearning 2.0 Start-Up Guides

eLearning Technology: Web 2.0 and eLearning 2.0 Start-Up Guides

Tony Karrer has highlighted some terrific starter Web 2.0 resources in his blog, eLearning Technology. These are highly recommended if you are new to Web 2.0 and want to get up to speed quickly.

eLearning Technology: Web 2.0 and eLearning 2.0 Start-Up Guides

eLearning Technology: Web 2.0 and eLearning 2.0 Start-Up Guides

Tony Karrer has highlighted some terrific starter Web 2.0 resources in his blog, eLearning Technology. These are highly recommended if you are new to Web 2.0 and want to get up to speed quickly.

Social Tagging for Museums

www.steve.museum - Researchers

Social Tagging refers to group meta-tagging of online resources such as newspaper articles, academic papers, images and entire Web sites. It is a natural fit for museums, who have expertise in meta-tagging artifacts. A colleague directed me to the Steve project, as I was proof-reading a paper she is writing on this topic. If you haven`t heard about this project, or don`t know anything about social tagging, please spend some time on the Steve Project site.

Social Tagging is perhaps the most productive, and easiest way to participate in the "social web", or Web 2.0. If you are not comfortable participating in the Steve Project, try using del.icio.us as a social tagging tool. I use it daily and see great use and potential for this tool.

Social Tagging is cool and fun. It`s easy and fast as well. Tag -- you`re it! Now go tag something on the Web!

Social Tagging for Museums

www.steve.museum - Researchers

Social Tagging refers to group meta-tagging of online resources such as newspaper articles, academic papers, images and entire Web sites. It is a natural fit for museums, who have expertise in meta-tagging artifacts. A colleague directed me to the Steve project, as I was proof-reading a paper she is writing on this topic. If you haven`t heard about this project, or don`t know anything about social tagging, please spend some time on the Steve Project site.

Social Tagging is perhaps the most productive, and easiest way to participate in the "social web", or Web 2.0. If you are not comfortable participating in the Steve Project, try using del.icio.us as a social tagging tool. I use it daily and see great use and potential for this tool.

Social Tagging is cool and fun. It`s easy and fast as well. Tag -- you`re it! Now go tag something on the Web!

Flock: THE Browser for Web 2.0?

Joan Vinall-Cox :: Weblog :: Flock - Outside (and Above) the LMS ?Patent?

For those of you who are interested in learning more about Web 2.0, and making use of Web 2.0 tools, Flock is a Web browser that yo may want to consider. In her edu-blog, Joan Vinall-Cox tells us why she is going to encourage her students to use this browser. According to Vinall-Cox, Flock does an excellent job of providing tools for the social user. Navigation for this browser includes support for Flickr and Photobucket, social tagging with del.icio.us, and blogging, among other features.

I will be trying out this browser myself and will post my findings here.

Trends and Common Practices in University Web Sites

PebbleRoad: The Changing Face of University Websites

This is an excellent article on recent trends and good practices adopted by Universities in Web site design and re-design. There are many useful -- and I might add important -- tips in here for museums who are contemplating making changes to their own Web sites. The sections on Information Architecture and the page description diagram contained in the section entitled "Homepage, News & RSS" are particularly relevant and important.

Wireless Access Becoming the Norm

Plans for a wireless campus in the works : The University Daily Kansan

Hot on the heels of reading a 2005 study by public opinion pollsters Ipsos-Reid that 72% of Wireless Internet users intend to access the Internet wirelessly from a location outside their homes by 2006 (hey that`s right now!), I came across this story about a University of Kansas student president elected on a platform of increasing wireless access on campus. Student body president Jason Boots ran on a platform to make wireless Internet available throughout campus.

What does any of this have to do with museums? It suggests that wireless is fast becoming the norm in public spaces, which includes museums. We now have a generation of University students who are used to having wireless access in their learning environments (wireless access is fast becoming the norm in Canadian institutions, as well as those in the United States). Naturally, they adapt by using wireless devices that make use of this technology. What happens when they go to a museum? My guess is that in a few years, they will simply expect to have wireless access, perhaps to look at the museum`s own online information, or to find supporting material via a search engine (see my post on "Google jockeys", below). This is an issue that we will continue to follow in this forum.

By the way, the same Ipsos-Reid poll found that 14% of Canadians said that they would spend more time in their favourite Coffee Shop if it Offered Wireless Internet Access.

Coming Soon to a Conference Near You: Google Jockeys

Coming Soon to a Conference Near You: Google Jockeys

Here is a very thoughtful blog entry by ACR Log (Association of College & Research Libraries) on the upcoming use of "Google Jockeys" and Mind maps at the upcoming Masie Center Learning 2006 conference. Google Jockeys, who are being used in some classroom settings, are assigned the task of conducting real time searches during a classroom lecture that are displayed to all students, real-time. The idea is to share information relevant to the lecture with the class.

I have to agree with the blogger (StevenB) that this would prove incredibly distracting for me. Not only does this smack of gimmickery, it raises the question: shouldn`t a lecture stand on its own? If I have to see google search results during a lecture to make it a complete learning experience, has the instructor really done their job of preparing a complete lesson? Can you imagine trying this kind of a thing in a work setting, much less in medical school?

Free real-time web voice communication tool

Gong is a potentially useful tool for museum educators to employ. The creators of this application describe it as follows:

Gong is a free system for voice communication on the Web. It allows groups of people such as students and teachers to participate in discussion groups using their computers, using both synchronous (real-time) and asynchronous chat. It is commonly used by schools and universities for providing a 'voice board' for teaching purposes.

Museum educators could potentially use this tool as a means to participate in "pre-visit" sessions with classrooms (even multiple classrooms in a single session) via computer. Travelling to a classroom to do this is not a viable option, but imagine Web-based voice communication to communicate with a classroom and perhaps even surf portions of the museum`s Web site together before a visit to prepare (and excite) students.

Gong is not only free, it is targetted toward classroom use.