Web 2.0

Can’t Afford PhotoShop? Look to Cloud Computing!

Google, Zoho, and a whole host of others have been giving us free, totally online alternatives to MicroSoft Office applications for a few years now…  and these alternatives pretty much rock.  But what about the creative type people? Are they stuck shelling out big bucks for PhotoShop and other high-end products to make images and music?

I’ve seen a few online options for the creative types that want to go the cloud-computing route, but most weren’t that special (yet).  Recently, I’ve been seeing a site called Aviary get some attention, so I decided to check it out.  The short version: not too hard to figure out, with a large number of features, all for free.

You can look here for a list of tools they have available so far.  Most of these tools are related to some kind of visual art (including what they claim is the world’s first online vector editor), but there is also an online audio editor in the list.

What interests me about Aviary is that there is a community feeling to it – profiles, favorites, messages, groups, etc.  Kind of like online productivity for creativity mixed with social networking.

There are some drawbacks for the free account.  For example, you can only download a flattened version of your layered artwork or images (with a watermark).  But layered export is coming in the Pro Version.

Ah HA! You say… A Pro version?  That’s where they are going to stick it to us, with a big charge for the really good stuff.  Well, so far… not really.  The tools work the same in both version it seems.  The Pro version gives you features surrounding the tools that pros will need – like private groups to keep your work from being stolen.  And, the Pro version is $24 a year.  Click here for a comparison of the two levels.

I haven’t messed with the Audio mixer – but it looks like you can record entire songs or podcasts online (directly through input, or by uploading pre-recorded audio parts).

Interesting tools for educators – something to keep an eye on.

Check out some of the work created on Aviary.

Trying to Figure Out That Google Social Thingy? Me Too.

Somewhere, deep in the bowels of the Google Bat Cave, I bet there is a very closely-guarded vault that only a few people have access to.    Inside this vault is a document that everyone from Microsoft to FaceBook to yours truly wants to get their hands on.  Some object or map or piece of paper – kind of like a real life Book of Secrets – that many claim is only a myth, but a few people (like myself) believe is a reality.  What is in the mythological document, you ask?

Why, no other than some kind of weird explanation for Google’s scattered and confusing social networking plan – of course.  The master plan for where they are going…. because there has just got to be some kind of rhyme to all the random pieces they seem to just be throwing to the wind every few weeks or so.

Will Google Wave be the final piece that pulls it all together?  I hope so.  But whatever it is, they need to get their social plan fully out there before social networking goes the way of Web 1.0.

I think the reason I want to figure out this master plan so much is because I like what I see so far.  I have iGoogle all set-up with the widgets I like, and now I can share information from some widgets with other friends.  Well, assuming I can ever coax any friends in to trying them with me.  Updates from those social gadgets show up in a FaceBook-like friend stream.  Or, at least… mine do. Until I get that first friend to join me in playing with these… I won’t know what their stuff looks like.

I also have a Google profile that now follows me as I use Google Friend Connect gadgets on different sites.  I can share things in Google Reader.  Then there is that Google Latitude thing that no one wants to touch, because, well… it is kind of creepy.   And probably a few other things I am missing.  Like Gtalk, Google Voice, etc, etc.

Oh… and then there is that social network that Google already has…. called…. ummm… Orkut?  Something like that.  Does that fit in there?

Probably does, but until the master plan is revealed to us someday, we’ll just have to keep waiting patiently for our invite to the next piece.  Which reminds me that I still need to kick myself for waiting so late to get on the list for Google Voice….

Google Nods to the Future With Wave

Everything Google does gets hype.  So you probably already read all there is known (so far) about Google Wave.  For the two anti-Google people out there in the world that just refuse to read anything about Google, it is said to be a new way to communicate online, based on new concepts of how we interact online.  Of course, I probably lost those two people at “Google”, so I just wasted time writing that.  Guess that makes me a true blogger.  Anyways, there is a really looooonnnggg video about it out there, too.  Which I haven’t watched, because I really just don’t have time.  Is it just me, or does it seem to be blasphemy to put a long video on YouTube,  THE website that proved people are more into short, concise summaries rather than long dissertations covering every detail?

Really?  How much can you talk about a service that is still in planning stages?

Well, the universe didn’t explode when it was posted, so I guess it is okay.  For now.

Everything that Google does usually turns out pretty good.  Even when it is something that doesn’t prove to be popular… like say Lively or Jaiku… they still do a good job with it.  But will Wave prove to be their first major misstep?  I’m thinking there is a slight possibility.

I’m sure it will work great.  I’m sure I will like it.  I’m just not sure it’s going to catch on.  This is what caught my eye, from the blog post quoted ’round the world:

He pointed out that two of the most spectacular successes in digital communication, email and instant messaging, were originally designed in the ’60s to imitate analog formats — email mimicked snail mail, and IM mimicked phone calls. Since then, so many different forms of communication had been invented — blogs, wikis, collaborative documents, etc. — and computers and networks had dramatically improved. So Jens proposed a new communications model that presumed all these advances as a starting point, and I was immediately sold.

What if the reason that email and IM caught on was because they did mimic what we were used to?  What if is had nothing to do with network limitations of the time, or lack of other ideas? Let’s face it – Twitter caught on because it mimicked texting.  Skype caught on because it mimicked phone calls. FaceBook caught on because it mimicked interaction and games from real life.

What if online stuff has to mimic something we are already into before it will catch on?  Most people are attributing the death of virtual worlds to the fact that they just seem too surreal sometimes.

Sorry – as much as I wish virtual worlds would catch on and take over the world, the cold hard truth is they seem to be dying.  Blogs are still kind of popular and kind of not… wikis never truly caught on as a tool (Wikipedia is seem more as an information source than a tool by most people)… and collaborative documents haven’t really caught on yet.

I’m pretty sure I will love Google Wave (as I also love virtual worlds, blogs, wikis, Skype, you name it).  But are we going to lamenting what could have been in a few years, just like we did with Lively earlier this year?  I guess only time will tell.  Twitter was pretty much dying until Oprah and a few other key events breathed some life in to it.  Now it is every where.  Maybe we can get Obama using Google Wave?

To honor free comic day…

As many of the more geeky EduGeek readers know, last Saturday was Free Comic Book Day. I took advantage of this by catching up on Marvel’s fun and compelling Sinister Six (which was not free, by the way). This event has me thinking of a tool that I have used in the past which allows anyone to design, draft, and publish comic book strips. This is another entry on tools that instructors might use to appeal to visual learners: the tool I highlight this week is Bitstrips.

Bitstrips are an easy way to embed information visually to your students

Bitstrips are quick to make and they can convey information to your students visually without much effort. It is also a simple way to create a static avatar for your course.

Bitstrips can add a bit of visual flair to: your syllabus, your learning management system, your orientation handouts, even exam instructions.

Bitstrips are not just for instructors, either. You could assign comic strip writing as creative exercises. A great thing about Bitstrip comics is that they can be edited by more than one person, if the designer desires. Therefore, students can work on creating a strip together. For example, a group could design a strip reflecting their interpretation of something that motivated a character to do what she or he did in a novel. Or perhaps they could draw up a case study graphically reflecting a prescribed course of actions.

Example of a bitstrip giving advice on how to ask effective questions.

Bitstrips are easily transferable, both on-line and off. They can be embedded into websites, downloaded as a image file, e-mailed and/or printed. Clearly this flexibility makes Bitstrips quite open as an assessment opportunity.

So, with that being said, I would be really interested to know what uses for this you might have. Send me a note @clongstr on Twitter and I will gather them to post later.

First Google, Now Gcast Demonstrate the Pitfalls of Web 2.0

As much as I love Web 2.0 sites, I also recognize that there are some drawbacks.  The biggest being the fact that the end user loses control of their content.  Recently, Google became a good example of how that can affect education when it shut down the Lively virtual world program, despite the protests of educators that used the service in education.

Now Gcast is giving us another example of a different issue related to relying on a third party website for educational purposes.  Gcast is a podcasting service at its core with many options.  One of those options is that you can get a toll free number to call in a podcast.  Nice for live podcasting from events or on the go.  A recent letter to users notified us that this phone-in podcast service is no longer free, pretty much effective immediately.  It now costs $99 a year.  For most cases, this places the service out of range for most educational purposes.  Are instructors really going to require their students to shell out nearly a hundred dollars to keep doing that podcast project?  It’s doubtful.

This is doubly hard for those that are in the middle of semester, maybe even in the middle of projects that are using this service.  There is talk of pro-rating the cost for the rest of the year.  Also, I have to mention that you can still upload audio from your computer for free.

The cause of this change? All we are told is that it is based on “fees charged by Microsoft.”  Nothing about the recession.  So this is a problem that could really affect any service at any time.

How can educators avoid getting stuck with a problem like this?  Well, there are a couple of things:

  1. Carefully choose your product in the first place. Even though you might love picking the underdog, they are the ones that tank the quickest. Make sure you go for a service that is fairly popular and even that is supported by advertising (these aren’t immune to financial problems, but at least they have thought about costs beforehand).  And, FYI – just because something is run by Google, that is no guarantee that it will be around forever.
  2. Have a back up plan ready to go at any time.  That plan should not just be “switch to the competitor.”  But that plan can change over time.  For example, Gabcast charges for phone in podcasts by the minute, but it is free using VOIP services.  Skype is realsing apps for smartphones like the iPhone that lets you make VOIP calls from your smartphone (with some limitations).
  3. If possible, consider installing a do-it-yourself open-source program on a server you or your school controls.  See #1 for which program to choose.  Keeping something under your control means no sudden changes without warning.  But it also means learning how to host stuff yourself (not that hard these days, but still something to consider).

Self Publish a Course… Magazine?

I think most people that read this site will be familiar with self-publication sites like LuLu.com.  These are great for instructors that want to produce their own book and ditch the high-priced text books.  But in the age of connectivism, content from instructors is shrinking as more teachers get on board with letting their students construct their own content.  Monster textbooks are not only looking bad for our backs, but for social learning in general (in some cases).  What is the Web2.0-enabled instructor to do?

Or what about getting your students to create a book of their own… what if they can’t get up to the minimum page limits at most self-publishing sites?

Now there is a new service from HP that lets you self-publish your own magazines called MagCloud.  Instead of publishing course textbooks – why not create a course magazine?  For around $10, you can probably included everything that a constructivism-savvy instructor needs.  Or, get your students in on the fun – have then create a magazine for a course project instead of the same old boring paper.

The interface is pretty easy to use (even though creating the PDF with the correct settings gets to be a little more difficult due to the whole ’embed fonts’ thing). You can even preview how the final project will look after trimming and everything.  All of this for 20 cents a page (minimum 24 pages).  Shipping is around $1.40 in U.S., so the minimum cost is $6.80 for a 24-page magazine.  But compare that to $100 or more for a textbook.  So, put in your syllabus, load in the basic information and instructions for the activities for your course, and off you go with a great alternative to expensive textbooks.

But…. just make sure you watch out for those pesky copyright rules… especially if you add any mark-up to the price.

The New York Times has a good summary article about the service, also:
Do-It-Yourself Magazines, Cheaply Slick

Why Some Web2.0 Tools Fail in Education

Many people have had great success integrating various Web2.0 tools and sites into their online classes.  Still others try very hard but come away frustrated with the results.  Is Web2.0 just a random concept that gives some instructors success while confusing others with no discern-able pattern?  Or is there a reason why some well-planned activities using Web2.0 still fail?

Many people point at bad pedagogy as the reason for some failures, only to end up finding out that good pedagogy can still lead to dissatisfied students.  Sure, there are those instructors that just get caught up in the ghee-whiz factors of some “cool tool” they just discovered.  They ignore pedagogy at their own peril, and then scratch their head when their cool tool fails to impact students.

But why do some Web2.0 activities with solid pedagogy still flop?  I believe it is because the instructional designers ignore three important foundations of what makes Web2.0 so powerful:

  1. Social Networking. Call it socialization.  Call it constructivism, or connectivism.  Or pop-educational mumbo jumbo.  But the factor that makes Web2.0 sites like Facebook so popular is that they help people connect with each other and interact in interesting ways.  Sure, you might come up with a really solid pedagogical way to use blogs in an online course.  Students get out there and do an awesome job journaling their thought processes as they work on class projects. But once the students get out there and create their own blog, those blogs are still independent of each other, with no real networking going on (beyond the two required comments students have to post each week).  Or you are using Twitter to just broadcast class updates, with no real socialization happening?  Students will get bored quickly.  What ever tool you use, you need to utilize the social nature of that tool and get students interacting.
  2. Relevant, useful information. You’ve heard the complaints about Twitter many times: “I could care less how many times everyone brushes their teeth each day, so why should I bother with this micro-blogging thing?”  Even when people interact socially, if the interaction is asynchronous to some degree, they still need to interact over information that they find useful and relevant to their life or situation.   Especially in educational situations.  Even if you are helping students get to know each other better, they still need to do that over interesting facts about each other.   Many educational activities using Web2.0 tools can have solid pedagogical reasoning and brisk interaction/ socialization, but still end up failing because they are still used to communicate information that is not relevant or useful or maybe that is even covered in other areas (such as the textbook).
  3. Constructing information. Even once the information becomes relevant and useful, the students may end up doing nothing with it.  The talking head at the front of the classroom has been transferred into a “talking head” on a blog or a podcast.  The students don’t do any useful higher order thinking with the information they receive… it all just becomes trivia to tuck away until the test.  Today’s learners, no matter their age, are becoming producers of information – not just consumers.  Don’t just have them interact over relevant information in a pedagogically sound activity – have them do something with that information.  Have them construct and connect that information into something meaningful.

Problems With Google Highlight The Dangers of Being an EduPunk

Every time I talk about using Web2.0 in education with someone, or even being a do-it-yourself EduPunk in general, I always throw in a little disclaimer at the end: “just be careful what you use, because one of those sites that you base your entire class on could be gone tomorrow.”  I usually get this “yeah, right” look from them, or even a “I’ll just use Google – that will always be safe” response.  Truth is, I never really believed it myself.

Oh, how the times have changed in the 4 months since I last said that.  It seems like Google is actually leading the charge in cutting down sites educators might use.  Google is shutting down sites?  Excuse me while I check the forecast for Hades right quick.

First it was Lively, now several other minor services have been closed completely or just put on the shelf (i.e. no further development).  Lively was probably the only closure to hurt education in anyway – even though that probably only applied to the bleeding edge of education.  Jaiku, with the ability to create groups that micro-bloggers could post to (versus the only two options on Twitter: everyone or one person), probably had the most educational potential.  Jaiku is apparently going open source, so maybe it will re-appear as something better later (but we EduGeeks thought Jaiku was so much better than Twitter…  sigh).  Google Notebook was probably meant to have educational potential but never really went anywhere.  TechCrunch has a good summary article if you want to see if your favorite Google side project is toast.

What this means for educators is: be careful!  Something that you rely on heavily for instruction could be gone tomorrow.  Unfortunaelty, this also means that more instructors are probably going to go with the most popular tool for their needs, even if they find another service that is a better fit.  And I can’t say I would blame them.  This would just mean that there is a smaller chance we will be seeing new ideas popping up online.

Google Docs now does surveys

Thanks (again) to Ramblings of a Technology Coordinator for another great find!

Did you know that Google Docs now supports survey-creation with data collection? I apologize if this is old news, but Google has created a very nice, very easy interface for creating and publishing surveys. Basically, you create a blank spreadsheet within Google Docs, click on the Forms tab at the top, and it steps you through creating your survey/form. With six question types to choose from (text, paragraph text, multiple choice, checkboxes, choose from a list, and scale 1-n), you can create a simple yet very functional survey.

What I especially like about Google Doc’s survey tool is the ability to embed the survey directly into your html page by using iframes. Below, you’ll see the EduGeek Journal survey I created. Please take a sec to answer the questions if you get a chance. Google gave me the code to copy/paste directly into my blog posting. Very nice. You also have the ability to email the survey directly to a list of people, and at any time you can stop accepting survey responses.

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Organizing it all – Socialthing & FriendFeed

So we now all now belong to all these social networks – facebook, myspace, youtube, twitter, jaiku, etc. How in the world are we now going to keep up with all of them? Do you have one instance of Firefox (or Flock — either one is cool enough for an EduGeek) with all tabs devoted to your social sites?

Or, have you stumbled across a social aggregator that can combine all of your social feeds into one friendly feed? So far, I’ve checked out two:

  • FriendFeed
    • Nice.
    • Easy to add services.
    • Seems to be a little slow in updating this morning.
    • Had a little difficulty adding my Jaiku feed, but working now.
    • Has 41 services you can import.
  • SocialThing!
    • Very nice!
    • Currently invite-only and still in beta.
    • Very nice interface and very easy to add service.
    • Currently only imports digg, facebook, flickr, last.fm, twitter, youtube, del.icio.us, pownce, and vimeo
    • They’re currently working on adding myspace, livejournal, and rss feeds, and you can vote to add services (jaiku currently has 522 votes).
    • Kind of shows threaded twitter discussions, which is nice.
    • Can easily reply to twitter and facebook posts through ST!
    • Shows that I have updates on my Firefox tab (my tab is now named ‘(2) Socialthing!’, telling me I have two updates)

So, right now, I’m going with ST! It’s the Jaiku to my Twitter. Cleaner. More user-friendly. Very promising. It doesn’t yet have all the services that FriendFeed has, but they’re working on it.

My questions for you: Have you used either or both? What do you think? Which do you prefer? Is there another social aggregator that is totally awesome that you can’t believe I haven’t mentioned?

Oh, and would you like an invite to Socialthing? I have one to spare. If so, post your email address in the comments, and I’ll send my one last invite your way!

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2008 Killer Apps – Tools for Managing Multiple Social Networks