I would define a killer application as a program that
provides the capability for an average person to use technology to solve
every day problems and enrich their lives.
saved by19 people, first byFrances DiDavide on 2006-09-17, last byCookie Monster on 2008-06-18
Example 1. You are a teacher looking for content that can be used in the
study of the Spanish conquest. You find a Web site that has excellent
biographies of the cultural leaders, profiles of the different native cultures,
and even some patterns for ceremonial masks that can be reproduced for a class
activity. You e-mail several of your friends about your ideas to incorporate
some of the site's materials into your curriculum plan.
The important aspect of your communication, as opposed to information
provided by a simple web search, is that you shared your ideas as a teaching
professional as well as a link to the Web site. If, instead, you post your finds
with your ideas for implementation to a Web log equipped with RSS generation
capability, you provide a unique information source that can be accessed by
thousands of teachers like you that are looking for ways to improve their
learning environments. In essence, you have helped to establish an online
community of practice specific to teachers of social studies.
We all have unique experiences and solutions that can benefit others. There
are no rules that say only professional textbook publishers should be allowed to
create or suggest how to use curriculum materials.
Example 2. You are teaching a class in science fiction and its parallels to
developing technology. You teach this class each term and want to use timely
examples. Like most instructors, the time you have available for searching out
new technologies on the Web is limited. So, you subscribe to a free news feed
from Sci-Fi Today that brings the
latest news in science and science fiction to your
desktop news reader.
Example 3. You are the superintendent of a school district with 49 schools.
Each school maintains a Web site but it is very time consuming to visit each Web
site periodically to review each schools news and events. The schools begin to
post their news to a Web log that is incorporated into each school's Web site,
much like Bryant Elementary School in
Seattle, Washington. The weblog tool also produces an RSS news feed. You install
a news reader and subscribe to each news feed. Each day you can quickly review
all the news and events at each school in one place without having to visit all
49 Web sites.
Example 4. You are a researcher working on an archaeological dig on a Greek
island. You have uncovered an artifact that puzzles you. You post your progress
each day to a weblog. You include a picture of the puzzling artifact. The next
day you are contacted by a German archaeologist that you have never met. He
subscribes to your project news feed along with news feeds from other similar
digs. He was on his way to a conference in Cairo and was browsing his news
headlines on his PDA. He tells you the object is a physician's instrument. Now,
with a potential context, you are better able to interpret some epigraphic
fragments you have collected.