As the phrase suggests, it is the telling of stories using Web 2.0 tools, technologies, and strategies. Since the name is fairly recent (and not yet widely used), it may not bear out as the best term for this trend. Another name may emerge, one better suited to describing this narrative domain. However, the term seems to have met with quiet acknowledgment to date, so it may serve as a useful one going forward.
Collaborative writing is useful for projects, for peer-editing, and for many other writing tasks limited only by teacher/student imagination.
Support presentation from session at Marist College INNOVATIONS.
One qualitative study, which surely won't be welcomed by manufacturers of basic word processing software, found that students who create and edit documents using Web-based collaboration tools include more complex visual media in their assignments - and come away with a better understanding in the process. Another ongoing experiment finds, with statistical significance, that instructors can be more effective in grading students' work if they record their comments directly into documents as audio.
In the recent past, I wrote about not really getting Twitter. Since then, I have to say that it has grown on me. I am not and never will be an addict. But it does add a nice social dimension to my day, particularly given that I work alone from my home office a lot of the time. It lets me feel a little more connected with friends and colleagues, and does so without taking up unacceptable amounts of time. So, for my former fellow Twitter skeptics, I have a few suggestions for how to get the most out of it:
Microblogging is a new form of communication in which users can describe their current status in short posts distributed by instant messages, mobile phones, email or the Web. Twitter, a popular microblogging tool has seen a lot of growth since it launched in October, 2006. In this paper, we present our observations of the microblogging phenomena by studying the topological and geographical properties of Twitter's social network. We find that people use microblogging to talk about their daily activities and to seek or share information. Finally, we analyze the user intentions associated at a community level and show how users with similar intentions connect with each other.
Recently, many libraries across the nation have begun adopting Twitter as a means to keep on the cutting edge of new technology as well as keep patrons informed and interested in library services.
While there's no formula for success, there are three keys to a killer web service: search, aggregation, and conversation. In this post, we take a look at successful services that have integrated these keys just right.
The World Simulation was an amazing success this year, thanks in part to the use of Twitter and Jott, which allowed students to send live updates of major events through their mobile phones.
It appears to be an interface for conversation, that is designed to automatically generate metadata about the content, so that the back and forth is not just for the sake of the immediate problem, but it is generating, organizing, and storing content.
While doing research for a recent workshop, I came across a useful list of seven social software elements. These seven building blocks--identity, presence, relationships, conversations, groups, reputation and sharing--provide a good functional definition for social software. They're also a solid foundation for thinking about how social software works.
In this Web 2.0 age, we expect information to be not just immediate, but also distilled into readily digestible pieces.
Although I am still beginning to wrap my head around all of its varied uses-I think for the most part Twitter users themselves are still figuring this out-I have been using it for over six months now and come up with some academic uses.
Parry did note that there is something of a challenge not to over-engage with students but did propose that being relevant with students is a very real challenge in his view of teaching. The more that instructor can and does use current communication tools like Twitter with students, Parry noted, the more students will regard the instructor as relevant. When instructors do not communicate with students using these kinds of tools, according to Parry, students will likely regard those instructors as irrelevant.
I'll say two things about Twitter in academia. One, its uses in academia parallel its uses in the business world. It's a networking, water-cooler-talk kind of environment, where you don't see people every day, but you feel connected because you get updates on what they are doing in their life every day.
Scholars, advertisers and political activists see massive online social
networks as a representation of social interactions that can be used
to study the propagation of ideas, social bond dynamics and viral marketing,
among others. But the linked structures of social networks do
not reveal actual interactions among people. Scarcity of attention and
the daily rythms of life and work makes people default to interacting
with those few that matter and that reciprocate their attention. A
study of social interactions within Twitter reveals that the driver of
usage is a sparse and hidden network of connections underlying the
“declared” set of friends and followers.
In 2009, these technologies can provide companies with a competitive advantage in what is expected to be a very tough year on the bottom lines of IT budgets, IT management and IT vendors. However, even in an economic downturn those companies that invest, develop and capitalize on technologies that save money while improving the efficiency and effectiveness of business have an opportunity to grab significant market and mind share with new and existing customers.
I hope that eventually teaching methods will have morphed into a flexible model of instructional design and delivery that I will call "Customized Learner Networks": networks that are both socially constructed and individually driven.
A video about the value of English Studies in a digital age.
Scholars, advertisers and political activists see massive online social networks as a representation of social interactions that can be used to study the propagation of ideas, social bond dynamics and viral marketing, among others. But the linked structures of social networks do not reveal actual interactions among people. Scarcity of attention and the daily rhythms of life and work makes people default to interacting with those few that matter and that reciprocate their attention. A study of social interactions within Twitter reveals that the driver of usage is a sparse and hidden network of connections underlying the "declared" set of friends and followers.