BP#12_20091021_R&B_Web2.0_response_blog

Real-time communication is available with tools like Instant Messaging (IM) through Yahoo and Google. Text is the primary convention for communicating through IM, and it is done on the computer or a mobile device. The IM web tool has advanced to the point that people can attach videos, photos and other files as well as text. There are so many Web 2.0 tools available; it is hard to comment on just one. Skype is an additional real-time communication tools that I am familiar with. It allows Internet telephony, where voices are carried over the Internet in real-time. It is a service that is readily available for free or at very little cost. More than one hundred million people around the world are using Skype to converse in real-time. Skype is set up to provide video conferencing as well. (Schrum, p69)

As I investigated real-time web 2.0 tools for communications that carry voices using Internet Protocol, there were others. These included Talkety, tringme, flashphone, and jaduka, and they can be further investigated at (http://www.go2web20.net/#telephony). Some of these lesser known tools need head phones or other equipment to work, which may be why Skype has become more commonly known.

As the use of these tools becomes more common, students who need to work on projects out of class could use real-time communication tools to do assignments with classmates while at home. Our online course at Full Sail is conducive to this kind of communication, since classmates are spread across the country and need to collaborate and talk regularly. In some cases I have used Skype and ichat to conference conversations among three or four classmates simultaneously.

So long as students can afford a computer at home, and they have the proper connections to the Internet, Skype and other real-time communication tools could be something teachers turn to as a tool to accompany long-term group assignments. However the chance that computers will be found in every student’s home does not yet seem to be anywhere close to a reality. A census report in 2007 showed that home access to computers was inequitable across student population. “Fewer than 40% of American-Indian, Hispanic, and African American children had both computers and Internet access at home” (Schrum, p166). Until the vast majority of students have the tools at home to go with assignments, Skype and other real-time tools will have to find their way into the educational systems in bits and pieces. In Michael Wesch's video, Wesch referred to Ray Kurzweil's comments that we are living in exponetial times. The landscape of technology is changing exponentially in terms of the rapid speed at which Technology, Internet, Bandwidth, information processing and applications are moving and growing. With that I hold onto hope that we will find ways to equip homes of all economic backgrounds sooner than we can imagine.

References:

Real-time Web tools information retrieved from

http://www.go2web20.net/#telephony

Schrum, L. & Solomon, G. (2007). Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools. Washington D.C. ISTE.

Telephone image with computer created on Power Point using clip art manipulated by Beckie Lamborn, 2009.

Wesch, M. (2009). Video retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4yApagnr0s

After reading Beckie Lamborn'spost on Skype, I started thinking how helpful video chatting, or conferencing, has been to me in the past few years. Video conferences have been around for a long time, however, the dialers, televisions and high end camera's got to be expensive for the company I worked for. not only that, we had support personal that took care of connecting and maintaing these conference calls. Now, with the advances and innovations in technology, all you need is your computer, an internet connection and a camera and you can do it yourself. Tools such as Skype, Windows Live and Google Talk, it seems that anyone can do these things for an extremely low cost. I enjoy video chatting with my parents once a week so that they can see my son. It makes the months of separation go by much quicker for them.

In education, this technology is very helpful for my Distance Learning classes because it gives students the face to face time that many of them require to feel comfortable about their class. It is much easier to read facial expressions in a conversation then to guess what tone is set in just a chat window.

BP#11_20091021_Web2.0_tools_R&B_Mango_Languages

This Web 2.0 tool, Mango Languages, seems like it is a great tool, however it violates my "rule number one: it is not free! Being in education has defiantly made me a bit conflicted. On the one hand I do not mind paying for good applications, however, if I plan on using them in the classroom I want them to be free as I do not want to limit the students' access be using something that they cannot use at home (forcing them to buy the product).

Mango Languages currently has only nine language packs for English speakers trying to learn a new language, and also has 3 foreign languages to English. This is a major limitation even though the nine languages are probably the most common ones that students would choose. Mango Languages uses a simple slideshow format to walk the learner through lessons including pronunciation, color-coding the parts of speech for visual learners and constant review for mastery. I did find that this software was a bit too redundant, however that may have just been because it was lesson one, which is all you can demo for free.

Access to the full version of Mango will allow the user access to not just up to one hundred lessons in the chosen language, in some cases, but also grammar and culture notes to help gain a better understanding of concepts and cultural differenced within the chosen language.

Having an account with Mango Languages also allows you to access your lessons from any location, however the charge is steep. A three month subscription will run the user $160 per course and a twelve month subscription is $345. The one very nice thing about this is that it seems to be available at many libraries, and after searching near my home in Florida; I found that it is, in fact, registered in the three libraries in my area.

image from Mango Languages. Retrieved October 20, 2009 from:http://www.mangolanguages.com/lesson/view/5

BP#10_20091021_Web2.0_tools_R&B_Gabcast

Gabcast is a hosting site for podcasts; however, the reason I like this site is because it offers the opportunity to customize your material in multiple ways. One way to customize and personalize your site, as well as your material, is to upload your company image and insert it into the MP3 files as the album art. Once this is done the file will then be displayed in media players such as iTunes and Windows Media Player. Brand recognition is a goal for any company and students also like to personalize their materials, so their school logo could be uploaded if used for education.

In a classroom, this sit could be used in many ways. The school’s video department could cover events and create highlight clips for global access since most of my students’ relatives live back in the United States. Athletes, performers and anyone else that uploads their material, could direct prospective colleges and universities to the site to aid in exposure for possible scholarships.

Another feature that I found interesting about this site is that it will allow you to create your podcast from your cell phone by simply calling any of the phone numbers provided and then recording. And again, this company is thinking globally as they have provided numbers for incoming calls in numerous countries. Utilizing this feature of the application, a student could cover any event and add updates remotely with a minimal amount of equipment and get the information updated virtually in real-time.

With most of the same features as all other podcast hosting sites it is tough for users to choose which site is best for them. Gabcast will integrate with many popular blogging sites like Blogger for free, however, you will also get up to 120 minutes of free recording space on VoIP but it will cost ten cents a minute to use the telephone access.

image from Gabcast. Retrieved October 20, 2009 from:http://www.gabcast.com/

BP#9_20091019_R&B_web2.0 tools_Gaggle.net

This week’s top web 2.0 utility is Gaggle. Gaggle is a group of application centered on education and is a must have tool for school districts, like mine, that are locked down behind a very rigid firewall. In my district we cannot log into any type of email account outside of our system, therefore, Gmail, Yahoo mail and Hotmail are all inaccessible from our school’s network. We also have strict policies on the use of USB devices that can connect to Department of Defense computers, so students and teachers may be in a bind if they need to work on materials at home and then transfer them to continue working on them at school; this is where Gaggle comes in.
Gaggle is not just email but a collaboration suite. Gaggle provides filtered email that is administered by the school, a message board that can be setup by the teachers and a digital locker that can be used to store documents, presentations or other files that need to be worked on from multiple areas.

Gaggle mail is filtered by an automated application that searches key words to make sure that abusive, hateful or sexual content is transmitted through the system and the keywords can be updated by teachers as the need arises. This system cannot filter everything, however what is tagged is blocked, a copy is sent to the campus administrator and a message is sent to the recipient that a message was blocked. The reason for this is so that mail that was blocked inadvertently (an anatomy paper with relevant material) may be unblocked with a click of a button. This filtering software will also analyze pictures as well. Gaggle mail also includes message translations for 13 different languages as well as a speech program that can read your messages those in need.

The digital locker is an area that students can upload materials that need to be worked on at home as well as in school and they can give access to this material for collaboration purposes. Each student has a set amount of space that material can be stored and it is associated with their email account, so without explicit permissions, the student does not have to worry about anyone deleting their material.

Finally, there is the message board system that teachers can create. Similar to the FSO question and response/blog activities I used this in my business classes for the past 2 years and found it to be very effective. I would post a question or comment and each student had to respond by a certain time. I would then require them to post a response to a student comment. This was an effective tool for those students that lacked self confidence for oral participation as well as those students that work best when taking time to compose their thoughts on paper.

BP#8_20091014_Reflective_Media_Asset

BP#7_20091014_Blog_Flickr

A number of years ago, while teaching special education students high school math, I developed a lesson incorporating math and life skills. Students had to formulate a plan by devising a budget for living on their own once they graduated high school. Students had to find a job they were qualified to perform, find a place to live, estimate travel expenses, health care, food costs, entertainment, etc. Basically, I was helping students to figure out how they would survive without Mom and Dad in the picture, and what the real-world cost would be to their pocketbook.
Along with the math, I incorporated interviewing, setting up checking and savings accounts, personal retirement, college costs, and guest speakers. I truly tried to not only make this an interdisciplinary unit of instruction, but also a life lesson that would assist students in their future endeavors.
This lesson was developed in the mid 90’s before the mass influx of technology into the classroom. Today, with the advent of technology, I could enhance this lesson using Google maps and Flickr. Students could create visual representations of their “future” by finding their future place of employment and residence through Google maps and import pictures of these locations to Flickr. Students could also upload other pictures of what they might expect their future to include such as pictures of the car they intend to purchase (or another form of transportation they intend to use), the food they will purchase, and their entertainment options among others. Once pictures are posted, students would tag pictures with cost estimates and/or monthly income or expenditures.
Once complete, students would not only have a physical budget to work with, but also a visual representation of what their future might “look” like to share with classmates, family and friends.

Blog Post Web 2.0 Tools

The first phrase I heard when I asked about pod casting was that "Pod casting is evil and addicting." I thought it was just a joke until I started to get into all of the material that is available. Pod casting is not just being able to see or hear an article, newscast or interview, but the ability to subscribe and receive that material without having to track it down each time you want to listen to it. The overwhelming amount of information that is available is actually a bit intimidating so I thought I would start with some recreational material to get my feet wet; drum clinics. I ended up spending nine hours over the course of two days just setting up subscriptions to all of the drummers I like to study, however, it never occurred to me that I was going to have to find the time to watch all of this as it came down to me each week. After the second week of this experiment I had over twenty hours still to watch and found myself just deleting shows just to appear caught-up. The moral of this story is to make sure you only subscribe to the materials you need.

Now, with a more clear understanding of how to manage my subscriptions, I realize that pod casting can be utilized in a class room with some success. One way to use this tool would be to have the students create a “reflective” pod cast that would serve as a review covering what was learned on a weekly basis. Another possibility is for the teacher to create the pod cast review so that the students may archive the material, therefore, if a student is absent (which is quite often in DoDDS) the material is readily available and there will be less time involved in getting that student back up to speed with what was missed.
I must tell you, however, that iTunes alone has enough relevant material to keep one busy for years. Take the extra time to weed out those subscriptions that might appear useful, but deep down you know you will never get to them, or you will end up spending extra time going back and deleting files that you never listened to or watched.



iPod image from Also in Audio. Retrieved October 10, 2009 from: http://www.alsoinaudio.com/how/

I have been an avid user and fan of Gmail since the beginning of Google’s beta testing, however, it was only just recently that I started to play with Google Docs. Previously, the type of online document sharing was handled by Microsoft documents or spreadsheets and most often the file would lock or become corrupt when multiple people were accessing the file at once. Now with Google Docs, you not only do not even need to be on the same network, but you can safely have multiple people around the world accessing and modifying the document simultaneously, as was the case in the class last month.

Google Docs would be fairly easy to implement in any classroom. From group collaboration in a drama class (students editing their script) to an online wish-list of books that I could try to order for the library. Not being in a classroom limits my use of these items; however, it does not limit my ability to approach other teachers on staff to make recommendations during collaboration. Our Model United Nations class could benefit from Google Docs when a team is working on a proposal for their country. Our team working on Russia could collaborate on ways to stop human trafficking and not all students would have to be in school to assist with this work. Google Docs would really benefit some of our “home school” students that are in academic clubs, yet do not meet with the other students on a regular basis.
Google Docs may also allow students in the military community to keep track of items that we ship to deployed soldiers as “care packages” while allowing the soldiers to post their needs to the same document. This is a project that our ROTC program currently handles by keeping multiple slips of paper lying around in hopes that nothing gets lost.



Google Docs image from User Logos. Retrieved October 10, 2009 from: http://userlogos.org/node/1624





A tool that I had never been exposed to, before last month, is iPhoto. On the surface this application seemed to be a bit useless in the educational field as it appeared to be just another picture/graphic organizer; however, this is really not the case. The application iphoto will not just organize your pictures by date or category, but it will allow you to tag them by the location that they were taken as well as a face recognition function for who is in the picture.

Imagine teaching World History and assigning a project to your students that involves keeping a pictorial diary of Martin Luther King. The student can collect pictures throughout the life of their assigned person and not just tag them by who is in each picture, but have the pictures attached to Google Earth so that during a presentation the rest of the class would be able to see where each event took place in relation to every other event. This type of project would be very beneficial in team teaching as it could be modified to across curriculums to teach not just the geographic relationships but the cultural relationships around events as well.
One major drawback for this application is that my school district does not use Mac’s at this time but while using this application in my last class, I could envision numerous projects in Social Studies that could use not just iPhoto, but all applications in the iLife suite.


iPhoto image from IconSpedia. Retrieved October 10, 2009 from: http://www.iconspedia.com/icon/iphoto-7235.html