Really enjoying exploring mashups, in particular data visualisation. In the last couple of days I've come across these:
Mapumental
Describes itself as "A ninja tool for helping you house or job hunt within Great Britain". You put in your postcode, and it provides a map with a mask covering areas which you include or exclude on the basis of commuting distance, house price, and scenic-ness. It's currently in beta, but I signed up today and got my invite only hours later. It seems that you will soon get invites to give to friends too.
Dipity
Pointed out by Kate, Dipity allows you to create interactive timelines. You can add events, pictures, blog feeds etc to a timeline, or you can add content from any RSS feed. Here's my timeline based on the BBC Technology RSS feed.
Google Public Data Explorer
Another offering from Google labs, they say: "The Google Public Data Explorer makes large datasets easy to explore, visualize and communicate. As the charts and maps animate over time, the changes in the world become easier to understand. You don't have to be a data expert to navigate between different views, make your own comparisons, and share your findings."
For example, this one tracking life expectancy at birth against fertility rate:
Thursday, 7 April 2011
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
RSS feeds
Next on the list of this week's web 2.0 tools is RSS - Really Simple Syndication, or Rich Site Summary, depending who you ask. WhatisRSS.com has a nice one page summary of what RSS is.
Essentially, RSS allows people to subscribe to a 'feed' from a chosen web site, blog, search result etc. They do this using a feed reader or aggregator, which automatically collects any updates from the chosen feed, and means the user only has to check one place in order to follow updates from multiple sites.
Advantages
Essentially, RSS allows people to subscribe to a 'feed' from a chosen web site, blog, search result etc. They do this using a feed reader or aggregator, which automatically collects any updates from the chosen feed, and means the user only has to check one place in order to follow updates from multiple sites.
Advantages
- RSS feeds can be 'delivered' in the preferred medium, e.g. by email, in an aggregator/feed reader, or in a widget embedded on another page (such as this H807 blogs page)
- RSS is opt-in only - you get updates only from the site feed, and don't end up with spam or un-requested content
- Convenience: you only check the feeds when you want to - and don't need to worry about missing something if you don't check for a while, because it will be picked up automatically by your aggregator
- Time saved by not having to visit multiple sites in order to get or check for updates
- RSS can be used to monitor news tickers, and search engine outputs, as well as blogs and web pages - useful for monitoring the occurrence of a particular key word or phrase in a news article (the #H807 Twitter feed at the bottom of the left column of this blog is an RSS feed on the search term "#H807")
- Having my feeds all in Google Reader makes it really easy for me to 'favourite' particular posts or stories - and save them for future reference
- I find I often now subscribe to an RSS feed rather than bookmarking a site. This way I don't have to remember to check it
- Readers/aggregators tend to offer a 'headline' or 'first line of post' type display - that allows you to quickly scan feeds in order to decide whether to read the full content
- I love having the RSS on my own blog so I can track what is getting hit, how many users and where they come from. All the stats are geeky and far more absorbing than I should let them be!
Disadvantages
- Subscription means you only receive feeds from sites which you know about - no serendipitous discoveries (although in actual fact the culture of linking to other pages from a blog or other news article means you may well discover new links of interest)
- A feed from a particularly busy source might leave users feeling overwhelmed... but they are free to unsubscribe!
- Not all content is suitable for RSS
- It's still geeky - it's not on the radar of the internet using masses who have mastered email and browsing, but not yet caught up with this type of technology
Monday, 4 April 2011
The Granny Cloud
Quick post on a lovely elearning innovation I heard on BBC Radio 4 Click On this evening.
'Grannies' (in fact male or female, and not necessarily 'elders') are using Skype to link up with self-organising learning groups of children in deprived areas of India. The Grannies are not teachers as such, but help facilitate informal classes with a group of incredibly learning-hungry children.
Also a great TED talk on the same:
'Grannies' (in fact male or female, and not necessarily 'elders') are using Skype to link up with self-organising learning groups of children in deprived areas of India. The Grannies are not teachers as such, but help facilitate informal classes with a group of incredibly learning-hungry children.
Also a great TED talk on the same:
Mashups
This week is looking at lots of web 2.0 tools. First up are Mashups.
The concept of a mashup is the creation of something new from parts which come from various separate sources, resulting in an integrated whole. Many of the examples illustrate the integration of information with maps, providing easy to use visualisation of data.
This reminded me of a couple of things which I've seen recently, including a map of Christchurch earthquake-damaged buildings due for demolition:
View Christchurch Building Status: April 2nd 2011 in a larger map
and the Nerdy Day Trips map begun by Ben Goldacre and friends. I also have my own example of geo-tagging my photographs on a walk around Toronto.
These are nice examples because they also illustrate that a map mashup may be created by one person, using an official data source (as in the Christchurch map), by adding personal digital content (my photos) to a public source (Google map) or may be a massive collaborative effort with many contributors (as in the Nerdy Day Trips).
We were asked to read Brian Lamb's ‘Dr. Mashup; or, Why Educators Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Remix’, which I found a bit of a struggle. It was quite an interesting article, but longer than I needed - I'm sure there is content in there which would be interesting to return to when I have a bit more time.
Lamb distinguishes between content remixes/mashups (a combination of two or more works) and data mashups, which "combine data and functionalities from two or more Web applications". I think I've previously only had the idea of data mashup, so hadn't really considered that some might suggest simply combining content is also a mashup. If that is the case then the iGoogle page is a nice example, giving you the opportunity to aggregate lots of content (RSS feeds, email, social media links, calendar etc) on one page. As I think about it more, much of my iGoogle page relies on RSS feeds (from my feeds to PhD and xkcd cartoons, to my Google Reader list, to New Scientist headlines) and some of the content I've added probably is a mashup in its own right, for example the live train times from my local station gadget, which uses the API provided by National Rail Enquiries.
Kevin helpfully pasted an article which I much preferred, http://www.academiccommons.org/commons/review/educational-mashups-2. This describes mashups by integration and mashups by aggregation, which is effectively the same distinction as given by Lamb, but for some reason I absorbed it more easily - and I'd already been thinking about aggregating content too!
A few more examples of nice mashups I found:
References
Brian Lamb, B. (2007) ‘Dr. Mashup; or, Why Educators Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Remix’.
The concept of a mashup is the creation of something new from parts which come from various separate sources, resulting in an integrated whole. Many of the examples illustrate the integration of information with maps, providing easy to use visualisation of data.
This reminded me of a couple of things which I've seen recently, including a map of Christchurch earthquake-damaged buildings due for demolition:
View Christchurch Building Status: April 2nd 2011 in a larger map
and the Nerdy Day Trips map begun by Ben Goldacre and friends. I also have my own example of geo-tagging my photographs on a walk around Toronto.
These are nice examples because they also illustrate that a map mashup may be created by one person, using an official data source (as in the Christchurch map), by adding personal digital content (my photos) to a public source (Google map) or may be a massive collaborative effort with many contributors (as in the Nerdy Day Trips).
We were asked to read Brian Lamb's ‘Dr. Mashup; or, Why Educators Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Remix’, which I found a bit of a struggle. It was quite an interesting article, but longer than I needed - I'm sure there is content in there which would be interesting to return to when I have a bit more time.
Lamb distinguishes between content remixes/mashups (a combination of two or more works) and data mashups, which "combine data and functionalities from two or more Web applications". I think I've previously only had the idea of data mashup, so hadn't really considered that some might suggest simply combining content is also a mashup. If that is the case then the iGoogle page is a nice example, giving you the opportunity to aggregate lots of content (RSS feeds, email, social media links, calendar etc) on one page. As I think about it more, much of my iGoogle page relies on RSS feeds (from my feeds to PhD and xkcd cartoons, to my Google Reader list, to New Scientist headlines) and some of the content I've added probably is a mashup in its own right, for example the live train times from my local station gadget, which uses the API provided by National Rail Enquiries.
Kevin helpfully pasted an article which I much preferred, http://www.academiccommons.org/commons/review/educational-mashups-2. This describes mashups by integration and mashups by aggregation, which is effectively the same distinction as given by Lamb, but for some reason I absorbed it more easily - and I'd already been thinking about aggregating content too!
A few more examples of nice mashups I found:
- http://www.khanacademy.org/ - a content aggregation example - over 2000 well-indexed videos teaching maths and science topics
- Information is Beautiful - which produces very beautiful data visualisations and infographics:
- Ordnance Survey map overlays for Google Earth, produced using the Ordnance Survey OpenSpace API
- Audio/video mashups such as Wesch's 'Rethinking Education':
References
Brian Lamb, B. (2007) ‘Dr. Mashup; or, Why Educators Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Remix’.
Thursday, 31 March 2011
Online conferencing tools
Following our forays into Elluminate, we are encouraged to explore the conferencing and VoIP markets a bit further. It was suggested that we take a look at Google Talk, Windows Live or Skype, but I've used all of these for work or leisure quite extensively, so this post is going to be a quick romp through a few other tools I've heard about recently (but not used, so please don't treat these as recommendations!).
Skype in the Classroom, a dedicated teacher network, was launched this week. The aim seems to be to allow teachers to find other teachers using skype, to share their interests and collaborate on teaching and learning projects. More information is available here (where I heard about this), and of course from Skype itself.
VenueGen is an online, 3D virtual meeting and collaboration space. You can set up large and small events, and present content. Participants have an avatar (like Second Life) and can move around the space. As I said, I've not had a chance to try it out yet (though a free trial is available, and it would be fun to try with some other students if anyone is interested).
The look of it, and the features, remind me of Teleplace, which I have explored and blogged about before.
Next up is Vyew, which is another online collaboration space. Its feature list looks rather similar to some of Elluminate's offering, including desktop sharing, screen capture tools, white-boarding, built in VoIP, text chat, and shared and break out rooms. Again, I've not had an opportunity to try it, but it has a free version (ad-supported) which can be used by up to 10 people, so there is scope for having a go here.
There is an enormous list of of collaboration tools out there, which are more or less suited to educational purposes. I'd be really interested to hear experiences from others about their place in elearning today.
Skype in the Classroom, a dedicated teacher network, was launched this week. The aim seems to be to allow teachers to find other teachers using skype, to share their interests and collaborate on teaching and learning projects. More information is available here (where I heard about this), and of course from Skype itself.
VenueGen is an online, 3D virtual meeting and collaboration space. You can set up large and small events, and present content. Participants have an avatar (like Second Life) and can move around the space. As I said, I've not had a chance to try it out yet (though a free trial is available, and it would be fun to try with some other students if anyone is interested).
The look of it, and the features, remind me of Teleplace, which I have explored and blogged about before.
Next up is Vyew, which is another online collaboration space. Its feature list looks rather similar to some of Elluminate's offering, including desktop sharing, screen capture tools, white-boarding, built in VoIP, text chat, and shared and break out rooms. Again, I've not had an opportunity to try it, but it has a free version (ad-supported) which can be used by up to 10 people, so there is scope for having a go here.
There is an enormous list of of collaboration tools out there, which are more or less suited to educational purposes. I'd be really interested to hear experiences from others about their place in elearning today.
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Conferencing on the net - using Elluminate
Well, I'm back, after a bit of a blogging hiatus. Life, work and study all just combined to get in the way. However, my interview with an innovator is done (and I hope to blog about it sometime, probably after the assignment based on it is out of the way), and assignment one is completed. It was painful, and a big reason why I've not been blogging!
But, now I am, and this week we are looking at conferencing on the net. We were invited to try out Elluminate Live!, a web-based conferencing system which includes audio, text chat, shared applications, private and shared whiteboards, polls, quizzes and more. Quite a number of OU courses now use Elluminate in some way, and some some H807 students already had experience with it. Other had none. And others, like me, have experience with similar technologies, but not this specific tool.
A group of five of us met in an Elluminate room, moderated by Kate, to try out some of the features. Our task was to discuss and collaboratively annotate a diagram uploaded to the shared whiteboard. Immediately this presented us with a difficulty as the diagram provided, once uploaded was of poor quality, difficult to re-size, and most people found it virtually unreadable.
The following are some of my reflections on the activity.
Strengths
But, now I am, and this week we are looking at conferencing on the net. We were invited to try out Elluminate Live!, a web-based conferencing system which includes audio, text chat, shared applications, private and shared whiteboards, polls, quizzes and more. Quite a number of OU courses now use Elluminate in some way, and some some H807 students already had experience with it. Other had none. And others, like me, have experience with similar technologies, but not this specific tool.
A group of five of us met in an Elluminate room, moderated by Kate, to try out some of the features. Our task was to discuss and collaboratively annotate a diagram uploaded to the shared whiteboard. Immediately this presented us with a difficulty as the diagram provided, once uploaded was of poor quality, difficult to re-size, and most people found it virtually unreadable.
The following are some of my reflections on the activity.
Strengths
- Useful for sharing content
- Good for introducing and describing a task
- Collaboration opportunities are good but this needs preparation by the moderator/leader (obviously collaboration doesn't feel like face-to-face, but assuming that that's not possible, this does have uses)
- Variety of collaboration tools - hopefully this might mean there is something which suits everyone's way of working
- Being able to hear voices of other students was good. It made people feel more 'real' than just another forum/blog poster.
Weaknesses
- Possible audio problems - echo seems to be a well-known issue
- Need for preparation in order to guarantee a successful session - does this reduce spontaneity? (Is this any different to needing to prepare effectively for a classroom anyway)
- Speaking on the audio channel can feel a little like talking to empty space. If no-one responds quickly then you are left wondering whether anyone heard, or whether you were talking nonsense. I suspect use of the gestures and emotions might be more widespread among more experienced users, and might reduce this feeling. Similarly, more use of brief text/audio responses by 'listeners', just so that the speaker knows they were heard might happen more amongst groups who have had experience of being the 'unheard' speaker.
- Possibly more suited to teacher/trainer delivered learning. Students left to their own devices without sufficient guidance might feel lost or uncertain how to collaborate on a task (although again, this can be a problem in a classroom too).
Thoughts
- The task needs to be well specified - this may be a case of getting students to prepare in advance. If students don't know how to use the features of the tool then they may well be distracted and miss the point of the learning activity
- I found multiple talkers confusing - others in the group preferred this to the 'single radio channel' style where one one person could talk at once. I found sound quality problems and difficulties understanding if more than one person spoke simultaneously. People were polite and not deliberately talking over each other, but even small overlaps were tricky for me to deal with.
- The supplied resources for this activity were poor - or at least we felt they were. We had a number of still images, screenshots taken from an interactive global warming simulation tool. I think we were trying to pretend to use the simulation, which was clearly not possible from a still image. If we had focused on discussing the Elluminate tools which could be used to teach using a still image on the whiteboard then we might have been less frustrated (although in fact, image resolution was also poor, so we would not have been satisfied. This highlighted that there may be a need to prepare (or at least test) resources specifically for this medium.
- I found it very easy and intuitive to use - but not all in the group agreed. I have an IT background and it's part of my job to pick up new tools quickly. I've used similar tools before, and was able to transfer knowledge with no difficulties. While this was nice for me it points out the need to be aware of varied experiences and backgrounds of students participating in a session. Different students can have very different experiences of the same conference 'experience'!
- There are a number of features we didn't experiment with which I would like to try, including polls, quizzes and the web tour feature.
- The number of communication 'channels' (voice, text chat, whiteboard, gestures/emotions etc) can become confusing or even overwhelming. Students may not know where to focus attention. Students may also attribute different value to the various modes, e.g. I preferred text chat to voice and saw it as an equivalent medium, but some people saw the text box as a peripheral channel.
Take-away messages
- Students need training (time and practise) in using the tool's features - otherwise the technology could get in the way of the learning.
- Going back to the theme of affordances - different tools will suit different jobs. Elluminate won't be a panacea for all distance-learning collaborative activities.
Friday, 11 March 2011
Talking to an innovator
I'm excited to announce that my interviewee will be Phil Hall, CEO of Elzware, who develop conversational systems which they say enable "users to interact with websites as easily as they might on real-world premises - whether that is a shop, classroom, factory, call centre or office".
Er, what's a conversational system again?
Conversational agents, chatbots, or virtual agents are software 'entities' which a user can talk to (usually through typed messages), and get answers, service or information that they require. They are 'natural language' systems, which means the user doesn't have to use any special codes, words or computer languages to communicate - they just type in their own, natural, language and the conversational system 'understands' and responds appropriately.
And how's that related to eLearning?
These conversational systems offer more than just simple question and answer or FAQs. They can take and pose questions, in natural language, and they can also suggest other points of reference, useful information, links or guide a user through a dialogue. Specifically, Elzware is behind
According to the TeachBot website, TeachBot is a Virtual Teaching Assistant developed using their cutting edge conversational system approach. Bristol City Learning Centres and their expert educational consultants worked in conjunction with Elzware to create an "innovative, effective, affordable and engaging educational tool, which would most importantly, help students achieve better grades". Essentially, it offers personalised educational support in English reading and writing, at home or in the classroom, for students working towards their GCSEs in Years 8, 9, 10 and 11.
This is Blob, the teaching assistant students interact with. You can experience chatting to Blob on the TeachBot site, or chat to Yhaken, Elzware's original conversational system.
Phil has a fascinating and varied background, including experience as an Engineer, Cabinetmaker and Anthropologist. I know he's going to have some very interesting insights into innovation in elearning!
Er, what's a conversational system again?
Conversational agents, chatbots, or virtual agents are software 'entities' which a user can talk to (usually through typed messages), and get answers, service or information that they require. They are 'natural language' systems, which means the user doesn't have to use any special codes, words or computer languages to communicate - they just type in their own, natural, language and the conversational system 'understands' and responds appropriately.
And how's that related to eLearning?
These conversational systems offer more than just simple question and answer or FAQs. They can take and pose questions, in natural language, and they can also suggest other points of reference, useful information, links or guide a user through a dialogue. Specifically, Elzware is behind
According to the TeachBot website, TeachBot is a Virtual Teaching Assistant developed using their cutting edge conversational system approach. Bristol City Learning Centres and their expert educational consultants worked in conjunction with Elzware to create an "innovative, effective, affordable and engaging educational tool, which would most importantly, help students achieve better grades". Essentially, it offers personalised educational support in English reading and writing, at home or in the classroom, for students working towards their GCSEs in Years 8, 9, 10 and 11.
This is Blob, the teaching assistant students interact with. You can experience chatting to Blob on the TeachBot site, or chat to Yhaken, Elzware's original conversational system.
Phil has a fascinating and varied background, including experience as an Engineer, Cabinetmaker and Anthropologist. I know he's going to have some very interesting insights into innovation in elearning!
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