Annotated Links and Resources

Web 2.0 Tools

Bebo (annotated 30.07.07)

Bebo is a very popular social networking tool, which is extensively used by Heriot-Watt students. However, it seems that bebo is being superseded by Facebook for the more mature audience, including students. Bebo is immensely popular with pupils in secondary education. Some teachers are using the Bebo notification/emailing facility to ensure their pupils receive the information.

Facebook (annotated 30.07.07)

Facebook has changed rapidly in the last months since it was opened up from an exclusive academic network (it was only possible to gain access with an HE email address) to an open network. It is still predominantly a place populated by students and those who teach students. While this might be changing in time, it is a truly useful place for professional networking, which I highly recommend and use for my own CPD. If you are interested in testing out Facebook for professional networking purposes, you only need to create a login, preferably with your University email address. If you wish to link up, I am Nicole Cargill-Kipar on Facebook and my network is Heriot-Watt.

MySpace (annotated 01.08.07)

MySpace was launched in 2003 (to compete with sites like Friendster and Xanga) and has since gained an incredible popularity and not only amongst teenagers. It is that popular, particularly for music, video, film, and partially writing, that even Big Names of the entertainment industry have MySpace pages. However, I do admit that after having created a profile and used it, I still find the tool un-intuitive and wieldy to handle and have not yet found a good educational use for it. I personally do not recommend MySpace for learning and teaching purposes, but I do recommend to search it to find out how students may be using it. You might be surprised at what you find in ingenuity (profile design) and interaction. I believe that while I do not grasp its popularity and find it a difficult tool, this is not to say that someone (pupils and students) who grew up with this particular tool does not relish its uses.

Livejournal (annotated 30.08.07)

Livejournal is insofar different from the other social networking sites in that it operates with a somewhat different premise. The power of Livejournal is the "friending", which allows posters/bloggers to create different levels of security and filters for their posts. This can be public, to everyone on the friends list, to a selected group, or privately to oneself.

Livejournal, like so many other utilities that have been around for years, has grown from a very small place that was created in 1999 and required login tokens/invites from users already onto the system, to a site with over 17 million active accounts. It is open sourced and used worldwide.

I have not used Livejournal for professional purposes, and do not believe that it is the right tool to do so. There are better networking sites out there, both for CPD and for use with students. However, Livejournal seems to be unparalleled in community creation and attraction of users of all ages, who gather with shared interests.

Ning (annotated 17.07.07)

Ning is my preferred professional social networking site (besides Facebook), which I use for my CPD. Not only is it very international and with a wealth of existing networks in my area of work and research, many of which are open to join, but it is also very easy to create one's own network. Users can create open networks (anyone can join with a Ning account) or closed networks (joining by invitation only, but users may apply to join the network, something which can be very useful for groups of researchers, collaborating colleagues, or a student research group). Ning allows users to have their own blog, and blogs within the networks. It has discussion forums within the networks and an internal messaging/emailing system. Through Ning I have made valuable contacts, have learned a lot about tools, sites, articles, reviews and areas I would have otherwise probably not encountered, and have networked on other sites, such as del.icio.us. Ning has also proven to be most useful for research, certainly for research of an educational nature, and to interact with other researchers in the field.

If you are interested in having a look at Ning, I am nkipar on the network and the network that I just started out and have not promoted yet is the Heriot-Watt University Flexible Learning closed network.

I am going to use Ning for the students of my "Designing Online Learning Environments" module, if I don't have the blog Building Block installed into our VLE by then. I particularly like the way blog entries will all show up on the main page, no matter who contributes, and they can be set to three different privacy options.

Eduspaces (annotated 30.07.07)

If you are interested in trying it out and having a look around the networking possibilities, I am nkipar on Eduspaces. I don't do much with this particular site, since I don't like the adverts that are scattered throughout the site. I prefer Ning for professional networking and development, and for some things Facebook, but preferences are entirely up to the individual.

Added on 19.08.07

Eduspaces is apparently the former Elgg and I have been informed that it is well worth a site to explore, since it offers a full suite of tools for educators, such as blog, bookmarks, forum, etc.

Linked In (annotated 30.08.07)

LinkedIn is in some ways a similar site such as Friendster, but it has more focus on the professional site of networking. It is possible with LinkedIn to find colleagues from past and present organisations and companies, as well as one's classmates.

With its focus on the private sector and job seeking, professional networking of the non-educational type, I have not explored this network too much and am not convinced that it is useful for education/use with students. However, depending on your own interests, it might be worth checking out, if only for finding past colleagues or classmates. It is, however, like so many Web 2.0 tools and social networking sites, very America-centric.

Academici (annotated 10.09.07)

I have just now come across Academici via the Internet Resources Newsletter. It has similarities to facebook, as a professional social networking site, and is aimed mainly at academics. To me it looks like a mix of EduSpaces and Facebook (it allows journals and bookmarks, for example) but I would need more time to explore the site to see how useful for CPD it can be.

Edu Blogs (annotated 14.09.07)

EduBlogs is powered by Wordpress and thus uses the same interface. Since I am using Wordpress for my Box Blog anyway, I find that very useful and intuitive. I am also quite happy that eduBlogs was started in Australia and is thus not another US resource, especially since Australia has been at the worldwide forefront for distance education.

Another important feature about EduBlogs is that it is solely for education, and that it is advertisement free. There are no fees and no bandwidth limits and it comes with storage, too. It is possible to transfer existing blogs from Blogger or Wordpress over to EduBlogs, and they even enable transferring back.

JISC Involve (annotated 07.11.07)

JISC Involve is provided by JISC as a free service to the JISC community. Anyone with a .ac.uk email address can sign up instantly and be blogging in minutes.

Wordpress (annotated 07.09.07)

Wordpress is my chosen platform for the Out of the Box Blog which is part of this website. Choice of free blogging software is entirely up to the preferences of the user. I personally prefer Wordpress, because it is still independent and does not force me to log in with either a Yahoo or a Google account - the two giants of the web, who seem to buy everything left right and centre they can get their hands on. Especially when using different accounts for different purposes it becomes difficult to have to log out of one service, which causes several tools to be logged out as well, to then log in with another user name.

Also, I like the way Wordpress makes it easy for readers to subscribe to the RSS feed, something with which I struggled for a while in Blogger. Wordpress, however, is not an education specific site, but a global one, yet has so far been extremely reliable. As I said, preferences are up to the individual.

Blogger (annotated 02.10.07)

Blogger was the first blog tool that I used and I quite liked it, up to the point when it crashed Firefox every single time I went to it, and when it was bought by Google. I did not like the fact I had to get a Google account, if I wanted or not. In fact, I find Blogger now lags behind Wordpress, and is not as feature rich, and getting the RSS feed felt rather convoluted. This is why I switched my Out of the Box-Blog to Wordpress after a short while.

Still, it is all a matter of preferences and do check out several sites until you have found the one that suits you best.

YouTube (annotated 17.10.07)

YouTube has been used as a video blogging facility for quite some time, even creating popularity beyond the YouTube site (e.g. vloggers like Geriatric1927). Similar to podcasting, users can subscribe to channels on YouTube and can also favourite single videos, as well as comment. Commenting back with a video is also quite popular.

Most important, when it comes to vlogging, is the uptake of the YouTube service by the deaf community, where the medium of digital video, a computer, internet connection, and webcam, enable users to communicate on a free site, where worldwide communication would not have been possible on such a scale. Of course, YouTube is not the only service available, and there are specialised ones, but it seems to be one of the most easily accessible ones. However, vlogging still has less of an uptake amongst BSL users than it has, for example, amongst ASL users, according to a recent study.

Bloglines (annotated 30.08.07)

Bloglines is a feed reader (aggregator) which allows you to subscribe to your favourite feeds (from blogs, sites, bookmarks, etc). All your feeds will appear in the left hand navigation and are updated live. depending on how your feed has been set up, you can read headlines or more in Bloglines itself, or click on the link that takes you to the site that you have subscribed to.

Using an aggregator is the most efficient way to keep track of sites and blogs that are of particular interest to you. This might be for your professional development or for your research, or for use with your students. In fact, if your students are not already using an aggregator/feed reader, you might want to encourage them to do so, for subject specific sites that are regularly updated, or subject specific blogs and bookmarks.

Bloglines is my own preferred blog reader, which I use daily to keep up to date with developments on educational blogs.

Netvibes (annotated 30.08.07)

Netvibes is a different type of aggregator. While it is also a blog/feed reader, it is more of a portal. Similar to iGoogle and Pageflakes. The power of portals such as netvibes is that it allows subscribing not only to feeds, but also the pulling in of applications and so-called widgets. A widget is an item (usually third party) that can be embedded in a web page, such as a search box for videos, weather forecasts, memos and notes, to-do lists, blog feeds, del.icio.us bookmarks, web based communication tools (e.g. email inboxes), etc.

It is particularly useful that it is possible to set up more than one page on one's own Netvibes portal. For example, one could have one page with all the necessary tools and feeds for education, and another for sports or social interests, and so on. Students might find this particularly useful, not only to keep track of their subject related sites and tools, but to be able to integrate some of their learning tools with their social life.

Netvibes is my preferred aggregator, which I have set up as my portal. It ensures I do not miss updates and have all the tools handy that I need for my daily work.

iGoogle (annotated 30.08.07)

iGoogle is very similar to Netvibes and is an aggregator and portal. The advantage of iGoogle clearly lies in its tying in with Googlemail and Googledocs and other services by this communication and collaboration giant. One might say that monopolization could also be a disadvantage, but for users who are taking advantage of the collaborative tools within Googlemail it might be most efficient to keep track of their tools and sites with Google's own portal as well.

Pageflakes (annotated 30.08.07)

Pageflakes is yet another widely used aggregator and portal. It is similar to Netvibes, and it is entirely up to the individual user which one they prefer. I suggest taking a look at the sites that are available and getting a feel for them, to decide on the one of your choice.

Technorati (annotated 17.07.07, edited 07.11.07)

Technorati is a blog guide in the sense that it searches - as of October 2007 - over 100 million of blogs, photos and videos. This is my preferred blog search engine, even though I tend to still go for Google most of the time. Nevertheless, Technorati has its unique strengths, because one can search by tags and the search goes directly across the blogosphere, which is unlike Google that searches by keywords and includes all websites.

Feedburner (annotated 07.11.07)

Feedburner is probably the easiest and most popular RSS feed publisher that is currently available. What I really like about it is not their official marketing buzz "Our Web-based tools help bloggers, podcasters and commercial publishers promote, deliver and profit from their content on the Web." but the fact that instead of the unsightly markup of the RSS feed (which puts off quite a few people who are new to RSS feeds) with the feedburner URL it allows users to subscribe directly using their favourite feed reader/aggregator/portal. It makes things much easier and neater, and I would recommend "burning" one's blog or podcast feed.

Feed2Js (annotated 03.08.07)

Feed2Js allows you to generate RSS code and is indispensable in adding RSS feeds into your VLE. First, you need to find an RSS feed. Your blogging software of choice (e.g. Edublogs, Blogger, Wordpress) comes with an RSS feed ('RSS' or 'Atom') and this is normally indicated by an orange icon such as this: . Copy the web address (URL) that the RSS feed icon or link will take you to and don't be alarmed at what might appear as a page full of strange words and signs. The URL that you are copying typically ends in '.xml', '.rss', '.atom' or '.rdf' or similar.
Simply paste the copied URL into the box "URL" on the Feed2Js page: http://feed2js.org/index.php?s=build and follow through the page to generate the code. Once the site has generated the code, simply copy the whole box and paste it into your VLE as an item. If you use VISION (Blackboard) @ heriot-Watt, make sure you do not paste the code into the WYSISWYG editor, but into the text/html code view (click the < > button). You have now generated an RSS feed in your VLE module. This is particularly useful for pulling in your own blog, so that students have access to the posts without having to leave the VLE, or in the case of getting students to use blogs and wishing to pull in their entries into a shared space on the VLE.

Feedity (annotated 07.08.07)

Feedity makes it possible to track changes on any website in real time by creating an RSS feed. This is particularly useful if you have a few very important sites on which you wouldn't want to miss any changes, or which are updated frequently.

AideRSS (annotated 14.09.07)

AideRSS allows users to filter RSS feeds. It is intended to save time and keep on top of news by using such features as PostRank, customisable interests, and best post widgets.

Del.icio.us (annotated 17.07.07)

Del.icio.us is definitely my favourite bookmarking site. However, it is not just about bookmarking and being able to access important sites from anywhere, but the networking aspect is very powerful, too. Basically, if used well, one can have other experts searching for expert sites, which adds to one's list of expert resources. Also, being able to use and search tags is truly powerful.

If you are interested in my ever growing list of education and flexible learning related websites, I am nkipar on del.icio.us.

There are some interesting resources that I recommend: the tutorial Using Del.icio.us in Education and David Muir's Simply Del.icio.us paper (Online Social Bookmarking, or: Tagging for Teaching) and Onlinesapien's Blog entry Using Del.icio.us in Education

Library Thing (annotated 08.11.07)

LibraryThing allows users to share with the ever growing community what books they own and what they are currently reading. It is a great tool to keep track of one's own library, and to catalogue them once and for all (and keep doing so, whenever the stacks grow). In addition, and what makes the site so interesting, it is possible to network with like-minded readers, thus creating interest groups, by finding others who have listed the same books.

Shelfari (annotated 08.11.07)

Shelfari is very similar to LibraryThing, but seems to operate more on a visual basis. What has put me off Shelfari, though, is that it is far more intrusive than LibraryThing, meaning that I seem to be receiving quite a few emails from Shelfari, without ever having signed up for any newsletter (nor having come across an opt-out link) while I do not receive unwanted emails from LibraryThing.

Creative Commons (annotated 14.09.07)

Creative Commons is the place to find creative commons licensed materials on a variety of sites. Creative Commons writes about itself: "Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights Reserved." We're a nonprofit organization. Everything we do — including the software we create — is free."

Michael Pick has put together a list of Public Domain Video Resources on his blog, which are most useful for anyone who wishes to use moving images for presentations, on the VLE, for mashups, or any other electronic space.

Flickr (annotated 30.07.07)

One of the most powerful potentials of Flickr for academic purposes is the ability to search for images that are published under the Creative Commons license. This means it is possible to find images that can be used in teaching, presentations, etc.

You might be interested in TASI's (Technical Advisory Service for Images) tutorial on How to find Images on Flickr. Very useful advice, indeed. Available as html and pdf.

Flickr is far more than an image storing site. It is a social networking site of photographers and beyond, offering many tools within its site. If you are searching for images, I do suggest to look within Creative Commons and within Flickr itself (under Advanced search within Flickr). Once you have become a user you might consider becoming a contributor. You will be amazed at the wealth of resources available on the site. I use Flickr extensively for professional purposes and am nkipar on the site.

Picasa

YouTube (annotated 07.11.07)

YouTube is of course the best known video site by now. Apart from its more infamous popularity of hosting an enormous amount of copyrighted content, it also offers real gems, uploaded by their creators. I have sued some of the videos myself in my teaching, and when I did a search for science subjects, I was amazed what turned up. It might be worth having a look for any subject, really. It is also the most popular site for uploading one's original content, and has a large audience, which guarantees dissemination of one's work.

Jumpcut (annotated 06.09.07)

Via the RSC NewsFeed, which says the following about this site, which I have entered to take a look around.

"Jumpcut is an online resource that allows you to perform simple edits, add titles, create photo slide shows and upload video to the Jumpcut site. The site is owned by Yahoo so you’ll need to create a Yahoo account then register with Jumpcut. Once you’ve registered all you need to do is, select the upload option, browse the video or stills you want to edit, then click upload. This opens the web-based editor. The site includes a step-by-step video guide to editing, and there are text guides for the more complicated features and effects such as fades and dissolves."

Jellycast (annotated 07.11.07)

Jellycast is owned by the UK Web Hosting company Positive Internet. Personally, I only have praise for Positive, because I have been a customer of theirs since around 2000 or thereabouts (with a non-commercial, educational website) and have only had positive experiences. This makes me hopeful for using Jellycast.

There is a £10 sign-up fee (to discourage spammers, etc) but after that, bandwidth of up to 25 GB per month is free, and Jellycast comes with a lot of tools. they were also the company that hosted the extremely popular Ricky Gervais podcast show.

It is definitely a place to look into, if a podcasting host is needed.

Gabcast (annotated 02.10.07)

I became aware of Gabcast at this year's Scholar conference, when one of the secondary teachers did a workshop on podcasting in Education/in the classroom. I was impressed how easy it is to use, by simply using a phone. Gabcast is the service that I use for my Out of the Box-Cast and so far I have been very pleased with it.

Recording is being done through calling a London phone number, and all one needs to do is talk into the phone to record the message/podcast. It is then automatically published, and one only needs to add tags on their website, which then creates automatic HTML to add the podcast to one's blog or website. Furthermore, it is easy to subscribe to one's podcasting channel.

This is a service I'd recommend testing, if all you wish to do is create quick and easy podcasts, that do not require any recording of surround or circumstances.

iTunes

iPod in Education

Juice (annotated 07.09.07)

Juice is a much smaller and less intrusive programme to subscribe to podcasts. Since iTunes is very intrusive into the system and has the unfortunate habit of demanding to be updated rather too often, Computing Services at HWU installed Juice for me instead. It is a free software and easy to use for subscribing to podcasts. Just add the RSS feed into your podcast directory and start downloading with several subscription options. If you have Juice installed on your HWU work PC or laptop, it depends on your PC image which audio play-back software you might have. Check that you can actually listen to your podcasts (you can choose your player under "preferences"), if you wish to tune in on your work station instead of downloading it to your MP3 player.

Audacity (annotated 07.11.07)

Audacity is an easy to use open-source software, which records and edits audio files, for examples podcasts. The software is free and if you don't have admin rights to your machine, then petition your computing officer to install this onto your machine, because it makes creating podcasts and editing audio files very easy. I use the software myself and am happy with it, it has all the features that I'd want.

Podomatic (annotated 06.09.07)

Podomatic allows users to upload and thus host their podcast. Podcasts can be recorded there and then, using a microphone, or an existing podcast can be uploaded. The free service allows 500MB of storage and 15GB bandwidth per month. It is possible to go Pro for $99 per annum, to receive 5GB storage and unlimited bandwidth. Be warned, though. Since I signed up, even without having uploaded any podcasts yet, I have received comments on my profile and requests to be added as a 'friend'. Somewhat annoying, but just a delete key away.

Wikipedia (annotated 29.08.07)

Wikipedia is of course the best known wiki out there. A highly useful tool for initial "ideas" of a subject, while obviously not acceptable as a referenced resource (something that came up in a discussion at the recent Flexible Learning Conference). However, its usefulness is undeniable - in certain ways, and with caveat.

For a general overview and a very good explanation of what a wiki actually is, see Lee Lefever's video Wikis in Plain English. As Lee said himself: "We made this video because wiki web sites are easy to use, but hard to describe."

Scholarpedia (annotated 07.11.07)

Scholarpedia is a peer reviewed "wiki"pedia.

PB Wiki (annotated 03.08.07)

This seems to be the most widespread free wiki. What makes them particularly useful is the fact it takes only a few moments to set up a wiki and that educational wikis are advertising free. It is the free wiki that I personally use and know of academics who are using them with their students in several universities. It took me only a short while to set up a new group wiki page, using their template, and I recommend this wiki if there is no VLE inbuilt one available, or for project work that lies outside of the modularisation of institutions' VLEs.

Stikipad

Their recent addition is to add Google maps and RSS feeds directly into the wiki. I have not used this one myself.

Wiki Spaces

Wiki Spaces has its dedicated educational area, but it seems to be more geared towards secondary education and not tertiary.

Media Wiki (annotated 07.09.07)

Media Wiki is a free software wiki package originally written for Wikipedia. It can be installed on one's own server. This is obviously not the right choice for a tutor who would like a quick way of using a wiki with their students, but it is the way forward if wanting an openly accessible wiki that runs on an institution's server. Also, it is apparently possible to use Media Wiki offsite on Wikia.

Seed Wiki (annotated 07.09.07)

I have not used Seed Wiki myself, but it has been recommended by others. It is a free wiki, without ads, and unlimited users. Personally, I have been using PBWiki, but it might be a good idea to check this one out as well. It all depends, once again, on personal preferences.

PMWiki (annotated 07.09.07)

As above, I have not used PMWiki myself, but it came as a recommendation. It appears that PMWiki's strength is in looking like an ordinary webpage, which can be edited online. It comes with access restriction possibilities and uses basic editing rules, similar to those used by Wikipedia. It is not run on a web server, and it another of those that need to be installed on one's own server.

Google Mail (annotated 06.09.07)

Google Mail is insofar different from other web based mail clients, that it treats email exchanges as conversations. Basically, each exchange that continues between two or more parties, is available for viewing with all responses as an easily readable list, which can even be printed, expanded, forwarded, collected. The storage space is vast, allowing emails and conversations to be stored indefinitely.

Furthermore, Google Mail allows instant messaging, and is thus unique in that it combines traditional emailing functionality with chat, thus allowing synchronous and asynchronous communication in one place. It does not require downloading nor installing of any client, and is easy to use. The only drawback in the current version is that it does not lend itself to group work or collaborative chat, because only two participants can exchange messages synchronously.

While this is a free service, I am not content that it is not possible to pay for the use of the service and thus avoid seeing the adverts. Adverts are, no matter how unobtrusive, clearly a drawback. I am also irritated by adverts corresponding with email subjects, which makes me worry about privacy and intellectual property rights. However, Google states in their Term and Conditions: "Your Intellectual Property Rights. Google does not claim any ownership in any of the content, including any text, data, information, images, photographs, music, sound, video, or other material, that you upload, transmit or store in your Google Mail account.  We will not use any of your content for any purpose except to provide you with the Service."

Meebo (annotated 07.11.07)

What is particularly interesting about Meebo is the fact that it circumvents the need to download and install instant messaging tools, such as MSN and Yahoo. All that is needed is a user name and password, which is what most students would have anyway, and the service works from the web.

Frappr (annotated 28.09.07)

I have been using Frappr maps for one of my website for months. The code does not only work well on websites, but also on certain blogs and other networking sites. Frappr allows visitors to 'join' the map, thus building up a networking list. Visitors can upload an icon to Frappr and leave a message on the 'pin' of their home town, thus interacting with the website owner.

ClustrMaps (annotated 28.09.07)

I became aware of ClustrMaps through the REAP project, which was using the service to track international visitors to their project website. As of today, I have joined the service and added the code to this website. It will hopefully be interesting to see where site visitors came from.

Twitter (annotated 17.07.07)

Twitter is a phenomenon which has caught on amongst the younger internet users like a wildfire. However, I am not quite convinced by its usefulness yet (educational and otherwise) but have begun to think about possible uses. Twitter makes it possible to receive short messages that are being broadcast by its users onto one's mobile. However, it does not support my own UK mobile network yet, so I could not try out this service. It seems, though, to be free and they are adding more supported networks. Wouldn't it be useful if we could alert our students for free on their mobiles that we had to change a teaching room, or that a lecture has been rescheduled? Admittedly, this is administrative and not educational use, but it has been tested out across many universities, who tend to buy SMS bundles, but if Twitter gave us this option for free? I'd be happy to try it out, because let's face it, it is more likely to catch a student on their mobile than their email.As for educational uses, I am still undecided on the pedagogic fence, so to speak. Or, as James Folkestad posted in his educational blog: "At first Twitter seems to be over-the-top, ridiculous, and a voyeur’s dream. Who wants everything broadcast for anyone to see? But at second glance it provides something unique. It provides something intriguing. While using twitter it is almost like we can see what others are thinking."An interesting article was written by Christopher D. Sessums in his educational blog about potential uses for Twitter in education. Take a look at his Brainstorming Potential Educational Uses of Twitter

If you are interested in trying out Twitter, I am nkipar on the service.

(added on 17.10.07)

According to an interview with Rob Wilks on the BBC Access 2.0 blog (June 07), Twitter is becoming popular amongst the deaf community, because it "taps into the current trend of the Deaf community in using SMS".