W7 - RSS

For Class Discussion:
The topic of RSS is also closely related to finding and evaluating information in a connected world (week 4). All are to manage information more effectively and efficiently.

1. RSS in Plain English by Lee and Sachi Lefever (3.5 minutes)

Popular Tools - Course Google Site at https://sites.google.com/site/idt351sp2012/

• Google Reader
• Bloglines
• And more RSS tools or feeders - Some are for desktop and platform specific
• RSS Mix (web service) - If students work on research or web search, their search URLs can be combined and created into a RSS feed
• If you know HTML code and DreamWeaver, this service automatically converts any RSS feed into a JavaScript code, which you can add to a layer. If your page has a panel or column where updated RSS news contents can appear, this is it! (RSS to Javascript)
• Pageflakes, Netvibes, vs./& iGoogle - Each tool allows you to add many panels/flakes to a single web page. The first two allow you to organize panels by different RSS feeds (if the web site provides RSS feeds).

Further Resources - search URLs or Wiki page history can become your Reader subscription, but be aware, unless

1. Google's News Advanced Search - If results are good, can copy the search URL to Reader's subscription field
2. Blog search from Google or Technorati's watchlist - same action as above can be done
3. Moreover or Syndic8 - they claim, their search are more targeted to social media and results provide easy RSS subscription
4. Google's news sources when you use the Blogger or Reader
5. Google Scholar, DigitalCommons@UConn, DASH, eScholarship - inside each source, you can find the RSS subscription feature

You can comment on any of the following:

• How has your access to Web resources of your career/major interests expanded? Did it create information overload for you or were you able to organize your RSS to manage the quality and quantity of information?
• After your lab experimentation, any unique or major strengths of an RSS tool? Which tool did you try? What is your plan for using an RSS for teaching or learning?
• Anything to consider in adoption or implementation (e.g., how learning from RSS can be shared among class or institutional members, etc.)
• Or anything related to the course (material, assignment, etc) or your learning experience in terms of using RSS

W6 Collaborative Writing and Editing

For Class Discussion and Weekly Blog Post:

1. Wikis in Plain English by Lee and Sachi Lefever (under 4 minutes)
2. The Power of Wikis in Higher Ed by Linda L. Briggs

Popular Tools - Course Google Site at https://sites.google.com/site/idt351class/

• Google Docs - Check out Tom Barrett’s Interesting Ways Series using Google Docs.
• Google Sites
• Wikispaces
• PBWorks
• Wetpaint
• And more tools (some can be downloaded and installed onto a server)

Further Resources

1. Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Google Wave
2. See Who’s Editing Wikipedia by John Borland
3. Wikipedia and the New Curriculum by David Parry

You can comment on any of the following:

• Any difference, strengths or weaknesses compared to blogging tool(s)?
• Any unique or major strengths of wiki tool?
• Anything to consider in adoption or implementation (e.g., user management)
• Or anything related to the course (material, assignment, etc) or your learning experience

W5 - Blogging

 

For Class Discussion (to prepare in advance):

1. Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Blogs
2. Reflecting, Writing, and Responding: Reasons Students Blog by Carie (Windham) Page

Blogging Tools - As a group/pair, select one blogging tool from below or any popular one, then post a needed information about the tool to the course Google Site: https://sites.google.com/site/idt351spring2013/home.

• Blogger - Free weblog publishing tool from Google, for sharing text, photos and video
• WordPress - A popular open source content management system focusing on web standards, and usability. A nice how-to screencast by Molly McDonald on setting up a WordPress blog (10 min)
• Joomla - Another popular free, open-source content management system (CMS)
• Drupal - Another popular free open-source CMS
• MoveableType - Another popular free open-source CMS

Further Resources (for those who are interested in exploring further about blogging)

• Edublogs Award site
• Tom Barrett’s Interesting Ways series
• Blogging Policies and Resources Wiki by Bud Hunt
• Blogger for Word - Can post right to your Blogger from Word
• The 25 Basic Styles of Blogging…And When to Use Each One
• Great blog post example from Will Richardson on: “Why Johnny’s Professor Can’t Read”

Your comment can be on any one of the following (150-250 words):

• Which blogging tool is your favorite, why? Which feature(s) did you find most useful for teaching or learning?
• Any difficulty or challenge experienced?
• For what purposes do you plan to use your blog? Class lecture showed possible applications, such as portfolio, content/file management, class discussion, etc.
• For adoption or implementation within an organization, what is important?
• Course set-up, material, and assignment, etc.
• Or any personal reflection

W4 Lab 1

Lab 1 Posts
Post your Lab 1 comments here. Remember to do both Part 1 and Part 2 before making your post. The post should be 200-300 words and refer to specific examples that you discovered in completing the activity.

W4 Find and Evaluate

 

Class discussion
I have little doubt that you frequently hear the problem of information overload and the sub-par quality of information on the Web. Regardless of these 'talks', #3 and #4 show clearly that the major innovations for the next generation of the Web are driven by features, such as 'post-filtering' and search algorithms (that make search of shared contents and capturing contextual relevance and quality better). After the class, as a comment, post the exact URL or location of the sources below that you liked the best and briefly share your thoughts on information overload.

1. We’re on information overload by Thomas Washington.
2. “It’s Not Information Overload. It’s Filter Failure” by Clay Shirky. A little under 24 minutes.
3. Tips for Handling Information Overload: Too Much Content by Dawn Foster
4. The Chronicle of Higher Ed: The New Metrics of Scholarly Authority by Michael Jensen for subscribers only. For an earlier and freely available version, see Authority 2.0 and 3.0: The Collision of Authority and Participation in Scholarly Communications by Michael Jensen.
5. The iPad and Information’s Third Age by William Rankin

Web tools/services:
Items 1~3 are information organization tools that allow browser customization. Zotero compares to a 3rd party citation tool called Endnote. Anytime you do online search, you can create a summary note. Rubistar is a great tool to create an evaluation/grading rubric. If you ever need to create a rubric to evaluate products or processes, it is a great and easy to use free tool.

• Netvibes - personalized dashboard publishing platform for the Web
• Page Flakes - social personalized homepage
• Protopage and iGoogle also allow personalized homepage
• Zotero - A tool that helps gather, organize, and analyze sources and then share the results of your research
• Rubistar - A free evaluation rubric builder with a search feature