How are we using Twitter? Thursday, June 11 11:07 PM

Just a quick thought regarding how we use Twitter . . . This afternoon, I was observing the opening plenary session of the NMC 2009 Summer Conference (#nmc2009) which was being live video streamed and tweeted. As I watched the twitter stream, I realized that even after several comments or questions posed to the group *all* of the tweets were unidirectional; they were simple broadcasts of what was being said by the presenter. There were a few tweets with commentary, but they were also individual comments with no real discussion.

My question is this.... If we're talking about a group of people - both locally and remotely - that can all see and hear the presentation, how much value is there to broadcast tweets that simply report what's being said? Are we used to blogging followed by asynchronous comments to the extent that when presented with an opportunity for synchronous backchannel conversation when we're all sharing the same experience we miss that opportunity? Should there not be more to "liveblogging" than just rebroadcasting the presenter's comments? Is there not an opportunity to have a conversation we were not able to have previously - a backchannel kibbutz concurrent with the presenter's comments? Or, is the lack of commentary attributable to something as simple as it being earlier in the day (as @dwtno noted)? There's two pages of screen shots below. Take a look and comment. I can upload additional pages if interested; the broadcat tweets continued for four screens plus.

G.Wave Will Change Collaborative Writing Thursday, June 4 10:55 PM

In the week since Google Wave was demo'ed, I've written a couple of posts, read quite a few posts around the web, and have been giving Wave more thought. The question everyone is asking is, "Will Google Wave really change 'things' ?" Will it change the way we communicate? the way we work? the way we learn online?

Of course, all we can do at the moment is speculate. My speculation at the moment is yes, to all of the above; I'm basing that speculation on how I imagine collaborative writing activities in a college freshman level composition class may change given Wave. I'm thinking and projecting from this clip (#10 from my Digesting Google Wave post a few days ago) from the original demo at Google I/O last week:

Notice a couple of things in the video:

• the wave, with all contents, can be embedded in a blog or other website.
• the playback feature and the planned "power tools" for playback
  
• as contents are edited, the changes update, character by character in all locations.
• multiple users can edit a wave concurrently.
  

26:45 to 37:14.



Right now, if we have learners collaborate on a document, they may do it in several ways - that I can think of at the moment; if you have others that vary significantly from the ones below, please comment.

• Send the document back and forth in email; discussion may occur within the email or perhaps use the "Review" features available in MS Word which allows comments and tracking changes. Problem is you end up with multiple copies of the document in various stages of editing.
• Create an online document to be shared among users; everyone can access and edit the document online, and Google Docs allows simultaneous editing, to some extent. Discussions occur in a different location typically - via email, IM or sidebar chat.
• Create a wiki for the writing exercise. Everyone can access and edit the document online, but simultaneous editing is somewhat limited. Discussions occur in an attached discussion forum or page or via email or IM. Generally, comments and discussion regarding the document are spatially removed from the document itself, and learners use specific methods of communication with which they are familiar.
  
• Learners may upload a document to a personal blog space for others to access; visitors can write a comment in a singular message that appears below the text. If CommentPress, a plugin for Wordpress, is used, comments can be made regarding specific paragraphs which are identified automatically by the plugin.
  

In all instances, users see and engage revisions or comments when they return to the document to check it.

With Google Wave, things may occur a little differently.

• Initially, John creates a Wave with the first draft of his essay. Adding collaborators is now easier because he only has to drag and drop or quickly type the names of classmates; the wave containing the document will show up, near instantaneously, in the wave interface for his classmates: Ann, Joel and Susan. There's a few admittedly subtle steps in the current processes that have been made more efficient: emailing collaborators and collaborators going to the document where it lives on the web, at least.
  
  With everyone being able to edit the document, Wave - like current tools - maintains version control and individual accountability for revisions. The editing and discussion process is quite different though.
  
  
• Ann, Joel and Susan can add comments regarding individual sections of the document, but comments are inline within the document - comments and ensuing discussion reside immediatley next to the section. That's much like the review feature in MS Word, but appears to be an improvement over the displaced comments that occur on shared documents, wikis or blogs. Fortunately, the discussions aren't permanently part of the document; they can be minimized or the current version of the document (product wave) can be copied into another wave.
  
  
• If Joel's a bit of a slacker and doesn't look at the wave until three days after Ann, Susan and John have been collaborating, Joel can see all of the markups and changes, of course. However, with wave, Joel can use the playback feature to observe how the document and conversation has evolved from the beginning. Plus, once the planned/mentioned improvements for the playback feature are available, the Professor Smith can playback each individual's contributions to the development of the document - seeing juxtaposed all individual participation in the discussion and revision process.
  
  
• Here's where it gets a bit more interesting... Any edits update every instance of the wave instantaneously, character-by-character. Ann and Joel are online and have their wave interface open. Susan logs on and begins editing the wave. As I understand it, in Ann and Joel's inbox, the wave would highlight (much like a new message) as having revisions or new content as soon as Susan starts typing; basically, the act of editing the document automatically generates an IM/email like notification of the revision. Ann sees the wave highlight and opens it. She can immediately see all changes that Susan is making as she types them; Ann begins typing a reply and comment on the changes as Susan makes them. As Susan types, she sees Ann's comment coming in character-by-character. In that simple exchange, current models of communication - collaborative documents, email, instant messaging and real-time document sharing - have all occurred in a streamlined work process.
  
  
• It goes one step further though to a feature I don't believe currently exists - real-time, multiple, concurrent editing of a document. Ann and Susan can both be editing the document at the same time, and all changes (again, character by character) are shown instantly. Somewhere in the process, Joel and John both notice the editing and also begin editing the document and posting comments. Four learners all have the ability to instanteously make changes to the document with their cursors three characters away from one another. That is a feature not seen in any current product of which I'm aware. Even in face-to-face meetings in a conference room, it seems like this process could empower more people to collaborate more evenly (rather than one person being in control of the keyboard).
  
  
• The wave can be embedded in various locations around the web; the entire editing process noted above is visible in all locations and everyone with permissions to engage the wave can do so inline wherever they see it displayed. Certainly, the interactions above could also easily include other classmates and Professor Smith which further enhances the collaboration process.
  

Again, this is my conjecture based on currently available information regarding Google Wave. With that type of interaction though, I do think this scenario is one instance of how Wave, in some manner at least, will change the way we communicate, the way we work or the way we teach and learn online.

Google Wave, What are people saying? Wednesday, June 3 9:38 AM

With more time between now and the Google Wave presentation on May 28, more folks are reacting and responding. As I read articles or blog posts that are particularly relevant to education, I'm tagging them via Diigo and want to make them available in this space.

Amazon Kindle - Educational Uses 6:30 AM

As mentioned in an earlier post, I've recently been given the opportunity to explore and work with the Amazon Kindle. The goal of the short term project is to identify possible use cases for the Kindle within the organization. I'm going to focus on the instructional, classroom uses we've brainstormed and/or identified through research via the web; by "we," I'm referring to several conversations @sherrymn and I have had over the past couple of weeks. We are definitely interested in any thoughts or use cases with which you may be familiar.

Content Access. First of course, eBooks and, at some point, eTextbooks could obviously be delivered via the Kindle; hopefully, this would reduce learner costs over the long run, particularly after the price point on the Kindle comes down a little. Second, as we've explored the Kindle some, we've learned that registering multiple Kindles to a single account gives the account owner the ability to push content to each device. With an issued set of Kindles for a class, faculty could deliver content they've generated to learners for review as followup to a previous or preparation for an upcoming class. Third, an RSS feed could be set to deliver on a regular basis; faculty could deliver content tagged via a bookmarking or RSS reader tool. However, these two uses may only duplicate regular web access to the same content unless, as noted below, collaborative activities via the Kindle are used.

Collaborative Reading. The Kindle allows users to highlight and/or enter notes at any point in any text; the "clippings" and notes are stored online. The most interesting aspect of the note-taking function, however, is that if any notes taken are visible via all Kindles registered to the same account. With an issued set of Kindles for a class, all learners could engage the same text via collaborative note-taking and annotation exercises; while the interface would be somewhat clumsy for it, discussions could take place within the notes which are sync'ed wirelessly. These activities could be useful at a variety of reading levels: developmental readers to ESOL to honors seminars to graduate students.

Facilitated Reading. Specifically for ESOL or developmental readers, the Kindle could better enable facilitated, independent reading away from the classroom, particularly in absence of other available tools. Consider the Collaborative Reading idea noted above; the notes delivered to each Kindle could be faculty driven instead of learner generated; the purpose would be for faculty to provide additional annotations to support readers engaging a challenging text. Combining that feature with two built-in tools could be particularly useful. The Kindle has an integrated dictionary; you can browse the dictionary, or as you read, you can highlight a word and the defintion appears at the bottom of the screen. Further, the Kindle also has a native text-to-speech function which will read - in male or female voice - a text at variable speed, as controlled by the user.

There's certainly a number of logistical issues to be addressed - cost, distribution, and theft prevention, among others; I hope to revisit some of those as time permits.

Digesting Google Wave Monday, June 1 6:30 AM

After having posted my first impressions of Google Wave, I want to go back and review specific segments of the video and capabilities of the application as it was demonstrated at Google I/O 2009 to consider how Google Wave may be applied to teaching and learning. Given the scope of that exercise, it may be useful to share the first step in that process.

Below are various segments of the video which I believe may be of particular importance or interest; I've included some annotative descriptions. The clips trim 30 minutes off of the original viewing time (as compared to the 80 minute original), and they at least make it possible to view the video in shorter clips.

Imagine, if I were able already to have Wave embedded in this blog, we could discuss each segment in this space immediately below each clip. Can't wait!

--- The Clips ---

1. 6:01 to 7:34. Differentiating the philosophical approach of Google Wave from existing communication models. The key phrase is "tight implementation" of the original model to create a single tool that enables a number of ways to communicate and collaborate.

2. 10:15 to 11:38. With email type communication already demonstrated, Lars and Stephanie show how Wave enables IM type communication within the same tool. Notice the synchronous appearance of individual characters within the Wave; for me, I believe this has a significant perceptual impact on the IM experience: as Lars states, "You literally spend 100% of your time reading or writing."

3. 13:00 to 13:42. Playback. Jan was recently added to the Wave. The playback feature allows him to observe how the current document and conversation has evolved and developed from its inception.

4. 14:34 to 15:17. Private messaging feature is integrated within the "group discussion." Any subset of the Wave can have permissions restricted to a smaller group of users. This isn't a revelation on its own; the way Wave handles and stores these private replies, however, is; that's next.

5. 65:17 to 70:14. To understand why the private messaging is actually a big deal, jump forward to Lars' explanation of the Open Protocol approach of the Google Wave product. This segment's for IT folks. Google Wave has been designed to be an open protocol; anyone can build an organizational, federated Google Wave server - even their own user interface. Importantly, the protocol supports inter-system communication while maintaining organizational privacy; only the servers involved in each instance of communication maintain a record of the communication; this is granular down within Waves. For example, if a Wave includes four people working across three organizations and two participants that work for Organization B exchange a private message within that Wave, the private message is not shared to all three server within the Wave; it never leaves Organiation B's Wave server.

6. 15:25 to 18:10 Drag and drop, real-time sharing of photos enable a group photo album; all shared photos within the Wave can be viewed within a single slideshow. The process of "uploading" a picture is eliminated. Also, Waves or parts of Waves can be shared to others; the ability to share any single part or product of a Wave is important.

7-8. 19:00 to 19:57 & 20:40 to 22:12. Embedding API. Waves can be embedded into other web pages; they specifically demonstrate embedding a Wave into a blog site using the Bloggi widget. Key feature is that responses/comments can be recorded directly on the Wave as it's shown on the blog. It updates, in real time, within the Wave client as well.

9. 25:28 to 26:45. Mobile Wave communication. Although they experience some problems with teh wireless network in the presentation center, Lars shows Waves on an Android and an iPhone.

10. 26:45 to 37:14. Collaborative, Real-time, Concurrent Editing. With it embedded around the web, there's only one actual copy of the Wave; that's not new of course; we've seen that with other collaborative documents. However, this all occurs within a single tool, and all communication occurs inline. Discussion about segments of the document can occur immediately next to that segment rather than via a separate discussion forum or listserv. With playback available as it is, you can review the evolution of the document and the conversation around it. The conversations can be hidden, to allow reading of just the document, but the current version of the document - the product - can be extracted to a new Wave. It then will be possible to merge new changes in the original Wave into the final document Wave. A string of work Wave's may all point to a final product Wave. Spreadsheets, Presentations and other document types will be added.

11. 40:15 to 43:00 Wave Links & Search Feature. To help organize Waves, it's possible to drag and drop waves into other waves; the drag and drop automatically generates a link to the wave. The search feature is real-time, character-by-character.

12-13. 44:00 to 48:10 & 54:02 to 54:46
Extensions. Spelli is impressive; damn thing uses context clues to determine the appropriate word to insert. Linki recognizes loosely formatted web addresses as links; makes inserting links relatively easy as you are typing them; but, Searchi extension makes it even easier to search for links or images or video and insert them quickly within the Wave. I believe this radically streamlines the act of composition via the web.

14. 50:30 to 53:48 Yes/No/Maybe Gadget, Collaborative Games, Maps Gadgets. This is a general example of a gadget. The backstory is that their workgroup was trying to decide what movie to go see and who was going. They created the Yes/No/Maybe gadget to better facilitate response gathering. Again, Playback adds another element to the entire process.

15. 54:55 to 57:20 Polly the Pollster. Forms and real-time audience response within Waves.

16. 57:30 to 61:28 Integrating Twitter. They use Twitter as an example of how existing communication tools can be integrated into Wave. I think it highlights how Google Wave can be used to aggregate personal communications across the Web into a single application/location.

17. 72:30 to 73:54 Real-time Translator - Rosi - is just as impressive as Spelli, Linki & Searchi.