Playing with Technology http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. ~Arthur C. Clarke Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:38:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=wordpress-mu-1.0 en Pipes in education http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2007/04/12/pipes-in-education/ http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2007/04/12/pipes-in-education/#comments Thu, 12 Apr 2007 20:17:03 +0000 Jon Breitenbucher Social Software Teaching Software http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2007/04/12/pipes-in-education/ See it is not about copyright.

I’m sure all of you are aware of Yahoo!’s Pipes product. I am very interested in it and how faculty can take advantage of it. However, I have not had the time to sit down and play with it. D’Arcy Norman has had some time to play with it and has a nice post titled Trying Pipes as a proto-Eduglu platform, which I encourage you to read.

]]> http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2007/04/12/pipes-in-education/feed/ Maybe the kids aren’t as hip as we think http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/12/18/maybe-the-kids-arent-as-hip-as-we-think/ http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/12/18/maybe-the-kids-arent-as-hip-as-we-think/#comments Mon, 18 Dec 2006 17:50:20 +0000 Jon Breitenbucher Social Software http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/12/18/maybe-the-kids-arent-as-hip-as-we-think/ Kevin Lim had an interesting post a while back. He was describing his recent experience in discussing the use of social media in corporations. In his post Kevin states, “I was quite disappointed with the lack of awareness to a lot of things I mentioned.” I wish I could say that I was surprised to see this statement but my experience over the past two years has been similar. I don’t know if they are too busy, frightened, … Whatever the issue it is something that needs to be dealt with soon.

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]]> http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/12/18/maybe-the-kids-arent-as-hip-as-we-think/feed/ What would be good additions to Moodle http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/10/28/what-would-be-good-additions-to-moodle/ http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/10/28/what-would-be-good-additions-to-moodle/#comments Sun, 29 Oct 2006 01:09:38 +0000 Jon Breitenbucher Social Software woodle Teaching Software http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/10/28/what-would-be-good-additions-to-moodle/ After looking at some of the things on Solution Watch, I see a few that would be great additions to Moodle. The functionality of Gradefix, mynoteIT, NoteMesh, Diigo, Google Video, and Flickr added to Moodle would allow for some really cool pedagogical uses of Moodle. I’ll have to comb through Moodle.org and see if any of this is in the works.

]]> http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/10/28/what-would-be-good-additions-to-moodle/feed/ More free music http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/10/12/more-free-music/ http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/10/12/more-free-music/#comments Thu, 12 Oct 2006 04:27:42 +0000 Jon Breitenbucher Social Software Multimedia Teaching Policy http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/10/12/more-free-music/ I was reading through the 200 RSS articles from today when what to my wandering eyes should appear but jamendo and free music for your ears. jamendo is a social music site where users rate artists and tag songs. Accounts are free and the music is free. If you like the music you can make a donation to the artists. There is a very wide range of music. I’m listening to some French rap right now. What a strange experience this is. I remember just enough French to get the jist of the song but not all the subtleties and clever rhymes. Bryan if you see this post check out the site and add it to your bag of emerging social software.

]]> http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/10/12/more-free-music/feed/ Another candidate for the kayak http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/02/20/another-candidate-for-the-kayak/ http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/02/20/another-candidate-for-the-kayak/#comments Mon, 20 Feb 2006 20:35:18 +0000 Jon Breitenbucher Social Software http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/02/20/another-candidate-for-the-kayak/ D’Arcy mentioned BlogBridge as another way to deal with the flood of information coming from RSS and blogs. I thought it should be called out in case someone wanted to give it a look.

]]> http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/02/20/another-candidate-for-the-kayak/feed/ Flock http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/02/18/flock/ http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/02/18/flock/#comments Sat, 18 Feb 2006 15:36:51 +0000 Jon Breitenbucher Social Software Geek http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/02/18/flock/ I’m using Flock to write this post. Flock is trying to be the killer app I referred to in my last post. It integrates with flickr, Technorati, del.icio.us, Shadow, will let you post to your blog from the browser, and much more. If you haven’t heard of it. Give it a look.

PS- It has a built-in spell checker which I must say is very cool.

]]> http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/02/18/flock/feed/ Riding the rapids of social software http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/02/16/riding-the-rapids-of-social-software/ http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/02/16/riding-the-rapids-of-social-software/#comments Fri, 17 Feb 2006 00:18:08 +0000 Jon Breitenbucher Social Software http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/02/16/riding-the-rapids-of-social-software/ Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the pace at which social software is developing? I sure do.

Just this week Bryan Alexander started a little e-mail exchange by asking if anyone on his list had heard of coComment!. Of course I hadn’t so I headed over to check it out and proceeded to sign up. In the middle of that process I saw a post about Stickam in my RSS reader and checked it out. It looked cool so I asked Bryan if he had heard about it and he hadn’t. Such is the way of social software.

So now I have an account at flickr, del.icio.us, coComment!, google, Technorati, TagCloud, am subscribed to about 30 RSS feeds and get about 150+ e-mails a day. This is nothing compared with the volume of mail and text someone like Bryan has to deal with everyday. I described my state of being as riding down a class five rapids in a barrel.

So how do we deal with this onslaught of information? RSS was supposed to be a tool to help manage the flow but for me it has only increased it. Bryan said it seems like there is a “current of centralism” in Web 2.0 and pointed to D’Arcy Norman’s site and sxore. My experience is not unique and I am waiting for the killer app to organize and control the torrent. Until that time I will continue my bumpy ride in the constant beta flow that is social software.

]]> http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/02/16/riding-the-rapids-of-social-software/feed/ The end http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/01/14/the-end/ http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/01/14/the-end/#comments Sat, 14 Jan 2006 05:05:34 +0000 Jon Breitenbucher Social Software Teaching http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/01/14/the-end/ SSUG wrapped up at noon today. It was a very interesting couple of days. Bryan is always excellent and always has a ton of cool things to explore. I’ll be working with Mark and others to identify possible projects for making Moodle fit better with Liberal Arts institutions. I’ve taken a look at some of the projects currently going for blocks and modules in Moodle and am really excited by the possibilities.

Now it is time to get ready for the combinatorics class I am teaching. This time I am starting off with graph theory and and will use my friends graph in Facebook as a jumping off point for the discussion about graphs and social networks. I am also going to have students who work in groups use del.icio.us to tag resources. I may also ask some one to look at tag clouds in terms of graph theory as a project for the course. So many interesting ideas.

]]> http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/01/14/the-end/feed/ Afternoon session http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/01/13/afternoon-session/ http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/01/13/afternoon-session/#comments Fri, 13 Jan 2006 05:50:25 +0000 Jon Breitenbucher Social Software http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/01/13/afternoon-session/ After lunch we broke into the small groups to begin discussions. I went to the tagging group and came away with some interesting ideas for applications of tagging in the classroom. One is to have the class search the tags that they think relate to the topics being discussed and evaluate the relevance of the resources discovered. This helps educate students about judging sources and introduces them to tagging. Then let them look for their own resources to tag and have them develop a taxonomy for the course. This gets them to think about meta content and larger themes.

Another idea was to have small groups tag resources for their projects and share them with each other. This provides a very easy way for the students to share the research they have found. Another thing that was discussed was the application of flickr in the classroom. No one really had a strong sense of where flickr fits into the classroom.

]]> http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/01/13/afternoon-session/feed/ Morning session http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/01/12/morning-session/ http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/01/12/morning-session/#comments Thu, 12 Jan 2006 17:13:20 +0000 Jon Breitenbucher Social Software http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/01/12/morning-session/ I arrived at around 8:20 and talked to some people at breakfast. Just before the sessions started we realized we needed a lot more stickies, power strips, and network cables. I ran to the bookstore and got some stickies and then headed get power strips and network cables. Once I got back to the Inn things were pretty much running smoothly.

Barbara showcased some very cool things being done in the high schools and made the argument that studetns were coming to campus prepared to do the sorts of things being discussed at SSUG and probably more. This was challenged by a number of people. Some argued that there are still a number of students who are not exposed to technology before college and that there are a number that really don’t feel comfortable using it or want to use it.

Some of the topics that came out for me in the morning discussion were:

  • Make sure to focus on the outcome don’t let the tech direct things.
  • Things work best when faculty have a need and i.t identifies a solution.
  • Faculty want to see a showcase to get a feel for how the tech can be incorporated into the course.
  • How does one overcome the barriers or perceived barriers of a particular discipline?
  • How do we measure the impact of the tech?

We came up with the small group topics and posted those around the room. We then reorganized and collapsed things to get down to seven topics. It’s now time for lunch and after then the group work this afternoon.

]]> http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/01/12/morning-session/feed/ More SSUG http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/01/11/more-ssug/ http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/01/11/more-ssug/#comments Thu, 12 Jan 2006 04:54:53 +0000 Jon Breitenbucher Social Software http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/01/11/more-ssug/ Well, there will be no official blog. Instead there will be a wiki for the event. I’ll probably post my thoughts here.

Today involved the dinner and generation of topics for discussion in the remaining days. I was interested to hear that Prof. Peter Havholm is going to have his class using the blog server for his course this semester. I also discovered that Oberlin is trying to get WordPress MU up and running on their campus. They also have Mediawiki running and are looking at Moodle. All very interesting and quite a bit of overlap with efforts at Wooster.

Mark Pearson is very interested in discussing how Earlham has Moodle set up and about changes or extensions that he could have some students work on in the near future. I am looking forward to discussing these issues with him tomorrow during the long break before dinner.

]]> http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/01/11/more-ssug/feed/ SSUG? http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/01/06/ssug/ http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/01/06/ssug/#comments Sat, 07 Jan 2006 00:01:18 +0000 Jon Breitenbucher Social Software http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/01/06/ssug/ SSUG or Social Software Users Group a NITLE sponsored event will be held at Wooster the end of next week. I will be blogging about what takes place in each of the sessions. I’m not sure if the posts will be on this blog or if they will be on a NITLE hosted blog. I’ll let everyone know.

]]> http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2006/01/06/ssug/feed/ Where are the bloggers? http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2005/10/09/bloggers/ http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2005/10/09/bloggers/#comments Sun, 09 Oct 2005 18:34:42 +0000 Jon Breitenbucher Social Software http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu/2005/10/09/bloggers/ So it’s been almost five days since the blog server was announced and not a single new blog. I thought students were supposed to be really into blogging. So where are they?

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