Category Archives: web 2.0

facebook, web 2.0

Adverts on Web 2.0 Services

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BBC reports on how credit companies are using Facebook to advertise their wares.

Credit companies are using the Facebook social networking site to target young people, a debt charity has warned.

Credit Action says adverts promising cheap loans for people with poor credit ratings are appearing on the site and many break advertising regulations.

In particular, they are promoting two new products – payday loans secured against a salary or logbook loans secured against a car, it says.

It is an issue with any advertising based Web 2.0 service and one that you do need to consider if you are considering using Web 2.0 services within an educational institution.

Blocking the ads though may be considered one option, this generally doesn’t work for learners who are accessing the services outside the institution.

Even this blog has advertising inserted by WordPress.com over which I have no control and therefore if you found this blog through Google I suspect that there may be a credit advert embedded into the page.

It happens most times that a new viewer searches Google and finds a link to my site in the search results and clicks through as seen here.

Adverts on Web 2.0 Services

I have no control over those adverts and they are based on the text of my entry (and who is visiting), therefore you could potentially have an unsuitable advert. Now these are text based adverts so offence is less likely.

I could of course move the blog to my own web host and lose all the advertising, but the advantage of WordPress.com is that it is a free service and I don’t need to pay for hosting or bandwidth. Of course the real price I then have to pay is on the inserted advertising.

No such thing as a free lunch!

However other Web 2.0 services (such as Facebook) use banner and image based adverts and therefore there could be some unsuitable advertising.

I recall looking at a video streaming service and the two I looked at Stickam and Ustream, I chose Ustream as the adverts on Stickam could potentially cause offence.

As with any website (or service) which depends on advertising, there is a risk that there may be unsuitable advertising content over which you have little or no control.

It’s all about making a compromise between paying for services through upfront costs or using free services which are funded through advertising. What should we do as institutions?

Personally I believe that the decision about which services we should use it being made for us, by our learners.

Post first appeared on Hood 2.0 Blog.

altc2008, conference, web 2.0

Web 2.0 Workshop at ALT-C 2008

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I have received the following e-mail in my inbox.

I am pleased to inform you that your proposal Hood 2.0 – it’s a Web 2.0 World out there, has been accepted for presentation at ALT-C 2008.

Yay

The workshop will examine the concept of Web 2.0 services in addressing the tensions between formal and informal learning, and empowering learners to take responsibility for their own learning.

It will explore how we need to address the pedagogical needs to drive the use of Web 2.0 services and not be blinded or awed by the technology of Web 2.0

It will demonstrate and allow participants to discuss and debate different learning scenarios and activities which utilise Web 2.0 services.

Web 2.0 services will be used to demonstrate these scenarios.

Source: Hood 2.0.

web 2.0

What is Web 2.0?

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Today I got asked, what is Web 2.0, well there are various definitions available on the web.

From Wikipedia

In studying and/or promoting web-technology, the phrase Web 2.0 can refer to a trend in web design and development — a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services (such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies) which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing between users.

From O’Reilly

Like many important concepts, Web 2.0 doesn’t have a hard boundary, but rather, a gravitational core. You can visualize Web 2.0 as a set of principles and practices that tie together a veritable solar system of sites that demonstrate some or all of those principles, at a varying distance from that core.

and

If Netscape was the standard bearer for Web 1.0, Google is most certainly the standard bearer for Web 2.0.

It can even be a picture.

What is Web 2.0?

However I think this video really sums it up.

google, presentation, web 2.0

Presentation, not Presently

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Following my post about Presently, the official Google Blog has announced that they are releasing presentation software and are going to call it Presentation.

In April we announced that we were working to bring presentations to Google Docs. (Astute readers may recall learning about this even earlier, which caused a bit of excitement around here.) And today we’re unveiling the new Google Docs presentations feature and invite you to try it at documents.google.com. Maybe more than any other type of document, presentations are created to be shared. But assembling slide decks by emailing them around is as frustrating as it is time-consuming. The new presentations feature of Google Docs helps you to easily organize, share, present, and collaborate on presentations, using only a web browser.

This will provide a real solution to delivering online presentations and also enable learners to access PowerPoint presentations via the web (say delivered from a VLE). Not every learner will have Microsoft Office installed and though PowerPoint Viewer is an option for some, it is not an option for all.

Regardless of whether you think PowerPoint is not an useful e-learning tool (death by PowerPoint anyone) or is, it is used on a regular basis by a lot of practitioners across the world.

I think despite the dominance of Microsoft Office there is room for a web based presentation application and I am hoping that Presentation will fit the bill.

Thanks Seb

web 2.0

Faculty 2.0

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Okay so we had Web 2.0, e-Learning 2.0 and now we have Faculty 2.0!!!

Actually this is a title of an interesting article on  how institutions should not try and bolt on technology to existing practices, but should be using technology to systematically change the institutional practices to improve and enhance learning.

Should the goal be to persuade and assist faculty members to adopt technology, or should it be to enable systemic transformation? When technology is “bolted on” to an existing process, the usual result is a modest improvement in the process and also higher costs. To obtain both greater improvement and reduced costs, higher education institutions must redesign the process so as to take maximum advantage of the enabling capabilities of technologies.  

Too often I have seen this “bolt-on” approach in colleges and almost avoidance of using technology for systematic change.

Which type of institution are you working for?

google, presentation, web 2.0

Are you Presently?

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Google Docs and Spreadsheets are proving very popular in the e-learning community, though one obvious application is “missing”, and that is presentation software (a PowerPoint replacement).

Mashable is reporting that Google is about to launch their web based presentation software, Presently.

Google’s PowerPoint killer looks to be on the horizon. Called Presently, the presentation-creation tool will offer a web-based solution for users.

This will provide a real solution to delivering online presentations and also enable learners to access PowerPoint presentations via the web (say delivered from a VLE). Not every learner will have Microsoft Office installed and though PowerPoint Viewer is an option for some, it is not an option for all.

Regardless of whether you think PowerPoint is not an useful e-learning tool (death by PowerPoint anyone) or is, it is used on a regular basis by a lot of practitioners across the world.

I think despite the dominance of Microsoft Office there is room for a web based presentation application and I am hoping that Presently will fit the bill.

altc2007, facebook, flickr, web 2.0

Using external web services?

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Brian Kelly (who writes the UK Web Focus blog) has been asking the question:

Externally-hosted blogs, wikis, etc: (a) valuable solution for institutions which can save effort and resources; (b) to be avoided, as institutions need to be able to manage and tweak their own services or (c) an alternative view (please describe)?

He’s been using Facebook to ask the question and it is a valid question to ask. Should we as institutions take advantage of such services or should we be running our own services.

Some of the answers on Brian’s question make for interesting reading (Facebook login required) and he has been discussing this on his blog.

I use Flickr quite a bit now, finding it useful for not only organising photographs but allowing staff within Gloucestershire College to use them simply and easily. Now if I used an internal service this would probably also meet their needs, however those of you who have checked my Flickr feed will know I also used it quite a bit at ALT-C and delegates (and non-delegates as well) would have been unable to view (and in some cases use) the photographs. From my perspective using a single service makes life easier, there are lots of guides online, also using an external service allows me to use such clever applications like ShoZu.

One potential downside is what happens when staff leave? They can remove the photographs very quickly and easily.

Also though most Web 2.0 services are free, some like Flickr have limitations on the free account. The “pro” upgrade does cost and the question is who pays for that?

There are many more questions. Luckily for us some Universities have already been down this route and have created guidelines, check lists and risk assessment so providing the basis for any college which is looking at using external web services.

altc2007, social networking, web 2.0

Learning technology for the social network generation

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I am at the Theme Speaker’s Summary Learning technology for the social network generation.

Marion Miller (JISC RSC YH) is talking through her background and is giving an overview of the RSCs.

She’s covering some interesting points, in the main learner control to start with, empowering learners and other issues.

At this point I moved over to large scale implementation session as I wanted to hear about that as well.

facebook, google, web 2.0

“Facebook Profiles Will Appear in Google Results Next Month”

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According to an article on Mashable, your Facebook profile will be appearing on Google next month.

If you thought the news feed was a threat to your privacy, be warned: Facebook is announcing Public Search Listings today, meaning profiles will be searchable through Facebook, and soon turn up on Google, Yahoo and MSN Search.

As of tomorrow, search will be available through Facebook; users will then have one month to change their privacy settings before profiles get indexed by the major search engines. These results will include, at most, your name and profile picture.

So anything on there you would not want a current, prospective, future employer or family member or associate or your bank manager or insurance company to view, remove it now before it’s too late!

altc2007, conference, web 2.0

Web 2.0 Slam – ‘Performing’ Innovative Practice Workshop

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I am attending the Web 2.0 Slam workshop here at the ALT conference.

They started off with the classis Web 2.0 Machine Video

Josie Fraser is now giving an overview of Web 2.0, “think of it as a wave”.

Talking about how web has moved from a centralised to a distributed model.

Helen Keegan is now showing how learners are using Web 2.0 to support and enhance their learning.