Thing 20: Social Networks

My hatred of Myspace has been a pent up volcano waiting to burst.  You have let me unleash my anger and so now let me rail against this cancer.  I can quickly sum my thoughts on the topic up:

• It is ugly. Really, really ugly. Letting 100 million people with no formal design training loose on your eyeballs is not an enjoyable user experience.
• The place is basically a dive bar/meat market at 1:45am- everyone’s ugly, wasted, and desperate to hook up. The band playing (loudly) is terrible, and there are a few mostly naked girls taking pictures of themselves standing on the bar. And the bouncer at the door sucks, so there’s some 12yr olds running around making a lot of really annoying small talk. (not that I'm speaking from experience or anything)
• The spam accounts/messages/comments/bulletins are unbearable

For the above-stated reasons, I started using Facebook just to try it out and to see what all the hubub was about, and I genuinely liked it at first. The UI is clean and your network is closed and protected, so you really do only know the people in your friends list- no fake accounts or rampant stupidity or annoying bands. Then they opened the site up to 3rd party developers, and the whole thing just went to pieces (for me at least).

I started getting all kinds of messages, invites, etc that all require me to install some idiodic 3rd party application to my own profile just to even see what the message is. Imagine if you got an email that required you to install a program before you could read it. Yeah, you’d be pissed too. So instead of an awesome thing, these 5000 or so Facebook apps are making it worse than Myspace, a gigantic feat I previously thought impossible. I ignore the hell out of those invites, because I am not a Zombie, Pirate, or Vampire Hunter, nor do I need to share movie ratings or have a superwall. And here is something nobody is taking about- in order to use the apps, you need to allow it to access your profile information. I predict there will be a Facebook app in the near future that is caught harvesting marketing data, even spamming users. If you think I am a lone man in a shack in the woods howling at the moon on this, I’m not alone, there are many concerns about the potentially massive privacy violation potential that Facebook is building towards.

To expand on this... Face book is in holy $h!t on this one. Not to mention this is the second time that ceo Mark Zuckerberg has had to apologize for rolling out a privacy decimating feature with little warning, no explanation, and no way to opt out (at the time of release).

I hate the new Facebook- it’s like Vegas in there now, and I find the majority of what is happening to be counterproductive to staying connected with your friends. Social networks are an interesting thing, but I have decided over the past year or more, ultimately, they are not anything I feel like wasting my time on. I use email and aim more than ever now to keep in touch with friends and family, and I like that kind of communication better.  Besides, can you really call someone a friend you have only met on Facebook?  Rediculous.

At some point someone will create the killer social networking app, and my guess is that it will look like this: a website or application that syncs automatically with your photo, calendar, IM, email, addressbook, and office programs, and allows you to easily post, edit, tag, etc. any personal data you want to, on any site. It will basically act like an RSS aggregator, pulling in and pushing out messages, comments, emails, IMs, photos, videos, calendar events, documents, etc. from Myspace, Facebook, Friendster, and all the like, as well as Flickr, your own site, etc. etc. etc. A sort of one-stop shop to managing your online presence. Hell they could even roll in forum posts, news and other RSS feeds, podcasts, you name it. Having one central hub means one login, entering your personal info one time, and tracking any news in one place.

Imagine a system that makes the following possible: you boot your computer to find out that there is a party next weekend. It gets added quickly to your calendar, you IM the host to ask if you can bring anything, they email you a list, which is added to your todo list. You go to the party and take some pictures, uploading them automatically to the group pool for the party and adding a few tags to them. You met someone new at the party, and using some profile browsing you find them, add a comment to their profile and get an IM back and add each other’s details to your address books and go from there. Now imagine all of this in one application, and having that application sync with a mobile device so you can update and check things on the road. Nothing I just listed is impossible, but currently to do all of that would require a bunch of different programs, a lot of manual data entry, and way more hassle than is necessary in 2008.  Oh... I forgot to include twitter in there as well.

Thanks to Andy Cochrane for your words for they helped to express mine

Thing 19: The Podcast

I must say, I LOVE the podcast.  I have multipul subscriptions to different podcasts.  Some are just rebroadcasts of radio shows:

Wait, wait don't tell me

This American Life

AM Marketplace

Sound oppinions 

etc. etc.

I also listne to podcasts that are podcast specific.  Meaning they are published a made exclusivly for computer podcast viewers.

CATO institue

The Tome (yea.. super geeky you may want to stay away)

Hatchling animations

First Amendment Center

etc.etc.

Can I just say that I love my iPod.

Podcasts are one of the great inventions.  I can link a key speech, presenter or expert to a moodle page.  Students listen to the whole podcast or to a select portion and then they go on to moodle and discuss the podcast (following set prompts).  

When I'm in the car and only catch half of a really great story, or interview.  I can podcast it.  expose my students to it and my friends.

I absolutly LOVE podcasts.  

Admitatly I don't have my kids make podcasts in the classroom.  They make videos and that takes enough work as it is ;).   I however could start making podcasts.  That would be pretty cool.  

Hmmmmmm it gets me a thinking!

Thing 18: You Tube

Ahhh YouTube.  One of the great time sucks of all time.  It just totally destroys the afternoons and keeps me up way past my bedtime.  I love the youtube.

Here is a great clip that I would like to show in my class 4th quarter when we go over the Amendments and are discussing our civil liberties.  In this Clip Ed Norton plays the attorney defending Larry Flynt.   Ed Norton so sums up the implication of the case.  It isn't about obscenity or pornography... it is about civil liberties:

Thing 17: ELM Productivity Tools.

From what I can tell.  This is very similar to what we use at school.  I have the kids using ProQuest and EBSCO at school all the time.  What I like about ELM is that it merges the different databases and help guide you in your search.

Sort of "what are you looking for?"  and then guides you down a decision tree until you are at the right place.  What was a bit more difficult was that it required the use of your library card.  Luckly, I make all my students register for a library card at the begining of school ;)

I loved the (k-5 and 6-12) search features on the right had side.

I also like the fact that you can sort your search by medium, time, place and source.  It really will be a great reasource.  

6 traits?  Maybe?  :)

Thing 16: Student 2.0 tools

Ding Ding Ding Ding.  this is AWSOME!  My service project is just waiting for a calendar like this to shape the kids.  built in rubrics and "how-to's".  I really like.

This was totally worth it!  I will be using this.

Gripe:  this is not a web 2.0 feature.  Where are the student adding content to the globe/world/internet?  

Thing 15: online games

I hate to say it, but this is a section I could write for 23 things.  Pirate Puzzle and second life?  really?  Pirate Puzzle I get, but second life isn't really a game.  It is more of a virtual world with virtual real estate.  (read Snowcrash and weep at how accurate Neal Stephenson portrays the internet from the perspective of someone who published in 1992)

Not all of these games are RPG  but they do represnt a very small margin of what is out on the web.

Below are a series of on-line games that range from puzzles, shoot-up-up, strategy, real-life, fun, funny, adventure and tragic and combinations of the above:

Starcontrol and Starcontrol II :

These harken back to when games were simple.  They are SCII based games.

Play the News:

ImpactGames has figured out a way to combine my old D&D love with my obsession with the news via the community web game, Play the News. The premise is that news stories allow you to choose a role defined by the story and then present your choice for what that newsmaker should do going forward. As stories develop, you’re shown what your actions were contrasted with what actually happened. 

There are also ways to predict future headlines and events, further pitting your geo-political prowess against the world.

Typeracer Beta, which pits you against other online visitors in a Java-based race to type out passages from famous books and films. 

The biggest stumbling block to me was trying to keep from reading ahead (which is how I normally type from another text) and just focusing on the word at hand. Anyone with a fairly comprehensive media knowledge might glean an advantage, as you can tear right through a race if you know the passage in question. 

Rollercoaster creater:

You know, I wondered how long it would take for someone to apply the Line Rider mechanics to a rollercoaster game, and whaddayaknow? Rollercoaster Creator does exactly that.  It is fun, takes physics into play and its free!  Unlike Valley Fair.

Cannon Challenge

Discovery Channel’s Future Weapons site goes decidedly old school for the NLOS (No Line of Sight) Cannon Challenge game by aping the Scorched Earth game method. As it stand, it’s a fun little time-waster, though a decidedly easy one. Just adjust your angle and velocity and then pound away at unsuspecting targets

Of course, if you really want to go the distance, you can revisit the classic Scorched Earth via this Java based port (Scorched 2000), or you can just full one old school it and download the classic DOS based Scorched Earth 1.5. There’s a reason this is called ‘The Mother of All Games’, folks. Trash talking tanks, a bevy of inventive (and destructive) weaponry, and the kind of graphics that make you long for the glow of your 14 inch VGA monitor.

Puzzle Quest:

Mixing RPG, multiplayer, and puzzle games, this turn based puzzle fighter actually taxes your strategy skills at the same time as it’s beating up your cognitive logic lobes.

darfur is dying:

This is were you have to play a displaced darfuian and try to survive.  First you have to make it to a refugee camp.  If you survive then you have to try and navigate the camp.  Great lessons abound.

Holy War:

Yes you too can play the the Christian soldiers berring down on the Iberian Penisula.  Or you can play the Muslims defending their hold on Spain.  You could also play the Jews who are getting devistated and mutilated by both groups.  Heck you could even play the Gnostics if you want.  Go ahead and pretend its the crusades.

Against all Odds:

This simulation ratcheted up the social context by putting players in the shoes of political dissidents and refugees, while never once shying away from the horrors (both visceral and seemingly innocuous) that displaced persons face every day on this planet. In addition to a strong lesson, Against All Odds just happened to be a well-designed game, albeit one that will leave you a little less chipper than when you started.

I think that is enough for now.  Whew!  If you want more let me know.

Thing 14: LibraryThing

When I was reading the 23things on a stick page about Library thing I had the whole... this has no bearing on what I do going through my head.

Upon examination, this is super cool.  I had an accout with a program called collectorz.  I got in before you had to pay for it (Beta).  Collectorz had some huge advantages, such as you can catalog music, DVD's and many other items... not just books.  it had a place to check out items to friends, keep track of quality etc. etc.  however, it costs money and I have let it laps and now what to do?

What Librarything does that collector z doesn't do is link the info to online sources.  I don't just mean an isbn and then tell you a synopsis and the author.  No it links you to similar books: books on the same topic, by the same author or books that are a counter point to the book in question.  This would be great to put the books I buy for my classroom to help determine how balanced my collection of books really is and where the holes in my collection really are.

This is a really cool resource.  So are all the libraries in Edina going to put their whole collections on Librarything and see what happens?  heee heee heee :)

Thing 13: on line productivity

Here is a realm I really accel.  

I have been using igoogle for a number of years... really since its inception.  I love it.  I have it customized and modified with my own widgets to help with many, many things.

in additiona, (as stated in Thing1) I use Opera as my web service and they have a large number of widgets and addons to their browser to customize it to your liking.  

I have been using google calendar and at present use a number of "sub calendars":

1.  a game calendar that I link to my other blog page to keep all my gaming friends in the loop
2. a personal calendar for things that I am participating in on my own time
3. a school calendar (that I have linked to my school outlook calendar so it updates automatically)
4. A joint calendar with Sara :)
5. Sara has her own calendar.

This has helped a bunch.  I just have to get better at adding things to the calendar.  It is pretty busy as it is, but I always forget to add items to the caldendar and then problems arise.  

I believe that is what we call "user error".

On a whim I took a look at pageflake.  I really liked it.  The interface looks better than most and a bit more advanced in places (ie. local new feed).  But because I am so linked into the google features (calendar, blogger, RSS reader, and now a new found addiction to zoho) it would take a lot for me to switch.  I am giving up some for the convienience.

I must say I am kind of thinking about the Netvibe page.  Based on what you set up Mike.  Its pretty slick.

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Thing 12: Social sites

O.k.  so maybe I need to read ahead before I start posting.  It just seems to me that delicious, digg, reddit and stumbleupon are pretty much all in the same cattegory.  I didn't realize that 23 things was going to seggregate between delicious and the other three.

I don't really understand why.  They all pretty much do the same thing.  In fact the home page of Del icio us says "social bookmarking".  This seems to be a bit strange.  

As stated in my last post I have been using these sources for a few years now. 

I am more of a fan of Digg and am Stumbleupon is growing on me quickly.  Not as much of a fas of Reddit.

The problem with these sites for me is that they become a HUGE time suck.  Not that the info they are giving me isn't useful and cool.  But they totally get me off track and then the next thing you know 2 hours have flown by and the origional goal for getting on the computer is still not completed.  (note why I am still on Thing 12).

Well, that and selling a house, getting a house ready to sell and getting ready for a wedding.  Whew.

I digress

The issues with these sites for student is that they are hard to focus.  YOu can't go to them and say "find info about the framers of the constitution".  They are however great for finding cool current events.  But I see them really as a way to boost my own knowlege base and to keep up with the younger generations.  I need to do some searious brain storming to figure out how to use these as a classroom tool.

Thing 11. Del icio us

I love del icio us.  I hate typing it.  ARGGGG.

There are a number of similar sites that I have played with and for the most part they all do the same thing.  The difference really is in the user interface and options.  Let me give you an example:

Digg.com is far more efficiant that del icio us and has a higher traffic rate.  But, because of your tags have to be one of the prewritten tages devised by Digg you lose autonomy.  However, you gain efficiancy.  Let say you "Digg" someting about the election campaign.  In Digg you could put it under "news, campaign, president".  In Del icio us you would invent the categories.  What you think they should be are different than what another person may think.  Thus making it harder to find things you like.

Becuase of this I prefer Digg on in that it is easier and the prewritten tags add ease to the system.  each person doesn't have to develp their own tag.  

ps.  besides it is a lot easier to write :)

But wait.... there is more.  I just found a great article that compares the two.  Hmmmm rethink perhaps?

Check out:

Reddit

stumble upon  I am quickly liking this site more and more.

Thing 10: Wikis

I love wikis and have been using them for many years.  However, I have not been generating/creating my own wikis. I tried to use wikis in Moodle but the program was so poorly put together that it made it unusable.  I have also used PB wiki.  That worked well as a program, but my execution needs some revision.  It was a bit chaotic and to administrate and track changes took more time than I thought it should.

I love wikis, but my main gripe is that they have a very specific use and when people learn about them they go crazy and use them innaproapreaty, making the task harder than it needs to be.  People want to use them as "web page".  wikis are specificly designed as a colaborative tool for people to privide content and edit other peoples content (with or without administrative approval).  So when people just want to give information (web 1.0) to a large group of people.  By putting it in a wiki they are making things more complicated and inviting changes to content that they might not want changed.

The most famous of the wikis in the world is of course: wikipedia.  Study and findings have been hurled over the bow claiming that wikipedia is innaccurate or accurate.  What studies have also found is that there is approximatly a 10-15% error in topics of accademic research (history, science etc.).  Is this a greater error than others encyclopedias?  who knows.  What I do know is that school is about teaching kids to be critical of their sources and to verify information.  I have no problem if kids want to search topics on wikipedia.  However, they can not site wikipedia.  They need to verify the information from a secondary source so they cooroborate.  I did this before wikipedia as well... you know, when kids were looking up stuff in books :)

People just need to be very carful about certain wikis and the information they give.  wikipedia is on the forfront.  They are quite open about articles that need verification and/or articles that are under dispute.  The one issue I have with Wikipedia is that the topics are democratic.  Meaning, if I edit an entry (wrong) and it is verified by enough other people... it becomes "truth".  For 90% of the time, this is a great way of doing things, however there are times when the public is wrong.  Think about the number of people who think Barack Obama is Muslim... or the misinformation about AIDS in the 80's and early 90's and of course the conriversies over topics like global warming.  These issues need to be overridden and edited by experts.

Wikipedia says it has a team of experts looking at these contriversial topics.  

What is and expert?

Thing 9: Online Collaboration Tools

I must say that editing a historic document was pretty fun.  Although it was really confusing with the number of people that had already contributed.  My brain of course has to figure out how they made this work.

In essence, it is a templated wiki.  Totally a great an inovative way to use the technology.  I can see this as being a great way to explore other primary documents, but it would also be a great way to do peer edited papers,  to do movie storyboarding... [as a teacher you post the storyboards as a template and the kids fill it in].  I'm sure there are others, but I am at a loss to think of them right now.

I have used Google docs before but never Zoho document writer.  Nor had I thought about using them as a colaboration technique in school.  It really is a great way to get kids who "can't get together" to get together and write the essay, put together research etc.

It puts some really great ideas in my head.  I need about 3 months to figure out how to incorperate all of this into my curriculum.  

Owe.. my head hurts.

Thing 8: create and share a slide show

I kind of feel like I did this in "Thing 6".  But I have been using Snap Fish since 2006 and have some albums there that I can share with people.  

Quite frankly, Snapfish isn't as good as many of the other programs that are out there.  But at the time, it was awesome... now... it pretty much sucks.

So, off I went to use the tool Zoho.  I can totally see the usefulness of this tool.  Nice for posting and creating ppts.  If you don't have PPT.  What I really like about it, is that anyone with access to the internet has access to any PPT I post.  Good stuff!

Thing 7: Communication

Well, I would have to say of the items mentioned so far this seems to be the most repetetive and the most pase of the "things" thus far.  Not that these communication tools are bad.  By no means am I saying that, but, all of the communication tools they mentioned are all 8 years old or older.  

e-mail has been around since the 1960's

IM has been around since... well I'm not sure when, but it has been part of the regular txting crowd for at least 12 years.  I have it set up on my computer at school.  I am surprized that all of a schools administrators don't have it set up on their computers for easy reference questions are "emergency" calls for help when talking to a parent etc.

i've had an IM account for years.  Especially since I played my first MMORPG in 1996.

TXT... this has been a standard feature on phones since 2000 or earlier.  a great tool.  I use it all the time.  Quick messages, when you are in a loud restaurant etc. 

What happened to Skype or oovoo?  two tools for the computer that combine the above programs as well as adding VOIP and document sharing.

All of these piece of communication are fantastic but these are not Web 2.0 technologies.

Web 2.0 is about adding to the collective.  all of the above are for two or more people and no one else.  they can be deleted and are often nearly impossible to share with the public because they are meant for just one or two other people.  In the case of IM... the conversation can be deleted as soon as both participants log off.

That is not to say these technologies aren't fantastic teaching tools etc.  but they are NOT web 2.0.  

Thing 6 continued: Flektor

So I have been doing some playing with OnLine Media Gods and found this awesome sight.  I mean truely awesome.  This would be a great training for all teachers sort of sight.

Its called Flektor.  You can make so many templated photo albums, video etc.  It allows sound editing, pictur editing and video editing.  It is amazing!

Here is what I created in about 10 min.  It looks at my trip to Cambodia.  But there are ton of other options and video creation picture editing etc.

Anyways, take a look. (start clicking on the photos)