Blogs, Wikis and more: Web 2.0 demystified for learning and teaching professionals

UKOLN is supported by: Blogs, Wikis and more: Web 2.0 demystified for learning and teaching professionals Eastern RSC event Wednesday 25th February from 11:00 - 12:00. Marieke Guy Research Officer www.bath.ac.uk This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence (but note caveat)

Introduction to UKOLN UKOLN is a National centre of expertise in digital information management Library and cataloguing background Located at the University of Bath Funded by JISC and MLA to advise UK HE and FE communities and the cultural heritage sector Many areas of work including: Digital preservation: DCC Metadata, registry work Repositories: eBank, Intute, SWORD, DRIVER Dissemination: Ariadne, International Journal of Digital Curation eScience: eCrystals….etc.

Introduction to Me Been at UKOLN 9 years Now a remote worker Member of the Community & Outreach Team Currently working on: Good APIs project Chair of the Institutional Web Management Workshop Cultural heritage work Previous roles/projects include: JISC-PoWR, JISC Standards Catalogue, QA Focus, SPP Project Manager, ePrints UK project manager, Public Library Focus work, NOF-digitise, Web Magazines

Workshop Programme Presentation on Blogs, Wikis and more 20 minutes Do It Yourself - A chance for you to try out some of the tools 20 minutes Presentation/Discussion on Challenges of Web 2.0 for learning and teaching professionals 15 minutes Final Feedback Any final feedback, questions, comments etc. 5 minutes Will use this logo when it’s time for questions

Workshop Resources All resources (and more) linked with Delicious tag: http://delicious.com/mariekeguy/rsc-eastern-200802 Wiki for you to work on Slides at: http://www.slideshare.net/MariekeGuy/blogs-wikis-and-more-web-20-demystified-for-learning-and-teaching-professionals

So…What is Web 2.0? Marketing term (derived from observing 'patterns') rather than technical standards - “an attitude not a technology” Web2MemeMap, Tim O’Reilly, 2005 Characteristics Of Web 2.0 Network as platform Always beta Clean URIs Remix and mash-ups Syndication (RSS) Architecture of participation Blogs & Wikis Social networking Social tagging (folksonomies) Trust and openness

Blogs Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cecio/259559422/

Blogs A blog is a Web log, online diary Professionals are increasingly using blogs to describe what they are doing A social phenomenon of the 21 st Century Key characteristics are openess, collaboration and syndication There is a need for information professionals to: Understand blogging and related technologies (e.g. RSS, Technorati) Be able to find resources in the 'Bloggosphere' Explore how to use blogs to support business functions (support users, staff & organisation)

Why Blog? Community of learning and teaching professionals Long tradition of sharing experiences and knowledge New issues – need to find new communities Blogs can be a timely way to Offer advice and commentary Make new connections Record discussion over time Also provide a different view to email discussion threads

Reading Blogs There are lots of dedicated blog readers You can sign up for RSS feeds to be alerted to changes Try not to be distracted by adverts etc Web 2.0 Bloglines – a Web-based Blog reader. You are informed of changes since you last viewed the page. http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs

L&T Blogs Lots of Individuals creating blogs: Terry Wassall , Alan Lavine, Brian Lamb, Scott Leslie, Stephen Downes Lots of themed blogs: e-learning, e-publishing, technologies, research, green issues Lots of institution/school/college specific blogs Some subject specialist blogs UK academic librarians and information professionals bloggers list (lis-bloggers) – still relevant Hot Stuff 2.0 – great list of library related blogs (over 800) collated by Dave Pattern

Visual Arts learning http://www.accessart.org.uk/wordpress/

RSC blog http://rscmediablog.blogspot.com/

Intute - http://www.intute.ac.uk/blog/

Doug Belshaw - http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/

Using Blogs Blogs are very interconnected with each other (bloggers discuss other blog postings, blogrolls etc.). This can help to provide feedback; measure impact; engage in discussions; etc. Web Monkey extension can give blog comments on your pages Technorati can help find blog articles, etc. A search for “university learning teaching” returns 26 hits, some student blogs, The comments field can allow you to engage in discussions Time for you to establish a blog?

Ideas for Blogs A news blog (course announcements etc.) From the Teacher/Lecturer’s Desk Blogging about your daily work, provides transparency and openness L&T Resources blog (links to applications etc.) Special projects blog/ Task groups blog Group of learners in a class, encouraged and facilitated by a teacher, group of relatively dedicated life-long learners Use with syndication technologies to enable groups of learners and teachers to keep track of new posts Reflective blog (use as a ‘try it out’ experience) Professional Development blog Chronicle your daily activities, identify progression, achievements, use it for annual appraisal

A Few Issues… Institutional Issues – e.g. Can you have a corporate voice, do you want one? Technical Issues – e.g. What software will you use? Barriers to making the decision to blog e.g. Do you want all your thoughts to be accessible to all? What about an internal blog? Barriers to getting started Gaining momentum e.g. A huge number of blogs are not read and become deserted by their writers Keeping your momentum! e.g. Will you be able to come up with content? Stopping? Right person for the job!

Gaining Momentum Participate: embed yourself in the community, social networks e.g. Ning, Facebook (need to be aware of privacy issues, ownership of data, dangers of data lock-in) Identify and follow other blogs Get a great feed reader like Google Reader Link, a lot, especially to other blogs Comment, and use your URL when you do Be fairly shameless in self-promoting: “I like what you’re saying but over on our e-learning blog we’ve taken a different approach..” Spread the URL around

Keeping Momentum Use Technorati, Google Blog search, etc Start to embed these in people’s lives by reporting Make sure you post regularly, and with high quality: Don’t post because you haven’t done one in a while... Do post because you’ve got something to say If you’re losing momentum, maybe there’s a reason? Do some evaluation of your blog: ask readers Look for co-authors. Guest posts. You may be surprised! if it’s getting stale, try some alternative approaches: Interviews, podcasts, surveys or polls Video or other media embedding, live blogging ...be creative, and copy other people

Wikis Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/1627257/

Wikis Wikis are collaborative Web-based authoring tools –read state and write state They can be used for: team work and collaborative papers (avoiding emailed MS Word file around) Note-taking and social discussions at events As an easy way to set up a group Web site A great e-learning tool Uses a simple markup language (wikitext or wikisyntax) Ability to compare previous versions of a page, revert back and track who edited the page Many allow users to discuss issues prior to making changes Increasing popularity in the public sector

Wikipedia Easy to create Provides high-profile information (Google-friendly) Allows the community to enhance and develop content Does your institution have an entry? Who will edit it?

Wiki Issues Vandalism, spam Wiki etiquette Searching (more tagging needed), archiving (ephemeral), organisation of pages – no heirarchy Mark up – no standardisation…yet – training implications Stopping your wiki from becoming an unmaintained storehouse of out-of-date information! Organisational Culture - Freedom to move away from usual design, protocols, habits Resources - Staff training, time, costs Remember that Learning is inherently social

Potential for Learning Students Group project work and peer-to-peer activities Course collaboration e-portfolios research Comments section, suggestion box FAQs, Commonly asked questions (reference or general) Good for reflection on written work - critical assessment and peer review Workshops Integration with Moodle

Social Networks Sharing and community are what Web 2.0 is all about Some of the most famous networks are MySpace, Facebook, del.icio.us, Frappr and Flickr Learning and teaching is a social network in itself so the implications for it are huge Elgg - http://elgg.org/ Tagging – allows users to add keywords to items Created by groups/communities who are the resource users Natural language – common understanding No hierarchy, feedback RSS Feeds

Sharing - Flickr Web 2.0 includes community-building You can help support your community-building by making it easy to share photos at events (e.g. this seminar) Simply suggest a tag and encourage delegates to upload their photos with this tag Flickr Commons Web 2.0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/westmontlibrary/176505152/

Sharing – Delicious Another aspect of sharing is sharing bookmarks This can be used to: Manage your bookmarks Allow others to contribute resources Allow lists of bookmarks to be repurposed Carry out impact analysis Web 2.0 Who else has bookmarked this resources? What are their interests? (I may have similar interests) How many have bookmarked my resource? http://del.icio.us/mariekeguy/rsc-eastern-200802/

Sharing - Slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/MariekeGuy Many other resources can be shared e.g.: Slides Photos Maps Video Travel info Events info Music Etc.

Google Maps/Mashups Web 2.0 provides valuable opportunity to provide mapping & location services: Embedding Google maps on your Web sites Developing rich services using this Providing location metadata / microformats which can be processed by simple browser tools Web 2.0 http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/ workshops/webmaster-2007/maps/ http://www.talis.com/tdn/competition

Creative Commons Creative Commons offers copyright holders licences to assign to their work The licences aim to clarify the conditions of use and avoid many of the problems current copyright laws pose when attempting to share information. CC maximises impact of work Web 2.0 Openess is a key aspect of Web 2.0: open source; open standards and open content can all help to bring benefits through maximising usage of services

Facebook The Facebook platform provides access to (a) Skype (b) Twitter micro-blogging service (c) mini-questions Facebook: A social networking Web site Had the largest number of registered users among college-focused sites with over 30 million members worldwide Ranked between top 10–20 Web sites Seventh most visited site in the US

Podcasts Podcasts are syndicated MP3 files New items in a podcast can appear automatically in your Podcast client (e.g. iPod) or RSS reader Resources can be accessed via iTunes Web 2.0 http://www.podanza.com/podcast/... The University of Bath won a European award for its podcasts from guest lecturers, etc. We can regard this as maximising impacts of the ideas and promoting the University, at little cost

Communication Realtime discussion is a key part of the Web 2.0 and the .net generation (IM, SMS…) Can be used by patrons, chat reference services with transcript How much effort does it take to provide an instant messaging service for your library? Try Gabbly.com What about Skype? Web 2.0 http://www.gabbly.com/

Twitter Micro Blogs Twitter: Best known of the micro-blogging applications Web application, with desktop & mobile clients Uses: Community-building Support from your peers Marketing …

Do It Yourself (20 Minutes) Time try out some of the applications that have been mentioned Try to keep in mind how this could be applied in your working environment Any problems just communicate in the chat area http://rsc-eastern-200802.wetpaint.com/page/Tasks

Discussion (10 Minutes) So what are the challenges of Web 2.0 for information professionals? The top 5 challenges for the learning and teaching community? Possible ways that you can meet these challenges Best to write thoughts in notepad, refresh wiki page, paste onto wiki then save http://rsc-eastern200802.wetpaint.com/page/Challenges http://rsc-eastern200802.wetpaint.com/page/Meeting_Challenges

Web 2.0 Backlash When significant new things appear: Enthusiasts / early adopters predict a transformation of society Sceptics outline the limitations & deficiencies There’s a need to: Promote the benefits to the wider community (esp. those willing to try if convinced of benefits) Be realistic and recognise limitations Address inappropriate criticisms, avoid the chasm in the Gartner curve

Learning and Teaching 2.0 E-learning 2.0 Web technologies are shaping education It has been said that the impact of Technology is often overestimated in the short term and underestimated in the long-term. Users will bypass processes and institutions that they perceive to be slow, unresponsive, unappealing and irrelevant in favour of a more direct approach to services offered by others that just might be 'good enough' for what they need to do. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/digitalrepositories/web2-content-learning-and-teaching.pdf

Safe Experimentation Are you interested in using Web 2.0 in your organisation? Worried about corporate inertia, power struggles, etc? What you need is a deployment strategy: Addressing business needs Low-hanging fruits Encouraging the enthusiasts Gain experience of the browser tools – and see what you’re missing! Staff training and development Address areas you feel comfortable with Risk management strategy …

Staff Development There's a need for your staff to: Understand what Web 2.0 is about Learn how to make use of Web 2.0 This is all subject to constraints of lack of time; resources; etc. The Learning 2.0 Podcasts Web sites provides a useful resources for learning about new tools, techniques, etc. Deployment Challenges http://podcasts.alablog.org/blog/ _archives/2006/4/12/1881517.html

Some Low Hanging Fruit… Librarything provides a good example of a Web 2.0 service: Catalogue your books AJAX interface Exploit data provided by the community Export capabilities Other books you may like Implications for reader recommendations … http://www.librarything.com/

Other Ideas RSS feeds, create them and use them Wikipedia Secondlife, Cybrary city Slideshare Bookmarks - delicious, citeulike, connotea Mashups Folksonomies – different ways of organising information YouTube – video, streaming of video Ask your students what they are doing

Risk Managment Take a risk management approach to your evaluation of Web 2.0 technologies (as we do with IWMW) Establish Agreements Use well-established services: Google & Delicious are well-established and have financial security. Notification: warnings that services could be lost. Engagement: with the user community: users actively engage in the evaluation of the services. Provision of alternative services Use in non-mission critical areas: not for bookings! Long term experiences of services: usage stats Availability of alternative sources of data: e.g. standard Web server log files. Data export and aggregation: RSS feeds, aggregated in Suprglu, OPML viewers, etc.

Conclusions Web 2.0 can provide real benefits for our users, however organisations tend to be conservative We therefore need: Advocacy To listen to users' concerns To address users' concerns e.g. risk management A change of culture We can all benefit by adopting Web 2.0 principles of openness and sharing. So let us Share our advocacy resources, risk management techniques, etc. Develop your own social network based on openness, trust, collaboration, ..

Blogs, Wikis and more: Web 2.0 demystified for learning and teaching professionals

More Related Content

What's hot

Similar to Blogs, Wikis and more: Web 2.0 demystified for learning and teaching professionals

More from Marieke Guy

Recently uploaded

Blogs, Wikis and more: Web 2.0 demystified for learning and teaching professionals