It has been about two months since I've begun using Web 2.0 tools, thanks to the RCAC keynote and workshop by Will Richardson, and here are some thoughts about the process, and what I've discovered and been up to since then.
Compared to my good friend, Ross, I'm certainly not on the cutting edge. He has jumped headfirst into adopting this technology and adding some great content to the blogosphere. Compared to his Web 2.0 experience, I think I'm lagging behind ... perhaps Web 1.9 ?
The real key to this journey has been my Google Reader - though I don't visit it religiously every day (or even sacrilegiously every day), but almost daily. You need a Google account for that - and considering all the tools that Google has provided for free for Google account holders for free - that's a no-brainer. The tricky thing about the Google account which I don't understand is why Reader isn't an option on the Google home page once you're logged in .... (thoughts out there ? Google - are you listening ??)
The next thing that has made this journey easy and stress-free is that I'm using FireFox as my default browser. I've actually converted recently to using a MacBook Pro, after having been a constant PC user ... and I'm loving it. However, FireFox on the PC works just as well. The ability to add an RSS feed directly from the address bar so easily (then choose ADD to Google Reader) is amazing ! If you're not lucky enough to have access to FireFox (free download - open source software), you can always add RSS feeds into Reader using the Add Subscription button ... but I'm just lazy !
As you can tell by the lack of posts, though I've created a blog, I haven't been updating it regularly .... perhaps I'll do that more now.
Ross, Judy and Judi (the project team for CLIPS that I'm part of) have been using wikis to keep track of our work and coordinating who's doing what for a few months now as well - very useful. (As an educator, it was appreciated that wikispaces was giving away 100,000 free wikis for educators without Google Ads - that's a nice perk!)
The other tool our team has been using lots is GoogleDocs. I'm not sure we've really finalized our thinking around which is better for a wiki or a Google Doc, but it seems to have settled into this breakdown: If we want an ongoing record, we use a wiki. If we're working on a single document that has a specific purpose (like the review of a particular activity, or notes for an upcoming presentation), we create a new Google Doc.
Interested in more details ? What sorts of things I've subscribed to in my
Google Reader ? Maybe next post !
Thursday, February 14, 2008
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