Gerry davis's Blog – September 2007 Archive (6)

This Friday when one of my colleagues was looking for a good 2.0 program to use with her digital photography class, she looked a Flickr, I guaranteed it world be blocked in the Ohio K- 12 environment, it was, and then suggested she look at Voicethread. Reluctantly she agreed and discovered this is a nice bit of software. It encourages storyboarding and reflective writing by its nature and…

Continue

I have posted a sound file created using a podcast program called "propaganda" it is running at 2x speed within classroom 2.0, which means I sound funny. If you play the linked file within my last post it sounds normal. I imagine that this is a Classroom 2.0 issue rather than a Propaganda issue but to verify I am going to see of the problem continues by creating a file using "audacity" and podcasting it. If the problem continues then I have a 2.0 issue in an environment with limited support.… Continue

I have posted a new audio cast to this forum. My initial desire was to make it a podcast but is seems that classroom 2.0 dosen't know how to handle the xml file, so it is a link file from the website, To subscribe to it as a podcast click here . As I evolve from a desktop local apps user to a 2.0 (the internet is the computer) user I am finding that the transition is not as easy as one might be led to believe. The next week or so is… Continue

My spin on web 2.0 is that it is the future of computing in schools / k-12 education. The real question is when? 2.0 has great potential, the question is, how will districts manage access and who will host what apps. Will we be using Google apps in the form of a premium service such as business are starting to do now or will this be a local issue. There are some every important discussions that need to take place at…

Continue

One of the biggest problems with web 2.0 apps is the user interface. There are no standards for navagation button placements or naming conventions. Each 2.0 application we use often has a different look and feel. Compare this to wordprocessing programs or spreadsheets, most have a very familiar look. In contrast to web 2.0 programs, it is easy to intuit you way through new word processors of spreadsheet programs. Compare Open Office to MS Word, very simular. Is there a solution?

I am going to use this site as part of my EDTL 638 class, mostly because of the excellent information linked to it and the relevant forums shared by like minds. One of the key issues will be how well we are able to connect to these resources from schools. Content filtering and bandwidth shaping are huge issues in the conversation surrounding the use or ability to use 2.0 tools. I am leaving this post open to the world rather than just my class (friends) so it will be interesting to see if… Continue