Learning 2.0 Assignment 10: YouTube

This week you will be examining the video sharing tool, YouTube. This assignment (the last assignment) is due Monday, November 24.

1. Read the Wikipedia entry on YouTube.
2. Read "7 Things You Should Know About YouTube.”
3. Read “College Students Love Their Video.”
4. Explore YouTube and find a video that you think is fun or entertaining. Follow the directions here to place the YouTube video in your blog.

Blog prompts (answer these questions in your blog):

1. Have you ever posted a video to YouTube? What about Facebook?
2. Did the statistics in the “College Students Love Their Video” article surprise you or seem accurate? Why?
3. Why did you choose the video you put in your blog?
4. Where else do you search for video?
5. What makes YouTube a Web 2.0 application?

Questions?

• Post any questions in the discussion forum in D2L
• E-mail your professor: Melissa Prescott or Robin Ewing

Learning 2.0 Assignment 9: Wikis

This week you will explore wikis. This assignment is due Monday, November 17.

1. Watch the video, "Wikis in Plain English"
2. Read "Veni, Vidi, Wiki," a Wired article by Ryan Singel
3. Read "7 Things You Should Know About Wikis"
4. Look at Wikipedia and Scholarpedia

Blog prompts (answer these questions in your blog):

1. Compare Wikipedia to Scholarpedia. What are the main similarities? What are the main differenes? Have you used either one before?
2. What do you find interesting about the wiki concept?
3. How do you think you could use a wiki for research and/or projects?

Questions?

• Post any questions in the discussion forum in D2L
• E-mail your professor: Melissa Prescott or Robin Ewing
  

Learning 2.0 Assignment 8: Online Collaboration Tools

For this assignment, you will explore online collaboration tools including Google Docs and Zoho. This assignment is due Monday, November 10.

1. Take the Google Docs tour, and explore some of the posts on the Google Docs blog.
2. Watch the video, “Google Docs in Plain English.”
3. Read the Wikipedia entries on Google Docs and Zoho.
4. Try Google Docs or Zoho.

Blog prompts:

1. Which collaboration tool did you try?
   
2. What is one main advantage of using an online collaboration tool such as Google Docs or Zoho?
3. What is one example of a way people are using online collaboration tools?
4. If you've used Google Docs, Zoho, or similar tool before, for what purpose did you use it and what did you like about it?
5. How do you think you could use these tools for projects (for school, work, or fun)?

Questions:

• Post your questions in the discussion forum in D2L
• E-mail your professor: Melissa Prescott or Robin Ewing

Learning 2.0 Assignment 7: Podcasting

This week we are exploring podcasting. This assignment is due Monday, November 3.

1. Read about podcasts. Bennington, Adam. 2007. Stick it in your ear: Keeping current with podcasts. Online (May/June): 31-32. Read the Wikipedia article on Podcasts. Watch the video Podcasting in Plain English.
   
2. Go to KVSC.org. Using the navigation on the left, find the podcasts by Henry Oertelt, Holocaust survivor. Listen to the introduction and part one. Using the Bennington article as a guide, evaluate the podcast.
   
3. Take a look at one or two of the podcast directories listed below to find a podcast that interests you. Listen to the podcast and link to it in your blog if you would recommend it to others.

• Podcast.com
• Podcastalley.com
• Yahoo Audio Search
• iTunes (if you already have it installed on your computer)

Blog prompts:

1. Share your evaluation of the Oertelt podcast.
2. Which of the podcast directories did you find easiest to use?
3. Are any of your professors at SCSU using podcasting with their lectures?

Questions?

• Post any questions in the discussion forum in D2L
• E-mail your professor: Melissa Prescott or Robin Ewing

Learning 2.0 Assignment 6: Digg, Newsvine, and Reddit

This week we’re exploring ways to keep up with news sources. One way to see what people are interested in is to check out what's popular on social media sites that allow users to nominate and then “vote” for news and other items they find interesting. There are many of these sites—and everyone from mainstream media (for example, The New York Times, slate.com, and the Washington Post) to blogs and Web sites includes links so readers can recommend content from these sites to other readers. This assignment is due Monday, October 27.

First, look for boxes labeled “Share” or “Article Tools” on news sites, blogs, and Web pages to find links for sharing the article. Here are some examples:

1. Read about Digg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digg iki/Digg), Reddit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddit), and Newsvine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsvine).
2. Take the Digg tour (http://digg.com/tour/). “Digg is a place for people to discover and share content across the web, from the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog. Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by our users.”
3. Look at the Reddit intro (http://www.reddit.com/help/). Reddit “is a source for what's new and popular online. Vote on links that you like or dislike and help decide what's popular, or submit your own!”
4. Take the Newsvine tour (http://www.newsvine.com/_cms/welcome). “Updated continuously by citizens like you, Newsvine is an instant reflection of what the world is talking about at any given moment.”
5. Read one or more stories on a news/information site (for example The New York Times, Washington Post, BBC News, Star Tribune, or another site) and then recommend it via the Share tools. You’ll notice that each site offers a different set of sites you can share with. In your blog posting, link to the story that you recommended.

Based on your readings and activities for this assignment, answer the following blog prompts:

1. How do you think you can use these tools in your school work or at home?
2. Do these tools seem to be productivity enhancers or productivity detractors?
3. Have you ever read a story/item as a result of seeing it on one of these sites?How do these sites compare to Del.icio.us?
4. Remember to provide a link to the story that you recommended.

Questions?

• Post any questions in the discussion forum in D2L
• E-mail your professor: Melissa Prescott or Robin Ewing

Learning 2.0 Assignment 5: Flickr

This week we’re exploring Flickr more thoroughly. In this assignment, you are asked to take a good look at Flickr and discover what this site has to offer. Find out how tags work, what groups are, and all the neat things that people are creating thanks to Flickr. This assignment is due on Monday, October 20.

1. Watch the Common Craft video “Online Photo Sharing in Plain English” (review for most of you). Read “7 things you should know about Flickr” and "Evaluating Web Content: Social Bookmarks".
   
2. Take the Flickr tour. You can explore Flickr photos, search the tags, view various groups, and more.
   
3. Log in to the class account on Flickr. Go to the Discussions section of D2L to get the username and password for your class’s Flickr account.
4. Look at the tags that your class did for the photos of the library. Now that you’ve explored Del.icio.us and social bookmarking, think about how you would improve the tags. Identify one photo from the class (you don’t have to use one that your group took) for which you would change the tags.
5. Upload that photo from Flickr to your blog.

• Blogger directions for uploading a photo. This feature lets you add photos from your computer or from the Web and choose the placement (layout) in the blog post.

1. First, within Flickr, right-click on the photo you want to insert into your blog. Then, click “Save Picture As…” and save the file to your desktop or file space.
2. Second, within Blogger, click the little photo icon in the toolbar on the New Post page, in the row of tools above the post box. Follow the instructions to “Add an image from your computer.”
3. Assign new "improved" tags to the photo.

• Advanced feature (you do not need to do this): Flickr’s blogging tool lets you click the “Blog This” button (right above the picture) and add any public photo on Flickr to your blog automatically. If you wish to use Flickr in conjunction with your own blog in the future, you might consider using this feature.

Based on your readings, viewings and activities for this assignment, answer the following blog prompts:

1. In your blog posting, indicate what tags were assigned to the photo originally, what tags you’d recommend instead, and why.
   
2. Do you use Flickr or another photo hosting service? Which one? How does it compare to Flickr?
3. Do you upload images to your Facebook account? How does Flickr compare?
4. How do you feel about having your photos public (note that you can mark your Flickr photos private, too)--any concerns?

Questions?

• Post any questions in the discussion forum in D2L
• E-mail your professor: Melissa Prescott or Robin Ewing
  

Learning 2.0 Assignment 4: Social Bookmarking

This week we’re focusing on Social Bookmarking. This assignment is due on Monday, October 13.

1. Watch the Social Bookmarking in Plain English video. Read “The Brave New World of Social Bookmarking: Everything You Always Wanted to Know But Were Too Afraid to Ask” and “7 Things You Should Know About Social Bookmarking."
2. Do some tagging in your own blog. You can tag (Blogger calls them labels) your earlier Blogger posts with keywords or phrases. From the Dashboard, go to Manage Posts and choose the post you want to add tags to. Enter the words in the Labels for this post box in the lower right. Type in your tags (commas in between each word or phrase). Click Publish Post to re-publish the post with its labels (tags) to your blog.
3. Create a Del.icio.us account for yourself and discover how this useful bookmarking tool can replace your traditional browser bookmark list. Add a few websites and add your own tags to each of your links.
4. If you like Del.icio.us and want to easily add bookmarks to your account, you can put buttons on your browser toolbar. Instructions are available for Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Assignment 4 post prompts (answer these questions in your own blog):

1. Can you see the potential of this tool for your own research? Or just as an easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere?
2. How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your school or personal life?
3. What are some potential benefits of the social (sharing) aspect of social bookmarking?

For more information, view this 8 minute Del.icio.us tutorial to get a good overview of its features.

Questions?

• Post any questions in the discussion forum in D2L.
• E-mail your professor: Melissa Prescott or Robin Ewing