Jane's Pick of the Day

March 2010 Review

As March draws to a close here is a roundup of the articles and tools added to the main Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies (C4LPT) site in March.

Articles/postings added to the Reading lists

Looking at the list of 25 articles that I added in March, it wasn't difficult to spot the overwhelming theme this month; they are mainly about Facebook.  Feeding the titles into Wordle, of course showed this even better in the text cloud it produced (click on image for larger version).

The reason for this may have been mainly due to the fact that I was working on (a) a Facebook project for a client, and (b) revising my own How to use Facebook in Social Learning guide, but I also tend to agree with Steve Rubel who in an article, Facebook will rule the web during the next decade, (login required), in Advertising Age, states:

"If the 2000s was the Google decade, then the 2010s will be the Facebook decade."

However, my favourite 3 articles this month aren't actually Facebook-related, they are more general:

• Envisioning the post-LMS era: The Open Learning Network, Jonathan Mott, Educause Quarterly, Vol 3, No 1, 2010
• Why social media policies don't work, Mathew Ingram, GigaOm, 12 March 2010
• Learning 2.0: The impact of social media on learning in Europe, (PDF) JRC European Commission, 2010

Tools added to the Directory of Learning Tools

Now that the Directory contains over 2,000 tools in 12 different categories, I am becoming stricter about new ones that I am adding.  In fact in March I only added 16 tools.  A number of these I have already posted about, but my 3 favourite tools this month are:

• TypePadWith.Me - Open source Etherpad frozen in time - Free, Hosted
• Skysa Toolbar - Widget to add toolbar to a web page and include RSS, twitter, facebook and other links - Free, Add code
• Pakrati.us - A bookmarking service for Twitter that uses Delicious - Free, Hosted

Of course, I am always interested in new tools, so do let me know of any you think should be added to the Directory.

Some changes at the site

Finally, if you do visit the C4LPT site, then you may notice some changes I am making, in order to structure and aggregate  the resources in a more efficient way.   I'll post more about this once it is complete.  

LinkedIn for Blackberry

If you have a Blackberry and you use LinkedIn, then this is for you.  Supported devices are Tour, Bold and Curve

LinkedIn for Blackberry

More information at the LinkedIn blog

Twitter for Facebook pages

Readers of this blog will know that I have been re-organising my Twitter, Facebook and Google Buzz activities. 

Part of this re-organisation involved setting up a FB fan page for the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies, which in the few short weeks it has been live now has over 1,000 fans.  (Thanks to all those who have signed up.)

There has been discussion in many quarters about whether to synch accounts with one another, ie whether you should send your Twitter feed to Facebook or vice versa.  I did initially do this but ended up putting everything into a continuous loop (!), so I soon unsynched networks.  It has also become clear from (online) conversations with individuals that many want discussions in the different networks to be maintained quite separately; Facebook fans/friends are often not interested in your tweets.

However, today I came across a new Facebook app from Involver that lets you put  your Twitter stream on a separate tab on a Facebook page - for those who WOULD like to follow what you are tweeting about,  within Facebook.  This seems to be a good compromise, so I have set it up on my page.  Let me know what you think.

And, if you'd like to do the same yourself, here is a useful guide to setting it up from Lynn&Justin.net: A Twitter tab for your Facebook fan page in 7 easy steps

FlightRadar24 - watch air traffic live in Europe!

If you're in Europe and are interested in what's happening in the airspace, take a look at Flightradar24.com

It  shows live aircraft traffic in the airspace above Europe. Aircraft equipped with an ADS-B transponder are visible on the map.

You can adjust the size of the planes, and also zoom in to find which planes are overhead!. 

Here's a snapshot of what was happening over Heathrow airport (London) as I wrote this posting

There's also more information about the planes and you can chat with others about the radar, too!  Might be useful for budding air traffic controllers!!

FlightRadar24

Ada Lovelace Day : Mary Somerville

Today is Ada Lovelace Day.

Who was Ada Lovelace?

Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) was one of the world’s first computer programmers, and one of the first people to see computers as more than just a machine for doing sums. She wrote programmes for Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, a general-purpose computing machine, despite the fact that it was never built. She also wrote the very first description of a computer and of software.

What is Ada Lovelace Day?

It is an international day of blogging to celebrate the achievements of women in technology and science.  My blogging tribute today goes to Mary Somerville.

Who was Mary Somerville?

Mary Fairfax Somerville was born in 1780 in Scotland.  She was a  science writer and polymath and, as Wikipedia puts it, was working "at a time when women's participation in science was discouraged". 

Here is a summary of her life and work using quotes from the Wikipedia entry:

"She studied mathematics and astronomy, and was the second woman scientist to receive recognition in the United Kingdom after Caroline Herschel.

Having been requested by Lord Brougham to translate for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge the Mécanique Céleste of Laplace, she greatly popularized its form, and its publication in 1831, under the title of The Mechanism of the Heavens, at once made her famous.

Her other works are the On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences (1834), Physical Geography (1848), and Molecular and Microscopic Science (1869). In 1835, she and Caroline Herschel became the first women members of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Much of the popularity of her writings was due to her clear and crisp style and the underlying enthusiasm for her subject which pervaded them.

She also invented the commonly used variables from algebraic maths.

Mary Somerville died in 1872 (in Naples in Italy) at the grand old age of 91, unlike poor Ada who died at 36. 

She was an intriguing and inspiring lady; and Somerville College at Oxford University was named after her. As it turns out I have also been surprised to find out that there are some personal connections too!

The socially networked classroom

I received my copy of this book by William Kist a few days ago.  It is intended as an "accessible guide for Grades 5–12, teachers of all levels of technological expertise can help students develop the new literacies necessary to succeed in a digital world."

The backcover blurb is as follows:

Web sites like Facebook and Twitter have transformed the way young people interact and communicate. With appropriate guidelines, students’ social networking skills can be harnessed to develop new literacies and deepen teaching and learning in the 21st century.

The Socially Networked Classroom  demonstrates how pioneering teachers have successfully integrated screen-based literacies into their instruction. This book includes:

• Real-world activities and lesson examples with assignment sheets, assessments, and rubrics
• Ideas on fostering collaborative learning using blogs, wikis, nings, and other interactive media.
• Tips on Internet safety, blogging etiquette, protected blogging sites, and more
• Blog entries from classroom teachers

With this accessible guide for Grades 5–12, teachers of all levels of technological expertise can help students develop the new literacies necessary to succeed in a digital world.

This book is informative, practical - with almost recipe-like ideas - as well as reflective - providing "questions to consider" -  and consequently covers a lot of ground. 

Click the image above, to take a look inside.

You can get a copy at Amazon.  Here are direct links to Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk

Smokescreen - a game about life online

In 2009, Six to Start was commissioned by Channel 4 Education to help teens aged 14-16 understand the risks (and benefits) of being online – from defending themselves against phishing to avoiding online stalkers.  Smokescreen is the result.

Smokescreen is a game about life online. Users explore websites, search for clues, receive phone calls, chat on IM, and tackle puzzles and minigames. On Smokescreen, the question is: who can you trust?

At its heart, Smokescreen simulates the internet. In the game, players use ‘Fakebook’, ‘Gaggle’, ‘Tweetr’, ‘MSG messenger’ and other sites to help a group of friends who’ve set up an exclusive new teen-only social networking site called White Smoke. Players also receive simulated phone calls and text messages from the in-game characters; we wanted our players to believe that the fictional world they were in could actually be real – and so could the risks and threats it contained.

How does the game work?

Smokescreen takes place over 13 missions, each lasting 10-20 minutes, following the story of Max Winston and Cal Godfrey, two mates who’ve set up an exclusive social network called White Smoke. After Cal’s involved in a car accident and falls into a coma, White Smoke becomes huge – and starts attracting huge problems. Each mission sees you explore the world of White Smoke, and find out who you can trust – and who you can’t.

You can view the trailer below

Smokescreen Gameplay Trailer from Six to Start on Vimeo.

Smokescreen has just won the best game award at the US conference South by Southwest.

You can access the game here Smokescreen - and read more about it at the Six to Start website.

[via Guardian]

AwayFind - the painless escape from email!

AwayFind is a powerful web application that finds your most important emails. When you receive an urgent message, AwayFind will notify you with a call, SMS, IM, DM (Twitter), or delegate the message to someone you specify.

Take a look at the video ...

AwayFind

How to use Twitter for Social Learning

If you'd like to find out more about this Guide, take a look at my posting on Social Media in Learning

Building a social learning environment

At 11.30 am today I am speaking at the NAACE conference in Blackpool.  My presentation is on  building a social learning environment.  I've written quite a lot about this subject on my website, but here I am going to approach it slightly differently and focus on is how you can create an open, learner-autonomy-supportive social environment using 4 different platforms: Twitter, Facebook, Ning & Elgg.

Below is the presentations slideset.  I will also be auto-tweeting at the conference (using another of my accounts @140academy - no need to follow), so just watch the tweets with my presentation hashtag #jhnaace.  Feel free to join in and contribute.

Building a social learning environment

View more presentations from Jane Hart.