Web 2.0 Toolkit - Recently Updated Pages

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rrodrigo — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:21:22 CST

This wiki site is continually added to in support of various Web 2.0 workshops offered at a variety of conferences.

Teaching in the Wild Wild Web: Web 2.0 Technologies and Student Centered Learning Pre-Conference Workshop at the 2009 Sloan-C International Symposium on Emerging Technology Applications for Online Learning
2009 Conference on College Composition and Communication (conference's general webpage)
2008 Computers & Writing Conference

Refer to the list on the left for discussions of the Web 2.0 technologies from the workshop.

RSS/Atom Aggregators & Feeds

rrodrigo — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:52:25 CDT

RSS (Really Simple Syndication or Ready for Some Stories) is a Web content syndication format that allows users to receive updates of frequently modified content from various sites, such as news sites and blogs.

Using RSS feeds, people can track updated content from a variety of sites in a central location. To access the syndicated content, users commonly employ a reader or agrregator which collects and displays the feeds to which they subscribe. RSS feeds can also be archived by browsers, such as IE 7.

Common Features:

search/add for feeds from within the aggregator
manually add feeds
organize/group feeds
take notes/annotated postings
push specific entries out into another feed

Aggregator Tools: Google Reader (http://www.google.com/reader/) —web based agregator Bloglines.com (http://www.bloglines.com)--web based Newsgator (http://www.newsgator.com/)—web based aggregator Gritwire (http://my.gritwire.com/)—web based aggregator with social elements. SharpReader (http://www.sharpreader.net/)—downloaded desktop based aggregator Snackr (http://www.snackr.net/)--download desktop based "ticker" aggregator Feedburner (http://feedburner.com) - burn your feed to create email subscriptions or republish the feed as HTML. To keep track of their feeds and display them, users can also build their news aggregator into a portal, such as iGoogle (http://www.google.com/ig), Netvibes (http://www.netvibes.com/), or Pageflakes (http://www.pageflakes.com/) Blog-o-Sphere Search Tools: Google blog search (http://blogsearch.google.com/) Technorati (http://www.technorati.com/) Blogarama (http://www.blogarama.com/) Blogdigger.com (http://www.blogdigger.com)

Aggregator Tools:

Google Reader (http://www.google.com/reader/) —web based agregator
Bloglines.com (http://www.bloglines.com)--web based
Newsgator (http://www.newsgator.com/)—web based aggregator
Gritwire (http://my.gritwire.com/)—web based aggregator with social elements.
SharpReader (http://www.sharpreader.net/)—downloaded desktop based aggregator
Snackr (http://www.snackr.net/)--download desktop based "ticker" aggregator
Feedburner (http://feedburner.com) - burn your feed to create email subscriptions or republish the feed as HTML.

To keep track of their feeds and display them, users can also build their news aggregator into a portal, such as

Blog-o-Sphere Search Tools:

Google blog search (http://blogsearch.google.com/)
Technorati (http://www.technorati.com/)
Blogarama (http://www.blogarama.com/)
Blogdigger.com (http://www.blogdigger.com)

Resources: RSS in Plain English, YouTube: v=0klgLsSxGsU Needing a Gentle Intro to RSS Feeds (http://webworkerdaily.com/2008/05/06/needing-a-gentle-intro-to-rss-feeds/) RSS: The Next Killer App For Education (http://www.technologysource.org/article/rss/) Countdown to RSS: The Gateway Technology (http://idea.zanestate.edu/rss/) RSS: A Quick Start Guide for Educators (http://weblogg-ed.com/, click the "RSS Guide" tab) The Media Drop: Newspapers with RSS (http://www.themediadrop.com/archives/001588.php#more) Copyright, RSS, and Common Sense (http://www.rss4lib.com/2007/09/of_the_many_interesting_cans.html) Embed RSS on Any Webpage w/Java Script (http://feed2js.org/) The Ultimate RSS Toolbox (http://mashable.com/2007/06/11/rss-toolbox/) RSS and Education (http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-and-education.htm) RSS in Education (http://www.slideshare.net/leonardstern/rss-in-education)	Although this video is titled "what is podcasting?" it is really describing RSS.

Resources:

RSS in Plain English, YouTube: v=0klgLsSxGsU
Needing a Gentle Intro to RSS Feeds (http://webworkerdaily.com/2008/05/06/needing-a-gentle-intro-to-rss-feeds/)
RSS: The Next Killer App For Education (http://www.technologysource.org/article/rss/)
Countdown to RSS: The Gateway Technology (http://idea.zanestate.edu/rss/)
RSS: A Quick Start Guide for Educators (http://weblogg-ed.com/, click the "RSS Guide" tab)
The Media Drop: Newspapers with RSS (http://www.themediadrop.com/archives/001588.php#more)
Copyright, RSS, and Common Sense (http://www.rss4lib.com/2007/09/of_the_many_interesting_cans.html)
Embed RSS on Any Webpage w/Java Script (http://feed2js.org/)
The Ultimate RSS Toolbox (http://mashable.com/2007/06/11/rss-toolbox/)
RSS and Education (http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-and-education.htm)
RSS in Education (http://www.slideshare.net/leonardstern/rss-in-education)

Although this video is titled "what is podcasting?" it is really describing RSS.

*How might you use RSS Feeds & Aggregators in Scholarship?* Follow what other scholars are doing Syndicate updates on your own research processes *How might you use RSS Feeds & Aggregators in Teaching?* Provide updated content to students Use an aggregator to organize all your students’ blogs and keep track of students' new posts Have students follow a specific line of information (another scholar’s blog, Google search as RSS feed, writing resources, etc.) Facilitategroup/class collection of sources about specific topics or common readings from particular sites/blogs Teach students to create their own feeds in advanced classes (try FeedJournal or Tabbloid to make a "newspaper" out of RSS feeds) *How might your students* use RSS Feeds & Aggregators in their lives?** Keep track of updates to blogs, news sources, and other electronic resources importantant to their work, hobbies, or lives Enhance their portal sites with important content and share that content with friends and family Maintain connections with organizations or causes about which they are passionate or interested

How might you use RSS Feeds & Aggregators in Scholarship?

Follow what other scholars are doing
Syndicate updates on your own research processes

How might you use RSS Feeds & Aggregators in Teaching?

Provide updated content to students
Use an aggregator to organize all your students’ blogs and keep track of students' new posts
Have students follow a specific line of information (another scholar’s blog, Google search as RSS feed, writing resources, etc.)
Facilitategroup/class collection of sources about specific topics or common readings from particular sites/blogs
Teach students to create their own feeds in advanced classes (try FeedJournal or Tabbloid to make a "newspaper" out of RSS feeds)

How might your students use RSS Feeds & Aggregators in their lives?

Keep track of updates to blogs, news sources, and other electronic resources importantant to their work, hobbies, or lives
Enhance their portal sites with important content and share that content with friends and family
Maintain connections with organizations or causes about which they are passionate or interested

Timelines

rrodrigo — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:42:53 CDT

Better than a Term Paper: Using Timelines for Course Projects

xTimeline (http://xtimeline.com/)

Robust: http://www.xtimeline.com/timeline/Starbucks-History
MultiModal: http://www.xtimeline.com/timeline/test-timeline-for-eng101

images
audio
video
embed code

Assignment Prompts & Rubrics

RubiStar

FERPA and other legal issues

Copyright
FERPA

Timeline Tools

xTimeline (http://xtimeline.com/)
Capzles (http://capzles.com/)

less emphasis on dates: http://www.capzles.com/33f7748d-d035-4f75-83b0-39ef55262146

All of Me (http://www.allofme.com/)
Smile Widgets Timeline (http://www.simile-widgets.org/timeline/)
TimeGlider (http://timeglider.com/)
Dandelife (http://dandelife.com)
OurStory (http://www.ourstory.com)
TimeRime (http://www.timerime.com/)
Dipity (http://www.dipity.com/)
Timetoast (http://www.timetoast.com/)

xTimeline Help Resources

How might you use Timelines in Scholarship?

display your data/argument in a chronological manner

How might you use Timelines in Teaching?

have students create an educational portfolio
have students make reflective projects (autobiographies, etc.)
have students create a time line of their technological, literacy, or pedagogical evolution
Alternative to PP presentations (w/built in formative assessment activities)
Course schedule portions of syllabi
Presentation of content

How might your students use Timelines in their lives?

document a vacation or other event
biographical time line of a pregnancy or early years of a child

Be Good, use images with Creative Commons permissions:

Sample Syllabus Language (need "signed" response)
We will be using a web-based timeline application (xTimelines) for academic use in ENG101, First Year Composition, section #####, Fall 2009. By default, the timeline is open to the public for the purpose of sharing your work with the larger Internet community; specifically, using the timeline application will:

provide an opportunity to present information in a variety of modalities,
allow students to conceptualize their projects in a chronological manner,
provide an opportunity to collaborate on large scale projects, and
engage a larger audience who may provide feedback on the project.

To use the timeline application responsibly please observe all laws, MCC, and MCCCD policy that are incorporated into the Codes of Conduct and Academic Integrity. Some specific aspects of law and policy that might be well to remember are prohibitions against copyright infringement, plagiarism, harassment or interferences with the underlying technical code of the software. Some resources to remind yourself about MCC and MCCCD policies as well as laws about copyright and fairuse:

As a student using the timeline application certain rights accrue to you. Any original work that you make tangible belongs to you as a matter of copyright law. You also have a right to the privacy of your educational records as a matter of federal law and may choose to set your timeline privacy settings to private and only share with the instructor and your classmates. Your construction of a timeline constitutes an educational record. By constructing a timeline, and not taking other options available to you in this course equivalent to this assignment that would not be posted publicly on the Internet, you consent to the collaborative use of this material as well as to the disclosure of it in this course and potentially for the use of future courses.

Multi-Modal Composition Technologies

rrodrigo — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 09:54:36 CDT

Many of the technologies listed in the left hand navigation bar can be used to develop multi-modal compositions:

Blog entries allow individuals to easily embed pictures and video and usually allow individuals to drop in other HTML or Java code if desired.
Wikis are basic websites and allow you to embed just about anything (images, audio, video, etc.)
Profile pages on Social Networks usually allow users to easily embed anything.
Digital documents found within Document Sharing technologies generally allow users to embed materials.

However, there are specialized Web 2.0 tools that allow for mutli-modal compositions as well, such as:

And to support research processes, consider using Social Bookmarking.

And if you really want some ideas, check out these 50 plus ways to tell a Web 2.0 story!

MicroBlogs

rrodrigo — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:09:31 CDT

Micro/Multi-Modal/Mobile Blogs facilitate smaller bursts of information in multiple modalities and most of them can be posted from mobile devices.

Tools:

Twitter (www.twitter.com)
Tumblr (http://www.tumblr.com/)
Utterz (http://www.utterz.com/)
Posterous (http://posterous.com/)
Drop.io (http://drop.io/)
- Example Course Site
GroupTweet (http://grouptweet.com/)--way to have "private" group blogs (may be a way to address FERPA issues)

How might you use microblogging in Scholarship?

"Follow" people in your field
Mutually "Follow" colleagues and tweet about daily events relevant to your field

How might you use microblogging in Teaching & Learning?

Have students "Follow" you and tweet/post course-related information as well as announcements
Have students create accounts and tweet about relevant course information using keywords with hashtags -- this can be incorporated into Blackboard course announcements/content OR into a course blog or wiki. (see handout for instructions on how to bring a Twitter feed into Blackboard)

How might students use microblogging in their own lives?

Keep in contact with friends and family -- stay up-to-date on personal relationships
"Follow" people that are of interest to them

Resources

Document Sharing

rrodrigo — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:26:43 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Wikis

rrodrigo — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:51:57 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Blogs

rrodrigo — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:17:25 CDT

WeB logs (online journals) may be syndicated through an RSS feed and many can also receive comments from readers. More advanced blog programs, content management systems, can construct entire websites.

Common Features:

WYSIWYG Editing and Posting
Tagging & Categories
Date Organized (newest post first, with custom organiation options)
Pass Word Protection Option
Multi-Media Embedding
Replies/Comments and Moderation
Page Customization

Tools:

Blogger (http://www.blogger.com/start)
Uniblogs (http://uniblogs.org/)—an instance of WordPress blogging software
LiveJournal (http://www.livejournal.com/)
WordPress (http://wordpress.org/)--an open source, very robust, blogging software
Drupal (http://drupal.org/)—content management system
Expression Engine (http://www.pmachine.com/ee/)—content management system
Word Press (http://wordpress.org/)—open source content management system
Cover It Live (http://www.coveritlive.com/index.php)--live blogging tool

Resources:

How might you use Blogs in Scholarship?

Publish “in-process” entries about your research and/or teaching.
Get feedback from others interested in your topic as a form of peer “review”.

How might you use Blogs in Teaching?

Have students keep an electronic version of the regular course journal.
Require students to read and respond to one anothers’ blogs.
Have students post reflections about events and activities.
Use as a Learning Management System and/or Content Delivery System

How might your students use Blogs in their lives?

Publish “in-process” projects (academic, civic, professional and/or personal).
Have an ongoing family or group newsletter (multiple authors).

Teaching in the Wild Wild Web

rrodrigo — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:52:15 CDT

Teaching in the Wild Wild Web: Web 2.0 Technologies and Student Centered Learning

Pre-Conference Workshop at the 2009 Sloan-C International Symposium on Emerging Technology Applications for Online Learning (To get back to this page, just remember: http://tinyurl.com/WildWildWebSloanC)

PRESENTERS:

Rochelle (Shelley) Rodrigo, Mesa Community College (shelley.rodrigo<at>gmail.com) @rrodrigo
Alisa Cooper, South Mountain Community College (dr.coop<at>yahoo.com) @soul4real

DESCRIPTION:
This three hour workshop on Web 2.0 technologies will offer information and engage participants in dialogue and hands-on activities intended to introduce and familiarize workshop participants with

The goals of the event are to make participants comfortable with, and knowledgeable about, a variety of interactive Web 2.0 technologies:

Introducing participants to the definitions and key elements of web 2.0 technologies.
Engaging in discussion about how and why these various technologies can better facilitate teaching and learning.
Offering the knowledge and experience of faculty who have designed, developed and incorporated different types of web 2.0 technologies into their classes, or work processes.
Encouraging participants to critically select, review, and possibly adopt emerging technologies to incorporate into their classes, or work processes.
Having participants set up a variety of different web 2.0 accounts and work through various activities that begin to familiarize them with the technologies.

This workshop specifically targets faculty, instructional designers, and instructional technologists relatively new to the world of web 2.0 technologies; however, as with many of these types of workshops, advanced web 2.0 users would probably learn another trick or two while also enriching the dialogue with their own experiences.

For a better learning experience, please bring your own laptops so that you might set up accounts and play with the various technologies we'll be exploring.

Personal Portals

rrodrigo — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:08:51 CDT

Personal portals allow individuals to construct an internet browser homepage (default page) with tools and links that are relevant and regularly used. Most are private pages for the individual logging on, Pageflakes and Netvibes have “public” options that allow individuals to share their portal pages.

Common Features:

variety of widgets/flakes/nodes to imbed on the page
ability to make more than one page
ability to share with other users
ability to make public

Tools:

Google Homepage (http://www.google.com/ig)
MyYahoo (http://my.yahoo.com/)
Pageflakes (http://www.pageflakes.com/)
Netvibes (http://www.netvibes.com/)

Resources

How might you use Personal Portals in Scholarship?

Construct specific portal pages for individual projects to keep track of your work, internet resources, etc.
Use portals to share online references for public presentations.
Use portals as starting points for presentations with a lot of online content.

How might you use Personal Portals in Teaching?

Construct specific portal pages for course resource (consider making public for students to access as well)

Sample Course Portal Page (w/blank hole for embedded Google Calendar)

Have student construct so that they connect all the online resources for one course in one area

How might your students use Personal Portals in their lives?

More readily keeping tabs (and links) available for internet use
Have access to the same internet “homepage” on public computers

Wikis for Pedagogy

professorcooper — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:17:22 CDT

Wikis are websites that allow for collaboration between multiple authors to create content. Wikis can be public or private depending upon how they are set up. Wikis allow for linking and embedding of images, videos, and sound files. Wikis are often searchable.This makes them potentially complex, nested, multimodal documents. Wikis are useful collaboration tools that often have the following additional capabilities: Tracking changes/versions References Peer editing functionality Chat Message threads/discussion And more Common Features: WYSIWYG Editing and Posting Tagging Tracking changes/versions Chat Message threads/discussions

Wikis are websites that allow for collaboration between multiple authors to create content. Wikis can be public or private depending upon how they are set up. Wikis allow for linking and embedding of images, videos, and sound files. Wikis are often searchable.This makes them potentially complex, nested, multimodal documents.

Wikis are useful collaboration tools that often have the following additional capabilities:

Tracking changes/versions
References
Peer editing functionality
Chat
Message threads/discussion
And more

Common Features:

WYSIWYG Editing and Posting
Tagging
Tracking changes/versions
Chat
Message threads/discussions

Tools

Wiki matrix (for wiki selection information go to: http://www.wikimatrix.org)

Wikisoftware (requires a server and often wiki markup language knowledge, which is similar to html, but slightly different. Can be more robust than many of the wysiwyg wikis)

Mediawiki
phpWiki

Free wysiwyg wikis (for a comparison go to: http://www.wikimatrix.org/compare/PBwiki+Wetpaint+Zoho-Wiki)

PBwiki (includes voice chat)
Wetpaint (has educational access ad-free if you request it. includes IM chat in the widgets)
Zohowiki (more limited than PBwiki and Wetpaint but it is part of a suite of free online document sharing applications)

How might you use wikis in your scholarship?

Collaborative writing
Bank of resources

How might you use wikis in your pedagogy?

Portfolios
Reading responses (example: http://courses.kathiegossett.com/fa07/engl801/index.php?title=Main_Page)
Collaborative resource building for group projects
Textbook (example:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Social_and_Cultural_Foundations_of_American_Education/First_Edition or http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Rhetoric_and_Composition)
The Trivium Wiki: an anthology of readings about new media (grammar) and a handbook for producing new media (rhetoric), as well as a discussion/analysis of the relationship between classical rhetoric and new media (dialectic).

Workshop examples of pedagogical uses

How might students use wikis in their lives?

Specialized topical wikis
Workplace wikis

Social Bookmarking

devoncadams — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 23:15:03 CDT

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking allows individuals to share their bookmarks (including annotations) with one another and also allows the user to access resources from any connection to the web. The “social” element also allows users to make “those who bookmarked this site also bookmarked” connections.

Common Bookmarking Features: browser bookmarklets and toolbars, tagging, annotating, import/export
Common "Social" Features: visible with public vs. private options, network with "friends," subscriptions to follow specific tags, individually pushing and receiving links, and just the general "who bookmarked this also bookmarked" ability.

Del.icio.us—robust annotation options (annotation window), easy add without a bookmarklet, rss out output for both user and individual tags (see below), cross-tag organization, full toolbar and firefox add-on, widgets on LOTS of sites (Facebook, personal portals/homepages, etc.)
Furl—robust annotation (annotation window), caches pages, no easy way to add pages without a bookmarklet, not as many built in social features. March 2009 update: Furl is not part of Diigo.
Diigo—caches pages, highlight and annotate on individual webpages, really robust annotation options, has groups (could make classes), lists can be made into web-videos (click on "Tools" above for an example), full toolbar, connect to blog, simultaneous bookmarking (plays well with others bookmarking services like delicious), output widget in javascript, slight learning curve in learning all the tools.
Fleck—physically situates annotations on individual webpages, can share via email, connect to blog; very useful if you want to "lecture" from a webpage and set up notes in advance.
ClipMarks—easily clips images, videos, and text; does not capture page title when clipping, it can email and blog clips, clipcasts (see above on the right), facebook friendly, ranks ("pops"), significant learning curve to work in the account, cranky browser tool that does not work well with other bookmarking browser tools.
Stumble Upon—surfing tool, ranking tool, provides rss output
Digg—ranking tool, difficult to input new bookmark, biased ranking based on the types of users; however, check "digg the candidates" as a cool use of the "socialness" of the tool.

Resources:

Social Bookmarking in Plain English, YouTube: v=x66lV7GOcNU
7 things you should know about…Social Bookmarking
Sites to See: Social Bookmarking
Towards a Managed Social Bookmarking Environment in Higher Education
Criteria for Evaluating Social Bookmarking Tools
Getting Started with Delicious
Getting Started with Diigo

How might you use Social Bookmarking in Scholarship?

Track your own sources
Follow bookmarking of other scholars in your field

How might you use Social Bookmarking in Teaching?

Sharing resources with students (can output as an RSS feed)
Sharing tags with colleagues
Tracking students’ research process through what they bookmark (and annotate)

How might your students use Social Bookmarking in their lives?

Track their own resources
Create Annotated Bibliographies for research projects
See what others have collected on a certain topic/theme/issue (follow a chain of research)

Mobile to Web Technologies

rrodrigo — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:53:39 CDT

In this instance I'm talking about technologies that allow communication using mobile devices (usually cellular phones and PDAs).

Mass Text Messaging--if students aren't reading your emails...

TextMarks (http://www.textmarks.com/)--text message listserv. Participants self-subscribe.
TextReminder (http://textreminders.net/)--can schedule reminders to go out to different groups. Partricipants can self-subscribe.

Clickers--why purchase expensive clicker systems?

PollEverywhere (http://www.polleverywhere.com/)--multiple choice and full text response options. Can embed poll and results elsewhere.

Audio Recording--get students to reflect their learning in a different modality.

Gabcast (http://gabcast.com/)--no longer free to call in from a phone. Can leave text comments on each episode.
drop.io (http://drop.io/)--can call in and leave audio files; however, can also upload other types of files from a computer. Can leave text comments on individual posts.

MoBlogging

Utterli (http://www.utterli.com/)--upload text, audio, images, and video and then easily embed elsewhere.
Posterous (http://posterous.com/)--upload text, images, & video.

Maps

rrodrigo — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:16:10 CDT

Tools

Mapwing (http://www.mapwing.com/)
Google My Maps (http://maps.google.com/)
Wayfaring (http://www.wayfaring.com/)

Resources

How might you use Maps in Scholarship?

produce a spatial display of your data/argument
map where you've presented or done other professional development (professional portfolio)

How might you use Maps in Teaching?

have students produce maps as reflective/story telling compositions
have students map the events in a novel they are reading

How might your students use Maps in their lives?

map vacations

Collages

rrodrigo — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 10:14:47 CDT

We get to move beyond the "cut up magazines" assignment and have students work with their own digital images (or other images they found on the web, like images posted in Flickr with a Creative Commons license).

Tools

How might you use Collages in Scholarship?

think/analyze your data/ideas in a visual manner
Assignment Idea: I had students pretend they were applying to a Bachelor's granting institution and they had to submit both an essay and a collage. The assignment specifically asked for the collage along with a cover letter explaining what/how it was doing rhetorically.

How might you use Collages in Teaching?

have students define/argue something visually

How might your students use Collages in their lives?

produce visual reflections of vacations and other events

word wobble

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:31:33 CST

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Ideas for workign with Wikis in the classroom

Fergie3672 — Thu, 22 May 2008 20:05:44 CDT

I am not an instructor, but I can write about some Wiki assignments I have done in my own classwork.

Wikis can be used in classes, comp and non-comp to organize group projects.
Each group is given its own wiki page. The group members can keep a record of who has which role for the group assignment. Group members can have discussions about the project without physically being together, can post their thoughts and receive responses from fellow group members, post parts of the assignment for review, and put the pieces together. Because everything is editable, group members can move things around and see the final product in different ways, discuss what they see and find the best solution. One advantage is that everything is recorded, which cuts down on miscommunication among group members. A member can also go back and reread someone's comments. The group members has also keep an eye on each other to see how everyone is getting along, if anyone is struggling.

In another class we used group wikis to write reports collaboratively. In a group of 4 or more, each member would get a role: 1 outliner, 2 or more writers, 1or more editors. The outliner would post an outline of what s/he thought should be covered in the report. The other 3 would comment, propose changes. Once the outline has been finalized, the writers would either work together or divvy up components of the report and do the actual writing. Again the other members would review and comment, propose changes. Finally the editors would proof the paper, cite sources, if necessary and add any other finishing touches. all members who review one more time, finalize the paper and submit.

In a class that was about getting to know technology, we were introduced to wikis through a group creative writing assignment. Each group member was given a number. Number 1 starts the paper (in our case the topic was to imagine technology in 2050). The student writes a given number of words or pages. Then the paper is passed on to student #2, who adds on his/her part of the story. Student 3 is next and so on. The final student can go through the entire paper and make sure that all the pieces fit together, that continuity was not lost, and make changes as necessary. Again, the group members can review the final pieces and propose revisions until a final draft is agreed upon.

In high school French class we kept journals. We had to write 2pages a day in one column of a steno pad. Every week we would swap stenos with peers or give the journal t the professor for comments. A wiki would be a great space do to this same kind of assignment. Students can blog about assigned topics or use their own and fellow students and instructors can go in and make comments, add to thoughts. Students would have to contribute a certain numberof original submissions and comments per week.

Social Networking Sites

rrodrigo — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:02:50 CDT

Social Networking Sites are web-based applications that allow indivudals to meet new people, reconect with people from their past, and stay connected with people they know. Facebook (facebook.com) and MySpace (myspace.com) are the two most used sites in the US. Some social networking sites are based upon common interests (movies, LGBT, nationality). They are also being used commercially to promote politicians, products, and artists (signed and independant alike). The basic element of social networking is the profile page which allows individuals to decide how they will present themselves to audience. These sites promote communication among "friends"--who may or may not be people you know from face-to-face discourse--and others in a network--a group based upon people with similarities (location, occupation, interests). Communication often ranges from writing to other users, announcing face-to-face events, and playing games.

Tools:
MySpace (myspace.com)
Facebook (facebook.com)
Wikipedia: Social Networking Sites (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites)--Clearinghouse of social networking sites.

Scholarship:

Since social networking sites are emerging genre, one can study the develop of this genre, such as comparing commercial profiles to individual user profiles and how they influence each other.
Since students often use these technologies before they get to their first college level writing courses, one can study the deliberate decisions students are making to compose their subjectivities and what rhetorical strategies can carry over to their academic writing.

Teaching:
This is a suggested assignment.

The Genre of Social Networking

Purpose
Genre is an important feature of the texts we compose; it helps the audience read the text because once they recognize the type of text, the audience will know what to expect this text to contain and what purposes this text should accomplish. If these expectations are not met, then an audience may experience confusion or frustration. On the other hand, a writer who wants to make a certain point may purposely alter the genre because the genre is too constraining to support the writer’s point (thus the short report grew out of the need to produce documents longer than a memo and shorter than a full-length report) or the writer wants to draw attention to the point being made (think Shrek’s play on fairy tales). Therefore, as a writer it is important to understand genre and how to can use it to influence your reader’s response to a text. With this assignment you will examine an emerging genre, social networking sites, and articulate the genre for an audience of your peers as a way to think about how writers use generic expectations to communicate meaning to their audiences.

Research
How current users compose on these social networking sites influences both how audiences are reading (or experiencing) peoples’ profile pages and how new users of these sites are choosing to compose their own sites. For this project you and three other students will look at several profile pages on different social networking sites and determine the patterns that are emerging for this genre. To do this…

Go to a social networking site. Facebook (facebook.com) and MySpace (myspace.com) are the two obvious places to begin. Also go to the clearinghouse of social networking sites on wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites). You may need to click around to find backdoors to individual profiles.
You may choose to register for one or more of these sites. While this will provide more access to more profiles, you can still do this assignment without being a member of one of these sites. You should only register for those sites you may be interested in participating on at a later date.
Each group member will be required to study at least five profiles, preferably from at least two different social networking sites. You may not choose your own profile or a group member’s, and you should study no more than one friend’s profile (The purpose of the assignment is to expand beyond your current knowledge).
Examine the purpose of the site. Is it designed around a specific theme? Or for a specific constituent? Keep this in mind as you examine the specific profiles, this will influence what the people can do when they compose their profiles, as well as the decisions they have made.
Study the profile you have chosen, take notes of the features that appear on this site. As you are trying to determine patterns, ask questions like…

What features appear on every site? (If you have registered to a social network, look at the fields that are required)
What features are optional? Which of these optional features do people tend to use? Assuming that the person in the profile is the person who has posted the profile, what do you notice about who chooses certain features over others?
What decisions are the composers of these profiles making about how they talk about themselves?

Regroup with your other members and share what you have learned. From your twenty examples (minimum), determine the patterns that you see emerging?

Writing
To present your findings, your group will compose a short report and give a slideware presentation to the class. As you compose both of these texts, think about your peers as your audience

For the report…

Start with a paragraph or two that explains the overall major patterns that your group has found. At this point you want to be fairly general about your findings. Then for each of your major findings briefly explain to your audience how they should approach this feature and, using some specific examples from your research, why they should make this decision. The instructor will cover the genre of a short report.
Write 1500-2000 words, so you will have to decide which patterns you think are the most important and which ones to leave out. Also you will have to carefully choose which examples to support your points.

For the presentation…

Develop slides that reflect the report. You do not want to dump the report word-for-word into your slide presentation. Instead you will want to briefly summarize the points that you have made in the report. Again you will have to make decisions about what is important. The instructor will cover the genre of a slideware presentation.
Compose a 15 minute presentation in which each group member has a speaking role.

Evaluation Criteria
The instructor will be looking for evidence of the following…

An understanding of genre and how it applies to social networking profiles
An understanding of your peer audience. Do you write this so that they will understand it? Do you write it so that they will not be frustrated trying to understand what you have written (think grammatical errors)?
An academic persona; this means you should adopt a professional tone and publish a well-edited paper.
An understanding of the composing decisions that you made. Can your group explain the decisions that you all made for the report and the presentation?
Patterns that are well supported by evidence from actual profiles.
Genre expectations that are reliable. Can your audience go to a series of social network profiles and see these patterns?
Texts that comply with the genre of a short report and slideware presentation, respectively.
Collaboration; did each group members contribute equally to the process?

Test

rrodrigo — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:02:20 CDT

One good wiki might be a wiki on making wikis. Of course, there's the chicken's egg: only those who knew how to make a wiki could participate in the making of a wiki about making a wiki.

Ideas for Wiki Use

rrodrigo — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:02:00 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.