Update for staff meeting

Here is an audio update from Julia to be played at the Staff Meeting on 12/17/08. It explains the changes in my job at the start of 2009. Enjoy!

A Little Lost in the Land of Ning

Well, this week was a challenge for my attention span. I'm realizing that the more I learn about Web 2.0 tools, the more I realize that my learned method of processing information is very different than those of students today. I'm realizing that people--young and old--are engaging in dialogue in a very different way than what I am used to.

In exploring a variety of social networks this week, I found myself a bit lost in the maze of nings, blogs, and wikis. The more I clicked, the more I navigated away from my starting point, and the more I realized just how much information is out there. To be honest, I kind of had to take a breather and just soak it all in. I wasn't quite able to post anything yet.

Part of the reason is because many of the nings I checked out were not very active. I was a bit discouraged when the last posts were October or early November. I kept waiting to find a social network where people were actively talking about global education and posting regulary. Instead, I found lots of "small" nings (with fewer members) and limited dialogue. Did anyone have any luck finding a really active site? Even the GEC was a bit puny in terms of quantity of dialogue.

One idea I did have is thinking about how we could create a ning as part of a course. I saw several nings that were by invitation only, so I thought this could be a possibility for one of our courses that has an online component (like Global Understanding, for example). We could create "groups" that helps subdivide participants. Then they can post discussions within those groups--I think. I still have some exploring to do, but I like the idea and want to learn more.

Are you free?

I have enjoyed learning Google Calendar for a few months now, as I have been using it as my new calendar from San Antonio. I love it because you can add other people's calendars and with the click of a button, see if they are free or not. It's a great way to know when to reach people or schedule meetings with them. The only setback I have seen is that Google Calendar cannot deal with multiple time zones. For our purposes at PS, there is no real problem with that. Almost everyone is on EST. For me, I need to list my tasks an hour earlier if I have a meeting with any of you--a small price to pay for the ease of a shared calendar system that is web-based and user-friendly.

Google Docs is slightly newer for me. I am working with Google Docs in my work with EDC around the online course. We are developing the course materials together using this system. It's not the first thing I think of when I want to edit a document, but I know it's much easier than sending documents back and forth, wondering if it is the latest version. I'm excited to see how we could use it more often.

Program Wikis

I've thought quite a bit about how we might use wikis in our programs. One idea was to have a course wiki that was used as a place for teachers to network and share resources throughout a program. Teachers could add links, share books, comment on course content, etc. We could either use it as a replacement for a discussion forum with Google Groups, since wikis have a discussion board, or we could have it as a shared activity throughout a program. Perhaps we require teachers to add content a certain number of times throughout the course of the program. Maybe there is a way we could encourage teachers to respond to each other and give feedback. It could also provide a space where teachers could evaluate elements of a program. I'd be curious to talk to others about how we might use this.

In the not to distant future, I hope to create a wiki for use in the online course on Ancient China. It could be a nice web-based way for teachers to create a collaborative product or resource. What do you think?

Mmmm...Delicious!

I had the pleasure of checking out both Technorati and Delicious. I must say that Delicious has transformed the way I think about bookmarks. I bookmark things all day long and now have a ridiculously long list of folders and subfolders. I am now finally used to it and know where to go to find the websites I want. But I am sold on Delicious. There are often times when people will ask me for resources or websites. I usually have to export my bookmarks and then send them to the person, who then has to import them. I love this idea of having them online and being able to share them with others.

I just started transferring over my bookmarks and have only done a small percentage. But feel free to browse my bookmarks. If you go to the delicious website, click on the "people" tab at the top of the page. Then click on "go to a user". My username is "delatorrejulia"--you can then view the bookmarks I have so far. Enjoy! I will continue to add as I go along. I hope others on staff will also use this tool. I'm excited about the idea of creating a network through our bookmarks and resources.

I love Peanut Butter--pbwiki, that is

Hi everyone! I discovered a great tool called pbwiki. This site allows you to set up a wiki in less than 60 seconds and it is FREE! To be honest, I haven't been all that comfortable with wikis, since I didn't really know what they could do. I've heard people talk about them, I sort of get what they are, but until I visited this site, I was living a bit in the dark.

pbwiki is a tool that lets you set up a wiki for business, school, or personal reasons. They have a great demo video that is done by a teacher. She shows you how she uses her wiki to organize her class, upload files for students, allow certain students to access certain folders (depending on what class they are in), and invite others to participate.

Wikis seem like a great way to upload files and share them with other people in a web-based setting. I am particularly excited about this so that I can share powerpoints or other large files that are too annoying to email to people.

I set up my own wiki, but I'm not quite sure how I will use it. As I explore what wikis can do, I hope to change the focus of it, so that it can be more useful. I think you can even use it as a personal web space for organizing and saving files, etc, so you don't always need to run around with a CD or thumb drive. It also seems like a nice collaborative space where you can invite others to post comments or share files.

I am particularly interested in this because I am considering having teachers in our first online China course develop a course wiki together as one of our course assignments. I thought it could be a great way for teachers all over the map to upload files, share ideas, and post comments. I'll let you know what comes of this brainstorm, but pbwiki seems like a great way to go.

The Power of Girls

Someone just emailed me this video that shows the large-scale impact that educating a girl can have on the development of a country. I think I may use it in some way in next year's global understanding summer institute. In the meantime, I thought you all would enjoy it.