Using Wikis in the Classroom

Before you can launch students on a group project involving wikis, you obviously need to explain what wikis are and their basic functionality. Students can get a quick grasp of the basics of wikis by watching this video:



And, a good article from Information Week explains How to Use Wikis for Business. If you have students watch the video and read this article before class, you can get them up to speed on the idea of wikis pretty quickly.

Naturally, the students will need a free wiki site to use for any wiki project you assign. Two of my favorites are wikispaces and pbwiki. They are both very straight forward and easy to use.

Wikis are obviously great for group projects because of their collaborative aspects. Here are a few approaches you could take:

1) Student Study Guide - Have the students create and edit pages that provide a study guide for each chapter (or topic) you cover in class. This requires explaining concepts in their own words which reinforces learning. And this type of wiki can act as a repository of knowledge that next semester's students could update and expand.
2) Wiki moderator - Have a student create and moderate a page (that other students update) for a week. The page should cover one topic from the current course content and aim to provide a comprehensive summary of the topic.
3) Battling Business Units (with apologies to Dilbert) - Have competing groups create wiki pages on the same topic. Then assign one group each week to review all the pages on that topic and combine them into one comprehensive (definitive?) resource.

And if you need some inspiration for projects or additional insight for students, check out the wiki resources below.

42 Ways to Use Wikis
Want to get started but need some inspiration?

Using Wikis with K-12 Students - Works for college students too!

Using Wiki in Education - A wiki book that provides ideas for higher ed uses of wikis. Requires log-in but access is free.

Weblogg-ed Presentation Links - Even more info on wikis.

Download Video From YouTube

Nothing is worse than having a great video from YouTube identified to start a class discussion and then finding out your network connection is down. You can avoid this unpleasant experience by installing a free product called YouTube Downloader from Biennesoft.

This freeware (no cost to use it) enables the downloading of videos from YouTube (and other sites) and saving them to FLV (Flash video) files. Now FLV files are bloody useless since it is difficult to find players to play them back. But fortunately the program allows you to convert the FLV files to more useful formats for display on devices such as iPods, iPhones, PSPs, Cell Phones, and Windows Media Player. You can even just export the sound to an MP3 file.

The software is dead simple to use. Just paste in the URL of the video and click OK to save it as an FLV file.



To covert to another format, browse to where the FLV file was stored and select it. Then choose the appropriate conversion format and click OK to convert. It couldn't be easier!



By downloading the video and converting it into an appropriate format you won't have to worry about losing your Internet connection. This also makes it handy for distributing the file via e-mail or in a course management system.

Web 2.0 Parody Video

Here's an amusing send up of Web 2.0 called Here Comes Another Bubble. It can be used to start a discussion of Web 2.0 in your classroom. WARNING: The darn song might run through your head all day!



Discussion Questions for Students:
1) What is Web 2.0? What are the key attributes of Web 2.0 applications?
2) Which of these Web applications do you use on a regular basis? Social networks (MySpace, Facebook, etc.) wikis (wikispaces, pbwiki, Google Docs), blogs, social bookmarking (digg, del.icio.us). Which sites are most useful to you and why?
3) What types of activities can't you do in the applications you are using now that you would do if the functionality were available? (This usually produces lively discussion as students say, "Hey, you can do this on blahblahblah.com!")

Building How-To Videos - For Free!

One of the best ways to learn a subject or to demonstrate mastery of a topic is to teach it to someone else. So why not assign student projects that require making videos that explain the functionality of Microsoft Office, a Web site or another application software package. And then the students can deploy the videos they create on YouTube and share their knowledge with the entire world. Now that is Web 2.0 learning in action! But since many colleges don't have a tool deployed for the students to use, a free tool for recording on-screen activity is needed.

Fortunately, CamStudio is an open source software package that is based on the widely popular (and expensive) Camtasia Studio product from Techsmith. The software is easy to install and learn to use. They even provide a handy video on downloading CamStudio. The help files in the product will get you familiar with how to use it. The recorder has simple basic functionality similar to older versions of Camtasia Studio.



This is not as fully-functional as the current version of Camtasia Studio, but the basic functionality is similar. For pure ease of use, Camtasia Studio 5 does offer significant advantages, but saving the students $299 is a big bonus for CamStudio. So have the students download CamStudio and get them creating their first videos this week!

Increase Your Blog or Web Site Functionality with Mashups

Web 2.0 is all about functionality and user input. There certainly is plenty of data available on the Web, but sometimes it isn't exactly in the format you desire. This is why mashups were born. A mashup draws data (or functionality) from two (or more) different sources and deploys them within a single tool. An example would be drawing location pictures from Google Earth and adding them to house listings from a real estate agency. Lots of mashups are created using Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) methodology.

But for mere mortals, like your computer literacy students, Microsoft has provided a site which allows the easy creation of mashups with drag and drop functionality. Popfly is a cool site which you can access for free using a Microsoft Live ID (also available for free). Once you are there, there is a handy tutorial which will have you making your first mashup, which you can then deploy on a blog, social networking site or Web page, in just minutes. But to make things even easier, just watch the video below which shows you how to make a photo carousel mashup and include it on a blog.



So turn your students loose on Popfly and see what they can create. If you are using blogs in your classes (see the Blogging Across the Curriculum blog) or have students creating their own social network on Ning, require them to make a mashup and include it on their site. You may be surprised at what they design!

Save Your Students $850 Million!

AOL announced today that it was buying social network Bebo for $850 million in cash. A staggering price considering that Bebo has quite a few less users than MySpace or Facebook. However, they do have a lot more users in other countries such as the UK and New Zealand. Given AOLs other woes, it does seem like a bit of an odd direction to take.

Even though your students probably don't have a spare $850 million lying around, that doesn't mean they can't get in on the social networking action. Just send them over to Ning which is a site where they can create their very own personal social network...for free!

A five minute sign up process is all it takes to be off and running with your own network. You can invite members, post content and control the look and feel of your social network's home page. You can choose to have the network viewable by anyone or keep it restricted to members only. You choose the URL for your network which will end in ning.com and therefore would look something like this: mycoolnetwork.ning.com. You can host blogs, threaded message forums and several other features. The learning curve is very low as it has a similar look and feel to established social networks.

So how does Ning make money? The network you set up has rather unobtrusive Google Adsense ads on the side of the page which generate revenue for Ning. But if you want to control the ad content on your site and keep the revenue for yourself, all you need to do is pay Ning $10 per month and you can remove all of their ads and put up your own.

I think that setting up a social network would make a great group project for a computer literacy or business class. Groups could compete to sign up the most members, have the largest number of relevant blog postings, generate the most useful message threads, etc. So send your students out there to play around and see what happens.

Sources of Videos Other Than YouTube

Can't find what you are looking for on YouTube? There are certainly plenty of other sources of free video on the Internet. Here are a few of my favorite sites:

Google Video - You would think since Google bought YouTube they would have combined the two sites by now (or at least made the functionality the same). But you would be wrong! Google Video, still technically in beta, hosts videos in a similar fashion to YouTube. But the real strength of this site is the search feature. As you can see from the image below, the search box default option is to search the entire web for videos, not just ones hosted on the Google Video site. Therefore, this is a superior search feature to the one offered on YouTube which only searches videos hosted on the YouTube site.



Lab Rats - Two technology journalists, Andy Walker and Sean Carruthers, started making video podcasts in October 2005. Fortunately for us, people loved them and now the Lab Rats website contains over 100 video podcasts on technology. These videos are well written, produced professionally and contain useful information on topics ranging from Web browser security to iPod hacking. There is something here for every level of student.

5 min - 5min is a site that offers short video solutions (all 5 minutes or less) to practical questions. Their idea, as explained on their site, is simple: "...any solution can be visually explained in no more than 5 minutes. Our goal is to create the first communal Life Videopedia allowing users from all over the globe to contribute their knowledge by sharing visual guides in areas such as arts, business, fashion, sports, health, tech, food, and much more." They have a technology section which contains some very informative videos such as Wikis in Plain English and How to Retrieve a Lost Windows Password. While not as extensive a collection as YouTube, the videos at 5min are very high quality and well produced videos.

If you know of any other sites that provide useful technology videos (for free, of course), mention them in a comment to this post and I'll add them to this list.

A Vision of Students Today

This video gem is from the Cultural Anthropology Faculty at Kansas State University who have brought us so many other clever videos over the past couple of years. They asked their students to work on a shared document (sort of a wiki) and to comment on what was going on in with each of them when they were in the classroom. They filmed the results and displayed them in a thought provoking way (students holding up signs). The students' comments probably reflect many of the issues your students are facing.

Even though this video is designed more for faculty than for students, I still find it beneficial to show to my students. It gets them thinking and often sparks a good discussion about what they want to get out of my class. Often showing this video will spark student interest in using Wikis. Two free sites where students can set up Wikis are wikispaces and pbwiki.



Discussion Questions for Students:
1) Which issues from the video are you facing in your classes? What solutions would you propose to the students in the video to address their concerns?
2) Have you ever used a Wiki or Google documents to share information with a group or plan a project? Have you ever used these tools in classes at this institution?
3) Do you think you would find Wikis useful in your classwork? What about in your personal life?

Would You Like a Little Cholesterol Medication with That Pizza?

Many people are concerned that technology and the Internet are eroding our personal privacy. The video below is the ACLU's slant on what it might be like to order a pizza in the near future. Fasten your seat belts...its going to be a bumpy ride!



Now we all hope that this level of scrutiny doesn't happen but my local pizza parlor already tracks orders by phone number. So when I call they usually have a pretty good guess about what I'm going to order. At least they don't have access to my medical records, library records and magazine subscription information...yet. But with all this information in databases, it is theoretically possible to consolidate it all at the pizza parlor.

Fortunately, the privacy of medical records is protected by law. But say the local pizza parlor did run a coupon in Men's Health magazine. They could buy the list of local subscribers from the magazine and integrate it into their database that is keyed off of caller ID. Then they would be able to mention the coupon to callers who subscribed to Men's Health. It presents interesting possibilities.

Discussion Questions for Students:
1) What types of personal information would you feel comfortable with a merchant (like a pizza parlor) having about you? What types of information would you never want revealed to retailers?
2) What is your position on a national ID card (or the REAL ID)? Is preventing terrorism worth giving up some personal privacy rights?
3) Should personal medical information be more readily available if it could be used to protect your health? Would you feel comfortable with a server at a restaurant recommending healthy food choices based on your medical history?

Pictures Not to Include on a Blog or a MySpace Page

I'm always amazed at the pictures that students will put on blogs or social networking sites. They may be great photos to share with your friends, but if you are identified in the photo, is it worth jeopardizing your chances of being selected for a job? Just in case you need some guidelines about what not to include on your site, here are a couple of suggestions...

You may feel passionately about a particular cause...which is fantastic...get involved! However, a prospective employer may not agree with your views. In the majority of cases, you should keep your personal views separate from your work life.


Anything showing you with alcohol, partially clothed or in an embarrassing situation. It might have been a great party, but will it impress an employer?


It is hard to imagine how the ability to do a keg stand would impress any boss! Yet I constantly see these photos on the web.


Discussion Questions for Students:
1. Have you ever posted anything online that feel that a potential employer should not see? Do you think it would affect you landing employment?
2. Should employers check the Internet for information before hiring potential employees? Why or why not?
3. Do you think that you should have a right to privacy regarding information you place on a MySpace or Facebook page? How would you ensure that your privacy was protected?

Think Before You Post!

Discussing the dangers of posting too much personal information online with our students often comes off sounding like a lecture from a parent. But these two public service ads produced by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children usually get a strong reaction from students. They creep me out every time I watch them too!





The accompanying Think Before You Post Web site has some great tips for keeping yourself safe when communicating online.

Discussion Questions for Students:
1. Have you ever posted anything online that you later regretted posting? How has it affected your life?
2. What steps do you take to keep your personal information from becoming available online?
3. Do you have a MySpace or Facebook page or do you post personal information on a similar site? Have you availed yourself of the options available on these sites to keep your information from being indexed or otherwise published online?

Create a Web Site - Find a New Career

Over the years, plenty of people have thought that just knowing a little bit of HTML coding qualified them to be Web site designers. But for Linda Katz of southwest Kansas, practicing her Web design skills helped her launch an entirely new career -- as a tumbleweed farmer!

The Prairie Tumbleweed Farm started out as a simple Web design exercise. Linda wanted to practice her skills and created the farm as a joke back in 1994. But, people found her site and soon began contacting her because they wanted to buy the tumbleweeds! One thing led to another, and Linda now has a thriving business. Her customers include NASA, major Hollywood studios, fashion designers, and ordinary people who just want to own one of these iconic symbols of the old West.

Linda was recently featured on Yahoo!'s People of the Web and she has an interview posted on YouTube, which you can view by clicking the link below:



Discussion Questions for Students
1. Do you personally know anyone who is running a successful Internet business? Do you know how they got started?
2. Have you ever considered creating your own online business? What type of product or service would you offer?
3. Hands-on Exercise: Ask students to find a YouTube video featuring an interview with an entrepreneur who operates an online business.

Hands On Activity: Personal Information Online

Students are often blissfully unaware of the extent of personal information that is available about them on the web. Much of the information that students share about themselves on social networking sites (such as Facebook and MySpace) is now routinely indexed in search engines. To give students a real life lesson in what is out there, direct them to the search engine Wink and have them search on their name. They'll be surprised at what they find.



Student Discussion Questions
1) How many of you have a MySpace or Facebook account? Have you changed the basic privacy settings on the account or just accepted the defaults? (on Facebook, you can op-out of having your information indexed online in the privacy settings).
2) Employers routinely search the web and social networking sites for information about prospective employees. Is there anything on your site that you would not want an employer to see?
3) What problems can arise from having your personal information posted online?