Web 2.0
« Previous EntriesMightybell Looks Promising for Educators
Friday, February 22nd, 2013Mightybell is a new social space created by Ning co-found Gina Bianchini. In my ongoing search to find a suitable replacement for the now-costly Ning, I have found few spaces that really appeal to me. Mightybell may just be one. Think of Mightybell as a combination of Pinterest and Ning (or any other social network). [...]
Cleaning Up An Old Wiki
Thursday, August 9th, 2012Just over five years ago, I set up a wiki at Wikispaces. The idea was to create a place where my students, future English teachers, could write collaboratively about young adult literature. Since that day, many Grand Valley students have contributed to the Young Adult Literature wiki, reviewing over 100 young adult works and graphic [...]
When Hacking is a Good Thing–Using Hackasaurus to Teach Argument
Thursday, March 15th, 2012Yesterday, I gave my e-poster session at the annual GVSU Technology Symposium, an event I’ve participated in every year since my arrival at GVSU in 2004. The Tech Symposium is a great place to pick up new ideas from colleagues and show off the work your students have been doing. This year, I focused on [...]
Badges as Alternate, Real-World Assessment
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011Today, my students and I were talking about alternatives to standardized tests. I was making a case for local, authentic forms of assessment, developed and analyzed by individual schools and districts. The example I used was portfolio-based grading in an English language arts class. This way of measuring student growth in writing, I argued, lets [...]
A Quick Way to Share Big Files–JustBeamIt
Friday, October 14th, 2011Here’s a cool tool–and proof that the spirit of Web 2.0 lives on, despite the explosion of mobile computing. I admit that when I hear about a new web-based service, I sometimes think, “Well, that’s quaint. How does it work on my smartphone?” But this one looks extremely cool. If you’ve ever worked collaboratively on [...]
Remember When Sharing Was Simple?
Thursday, September 29th, 2011Call me slow. Or call me old. But I just can’t figure out the new Facebook feed, lists, and real-time ticker. Don’t get me wrong: I understand how it works in theory. What I don’t have, though, is an instinctive feel for the new interface. Now I am never quite sure who is getting what [...]
R.I.P. Google Plus
Monday, July 4th, 2011It might be premature to bid a final farewell to Google’s latest attempt at social networking–the Google Plus Project. After all, it’s not even out of beta yet. And I don’t even have one of the exclusive invitations to try it out. But be assured, Google Plus will join the ranks of Orkut and Wave [...]
Here’s One Idea for ToonDoo
Sunday, April 17th, 2011I’ve been exploring Toondoo in my spare time, thinking of some ways of using it in the English classroom. While the program is not perfect–the interface is a little counter-intuitive, the image uploader is clunky, and the navigation is bewildering. But it is by far the best web cartooner I’ve encountered so far. With so [...]
Check out Toondo for Easy Cartooning
Wednesday, April 13th, 2011As the graphic novel medium has grown popular, the web has kept up with sites and services that make cartooning easy. The most recent and most promising tool is Toondoo, a simple-to-use web application that lets you create comic strips and graphic novels, using the archive of characters and settings or making your own. I [...]
When Google Tries to be Facebook
Tuesday, April 12th, 2011Tomorrow, I have a meeting with my colleague Pete Coco@GVSU. We’ll be talking just a bit about the new Google +1 service. If you haven’t heard of it–and likely you haven’t, since it’s buried in Google Experimental Page–Google +1 is the equivalent, in some ways at least, of the now nearly ubiquitous Facebook “like” button. [...]
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