Can’t live without my Social Network

To how many social networks do you subscribe? That many? Wow! Do you have a Gmail window, a Twitter window, a Facebook window and an IM window all open at the same time so you stay in the loop?

Now you can just use Digsby to track all your friends and interact with your network. Each account gets an icon in your Windows system tray, and one click brings up a pop-up window letting you manage your social networks just as you would in a browser.

5 Reasons Digsby’s A Must-Have IM Client will give you some of the lowdown and have you ready to start using it right away.

How do I … ?

Have you ever been confused when someone tries to explain the intricacies of  “new” tools and technologies such as Blogging, RSS, Twitter or Social Bookmarking? CommonCraft has produced several videos in their In Plain English series which explains all these and more ina a simple but humourous way. They are available from their website but most are also on YouTube or featured on various blogs.

Organizations of all types purchase these videos for training and education but there are no limitations on giving links whereby students – or friends – can view them online. Each video also includes the code for embedding it in a website. I’d like to put  RSS in Plain English in the margin of this blog but haven’t worked out how to do it yet.

An article in the Commoncraft blog also refers readers to Explainers to Watch in 2009 and gives a list of good presentation sites both visual and verbal.

More Web 2.0 Tools

Last month we told you about a blog post 10+ Web Tools To Save Your Butt In School. Today we have a new list of 100 Powerful Web Tools to Organize Your Thoughts and Ideas taken from the Online College Blog by By Alisa Miller.

These tools are grouped under

• Note-Taking and Documents,
• Bookmarking,
• Mind Mapping,
• Personal Wikis,
• Highlighters and Sticky Notes,
• To-Do Lists,
• Collaboration,
• Calendars,
• Time Trackers and
• General Organizers and Task Managers.

There should be something for everyone here.

A Web2.0 Tag cloud, by Markus Angermeier, 2005

Isn’t web2.0 wonderful?

Applying new technology

In her blog You are Never Alone Kerrie Smith writes about the problems of applying new digital technologies in a school system. These include wi-fi, use of personal laptops, open-source software and access to online applications like Second Life and Facebook.

Until our colleges adopt more of these technologies we are unlikely to move ahead in the type of material we offer to our users, both staff and students. The biggest challenge to this approach is bandwidth (and Education Department policy) but we must work together to create the best possible environment for all.

Some users are becoming more familiar with these technologies but all are encouraged to look at the OIL module, Digital Information Literacy, to help them to find out what is available and acceptable,

Digital Age Skills

Today’s teachers and students need Digital Age skills. To show how these may be achieved the ISTE, the International Society for Technology in Education, has released the next generation of NETS for Teachers which focuses on ”using technology to learn and teach.”

NETS for Teachers is deceptively simple one-page statement that categorises what a teacher must strive for under 5 headings:

• Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
• Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessment
• Model Digital-Age Work and Learning
• Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility
• Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership

This follows on from last year’s NETS for Students , another deceptively simple looking document with the following headings:

• Creativity and Innovation
• Communication and Collaboration
• Research and Information Fluency
• Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision making
• Digital Citizenship
• Technology Operations and Concepts

These documents should help you as a teacher or as a learner to set goals for each of the benchmarks and perhaps incorporate new skills gradually so that you are not overwhelmed by all you are trying to do. If you keep a record of your achievements in a blog then you will have already learned one new thing.