Having posted my first entries with a lot of doubts if I did right and choose the relevant topics I got more and more into it. I enjoyed thinking about an overall concept for my portfolio and topics I would like to deal with here. However now that I look at my blog and the drafts I did not finish and publish yet I realize that this topic  and medium really got my attention and there are may ideas and tools I still would like to write about if I did not have to do an awful lot of other stuff  in order to complete my degree. That is also why I did not contribute that much in the last weeks.

Since I, unlike my fellow student, am not going to be a teacher and did not have that many background knowledge on didactics and I was not familiar with a lot of things like Web-quests and so on. But after this class I have to say that I really learned a lot, especially about the use of new media in education. And I think that, despite the whole difficulties and organizational problems that are involved, it is really necessary to integrate the use of (new) media into the educational process. Besides the fact that the internet and all its applications and possibilities seem to become an essential element in life, it offers so many advantages especially for collaborative activities and once you get used to it it can make working and learning so much easier and more effective.

As far as the seminar itself is concerned I liked the fact that we did not only work through the relevant information and acquired the knowledge we needed for this topic but also got to actually use the things we were talking about. I think this was only possible because of the blended structure of the seminar, since in a traditional class there would not have been enough time to actually use and experience the tools and applications we were reading and talking about. Thumbs-up for blended-learning!

Especially for future teachers I consider this method very helpful since by now you do not get any extra time or support to make use of (new) media in class. Everybody from the seminar now has his/her own experience and an idea of what is possible and could be done with the use of (new) media and can for him/herself decide whether and to what extend he/she will use it in class.

To wrap things up a little I really enjoyed the class and the use of weblogs and I think the topic of new media is a very interesting and important one, especially concerning learning and teaching.
And besides all the learning it was a little bit of fun as well

Hello everyone. Today I would like to present you EtherPad, a (or the) web-based collaborative writing tool. It allows up to 16 people to simultaneously work on one document in real-time. And real-time really means real-time (delay of about 1 second).

In order to set up a document you do not need to register or login (although you could). You just visit the main page and create a public pad or just type www.etherpad.com/name_of_the_document into your browser and the document will be set up. Once you did that you are confronted with a very user-friendly interface which is really straightforward and easy to handle. There are some basic text formatting options that can be used as well as general pad options in the header. It is also possible to import a certain text document or export the pad to some general text formats. Another great advantage of this application is that you are able to access all the saved revisions of your pad or use the time slider to go back and forth in the editing process of your pad which can be really useful. All the saved revisions are saved on the server and can be undone at any time.

On the right hand side of the page there is a sidebar which offers many additional features. On top of it you can enter your name and you see the colour your written text will be marked with. Below that you can see a list of those users who are working with you on the pad and you can invite further users with via an email invitation. In fact every user just needs the url of the pad to join it. Every user who is working on the document gets a certain color his/her written text will be marked with. This is very helpful since you can see exactly who wrote what. Below the list of users there is also a small chat box available for further communicational issues among those users who are online. And that’s it. Everything you need and well-arranged.

One negative aspect is that you can not add images to the document, which on the other side is not really necessary here. another problem is that if a stranger knows or comes across the url of your document he/she can access it as well and may add nonsense or even delete the whole text.

There are many possibilities to actually use EtherPad. You might use it to set up a document together in class, create and edit text together with other people at the same time or over a certain period, use it as a proof reading platform or as a notepad which could be accessed from any computer with internet connection.

There are other online applications like Google Docs or Google Wave which do provide the same service, although with a longer delay of about 5 to 15 seconds, but you have to register for many of them before you can get started. And on the other hand I do think that Google does not need to know everything you are doing (I am starting to get a little paranoid when it comes to services provided by the Google imperium)!

In my opinion EtherPad is a really handy and user-friendly application and the fact that you can start right away without any registration or login and with a huge number of contributors makes it one of the best online applications I have used so far.

But now there is a possibility to do that. The solution is a collaborative online mindmapping tool like MindMeister or Bubble.us. These tools allow their users to set up a mind map and modify it altogether and at the same time even though you are not in the same place, as a kind of decentralized online brainstorming session. It is also possible to edit this mind map at any time. This way members of the group could not be online a a certain point of time when the mind map is set up can add information or make changes. Another great advantage is the possibility to share or publish this mind map, though that other people or for example the teacher can take a look at it.

These application can be handled quite simply and are well designed. The interface is well structured and the availability of keyboard shortcuts makes work even easier and faster. Basically you do create entries which can be moved around by drag-and-drop and connect them with branches. However the styling options might be limited to some extend and they can not be exported to any desired format, but these tools totally serve their purpose.

All in all these applications are highly useful for collaborative group work and very recommendable. As far as their shortcomings are concerned I think they will be improved and optimized by and by. Try it out!

• Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009
• 10 Tools for 20(10)
• Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers

I can not wait to try out Google Wave! The crossbreed of e-mail, instant messaging, wiki, blog and media-portal seems to be a highly promising tool and surely will revolutionize communication and offer new effective ways of collaborative working in real time (especially in education and groupwork). A short video on Google Wave as well as some advantages that Google Wave will offer for education can be found in this article.

CoboCards is a free and web-based flash card application. “Cobo” stands for “collaboration” and the central idea was to create a file card trainer, which could be used for more than just vocabulary training.
CoboCards allows you to virtually create and study sets of flash cards for any topic you would like and it is possible to add pictures and graphs, edit the cards again and again and compare them to older versions. You can study on your own or with friends or fellow students using the Chat functionality, phone calls or VoIP-Software like Skype. When learning collaboratively one partner is asked a question and the other has to decide whether the answer was “correct”, “partly correct” or “incorrect”. The application saves the status of each card and provides statistics after the study session. This way you know which cards you know and which you still have to learn. CoboCards also offers the possibility to print out cards and study them offline wherever you like.

In order to use CoboCards you have to create an account and sign in. Once you have done this you can begin to create your own set of cards or access the CoboCards Pool, which allows you to study public sets of cards for various topics and categories that have been created by other users. In order to work and learn together you can invite other people to join your learning group or join an already existing one. Then you have the possibility to see the online status of the members and access their contact information. Another great advantage is that you can create a set of cards together which reduces the actual workload a lot and the more people work collaboratively the less work has to be done by every single person.

Here is a short introduction video to CoboCards

Under FAQ/Wiki the site also provides a useful video tutorial that quickly explains the basic functions this application offers and further in-depth tutorials for advanced users.

I really recommend this application since it is a very powerful (and in my opinion the best) tool for collaborative learning.

Del.icio.us is a free online social bookmarking service. It allows you to store, classify and share internet resources (according to topics and interests) which can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection. There are many other social bookmarking services available but Del.icio.us has become one of the most popular ones due to its simplicity of organizing and classifying bookmarks. In order to use this service you have to create an account, which only requires some basic information (user name, password and email). Once you have created your account you can start to collect bookmarks and manage them in private or public collections. Among many other useful options it shows how many others have bookmarked the same page and you can subscribe to collections provided by other users or follow new entries to certain categories by RSS feeds. Here are some general advantages and disadvantages using Del.icio.us:

Advantages:

• platform and browser independent
• easy to use
• flexibility
• quality management
• collective knowledge

Disadvantages:

• vocabulary used
• inconsistency of tags
• (sometimes) lack of precision
• information overload

How can Del.icio.us support teaching and learning?

Generally Del.icio.us was developed for people who work on different computers and want to share their bookmarks. As far as the support for teaching and learning is concerned it can be integrated in various ways. Teachers and students could share recommended resources and material or additional information for specific topics. It may also be used to support lectures, projects or research and could serve as an additional bibliography. Due to the fact that Del.icio.us offers the possibility to see how many other users have bookmarked a specific link it s a good way to find reliable resources. These are only some possibilities to use social bookmarking systems for educational purposes. If you have additional suggestions or ideas how to integrate them feel free to make a comment.

According to the facts mentioned I think that Del.icio.us is one of the most useful Web 2.0 tools for education. Despite the lack of precision, inconsistency of terms and the information overload (which is clearly a matter of management) it is an effective way to provide and manage resources and information and to support collaborative working and quality management.

I will set up a new category titled “Tools – …”. In this category I will introduce and comment on applications (mostly Web 2.0 ones), which I consider useful and interesting with respect to the possibilities they offer for education. The entries should serve as a basis for further discussion (I hope) on how to use and integrate these tools into the teaching and learning process. If anyone of you has already used these tools in class please let me know how it worked out.

• First of all it is important to keep in mind that not every student has a computer or internet connection available at home, which is especially important when it comes to homework assignments.
• Be prepared for technical problems. You always have to think of alternatives and set up a backup plan when using media in teaching.
• Familiarize yourself with basic troubleshooting skills. It is not always a technical problem.
• Be aware of the fact that your students might have little or no experience in using the computer.
• If you are using media support you need to have basic background knowledge about the medium you use. For example what is a podcast, what are valuable resources and how can they be produced?
• Use media support but not just for the sake of it. Choose topics from the curriculum where it actually makes sense to use media support.
• Do not only have your students consume media, but let them create own media content. This way they can develop skills and competence in both consuming and producing media.
• Teach your students to analyze and evaluate media content critically.
• Make results visible. It is the only way to get feedback from outside the classroom.
• Teach your students to use new media to connect to the real world and to build and join communities.

If you think there are more important principles that I did not mention please let me know…

My course instructor recently twittered a link to a web 2.0 rest room. I really liked the idea a lot and it is a nice gap filler for all of us who need a break from all this overwhelming web 2.0 stuff (but still do not want to leave their computer). Go on and give it a try! Perhaps you will need it once in a while…

I actually like the idea so much that I created my own rest room page although it was not possible to get it all white!