K12 learning 2.0:  Tools for 21st Century Teaching & Learning

THING “Fifteen” (Session Seven)

Social Bookmarking: Delicious

Del.icio.us is a free internet social bookmarking service.  It is software for identifying, organizing, storing, finding, classifying and sharing above all else with others.

My Delicious Bookmarks – Click HERE . . .  http://delicious.com/tbone311

Points of Interest About Del.icio.us
1. Create a personal collection of web resources classified by tags.
2. Manage information and save resources from other users.
3. Personalize your entries by marking them as public or private.
4. Three search options: search one’s own collection, general links and the web.
5. “collective intelligence” ingredient – new information always being updated.
6. Evaluation of importance by the number of users bookmarking the items of interest.
7. Value determined by reliance on the experience or opinions of those bookmarking information.

Advantages:
Collective Intelligence – material is new and updated often
Flexibilty – create a personal library of resources which can be private or public, classified in several categories, shared with others, taken from others, publish as web links, RSS links, exported as HTML.

Disadvantages:
Requires online connection
Absence of tags – people need to learn to categorize resources accurately

Support For Teachers / Classroom
Helps support lectures.
Use of categories.
Research tool.

Check out these articles:

There is a nice article about “Using Delicious in Education” by Gabriela Grosseck.

The Roll of Delicious in Education - with charts etc. by gabriela Grosseck.

Box of Tricks in Technology & Education – Getting teachers to use Web 2.0 Tools

K12 learning 2.0:  Tools for 21st Century Teaching & Learning

THING Seven “B” (Session Six)

Thing 7b : Google Reader Redux!   ( Follow up of Thing 7A – “Begin to Build Reading Habit” )

Microsoft’s Fight Against Fat Fingers

Did you know that we have a problem in the United States having to do with “fat fingers?”  Well, according to Microsoft, this has been an on going problem, ever increasing as we are being introduced to one miniature device after another.

Have you ever tried to use your handheld device and your fingers are covering up the information that you are trying to view?  According to this article, “researchers at Microsoft think they’ve come up with a way to solve the fat-finger issue by letting people manipulate the back of a device with their finger while still looking at the front screen. It’s a project called Nanotouch.”  If you are familiar with the iPhone, then you have an idea of the similar movement of the fingers.  But, in this case, Microsoft is allowing the user to do this from the back of the device which will enable unobstructed frontal view of the screen data.  What will we think of next?

Bill Gates has always be enamored with “programmable” pins like the ones he gives his guest when visiting his home.  The article explains that the idea is to have tiny configurable devices that could be attached to our clothing just like a pin we would place on our lapel.  These could serve as appointment reminders etc.

This article gives us a glimpse of the things we will be able to do within the very near future.  Digitial car manuals will be available in how to formats through video and audio.  Another demonstration involves someone using their phone camera to receive a menu from a restaurant by merely pointing it toward the restaurant and download it into their phone.  Maybe, if you were at a bus stop and would like to receive an interactive route planner to see all of the bus stops, then this can be reality soon. 

This article has several examples of upcoming technology that is quite amazing.  Microsoft’s Second Light technology is no exception and will enable users to interact with their computer without depending so much on keyboard and mouse functions.  Check out this demonstration video.

Surface Computer Technology - “Touch Technology”