Week 3: Networking

Overview January 28th to February 2nd

This week we will do some networking through tagging and explore in more depth the tools that interest us. How? Photographing, expressing wishes and desires, recommending places to visit, choosing people to meet, exploring some mashup services, benefiting from collective bookmarking/references to filter information from the Web or/and microblogging.

Activities

Interest Groups/Creative Commons License/Tagging/Mash-ups/Networking

Flickr

  • Configure your personal account and profile on Flickr (Click on the You tab once you have logged in)
  • Configure your web address on Flickr (same page - use a name that identifies you)
  • Set your privacy and add a Creative Commons License to it. If interested in the subject, here’s a paper that covers the subject and a series of flash videos that explain and illustrate the ideas behind CC.
  • Look at the tab Extending your Flickr (still in your account) and configure the account so that you can send a picture and a post directly to your Wordpress blog.
  • Take a (or some) photograph(s) from the window of your home, workplace or city.
  • Upload them to Flickr, give them a title, write a short description and tag them with keywords as you see fit. Check how to tag (please add SMiELT08 to tag all photos and posts for this workshop).
  • Fill in your Profile (You>Your Profile)- see Edit your profile on the right hand side once you have clicked on the tab. You may add a buddy icon and change your screen name. Remember to fill in the information by using key words = tags (and not sentences). Use verbs in the gerund - skiing, surfing, taking photos.
  • Join the Dekita group and send pictures to its photo pool. Remember to tag them SMiELT08.
  • Add the participants of this session as your contacts (see Contact tab at the top).
  • Add a Flickr badge to your blog.
  • Have a look at all you can do in Flickr and also Flickr tools and services..
  • Brainstorm on how to use Flickr and Flickr mashups in ELT and be prepared to present it to the other groups.

43Trio

  • Log in and configure 43Things, Places and People to transfer posts directly to your blog. In order to do this, click on Your * Thing (Place/Person) tab at the top. Click then at the green tab - Edit Your Account. On this page, under the picture area you should find a link Post to Your Blog. Choose the blog you want to mash-up with the 43Trio - Wordpress, in this session. Enter the username and password that you use to log in to your WordPress admin screen, as well as the URL to your WordPress blog <http://yourusername.wordpress.com> and click on Verify and save.
  • Read what other people are writing and how they express themselves. Choose one of the activities, places or people that are more popular that day and appear in the tag cloud (see home page) or go to the Zeitgeist for Goals, Wanderlust for Places or the Hasselhoff for People . You may also want to do your search through the search bar or people, cities, things or tags.
  • Make a list of 3 things, 3 places and 3 people to include in these sites. Check whether they have already been tagged by using the Search bar.
  • Post entries from these different platforms directly to your blog.
  • Tag them with the appropriate keywords + SMiELT08.
  • Find the other people from your group through the tags.
  • Brainstorm on how you could use the trio in EL and be prepared to present it to the other groups.

Del.icio.us (Social Bookmarking)

  • Open up an account with del.icio.us (click on Register). Install Buttons into your browser - "My del.icio.us" button and "Tag this/Post to del.icio.us". See help if necessary.
  • Start creating your own collection of web resources on topics useful to your teaching. Start by searching materials for "social bookmarking in education". You may add 7 Things You Should Know About Social Bookmarking as the first item to your collection.
  • Add tags to every bookmark you make. Separate them with spaces. Don’t forget to add "SMiELT08" tag to each bookmark for the other participants to find these resources easily. You also have to option to bundle tags - arrange saved tags into groups (social tools + SMiELT + socialmedia = social bundle).
  • Set your tags (Tag Options on the lower right-hand side) to standard list format or to the cloud format.
  • Click on Your Network and create your own network of educators (see my network) to share resources. Start by looking at the strategies to build a wider network described in Tracking Down Educators That Use Social Bookmarking. Start building your network by adding participants from this workshop: Patricia
  • Subscribe to others’ del.icio.us tags by clicking on Subscriptions. Click Your Subs/Edit and choose tags you would like to subscribe to and the user(s) from your network.
  • Add a del.icio.us badge to your Wordpress blog. This will appear on the side of your blog and will be updated automatically every time you add a new bookmark to your del.icio.us account. Set your tagrolls.
  • Check the readings on social bookmarking and write a short summary of the main ideas in your focus group wiki.

Twitter (Social Networking Through Microblogging)

  • Open up an account with Twitter
  • Post your first "What are you doing?" message. The limit is 140 characters so make it short, sweet, and meaningful.
  • Click on Settings and configure you personal information.
  • Create your own network of educators that you will follow on Twitter. Add people to your network. Start by adding your moderators.(click on Follow to add me to your network).
    patricia9936 , bdieu
  • Read the papers and articles on social networking and microblogging and brainstorm with participants of your focus group on how to use this tool in ELT.

Discussion in Social Media forum

  • What are the new literacy skills that your students can acquire by using the tools (flickr, 43trio, del.icio.us, twitter) introduced in this week?
  • What are the collaborative potential of these tools for language learning? How would you use these tools to set up collaborative projects between classes from different schools or countries?
  • The tools introduced in this week emphasize the concept of online social networking. How essential is that for language learning? What are the benefits of that? What are the challenges?

Make a post on your blog illustrating and commenting on how you could the tool/platform you have chosen. You should take into account:

  • the public you will be dealing with
  • their level
  • their communicative competence
  • your setting and curricular constraints
  • degree of formality of instruction
  • access
  • amount of time you can spend on it
  • institutional support
  • technical resources
  • your common needs and objectives

Benchmarks

I have…

  • opened up accounts with the tools listed in this module (flickr, 43trio, del.icio.us, twitter)
  • joined a focus group according to my tool preference.
  • interacted and brainstormed about how to use the affordances of this tool in ELT with the participants of my group in the group wiki and prepared an example to present to others
  • posted my reflections/comments on my blog
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