Twitter Mosaic and TwitterSheep: See Who is Following You

Twitter is filled with ways to visualize your TwitterWorld.

Here is a mozaic of my twitter followers that I made through Twitter Mozaic:

Get your twitter mosaic here.


If you want to know something about the profiles of those who follow me, you can look at this cloud created by TwitterSheep. (Hmmmm . . . Look at all of those teachers and educators with technology)

Kind of fun to see the ingenuity that has been used to make Twitter more useful and fun to use.

I found these references along with a number of other ideas at the 10,000 words blog.

So do you use a mozaic or word cloud to see who is following you?

If not, what DO you use?

Follow Dr. Z on Twitter by clicking here.

Z

Are Screen Captures Copyrighted?

Image via Wikipedia

One of my students asked me a copyright question about screen captures recently that I couldn't answer.

After teaching them about how to make a screen capture and suggesting that this would be a great thing to use when creating tutorials. An educator could take screen shots of software while progressing through the software and then write accompanying instructions.

Here's the question "Aren't those screen captures copyrighted?" I didn't know the answer.

I would imagine that under fair-use guidelines, an educator could include screen captures that are used in the classroom.

The question lies in whether or not such a tutorial could be posted on the web for free distribution. At another level, what about selling the tutorial to others? Do you need to pay a copyright royalty to Microsoft if you use screen captures of Microsoft Word in a tutorial book?

What do you think?

A Taste of the Future: SixthSense Computing from MIT

I was just watching a TED Talks video of Patti Maes describing her SixthSense project at MIT. It is a "wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information." This computerized device is something that hangs around your neck like a pendant. It is comprised of a pocket projector, a mirror and a camera. The mobile computing device is in the user's pocket.

This is a mobile computing device that can what you see and what you know about your surroundings. This is definitely Augmented Reality where what you see is made more meaningful with additional information. The camera reads the environment and the projector projects images upon whatever is in front of you to provide additional information. When you pick up a book, the computer can look at the AISN number and then beam reviews onto a blank page in the book. If you want to make a phone call, the projector will project a key pad onto your hand and you can just press on the projected numbers to dial. My favorite is that you can just create a box using the thumb and forefinger on each hand and the system will take a photo of what you see through the box (you have to see this one to understand it.)

It is difficult to describe how this system works so you should watch the TED Talk and the additional WUW/SixthSense video (this video has some of the footage used in the TED talk, but it goes beyond that.)




What do you think? How would this device change your life?

Z

Related articles by Zemanta

• Sixth Sense Wearable, "Gestural" Interface. Cool. (marklogic.blogspot.com)
• Would You Want To See Meta Data on Everything? Here's A Minority Report-like Approach to New Media! (performancing.com)
• Mash Your Future with Augmented Reality (myventurepad.com)

Telecollaboration: Connecting Classroom Across the Globe

I was just reading Scott McLeod's blog, Dangerously Irrelevant, where he is asking for resources in connecting classrooms around the globe. Telecollaboration is an important opportunity that enables students to talk and write with other students in other cultures. Sometimes it even involves monumental activities like when classrooms from around the world follow an explorer who is trekking to the north pole.

My favorite site for finding telecollaborative projects it the Global School Network. This organization in southern California has been sponsoring and connecting telecollaborative project around the world for over 2 decades. The originators, Yvonne Andres and Al Rogers were pioneers in the technologies that connected classrooms even in the 1980 (e.g., FrEdMail).

Tonight, I am fortunate enough to have Yvonne Andres skyping into my classroom (in Iowa) from San Diego. She will be sharing her visions and experiences with us.

I will also be announcing the beginning of a Telecollaborative project that my class will begin with another class in Poznan, Poland. This is the GLEX project. I will be sharing our GLEX project with you as time progresses.

Share Your Ideas

Dangerously Irrelevant is asking for sites and if you know of any, please add them to the list.

I am interested in whether or not you have been involved in a telecollaborative project yourself (or know of anyone who has done this.)

Here are some questions that you might want to use to help guide your response.

• Have you been involved in a telecollaborative project before?
• How did you find the other classes that were part of your project?
• Did you originate it?
• What did you do?
• What ideas do you have for a telecollaborative project (even if you have never done one.)
  

I look forward to your comments.

Z

How to Use Iowa AEA Online - Kay Rewerts

Iowa AEA Online is a significant set of clip art, photographs, streaming video, graphics, online tutorials, reference resources that are available for teachers and students to use. Beginning in the late 90s, the forward-thinking sages at the Iowa Area Education Agencies began to purchase statewide licenses to support learning resources. These licenses provide access for all public and private K-12 schools across the state of Iowa. The Iowa AEA Online resources include:

• AccuWeather
• AP Images
• Atomic Learning
• Clipart.com
• Discovery Education Streaming
• EBSCO
• SIRS Researcher and
• World Book Web

The licenses for using the graphic resources vary somewhat, but most of them allow students to use them on projects and web sites. Atomic Learning provides hundreds of tutorials for learning software and have recently begun to describe teaching strategies for educators. Discovery provides a plethora of videos (many editable) for instruction and to be used in video creation. Ebsco, SIRS, AccuWeather and World Book Web provide a wealth of research information.

The only problem with having access to all of these resources is learning how to use them.

TA-DA!!!! Enter Kay Rewerts!!!!!

Kay Rewerts is an educational consultant who have helped educators in 30 states. Fortunately, she lives here in Iowa and has worked as a never-tiring source of information and innovation for our educators. A few weeks ago, we were fortunate enough to have Kay in our class where she took us on a 45-minute tour of the obvious and not-so-obvious opportunities with Iowa AEA Online.

Mrs. Rewerts has given me permission to include her demonstration through my blog. It is something that will be well worth your time watching. Even if you don't live in Iowa, these resources are available globally and there are sections that will be useful for all educators.

If you are interested in contacting Kay Rewerts, please send her an email at krewerts@mchsi.com

Here is a link to the 45-minute Iowa AEA Online workshop that Kay provided.

Web Stats and the Future According to Kevin Kelly

Kevin Kelly gave a TED Talk in December, 2007, entitled "Predicting the Next 5000 days of the Web." In this 19-minutes talk, he discussed where the Web has been, where it is now and where it will probably be going.

I especially liked Kelly's talk because he agrees with what I have been thinking for years. He says that through the Web, we are developing a single one-ness of knowledge. We are building a semantic web of connectedness through which people can share, learn and develop a better understanding of the universere (however you define that.)

Throughout the talk, Kelly cited a number of stats that you might find interesting. He didn't cite his sources for the stats so if you use this information, you will probably have to cite his presentation or do additional research to find his source. (If you find the sources, please add them to the comments below.)

I STRONGLY recommend that you watch this TED Talk (as well as the other 400 talks). I know that David Thornburg has said that watching TED Talks has replaced his watching TV. I can't say that I have completely "made the switch" but I am definitely learning more from TED than "Burned Notice."

Web Stats according to Kelly:
(Remember that he quoted these stats in December, 2007. He also quoted Moore's Law that says computing power doubles every 2 years - you do the math.)

Kevin Kelly's Web stats:

• 100 billion clicks per day
• 55 trillion links
• 1 billion PC chips on the internet
• 2 million emails per second
• 1 million IM messages per second
• 8 terrabytes per second traffic
• 65 billion phone calls per year
• 255 exabytes of magnetic storage
• 1 million voice queries per hour
• 2 billion location nodes activated
• 600 billion rfid tabs used
• Uses 5% of global electricity

He compared the Web to the complexity of the Human Brain

• 1 billion social sites on the web
• 55 trillion links (similar to the number of synapses in the human brain.)
  
• 1 quintillion transistors (similar to the number of neurons in the human brain.
  

Moore's law indicates that this is doubling in power every 2 years

Identified it as a McLuen Reversal where:

• "Machines are an extension of the senses" (McLuen)
  
• The senses are an extension of The Machine (Kelly)
  

Explored the Restructuring towards a Semantic Network

1. Linking Computers - The Net
2. Linking Pages - The Web
3. Linking Data - The One Machine

Cited TLAs (Three-Letter Acronyms) of the Web

XML - eXtensible Markup Language
RSS - Real Simple Syndication
API - Applicaton Programming Interface
RDF - Resource Description Framework
OWL - Web Ontology Language

Kelly ended by describing The One. This is his prediction of the future world and how it is interconnected through the Web or whatever form on connected network we will develop in the next 5000 days (13.7 years). (Sounds like The Borg to me.)

There is only One machine
The web is its OS
All screens look into the One
No bits will live outside the web.
To share is to gain.
Let the One read it.
The One is Us.

What do YOU think? Do you agree with these Web stats that Kevin Kelly has presented?

Digital Portfolios Made Easy

Professional portfolios are designed to provide a medium for individuals to collect and share information about themselves. It is important to consider the audience that will be reading and evaluating the portfolio. Often these portfolios are aligned with professional standards. Unfortunately, people are misguided into believing that these standards are the most important part of the portfolio.

That is Totally Bogus!!

The most important part of a portfolio is the person about whom the portfolio is created!!! It is the collection of artifacts that describe the person's strengths and characterize the person as a professional. Envisioning portfolios in this manner will make the creation process relevant rather than drudgerous.

You can read more about my ideas on this at my previous posting entitled Digital Portfolios: Why Do We Do Them?

You can also read another of my postings, Optimal Portfolio Organization, to learn about my suggestions for creating a portfolio.

Middle School Digital Portfolio Workshop

I have had the opportunity to share digital portfolios around the country. I have had the opportunity to present some of these workshops with my DPME co-developer, Andrew Krumm, for a couple of years. Now I do these workshops by myself. For the past few years, I/we have presented a 2-hour workshop for the middle school teacher education students here at the University of Northern Iowa. We thank Dr. Jean Schneider and Dr. Donna Douglas for implementing this system in their program. Last October, we video recorded the workshop.

This semester, we are assuming that the students have enough technology savvy to learn how to create their portfolios by reading the outline while they are watching the recorded workshop. The semester is not over so we don't have any final information, but things are going well so far.

Here are the resources that you will need to do this:

Video of Dr. Z (Leigh Zeitz) giving a workshop on creating digital portfolio to a middle school teacher education students at the University of Northern Iowa. This workshop lasts 1 hour 45 minutes. (this video requires the RealPlayer add-on to watch it.)

MIddle School Portfolio Template website to copy into your portoflio - one screen at a time. This portfolio template is designed to align with the Iowa Teacher Education standards (INTASC + 1). You can find other templates at the Digital Portofolios Made Easy website.

Workshop outline (.pdf) that was used for the workshop. It is possible to use this workshop to follow along with the video.
I hope that you find this useful. Please leave some comments about what you are doing with these templates.

Dr. Z

How Twitter's spectacular growth is being driven by unexpected uses - Evan Willams at TED Talks

Just listened to Evan Williams, founder of Twitter, on TED Talks. In his 8-minute talk, he explained how Twitter was molded by how users used it instead of how the company designed it. Here are some highlights from the lecture:

• Defined Twitter as "Say what you are doing in 140 characters or less. People who are interested in you get those updates. If they are REALLY interested in you, they will get those updates on their cell phones."
• Twitter lets people share their lives - both the spectacular and mundane.
• He didn't anticipate how important Twitter could be in real time events.
• Information was shared during the San Diego fires.
• There are currently over 2000 apps for twitter including one that allows an unborn baby to twitter when it kicks or a plant to twitter when it needs water.
• Summize was a company that built a Twitter search engine. Williams liked the search engine so much that they bought the company.
• Some people in Atlanta used Twitter to find gas when it was scarce.
• People have raised tens of thousands of dollars for people in crisis over Twitter in a matter of days.
• Don't know what will happen next with Twitter, but when you give people easier ways to share information - more good things will happen.

Would you believe that at the end of his talk, the MC of TED searched Twitter to find about 50 tweets about Evans' talk.

Here is a man who is changing the world with his imagination. He invented Blogger as well.

BTW, if you aren't watching/listening to TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Talks, you are missing an opportunity to listen to the greatest minds in the world.

Follow Dr. Z on Twitter at http://twitter.com/zeitz

Google Notes is No More - Enter Zotero

Did you hear? Google has announced that they will not be spending any more time developing Google Notes. Google says that they will continue to support Google Notes but not improve upon it.

Although I have used Google notes some, I have not been an avid user. I am teaching a Seminar in Writing Graduate Papers now at the University of Northern Iowa and I was going to introduce Google Notes next week. Now we will go with Zotero.

Zotero is an add-in for Firefox that helps you collect, manage and cite your research sources. The latest version is 1.0.9 but there is a beta 1.5 version. I don't know the differences, but here are some notes about it.

Here is a pretty good video overview of Zotero 1.5 from Zoteron on YouTube.




Zotero also has a series of screencasts about Version 1.09. They give you an overview, finding items, managing your library, and other features. They even show how to connect Zotero with MS Word, Google Tools, and Flock.

Do you use Zotero or Google Notebook or Zoho or ????

Tinkering as a Mode of Knowledge Production

Tinkering as a Mode of Knowledge Production in a Digital Age: John Seely Brown from carnegie commons on Vimeo.Wow! I just visited the Generation YES Blog and enjoyed listening to John Seely Brown discuss the importance of "Tinkering" to build knowledge. He is discussing the opportunities of working with others in a world where craftspeople will work "shoulder-to-shoulder" to develop new ideas. That is what the collaborative movement is all about. It is about people coming together to work together to develop knowledge and make a better world. This is only a 10-minute video and it is WELL WORTH the time. Watch it!

You should also go to the Gen YES blog to read what Sylvia Martinez has to say about this. She always has such great insight into such topics.

Z

Using Web 2.0 Tools with University Students

Image by Lillou Merlin via Flickr

Vinnie Vrotny recently asked me about how I use Web 2.0 tools with my students. I teach Instructional Technology courses at the University of Northern Iowa. I teach an Emerging Instructional Technologies course where I use many of these tools but we integrate them throughout the rest of the courses as well. Here is a list of links to examples of how we use these tools.

Wikibook - Instead of students writing individual research papers for the course, we created an on-line collaborative wikibook. We used the actual Wikimedia software. It was interesting to see that we needed to address topics differently when writing online than when writing on paper. How to determine the length of the paper? (Not pages, but words). How to cite (Reference list? URL? Both?)

RWLDs - The information that you want students to discuss is not always in the book. We have developed Readings, Watchings, Listenings and Doings (RWLD) pages where students can find links to readings, videos, podcasts and things to do. We have found that more students do their homework with RWLDs because they are in a media form that is more appealing. I might point out that we post thes in a Blog form so that the students can subscribe to them like any other blog. Here is an example of one that I used in my Emerging Instructional Technologies course last Fall.
Google Forms - Google forms is probably the most exciting collaborative opportunity that I have found. Google has simplified the prociess of creating an online form to not much more than defining the headings on a spreadsheet. We create and use these forms to elicit student input during and after class. One application that I found interesting was using a Google form to collect evaluation information after I gave a digital portfolio workshop.

Digital Portfolios on Google Sites - Google Sites has made creating digital portfolios a snap. 5 years ago, Andrew Krumm and I created some templates for creating professional digital portfolios. These are housed at http://dpme.org (Digital Portfolios Made Easy). Originally, we made them using Word or HTML templates. Lately, we have created Google Sites templates and all of our Educational Technology and Design students create their digital portfolios using these templates. Here are some examples Example 1 Example 2 Here is a link to an hour and 45 minute workshop on creating a digital portfolio using Google Sites

CoverItLive - Recently we have been experimenting with using an open chat line during lectures. We have been using CoverItLive.com. It is moderated by another professor to ensure that discussion stays on-topic. See the next blog posting down below to actually see the transcript for one of the sessions.

Coveritlive in the Classroom

I am going to be presenting lectures today about Media Evaluation in our Educational Technology and Design here at the University of Northern Iowa. We are looking for new ways to use laptops/smart phones to make the class more interactive so we are going to incorporate Coveritlive.com so that the students will be able to discuss the materials in a back channel while I am speaking.

I created an account and am embedding the Coveritlive window here in my blog. I will have another person in the back of the lecture hall moderating the discussion while I am speaking.

You can follow along at 6:00 pm CST. We will be talking about Media Evaluation. I would love to have your input.

7 Things that You Don't Need to Know About Me (Dr. Z)

I was tagged by Kathy Schrock. She wrote a posting entitled 7 Things You Don't Really Need to Know About Me on her KaffeeKlatsch blog. Apparently, this was the result of her being mentioned in a similar posting from one of her friends. (Sorry this took so long, Kathy, but your use of media encouraged me to have "just the right photos.") I have been tagged by Vinnie Vrotney as well.

This adds a new meaning to the term "Tag You're It." She included a number of factoids about herself that were quite interesting. So, I have been given the personal disclosure baton and it is my duty to carry it to the next stop. I have been reading Steve Dembo's series of blog postings entitled 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger and he says that I should share personal content so that you will get to know me better, so here it goes: These are 7 Things You Don't Really Need to Know About Me.

1. I have been a magician since I was 14 years old (Member of the Hollywood Magic Castle since 1974). I performed under the stage name of Zeon. Seems that I have traded technological magic with stage magic in recent years.

2. I spent a year (1998-1999) in Malaysia at the Institute of Technology Tun Hussein Onn (now known as Universiti tun Hussein Onn Malysia) as a visiting professor for Purdue University. Taught Educational Media there. My whole family was with me during that year and it was a life-changing experience for all of us.

3. I am an avid West Wing fan. (This is not a cardboard cutout.)

4. I have a large collection of unique ties and wear them trying to fit the theme of what I do (i.e., I wear my Lone Ranger tie on the first day of my Technology Coordinator course at UNI) I must admit that my favorites in my collection are from famous artists (Da Vinci, Dali, Renoir, Munch, Van Gogh, Cezanne, etc.) Here's selection of some of my ties.

5. I run the Keyboarding Research and Resources website. I even wrote a book and a whitepaper

6. I was the first education computing editor for any magazine dedicated to the IBM PC, Personal Computer Age. about keyboarding. This was in 1981.

The tradition is for me to tag 6 more of my friends. Here you go:
Robin Galloway
Steve Hargadon
Clif Mims
Scott McLeod
Vickie Davis
Lois Lindell

The Horizon Report for 2009

The Horizon Report for 2009 has been released.

The Horizon Report is an annual report that is produced jointly by the New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. This account charts the existing and future trends in emerging technologies.

Since the first report in 2002, the Horizon Report has been develped using a veritable Delphian study format for investigation. Each year, a group of about 50 advisory board members research and discuss emerging technologies to generate a list of technologies, challenges, trends and issues that are relevant to today's education.

Each year, they identify a variety of technologies "to watch" as well as how soon we can expect them to be adopted. This "Time to Adoption" is usually broken into "One year or less, Two to three years, and Four to five years"

Here are some lists of what was listed over the past few years:

The 2009 Horizon Report:
One Year or Less: Mobiles and Cloud Computing
Two to Three Years: Geo-Everything and The Personal Web
Four to Five Years: Semantic-Aware Applications and Smart Objects.

The 2008 Horizon Report:
One Year or Less: Grassroots Video and Collaboration Webs
Two to Three Years: Mobile Broadband and Data Mashups
Four to Five Years: Collective Intelligence and Social Operating Systems

The 2007 Horizon Report:
One Year or Less: User-Created Content and Social Netowrking
Two to Three Years: Mobile Phones and Virtual Worlds
Four to Five Years: New Scholarship and Emerging Forms of Publication

I like to use the Horizon Report to inform me of the emerging technologies that will affect our educational paradigm. Do you read the Horizon Reports? How have you found them useful?

Getting Better Google Rankings by Using Keywords Wisely

You can be successful in getting better Google rankings by just managing how you use keywords and keyphrases.

I have been trying to build readership for my Dr. Z Reflects blog over the past month. There are many tips and tricks. Steve Dembo has a 30-Days to Being a Better Blogger series (I am on Day 10). Franklin Bishop has a number of ideas for gaining subscribers on his blog. Darren Rowse has a variety of ideas on his ProBlogger. I even found some interesting discussion at the Webmasters Marketplace and Blog Catalog.

Strategies abound for building better Google rankings. I have done some research and today I will share ways that you can get better Google rankings by just knowing how to manage your keywords and keyphrases.

As you may know, Google learns what is on the Web by sending out search programs (called Bots) to travel from website-to-website cataloging what is there. These Bots use algorythems to analyze web content, send the data back to Google where each website is ranked by content. The trick is to know how the bots analyze your website.

Here are a few tips on how you can organize your posting and write your content to optimize your Google rankings. (I have tried to use these tips in this posting so see if you can find them:

Keywords: Identify the keywords or keyphrases you want to use for your post. It is important to determine these before you write because you will want to integrate these keywords into our content.

Prioritize: List these keywords or keyphrases in your keywords box. The most relevant words should be listed first.

Title: Your first keyword should be included in your title. Use more if you can.

Be Relevant: Make sure the words and/or phrases listed in the keywords section are relevant to the topic. It shouldn't make a difference, but apparently Google will punish you if you have words that aren't relevant.

Be Concise: Limit your keywords to three or four words/phrases. Use keyphrases to address specific niche topics. Notice that I am using "better google rankings" as a keyphrase. This phrase is specific enough to limit the competition and worded in a way that searchers would use.

Placement: Placement is important. Consciously use your keywords in the first few sentences (most important). Include them in the middle sentences as well. Finally, use your keywords and keyphrases in the last two sentences of your post. Google seems to like those final inclusions.

Headline Tags: Include your main keywords using one of the headline tags (h1, h2, h3 . . .) Google Bots seem to consider keywords in headline tags as more important than keywords in the article itself.

Images Too: Use your images. Bots analyze the whole website so it can make a difference if you put one of your weaker keywords in the alt tag of your image. Remember that these image alt tags are meant to assist the blind in knowing what is on the screen. This means that you should select images that relate to your topic so that the keywords will be meaningful.

Finding these tips have made me reconsider how I will create my future postings. In fact, I plan to go back to review and modify some of my previous postings. What tips to you have to help your website achieve better Google rankings as the result of using keywords and keyphrases more efficiently?

photo: evoart.info

Wii: Commercialized or Incentivized

I was just reading Scott McLeod's blog, Dangerously Irrelevant. He shared a video that was a compilation of kids opening their Wii Christmas presents. The unique thing about these clips is the incredibly over-stated show of emotion. Girls are crying and dancing and screaming. Boys are driving their fists into the air and shouting. They were obviously enthused!!!!

Dr. McLeod explained this as an intersection of commercialism and children. Some of his readers lamented upon how ashamed they were to see the effects of commercialism on Christmas. These were obvious conclusions but not necessarily the only ones.

I don't fully agree with their analyses of the weeping wailers as they screamed, cried and drove their fists into the air in celebration of receiving the Wii video game system. While this video definitely portrays a commercial product that the kids saw on TV commercials that were designed to place the Wii on a holy pedestal to be revered by our digital natives, these reactions are not just a matter of rampant commercialism.

I think that they signify fulfillment of their wishes to have personal access to an environment where their efforts are positively reinforced in an incremental manner that guides them to success. The games were developed to motivate and reward - and they succeed.Image via Wikipedia

I must admit that I have a Wii and I have been using the Wii Fit system for about 10 days. I am TOTALLY HOOKED! I awaken in the morning thinking about weather I will jog or dance or meditate on my Wii. As the system boots up and I identify myself, my cybercoach congratulates me on returning for another hour of physical challenges and accomplishments. . . . and yes, daily I do most of the exercises shown in the Nintendo Wii Fit kick-off video. (Here is an example of the Wii fit exercise session with a cybercoach.)

Besides the the arcade accolades that I receive as I head soccer balls, navigate bubbles down rivers, walk tightropes and spin hula hoops, I have experienced physical developments that benefit my posture and overall well being. I have a great time using my Wii and it makes me feel successful.

The part of our culture that we should question is not commercialism. We should ask why don't all of our students feel this way on their first day of school? How many of them punched the air with excitement as they left their homes to return to school this week? Some of them did and we should identify what their teachers are doing to provide them with the sense of success that invites them back for more.

We should take a lesson in motivation and engagement from Wii and integrate it into our classrooms.

Z

What do you think? Do you used the Wii? Do your students?