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A Google a Day provides daily trivia, and can be a fun way to teach your students important online research skills.

Hi Fabrizio, I just tried the Google a Day and I like the concept very much. However, unless I was doing something wrong, I found it cumbersome to do the research and get back to the original question. In addition, when I tried to access Google Map, which was needed for answering today's question, it said it would not support it in the Google a Day window. So I opend GM up in another window. Did you experience something similiar? With that being said, I think the idea is great, especially since they give you tips and hints at how to find the answer. I think researching tips and exercises are very important, even for graduate students. You can never get enough practice in researching topics. Thanks for sharing this, I really liked it.

When I type a research on the search box it opens a pop-up window with the data, so I have two pages open, the A Google a Day one and the search one. I think it works pretty well on Chrome, I didn't have any problem, but I haven't tried it with other browsers. A Google a Day is fun and challenging; however, I don't think you can learn too much from your answers, they are too general. Maybe in the future there will be a way to customize it and create your own challenges, it would be really interesting to use with our students/learners.

100 Ways to Use VoiceThread in EDU is the title of a collaborative effort to gather educators' ideas for using VoiceThread in the classroom. This site has a live Voice Thread where you can listen to educators as well as leave your own VT comment. It looks interesting. I just liked the idea of leaving a comment for others to listen to if they're interested.

So I guess its time for me to jump on the VoiceThread bandwagon. This is officially my next "exploration" project.

Jennifer, Warning! Once you get on the bandwagon, you'll never want to get off....lol. :)

Just found this journal and it just might be of interest to some of you. Articles on CoP in higher ed, teaching with wikis ...

Thanks for sharing this journal! Just when I wanted to learn more about this topic :)

Shuang, check out the first issue -- I want to read every single article in that one (and downloaded them all). Think I'll start with the Engstrom one.

Another website that lists Web 2.0 tools.

Alyn, I also have a written list on several scratch pieces of paper that are in various places around my computers. Now, everything that I need to know about web 2.0 tools and links are in one place. I am overwhelmed with the amount of resources that were listed. I have only heard of about 1/2 of what is posted on this site.

I'm with both of you. I started a list on my computer. As I discover a site from the class, or someone's blog, I would add it. This list is great, but I'm planning on still organzing the list I've come up with. That is if I ever get around to it. I'm hoping that will be a quicker reference, but we'll see if I ever get to it :)

First in a series on setting up your own MOOC (or any other course, really) using google and related tools.

I think the articles are great, I looked at a few of the parts. Nice descriptions and screenshots. I haven't asked this before, and maybe I should know this but what are the RSS feeds? I have ignored them because I didn't know what they were. Since part 2 tells me how to add them to my site, I wonder what they are.

Thank you very much for sharing this, Vanessa, I'm going to try it, it seems like a great platform to use. Fran, basically if you want to follow a blog or a website and don't want to check every day if there's something new published, you add this blog/website to a feed reader (I use Google Reader) and see all the new posts of the different blogs and websites published on the same page. This is (more or less) a RSS feed. Such a great help for managing information!

Use of twitter to share or re-enact great novels

I think web 2.0 storytelling is a great way to keep the students motivated, to help their knowledge construction through collaboration, and to enable the teacher to formative evaluate and monitor the learning process.

Cool article. I love storytelling, both telling and listening. This would take it to the next level of not just telling/listening but actively involving yourself in a story with others. Its like the produsage of storytelling where people, while not changing the outline of the original story, get to create, organically, all the inbetweens. Thanks V.

If you've got an hour to spare (I know, I know), this lecture by Henry Jenkins is worth a watch. Good stuff about participation, content (distribution vs circulation), etc.

Has anyone worked with this before? Would love to get some input. Thanks. Start right away. It's easy. With its familiar user interface and highly intuitive features, Storyline works the way you expect. Learn more Create interactivity like never before. Introducing slide layers, the all-new way to create interactivity with unrivaled speed and ease. Learn more Get all the features you could ever want-in one tool.

Hi Alyn! You must have been in Dr. Dennen's Web 2.0 class! Great to see you. I know ths is a slow response, but our organization has looked at Articulate. I have no experience with it, but it sounds like an awesome course developer tool... I hope you are doing great!

Hi Alyn, Articulate is a fantastic product. I have used Articulate Studio for several years now and find the interface easy, the output quality very good, and the on demand learning features such as tutorials and group blogs exceptional. The product is also very affordable. You don't need to know flash or html to be able to use Articulate. It works as an add-in to PowerPoint, but you can also encode video, create interactive learning components and develop quizzes within the software. In addition to being able to develop content, you can publish it to an LMS or Articulate has their own e-learning hosting service for those who don't need to full scope of an LMS. Articulate Storyline is a new product that has tempted me. It works outside the PowerPoint environment and allows the creation of standalone online instructional content with many different types of interactive objects. Storyline takes the Studio I have been using up a notch. While I have no experience with Storyline, I would recommend you at least try the free trial they offer. Based on my previous experience with Articulate Studio, I think you will be very pleased with the product.

Thought this article might be of interest to you -- especially as we consider Web 2.0 and formal learning. You can get it from the FSU library if you're logged in. If you don't know how to log in for distance library access, look at the top right of the library home page for the link. Ask Vanessa or Shuang if you need help.

At the start of this class, I thought Twitter was too much trouble, why bother. In the article you bookmarked, I would think that all one has to do was just call someone, or speak to another person. However, after emailing you and others today about things, I realized how valuable it is to be able to respond to someone with just a quick answer. This eliminates the formality of face to face conversations which usually take a lot of extra time ("hi, how are you? I'm fine, how is the family, etc....waiting for the right moment to get to the real reason why one called). I am all for f2f get togethers and phone conversations, either socially or professionally, but when it comes to things like finding out educational policies that could be answered by knowledgeable people within a few seconds, why not just cut to the chase and get a quick short answer, unless of course, one is fortunate to have an abundance of time...cough....cough.. This has awakened me to the power of Twitter and its role in education. Thanks.

Its just amazing how easily we can all create a mobile website. Great communication tool, great for business, etc. Onbile is a free online platform to create easily mobile websites. Without programming knowledge. Using premium templates with high quality design. With the best prices and suitable for every phone screen resolution. Mobile websites available for iPhone, Android phones, Blackberry and tablets. Free and professional plans to create your mobile site with affordable prices.

This is a nice alternative to WebEx. It gives you a virtual classroom to work in where you can store documents of most types, present them in class, do all the things Web Ex does like web conferencing, whiteboard, etc. I am posting this in their virtual classroom where you can access the web collectively. I found this to explore Web 2.0 tools used for learning.

Alyn, Thank you for sharing all this valuable information. I'm taking notes. In my "free" time, I'm going to be figuring how to implement all these new technologies into my classroom. I'm feeling submerged by technology at this point, but like it!!!

Animoto turns your photos and video clips into professional video slideshows in minutes. Fast, free and shockingly simple - we make awesome easy.

Sounds really cool. I'll have to play with this one. Thanks for sharing.

I used it for a goodbye message to a friend of mine and it's pretty cool. However, the free 30" are not enough for any project. I think that, if you have a big presentation, it's worth the small fee.

It's good to know this site. 

This looks very heavy duty. For serious users in Industry. What uses do you see for Instructional Designers and teachers?

Just one of many sites that share knowledge on free tools.

Hangouts let you video chat with up to 9 people, face-to-face-to-face. You can watch YouTube videos, wear pirate hats, or even doodle together.

I did not write the original comment. Google hangouts is a new communication tool that is free. It is like Facetime except that you can have up to 9 people on your call. It is suppose to be better then Skype because there is a screen sharing tool that you can use during the call. I just discovered this last night! I plan on trying it out when my hubby leaves for South Africa in a couple of weeks.

It is better than Skype, great quality and an interactive screen. I love it, and use it a lot to communicate with my family (I wrote a post about that!).

I stumbled on this and wanted to share this if anyone wants to take the time to read about Web 2.0 and online communities. There is a lot of stuff we already know, but a lot that we don't know. Seems like this fits right in with Produsage.