Web 2.0 Tool: Timeline

08. May 2007 · 5 comments · Categories: Education, Technology, Tools, Web 2.0

Timeline [Cross-posted at the West Tech Blog]

I have started listening to the net@nite podcast on TWiT and this morning I was listening to the Easter Sunday episode on the way to work. One of the callers mentioned a very cool tool called Timeline which is a part of MIT’s SIMILE Project. (Evidently, SIMILE is an acronym for Semantic Interoperability of Metadata and Information in unLike Environments.)

Of course, don’t let all that detract you from the coolness that is Timeline. When I heard the site mentioned on the show, I immediately Jotted myself a note to check it out when I got to work and I must say that I’m very impressed.

According to the site, Timeline is "like Google Maps for time-based information." If that doesn’t mean anything to you, check it out for yourself and peruse some of the sample time lines. One of the sample time lines depicts the events immediately following the assassination of JFK, another the life of impressionist painter Claude Monet. Yet another example (recommended for viewing on a large monitor!) depicts the different prehistoric eras and the dinosaurs that populated the earth during each. Imagine the possibilities!

What I especially like is the ability to click on any of the data points and add text or images. This isn’t a full review because I haven’t played with it that much, but I wanted to pass along something I think may be a valuable Web 2.0 tool for education.

As the school year is winding down, I thought Timeline would be a great tool to capture students’ interest for the last few weeks. There is plenty of documentation making it simple for both teachers and students to create interactive time lines.

Internet Study – Week 6

22. March 2007 · Write a comment · Categories: blogging, Communication, Education, Technology, Tools, Web 2.0

On Wednesday I had the opportunity to do a super-quick, 30-minute overview of blogs and wikis for the teachers participating in our Internet Study. I would call it more of a learning community than a study but that’s just semantics.

I wanted to share the resources that I created for use in my presentation. Additionally, a hearty thank you all of the other folks who have shared their resources with the community-at-large. In that spirit, I’m sharing back. They’re not comprehensive by any means, but I found that it was a perfect 30-minute overview.

  • Blogs & Wikis – Wiki page with notes and links from the session.
  • West Tech Blog – Demo blog I set up using Blogger to show how simple it is to start a blog, add content, comments, and change templates.
  • Demo Wiki – Wiki I used to show how simple it is to add text, links, pictures, and media to a wiki.

I’m trying to get them to be comfortable editing wikis that they didn’t create, but I think that will take some time. All in all, it appeared to be well received. For the next two Wednesday sessions, we will be spending lunch in the lab where we will be giving them some "supervised" time to play.

Tumblelogs

01. March 2007 · 5 comments · Categories: blogging, Communication, Technology, Web 2.0

After listening to last week’s episode of Macbreak Weekly (one of my favorite podcasts…), I discovered Tumblelogging.  I set one up for myself at Tumblr (with no ‘e’ in the Web 2.0 tradition) and have been finding it a very useful place to dump random things that are more than a del.icio.us link, more than a Flickr photo, and less than a blog post.

If you’re new to the concept, a Tumblelog is essentially a lightweight blog with no commenting. You get a surprisingly powerful bookmarklet that allows you to post a pic from any page in Flickr. If I could just get mine set up to receive pics directly from my mobile phone, I think I’d be onto something!

Further reading:

Update 3/8/07: Talk about being responsive to user requests!! Mobile uploads in Beta!

DIDDTU Links of the Week for February 9, 2007

09. February 2007 · Write a comment · Categories: blogging, Technology, Tools, Web 2.0
  • Picnik – Web-based photo editing tool that can connect to your Flickr account.
  • Web 2.0 – The Machine is Us/ing Us – Very well-done video that’s making the rounds right now.
  • Zoho – In a word: Wow!  The best of Google Docs & Spreadsheet, PowerPoint, and Wikispaces in a free, browser based Web 2.0 application.  Notebook functionality "coming soon."

Web 2.0 Tool: stikkit

07. February 2007 · Write a comment · Categories: Communication, Productivity, Technology, Tools, Web 2.0

I’m a self-proclaimed organization and productivity geek.  One of the reasons that my personal productivity system has remained primarily paper-based is that in a lot of ways, paper is more flexible and adaptable than all the high-tech whiz-bang gadgets and programs that are out there.   For example, I want granular control over how I see and interact with my "stuff."  Unfortunately, how I want to see my stuff is not always how Outlook or iCal thinks I should be able to see and interact with my stuff.

I have no plans to ditch my paper-based system any time soon, but stikkit is certainly giving me a reason to explore the possibilities.  The company behind stikkit is called values of n and they proclaim that their mission is "to help people collaborate and get organized."  Collaboration is a running theme I’m seeing in the edublogosphere (is that a word?), and organization is one of my personal obsessions so it seems that there may be some real possibilities for this.

I have tried a bazillion web apps (Backpack, Remember the Milk, etc.) that I’ve used for a while and then abandoned because they did one or two things extremely well, but either fell short or completely failed to address that I also wanted to incorporate some other functionality.  Of course, none of these systems purported to actually to do all of the things that stikkit is doing.

If you’re interested, Merlin Mann just published an informative (if not overwhelming!) post about the nuts and bolts of stikkit‘s functionality, including its use of "magic words" that builds on the simple text input that I enjoy so much in Google Calendar.

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