Engagement 2.0: Using Social Networking Web Apps to Increase Interaction and Learning

Engagement 2.0: Using Social Networking Web Apps to Increase

Interaction and Learning

Manuel A. Pérez-QuiñonesDept. of Computer Science

perez@cs.vt.eduhttp://perez.cs.vt.edu

Carlos EviaDept. of English

carlos.evia@vt.eduhttp://faculty.english.vt.edu/evia/

Wednesday, October 7,

Social Software*...

• ...enables people to rendezvous, connect or collaborate through computer-mediated communication [Wikipedia]

• 55% of all American youth (ages 12-17) use some form of social networking site [Pew Internet & American Life Project, Lenhart 2007]

2* social software is sometimes a synonym for Web 2.0Wednesday, October 7,

Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g

Wednesday, October 7,

Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g

Wednesday, October 7,

Interaction and learning with online collaboration

• Agenda for meetings (Google Docs)

• Common calendar deadlines, conferences, trips (Shared calendar)

• Shared documents folder (Dropbox)

• Quick communication/collaboration (Twitter)

4Wednesday, October 7,

Google Docs• Online documents, edited and

stored within a browser with Word-like interface

• Share document with each student

• Use for agenda or common notes, document writing, etc.

• Publication plans

• Forms (with data gathering)

• etc...

Wednesday, October 7,

Agenda for Meetings• Document between student

and advisor

• Shared agenda, updated ahead of time (often by student)

• I check agenda before meeting and address issues

• Keeps record of previous meetings

• Marissa Mayer's how to run a meeting

• http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/sep2006/sb20060927_259688.htm

Wednesday, October 7,

Documents shared

• Publications plans

• NSF Proposal in the making

• Forms/Spreadsheets for data gathering

7

Demo

Wednesday, October 7,

Shared calendar• Keep track of upcoming

deadlines for conferences, fellowships, grant opportunities, events, etc.

• Group responsibility to post/manage

• Google Docs, iCal or even Exchange

• Student benefit of seeing when I am in the office

Wednesday, October 7,

• Quick demo

• Google Calendar - conference deadlines, CDC

• Personal Calendar

• Family, Work, Others

CalendarDemo

Wednesday, October 7,

Dropbox

• Store and share documents online

• Software syncs your computer files with their online repository

• Can have multiple computers per account

• Share folders transparently

• Free software, limit of 2GB; paid option for more storage

10Wednesday, October 7,

Share with many• Thesis folder, shared with

student

• Book, shared with co-authors

• Folder shared with family

• Software folder, shared with middle school teachers

• Grant folder, shared with coPIs

• Others for me, available on my iPod touch, on web

Demo

Wednesday, October 7,

iPhone support• Access whatever files you put

in dropbox from your iPhone

• Basic support for viewing content (but not editing)

• New iPhone App (haven’t played with it yet)

Wednesday, October 7,

Middle school setup• Description http://perez.cs.vt.edu/bns-computers

• One dropbox account for all computers

• All contents automatically replicated to all

• Parent’s home computer has their own dropbox

• Kids folder shared with parent’s account

• Teacher’s see all content at their workstation, no submission of work needed

• Can see from home without moving materials13

Wednesday, October 7,

Twitter.com• Micro blogging platform

• Status (what are you doing) service

• Inform your friends, be informed about their status

• “Follow” friends, famous people, or single words

• Updates can be received via email, SMS (to your phone), desktop client, etc.

• Has been used in courses to support “contextualized” teaching (teaching in the moment)

• I use it to post announcements and updates to course materials, and to interact with students in short bursts

• Follow us: mapq and carlosevia

14

Demo

Wednesday, October 7,

Casual conversation with the world• Different people catch what

you say and repeat it (RT)

• Turn taking conversation online (asynchronous)

• Global conversation

Demo

Wednesday, October 7,

“The class twitter account served as a nice platform for the class participants to built rapport and exchange thoughts and ideas. On a personal note, […] whenever I wanted a clarification, I just sent him a private message on Twitter and got back a quick reply.”

16

Student from CS 5774 Fall 2008

Wednesday, October 7,

Wednesday, October 7,

slideshare.net

18Wednesday, October 7,

Embeddable...

• Because all content is on the web, it can be embedded in other pages

• See http://happy.cs.vt.edu/fdi09/

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Demo

Wednesday, October 7,

Questions?

Manuel A. Pérez-QuiñonesDept. of Computer Science

perez@cs.vt.eduhttp://perez.cs.vt.edu

Twitter: mapq

Carlos EviaDept. of English

carlos.evia@vt.eduhttp://faculty.english.vt.edu/evia/

Twitter: carlosevia

20Wednesday, October 7,