F.R. "Fritz" Nordengren, MPH

Our 12/10 goal is to explore tools to understand what they do and how they shape the current use of web tools in social and learning environments. Not everyone will like, or see a need for, every tool, but this tool represent a cross section of technology in use in student’s lives.

43things.com is a simple idea and a terrific way to learn about two concepts: social networking and tagging.

First, some background on 43 things. If you are a person who makes a list of goals, or dreams, or things you would like to do, 43 things is a place on line where you can do that. What’s gained from the social network is that if your goal is the same, or similar, to someone else’s goal, the you can see who else on the 43 things web site listed that goal.

Unlike other social network sites, like MySpace, or FaceBook, where you are linked by who you know, on 43things you are linked by what you want to do or achieve. For example, if you want to learn to speak Spanish you can add that to your list and instantly see that 1, 851 other 43things member want to do this as well.

You can view their profiles and see what other goals they have, you can send them encouragement, in the form of a “cheer”, and perhaps, you may find someone with a mutual interest you wish to explore together.

The second tool use of 43things lets you explore the concept of “tagging”. Tagging is a current trend in data collation. Unlike folders, or rigid categories imposed by others, as in the Dewey Decimal system, tags allow diverse groups of people to identify with a few works what a subject or photo or item is and how it should be grouped.

For example, I might tag, or categorize, my series to learn to speak Spanish as “personal improvement” and “language skills” or “foreign language” or “travel”. Now, I have a way of searching other goals people have that are similar to “learning to speak Spanish”. Perhaps someone want to “visit Spain”; I might find them while looking at those goals tagged as “travel”. Someone else may want to learn Portuguese, and I might find them by searching “foreign language”…Or perhaps they speak Spanish and want to learn English, and we may be able to pair up as pen pals, with me writing in Spanish and they writing in English.

43things is one way to begin to understand social networking (and the expectations our students have about how they can communicate via the web. (Students wold like to be able to “instant message” each other when they see a familiar person is also on the class web site at the same time)

It also is a visual way to help understand how folksonomy tools like tagging are changing the way we collate our information.

More resources:

http://www.43things.com/about/view/learn_more

My 43 things list:

http://www.43things.com/person/zenbasser

A repackged Richard Nixon in the 1968 presidential campaign was declared The New Nixon: Tanned, Rested, and Ready.

10 days in Northern Wisconsin has left me feeling the same way. This is the 7th year Dr Ronnie Garrison and I have fished the Northwoods together. Well, that’s not entirely true, two of the years, 05 and 06, I wasn’t able to make it and we fished in Iowa instead.

The trip began with a competitive fishing tournament held each year and made up of a group of men who met via an Inernet discussion group/ usenet Rec.Outdoors.Fishing.Bass. This year’s tourney had a somber note and one of the original participants died the week of the event, and it was renamed in his honor, the Bob Rickardt Memorial Torunament. Like it or not, we’re all getting older, two of our group suffer from significant heat ailments, and they are young men in their 50′s.

So the meditative quality of fishing every day for 7 – 9 hours, in the quiet solitude of Northern Wisconsin had a special pay off this year.

This year, Ronnie and I spent much of our time on Crab Lake. It was there, on Crab Lake, in 2001 where we heard the unbelievable news about 9-11, from a very unbelievable scruffy man standing on a boat dock in a bath robe. We’ve been back on Crab on 9-11 in 2002 and again this year.

I did not fish as aggressively as I have in years past. I enjoyed (almost) every minute of time on the water. The day is snowed and sleeted of and on for 8 hours left me almost too cold to fish. And then, there was the day we hit the rocks on plane. The boat stopped with a thud, just after Ronnie killed the throttle. The skeg and prop crunched beyond repair — the motor still working, but the repair bill amounted to nearly $4500.

On Crab Lake, Ronnie tallied he caught 100 small mouth bass.

Do the math, $45 a fish.

NOTE: Tomorrow’s Lunch and learn at 12:10 is on using RSS in research and the classroom.

Previously, I wrote about the 12/10 conspiracy. You’ll learn more of my thoughts on why 12/10 is a conspiracy as we go along, but to get us started, what is it?

Simply, 12/10 is a challenge and opportunity to you to try 12 new (free) tools in ten months. Tools that are good not because the are new, but can help you be a better researcher and learning partner. The goal and challenge I want to share with you is to try each of these tools, chart your progress, and when you’ve completed 12/10 we’ll reward you with a USB flash drive emblazoned with the 12/10 conspiracy logo. (Heck, it’s better than a “certificate suitable for framing”)

So here is the list and you do not need to complete these in any specific order. and if you have done some already, mark them off. A key here is this, you are welcome to keep your academic hat on and do these in a serious frame of mind — but I encourage you also to have some fun and play. Play is one of the best ways to learn and discover and if it happens to help you be a better researcher, or teacher, well, I won’t tell if you don’t.

1. Learn about RSS feeds and subscribe to at least one feed (And what do you know, tomorrow’s 12/10 lunch and learn is about: ta da RSS feeds!  Link to learn more
2. 43 things …
   1. Explore 43 things web site, You can create an account, and track your 12/10 progress. Share and cheer our learning partners on (You”l see what it is about when you get there: http://www.43things.com Link to learn more
3. Create a FREE Google Account https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount
   1. Use Google documents to share a work in progress with a colleague Once you have your Google account, you’ll see the link to Google Documents. Link to learn more
4. Take that fancy new Google account and create your own blog using Google’s Blogger (Or use WordPress.) Create your first blog entry. https://www.blogger.com/start
5. Page Flakes is a web page aggregator. It uses the RSS feeds and other tools of any number of web sites so that your sites come together in one url to quickly review. http://www.pageflakes.com/ Create your own view of the Web.
6. Search and alerts: use Google Alerts to be updated on content. Want to be notified by email when your favorite research topic in included on a web page or news article? Want to do a little “vanity” surfing? Google alerts will send you an email and a link whenever it finds new information.
7. Tagging .
   1. Use technorati to tag content you read or create. Dewey had a system. The web puts the taxonomy system in the hands of the viewer. Visit technorati www.technorati.com and explore tagging and what it means to the process of categorization.
8. Podcasting what it is and how it is different from streaming media. Use iTunes (installed on my DMU computers and find a list of podcasts on iTunesU.
   1. Subscribe to a podcast, listen to a lecture
9. Social Networking is the trend du jour. But the concepts of social networking web sites do have some influence on designing effective classrooms online.
   1. Make a profile on Facebook http://www.facebook.com
10. Wiki
    1. Create an account on a wiki (Wikipedia or other) and add content
11. Visit flickr. Sharing photos of everything is the purpose of flickr. You can upload and share photos with family, friends, co workers. A group of slides can be shared with a class or colleague. http://www.flickr.com Link to learn more
12. FD labs flickr toys
    1. Make a movie poster, set of trading cards, or another creation. (Many projects are free, some do cost.) http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/

There is it, the 12/10 list. You can do as many or as few as you like, and in any order. But I think if you set your reluctance to try new things aside, and quietly, in the privacy of your home or office, just peek at some of these tools, you might find some new ways to learn, share, and have fun.

As you complete a 12/10 conspiracy item, drop me a note. — OR — send me the link to your 43 things page so I can cheer your progress.

Our goal is to do do these 12 thing in 10 months , the last day of the 12/10 conspiracy is July 31, 2008.

Trivia.quiz

Last week’s question we didn’t have a winner. It was:

According to the Educause study, what percentage of the 2007 report students indicate they prefer a “moderate rather than an extensive” use of IT in courses:

69%

59%

49%

and the right answer was 59%.

This weeks question: What is the 12/10 conspiracy?

a) a chance to better understand some learning tools by trying 12 tools over 10 months

b) figuring our this whole “web 2.0″ thingy

c) a deranged concept by the ed tech strategy guy

d) a way to win a cool USB drive

e) all of the above

Right answers to me

I’ve been out of the office — and relying on dial-up into the Internet this week. Which probably warrants it’s own discussion about how Internet content has changed and how we now create things that are no longer dial-up friendly. But instead, for this learning partner update, I want to share 3 things that crossed my desk and how they relate to learning.

• Harris Polls included this info-bite in a recent newsletter:

With a 21 point increase of laptop ownership in the last two years…the dorm desktop appears as ‘old-school’ as the word processor did in the ‘90’s

• I shared an article about the death and life of Richard Jewell with a colleague’s son recently, and then it occurred to me the son may have been 8 or 9 when Richard Jewell saved 100 people (or more) for death or injury when a bomb exploded in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympics. Students today, as always, may not have the frame of reference as faculty do.

• The Beloit C0llege Mindset List was published including this from the press release:

• Food has always been a health concern. Consumer awareness about ingredients and fats has always been energized. They’ve never “rolled down” a car window, and to them Jack Nicholson is mainly known as the guy who played “The Joker.”
• As usual, they remind their elders how quickly time has passed. For them Pete Rose has never been in baseball. Abbie Hoffman’s always been dead. Johnny Carson has never been live on TV, and Nelson Mandela has always been free.
• As for the Berlin Wall, what’s that?

That times change,
that new innovations work their way into the classroom,
that chronological age separates us from our students;
none of these are new concepts or even news to us as learning partners.

What is important in terms of change is the availability of learning opportunities and the degree of freedom of access we now enjoy. What the new technology — and younger student’s expectations — offer us is an opportunity to help them continue learning under our influence even out side of the class and classroom.

We can connect with students -or read another way- students can connect with learning, in more ways that ever before. Some of the “new” ways are just variations on a theme. Some are truely innovative.

But before we all jump too far on the new-tool-technology bandwagon, it’s important to consider what students are saying about technology use in the classroom. One of the best sources for this perspective, in the undergrad arena, is the Educause The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2007 .

According to Educause,

the study, which reports noticeable changes from previous years, is based on quantitative data from a spring 2007 survey and interviews with 27,846 freshman, senior, and community college students at 103 higher education institutions. It focuses on what kinds of information technologies these students use, own, and experience; their technology behaviors, preferences, and skills; how IT impacts their experiences in their courses; and their perceptions of the role of IT in the academic experience.

“IT is not a good substitute for good teaching. Good teachers are good with or without IT and students learn a great deal from them. Poor teachers are poor with or without IT and students learn little from them.”

I think that speaks volumes.