43 things
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:
