Thursday, October 16, 2008
Using Web 2.0 for Teaching and Learning. Mark Frydenberg. Bentley University.
Repurposed as an IT-intensive course that teaches web concepts through the lens of web 2.0.
New course: Web 2.0 at a Business University.
Students are already on Facebook, might know about blogs and wikis. Some concept of what 2.0 is.
Class run on class blog and wiki where podcasts, etc are posted.
Notes that students see the RSS feed icon all the time, but don't always know what it means, or that it can be used on a cellphone.
Discussion of Skype and Twitter as ways to grasp technology and culture (Skype project with Australia noted the problems time zones create).
Google Docs, spreadhsheets, wikis, etc.
Final goal: Have students create their own web 2.0 applications. Which leads to tools for mashups. Sub-goal will teach some programming concepts.
Mashup: Data from one web source, used in another. Examples (mostly mapping) Earthquakes, zillow, facebook friends.
Tag Galaxy -- makes Flickr mashups.
Notable mashup sites:
http://Programmableweb.com
http://mashable.com
http://webmashup.com
http://readwriteweb.com
http://go2web20.net/
That last one has an insane amount of links.
Mashups -- teach programming concepts visually -- alice, scratch, logo, stagecast, visual basic all have hit this area. Create games, animations, stories, sims, graphics.
Wanted to create items that use the data the students brought.
Microsoft Popfly -- built for hobbyists, but usable in education.
Used Popfly because it required less programming knowledge than Pipes. Also notes that there are other tools from Google, Intel, etc. All will work.
Teaching IT Concepts using Popfly. Noted that advanced concepts like service-oriented architecture and web services come up when creating mashups.
Good slide showing how the object-oriented nature of mashups works. Noted for myself here, since mentioning it doesn't do anyone else any good without a link. :-)
Now we're looking at Popfly. There's a web page creator, a game creator, and a mashup creator. Today's for looking at the last one, of course.
Requires Windows Live ID, because Microsoft hates me. Also requires Silverlight, but I actually like that app.
Left side of edit screen has a number of pre-built blocks. Drag-and-drop blocks onto design surface. He just dragged the Wikipedia block onto the surface, opened the block, typed a search for an item and limited it to 15. Good example of where the data is coming from (and teaching webservices).
Takes that data into XML, which shows the data that comes in (and separates form and content). Real data teachs how XML can be used better than standard out-of-the-box XML examples.
Now he's taken the Carousel Block out, and connected them. An exclamation point popped up, which meant that PopFly needed more info (in this case, the data type -- an image).
That was an insanely small amount of work for a nice little mashup.
Question about the maximum number of blocks. He's now showing one called Fastfoodfinder. This one has 22. Starts with a datablock with the name of a number of restaurants and their favicons). First user input box provides drop-down for user to select. Second user input box gets zip code. Assorted blocks then use the first drop-down to pick proper picture for restaurant. Geonames block gets latitude and longitude, sends it to a phone book block to do a search. Yet another block creates list of pushpins (and a second for the second restaurant), final block sends it all to Virtual Earth.
From creating that, students learn sequence and selection, repetition, combining data of different types, etc.
Major catch -- requires MS's blocks. Notes that this works better as an educational tool, but wouldn't build a proper business on one.
Allows users to view how blocks are implemented in javascript and xml.
Showing a mashup now that's pulling in mutiple data sources and plotting on a map.
Spends four class days (two weeks) on teaching Pop fly. Day 1: Basic stuff (display images). Day 2: Combine RSS feeds, popfly blocks. Day 3: Facebook or map feeds. Day 4: Extending PopFly. That last one deals with processing the output, etc.
Some student demos (of freshman projects). One is a standard info search. The other takes common surfing locations, and combines with a map to show surfing conditions. Good examples to show how the students were taking data that was of interest to them.
Never uses the "P word" (programming) in class. Mentions that there's a perception that programming jobs are being outsourced. More about teaching them how to build applications.
It's programming, but in the sense of understanding the process and workflow, not the coding aspect.
Question from audience: Where do you expect to go with this from here?
Answer: Uses PopFly for seniors to create and develop blocks.
Has a nice guide for teachers and students for using PopFly. Lessons are up on Popfly's website (and one lesson is in our packet). PopFly Wiki.
Question about embedding mashups. Popfly normally puts an icon on their mashups, but there's a way to remove them.
Why it's useful: For any company, you need two things: an idea, and a business plan. Doesn't mater how good the business plan is, you need a proof of concept. Popfly might not give the full PoC, but it gives a sense of what might have to be done.
Repurposed as an IT-intensive course that teaches web concepts through the lens of web 2.0.
New course: Web 2.0 at a Business University.
Students are already on Facebook, might know about blogs and wikis. Some concept of what 2.0 is.
Class run on class blog and wiki where podcasts, etc are posted.
Notes that students see the RSS feed icon all the time, but don't always know what it means, or that it can be used on a cellphone.
Discussion of Skype and Twitter as ways to grasp technology and culture (Skype project with Australia noted the problems time zones create).
Google Docs, spreadhsheets, wikis, etc.
Final goal: Have students create their own web 2.0 applications. Which leads to tools for mashups. Sub-goal will teach some programming concepts.
Mashup: Data from one web source, used in another. Examples (mostly mapping) Earthquakes, zillow, facebook friends.
Tag Galaxy -- makes Flickr mashups.
Notable mashup sites:
http://Programmableweb.com
http://mashable.com
http://webmashup.com
http://readwriteweb.com
http://go2web20.net/
That last one has an insane amount of links.
Mashups -- teach programming concepts visually -- alice, scratch, logo, stagecast, visual basic all have hit this area. Create games, animations, stories, sims, graphics.
Wanted to create items that use the data the students brought.
Microsoft Popfly -- built for hobbyists, but usable in education.
Used Popfly because it required less programming knowledge than Pipes. Also notes that there are other tools from Google, Intel, etc. All will work.
Teaching IT Concepts using Popfly. Noted that advanced concepts like service-oriented architecture and web services come up when creating mashups.
Good slide showing how the object-oriented nature of mashups works. Noted for myself here, since mentioning it doesn't do anyone else any good without a link. :-)
Now we're looking at Popfly. There's a web page creator, a game creator, and a mashup creator. Today's for looking at the last one, of course.
Requires Windows Live ID, because Microsoft hates me. Also requires Silverlight, but I actually like that app.
Left side of edit screen has a number of pre-built blocks. Drag-and-drop blocks onto design surface. He just dragged the Wikipedia block onto the surface, opened the block, typed a search for an item and limited it to 15. Good example of where the data is coming from (and teaching webservices).
Takes that data into XML, which shows the data that comes in (and separates form and content). Real data teachs how XML can be used better than standard out-of-the-box XML examples.
Now he's taken the Carousel Block out, and connected them. An exclamation point popped up, which meant that PopFly needed more info (in this case, the data type -- an image).
That was an insanely small amount of work for a nice little mashup.
Question about the maximum number of blocks. He's now showing one called Fastfoodfinder. This one has 22. Starts with a datablock with the name of a number of restaurants and their favicons). First user input box provides drop-down for user to select. Second user input box gets zip code. Assorted blocks then use the first drop-down to pick proper picture for restaurant. Geonames block gets latitude and longitude, sends it to a phone book block to do a search. Yet another block creates list of pushpins (and a second for the second restaurant), final block sends it all to Virtual Earth.
From creating that, students learn sequence and selection, repetition, combining data of different types, etc.
Major catch -- requires MS's blocks. Notes that this works better as an educational tool, but wouldn't build a proper business on one.
Allows users to view how blocks are implemented in javascript and xml.
Showing a mashup now that's pulling in mutiple data sources and plotting on a map.
Spends four class days (two weeks) on teaching Pop fly. Day 1: Basic stuff (display images). Day 2: Combine RSS feeds, popfly blocks. Day 3: Facebook or map feeds. Day 4: Extending PopFly. That last one deals with processing the output, etc.
Some student demos (of freshman projects). One is a standard info search. The other takes common surfing locations, and combines with a map to show surfing conditions. Good examples to show how the students were taking data that was of interest to them.
Never uses the "P word" (programming) in class. Mentions that there's a perception that programming jobs are being outsourced. More about teaching them how to build applications.
It's programming, but in the sense of understanding the process and workflow, not the coding aspect.
Question from audience: Where do you expect to go with this from here?
Answer: Uses PopFly for seniors to create and develop blocks.
Has a nice guide for teachers and students for using PopFly. Lessons are up on Popfly's website (and one lesson is in our packet). PopFly Wiki.
Question about embedding mashups. Popfly normally puts an icon on their mashups, but there's a way to remove them.
Why it's useful: For any company, you need two things: an idea, and a business plan. Doesn't mater how good the business plan is, you need a proof of concept. Popfly might not give the full PoC, but it gives a sense of what might have to be done.
Labels: Nercomp
# posted by Adam Smith @ 10:02 AM 
