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I like to be reminded that the mind is an amazing thing, that people are different in the way they see things, learn things, focus on things; that people can surprise you, amaze you.
unreal bookshop
Originally uploaded by tsheko
Two fun ways of looking at books are with Viewzi and Zoomii. Viewzi is a gorgeous visual search engine offering a variety of searching options. But more about that later… If you choose the Amazon Book search, you get a deliciously large image and synopsis of the book. Zoomii takes book searching one step further – it’s an online book shop, displaying books on shelves under different genres. You can move through the bookshop, browsing through books and clicking on them for information. Even if you don’t end up using Amazon’s book buying options, you will still enjoy this virtual bookstore experience.
Getting dressed in 1805
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When muttering profanities under my breath whilst trying to remember usernames and passwords for various Web 2.0 applications, I like to remind myself that, while many things have become complicated by technology of our times, there are some things that have been simplified - thankfully.
Why Young Adult?
Originally uploaded by tsheko
Read Alert has a fascinating debate about the place of the Young Adult label in fiction. To whet your appetite, here’s a section of what Frank Cottrell Boyce says:
‘It used to be the case that you moved on from children’s fiction to adult fiction, from The Owl Service, maybe, to Catcher in the Rye. There were, of course, some adult authors who were more fashionable with teenage readers than others – Salinger, Vonnegut, Maya Angelou. But these were chosen by teenagers themselves from the vast world of books. Some time ago, someone saw that trend and turned it into a demographic. Fortunes were made but something crucial was lost. We have already ghettoised teenagers’ tastes in music, in clothes and – God forgive us – in food. Can’t we at least let them share our reading? Is there anything more depressing than the sight of a “young adult” bookshelf in the corner of the shop’.
Read the string of comments for a satisfying debate on the issue of Young Adult fiction – is the category YA ‘ghettoising’ or ‘the most flexible, challenging and dynamic genre in publishing’?
Another wordle
wordle Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven
Originally uploaded by tsheko
Couldn’t help myself. This time I created my wordle using Edgar Allan Poe’s The raven.
Wordle
Originally uploaded by tsheko
My first go at Wordle, the word cloud generator using text, has resulted in a rather strong example of the interesting possibilities with this application. Using Hitler’s speech delivered in Munich in April, 1923, the wordle has created a powerful, visual summary of the text, revealing points of emphasis.
It would be an interesting experiment for students to enter chunks of text in order to visualise main concepts and ideas at a glance. You can also play around with colour and font. I’d be interested to know what other ideas anyone has for this application in the classroom.
Phun
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For more information, see "Engaged Learning and Social Physics: PHUN, an Interactive 2D Physics Sandbox"
I found Phun at Lynn Marentette's blog: Technology-supported human-world interaction
Amazing
Originally uploaded by tsheko
I found an amazing link from the online art magazine Art Daily. If you click on the photos you’ll be able get a 360 degree panoramic view.
There’s more to check out on this site, for example, if you click on Graphic Gallery, you get a graphic calendar, creative numbers.
Brave new world: learning to connect in new ways
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This video (3 in one) of the forum at Stanford University, "From MySpace to HipHop: new media in the everyday lives of youth", delves into a subject that I'm compulsively drawn to - social networking and the implications of these new ways of connecting. The questions that come out of these presentations are vital to our understanding of youth in order to evaluate and re-evaluate our teaching and learning programs. Some of these questions are:
Are we seeing an evolution to a new kind of engaged community?Should we be enthused about the ubiquitous nature of digital media or should we be deeply concerned?As educators, how can we spark the same engagement and motivation that we see on MySpace and Facebook?Are young people changing through their participation with digital media?How does this change their relationship to school and home life?Why do they participate in digital communities rather than real life?
Although the research study presented here doesn't tell us what to do, only what we need to know, I think that it's vital to realise what we need to know. Our familiarisation with Web 2.0 applications is only the beginning of a new direction in education. More importantly, we need to understand why we are doing this and what else we need to find out. One of the speakers points out that we may be at an inflection point where change is accelerating and old ways disappearing, where systems are no longer working, indescribable innovation is becoming possible. If this is true, then we need to understand it and we need to understand the good and the bad, and we need to harness it.
I've spoken about the significance of audience for young people. The first speaker makes an important point - Web 2.0 and what young people do within this environment is inextricably tied with who they make it for and with. MySpace and Facebook enable deeply social activity not driven by the technology itself. Network publics are an extension of youth's existing publics. How does this change young people's relationship to school and home life?
I'm going back to the question I was asked at my recent interview: how do we get to know adolescents?
This question is at the heart of the research presented here. The goal of the research is to understand these changes from the point of view of youth themselves. As the first speaker said, before we can design our own adult-centred agendas for education, we have to try to take young people's agendas and experiences seriously on their own terms.
Have a look at Heather Horst's submission to the website Digital youth research. I found this link on Hey Jude. Thanks.
Regional libraries
Originally uploaded by meeyauw
In search of a Web 2.0 presence at my local library, I eventually discovered an impressive array of things. I say ‘eventually’ because the link from the homepage was not outstanding in any way. Apart from clearly written explanations of Web 2.0 applications, as well as links in each section, the library boasted the following:
- a readers’ advisory wiki
- a training wiki
- Facebook profile, including a catalogue search
- Librarything-generated book cover images and tag clouds
- MySpace youth forum (to meet online and discuss music, reading & movies)
- Podcasts author talks
- Links to Second Life resources and directory of virtual worlds by category (eg. for kids, for techies, for teens, for newbies, for artists, for 40+, etc.)
- YouTube (list of popular video hosting sites
That’s a great start, and I think the problem of attracting users here is the same as in school libraries. There is a lot of great stuff there, it’s a matter of marketing to users.
