Thing #17 of “23 Things”

Tagging and social bookmarking with Del.icio.us very similar to each

Once again I was surprised and impressed by the reach of these seemingly simple ideas such as social bookmarking. My initial thought was that social website bookmarking was useless or at less unnecessary. But I was wrong. This is a sharing club if you will. Remember Napster? The power of Napster and later LimeWire and other files sharing internet software was in the numbers… millions of people collaborating and sharing files (music, pictures, movies, programs etc) directly from computer to computer or “peer to peer”. Well, Delicious.com and Diigo.com are similar ideas but instead of sharing files you share your searched product, your invested time, the information that you have found, in the form of a website, as a result of your activity on the internet. And the power once again is in the numbers. Like Wikipedia, if someone is wrong about something, it doesn’t matter because a thousand other people most likely will be right and you are guaranteed to get the best product anyway.

I wish Google had something similar. I always prefer a well know company (a brand name product). For example, it turns out Furl doesn’t exist anymore… when you click on the Furl link (www.furl.net) you are immediately taken to www.Diigo.com. I suppose they change the name from Furl to Diigo. Also, Magnolia is accepting subscriptions only by invitation so I did not explore it. I did look at Delicious via the APSU account provided for exploration but I did not join in because I already had one created when I was hired as a teacher over a year ago. I tried to look at my old account but for some reason I was unable to sign in.

During my exploration of Delicious I realized how useful it can be for everyone and especially for teachers. It is like a search engine with limited but intentionally and properly selected sources. At the end I decided to join in www.Diigo.com because I this one not only allows you to bookmark websites but also let you save them either as a snapshot or completely. A service similar to Google’s cached websites, but instead you choose when to cache or save the site. Imagine not having to worry about links that don’t work anymore since the links to your saved sites are guaranteed to always work. Of course, if Diigo decides to shut down you will be in trouble. This is why I said before that I wish Google had something similar since Google is on the rise and will probably stay with us for many years to come. It would be better if Diigo allowed to choose to save the websites also in your own hard drive together with the internet or just let you save locally but share globally in a “Peer to Peer” fashion, like Napster or LimeWire. I think the browser; the IE or Google’s Crome or even the OS should include this functionality.

Years ago MS was experimenting with something similar. With Windows 98 you could easily customize your local folder to include background pictures, internet or local links etc to make your folders look and feel like a website. I think MS was thinking about blending in the internet with your computer at home and make the internet browsing and your computer “browsing” look the same. Somehow they did not continue in this direction. Either way, I think I will use Diigo a lot from now on. It installed in my computer as a toolbar. Eventually I will explore Delicious with my Mac where I initially installed it but right now I need to go to sleep.

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Thing #16 of “23 Things”

Get Organized with Web 2.0 Tools

iGoogle, PageFlakes, and Netvibes are very similar to each other. They all are very simple to set up and useful to keep organized. All of them allow you to customize several pages via tabs. PageFlakes and Netvibes have the tabs on top and iGoogle has them on the left side which makes it a bit less obvious at first but equally useful. I chose to stay with iGoogle for several reasons, some more important than others. iGoogle has a more attractive and innovative look, but more importantly, I was already using iGoogle because Google has combined many other services that I use all the time on this page, such as Gmail, Maps, internet search and more. This is how my iGoogle page looks like now:

Click on the image to see a higher resolution image

I have already made this page my permanent page and I plan to customize it further.
In reference to the online Calendars I looked at Scrybe. Scrybe is not accepting subscriptions at the moment but I look at a video clip where Scrybe is explained. I could not take a look at “30 Boxes” because I would have to create an account and I didn’t want another account. Again, Scrybe seems very user friendly and useful, but once again I chose Google Calendar for reasons similar to the ones explained previously. I am not using Google Calendar but I may, because it is on the internet and therefore I will have access to it from anywhere. Right now I am using MS Outlook at home and my “smart phone” when not at home, but I don’t like that I have to synchronize them all the time manually. I wish my cell phone would connect to my computer automatically via my wireless network when I am at home without my having to actually connect it to my Vista desktop computer, open Outlook and manually synchronize the calendar. The only problem with Google Calendar is that I don’t know if I can synchronize my calendar with my cell phone. If I do, I will definitely prefer Google over Outlook.
“Ta da list” or “Remember the Milk” are online To Do lists which require you to create an account. Honestly I don’t need this, simply because the things that I have to do are always clear in time. Without a To Do list I never forget to do anything. Very rarely I forget something that I have to do. Jott don’t appear to be an online To Do list. Perhaps their new owner got rid of that. To Do lists seem to be too much work for me and I don’t have the need for one.
I would recommend the Google online Calendar since it is online and it is for free. I am considering using it myself. I will also recommend iGoogle.
I decided not to do the Challenge part this time.

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Thing #15 of “23 Things”

What in the world is a Wiki?

I really liked Wikis. It is amazing how a simple idea can became something huge, like Wikipedia. I can see a lot of potential for Wikis now and in the future… too bad I didn’t see this years ago… I would be rich by now. But the hard thing is to see the reach of an idea before everyone else, not after…
Anyway, teachers can really use these "wikis" in their classroom (an obvious statement), especially history teachers, English teachers, social sciences teachers etc. I don’t think math teachers can use wikis now so much. The reason is because it seems there are no wikis where you can write formulas; equations etc (correct me if I am wrong). In other words, there are not public wikis with symbolic editing.
I would love to see a wiki created by one of the leading companies producing mathematical tools today, such as MathWorks which produces MATLAB and Simulink, or PTC, previously own by MathSoft, the creator of MathCad or Wolfram Research with Mathematica, or MapleSoft with Maple, or even Texas Instruments with their new TI nspire calculators (CAS and regular) with symbolic capabilities.
My wife and I own Maple and MathCad 14 and I have worked in the past with all of these software packages capable of doing much more than just calculations. They are programming/simulation suites designed for engineering and science at the highest levels.
It surprises me that these companies don’t have a Wiki friendly software package yet because it seems to me it is a great way to acquire users at early ages which is very important because these programs are not simple to use.
MathCad 14 (and also Maple) have a symbolic editor page which looks just like this page but wider, technically it can continue as far a you would go to the right (obviously there is a limit to this). On this “superpage” you can write whatever you want and anywhere you want… text, formulas, pictures, freehand writing (with an electronic pen or the mouse), graphs etc. This page automatically recognizes any math language an automatically calculates anything that could be calculated and if you need anything you just right click and ask for it to get the answer. Of course, you must know mathematics but it makes your life a lot easier.
Here is how MathCad looks in my computer.

Click on the image to see a higher resolution image

Imagine if you had a Wiki looking like this where you could leave not only text comments but also math comments. Imagine if there was a place on the internet where you could create a Wiki for your students where you could speak the language of math.
I visited the suggested examples wikis but none was about math. The WikiEducator link by the way takes you to http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/ just like “10 reasons why your next pathfinder should be a wiki “.
I also “explored” the APSU sandbox and it didn’t seem very user friendly. I created a new page named Ridelto and pasted and played with some text and then uploaded a picture file which did not go directly to my post as you would expect. Of course I didn’t spend much time on it but still…
Finally, I created my own Wiki located at: http://www.ridelto.wikispaces.comi/
I thought it would be a good idea to use a Wiki as a way for my readers (Do I have any?) to help me correct my grammatical and orthographical mistakes… Perhaps my professor will do that hehe. I even added a link to every one of my posts (which are repeated verbatim in my Wiki) to facilitate this “human spell checker”. Anyway, here is the introduction to my Wiki:
This Wiki contains all my answers (blogs) to an exercise for an Austin Peay State University class (EDUC 5540-81). The exercise is about the new trends and technologies used on the internet (Web 2.0); and it is divided into 23 parts or assignments named “Things”. The name of the exercise is “23 Things” and each “Thing” or assignment posted by Dr. Anne Wall can be found at:
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23

This Wiki itself is one of the assignments: Thing # 15 - What in the World is a Wiki?
The idea is to collaborate on this Wiki to correct grammatical and orthographical mistakes that I may have made since English is not my first language. I will appreciate any help from anyone.


Thank you. Ridelto


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Thing #14 of “23 Things”

Go with the Flow

According to Wikipedia:
“A flowchart is a common type of diagram, that represents an algorithm or process, showing the steps as boxes of various kinds, and their order by connecting these with arrows. Flowcharts are used in analyzing, designing, documenting or managing a process or program in various fields.”
“A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing.”
In other words a flowchart is a graphical outline of a succession of steps in a logical process such as a decision making procedure, a sequence of steps in solving a mathematical problem, the order in which some steps must be taken etc.
A mind map on the other hand is a simple type of flowchart used to visualize ideas or concepts to better organize thought as when brainstorming. Mind maps are visual lists or outlines of ideas.
I first used flowcharts in college to “plan” complex computer programs to schematically visualize the steps required to solve a mathematical problem without missing any. I have used them since mostly for the same task but also for other reasons. In the past I used Visio for complicated flowcharts or just drew them by hand.
Electronic schematics can be considered as very sophisticated type of flowchart where instead of a few boxes with simple meanings such as “if-then-else” or “Yes-No” boxes, you have pictorial representations of integrated circuits (IC) with very specific and complicated meanings that can be connected in a myriad of ways, all of which have distinct but predetermined outcomes.

I explored Gliffy.com and Bubbl.us

Click on the image to see a higher resolution image

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Thing #13 of “23 Things”

Web-based Applications

I am a big fan of MS Office, but I can see that Microsoft will have to freshen their approach and think of something similar to this ZOHO Writer, free, on the web, colorful, elegant, user friendly and fun, otherwise they will lose their grip and become part of the past.
As I write this blog I am expecting in-line spell check with word suggestions and sinonims and antonyms as in MS Word but so far I don't see anything happening. I read in the welcome document that ZOHO Writer has spell checker for more than 70 languages and that it checks for all those languages automatically. I misspelled some words on purpose but so far I don't see any corrections. I see… you must click on the button labeled "Spell Check"; it doesn't do it automatically. This is understandable since this application is on line and "in-line check" needs speed and resources not available to a web application. I spelled "sinonims" wrong and the suggestions were simonizes, simonize, singsongs and singletons. MS Word suggested synonyms, simonies and synonyms'. Clearly MS Word did a better job. The word "blog" was underlined as a misspelled word with 13 suggestions while MS Word acknowledged it as a correctly spelled word.
One thing I've been waiting for years is to have tabbed Documents in Word, but for some strange reason Microsoft has not decided to include this feature in their editor even though several other word processors such as this one and even MS Excel and MS Works have it. These last two had tabbed documents for years, way ahead of everyone else... but MS Word doesn't!

The three previous paragraphs were written using ZOHO Writer. They were made public and can be seen here: http://writer.zoho.com/public/ridelto/Thing-13

Obviously ZOHO Writer is a good solution for those who can’t afford or just don’t want to spend money buying MS Office and with time is going to be a very strong contender of MS Word. Microsoft already has a strong competition in OS. For example, Linux, an open-source OS with many variants, some of them actually with a price tag, or Open Office which is a free open-source software suite similar to MS Office. By the way, if you are a student you can buy MS Office (and other software) for a fraction of its price (see http://www.studica.com/, http://www.campustech.com/, http://www.academicsuperstore.com/ or, in some cases, at http://www.amazon.com/
Online applications are not a new thing. Ten years ago it was clear that one day will came when all applications will be online with perhaps some exceptions for security and high speed reasons. We used to imagine an internet where the computers at home were just terminals connected to a supercomputer, the internet, running all kinds of web programs free to everyone or available for a small monthly fee. Something like Netflix, which lets you watch any movies (in their repertory), but better.
Of course, ten years ago that was impossible because the internet was too slow (dial up). We used to talk about a wireless internet with access directly from our brains… well; we still talk about this one, but as a future technology. However, the wireless internet is already here. Amazon Kindle is a good example.

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Thing #12 of “23 Things”

Google is Not Just for Searching Anymore


Before this class I used Google almost daily to search the internet for pictures, videos and information in general; for maps and to play with Google Earth looking at places of interest from the sky or from a bird’s view. It turns out Google is much more than that. Now I am using it to compare prices of products that I am interested in buying by using Google Shopping. It almost always finds better prices for me; sometimes considerably better. I am beginning to use my Gmail account (Ridelto@gmail.com) and now I know how to search for images that I can use without worrying about copyright problems.
I spent a great amount of time playing with the “more” and “even more>>” menu items of the Google Classic Home Page. Surprisingly, I found “even more” stuff to incorporate to my list of useful tools.
I discovered that the iGoogle personal customizable page is like the “private web site” that I was looking for in Thing #10. I created my own iGoogle personalized page and began to use it right away because when I click on Google on my toolbar it now takes me to this personal page and from there I can click on Gmail on top of the page to go to my Gmail email account or to go anywhere since this page is very easy customizable and I can add links to the internet or to my own computer folders and files. Here is a screen capture of my monitor showing my iGoogle page.

Click on the picture to see the actual screen capture from my computer
With so many new things to keep up with, organization is the key word and Google realizes this.

I have Daily Literary Quotes on my iGoogle page, Art of the Day, Puzzles, News, Jokes of the Day among other things. A page like this one could be used as the perfect home page for school computers with only those gadgets of interests to the students and teachers showing on the page.
But this is not all. I looked at every one of the “even more” tools. In previous posts I either talked (or they are self explanatory) about Blog Search, Books (they are not free), Custom Search, Earth, Images, Maps, News, Product Search, Videos, Web Search, Blogger, Gmail, Reader, SketchUp, etc.
So I will talk about those tools that got my attention. I installed and used Google Chrome in my desktop PC. It is nice, but as all new software, it is not yet supported by everyone and therefore I rather continue to use MS Internet Explorer 8 with its wonderful tab system. Google Alerts is not my thing; I already have plenty reaching my several email accounts (I do check all of them daily)
I didn’t look too much into “Checkout” but I use “Shopping”. Google “Desktop” is very handy when you cannot find a file that you know you have somewhere in your computer but you don’t remember where. It is a local (to your computer) powerful and fast search engine.
Google Finance must be useful for those who have business or investments… not me! I cannot see the use of Google Health, Toolbar and others.

I’ve been programming computers for years and therefore I subscribe to some developers’ forums which usually are good enough, but I can see that Google “Code” can be a powerful tool for software developers in search for code or solutions to their coding problems.
I didn’t spend much time exploring Google Labs… not enough time! There are some new and useful tools to explore and use in the future. Google “Calendar” is wonderful (and free), but I use my cell phone (basically a handheld PC) and outlook so I don’t need another calendar. Same thing with Google “Documents”; I use MS SkyDrive and I don’t need another place on the internet to “hold” documents, but this tool is great for those who need a place on the internet to have their documents and access them from anywhere. Of course I also recommend SkyDrive. One important difference is that SkyDrive gives you 25 GB with every hotmail account and clearly shows how much you have used. I didn’t see any usage indication in Google Documents.
Google “Groups” is another surprising tool that I see myself using in the near future. You can search, find and join groups according to your interests, location, language… according to anything you can think of.
Picasa is just another powerful picture sharing/holding/editing place similar to the ones previously discussed in “23 Things”
Google Talk is great for texting from your computer. My cell phone has a keyboard but my fingers are too big therefore I hate texting. Google Talk promises to change that for me.
Google Translate must be used with caution. If you think that you can understand another language just buy using these automatic translators think again. Use it only to get an idea. I have seen many and very important mistakes made by these translators. Of course, they will get better, but they are not there yet.
The last useful tool that I am already using is GOOG-411. It is the Google equivalent of dialing 411, the phone directory feature of the telephone companies, only free, better and with a more motivated customer service.
There are some many options in Google More that I am sure I will be coming back again and again in the near future and Google will find the way to add more exiting and attractive “things” to keep everyone coming back.

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Thing #11 of “23 Things”

Finding Good Feeds

I began really early in the morning to work on this Blog (around 6 AM). Three hours later I was still looking for good blogs, reading and watching videos which came back on my searches. This is the problem with searching the internet – you will find all kinds of things that will interest you and you will “spend” time on it without even noticing it. Once again I forced myself to stop and just do my assignment.
Syndic8.com has an unattractive interface but will give your results from different countries (10 random countries) clearly marked plus the newest sites, newest users, most popular etc. It even gives you some statistics.
Thechnorati.com has a more attractive interface with lots of options. Because of this I think it is less intuitive that Google. This one is more like a search engine similar to Google. You can search videos, photos, blogs, news etc.
I could not connect to Feedster.com therefore I can’t say anything about this one. Topix.com looks like an electronic newspapers with ugly and very distractive ads which made this site not appealing to me. When I try doing a search a popup window appeared (even though I block popup on my browser) advertising screen savers. A second search returned zero results but a lot of new adds.
Google Blogsearch is the simplest of the three but more powerful as you would expect from Google. To compare Google with the rest I did a simple experiment. I searched for apsu23things with all of them. Only Google found a lot of stuff – many APSU students’ blogs. It pretty much found everyone’s things including Dr. Wall’s
Then I search my name thinking that perhaps Google will not find me. Surprise, Google found my blog and my other websites. Google is the winner! But we already knew this right?
I added to my Blogs Google Reader:
· Edublog Awards since there are many more Blogs that I would like to read.
· Always Learning by Kim Cofino in Thailand.
· Clif’s Notes on Educational Technology somewhere in the US I think by unknown (Clif!)
· Learning 2.0 by Jason (He is from Texas but also Blogging “Things” like we (APSU) are.
What I like about reading blogs is that Blogs are more personal and can be local. It is like having many friends and being able to talk to them even though sometimes they don’t talk back or even listen. It is like listening to friends without interrupting them and participating in the conversation only after they are done and always when you are ready to say something.

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Thing #10 of “23 Things”

Set Up an RSS Reader and Add Feeds

I chose to set up an RSS with Google Reader because it was easier since I already had a Gmail account, but also because I know that Google is not likely to go away anytime soon. Also because Google has proven to be good, i.e., user friendly, innovative, inclusive etc.
Here are the 5 feeds that I chose to subscribe to:

1. KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News
2. Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers
3. Sylvia's 23 Things
4. Texas Tornado
5. KStanley_EDUC 5540

RSS are definitely a good solution if you are fallowing several “Blogs”. It works as an email account which only delivers selected emails with updated information about your topics of interest. Most prestigious websites do allow you to choose them to send regular emails with their updated information. Many let you decide how often you want the updates and those which add a lot of information daily, will let you choose what information you want them to update you on.
RSS let you see changes on any website or blog, leaving the owner unaware of this. I like Stephanie Gottschalk’s (Texas Tornado or Miss Texas) definition: “It's like creating your own newspaper of your interest” “…your very own customized newspaper.”
I think the best part of this activity (and the 23 Things in general) is all the questions it raised. As I was thinking about this tool, I remembered two books that I read a couple of years ago by Ray Kurzwail: “The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology” and The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence. Ray Kurzwail is a famous American scientist, an accomplished inventor and more importantly a visionary. His main idea (he has many!), explained in “The Singularity is Near” many years ago, in a nutshell, is that technology is approaching an explosive moment, a singularity, at which point new discoveries and new technologies are going to happen on weekly, daily and even hourly basics. We are seeing this happening already! So much is happening on the web that we just can’t keep up with everything. According to him it is going to get worse. RSS is only one of many desperate solutions humans are using to keep up with this explosion in information.
I think (I suppose I could cite Kurzwail here!) that the solution is going to be Artificial Intelligence. Funny, yes, these are my own thoughts thanks to him and many, many conversations I had with many, many smart and not so smart people over the years since I was in college, in the eighties, when I used to argue with philosophy students, physics students and math students about the future, about today and tomorrow, about computers and AI, the universe, astronomy (not astrology please) about consciousness, extraterrestrial life, multiverses and even the supernatural… yes, all these questions in the eighties. In other words, at one moment we will not be able to keep up with all the new technologies, discoveries, ideas etc and we will have to rely on AI solutions – Software that searches, chooses, summarizes and even make decisions and creates for us. This is where we are heading folks (read Kurzwail and many others in his references!). If you pay attention you will see that it is happening already.
I can barely keep up with all my passwords, my email accounts, my websites, my pictures… even my friends and family members! Not to mention all the things that I must and want to learn, the games that I like to play, or the books that I want to read. To all these I just added these 2300 things that I am working on for this class which, I must say, has given me all kind of new ideas. Hey, I am even thinking about writing a book on line. Imagine that… no pressure, no deadlines, no API references, your own format… no profit? Most likely, but definitely, a lot of fun and a medium to reach anyone, especially my family. It is like publishing for free (It seems to me that formal papers will became less important in the future).
To answer the question “How can teachers use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?”- I think teachers can use it the same way everyone else is, to organize themselves and their students. Perhaps teachers could teach students how to organize themselves in cyberspace.
One final thought: I would like to see a place on the internet where I could create personal hidden websites, private websites, places that only I can access. I would use this website to collect in one place all my website links, all my email accounts links, all my passwords (not sure about this one), names of friends, addresses, phone numbers etc. If anyone reads this blog and knows of anything similar please let me know (Update: iGoogle is a partial solution because... Wikis could be a better solution).

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