Final Reflection on Teaching and Learning with Web 2.0 tools

First let me say I thought knew a little a bit about Web 2.0 apps.  My experience was with Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, and just recently I started to dabble a little bit in Twitter. However, in the last six weeks, I have learned and experienced so much more with these and other Web 2.0 tools that I definitely want to teach what I have learned.  My thirst to learn more about Web 2.0 applications is even greater now.  These tools afford the teacher, students and teams the ability to remotely share, communicate, contribute, and collaborate on class assignments and projects.  In today’s connected environment, students absolutely must learn how to work and collaborate remotely with geographically separated team members.  The knowledge and ability to use and educate others on how to use these and other  Web 2.0 tools is essential to helping our students be competitive in today’s connected work environment.  One of the tools that really impressed me was Google Docs.  The ability of me and my team members to collaborate on a document in real-time was pretty amazing.  The capability of this tool to allow me and my team members to actually see each other’s edits on the same document, while we were working from different locations was fantastic!  I have collaborated with teams at work on documents using Microsoft SharePoint, but I could not see the edits being done in real-time.  This one feature that I will definitely look for in future technologies that I teach.  The ability to collaborate in real-time.  One of the pitfalls that I did make note of is that in order to use these great tools, you have to have the hardware that has the capacity to use Web 2.0 tools.  This starts with an internet connection with enough bandwidth, an up-to-date commuting device (desktop, laptop, tablet, and smartphone) and an updated web browser.  Another pitfall, which members of my generation might find intimidating is a working knowledge of web security.  More often than not, people who don’t use or delve into Web 2.0 tools, don’t do so because of the insecurity of exposing too much information.  However, I have learned from this class that there are ways to use these tools and still maintain a secure environment.      

Social Bookmarking

In order to talk about my experiences with Social Bookmarking, I believe it is prudent that I first talk about my experiences with electronic bookmarking in general.  I began using the bookmarking feature while doing web searches a number of years ago.  If I found a site that was interest or relevant to the topic (personal, professional or educational), I would click bookmark, and bookmark it.  If there was a bookmark I wanted to share with someone, I would go to my list of bookmarks and send the link to whoever I was sharing the site with.  Recently (the past year or so), I learned that I could link my bookmarks between my differing devices using my Microsoft account.  This was great until I recently found out the hard way that when I delete a bookmark on one device, it deleted that bookmark on all of the devices (or at least in my experience).  With this class (and an experience in another class), I am more apt to use Social Bookmarking instead of bookmarking site on my local desktop.  Social Bookmarking has definite advantages such as the ability to share your bookmarks as a “social commodity” (something or someone that is useful or valued).  Additionally, social bookmarks are saved and stored offsite, which means that if your local desktop crashes or you accidentally delete your bookmark (as I have), you bookmarks are saved on another source.  I will be using Social Bookmarking extensively from now on.

Vanity Search 2.0

See, this is my new, educated vanity search.  My previous vanity search for David M Tyler yielded hundreds of David M Tyler(s), however none of them were me.  When I say hundreds, literally, hundreds.  They came from every walk of life and time continuum.  There were doctors, lawyers, authors, criminals (oh no, not criminals named David M Tyler). They were every race, creed and color. Some were born long ago, in a land far, far, away.  Some have since past on.  Some were very young, some were old.  But none of them were me. Then I did a search using my web alias, dtyler9211 and "EUREKA" there I am, alone, by myself.  So yes, this class has changed my footprint in the virtual world.  My online presence is out there among all of the hundreds of other David M Tyler(s), but as dtyler9211.  Yippee!

Twitter Adventure

Ok, today the light finally shined!  I finally get Twitter.  It took an old hat like me some serious searching to see that there is more to Twitter than just people talking about Hollywood and sports superstars.  I found that holy grail of Twitter for education.  I found the “cybraryman”.   Yes the Cybraryman’s website has opened my eyes.  Now that I know there is a lot more out there, look out Twitter world, here I come.  Oh, and for those who don’t know (and I figure I am the last one on earth to know) go to http://www.cybraryman.com and http://www.cybraryman.com/edhashtags.html

Adventures in Aggregated Pages

Well, after exploring both, I definitely like Protopage better.  My page is http://www.protopage.com/davidmtyler.  While Netvibes is interesting, Protopage is what I think is commonly referred to as a portal.  A web portal is a webpage that can be used as a link or page to many other pages of information.  Here you can set up widgets that link to other webpages.  Theses widgets are like mini live webpages that update information with feeds from the webpages you link that to.  This can be an absolutely great tool because instead of having multiple pages open that you need to switch between, you can see all of the information you need, constantly updated on one page.  Great tool! 

YouTube Adventure

This week I explored some of the many, or I should say hundreds if not thousands of videos there are on YouTube that can teach you all about Twitter, Twitter Tools, Wiki's and Wikispaces, and the many videos (a lot of them made by people like myself and my classmates) on what Web 2.0 is and tools to use in educational settings.  I have used YouTube for quite a while and have already setup channels on different things I was interested in (Travel, Music, Technology and others).  I had never explored (before this course) how to use Twitter and the many tools for Twitter.  I also was not aware of Wikispaces (although I have used Wikipedia for several years). Although the existence of these videos should not surprise me.  Over the years, I have found a YouTube videos for just about anything I was interested in.  And I mean anything.  I have used YouTube for instructions on everything from how to install a hot water heater in my home, to how to program my Wi-Fi connected home HVAC system.  But now that I have researched and found these new videos, I will be using them to increase my knowledge of Web 2.0 and it plethora of tools and information.  BTW (By the Way), if and when I get to teach, it will probably be technology in the home.

Web 2.0 Technology for Instruction - Vanity Search

My Vanity Search was not very surprising to me.  Turns out, I have a very common name.  So, I have a little experience with vanity searches.  I just did not call it a Vanity Search at the time. 

My first awakening to just how common my name is came about half way through U.S. Air Force Basic Training in February 1975.  It was before dawn of the Internet and before search engines became popular.  I went to pick up my first uniform from the Air Base Dry Cleaners.  The name tag on the uniform said "Tyler" on it.  However, when I put the uniform on, it fit me like a little kids uniform.  You see, I was then and I still am to this date, 6 foot  3 and 1/2 inches tall.  The uniform they gave me was for an Airman that was probably about 5 foot 6 inches tall  After a little investigating, I found out that there were 3 other Airman David Tyler  in U. S. Air Force Basic Training the same time I was.

This type of incident has happen several times over my life span.  It has happened not just in military life, but in civilian life too.  One night back in 2004, here in Dallas, I received a phone call at about 3:00 AM in the morning insisting that I was late for surgery.  After several minutes of sleep-disturbed insistence to the person on the other end of the phone that I was not a "Doctor", the person on the other end of the phone realized they were talking to the wrong David Tyler and hung up.  The next day is when I did my first (unbeknownst to me) Vanity Search.  It was during that first Vanity Search that I discovered that there were at least "12 David Tyler'' in the DFW area alone.  One of them stayed in the same suburb that I was in and only a couple of blocks away.

Therefore it was no surprise to me that this world-wide-web search yielded a plethora of "David Tyler".  Surprisingly, none of the references to "David Tyler" seem to be me (at least the first 5 pages were not).  And most certainly none of the pictures of all of the gentlemen were not me either. I even did a couple of search "refreshes" to see if I would get different results and could find a reference to me. However the refreshed searches showed no references to me. For someone like me who likes to stay under the radar (due to a past identity theft experience), I guess this is a good thing and I am guarding my identity well.