At some point in time, most of you have probably linked to an article on Wikipedia In fact if you have linked from my blog at all, you would have done so.  I am currently reading more about the development and founder of this site in my 'train reading book' of the month - Wikinomics and it is very interesting stuff.

Wikipdedia is an on-line encycolpedia, with the difference being that anyone can edit an article, so the content is user generated and edited.  Apparently there is a small team of official employees, but they are not the main content providers or even editors and act more at a high level only.  The content is generated using the concept of a Wiki (more about that in later posts).

The book I am reading explores the concept of this 'open source' type approach and its benefits and downfalls, but the end result is a huge amount of information about a lot of topics.
Try it out and enter a topic of interest (eg horses, photography, London even) and see what you get.  The interesting thing is that the creator of this site believes that what is there is just the start of a larger project, with potential expansion into user content created books, videos etc.  I will be interested to see where this one goes.  I have only used this site as a reader to-date, but I am now interested in exploring content creation as well.

Wobei ich nicht glaube, dass es hier darum geht, Spambots auszusperren, sondern eher um "uneingeweihte" Normalos nicht rein zu lassen.

Danke an ScienceBlogs

The feature doesn't deal with the subject of conference fees though - moving away from high corporate fees to low cost, or fee by participation is one of the key elements to 'un-conference'.

Our be2camp unconference in London on the 10th October will break ground as being one of the first, if not the first unconference event for the built environment - that is designers, builders, clients, and facilities managers. The agenda is shaping up now with great speakers on board - what would you like to see or contribute?

Bibliotheek(praktijk)

• Applying Game Theory in Libraries: Review and Preview. LPP  08:46 AM August 29, 2008
• Stephen Abrahams: Building Capacity for Change: 25 Technologies Transforming Aademic Libraries (Ticer)  06:40 AM August 28, 2008
• WordPress as Content Management System for Library Web Site: How to Create a Dynamically Generated Subject Guide  11:26 AM August 19, 2008
• Tijdschriften: van print naar digitaal? Tja, voorlopig + nog even alletwee en dat heeft zo z'n eigen problemen. 02:55 PM August 11, 2008
• Imposant: EZB (Electronic Journals Library): 460 bibl met >40.000 (in 2006 nog 4500) titels, groene gratis  02:14 PM August 05, 2008
• Metadata for digital libraries: state of the art and future directions by Richard Gartner. TechWatch  11:58 AM August 04, 2008

Leestips

• De Dutch guys hebben een boek geschreven: ShanachieTour A Library Road Trip Across America 11:30 AM August 19, 2008
• Science Dissemination using Open Access: A Compendium of Selected Literature on Open Access (boek is zelf ook OA)  05:31 AM August 19, 2008
• lls kn krtr : Alles kan korter. 60 i-columns. uitgave van SCP full-text  05:47 AM August 26, 2008

Zoeken / zoektips / Google

• Search done right: blog van vivisimo 03:58 AM August 21, 2008
• All my nested Boolean searches worked (in Yahoo!) , once I had replaced the NOTs with minus signs. (K. Blakeman) http://tinyurl.com/5d5lqg 12:09 PM August 18, 2008
• Multilingual Searching: Search Engine Language Tools. By Greg R. Notess (Online)  09:05 AM August 18, 2008
• Now the NOT operator is gone in Yahoo! 08:58 AM August 18, 2008
• Zoekmachine waar je via de grootte van de zoekterm het belang van de termen kunt laten wegen 06:43 AM August 16, 2008
• Google For Librarians: 50 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Power Searching By Laura Milligan  02:43 PM August 14, 2008
• Searching with Tags: Do Tags Help Users Find Things? (E-Lis) antwoord: ja enigszins http://eprints.rclis.org/ar... 01:13 PM August 14, 2008
• Beyond Google a.o.: 100 Unbelievably Useful Reference Sites You’ve Never Heard Of. Laura Milligan (Teaching Tips)  01:42 PM August 09, 2008
• Google Insights for Search: populariteit zoektermen binnen regio / categorie, of door de tijd heen 09:20 AM August 08, 2008
• Scopus heeft er problemen mee als je in Search vak een titel kopieert waar een : tegen een woord aan staat ... 07:58 AM August 08, 2008

Citaties

• No evidence of citation advantage for open access articles in 1 year (BMJ) ... hum 09:56 AM August 18, 2008
• Jacso over Google Scholar: ... unscholarly and irresponsible handling of data (pros and cons of computing the h-index using Google Scholar) Jacso  01:26 PM August 05, 2008
• Review of Zotero, the free, Firefox extension to assist in collecting, managing and citing research sources LLRX  01:18 PM August 14, 2008

Internettips / Web 2.0

• Scientific wiki solves the 'Who Wrote What' problem (Hoffman. a wiki where authorships matters Nature Genetics)     11:01 AM August 31, 2008
• Patrick nodigde me uit voor Blip.fm: is Twitter maar dan voor muziek. Aan t uitproberen, grappig wel  04:17 AM August 29, 2008 from web
• Dat is lachen: FeedJournal , om je eigen krantje te printen. Maar ook een blog: de mijne van dit moment  10:39 AM August 28, 2008
• Rare Ideas creates unique products that change the way people use technology. bijv PortableApps (voor FF etc)  09:28 AM August 28, 2008 from web
• Ten Things Your IT Department Won't Tell You (Wall street journal)  01:32 PM August 25, 2008
• Bookmarks insuggest: Your Delicious marks load in one column, your tags in another and list of recommendations in a third. Leuk  12:21 PM August 18, 2008
• Google Reader Now Lets You Share Selectively (Mooi zo, alleen MOET je dat eerst doen voor je verder kunt)  05:44 AM August 17, 2008
• Luis v Ahn en gebruik Chaptcha bij digitaliseren oude teksten 06:24 AM August 16, 2008
• Tag-it is een online instrument, waarbij op kwalitatieve wijze data wordt verzameld. (is dit research 2.0?) :34 PM August 14, 2008
• Facebook is sociaal netwerk nr 1 geworden (businessweek.)  01:33 PM August 14, 2008
• EU ontevreden over voortgang digitale bibliotheek (nu.nl)  08:46 AM August 14, 2008
• Discussieer mee over het Nederlandse landschap op site van ministerie LNV  01:25 PM August 09, 2008
• Google Maps maakt sinds vorige maand foto's van het openbare leven in Amsterdam en Rotterdam. Leuk filmpje  01:15 PM August 09, 2008

Das Denunziantentool 2.0 welches in den USA scheinbar sehr "erfolgreich" ist, wurde in letzter Zeit reichlich in den deutschen Medien (TV & Print) gehyped, zuvor war es hierzulande relativ unbekannt. Seit der medialen "Werbung" nahmen deutsche Einträge deutlich zu. Folgerichtig war es nicht anders zu erwarten, dass man nun im deutschsprachigen Raum an diesem Hype partizipieren möchte, zumal speziell in Deutschland eine nachbarschaftliche Streitkultur reichlich vorhanden ist.

Ist dieses meist verleumderische öffentliche Denunziantentum eine moralische Bankrotterklärung der offenen Gesellschaft?

Quasi come perdersi in un labirinto fatto di fili che legano le persone tra di loro. Più contatti ne fai, meno approfondisci i legami. Credo anche che tante persone considerino i rapporti in base al tornaconto personale, al profitto economico. Una vetrina sulla quale investire tempo. Che è, su questo pianeta, il nostro bene più prezioso.

Sul marasma2.0 si trova di tutto e c’è il rischio di perdersi. E difatti ci perdiamo. Esploriamo, navighiamo, curiosiamo e cerchiamo di tornare nuovamente a casa con qualcosa in più. Come se fossimo dei moderni Odissei che incontrano quotidianamente le loro personali Scilla e Cariddi. Impariamo a non sentire i canti delle sirene. Cadiamo in qualche banale trappola circeana e ci innamoriamo anche della Calipso di turno, per poi fare rientro da quella parte di noi che trascorre il tempo tessendo tessendo tessendo mentre noi dormiamo chissà su quale isola con chissà quale Nausicaa.

Forse per questo mi affascina…

After a very interesting staff meeting Wednesday night where we rated our own ICT skills and worked as a staff to map out a school based goal for the future, it has become very obvious that the new age of teaching/learning is fast approaching.

This became even more noticeable after reading and reflecting on some of the posts found at Douchys Blog (http://web.mac.com/andrewdouch/Site/Blog/Blog.html) In particular "ban the biros" where douchy talks about preparing students for their future and not the past. Personally i couldnt agree more, is the art of writing becoming outdated and uninspiring? Is their anything wrong with the societal shift towards computer based communications and the abandonment of the correct english language?

Im not against teaching students the basics (its how i was educated) but surely there comes a time when the focus must move, after all didnt we once write with quils and speak using only formal register? Im almost certain there would have been controversary when biro's were introduced and a loosening in vocabulary was noticeable amongst the masses.

So what does this mean for the future? I feel it would be a massive contridiction on our behalf as educators if we dont accept the fact that teaching and learning are begining to undergo the biggest change since we moved from writing messages on cave walls, hahah. The critics will argue that students will lose their grammar and spelling skills but to me this is just an excuse, a way to ignore the changes which are inevitable, its alot easier to put your head in the sand.

Todays students are absorbing more and more forms of technology that have the power to change their place and view of the world. No longer are lessons bound to 4 walls and a chalkboard, there are amazing programs and tools which have the potential to engage ALL STUDENTS. I say that with capitals as I've seen it happen in my own classes, students who struggle with the traditional methods finding new ground using teaching tools such as podcasts and lessons ran completely online using webpages , the possibilities are endless. If your looking to read more about some of the super cool teaching tools that are starting to be used in classrooms have a read here http://web20teach.blogspot.com/

Just a thought to finish on...If our main role as teachers is to communicate our message and our audience is indeed the students, then shouldnt we be changing our teaching practices to suit our audience? This is the way they think and communicate. To some degree I dont blame kids for being bored and disengaged when teachers choose to ignore the way they truly learn and share information. Anyway the end of this post brings me to the point of my regular blog, to inform teachers of some of the different ways I have been utilising Web 2.0 tools within my classes.

Will you sink or swim?