Reading 4

Cole, M. (2009).Using Wiki technology to support student engagement: Lessons from the trenches. Computers & Education, 52(1), 141-146.


This paper reported a fail experiment of using Wiki technology to support student engagement. The author used Action research as her research method. Action research is " a cyclical process of reflective practice particularly suited to educational settings " and has been defined by Carr and Kemmis (1986) as "imply a form of self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own practices, their understanding of these practices, and the situations in which the practices are carried out” (p. 162).

The experiment changed the content of the modules into 6 thematic groups and used lectures and presentation slides to help students consider issues on the Wikis, as well as used seminars to include Wiki-based reflective activities. Students were told to post wiki materials which would be used to create one exam question. However, students posted zero posts to the wiki after the 5 week experiment. The findings revealed that students were only interested in the pre-set learning activities. The two thirds participants had visited the wiki but posted nothing on it. The reason of lack of wiki posts included: technical constraints (37%, difficulties with using the technology), time constraints (29%), lack of interest (20%), self-confidence (doubts about the quality of their contribution, 14%).

The suggestions and reflections provided from this paper:
1. instructional scaffolding is required. Students were reluctant to publish Web-based material for peer-group review.
2. Educational technology must support a balance between the the needs of lecturers and students, and between the cost (time for learning and using new technology ) and the benefits (engagements, interest and improved learning).
3. student motivation for using technolgies were linked to their perception of fun and individual browsing behavior. Students may actively post among friends but be little willing to engage with other students.
4. "technology needs to support a pre-existing educational behaviour rather than trying to import behaviour from other domains."
5. The design should make students feel social technologies are enjoyable ( fun-to-use) or intrinsically useful (fun-gained).

My thoughts:
1. let students rate wiki contributions for their peer and themselves. Rubric could be provided and rated on the basis of frequency, quality, novelty, etc.
2. Learning involves altruistic behaviors and people wish to make their individual efforts rewarded.
3.education should consider student's learning relevance.

Reference:
Carr and Kemmis, 1986 W. Carr and S. Kemmis, Becoming Critical: education, knowledge and action research, vch, Berlin (1986).

Reading 3

Glass, J. &Sue, V. (2008). Student Preferences, Satisfaction, and Perceived Learning in an Online Mathematics Class. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 4(3), 325-338.

Research question:
Which learning objects do students prefer and use the most?
Which learning objects that students were most satisfied with?
Which learning objects had the most impact on students’ learning?

Methods:
Weekly surveys about the courses. Students were asked whether they used each of learning objects (PPT, Text, Video lectures, homework, discussions, and quizzes), and how much they felt that each one contributed to the learning of the weeks’ course materials. The final survey allowed students to rate each LO and evaluate the overall course.

I didn't see they compared the student learning achievement and the LO they used. But are they related? will different LOs influence student's learning success? Different LOs may contain diverse key content related to the exams, quizzes, or discussion board.

Reading 2

Hrastinski, S. (2008). What is online learner participation? a literature review. Computers & Education, 51(4):1755-1765.

The author reviewed 36 references to re-define online learner participation and to analysis the related research issues. First, she defined the 6 levels of the concept of online learner participation from the references. Second, she classified the type of online communication, methods of research analysis, and the units of analysis. There were 7 types of units of analysis: quantity of messages or units, messages or unit quality, learner perceptions, messages lengths, system accesses or logins, read messages, and time spent. Although actively posting/writing in online communities is the commonly understanding of participation, lurking or little contribution on writing were increasingly recognized that learning still occurs through such behaviors in online settings.

The author redefined the online learner participation as “a process of learning by taking part and maintaining relations with others. It is a complex process comprising doing, communicating, thinking, feeling and belonging, which occurs both online and offline.”

Reading 1

Preece, J., Nonnecke, B., and Andrews, D. (2004). The top five reasons for lurking: improving community experiences for everyone. Computers in Human Behavior, 20(2):201-223.

The authors reported that the reasons of lurking in online settings in the study: “not needing to post; needing to find out more about the group before participating; thinking that they were being helpful by not posting; not being able to make the software work (i.e., poor usability); and not liking the group dynamics or the community was a poor fit for them.“ They also concluded that “most lurkers are not selfish free-riders.”

Week 6- a podcasting research (2)

Copley, J. (2007) Audio and video podcasts of lectures for campus-based students: production and evaluation of student use. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 44(4), 387-399.

Another article about podcasting/ podcasts I have read recently is Copley’s research. Copley (2007) produced audio and video podcasts for undergraduate students to deliver lecture materials. The research results showed the majority of students had positive attitude towards the use of podcasts. The most commonly use of podcast materials was revision/preparation for assessment, to enable note-taking at own pace, to review on missed lectures and to have a completed record for own interest. The author also suggested that podcasts are particularly useful to students with specific learning needs, such as international students or anyone who may require more time for note-taking and learning.

Podcast materials can be easily downloaded and played on learners’ PCs or mobile devices, such as portable media players, portable digital music players, PDAs, and mobile phones. Hence, many researchers argue podcasts can serve as one form of mobile learning. However, in Copley’s (2007) research, the finding revealed that more than 80 percent of students prefer downloading and playing audio and video podcasts on a PC rather than using them in a mobile learning environment The implementation of the educational podcasting did not support mobile learning as the expectation.

However, the results were not surprising me. Most of podcasts only contain audio content. Unlike traditional materials where learners could still rely on pictures or graphics to support in understanding, audio podcasts reply solely on the audio voice of the recorder to transmit knowledge. If learners want to have an effective learning, they need to focus on one thing at one time. It should be difficult for learners to do multitasks and complete effective and efficient learning activities simultaneously. Also, if the podcast language is not the native language of the learners, the learning effect may be greatly reduced, unless the podcast content is intended for language learning.

Podcasting increased the flexibility in learning, but for better learning outcome by using podcasting to support mobile learning, it still challenges instructors and instructional designers.
I think audio podcasts should design and contain uncomplex, repetitive, but not boring content. Also, providing some questions in podcasts for learner to reflect and evaluate their understanding is a possible useful approach to enhance learning. Reflection does not require too much reference at hand and does not require learners to remember new information. This allows learners to take control of learning content and enables learning to take place at the learner's convenience.

Week 6 prompt

How do issues such as authorship, copyright and open access impact your desire, ability and willingness to engage in produsage, both personally and professionally?

Wow! The six week intense class is going to finish so soon. By this class, I have tried many Web 2.0 technologies, Twitter, Facebook, Diigo, Flickr, Youtube, Technorati, Citeulike, Delicious, etc. Some of them I have been very familiar with, some of them I have heard but never have a chance to try, and some of them I have just learned from this class. There are so many useful tools and functions that I would definitely keep using them in the future. For example, I often use Youtube to search tutorials to learn new technologies and its features. Citeulike is a novel tool for me, but I know I will use it from now on as a PhD student to help me collect academic articles and search and expand the research topics I’m interested in. Flickr can be not only a simple photo sharing website but also a visual learning tool that could enable a community to discuss and exchange ideas through one or a series of specific photos.

Also, I have been very familiar with Blogs and Wikis, and will keep use them to collect my personal ideas (in personal and professional fields) and use wikis with classmates to collaborate group projects.

Although I believe those innovative technologies could be used to enhance learning experience, there are so many approaches and applications that I have never thought about that before. For example, an instructor can use Twitter as a means to communicate students and parents, and incorporate Twitter into the course to facilitate collaborative learning. One of the characteristics of Web 2.0 tools is information sharing. I think this can be exploited to provide a platform for feedback from peers, instructors, or a community of practices. However, no matter what technologies you, as an instructional designer, will use, the most important thing is how you can incorporate them to increase motivation and promote learning.

Week 6- a podcasting research

Lee, M.J.W., McLoughlin, C. & Chan, A. (2008). Talk the talk: learner generated podcasts as catalysts for knowledge creation. British Journal of Educational Technology, 39(3), 501-521.


Podcasting is a kind of Web 2.0 technologies, although we did not talk much in this Web 2.0 class. It refers to the method of distributing multimedia files and releasing files to the Internet. Most people claim the term is from a combination of iPod and broadcasting. This new technology combines the strength of blogging with digital media (audio, video) technology to present multimedia content. With RSS feed feature, subscribers can receive new podcasts instantly and automatically.

Mostly, podcasting has been used in education to deliver learning materials, which are frequently created by instructors, such as audio/video recordings of lectures, supplementary materials, guest speaker’s talks. A relatively few researches show the learning effects on learner-generated podcasts. Lee, McLoughlin, and Chan’s (2008) study is one of the research that asking students to create learning content podcasts in education.

Lee, McLoughlin, and Chan (2008) argued that learner-generated content enables learners to engage more and deeper in the learning context by build and organize knowledge rather than passively receiving learning materials. Hence, they applied a quantitative approach to explore the learning outcomes of podcasting created by groups of students. In their study, students were required to re-think and synthesize the knowledge they acquired in the coursework through the podcast production process. The result of the study found the evidence of knowledge building and of student engagement with collaborative learning, and this approach fosters learners’ control and ownership of their learning and of the technology.
The concept of learner-generated content reminds me that we have also employed this idea in our produsage creations. We also need to reflect what we have learned from our experience and apply the idea into our produsage assignment. Through these two produsage assignments, I did learn a lot from Yoon Jeon and XinRong by discussing and sharing our ideas. In addition, I think Web 2.0 technologies provides many features that enable users/ learners to create content, and it is a useful learning approach that should be advocated and employed in education for a better learning performance.

Week 5 - teaching and learning in Second Life

I recalled last year when I attended AECT conference, there were a lot of researches exploring the potential applications of Second Life. Second Life seems the most popular virtual world in use today. With its real time/ synchronous characteristics, you can participate in a live event, conference, concerts, etc. Second Life can be use as a means to enhance learning and increase learner motivation. For example use Second Life to create and design situated learning environments, support immersive learning, increase social networking and interaction, and facilitate communication and collaborative learning. In such immersive learning environments, learners can experience real feelings and interaction as they do in a real world and apply knowledge and skills in realistic scenarios. Shy learners are more apt to participate in such attractive learning environments.

The researchers also pointed out some barriers and difficulty. For example, users ( i.e., learners, instructors, instructional designers) may have technological problems or encounter difficulty using the interface of Second Life. Also, it is expensive and time-consuming for instructors or instructional designers to design a virtual world. How to effectively integrate Second Life to support learning and improve performance/ learning is still challenging for instructional designers and instructors.

I also found some wiki websites and blogs about the use of Second Life in education.

• Exploring the educational uses of Second Life.

• Second Life Education Wiki

• Simon Bignell's blog talked about how to assess the impact of Second Life for educational purposes

Week 5 prompt

How do issues such as authorship, copyright and open access impact your desire, ability and willingness to engage in produsage, both personally and professionally?

I don't think that copyright and authorship would have a huge impact on my desire or willingness to engage in produsage in my personal or professional field.
What I post in my personal blogs only allows my particular to see, and most of my posts are just my rambling thoughts. I rarely posted something on Twitter and Facebook, so I don't need to worry any copyright issue so much on there. However, the photos I have placed on Flickr and Google Photo have started to get me worried about copyright issues. Because a personal photo that was shared by one of my friends in a photo sharing website was misused and edited without her consent or permission or noticed and had been remixed and re-uploaded to a travel agency website. One friend accidentally went to this website and found this situation. Subsequently the photo was removed from the site after my friend emailed the website and complain the issue. After this thing happened, I still continue upload my photos to the photo sharing websites, but I set the permissions for my photos and only allow my friends and family to access them.

In my professional field, I would very carefully cite and quote all reference materials as I do in writing papers. On the other hand, I also concern the authorship and copyright issue. I can understand and appreciate the danger that lies in the world wide web. It is relatively easy to use photos or online content without permission. It is hardly possible to prevent from every single illegal use or distribution in a virtual environment. I may not be able to check if someone copy my writing or misuse my photos. Hence, my attitude toward online postings is cautious optimism. I will still be encouraged to share my thoughts and views on public forums and blogs but will refrain posting private photos and contents. In addition, I would kindly remind them to be sure to cite the resource and add watermark to protect the images if needed.

Week 5 - a predictive technology

Recently, I read an article " The Web Knows What You Want" from Business Week By Stephen Baker.

Corporates want to know the customer's behaviors for online shopping businesses, so that after a shopper look at/ buy a particular item, the system can appear a recommendation that is precisely what the shopper wants. That's just like a sale clerk could give customers recommendations through observing customer's body language and behaviors in a brick-and-mortar store. This is not a new idea, but they want to adopt a new predictive technology in order to improve the accuracy of recommendations and to earn more money. For example, when I look at or add a camera into my shopping cart at Amazon, it would suggest me to buy related accessories and recommend me what other customers who bought this same item also bought. Every time I log in to my account,Amazon will offer personalized product recommendations to me.

The patterns of clicks, purchases, personal information are analyzed, and many other factors may influence an individual's selection. Also, privacy issues may cause some concern to some online shoppers. However, I have more positive attitudes towards this predictive technology. I'm thinking how time saving this will be and what related terms this will show, if I'm searching information on an online library database. At least from a researcher or a student's point of view, this technology could lead me to dig deeper into more research topics relevant to the field of interest.

Week 4 CiteULike and delicious

This week, I have tried to play with CiteULike and delicious. Similar to Diigo, Delicious.com and CiteULike are also social bookmarking tools.

I can see the most popular bookmarks on Delicious's home page. Hence, I can see what other people are most interested currently. It's also very convenient to save the links listed on the first page as my personal bookmark. But unlike Diigo, delicious can't add Sticky Notes or highlight information on a web page.

CiteULike doesn't have that annotation features as Diigo, either. But I think one of the advantage of CiteULike is that it has a citation management feature. I can choose different citation formats and see the abstracts of the articles. This is more useful for researchers, who need to collect academic articles, cite reference, and write papers. I can see other people's bookmarks and tags on the CiteULike's home page. Through other people's bookmarks, I can even connect to ERIC database to find more relative articles that I may be interested in. I feel CiteULike will be beneficial for me because of its citation management features and I still need to explose it more.

An introduction to CiteULike, CiteULike: a researcher's social bookmarking service (Emamy & Cameron, in Ariadne) .

Week 4 prompt

How do you judge the value of expertise on the Web? Does it differ from your notion of expertise in face-to-face settings? Why or why not?

Actually, there is no big difference for me to judge the expertise between on the Web and in face-to-face settings. I respect people’s thoughts and comments on the Web and what they say in face-to-face settings, and try to keep my mind open to things that I don’t know or understand.

If there is a new term that I don’t know, I would check several resources that I obtain from Google search. I may go to the more reliable websites to cross-check information. If that is an ordinary, general question, then I may take less time to check and find out the information. Basically, that kind of information just for my personal reference and won’t affect my professional performance; hence, I may not check the authors’ background information.

If I’m looking for something that is related to more professional field, in addition to cross-checking different sources of information, I will need to check authors’ educational background, the amount of experience the authors have in the related area. For example, if I need to cite or quote the information, I would try to seek for the academic articles that have been peer-reviewed and published.

Basically, I have my own standard of judgment and value system, and I think I value the expertise based on my own beliefs and value system , and I keep my judgment consistent no matter on the Web or in face-to-face settings.

Week 4 -Technorati

Technorati is a blog search engine. It can help me find information appearing on blogs. For being a beginner, I can check what the popular topics and most linked blogs are from their top 100 blogs. Also, I can collect a list of my favorite blogs and keep track on them.

But I think Technorati is more beneficial if you are a blogger and want to make your blog more visible. Especially if someone is making a living on blogging or enterprise blogs, Technorati would be definitely useful for them.

It seems that Technoratic can help blog owners to find out who is linking to their blogs, no matter what blogging platforms they use. It also offers some useful features, such as tagging (I know some blog platforms do not allow multiple tags) and ping, which notice and update Technoratic that there is new content on the blog.

Second, building authority is important for bloggers, because that the higher numbers means the more blogs linking to your blog. Technorati Authority measures the number of blogs, rather than the number of links. So if a blog owner writes some things that are interesting or important that many other blogs link to there, that blog would have a high authority number and it may shows on Technorati Rank.

Right now I’ve just sign up, claimed my blog, and added the Technorati logo on my blog. But I think I just need it to check any update from my favorite blogs, and perhaps someday I will need it to manage my blog if I’ll start to write something that I want more people to read.

There are two resources about Technorati.
This is from Gina Chen, who talked about why journalist bloggers should use it.
This one is about A Beginner’s guide to Technorati.

Week 3 Participation

What I did for Week 3:

• Finish my produsage assignment
• Post at least 3 posts my own blog
• Participated on the discussion board
• Read the Bruns chapters
• Got myself familiar with Searchme.com
• Read and commented on classmates' blogs
• Briefly looked at classmates' posted produsage assignments

Week 3 - Web 2.0 tool - Searchme.com

This week I found an interesting tool called Searchme. It is a search engine, but I would think it is more like a visual bookmark tool.

Searchme shows the search results as a stack of pages and it also allow users to preview and flip through the pages. Unlike traditional search engine shows you a list of text-based results, Searchme shows screenshots of web pages.

Searchme is not as simple as a search engine, it also offers a bookmark feature. The stacks features on the top right corner of the page can let users to organize collections of bookmarked pages. Users can create several stacks, and it can contain not only bookmarked pages but also images and videos. Users can also manually add URL to or delete any page from the stack. Also, the collections of bookmarked pages can be shared via email, blogs, or social networking sites.

This new verson of search engine helps users save time filtering through search results by view the screenshots of websites. I can imagine that enterprises will consider to design more appealing and good looking websites in order to draw visitors.

So how to use Searchme's stacks feature? You can check out this tutorial on Youtube.

Week 3 - Use of Twitter in K-12

Ok, I have known what Twitter is and also have an Twitter account before taking this Web 2.0 course. But I have never thought that Twitter may be used for Education.

First, Twitter can serve as a real time communication tool. In education, it can be used for announcements/ updates of learning activities and reminders of homework. Also, teachers can use Twitter to share classroom information with parents as Aditya Joshi suggested, and Eirin Lombardo suggested, on the other hand, that parents quickly communicate with teachers about absence excuses.

Second, Twitter limits 140 characters per post (tweet), so the information on tweets must be more concise, targeted, and relevant on a particular topic. Hence, it makes students to think more carefully with each word they write. In addition, in education, Twitter can be used as a collaborative tool, so students work together as small groups to share information and comments. Teachers can also provide comments and feedback on students' group projects.

Moreover, Twitter can be incorporated into other Web 2.0 tools, and also used on the iPhone as Lea Gates mentioned. That makes Twitter more usable and much more accessible.

Currently, I only use Twitter to follow certain topics or celebrities I'm interested in. But I believe that Twitter has incredible potential in education.

As Sri Wahyuni provided an article on 50 Ways to Use Twitter in the College Classroom. There are also tips and applications about Twitter to use in Education. 100 Tips, Apps, and Resources for Teachers on Twitter.

Week 3 prompt

What uses might a collaborative wiki or blog have in your chosen (current or desired) work environment? How would they support learning and/or performance? What would be the design and implementation challenges if management tried to do this? What would be the design and implementation challenges of a user-initiated effort?

I have been using wikis for a while. Wikis are a great tool for collaborative learning, and I use it to share information with my teams when doing group assignments. It is a easy-to-use tool as a word processer, and also allows each team member to add and edit the content any time if needed. Normally, my group members meet face-to-face at least once and then split up the assignment into different parts. Each one works on each part individually, but we all can see others' inputs on the same wiki page. Once we find any related reference and resources, we can upload the documents or add a hyperlink to the wiki page, and everyone can access them and refer to them as necessary thereafter. Sometimes we use the discussion board embedded in the Wikis system to leave messages to others or to comment a particular topic, and we use it as an alternative way to communicate with our team.

In a work environment, if management tries to use a wiki, then they firstly need to get everyone familiar with the wiki. Although wikis are easy to use, you cannot assume that everyone knows how to use a wiki without any training when implementing this design. Besides the technique issue, employees need to know the purpose of this wiki task. Management must make everyone feel comfortable and therefore willing to contribute to this task. In addition, the security issue may need to be considered when using wikis in a work environment.

Ideally, in my opinion, wikis can be used a great tool for project management and knowledge management. Employees can share their experience and resources with others. However, some information is not appropriate to be seen by anyone outside of the company or outside of the team. I’m not sure if there is a private wiki that only specific members can see and edit and is also hidden from public.

Week 2 Participation

What I did for Week 2:

• Posted at least 4 posts to my blog
• Participated on the discussion boards
• Read and commented on classmates’ blogs
• Read the Bruns chapters
• Tried to get familiar myself with Diigo and Flickr.

Confessions of an Aca-Fan: The Official Weblog of Henry Jenkins

Confessions of an Aca-Fan: The Official Weblog of Henry Jenkins

Shared via AddThis

Recently, there are some debate about which search engine is better. Google or Microsoft's Bing. I personally still prefer Google. If you are struggling with choosing one of them, you can try the below website and compare their results.

http://www.bing-vs-google.com/

Web 2.0 tool - Diigo

This week (week 2) I took some time to get myself familiar with Diigo. Diigo is a social bookmarking Web 2.0 tool.

Diigo is a useful tool for managing your personal bookmarks and is easy to share the bookmarks with your friends. Its key features that makes it different from other Web 2.o tools is that it allows a user to highlight the information on the Web and add notes or comments for the select text on the Web. Since people often find information on the Internet, Diigo could save time in searching and sorting information that a user has found before, because Diigo could allow a user to add tags to a website.

Before I played around with Diigo, I've aready known Diigo's strong features. However, I'm a little bit disappointed in it. Because I was expecting that I can use those features through its Web-based interface as I use other Web 2.0 tools. In order to use the highlighting and Sticky Notes features, I need to download an extra tool. I don't like to install any extension or toolbar on my computer, unless I believe I really need it.

Consequently, I have not installed it. Diigo for me is just a web-based bookmaking tool. I can add tags and share my bookmarks with my friends.

Tutorials from Diigo Help Center.
I also found the following useful tutorials about Diigo from Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX8d701nzsk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcecBgRd3ig&watch_response

Links regarding Open source

Open Source Initiative. Open source software's source code is freely available. However, besides this main purpose, open source also need to comply with some other criteria, such as Free Redistribution, allow modifications and derived works, No Discrimination, Distribution of License, and etc. See the definition here.

The definition and information for open source on Wikipedia.

Google-O'Reilly Open Source Awards. This is for people who contribute to open source.

http://www.osalt.com/
and http://sourceforge.net/
These websites help find open source software alternatives to commercial software

http://www.opensourcemac.org/
This website provides a list of free, open source software for Mac user.

W3C Open Source Software
http://www.w3.org/Status

Week 2 prompt

How might the concept of produsage be applied in your life (personal and/or professional) as it stands today? Are you already a produser? If yes, what do you do? If no, why not?

From the readings of Bruns’s book, a producser is a productive user, who actively engaged in the act of produsage. The concept of produsage refers to something, in contrast to a traditional format, that is related to continuing content production, collaboration, technology integration, remix / reuse of existing and new information, mutual communication, and etc.

For my personal life, I like to upload my photos and video and write my thoughts to share with my friends via my MSN spaces. I would also check my friends’ updates from facebook or their blogs and leave comments to them. Also, my friends check my life in the US and leave me comments. I enjoy communicating with them through these ways. Sometimes, I share interesting videos, news, or articles that I found from the Internet with my friends, and I would add my comments and feedback about that information. I also actively provide information and share my experience to the Taiwanese Students Website. Hence, I would say I am a prduser, and the concept of produsage has been applied in my life. Through the Internet to communicate to my family and friends has become the most frequently used method nowadays.

For my professional, I am more a user rather than an active produser. I have some experience in using wikispaces to do assignments with classmates. I also read postings, listen podcasts from other’s blogs and wikis, but I rarely leave comments. However, although I’m a lurker, the information I collect from those blogs do help extend my knowledge and experience.

Security issues for open source softwares

In one of the discussion board of this week, we discuss about the open source from the end user perspective.

The open source software I have used before is:

• Mozilla Firefox
• OpenOffice
• Apache Tomcat (for displaying the webpage written by Java Servlet and the JavaServer Pages (JSP) code)

Programs that I have heard but never tried:
Moodle, Linux, Notepad++

Software I have never heard:
Ubuntu, Edubuntu, Redhat, SuSE, PDF Creator, ClamWin, VLC Media Player, Audacity, Stellarium, GIMP, 7-Zip, subversion (code repository), bugzilla (bug reporting database system), SAKAI (a collaboration and courseware management platform), Gimp (great photoshop clone), Filezilla…etc.

Gina and Kent discussed about the security issue of open source. Maybe because I do not use a lot of open source software and rarely use them, I have no idea how critical and serious it is for the security of open source. However, I think this security issue impacts both open source and Closed source software. I don’t know much about the cryptography skill, and I don’t know how that influences the spread and use of open source. But I don’t think closed source software is 100% safe either. Microsoft Windows is a prevailing platform, and it is a huge target of virus attacks. In contrast, we rarely heard about a virus attack to Linux system. I do not mean to emphasize that open source is better than closed source. Actually, I rely heavily on MS Office Suite. But because of the competition from open source, that makes the closed source / “mainstream” software improved the products. Hence, I have more positive attitude to open source. Similar to Harold Stephenson‘s point of view, the open source makes the “mainstream“ software (e.g., MS Office, IE) better.

Clay Shirky's talks

A video from Ted.com
How social media can make history



2nd video is from Youtube. I saw it from Cindy's blog.


Web 2.0 applications provide opportunities for innovative approaches that can easily track friends' updates and form a social community.

An interview with Shirky that shared from Gina's contribution in Blackboard. I am very impressive with her skills and knowledge in Web 2.0 and her kindness to share.

Week 1 - 3

Discuss what you hope to get out of this class.

Besides knowing more Web 2.0 technologies and applications, I’m more interested to learn how to integrate Web 2.0 technologies in teaching and learning, and how Web 2.0 technologies influence people daily life, behaviors, and attitude. One of the characteristics of Web 2.0 is information sharing; hence, I think web 2.0 security and privacy issues are also critical at present. Therefore, I wish I will learn some Web 2.0 tools, more strategies that are suitable for Web 2.0 technologies, and more knowledge about Web 2.0 technology issues at the end of this class.

Week 1 - 2, a leader or follower?

Do you consider yourself a leader or follower in this realm, or something else altogether? Why?

I consider myself an accidental leader in web2.0 applications. I have been using web2.0 unknowingly for a few years before I was formally introduced the term. I have encouraged my family and friends to use more web2.0 application because I find the ability to share information very useful in keeping touch with them. For example, the use of MSN Space blog to record and blog about daily occurrences, as well as share latest photos, are excellent example of how I have used web2.0 widely.

Besides encouraging my family and friends to use web2.0, I also asked my best friends to test new web2.0 together with me. There was once when we tried new functions of Twitter and Plurk just to compare the difference of the layout and format. We also tried new functions of Skype and MSN video just to compare the clarity and quality of web voice and video. To me, that was a very good way of assessing and being more friends on board the web2.0 revolution.

Week 1 Participation

What I did for Week 1:

• Posted at least 4 posts to my blog
• Participated on the discussion boards
• Read and commented on classmates’ blogs
• Tried to get familiar myself with Twitter.

Week 1 -1

What have been your prior experiences with Web 2.0 technologies?

I cannot really recall when was my first encounter with web2.0 or when was the time i heard about the term Web 2.0. Maybe in Dr. Reiser’s Trends and Issues course, or earlier. However, before I knew this novel term, I have already used its technology. I have used MSN’s spaces as a web log for about 4 years. I used it as an electronic diary and share my thoughts with my friends and family. After I left my home country and came to FSU for my study, I began to increasingly write on my MSN spaces blog entries, because I want to keep records about my life in America and share them to my loved one who care about what happen to me in a foreign country. Also, I can check how my friends are doing by viewing their MSN blogs.

Unlike in America most young people using ICQ, Facebook or MySpace, in Taiwan we like to use MSN’s messenger, MSN space blog, and other social networking website to connect with friends. We can easily check friends’ MSN blogs by clicking the asterisk symbols on MSN messenger. In addition to its convenience to link to MSN blogs, I also like its permission restriction function because it allows me to select who can check my blog. This is because I didn’t wish to totally share my personal life in public to people who I don’t know. On top of MSN’s photo sharing function, I also use other web-based photo sharing websites, similar to Flickr, but they are hosted in Taiwan, and only have Chinese version platform. Initially I used them to share my trips’ photo with my friends. Increasingly, I also use them for store my family’s photos. Youtube and Myspace were used for me to upload my nephew’s videos and share to my entire family, especially to my brother, who is also overseas.

These web 2.0 technologies are useful tools for me to keep in touch with my family and friends in Taiwan. Although my family and I talk to each other via Skype every week, we still rely on using Web 2.0 technologies to share videos, photos, and life experience. It’s also very convenient to us because we don’t need to worry about the huge video/ photo file transmission problem.

Electronic Journal for Web 2.0 course

This is the electronic journal for Web 2.0-based Learning and Performance course. It is an intense course, since it has only 6 week peroid. I'm very interested in Web 2.0 topics and wish I will learn a lot from this course.