Thursday, May 24, 2007

Web Tools I actually use: facebook

Facebook (http://www.facebook.com) lets you keep in touch with other people, or meet new people.

It is similar to MySpace, and I thought MySpace was the clear winner a few months ago, but Facebook has added new features, and I think it is clearly superior to MySpace now. It is also possible to make a MySpace page that is unreadable, and Facebook gives you choices, but not too many.

So, you set up a Facebook account, and you tell it where you work and where you live, and it puts you in those "networks" so that you will find more people in these areas.

You search for other people, and click "add as a friend" and they get a message letting them know that you would like to add them. They say "yes" or "no", and sometimes add in where they know you from.

Facebook also lets you create groups, and add events, and probably will be adding other features.

Facebook lets you update your status, and then your friends see where you are/what you are doing. Or, if you choose to share that with the world, everyone can see it.
Web Tools I actually use: flickr

Flickr - (http://www.flickr.com )

Flickr lets you share pictures. You upload your pictures to flickr, and other people can see them.

You can tag them with words or phrases that will make it easier for (and others) to find your pictures.

People can comment on your pictures. You and others can "annotate" your pictures so you can identify people in a group shot, for instance.

And since you can take digital pictures of things, you could take a photo of a whiteboard after a brainstorming session and upload it to flickr, and people could comment on it.

Lots of possibilities for geography classes, you can find pictures of Transylvania or any region of the world you can imagine.

You have control over who sees your photos, you can set photos so that only you see them (so at least they would be backed up in case your hard drive ever died), so only family can see them (so all the pictures of children in your life), so only friends can see them (say pictures from a drunken party), or that friends and family can see them.





Web Tools I actually use: del.icio.us

Delicious - (http://del.icio.us) - don't use a "www"

Del.icio.us is a web page that lets you save your bookmarks on the web.

So, you use it, and you no longer have to worry about your bookmarks being on your home computer or work computer (or lab computer), you log into the website, and they are all there.

When you add an entry, you can also "tag" it, to add a useful search term to it. So I tag all my library stuff "library" and all my frugal stuff "money".

But remember, it's on the web, so you can share with others. When you do enter (post) a bookmark, it shows you how many other people have also added it to their account.

If my user name is "queequeg83", which it is, and you want to look at what I have tagged as "library", you can go to http://del.icio.us/queequeg83/library.

So, if you are teaching an English 102 class, you could tag things "eng102" and tell your students (or put into your blackboard pages) to go to http://del.icio.us/yourlogin/eng102 and they will see the links that you want them to see. And if a link gets old, you can remove it, and the students won't see it next time they visit the site, and if you add a new thing, it will show up.

And, going beyond what I have done, you can identify friends who are using delicious and send them links.