Web 2.0 Easier, faster, friendlier

Thing 1 - Background

Thing One. Read this post. That’s all you have to do for this one.

This Thing:

• makes sure you know what we are doing
• tells you how to do it easily and safely.

For this programme we use the word Thing to mean ” a free online tool that will help you with teaching, learning, research or to be more productive in your work or study”.

What are we doing?

Each week you should:

• read about two or three new Things on this blog. They are published Fridays.
• do the exercise for each Thing - this will include at least one post to your blog per week.

Each week you can:

• attend workshops in the library if you have already booked in
• ask Kathryn for help after you have tried the exercise k.greenhill@murdoch.edu.au
• look at other people’s blogs on the list of participant’s blogs
• comment on other people’s blogs
• do whatever helps you learn best - check out advanced features, customise the tool, teach someone else about it, blog about it

Eight ways to get the best out of the programme.

Web 2.0: easier, faster, friendlier. What’s it all about? : Webcam Conversation

Kate and Kathryn talk about what the programme involves, how to get the best out of it… and why it isn’t really about the tools themselves.

1. Remember, it’s not about the specific tools.

It is about learning general online skills. We are showing you tools that we think are useful today.

No-one can be an expert in free online tools. They are constantly updated and newer, better tools are being released daily.

We hope that you come away knowing the right questions to ask and places to look if you have a challenge that could be solved by a free online tool.

2. Give yourself time.

You will get faster and online tools will seem simpler as you test individual tools and explore how they all fit together.

Set aside 15 minutes per day as “playtime” during the programme to check out new tools. Try finding a friend and doing the exercises together. This is not a race. The blog will stay here after 29 July.

3. Blog weekly.

Part of the programme is learning to find your own voice online and how you present yourself. Reflecting in your blog allows you to record your progress for future reference.

4. Follow your passion.

If you are interested in Egyptology or cooking or manga then try to use these tools to explore this. It makes it much more interesting and provides a great incentive to learn more.

5. Use the tools.

Sounds obvious, but once you have joined up or played with tools, make sure that you test them for more than five minutes.

6. Add friends.

Many tools are social tools and work better when you work with friends. There is a voluntary list of participants’ blogs, so try finding those people as you test new tools.

7. Interact .

Don’t just friend people. Try making a comment or adding a tag or blogging and linking back to something someone else has put online.

8. Seek help.

Feel free to ask library staff who are running the workshops about how to use these tools or contact Kathryn.

Four smart ways to use free online tools.

Web 2.0: easier, faster, friendlier: Smart use of free online tools

1. Privacy. Respect your own privacy and others’. Don’t share what you or others won’t want found in 5 minutes or 5 years time. Online search engines can and do retrieve material that has been deleted.

Most sites - like Facebook, Twitter and others - allow you to set your profile and content so that only people you allow can see it. Consider whether to do this.

3. Reuse. Only re-use or re-mix content owned by other people if you have permission. Look for material released under Creative Commons. We will be covering this in Thing 11.

This post from Kate Makowiecka, Copyright Coordinator, explains some Copyright issues of which you should be aware, a mini copyright guide to Web 2.0 .

4. Online identity. Think about keeping your online identity consistent. It is useful to have the same login identity across a number of sites, but in doing so people can link your material all over the net.

We suggest that you use a separate login identity and create a new email to register for your “play” accounts during this programme.

If you can be identified as being from Murdoch, please keep what you create consistent with how you would like to present yourself to colleagues, the university and potential employers.

5. Backing up. Most sites like blogs and wikis allow you to create some kind of backup. If you put important information on online tools, you may want to back them up to a hard drive.