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Big Brother or Reader-Friendly

~ joanvinallcox ~ 1 Comment

The always amazing Alja Sulčič posted a link on Facebook to an article about web sites that adapt to readers, and I had an ambivalent response response to it – http://www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/20872/page1/

While I believe it is essential for communicators to create reader-friendly media, I find myself worried about changes that I am not aware of influencing me.

http://www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/20872/page1/

Technology Review: Adapting Websites to Users via kwout

I have a double ambivalence because I would see this as a positive in the educational context, but I worry about it being used on me to influence my buying decisions “using cognitive styles to adapt Web pages to users, in most cases [this has] been for education, not for e-commerce.”While I think it’s appropriate to adjust the delivery of information for learners, I’m not so sure about using it for commerce.

The possibilities being explored go further than this:

the researchers plan to watch website users for cultural attitudes as well as for cognitive style, evaluating whether visitors have a hierarchical or egalitarian view of society, or whether they think in terms of what is good for the individual or what is good for the collective. Someone with a hierarchical view of society might receive loan advice from someone in a position of authority, while someone with an egalitarian view might receive advice from a peer. Similarly, a person’s tendency to think individually or collectively might influence which features of a product are most emphasized. If that experiment goes well, Urban says, he envisions global companies one day using website morphing techniques to build single websites that can adapt to users based on their cultural background, as well as on their cognitive style. The researchers are also working on using their morphing techniques to make banner ads more effective.

What do you think? Do you think this is a progressive reader-friendly trend, suitable for commerce as well as education?

How To Get Efficient at Using Your Computer

~ joanvinallcox ~ 4 Comments

Well, that may be a title for a book rather than a post, but I have many very smart friends who declare themselves Luddites or troglodytes when it comes to anything beyond email. I keep thinking that there must be a way to entice them into learning more about the computer and the web.

I know I don’t help them by whizzing around the screen and doing stuff in front of them (but knowing that doesn’t always stop me from doing it). I know telling them how easy it it just causes the, voiced or unvoiced, response, “For you, maybe” and cynicism. I created my thesis, Following the Thread, as an exploration of how I managed to move from hating and fearing the computer to my current absorption with it. I discovered some things:

Then

  1. I was forced to use the computer as part of my job. Having no choice is very motivating.
  2. I learned from my students. I could make “deals” where I earned my teacher “cred” by coaching students in their writing, and they earned their learner “cred” by showing me how to use wordpro and the web. (It worked in the mid-Nineties but it might not as much now.)
  3. My college had ongoing half-day hands-on tutorials that I could take over and over till I “got” it. I think was especially useful because using the computer and the web required a fundamentally different understanding, and I needed a lot of guided repetition before it started to make sense to me. In a way, it was like learning a new language where it takes a while to “think” in it. Before I could get “fluent”, I had to grasp the pattern, and it was radically new. (I find it interesting that many ADHD sorts “get” this new pattern faster than the more academically inclined. My most helpful students were often dyslexic and really struggled with writing, but they grasped computer and web understandings very quickly.)
  4. Having real-life projects drove my learning. I found weekend courses on creating web sites excruciating, but I was happy to work on material for my teaching all weekend till I figured out how to make stuff work. (I soon discovered a great passion for WYSIWYG, the essence of user-friendliness in my opinion;->)
  5. Having a loose network of friends with expertise in different aspects of using the computer and the web allowed me to ask for help when I was stymied for too long. Joining the committee that created P.D. events to help teachers learn how to use the web for teaching (and volunteering to share what I knew) was a great leap forward for me, because I had a more structured network of experts to get help from.

Because I was one of the pioneering teachers on the web, these approaches helped me learn, however, I think the landscape and culture have changed, and some of the approaches would no longer work.

Now

What changes in this list might work now?

  1. Having a strong reason/desire for having to use the web is essential. If a group decides to use a wiki, or a family decides to set up a Ning network, or friends start using Facebook or Flickr, that might be the kind of pressure that encourages learning. Work demands are always “encouraging”.
  2. Learning for social reasons also creates a situation where you can learn from others; asking questions from your fellow learners or the group’s “experts” works really well. (I remember, when I was learning wordpro, just asking my cubicle neighbour the same question over and over, and she graciously answered me over and over.)
  3. Repetition is highly under-rated as part of academic learning, but dancers, musicians, athletes understand its value. If you want to learn something that’s difficult, repeat it as often as you can. Using Slideshare, you can repeat watching presentation as often as you want.
  4. Agree to take on web projects that stretch you. (Make sure someone can answer your questions; ask either someone you know or make sure you know where the “Help” button is – it might help.)
  5. Having a network of people you work or play with is still very helpful. The biggest change since the early stages of my computer and web learning is all the help that is now available online. Search for sites to learn from and bookmark blogs that offer on-going tips for whatever it is you want to learn. If you follow a few blogs regularly, and comment occasionally, you may find yourself part of a “community” and comfortable asking questions in comments or by email.

My blog is aimed at providing helpful information for those who are learning more about using the web. Finally, I suggest you set up a del.icio.us account, if you haven’t already, and an RSS reader, either Bloglines or Google Reader to use the web to help yourself learn about it.

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Creating Stories in a Comics Format

~ joanvinallcox ~ 2 Comments

I’ve been playing with a new web application called Comiqs and I can see it being used for school assignments or for brief, visual manuals. Here are a couple of examples I whipped up in 20 to 30 minutes each, which is slow, because I was learning to use the application at the same time;->

First, my response to another snowy day, made using photos from my Flickr account, which I directly linked to from within Comiqs:

  • Here’s what the first page looks like –

ComiqsWinter

Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

I can picture teachers using Comiqs to create attractive instructions, and I can picture students using Comiqs to create assignments requiring images and text.

I can see similar uses for small business tasks.

Can use imagine other possible uses?

It’s easy to use and fun to play with; give it a try!

The Infinite Web

~ joanvinallcox ~ Leave a comment

I love the web, and all its communication possibilities. I believe the web is an constantly expanding platform that anyone (with access to an online computer) can work and play on. I title my blog WebTools For Learners because I believe the constant change on the web literally forces users to be learners, always finding new possibilities and variations. There’s text, hyperlinks, and aesthetically presented text. There are images, and web-based editing and sharing of images. There’s audio, and web-based creating, editing, and sharing of audio. There’s video, and webcams, and other infinite possibilities. That’s what I write about here – the infinite web!

But … even full time, I can’t keep up. Even those technically-expert people whom I watch on Twitter and on their blogs, can’t keep up. I was delighted and relieved to read someone (I think through Stephen Downes‘s OLDaily) who reported that he no longer worried about keeping up; he saw the web not as a reservoir, but as a river he could dip into and find what he needed when he needed it. (If anyone knows who used this metaphor, I’d appreciate knowing so I could credit him.)

I’ve been aware for a long time that I couldn’t learn EVERYTHING about the web, and even that it just wasn’t my lack. What I need, what we all need, is the skill to find what we need when we need it. Simple survival.

So that’s what I write about here, stuff that I need or think I might need, which is stuff (web applications and their uses) that you might need, too, and want to learn about.

When I first named my original blog, WebToolsForLearners, I was aiming to help educators find and experiment with various computer and web communication possibilities – as part of their teaching responsibilities. But I wanted to be more open than just writing for teachers. I have learned a lot from my students, especially about using the computer and the web. I wanted to write for anyone who was interested in this utterly new, amazing communication platform, the most significant communication development since the invention of the printing press, IMHO. So I used the generic term, “Learners” rather than the more limited possible title “WebToolsForTeachers”.

I’ve kept the title, with a couple of spaces added, for my new web space here – WebTools For Learners although my web address is different – https://joanvinallcox.wordpress.com I am grateful to have had a blog at Blogger.com, and especially grateful that I could move my past postings here to my new space. The web has many flexibilities, and that ability to transfer is very handy. You may be wondering why I bothered to move, and my reasons are straightforward, and a result of my ongoing learning on and from the web.

  1. Bloggers I respect, especially edubloggers, keep writing on, and about, WordPress blogs. They often had more technical understanding than me, so I paid respectful attention to what they said and did.
  2. I learned enough on Blogger to understand that I had enough web application knowhow to be able to work with WordPress.
  3. On its homepage, WordPress uses the words, “aesthetics”, “usability” and “free”. What’s not to like?
http://wordpress.org/

WordPress › Blog Tool and Weblog Platform via kwout

For those thinking about starting their own blog, there’s lots to learn. And we can celebrate the fact that there are lots of ways to learn using the web. Start with Blogger if you want one of the easiest platforms to learn on. But if you want a more sophisticated and beautiful platform, consider WordPress, now or later. Or, when you’re ready to establish a blog in the future, dip into the river then, and find out what people are recommending that sounds like it would suit you.

For eNews Junkies

~ joanvinallcox ~ Leave a comment

For those of you who are fascinated by this American electoral process, the BBC have a very comprehensive site – http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/629/629/7223461.stm – where American bias is less likely.

For Canadians and those interested in copyright news, I recommend THE most knowledgable person in Canada on Canadian copyright legislation, and elobbyist for a democratic web – Michael Geist.

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/index.php

Michael Geist – Blog via kwoat

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A Novel at 14

~ joanvinallcox ~ Leave a comment


For about a year and a half I’ve been working with a very bright young woman, now 14 years old. I am pleased and proud to announce that she has recently published her first novel, Amelie of the Mitesen. It is a coming-of-age story set in a fantasy world somewhat similar to that of the Metis.

I did none of the writing; I simply told her what I thought was well written, and where she needed to add more of a set-up to parts of the story. It is all her ideas and all her words.

Feel free to order a copy from Lulu.com – http://www.lulu.com/content/1151511

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