Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

PBWiki, Students & Cybersafety

On Tuesday May 14th (4PM, PDT) the PBWiki team will host a cybersafety webinar for educators on keeping students safe online.

You'll also learn more about PBwiki security settings and hear safety tips from Linda Uhrenholt, an AT&T Education Advocate and leader in cybersafety at CTAP.

I met Linda Uhrenholt last summer at our Yahoo! For Teachers workshop in San Diego and she is an amazing and dynamic teacher. I have no doubt you'll learn a lot and benefit from her expertise.

This event is free, but you need to register here: Cybersafety - PBwiki guide to keeping students safe online.

Related Resources

• Daily Peanut Blog: Use wikis to build your online classroom
• Yackpack + PBWiki: Add Audio to your wiki
• debaird.net > cyberbullies
  

Granular Social Network

An overview of the complexity in real social network relationships and visualization to help understand the key points that matter - people and interests.

Granular Social Network from Thomas Vander Wal on Vimeo.

Related Resources

• Granular Social Network (Text Version)
• Social Networks & Online Learning Design
• Social Media & Digital Learning Styles

                           

PB Wiki Tutorials on Atomic Learning

You already know that PBwiki is the easiest and best wiki platform out there. But did you know that Atomic Learning has FREE tutorials on PBwiki?

These tutorials will help you learn step-by-step how to create a PBwiki. Hurry, the tutorials are only available for a short time!

Related Resources

• PBWiki
• Atomic Learning
• PBWiki +Atomic Learning
• Video: PBWiki+Yackpack
• debaird.net + wiki
• Yahoo! For Teachers + WikiEDU

Chatterbox for Facebook

Chatterbox, powered by Yackpack, is an  easy way to put voice chats on your Facebook profile page. Here are some of the cool Chatterbox features:

1) You can now send text messages! This can be a text message along with your voice message, or just text -- whatever you'd like. These show up right in your profile, just like a Wall post.

2) Your friends don't have to have Chatterbox in order to post. Anyone who can see your profile can make a Chatterbox post.

3) It's easier than ever to post messages. If you enter any text or start a recording, you can post at any time just by hitting the post button... no need to stop the recording or anything else first.

Also, did you know that there is a super simple way to invite your friends to install Chatterbox? Once you log into Facebook, go to the Chatterbox description page and then click the "Share" button up at the top. Click "message" and you can add many of your friends to the list at once, and send it out. It's easy and effective. Give Chatterbox a try--it's a great way to add the power of Yackpack to your Facebook page.

Need audio for your Facebook Group? Then be sure to try WalkieTalkie. This Yackpack Facebook App gives you private voice chat for your Facebook groups. It's simple . . . just push the button and talk. Tell friends to add WalkieTalkie and your group will be talking live!

Looks like we are moving even closer to being able to use Facebook as a modular education platform, picking and choosing the Facebook Apps that meet and support the multiple intelligences that our students bring into the classroom.

Related Resources

• Facebook
• Facebook Blog > Platform is Here
• debaird.net + Yackpack

Tag You're It: Yackpack + Facebook

By now you know that I'm an avid fan of using Yackpack in an educational setting. Just a few months ago Yackpack and PBWiki, my favorite wiki platform, joined forces to create a mash-up that allowed you to put audio into your wiki.
 

That was just the start!

Earlier this week, Yackpack announced a new mash-up with Facebook. But wait. It's even better. Yackpack unleashed two new Facebook apps: Tag! and Walkie Talkie.

You can get all the details over on the Yackpack blog. And be sure to check out the Yackpack groups in Facebook.

Just another great innovative idea from the Yackpack team.

PB & Y: YackPack + PBWiki

PBWiki, (the super easy to use wiki client) and YackPack (the super easy to use VOIP platform) have joined forces to create the ultimate PB & Yack sandwich: audio for your wiki !

Yep. It's true.

Tomorrow PBWiki will announce a new partnership with YackPack that will allow users to easily embed the YackPack Walkie-Talkie Widget directly into any PBWiki page. And the install of the Walkie-Talkie Widget is über simple (and free!). Go check it out!

As Gen Y continues to push education towards an "always-on" learning style, adding tools like YackPack and PBWiki to your mix of web tools will provide new avenues for students to build unity, get actively engaged, transfer knowledge with peers, and create a technology rich environment where collaboration can take place--anywhere, anytime, 24/7!

Kudos to PBWiki and YackPack for this fantastic collaboration! And get ready for the next bit of magic from the Yack Labs: Tag!

Related Resources

• YackPack + Education
• PBWiki + Education
• YackPack + debaird.net
• YackPack Blog > Tribute to Teachers of Gen Y

In the 'sphere: YackPack + PBWiki

• EduBlog Insights
• Startup Meme
• Remote Access
• CNET > Webware > YackPack

VOIP Made Easy: Yackpack Walkie-Talkie Widget

It looks like the team over at Yackpack has been busy working up another batch of their yack magic. A few months ago they launched Yackpack Live, a feature which allows you to talk in real time to anyone in your pack.

Now they've added another exciting Yackpack product to their already impressive and innovative arsenal of Web 2.0 audio tools: Walkie-Talkie Widget.

The nifty Walkie-Talkie Widget tool allows you to easily (we like that!) put voice on any web page! Best of all there's no configuration, no software, and only one button -- easy peasy! Check out the CNET Webware article about the Walkie-Talkie Widget!

So go check out the new audio toys over at Yackpack! There are a ton of ways to use Yackpack and the new Walkie-Talkie Widget as a way to engage those Gen Y learners in your classroom.

How about putting a Walkie-Talkie Widget on your course blog? Or wiki? Or online syllabus? These are all great ways to get the conversation going.

Oh yeah, one more thing. Keep your eyes peeled for the YackPlayer!

Related Resources

• Yackpack
• Social Media and Digital Learning Styles
• Yackpack Live

Goldbach on Gen Y

Bernie Goldbach, the brilliant Irish edublogger from the Tipperary Institute, has a wonderful post entitled A Message to Bebo Teens. For those of you in the USA, Bebo is the social networking site for teens in the U.K. In fact, just this month Bebo just became the most popular website in Ireland--ahead of Google, Yahoo! and MSN.

In his post Bernie muses about "life in the silo" before MySpace, Bebo, StudentFace, Flickr, YackPack and other forms of social media came along and revolutionized the way students and teachers communicate, teach and learn.

Says Bernie:

"So to the Bebo generation I'm teaching this week, here's a blast of thought from my past, all the way back to the time when the only homes with internet connections were hard-wired to missile silos....

Things have changed a lot since then. Enjoy your social tribes on Bebo and MySpace. And if someone offers you time travel back to the time when the Beatles were about to sell their second platinum album, think about life without the web in AM Times.

It might be fun to hear what it sounded like but really hard to have fun without starting on-screen."

Spot on Bernie, spot on!

Related Links

• Bernie Goldbach > Irish Eyes
• FlickrEdu: Social Networking Goes to School
• Generation IM: Irish Youth Embrace Mobile ICT

YackPack + 2007 Digital Stream Conference

Tomorrow I'll be joining BJ Fogg, Tanna Drapkin, Barry Jahn, and several other members of the YackLearning Advisory Board as a panelist to discuss Yackpack at the 2007 Digital Stream Conference.

Digital Stream, an annual conference held at CSUMB (California State University, Monterey Bay) and sponsored by the School for World Languages and Cultures, attracts attendees from across the state and country to share their interest in the study of foreign languages and the best uses of technology in the language classroom.

The audience is primarily college and university level language teachers and technologists. Many attendees will come from the Defense Language Institute (DLI) in Monterey. There will also be some high school language teachers attending.

I'm looking forward to meeting with the Digital Stream community and sharing how Yackpack can be used as an effective ICT tool that supports student learning and instruction--both online and off!

Related Resources

• Yackpack
• Digital Stream
• debaird.net + Yackpack

Yackpack Live

Yackpack has introduced a new feature that allows you to talk live to people in your pack! And just like the rest of Yackpack it's easy to use: you push and button and talk, and all folks logged into your pack can hear you!

Pretty cool, eh?

This new Yackpack Live feature is an easy and convenient way to introduce synchronous communication in a distributed learning environment. So why not try using Yackpack in your e-learning back of Web 2.0 tricks?

Geography 2.0: Google Maps Mashup Mania

WikiMapia is a "wiki meets Google Maps" mashup intended to be used as a digital geographic encyclopedia reference tool. In its current incarnation, WikiMapia is a little rough around the edges, but keep this site on your list of potential teaching tools.

Here's how WikiMapia works: Key landmarks, such as Rainbow Arch in Utah, the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy, or the Pyramid of the Moon in Mexico, are identified on the map. Each landmark has a Flickr type notation (this is the wiki part) which anyone can edit or contribute information related to that landmark.

Placeopedia is an open source mashup of Google Maps and Wikipedia. Using this site, students can connect existing Wikipedia articles with their corresponding location on the map, and then make use of the community generated database to "browse, use, or syndicate the whole lot."


Web Resources

• Digital Geography
• Google Maps
• National Geographic Society > My Wonderful World
• GeoYacking Powered by YackPack

Slide into Learning

Slide is a nifty little photo scrolling program that allows you to publish image-based content (via RSS or iPhoto 6) directly to a Slide Player. Teachers and students can use Slide to create and share presentations right on their desktop!

The great thing about Slide is that it knows how to play nice with other kids in the Web 2.0 sandbox. This means you can use Slide to create your own mash-up with other web-based services like Flickr or YackPack. Or even the "dreaded" MySpace (shhh, it's our secret).

For example, I created a Slide Show on the 1906 San Francisco earthquake using the Flickr tag "1906". Slide even provides you with the HTML snippet so you can embed your Slide Show into your web site or blog. Or a student could subscribe to the class Slide feed and view it on their desktop Slide Player. Pretty slick, eh?

Imagine the ways students and teachers can use Slide in the classroom! One key benefit of Slide is the ability for student's to subscribe directly to your RSS feed. This way you know exactly what content will be scrolling across their computer screen.

Slide also holds great potential to deliver on-demand learning opportunities for online learning communities or e-learning. Slide and YackPack together may even prove to be a good alternative to a PowerPoint presentation.

So many possibilities!

Web Resources

• Slide
• Slide + YackPack
• Slide + Flickr
• Slide Show: "NECC" Tag + Flickr

YackPack for Education

This summer the team over at YackPack has been über busy! Sometime between attending a bunch o' conferences and implementing some exciting new features, the YackPack team found time to whip up a fantastic new YackPack Education site.

Take a moment to check it out--you'll love it!

On the YackPack Education site, you'll find real world examples of how other educators are using YackPack in their classroom. If you're a member of the Moodle community, then be sure to join your fellow Moodler's in the YackPack MoodlePack--now there's a tongue twister!

Get that popcorn ready, kick up those feet, and watch a movie by the Salem-Keizer school district in Oregon showing how a private YackPack is being used in the Math Scene Investigation course.

And if you need help, visit the YackPack Support page which has information on using a microphone, getting around those pesky firewalls and even a YackLingo cheat sheet. Yo!

YackPack-based learning activities provide students with opportunities to collaborate with their peers, learn from experts, use technology in a constructivist manner, and utilize information set in an authentic context. Sign up and find out why teachers all over the world are using YackPack in their classrooms! It's easy, it's free and it's fun!

So, what are you waiting for? Get Yacking!

YackLinks

• YackPack Education
• debaird.net + YackPack
• YackPack Screencast (en Français)
• YackPack: The Social Life of Speech

YackPack: Let's Discuss the Blackboard Patent

In case you missed it, last week the U.S. Patent office granted BlackBoard a patent for many of the key elements used in many, if not all, of the Learning Management System (LMS). Shortly after the patent was issued, Blackboard filed a lawsuit against the online education company Desire2Learn.

This move is being viewed by many in the education ecosystem as a power grab by Blackboard and a way for them to fight against Open Source education platforms like Moodle, Docebo, and OpenCourseWare.

So what do you think?

Our friends over at YackPack have started a new public YackCast for members of the education community to discuss the BlackBoard Patent issue. Join the YackCast and add your voice to the conversation.

Web Resources

• YackPack > YackCast on the Blackboard Patent Issue
• Desire2Learn Patent Page
• Blackboard > Patent FAQ
• Desire2Learn > Blogs and Sites Discussing the Patent Issue
• Stephen's Web > Blackboard Patent Discussion

YackPack: New Video Tutorials

Did you know you can easily add YackPack to your MySpace or hi5 social networking page? What makes YackPack so great is that it allows you to hear your friends voices! It's like audio email.

You can even create private YackPacks or create and then invite all your friends to join a public YackCasting group!

YackPack even has a whole bunch of new video tutorials to help you learn the ropes! So go check it out!

Web Resources

• YackPack
• YackLearning