Browsing articles tagged with " wiki"

Question 152 of 365: What do we do with uninvited guests (or, the CC effect)?

Jun 2, 2010   //   by Ben Wilkoff   //   365 Questions, Uncategorized  //  No Comments

There is a disturbing trend in sharing.

We share with others (as we should), giving them the ability to edit and observe. This allows them to contribute and for everyone in the collaborative process to move forward. However, this is where the trend emerges. Once this becomes a norm within our institutions, there becomes an expectation of sharing. Ordinarily I would say that this is a good thing. I have spoken many times about the “collaborative instinct” thqt I believe to be essential. But it isn’t the people that we intend to share with that are causing the trend. It is the expectation that everyone needs access to all collaborative processes. It is the CC effect. Because so many people are being given the rights to edit and add to the conversation, everyone believes these rights are inalienable now.

We share documents now because we think we have to. We let the collaborative space be the way in which we communicate changes in direction, and we let the single act of contribution become the end all and be all. We are cc’ing the collaborative process by keeping our bosses in the loop. We are shortchanging the power of the brainstorm because we need to be setting up protocols for future times to come together. Drafting areas are becoming final solutions.

The unending email thread is no longer the worst thing to happen in office politics. Now, the wiki with an agenda that doesn’t take into account all those with editing rights, is dead in the water, as are its originators.

But, what do you do with a list of people who have access to a google doc, all of which matter but one? What do you do with a Wave that can’t get the work done that it was designed for, simply because of who it was shared with? How do we get rid of our unwanted collaborators?

We used to be able to hold meetings at awkward times to try and smoke out those with a hidden agenda. We used to be able to write one another notes and leave them on the desk of certain people. We used to not have to worry that the edit button was just a single click away from the very people who seek to derail our change or cross out our best ideas.

When the unwanteds speak up, there isn’t anything to be done other than to sit and take it. Much of the time they occupy very disarming positions of power. And they are the folks who recognize when they have been removed from the access list.

Much like my wife’s high school boyfriend noticed when she unfriended him on Facebook. She gave the logical reason that she didn’t want to be friends with him on facebook if they couldn’t be friends in real life. I can respect that, of course. But this former flame noticed his sudden unfriendly status with Kara and called her on it. She refriended, but that wasn’t fair. Clearly she could (and still can) take a harder stance with him, but she shouldn’t have to. It should be okay to set boundaries on everything that is shared.

While I am no expert in privacy settings, here is what I propose:

  • Along with the ability to share a document or piece of information with specific people, there should also be the ability to bleep it out for certain users. No matter if they were shared with directly or received a link, I would like to see a way to specifically and preemptively ban the people who are willing and capable of creating havoc in our collaborations.
  • I want to see the staggered share. I want he ability to edit the live document and then publish a more sanitized version of the document whenever it is appropriate to do so for a second tier of users. Right now, everyone either has view or edit rights. I think it should be edit, view, see. As in, you see what we show you.
  • I want the ability to kick people out and not have them know it. I want to keep letting them see the same version of the document or site that they originally accessed, but nothing more recent. Perhaps this is too underhanded for most communications, but I think that addressing the security of information is all about taking snapshots of what that information is and providing them as evidence of the collaborative process. Kicking uncollaborative people out of the environment is the only way that they will see just where the value comes from. An alternative to this solution would be to simply be able to tag every element of a collaboration with users who can edit, view, or see them. This may be more cumbersome, but it may allow for more transparency. Essentially, we are telling people that the web isn’t the same for everyone, and there is no one source of truth, unless you create it. I think that most folks are going to have to get used to that soon enough anyway.

    • So what do we do with uninvited guests? Nothing… Yet.

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    Questions 7 of 365: Why are we still looking for new ways to answer our questions?

    Jan 7, 2010   //   by Ben Wilkoff   //   365 Questions  //  4 Comments


    People have been asking questions for a lot longer than I have expertise to comment on (as many of you know, I am not an anthropologist, sociologist nor psychologist). But, I do know that we have asked questions of our parents to know why the sky is blue. We have asked questions of books to know more about a given subject or to know more deeply an idea or story. And, more recently, we have started asking questions of machines (Google, most specifically) to answer questions of the moment like who sang 867-5309 (Tommy Two Tone).

    So, the question I am posing is really, why is it that we have not yet found a perfect way of getting our questions answered? Why is it that we are constantly searching not just for answers, but for better ways to attain those answers. Entire ventures and industries rest on having the best way to answer your questions. Services like Hunch, Aardvark, or Quora believe that they are on the cutting edge of leveraging the crowd to answer questions, and I have to say that I have turned to them on occasion. I have also looked at Wikihow, Answers.com or Yahoo answers for an occasional fix of information. Yet, I’m not entirely satisfied by any of these services.

    Which is, I guess, why I am still looking. I still have to cobble together the best of what I find and make decisions about which answers make sense for my particular need. I just keep wondering why we haven’t figured it out, yet. Why is it that over the centuries of asking our questions we haven’t developed any better way of getting answers. I understand that we will continue to research and dig deeper, and find out more about the human condition every day. I get that every question we ask just begets more questions. But that isn’t it…

    I just want to know why I keep asking our questions to different things. Why can’t I find a single place to go to get all of my questions answered by people that I trust and respect? Is it too much to ask… perhaps.

    But, perhaps we are getting further away from that value. Perhaps by turning to a machine to answer questions, or turning to the wisdom of strangers we are still having to apply the same level of skepticism that we are looking to lose. Perhaps we need to go back to asking our parents why the sky is blue, and then just believing them when they answer. At some points, I need to know the people answering my questions intimately. At some points, I want to put together the knowledge with those people and have that be enough. In these times, I want a place that feels like looking up at a mystery and slowly watching it unravel in front of me as someone I trust comes to my aide with a story of experience or a suggestion of what to do next.

    That is why I haven’t found a single place to ask my questions. I guess that is what I am currently trying to build, what I want to be in place for my children and for the people I work with, and for the strangers I meet who also have questions. If we could just all bring along the people that we trust and start weaving our questions and answers together into a network of real conversations, that would be truly something. I guess I would still probably Google things, but for questions like “Where should I go from here?”, I need something else.

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    Response to Paul (on PD must be better)

    Nov 20, 2009   //   by Ben Wilkoff   //   Uncategorized  //  1 Comment

    This post is in response to a comment on my last post which went something like this:

    As I read your list I went back and forth agreeing with you.

    Do you ever question if it is not how we do PD but the audience that we have hired and put into the “seats?”

    Do you think we could stop “doing PD” if we simply hired a different caliber of professionals?

    Do you worry that we have to “give(!!!) context, meaning and perspective” to teachers?

    Here is my response:

    I do think that it has to do with who we are talking to and what messages they will accept. However, I really do believe that if given enough reason to change, everyone will. I believe in the power of people to see something great and to become a part of it.

    I also think that we could stop “doing PD” once people start thinking about networks as PD, but I still think we need to give people time away from their classroom responsibilities to actually create that network and to do their learning. We are passionate about learning what is “new”, but not everyone is. Others have to be given the time to do so, even if they are able to be a networked learner. They need to have the space to network.

    All learners need to be given a space that has context, meaning and perspective. While I may create a lot of the context for what I do, I live it every day. I cannot expect people who do not blog to understand the context of blogging. I cannot expect people who do not use twitter to understand the context and meaning of a twitter conversation. And, I cannot expect people who do not use wikis and revision history to create a perspective to gain that perspective by doing anything other than actually using wikis and looking at revision histories.

    When I say give, I believe that I am giving an experience. The experience is what matters to me. It is what will allow them to start creating context, meaning and perspective. Nothing else will do this and expecting them to create that experience on their own is just a little to harsh for me.

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    LiC Podcast: Design with Forever in Mind Archive

    Jun 26, 2009   //   by Ben Wilkoff   //   Professional Development, Uncategorized  //  1 Comment
    Design with Forever in Mind [ 34:58 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (989)

    Although I was thrown a whole bunch by not having wifi for the first 45 minutes, I think that the session was worthwhile. Here is the archive of all that we have done. I am also including my planning podcast from my drive up to copper mountain.

    Presentation:

    Drop Box:

    drop.io: simple private sharing

    Important Links:

    Ben Wilkoff Links:

    1. Learning is Change Blog and Podcast>
    2. Twitter Page
    3. Other Presentation on Thursday (The On Button: Instant and Always-on Collaboration)

    Presentation Links:

    1. Foreverism
    2. Math Casts
    3. Web 2.0 Game Over

    Exit Plan for Vocaroo:

    • Wav files backed up to a hard drive/server

    Exit Plan for Drop.io:

    • Everyone who downloads the podcast will have a copy.

    Exit Plan for JamGlue:

    • Mp3 files of mixes

    Exit Plan for Screencastle:

    • Download Direct Link to File and store on hard drive/server

    Exit Plan for Screentoaster:

    • Mov Downloads before uploading to screencastle site

    Exit Plan for DimDim:

    • Download and build own DimDim server and store recordings there.

    Exit Plan for Twitter:

    Exit Plan for Google Docs:

    Ustream Archive:




    Twitter Archive:

  • CosmoCat: @bhwilkoff was great to learn about screencasting and audio recording! Hope you enjoy Audioboo! #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 09:46 PM GMT ·
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    bhwilkoff: Thanks to everyone for adding value to my session #tie09 #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 09:40 PM GMT ·
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    forevertie09: http://twitterforteachers.wetpaint.com/ #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 09:13 PM GMT ·
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    toniobarton: Learning needs real purpose and real audience. #cotie09 #tie09 #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 09:08 PM GMT ·
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    bhwilkoff: How do you capture learning? Add to the spreadsheet: http://tr.im/pvz2 #tie09 #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 09:05 PM GMT ·
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    villagegreen: #forevertie09 http://screencastle.com/watch/b0c8a1b0ac6aa37d179f945721ee4400

    Jun 23, 2009 08:40 PM GMT ·
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    CosmoCat: I’m searching for #forevertie09 live on TweetGrid Search – http://bit.ly/4A1lo3 (expand)

    Jun 23, 2009 08:19 PM GMT ·
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    care507: I’m searching for #forevertie09 live on TweetGrid Search – http://bit.ly/4A1lo3 (expand)

    Jun 23, 2009 08:13 PM GMT ·
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    forevertie09: I’m searching for forevertie09 live on TweetGrid Search – http://bit.ly/MVxM0 (expand)
    #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 08:13 PM GMT ·
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    forevertie09: #forevertie09 Devonee – Technology Integration Specialist from Mesa County

    Jun 23, 2009 08:12 PM GMT ·
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    forevertie09: I’m searching for #forevertie09 live on TweetGrid Search – http://bit.ly/4A1lo3 (expand)

    Jun 23, 2009 08:11 PM GMT ·
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    villagegreen: #forevertie09 to back channel: I’m Matthew Woolums, Integration Coordinator from DPS. My blog: http://villagegreen.edublogs.org

    Jun 23, 2009 08:08 PM GMT ·
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    matthewadennis: SpEd in middle school in NW Denver. #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 08:08 PM GMT ·
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    jcope50: #forevertie09 Hi! Jill – Skyline HS Teacher Librarian- St. Vrain – just moved to CO on Saturday from CA!!!

    Jun 23, 2009 08:08 PM GMT ·
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    toniobarton: #forevertie09 first year HS Computer Teacher from Manitou Springs High School

    Jun 23, 2009 08:08 PM GMT ·
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  • Sara24lynn: #forevertie09 Hello! I am a library media specialist in a K-5 school in Greeley, Colorado.

    Jun 23, 2009 08:08 PM GMT ·
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    lbreed: #forevertie09 Hi! Lisa from Evergreen Middle School! I am looking forward to learning about authentic assessments.

    Jun 23, 2009 08:08 PM GMT ·
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    matthewadennis: Name is Matthew (obvi). Work in DPS. #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 08:08 PM GMT ·
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    Sara24lynn: #forevertie09 Audioboo.fm is an audio tool for iPhone My audioboos http://audioboo.fm/profile

    Jun 23, 2009 08:07 PM GMT ·
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    matthewadennis: @forevertie09 mind being blown; didn’t realize so many tools out there that I didn’t know about. Not in the know at 25?? #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 08:03 PM GMT ·
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    bhwilkoff: How do you use audio to capture learning? Call 646-402-5701 x 25286 #tie09 #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 08:00 PM GMT ·
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    McTeach: #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 07:54 PM GMT ·
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    McTeach: I’m getting real-time search results at TweetGrid http://tweetgrid.com/ #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 07:54 PM GMT ·
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    RickTanski: @jenwagner Slide 10 on http://tieconference.wikispaces.com/1117 #cotie09 #tie09 #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 07:51 PM GMT ·
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    toniobarton: #forevertie09 I like http://www.vocaroo.com/ recording website, easy to use.

    Jun 23, 2009 07:50 PM GMT ·
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    dlevesque: vocarro does not work on a eeepc #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 07:47 PM GMT ·
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    erhubbell: @bhwilkoff Hi everyone! Looking forward to great conversations today. #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 07:39 PM GMT ·
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    matthewadennis: Will the iPhone be forever, Ben? #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 07:31 PM GMT ·
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    McTeach: @bhwilkoff was giving it rave reviews! RT @courosa: @zemote I see Edmodo on the screen at #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 07:29 PM GMT ·
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    sroseman: #forevertie09 how do i get rid of the echo

    Jun 23, 2009 07:29 PM GMT ·
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  • zemote: @courosa awesome!!!! thanks for letting me know #forevertie09 , if anyone has questions, forward them on

    Jun 23, 2009 07:28 PM GMT ·
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    courosa: @zemote I see Edmodo on the screen at #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 07:27 PM GMT ·
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    courosa: #forevertie09 re: learning that lasts 4ever,think about boyd’s media attributes” persistence,replicability,searchability,invisible audience

    Jun 23, 2009 07:25 PM GMT ·
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    dlevesque: #forevertie09 why last forever?

    Jun 23, 2009 07:23 PM GMT ·
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    RickTanski: @bhwilkoff Hello from an office in Colorado Springs :-( #cotie09 #tie09 #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 07:22 PM GMT ·
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    McTeach: @bhwilkoff Hello from Sunny Northern California! #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 07:22 PM GMT ·
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    ericolsen: Will the computers ever work?#forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 07:20 PM GMT ·
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    courosa: #forevertie09 Hey Ben, hi from the St. Louis airport, soon to get back to Canada.

    Jun 23, 2009 07:20 PM GMT ·
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    villagegreen: Sitting in on design with forever in mind at tie #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 07:20 PM GMT ·
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    bhwilkoff: Say hello to all of the folks at #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 07:19 PM GMT ·
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    RickTanski: @bhwilkoff 3 hour session! I’m going to kill some bandwidth bits for sure. #cotie09 #tie09 #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 07:10 PM GMT ·
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    mjmontagne: tuning in to a bit of @bhwilkoff ‘s workshop #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 07:09 PM GMT ·
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    debh2u: RT @bhwilkoff: Session wiki page http://tieconference.wikispaces.com/1117 #tie09 #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 10:53 AM GMT ·
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    bhwilkoff: Session wiki page http://tieconference.wikispaces.com/1117 #tie09 #forevertie09

    Jun 23, 2009 05:55 AM GMT ·
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    bhwilkoff: Creating a hashtag for my session tomorrow at #tie09. Come and Join in the session with #forevertie09

    • Jun 23, 2009 05:54 AM GMT ·
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    Goomoodleikiog: Naming things is important

    Mar 31, 2009   //   by Ben Wilkoff   //   Uncategorized  //  3 Comments

    So, this came across my tweetdeck today:
    http://sites.google.com/site/goomoodleikiog/Home
     
    It outlines in very specific terms one way of integrating Google Docs,
    Moodle, Wikis and Blogs. I say very specific because one of the
    general hallmarks of the 2.0 version of teachers is that we tend to
    all be pretty good at explaining things in vague terms for others and
    specific terms for our students. We tend to be able to project a
    vision to the outside world and not be able to back it up with the
    specific ways of getting there, the ways that we got there in our own
    situations.
     
    The videos at this space are concrete (in-progress examples of just
    how a classroom can run). The pedagogy page is a brilliant explanation
    of how all of these tools should fit together, and it may be one of
    the first coherent things I have seen that isn’t just a list of tools.
     
    However the real reason for this post is not to talk about the site
    itself, but rather the name. Goomoodlewikiog, although a mouthful, is
    specific in terms of its purpose. It projects exactly what it aims to:
    a collection of interrelated tools.
     
    I believe that we should always be intentional in naming things that
    we want to be associated with. We should always frame our
    conversations in the terms that we want to be speaking about on a
    daily basis. And although I’m not sure that I’m going to be using
    Goomoodleikiog on a daily basis from now on, I am glad that someone
    is.
     
    My question is: what other terms do I need to make more concrete? When
    is it time to drop Web 2.0 and start talking with language that
    actually means something?

    Posted via email from olco5′s posterous

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    Making moving easy…

    Mar 18, 2009   //   by Ben Wilkoff   //   Uncategorized  //  No Comments

    Every night this week and last I have been packing. I have been
    packing up my family to move us to someplace better, with more room
    and more possibilities (and more than one bathroom). This move has
    gotten me thinking a lot about what to keep and what to let go of.
    Without extending a metaphor too far out, it has also gotten me
    thinking about how to move an entire school or even a district from
    digital learning systems that they currently use, to ones that have
    more possibility and room to grow.
     
    And, what can we leave behind in this move. When you move from an
    email based system of communication to a feed and “friend” based
    system of communication (twitter, facebook, or even project wikis),
    what is no longer neccessary?
     
     
    When you move from a server based architecture for storing learning
    objects to a cloud based repository, what is gained and what is lost?
     
    The specifics are becoming more and more clear to me as I pack things
    up. As I pack up our assessments for the online school, getting them
    ready to move again, we can leave behind proprietary formats. We need
    to be able to plug them in anywhere and reuse them for many purposes.
     
    As I pack up all of our content, I realize that we can leave all html
    pages without an edit button on them.
     
    And, as I try to put all of our tools and resources for collaborative
    and connected learningn into their box to be ported over to a new LMS
    or to new PD spaces, I am realizing that there is no box big enough to
    hold all of them.
     
    Every tool must be allowed to connect to others, just like every
    person must be able to connect. If there are tools that do not
    connect, they will be packed away permanantly and placed under the
    stairs.
     
    Well, I am off to pack some more, but I will continue to think about
    what can and can’t be thrown out when we make big shifts in education.
    I hope to return to this theme soon when I figure more out.

    Posted via email from olco5′s posterous

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    Virtual attendees unite.

    Mar 16, 2009   //   by Ben Wilkoff   //   Uncategorized  //  No Comments

    I was thinking some more about Sloodle and Second Life in general
    today and a thought struck me: why don’t all conferences have a SL or
    Open Sim component?

    Why do we struggle to pull together people from all over the state,
    country and world into 2d places like blogs, wikis and aggregator
    pages when all we need is a decent SLurl to direct people to in order
    to connect? Now, I know that the WebHeads in Action do Second Life
    events all of the time, but as far as I know they do not have a
    face-to-face component. As for the face to face conferences I have
    been to, not one of them invited those watching the elluminate or
    usteam feeds to join in on an SL roundtable.

    Do conferences need to artificially separate those who can see one
    another with those who cannot?

    Why can’t we put the usteams into a SL environment? Why shouldn’t we
    allow the hallway conversations to happen for virtual attendees?

    In other words, I would like to do this soon. Anyone already tried it
    successfully?

    Posted via email from olco5′s posterous

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    A question

    Feb 12, 2009   //   by Ben Wilkoff   //   Uncategorized  //  No Comments

    This is a really interesting question.

    First, if you are looking for engaging videos to show for professional development, I would look here:
    http://www.speedofcreativity.org/resources/videos-for-pd/

    As for introducing the subject of engaging students with technology, I think that you would really have to find a good itch that you think all of the teachers want to scratch. What is the one thing that they can do with technology and students that they couldn't do before? Why should they care about technology?

    Places like http://classroom20.com, or http://supportblogging.com, or even something as specific as http://voicethread4education.wikispaces.com/ would work well to figure out just how deep the topic goes with your teachers.

    As for an article, I like http://blog.futurestreetconsulting.com/?p=94, many of the posts from http://weblogg-ed.com, or any of the presentations at slideshare about educational technology.

    If you are really interested in starting this conversation, I would recommend that you start up a discussion group over at Google Groups or set up a wiki for this purpose. Or, simply get an e-mail group going if that is where your teachers are at. Creating an avenue for this kind of conversation is the only way to make it last. Let me know where you want to go from here. Creating change is not an easy business.

    I am in need of your expertise:


    I am preparing a session for teachers within my school district on engaging students with technology.  My emphasis is on 'ENGAGING' not on putting a child in front of a computer with headphones.  Some of our staff has forgotten that instruction still needs to take place even if your are using technology.

    My question is…. How would introduce this subject… I would like to show a video to break the ice… Something like MR. BEAN or SEINFELD that would a lead into the subject.

    Do you have any suggestions?

    Also, I am looking for a professional article to share with teachers along the same subject.  

    I would appreciate any help that you could give.  Thanks so much for inspiring me with your articles and presentations.


    Posted via email from olco5′s posterous

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    The On Button Archive

    Feb 10, 2009   //   by Ben Wilkoff   //   Uncategorized  //  No Comments

    While I was doing some searching over at Tweetgrid (my absolute favorite way of looking at twitter in real-time), I came across these notes from my Educon 2.1 Session, The On Button: Instant and Always on Collaboration.

    I figure that now is as good a time as any to put up the archive of that presentation and to highlight just how good Live Blogging can be. Sarah, a teacher in “midcoast Maine”, did a wonderful job of capturing the questions and ideas from the conversation that we had at Educon.

    I love the idea of being able to archive not only the video of a conversation, but also the conversation that happened about the conversation. Here is a list of links that also were talking about this session. I can’t wait to hear where else this session goes:

    1. List of Sessions
    2. Twitter Feed for the session
    3. The original Wiki page

    What I am more interested in, though, is how are you aggregating the conversations that surround a learning event? How can we make sure that the supports for our sychcronous environments do not go by the wayside.

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    A wiki spreadsheet.

    Jan 4, 2009   //   by Ben Wilkoff   //   Uncategorized  //  No Comments

    I have to say that up until recently I didn’t see what was so great about spreadsheets. I have been using them for years to analyze student achievement data and present findings to others, but the didn’t seem like the “killer-app” that so many others seem to be thinking about.
     
    On the other hand, my wife speaks in spreadsheets and she can really make them sing. She can have fields reference across fifteen different sheets and set up a budget in a matter of moments.
     
    This is extremely cool if all you want to do is present information or figure out what makes sense in terms of data, but as a collaborative process, I just didn’t see it.
     
    That was until Google Spreadsheets started opening up anonymous access to spreadsheet using forms and protected links. I started using google forms in order to record interest in our district’s online school (http://edcsd.org). This proved an effective way of collecting specific information and storing it in a place that could be accessed from everywhere. So, in this sense, it was a mass collaboration that was added to with every entry. No one really is able to see the scale of the collaboration, that is, except for me.
     
    Well that was a neat trick, but it is nothing compared to the idea of a spreadsheet wiki. One feature that was just added to google spreadsheets is the ability to share a link with others that will let others edit it without having to sign up for a google account.
     
    This means that students could record data on the same spreadsheet without having to sign in. It means that achievement data (not on specific students, though) could be aggregated in one place, all without having to teach an entire staff about a new service. It means that you could keep track of all of your school’s goals with everyone adding their notes, never having to go through the extra hoop of remembering a password.
     
    Perhaps best of all, it would allow all of those who do not yet see the value of massively-collaborative projects to participate in one without ever knowing about it and by using a tool they already recognize as important: spreadsheets.
     
    Perhaps I am making too much out of this. Perhaps there are other tools that do this already, but as I am on a search for ways to eliminate as many logins as possible, this is one great step in the right direction.
     
    Do you see any new ways of using this? Are spreadsheets more valuable now?
    Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

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