Quora is the new internet celebrity that people are all set to follow. It is the latest knowledge indexing platform for anyone who has a question to ask. With an impressive launch, Quora is all set to compete against other Q&A sites currently operating on the web. The idea of such a social networking site is not new, however the hint of innovation, the idea of using collaborative public effort as a knowledge tool and the initial popularity it has gained so far suggests Quora has the potential to set its mark.

Quora was built by two former Facebook employees and was publically launched in June 2010. The idea that led to the development of this latest social buzz was to create a platform where questions can be asked, answered, edited and organized by its very members i.e. you. Quora is aimed at becoming an online database where anything anyone wants to know can be found, although the credibility of such information, which is open to absolutely anyone, is debatable. Information on such a site can be rendered “negotiable” if it comes from a common user and “knowledgeable” if expressed by an expert on the matter. But nevertheless, Quora does promote the collaborative aspect of knowledge-sharing, where people come together to solve queries and learn more about stuff which otherwise cannot be found on the internet. Information shared on Quora is also rated by its users, indicating its usefulness, which eventually bring useful posts to the top of the page which helps in improving the quality of the information shared. Also at Quora, connecting with other people is just as easy as on any other social website.

Examples of How Individuals and Companies are Using QUORA

Quora can be quite useful for companies and individuals who wish to reach out to people, share their opinion or help create awareness. For example, someone posted the question:

Are QR codes here to stay or just an unsuccessful gimmick?

As a QR Code enthusiast (!) I posted my response about using Dynamic QR Codes to engage people in your message/product/service and so on. Social networking sites like Quora where people from all backgrounds have a say, can prove its productivity in the most unique ways. Whether it is individuals raising their voice for a cause or sharing their expert advice on matters regarding their professional fields; it bores out results.

A recent article in Federal Computer Week explained how Eric Cantor, a staff member for GOP House Majority Leader, made use of Quora to get public feedback on the idea of using social platforms for legislation. It is one smart way to see how general public thinks. Similarly companies such as O2 can also make use of such social websites to achieve their marketing objectives and publicity goals. Online presence is essential for a company to reach out to target audience. Customers on the other hand also have many queries regarding products. Social platforms like Quora can help such companies give positive response to questions posed about their products and help promote their products or services in a better ways; SimpleBank for example is using Quora to find out what people have to say about the current banking system in US and how it can be made better; or discover more about a particular technology, for example Dynamic QR Codes, before investing.

Measure of Impact

Quora has captured an audience and it has made a nice start. People are likely to interact on such platform because this way they get to express their opinion. And for the time being companies and individuals who wish to make it big on the internet will find Quora very charming for the purpose. However it is too early to say anything about Quora, time will tell if this latest social website will make it big itself or not. At this moment Quora is expanding rapidly and is one of the most talked about social platforms. Some hail the idea on which Quora works where as others have raised concerns and argued about the authenticity of information being shared on it. More and more users on the website mean more information sharing, while at the same time relying on users to provide all the answers can be a recipe for disaster. Quora has the potential to impact government market place, online businesses and individuals, but the magnitude of this impact is yet to be determined. So stay tuned!

How to create an effective social media strategy

This year, Facebook commanded an active audience of 600 million users. In the United States this accounts for one in every four people, in the UK 23% of people use Facebook and 1 in 13 globally access this social networking tool. Business growth is increasingly tied to digital engagement. But what is engagement anyhow and how do you establish an effective way to judge the ROI of such engagement? It is important to thoroughly examine those questions before embarking on any serious social media strategy. One common misconception is that simply having a Twitter account or a Facebook page means that you are done. Herein lies the problem. In the digital world, the old adage “if you build it, they will come” is simply not true. You need to build it, nurture it, tear down and rebuild it, and then repeat. Constantly. It is not an easy process. There are, however, some tricks to employ to make it slightly less time consuming.

1. Clearly Establish Your Objectives

What is your purpose for going online? Is it to make more money, raise awareness about your brand or product, or something else? Putting these in bullet points will help you later- when establishing the metrics for measuring ROI once you get the ball rolling.

2. Identify the Person/people and Hours You are Willing to Dedicate

Effective social media strategies can be time consuming. Make sure that whoever is tasked with executing these measures actually has enough time to do them. Another way to become more efficient is to automate parts of your social media strategy.

3. Identify Your Target Platforms

Last year Facebook’s fastest growing demographic was women over 55 years old. This has been a total game changer in the eyes of many- an indication that older, more affluent people are migrating to social media as a means to engage with their communities. Twitter is also a powerful tool to use to increase your brand and engage people.

4. Prepare an Outline

This is a precursor to your overall digital strategic marketing plan. Determine what your goals are for using social media in your business. Evaluate the tools, platforms and technologies available to you to achieve your goals and objectives. Once you have an outline, it’s time to examine the tools you will be using to execute your objectives. During the inception process, your main objective should be focusing on: the audience.

5. Your Audience

Find Your Audience

Examine the product or service you offer. Who are your buyers or consumers? Where do they reside, collaborate and converse online? A good place to start is by scanning the audience of your competitors’ blogs. Technorati (link http://technorati.com/) is among the largest blog search sites available. Run a search on the site, and find 5 to 6 of your competitors. The regular commentators on these sites comprise a good example of your audience.

Listen to Your Audience

This is a commonly skipped step. Social media offers a 2.0 experience to its users. Web 2.0 is a term used to refer to the phenomenon that occurs when users are given the opportunity to converse directly with each other and the companies and businesses that they choose to relate to.

In a real world example, compare it to a face to face conversation. There is an opportunity for talking, but also an opportunity for listening. Any good conversationalist will tell you that listening is as important, if not more important, than talking.

Listening on the web can be one of many things. Monitoring hashtags on Twitter , reading blog comments, ‘liking’ your competitors on Facebook and establishing Google keywords are good places to start.

Analyze Your Audience

You’ve found them and listened to them. What are they talking about? What platforms do they use to communicate with each other and your competitors? What information do you have that could be of use to them? Answer all of these questions and plug them into a visual spreadsheet.
Now that you’ve established your objectives, who will carry them out, where and why, it’s time to piece all of that information into a digital marketing plan. Stay tuned for the next post, where we will be examining how to do just that, along with establishing effective analytics tools to be on top of making every ounce of effort bring the outcome you desire.

Creativity and Innovation

This fifth post looks at ways in which students and teachers can improve the way they express ideas and communicate their understanding of key issues. I have also mentioned how cross-pollination into different spheres can help improve our practice as teachers – if you find this topic of particular interest please visit EatSleepTeach.com for more ideas.

Create Kaleidoscopes for Learning

I came across the FoldPlay website  in one of @creativetallis‘ Tweets (well worth following for great ideas). This creative tool lets you upload a number of images and then download  a .JPG kaleidoscope of your creation including instructions for putting it together – very cool. There is also a slideshow with still images which shows you step-by-step how to construct it. This would be a great addition to a task for students where they have to convey their understanding of a concept by selecting a number of images that together shape the meaning of that particular concept.

Here’s an example:

Making a Point

In Ideas for Learning and Creativity #3 I added the superb poem/talk by Taylor Mali as it shows how powerful public speaking can be with the right script and preparation (amongst other things). The following clip involves a different type of public speaking and demonstrates that age does not have to be an obstacle to a sincere and compelling speech. Truly inspiring.

Cross-Pollination

I have always tried to keep an eye on what other industries get up to, apart from education, for example how business view CPD, collaboration and the way they present information to customers. This cross-pollination of ideas is essential, in my opinion, so that our teaching practice and pedagogical ideas do not become insular and we can instead progress and explore new avenues. There are many books that can help you explore and make cross-pollination a regular aspect of your work, see this list. I also subscribe to different newsletters/RSS feeds or podcasts to keep in the loop of the ever changing world of innovation. One particularly useful source of information which I was suggested by Scott Hewitt of Real Projects recently, is the Harvard Business School – Working Knowledge . This website gives its readers insight into the cutting-edge thinking and research that is taking place place at Harvard and covers a wide range of topics and interests – well worth looking into even if you’re not interested in Business or Technology as they cover many other areas as well.

ICT and E-Learning

The Creative Beast

It’s hard to think of easy-to-use and cheap methods of producing high-quality media.

This is one of the most simple but creative ways of using text, images and post-its to communicate a message. The potential for using this format is immense whether one uses frame-by-frame animation in Adobe Flash or with a camcorder or digital camera, the results could be tremendous and the creative output for students very positive.

Besty Streeter blogs at Betsy Streeter .

WeToku: interviews made simple

WeToku was set up, according to the founders of this Korean website, because one of the team members, James, insistence that he was a true celebrity but found interviews face-to-face too inconvenient, so they made it easy for him by creating the website. Whatever the reason behind this nifty tool, it is a good resource if you want to invite someone for a meeting or to interview them for blog as you can record and then embed the video immediately afterwards. This has real potential particularly if you’re brave and decided to invite someone you’re inspired by for an interview – can you think of someone, I definitely can! WeToku can really make your blog even more interesting – I have scheduled an interview already.

Here’s an interview with Guy Kawasaki – discussion about the quality of the interviewer’s questions and prep is discussed on the website…

Clever Online PDF/PowerPoint Viewer

Have you ever tried the Google Docs Viewer ? This is a superb tool if you want to display PowerPoint presentations, like in SlideShare but without having to sign up, on your webpages. You can also embed PDF files which is a handy little feature, like this:

If you liked that, you'll like these:

• Engaging WEB 2.0 Tools to use in the classroom
• Ideas for Learning and Creativity: simplicity
• Useful and Effective Twitter Tools

When the dot-com bubble burst in 2001 many regarded the World Wide Web as defunked and on its way out. Others disagreed and saw changes of the Web as a significant turning-point . These individuals argued that there had been bubbles and consequent shakeouts in many other technological revolutions throughout history. Tim O’Reilley from O’Reilly Media, stated in his 2005 article ‘What is WEB 2.0?‘ that these “shakeouts typically mark the point at which an ascendant technology is ready to take its place at center stage”. Cue WEB 2.0.

The definition of WEB 2.0 has been fiercely debated since 2004 although it was at a brainstorming session with O’Reilly and MediaLive International of that year that marked the birth of the concept. They discovered that many of the surviving companies and Web developers of the dot-com crash had many key features in common. Whereas WEB 1.0 allowed users to passively view information available to them, WEB 2.0 enables users to interact with both content, other users as well as help in generating content in the form of ideas, text, videos, or pictures. For a quick overview of key characteristics of WEB 2.0 please see this article.

Watch this brilliant video about the development of the World Wide Web by Michael Wesh, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology Kansas State University:

A more advanced feature of many WEB 2.0 tools is the ability to synthesize different services using the Application Programming Interface (API) to create a new application also known as a mashups. This means you can blend social media tools such as Twitter with your own application to create a new, or at least a heavily modified, tool. Some commentators are now talking about yet another transformation namely from WEB 2.0 to 3.0. This presentation explains the evolution from WEB 1.0 to WEB 3.0 very well.

20 WEB 2.0 Tools

In March 2010 Google listed more than 8.5 million citations of WEB 2.0 and thousands referred to WEB 2.0 tools. This list will attempt to narrow that down significantly (!) and hopefully provide you with a few interesting reources that can be used to aid the delivery of lessons, content creation as well as be used with your pupils in the classroom. The following tools are in no particular order:

1. VoiceThread.com:

Enables you to collaborate on images and videos by adding text, doodles, voice or video comments. One clever feature is that you can record from your webcam and add it to the image. Other users can also add their comments which makes this tool stand out from similar ones out there. Therefore a superb opportunity to spice up Peer-Assessment! If you purchase a Pro Educator account then you only pay $10 – once. Check out this 60 second guide about using VoiceThread.

Here’s an example of a group of Primary pupils using VoiceThread.com:

2. PictureTeller:

Created by E2BN and is hidden deep in the jungle of their amazing resources and eventually appears in the Cook IT section. E2BN has said that they are about to launch an Activity Generator section to make it easier to find tools such as PictureTeller. PictureTeller allows you to upload an image, add your own voice over, text bubbles (lots of different kinds to choose from) and then establish the direction of where you want the ‘camera’ to zoom. Essentially you create a movie which can be embedded (although this didn’t work as well as I’d liked) downloaded or simply copy the link and use your favourite social media tool to share the creation. See this example of a mini movie created using this tool.

3. Wallwisher:

Works as a wall of interactive ‘stickies’. Users start a new wall, enter a suitable title and description so others know what/how to use it and then they simply double-click the wall to add a sticky note. Each note has some customizable features like adding not only text but also an image, audio, or video link to each note. Wallwisher is a superb tool and very versatile:

• Homework wall: get pupils to add their stickies prior to the lesson and then read out a few examples as a starter activity (also great ice breaker for older students who, lets face it, sometimes struggle to talk in big groups)
• Interactive sorting task: quick activity where you create a series of stickies which pupils have to rank, sort, organise etc
• Writing frame; where pupils drag the piece of writing into the correct order; or where pupils add content to ‘Intro’, ‘Main paragraph 1′, ‘Main paragraph 2′ and ‘Conclusion’ sticky.

Here are two examples of using Wallwisher both in the classroom as well as during INSET or Department meeting:

In the History classroom

Tips on becoming a creative teacher

4. Issuu:

Simple tool where you can create stunning digital editions of worksheets, articles, comics, drawings and so on, simply by uploading a document. Register, upload, embed – done.

5. Phrasr by PimPamPum

Phrasr uses the Flickr API by matching images to words you choose. It’s all very straight forward really, just type a few key words and select which images you want to match with each word. It can be quite a powerful tool in the classroom as it provides opportunity for students to really think about the meaning of words from complex underlying abstractions of key concepts to producing presentations about contrasts, differences and similarities.

Here are a few examples:

8 O’Clock

Future Technology

A Different World

6. Spezify

Spezify is a great way to get pupils digging deeper into research, source material and their own projects. Add a key word and watch the screen populate with search results from a range of different sources. What is particularly good about this way of searching is that you can filter out certain types of sources e.g. only show images or videos, comments, text or even audio like this video shows:

7.Voki

Create talking avatars that can be embeded on the Learning Platform or Department website. This clever tool can enhance the learning experience for pupils and can be used in a variety of ways:

• Characters welcome visitors to an area on the Learning Platform
• Avatars explain tasks to pupils who are working independently from home or in lessons
• Great for creating Thinking Skills mysteries where Voki Avatars give pupils info bursts which together complete the mystery
• Fantastic for improving listening skills – ask pupils to listen to the character and answer a series of tasks
• Give pupils a range of images which they have to describe or explain using their own Voki avatars.
• Pupils use their Voki to talk about a book they just read

8. StupeFlix.com

If you want pupils to create a quick presentation or video then this is a good tool to use. One great aspect of this tool, at least for techers, is the ability to upload to Youtube without leaving StupeFlix. Genius. Take a look at this example from of a StupeFlix video produced in less than 5 minutes.

There are other similar resources out there like for example Flixtime which is also easy to use.

9. StoryJumper

This is an online children’s book creator where you use a vast library of graphics like scenes and props to make your very own book. Pupils can also upload photographs as well as add text. The final product can be read online or bought in hardback format from the company (round $25 – approximately £15). A great tool for younger pupils in particular. For older students I would recommend for example ToonDoo and Pixton.

Here’s a Primary example of StoryJumper.

10. Creaza

If you are looking for a one-stop tool which combines comic strip creator, Video and Audio editor as well as a mind-mapping tool then Creaza might be of interest to you. Each tool has a suite of features that are pretty decent; you would have to spend a few quid to get something that works as well and in tandem with the other tools. After registering you are provided with a basic demo account (free), although some features are locked until you join and pay for a full account which costs . Another strength is that it can be fully integrated with the Learning Platform Fronter if you have bought into their extension.

Here’s an example that took 3 minutes to set up in the mind-mapping software Mindomo:

Mindmap from Creaza

That was the first 10 WEB 2.0 tools to enhance Learning and Teaching. The next post will look at another 10 tools that have proved to be successful in the classroom.

If you liked that, you'll like these:

• Learning whilst Immersed in Web 2.0 Part 2
• Engaging WEB 2.0 Tools to use in the classroom
• Effective use of Social Media Part 1: Twitter in the classroom

Create living maps with sound, stories and images

One way of creating meaning and relevance behind stories is to use illustrations and photos of various kinds. An even more powerful way is to add sound to a story to really capture a particular moment or event. Imagine including all of these features and then being able to add them to the exact location on a map. This is what MapSkip offers its users: create stories around a particular place.

After registering with the website find a location you wish to write about, for example the Normandy landings in 1944 or examine coastal erosion on the North Norfolk coast, add a ‘marker’ in the shape of a hand and a small box with a form will appear where you can give the place a name. Now you can also upload a photo or drawing, and why not include an MP3 file which captures the fierce fighting during D-Day landings? Another good idea is to create longer investigations with a class and keep adding to the map as you work through a unit, for example as they discover more about an individual’s journey, they can create a very detailed, meaningful and relevant story about this person. Imagination is everything with this tool and students tend to think of 100s of ideas about how they can demonstrate their understanding of a topic or unit. This is a superb educational tool.

Perhaps one of the ingenious tings about MapSkip.com is the fact that you can use it with students as you can set up additional accounts for classes using your email. There is a similar tool called VidMap.com which allows you to add, yes you guessed it, videos to exact locations on a map, also a very innovative tool.

Sophisticated and Imaginative polls

Another poll tool? Not quite. It would be to simple to describe Ask500People.com as yet another poll service. The premise behind this WEB 2.0 tool is based on New Yorker columnist Surowiecki argument that we tend to trusts experts and distrusts the wisdom of the masses but “under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably intelligent, and are often smarter than the smartest people in them.” His book The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few is a real gem. Sorry losing track…anyway, the idea behind the website is to provide real people’s opinions about real issues ranging from questions such as ‘Do you ever turn off your hot water heater to save electricity?’ to ‘Is it possible to look sane with a knife in your hand?’. Voting happen in real-time so you can see answers appearing whilst browsing the site.

It is simple to register and set up questions. It took no longer than 30 seconds to add the question below and use the embed code to add it to this post. You can also add the results bar if you want as well. It’s possible to create a range of different questions e.g. Yes/No, a question based on an image, text answers added by you as well as ranking answers (1-5, stars, Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree etc). One of the real strengths behind Ask500.com is the possibility to check statistics based on location, gender, age, income, education and country.

What do you think? Vote now.

Ask500.com is a truly effective and innovative tool which is very useful at both departmental level to use for Student Voice purposes but also at teacher level where you could get students thinking of a good question about the topic or unit that they are studying to really get them involved more deeply in the subject matter and make them see that learning, attitudes, opinions and interests about issues will never cease. You can also add a brief description or fact box to give voters an idea about the topic before the vote by adding a comment to your own post. By adding a comment you can also include hyperlinks to an external website which could provide more in-depth information.

The Art of Arguing

aMap is short for ‘Argument Map’ and the idea behind the website is very straight forward: to encourage the art of arguing by producing complex debates in a sophisticated visual format. aMap is based around the theory of ‘informal logic’ – the structure of arguing by ordinary people in everyday life. Chris Quigley, who led the team that set up this website has written a brilliant post about the theory behind aMap which is worth reading: How to win arguments and influence people. In a nutshell, the structure of ‘informal logic’ looks like this :

1. Your position: what your think overall
2. Propositions: reasons that support your position
3. Argument: supporting arguments that back up each of the propositions
4. Evidence: supporting evidence to back up your arguments

This process is of course ideal for classroom use as it helps students develop their Thinking Skills, reasoning and critical thinking in a highly visual format – great for demonstrating understanding. aMap is also a particularly useful tool for exam groups such as GCSE, A-Level and graduates students as it provides them with a map of ideas to use in their own writing. It is also beneficial for teachers for use in the classroom as you can easily print your maps and it provides a good writing frame to structure an argument for essays or extended pieces of writing as well as class debates.

Here’s an example from the website:

Creative and Effective Mind-Mapping

I simply love this tool. I think it’s even better than Bubbl.us…don’t take me off your delicious bookmarks just yet (!)… MindMeister offers something a little different which Bubble.us, at least for the time being (see their blog for updates about the new version), does not.

These are the features I particularly love:

1. Work on your mind-maps off-line: with Google Gears off-line library, you can work on all your maps wherever you are. Although Bubbl.us maps can be added to even if off-line (as the main flash files have already loaded) you cannot save the work without going on-line again.

2. Add ideas to your maps on-the-fly: Insert ideas into your default mind map on MindMeister directly from your Mac Dashboard or Windows Sidebar.

3. Easy images into mind-map: Insert images from the default library, have MindMeister insert an image based on the key word of a node or just upload your own photos or illustrations – fantastic!

And many other tools…

Here is one mind-map that I made for a job interview in July (got the job too!): Tom’s Learning Journey. Just click the image on the left to see a larger version. There are many possibilities with this online tool; I have only used the basics!

The only catch, if you want to use the free version, is that you can only store 6 maps. Mind you, you can export your brilliant creations in various formats incl. .pdf or as an image so you could always get rid of a mind-map and keep creating new ones. It is very cheap to upgrade to an educational license (approx 9 pounds per year) though, take a look on the main site.

Interactive Diagram templates galore!

Creating diagrams to use in the classroom or online is becoming more and more popular and they range from excellent to, well let’s face it, rather poor. Exploratree has been developed by FutureLabs which is a leading light in transforming the way technology is used in classrooms, and therefore belongs to the former type of tools – excellent.

By registering you can save and hare your diagrams so I suggest you do that first. The website provides you with a series of interactive thinking guides which are categorised into:

• Map your ideas
• Solve problems
• Explore
• Analyze
• Different perspectives

Example of interactive diagrams

Whereas other tools only allow you to add text and then simply save and print off, ExploraTree gives you the opportunity to add more shapes, text boxes, arrows and even images to your diagrams in a matter of clicks.

This is one of the most sophisticated yet easy online diagram tools I have ever come across and certainly worth exploring further. One particular diagram which I use regularly with my students is an interactive version of Belle Wallace’s Thinking Actively in a Social Context wheel (TASC) as it provides structure to problem solving as well as independent learning projects.

Create cool toons

Online comic book generators such as ToonDoo.com and Pixton.com can provide teachers with an opportunity to really engage students, challenge them whilst at the same time ensure that they progress. These type of websites also allows exam groups to think about audience, purpose, context and argument.

ToonDoo.com This particular website allows the user to quickly register and then produce high-quality and varied comics in only a few minutes. Although there are very few differences between Pixton.com and ToonDoo.com, the latter offers more in terms of usability, graphics and sleekness. I have used both sites with both GCSE and A-Level groups with great results.

See the following links for examples how I have used them:

French Revolution: What should they do with Louis XVI?

Look at these two comics I made at Pixton.com:

• Open Mic Battle: Witte v Stolypin at Pixton.com
• Why did the Uprising of 1953 happen? at Pixton.com

VisuWords

VisuWords and Wordle.net (below) are not what I would regard essential WEB 2.0 tools for classroom when you first look at them. However, I feel that both tools can have some benefit for both students as well as teachers.

VisuWords allows you to look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. You can then produce a diagram of those associations as well as, if you’re geeky, install the software on your own site! The image on the left shows you the associations from the word ‘freedom’. This website is useful to explore big concepts and get students thinking carefully about how words relate.

Beautiful Word Clouds

This interesting website was passed onto me from Tom S. It’s essentially a ‘collage’ tool, excellent for presenting ideas and visualising concepts. Neal Watkin recently asked on Twitter if Wordle inspired design firms with their graphics or if design firms inspired Wordle.net… Here are a few examples:

Key word example

Intro from Innovate with ICT - enhance learning through the curriculum

Hopefully you found some of these WEB 2.0 tools to be a useful and interesting addition to your teaching repertoire? If you have come across other tools that you have used successfully with your students then please share your experience and explain how you used it in the classroom : ) .

Johannes.