The Machine is Us/ing Us

Again, just watch!

Unofficial, metaphorical history of classroom 2.0, Part 1

Once upon a time (so we are told by those of us inspired and beguiled by Web 2.0) some people talked and others listened, passively.

Maybe it was those ancient Druids who made sun cakes for one another in the middle of winter to beg the Sun to return. Maybe it was those

Or maybe it never really happened. Picture this: a mistral wanders into some Middle Age village with his voice, instrument, and whimsy. He begins to sing and, we are led to believe, bring some sunlight into the lives of the downtrodden peasants that fill our mental canvases of the time. Did these hard working people sit quietly to some collection of songs? Or did they, as any patron of a bar (or coffee shop) for that matter, "interact" with the singer. Perhaps they sang along. Perhaps they asked for a favorite song. Perhaps they threw rotten veggies.

In is that moment of interaction between performer and audience, I believe, that the collaborative expectations of Web 2.0 (if not the actual technology is born). We could call it the heckler theory. From pies in the face to Facebook.



(The first of a series)

An Amazing Tool

Earlier today, I ran into Dipity, which is a free tool to create timelines. I can see all kinds of possible uses for my students.

One nice feature is that it creates a timeline from blog posts. Here is one from my class blog:




Suddenly, what has been a stack of information (which was never intended, at least, to be random, is ordered and tells a story.

I feel like I want to use this for all of my digital lives.