Technology Week: Storify

Storify is a tool that allows you to create stories using social media like Tweets, video and photos. Combining these tools to create one online story provides readers with a more well-rounded understanding and better context than any one of these tools used by themselves could provide.

One example of a nonprofit making use of this tool is Foundation Center. You can view their Storify creations here. This is a particularly good example of how Foundation Center combined photos, a presentation uploaded to SlideShare, and Tweets to create a story about a presentation recap.

Twitter in the classroom

CNN posted an interesting article today about the use of Twitter in the classroom. Instead of banning the use of cell phones in his classroom, teacher Enrique Legaspi encourages students to use technology to interact with him while in the classroom. Using cell phones, iPads and laptops, students are allowed to make class comments using Twitter. The teacher said that it seems that the shyest students in the class are benefiting the most as they are more comfortable making their thoughts known in the virtual space rather than the physical.

While Mr. Legaspi does concede that his students sometimes make inappropriate remarks on Twiter, he still remains excited that students can provide him with feedback right on the spot and that each student can see what others have shared.

What are your thoughts on this? Are tools like Twitter the future of education or do you think they are only a distraction to classroom learning?

Tutorials on technology and social sites

In order to educate others about technology and social sites, I have created a series of tutorials in presentation form that I have posted on SlideShare. The tutorials provide introductions to Second Life, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

I plan to add more tutorials in the future - let me know what tutorials you'd like to see.