Communication technology continues to evolve. In the process, we (educators) continue to explore how to best use them in the classroom to stimulate discussion and support learning. In this session, Dr. Evia (English) and Dr. Perez-Quinones (Computer Science) will describe how some of these new communication technologies can be incorporated into the classroom environment. Hands-on demonstrations of some of these technologies, including Twitter, blogging, and Google Docs, we be key components of this short course.

1. Engagement 2.0: Using Social
Networking Web Apps to Increase
Interaction and Learning
Manuel A. Pérez-Quiñones Carlos Evia
Dept. of Computer Science Dept. of English
perez@cs.vt.edu carlos.evia@vt.edu
http://perez.cs.vt.edu http://faculty.english.vt.edu/evia/
Wednesday, October 7,

2. Social Software*...
• ...enables people to rendezvous, connect or
collaborate through computer-mediated
communication [Wikipedia]
• 55% of all American youth (ages 12-17) use
some form of social networking site [Pew
Internet & American Life Project, Lenhart
2007]
* social software is sometimes a synonym for Web 2.0 2
Wednesday, October 7,

3. Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g
Wednesday, October 7,

4. Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g
Wednesday, October 7,

5. Interaction and learning with
online collaboration
• Agenda for meetings (Google Docs)
• Common calendar deadlines, conferences,
trips (Shared calendar)
• Shared documents folder (Dropbox)
• Quick communication/collaboration
(Twitter)
4
Wednesday, October 7,

6. Google Docs
• Online documents, edited and
stored within a browser with
Word-like interface
• Share document with each
student
• Use for agenda or common
notes, document writing, etc.
• Publication plans
• Forms (with data gathering)
• etc...
Wednesday, October 7,

7. Agenda for Meetings
• Document between student
and advisor
• Shared agenda, updated
ahead of time (often by
student)
• I check agenda before meeting
and address issues
• Keeps record of previous
meetings
• Marissa Mayer's how to run a
meeting
• http://www.businessweek.com/
smallbiz/content/sep2006/
sb20060927_259688.htm
Wednesday, October 7,

8. D
em
Documents shared
o
• Publications plans
• NSF Proposal in the making
• Forms/Spreadsheets for data gathering
7
Wednesday, October 7,

9. Shared calendar
• Keep track of upcoming
deadlines for conferences,
fellowships, grant
opportunities, events, etc.
• Group responsibility to post/
manage
• Google Docs, iCal or even
Exchange
• Student benefit of seeing when
I am in the office
Wednesday, October 7,

10. D
Calendar
em
o
• Quick demo
• Google Calendar -
conference deadlines, CDC
• Personal Calendar
• Family, Work, Others
Wednesday, October 7,

11. Dropbox
• Store and share documents online
• Software syncs your computer files with
their online repository
• Can have multiple computers per account
• Share folders transparently
• Free software, limit of 2GB; paid option for
more storage
10
Wednesday, October 7,

12. Share with many
D
em
o
• Thesis folder, shared with
student
• Book, shared with co-authors
• Folder shared with family
• Software folder, shared with
middle school teachers
• Grant folder, shared with coPIs
• Others for me, available on my
iPod touch, on web
Wednesday, October 7,

13. iPhone support
• Access whatever files you put
in dropbox from your iPhone
• Basic support for viewing
content (but not editing)
• New iPhone App (haven’t
played with it yet)
Wednesday, October 7,

14. Middle school setup
• Description http://perez.cs.vt.edu/bns-computers
• One dropbox account for all computers
• All contents automatically replicated to all
• Parent’s home computer has their own dropbox
• Kids folder shared with parent’s account
• Teacher’s see all content at their workstation, no
submission of work needed
• Can see from home without moving materials 13
Wednesday, October 7,

15. Twitter.com
D
em
o
• Micro blogging platform • Has been used in courses to
support “contextualized”
• Status (what are you doing) teaching (teaching in the
moment)
service
• Inform your friends, be • I use it to post announcements
informed about their status and updates to course
materials, and to interact with
• “Follow” friends, famous students in short bursts
people, or single words
• Follow us: mapq and carlosevia
• Updates can be received via
email, SMS (to your phone),
desktop client, etc.
14
Wednesday, October 7,

16. Casual conversation with the
world
• Different people catch what
you say and repeat it (RT)
• Turn taking conversation
online (asynchronous)
• Global conversation
D
em
o
Wednesday, October 7,

17. Student from CS 5774 Fall 2008
“The class twitter account served as a nice
platform for the class participants to built rapport
and exchange thoughts and ideas. On a personal
note, […] whenever I wanted a clarification, I just
sent him a private message on Twitter and got
back a quick reply.”
16
Wednesday, October 7,

18. Wednesday, October 7,

19. slideshare.net
18
Wednesday, October 7,

20. D
em
Embeddable...
o
• Because all content is on the web, it can be
embedded in other pages
• See http://happy.cs.vt.edu/fdi09/
19
Wednesday, October 7,

21. Questions?
Manuel A. Pérez-Quiñones Carlos Evia
Dept. of Computer Science Dept. of English
perez@cs.vt.edu carlos.evia@vt.edu
http://perez.cs.vt.edu http://faculty.english.vt.edu/evia/
Twitter: mapq Twitter: carlosevia
20
Wednesday, October 7,