Flock, new browser for Social Browsing

Earlier Internet Explorer and later Firefox have grabbed attention as excellent web browsers. Now there is another one to consider.

Flock the new browser has firefox features like tabbed browsing, and it also has other excellent features for web 2.0 publishers. It has built in social networking features such as social bookmarking and a wysiwyg blog writing tool.

Some features of Flock:

• Flock has support for publishing to WordPress, Movable Type, Typepad, and Blogger blogs using the built-in blog editor.


• It uses del.icio.us to manage "Favorites" so you can share bookmarks between computers, and make easy use of del.icio.us bookmarks in Flock.


• It integrates well with flickr photo galleries.


• It supports extensions to add or change functionality within the browser.


• It has a search box on the right side of the navigation toolbar with several search engines to choose from.

What is a wiki?

A wiki is a webpage or set of webpages that can be easily edited by anyone who is allowed access. These sites enable group development of ideas and knowledge. Wikipedia’s popular success has meant that the concept of the wiki, as a collaborative tool that facilitates the production of a group work, is widely understood.

Unlike blogs, wikis generally have a history function, which allows previous versions to be examined, and a rollback function, which restores previous versions.

Wiki software (obtain a free wiki)
http://www.wikispaces.com
http://www.pbwiki.com

Example wikis
http://www.wikipedia.org Popular online Encyclopedia
http://keyskills.wikispaces.com Class wiki for B.Sc first year Key Skills course
http://woodindustry.wikispaces.com Wiki for M.Sc. Wood Industry assignments

What is blogging (web log publishing)?

The term web-log, or blog, was coined by Jorn Barger in 1997 and refers to a simple webpage consisting of brief paragraphs of opinion, information, personal diary entries, or links, called posts, arranged chronologically with the most recent first, in the style of an online journal. These websites contain written material, links or multimedia. Most blogs also allow visitors to add a comment below a blog entry.

Blogging is increasingly used in education (both in school and university), because it is easy to publish. Blogs facilitate feedback, by letting readers add comments. Blogs have educational uses as student reflection, publishing and sharing portals. Essentially an easy to build webpage, blogs are powerful student learning tools. For teachers blogs can operate as a content management system or more commonly as a professional reflection tool

Blogging software (obtain a free blog):

www.blogger.com	Owned by google. very easy to set up
www.wordpress.com	Powerful blogging software used widely
www.edublogs.org	Especially designed for educators using wordpress software
www.classblogmeister.com	Especially designed for teachers

Example educational blog sites:

Forestry students blog which contains B.Sc. and M.Sc. Forestry student seminar abstracts www.forestrystudents.blogspot.com

Class blog for Forestry B.Sc. special students
http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=99657

Forestry and Environment Symposium 2005 - abstracts of research papers http://forestrysymposium2005.blogspot.com/

Blog for students http://www.studentlanka.com

Web 2.0 for Elearning and teaching

Within 15 years the Web has grown from a group work tool for scientists into a global information space with more than a billion users. Currently, it is both returning to its roots as a read/write tool and also entering a new, more social and participatory phase. These trends have led to a feeling that the Web is entering a ‘second phase’—a new, ‘improved’ Web version 2.0.

This site brings you web 2.0 tools and technologies that can be used to enhance leaning and teaching new generation of users.