Google Wave: First impressions

I recently got my Google Wave invite* (thanks to Jure) and I wanted to share some of my initial impressions. As most of you probably know already, Google Wave is an online real-time collaboration and communication tool, which combines elements of e-mail, instant messaging, social networks and wikis (watch the overview video for more info).

It was first announced in May, with a big promise of reinventing e-mail for the 21st century. It has been in private beta for some time now, and it's been getting mixed reviews with many people marking it as overhyped. So I was really curious to try it out on my own and see if it can live up to its (big) expectations.

I've now been using Google Wave for about a week with various existing and new contacts. Currently, one big limitation is that you don't get any invites when you start using the service, so your pool of contacts is initially quite limited and therefore you probably won't be able to immediately use the tools in that many real-life situations. Overall, I still believe this tool has a lot of potential to replace many collaboration tools (don't think it will replace e-mail in the near future though), but it still needs some important features before if can go really public.


The cool features

These are the main things I like about Wave:

• the basic functions are quite easy to use and understand (although I was already familiar with the basic philosophy and interface from watching the hour long developer preview),
• easier to use than wikis because of a familiar e-mail like interface,
• the ability to collaborate in different ways,
• adding links with the Google Search function is really cool,
• you can get a lot of additional functionality with Wave extensions like the Mind Map gadget shown below.

Using the Mind Map Gadget in a wave: the initial mind map was created by me, other participants were able to add and vote on the elements

The missing features

And here are the main things that I don't like:

• you can't add new Wave extensions with one simple click (here is how you do it - ouch!),
• embedding waves on the web should be as easy as embedding YouTube videos,
• as a wave creator, you should have more control over who can edit your waves and in what way (currently every wave participant can edit everything in a wave),
• when using Wave you're always shown as online to your contacts and there's nothing you can do about it,
• participants in the same wave can see what you're typing in real-time and you can't change that; real-time typing is useful in some cases, but not always (a good thing about e-mail is that you can rethink and rewrite your message before it gets sent out),
• you should be able to organize contacts into groups,
• the ability to edit blips in a wave and adding in-line comments isn't very intuitive or easy to use, so most people just keep adding replies at the end of the wave, which easily turns waves into noisy chatrooms; as my friend Angela said in a wave conversation: "It's the same as IRC but with rich content",
• you can't delete waves.

Bottom Line: Not there yet, but certainly useful in the real world

So, Google Wave provides a lot of great functions, but it lacks many privacy/permissions settings, plus a lot of features are still too difficult to use. A lot of users also complain that it can also be quite slow (especially if you add a lot of extensions in a long wave). But let's not forget that Wave is still in beta, so I hope that some of the main annoyances get fixed before it opens up to the public. I browsed through Product Ideas for Google Wave today, and I think most users agree on the basic improvements that Wave needs.

Even though my list of missing features isn't short, I'm still a Google Wave believer and can't wait to try it out in the real world. For example, I really like the idea of using Google Wave at conferences and in classrooms or the ability to use Google Wave widgets in Moodle courses (I'm also looking forward to an activity module for embedding whole waves into Moodle).


Links that can get you started

If you're just getting started with Google Wave and still feeling a bit lost, I suggest you check out the 5 minutes overview of 15 key Google Wave features and Mashable's Google Wave Complete Guide. If you're on a Mac, you can also try out Waveboard, a desktop app for Google Wave. Personally, I keep Waveboard always open, so I can see when new waves or changes are made. And there is also Waver, an Adobe AIR Wave client, which works on all operating systems.


Let me know about your first impressions in the comments or let's talk about it in Google Wave! (my username is alja.sulcic (at) googlewave [dot] com)


* Sorry, don't have any invites to send out yet, will tweet when I do.

The power of the unexpected

We're all naturally curious beings, but our day to day lives often get stuck in predictable routines that can dull our minds. And what's a great way to wake up our curiosity? The unexpected. Something that makes us pause and wonder, something that requires us to reconsider what we know about the world.

Like the company that added the ability to hear a duck quack when calling their toll-free number. Or The Fun Theory initiative, which among others included the world's deepest bin to motivate people to throw garbage into the trash bin. Take a look below and pay attention to people's reactions.

I love this example because it shows a lot of people inspecting the bin, trying to figure out how it works.

And that makes me wonder why is there so little of such wonder in our schools? The place, where such behavior should be expected; the people in the video above show a very clear desire to understand the bin, to learn why it behaves in an unexpected way. Do our students have such a desire to learn in our schools? And if not, what can we do to bring the unexpected and the wonder in our schools?

Helping people find answers

My experience with teaching online courses (and participating in various online communities) has led me to believe that there are three basic groups of people when it comes to finding answers to their questions:

• Social learners: people who prefer finding answers by asking other people.
• Resource learners: people who prefer finding answers on their own using any available resource.
• Passive learners: people who prefer waiting for answers to find them.

We can be part of a different group in different settings, although usually people tend to have a preference for one of the groups. And why do I find this important? I think it's important to be aware of how people prefer finding solutions to their problems when you're trying to teach people or provide technical or other types of support. And be willing to accommodate differences in their favorite approach. This is especially important in an online setting, where there's a spatial and often a time barrier when you're interacting with your students, colleagues or clients.

What the first group, the social learners, needs the most is an easy way to ask other people their questions. Provide them with different channels, make yourself available. And if you want them to keep asking questions, you have to make sure they get their answers in a reasonable time frame and that the answers provide enough information value and that they don't make the person feel bad or even stupid for asking the question. Thank the people when they're asking questions, and try your best to answer them. And don't forget that often an honest "I don't know, I'll have to look it up." can be the right answer. Also, be prepared to answer the same questions all over again, but don't be afraid to link to previous answers when you're working in an online environment.

In a large group of people the second group, the resource learners, can also help you provide the right answers for social learners. Resource learners often like the challenge of an open question and will gladly share what they've learned on their own to help out their peers. Just take a look at Twitter or Yahoo! Answers. What you can do to help resource learners solve their problems more effectively, is providing a lot of different resources, which should be easily accessible and searchable.

The most difficult group to deal with are the passive learners. They tend to solve problems by following what others do, find answers that are not related to the question or simply walk away. Different circumstances can make an individual a passive learner, such as lack of time or interest, lack of confidence when using an unknown communication tool or even fear of asking the wrong questions. They often complain when they don't achieve the expected results, but you just can't seem to be able to convince them that asking questions when problems arise can help them solve problems.

So what can we do to help passive learners? My usual approach is to provide regular directions from different angles, sometimes provide answers to questions nobody is explicitly asking, and to keep offering help. Some people just might need some time to start feeling comfortable before they start asking questions, and I try to make sure they know it's never too late to start.

But at the end of the day don't forget that you probably won't always be able to turn every passive learner into a social or resource learner. This doesn't necessarily mean that you've done something wrong or they are not successful learners. It might just not be the right time, place or circumstance for them. You can't always help everyone, but do try to find out how you can best help each individual.

The problem with workshops

Here's the thing: I don't believe one or two days long workshops really work when you're trying to change the way people do something or convince them to use a new tool. These workshops are like a first date. It can go really well, you get all excited... but then, the next day, you have this urgent thing at work to do, so you don't have time to call back... and then you have another big project to plan and... oh wait, what was the workshop all about? I'll go to another one next year.

The problem with short workshops is that you usually make a good impression, but you don't develop a relationship. Sure, you might get one or two people excited enough to get involved with the subject further, but most people won't. Most people won't really get it after a day or two. They need the time and place to figure things out on their own. If there's somebody by your side immediately solving all your problems for you, you don't really learn much.

So, what do I believe in? I believe in longer lasting workshops where participants are gently guided by a tutor, but require participants to invest their time and energy in solving problems. I believe in workshops that keep participants active with regular challenges and that provide a lot of feedback for the participants. And workshops that provide some follow-up, opportunities for keeping the relationship alive even after the workshop is officially over.

For example, I recently guided several groups of teachers through a three weeks long Moodle introductory workshop delivered online, through Moodle. During that time I was there for the participants to help them get through problems on their own, and to encourage them, to let them know they were doing a great job. The time we spent together was enough to start developing a good relationship, but I also tried hard to let them know that was just the beginning: Yes, you have successfully completed the training, but this is where the real work begins. Go into your own classrooms now, and practice. And nowadays there's always a way to get more help online; either from other users or from me. The important thing is that you keep asking questions!

The thing to keep in mind here is that adopting a new tool/way of thinking (aka learning) is not an event, it's a process. And not an easy one, so don't expect to be done with it in a few hours by having people clicking together in the same room!

Google Squared - a great tool for educators?

Yesterday Google announced Google Squared, a new release from Google Labs. From the official announcement: "Google Squared is an experimental search tool that collects facts from the web and presents them in an organized collection, similar to a spreadsheet.". I've played with it for a while today, and while it might not be the best way to search for things, I can imagine a lot of great ways to use it in classrooms.

A sample Square on cloud types

The most obvious use is for teachers to use Google Squared sheets as learning materials. You can easily create a list of US presidents, african countries, renaissance artists, cats breeds, learning management systems, ... and much more. Textbooks are all full of lists, but they are static. With Squared, you can create your own list, edit rows, columns and data, and easily change the whole list whenever you want to.

The automatically generated lists are (of course) far from perfect, but that's exactly where I see the biggest learning opportunity. You can present an incomplete list to your students and have them find missing data or check the validity of the provided data. You can also have students try to create their own lists (you can even start with an empty table), save them on their Google accounts, and then compare lists with peers. Who got the data right? Is your data source reliable? I think this can be a great exercise on how to deal with online resources. And even the Squared Help page emphasizes double-checking the information in your Square! :)

Do you see Google Squared being useful in classrooms?

Virtual worlds in education and Moodle

Today I'd like to share with you my recent paper about using virtual worlds in education, with a special focus on how we can use virtual worlds with Moodle. I wanted this paper to be a basic introduction to why virtual worlds are good for education, and also provide a basic overview of some of the most interesting virtual worlds/tools on the market today.

Here is the embedded version from Scribd:

Virtual worlds in education and Moodle

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Internet & Technolog Research Virtual worlds second life

I presented this paper at the 3rd International Slovenian MoodleMoot with a live demonstration of Webline.lite (a super easy way to add avatars to any website), and I hope I managed to encourage some teachers to think about virtual worlds as a possible addition to their online courses. This year I was positively surprised to hear so many teachers using blogs and wikis in their classrooms, so perhaps next year I won't be the only weirdo talking about virtual worlds anymore :)

New Moodle Presentation

It's been almost two years since I created a brief video presentation of Moodle, and now I finally took the time to update it with a new version. Initially, I just wanted to update the usage statistics, but I ended up doing a redesign, and I also added some information, so it's slightly longer than the previous version. In addition to that, the video is now available in better quality and in widescreen format. And now, without further ado, I present you the new, improved Moodle Presentation:

You can view the video presentation on YouTube, Vimeo, and blip.tv. I created the presentation in Apple's Keynote, so you can also view the slides that I used on SlideShare.

I hope you enjoy this presentation; and feel free to use it to spread the word about Moodle!