Mashup+Technologies

Rough, Rough, Very Rough, Major rough, no where ready draft!

Mashup Technologies Sharon K. Walsh July, 2011 The Florida State University College of Education Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems EME 6414 Web 2.0-based Learning and Performance Dr. Vanessa Dennen

**Introduction** Education is joining other disciplines in the collaborative nature of Web 2.0. While educators have freely shared resources with each other, technology is taking cooperation to a higher level. Thanks to Web 2.0, educators in Australia can quickly and easily share multi-media resources with educators in the United States. Educators often feel they are recreating the wheel in isolation (Pitler, 2011). Mashup technology allows educators to create lessons by using technology others have already created. With the addition of collaboration sites, the educators can form communities to exchange resources.

**Background Information** Mashup is defined as taking portions of existing work such as songs, videos, pictures, etc and combining it in unique ways to create new derivative work (Wikipedia, 2011). In the educational context, mashup involves taking existing instructional materials (learning objects) and assembling them into new learning experiences. Realizing “educational value is derived through multiple modes and diverse tools” (Batson, Paharia, and Kumar 2008, p. 97); instructional value is supported by mashup by technology since it provides the tools and strategy to create diverse, engaging learning opportunities through reusing and revising materials shared for open use.

**Key Issues and Solutions** Where do I start? Where do I find “learning objects?” Educators say they want and value digital resources, but they often have no idea where to start the search. K-12 school districts purchase publisher materials and set up curriculum maps educators have to follow. Undergraduate professors purchase publisher’s materials and then need to add content. But how? In a world where technology rules, educators often feel they lack the time to learn where to find the resources. Educators want online professional communities to exchange resources, gain advice and information and to just plain feel connected with other educators (Lippincott, 2011). These collaboration sites are the best place to start searching for mashup tools since collaboration saves all educators time and energy searching for the best mashup resources. Here are a few social bookmarking sites to check out: [|__Delicious__] is a social bookmarking service that allows educators to tag, save, manage and share Web pages all in one place. Delicious uses the power of the community to improve how people discover, remember and share on information on the Internet, including education resources. Here is an example of a posting. A colleague commented on an NPR article discussing multi-platform books as a way to engage striving readers.
 * Where to find resources**
 * Social bookmarking sites** are a great place to start searching for mashup resources. These sites allow educators to bookmark resources using descriptions. A quick look at the description can save time determining which sites have the necessary ingredients to build the perfect lesson.



[|__Diigo__] (digest of Internet information, groups, and other stuff) is a free online tool designed not only to bookmark web pages in one convenient location, but to highlight key points for easy reference. The site makes it easy to share and comment on resources with colleagues whether in an academic setting or in a working environment. Here is an example of a posting. The same NPR article on another site. When others comment, educators realize they are not alone. There are others out there with the same concerns.

Diigo is easy and free to join. Once a member, educators can ask for an educator account [|__livepage.apple.com__]and set up group sessions for students. Diigo also has an educator group to easily find resources. If neither of these sites are perfect, then search for: social bookmarking sites for educators. A picture is worth a thousand words. A well-researched picture is a great attention getting start to the lesson or a great example. Maybe a mashup artist will use a picture as a discussion starter. So, where to find a great picture? Try these sites: [|__Flikr__] is another easy and free site to join, they make it so easy, it’s possible to join with a Facebook profile. People from all over the world upload their pictures and savvy mashup artists can use them for free. Some even allow the educator the option to make changes to the photo. The site is easily searchable and allows educators to create a join groups. Flikr has a great explanation of all its [|__creative commons policy__]. [|__Pics4Learning__]is a copyright-friendly image library for teachers and students with a collection consisting of thousands of images that have been donated by students, teachers, and amateur photographers. Unlike many Internet sites, permission has been granted for teachers and students to use all of the images donated to the Pics4Learning collection. Adding words to funny pictures creates a priceless image. Royalty free cartoons are hard to find, but easy to create, if you know where to go. [|__Toondoo__] is the easiest cartoon creation site on the market - and it is free! Either build your own cartoon with pre-packaged backgrounds and characters to match the lesson or pick from the hundreds available to borrow or even make minor changes. If none of these sites provide the perfect image, search for free royalty free education pictures. **Audio/video sites** Music serves many purposes in a mashup lesson. It is great as an introductory attention getter, or as a transition from one topic to another. Some lessons call for a timed collaboration section. Music is great as background ambiance or to transition back to whole group instruction. Thanks to podcasting, audio is not just for music anymore. Technology occasionally mimics a step backward in time, in this case to the days of radio. It is possible to find everything form full lectures to short little snippets to embed in the mashup lesson. [|__itunes U__] offers everything from lectures to language lessons. An enterprising mashup educator will easily find hundreds of pertinent audio and video clips. At this time more than 800 universities have active itunes U accounts. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a million or more. Video provides students the opportunity to travel for free even to dangerous locations. Students can perform a dissection without harming a single frog or cat all from a well written and produced video. Besides the well-known video sites, ([|__You Tube__] and [|__Teacher Tube__]), [|Watch Know Learn]currently has over 20,000 videos available for educators to use in mashup lessons. Educators may also upload their own videos into this repository. WatchKnowLean tapped the creative assistance of Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger, Ph.D with the sole intent of creating a free video repository for educators. Free to join and free to use is the best music for educators. Digital repositories house miscellaneous learning objects. Video, audio, journals, etc are all found in these centralized locations. Samples coming!
 * Picture sites**
 * Miscellaneous Learning Objects**


 * Where to host a lesson**

It is great to find great tools, but where do you host them so students can find them or you as the educator can easily use the mashup lesson? PowerPoint is always an option, but if the goal is to go beyond PowerPoint, then creating a website is ideal. With a website, as long as the Internet is available, so is the lesson. Websites allow for creativity and flow during the lesson. But, if HTML is a foreign language, then using a pull and drag website is the best option. [|__Weebly__] - is a drag and pull Flash based website creating website. While it is free to join, host, and embed video and audio, there is a nominal fee to upload original video and audio. Of course, it is always possible to post the original material on You-tube and then embed it into the website.

**Summary**

Creating mashup lessons and finding learning objects is not as daunting a task as it originally appears. The collaboration power of the Internet reduces and eventually may eliminate the feelings of isolation educators currently feel. Finding and sharing valuable learning objects is becoming easier as technology flows. **Terms & Definitions**

__**Mashup**__ - a file containing any or all media objects of text, graphics, audio, video, and animation, which recombines and modifies existing digital works to create a derivative work.[| __http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashup__] Creating new services using a combination of data, presentation types and functions from various sources. [|__http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110215111154.htm__]

__**Metadata**__ – data that describes other data, providing information about a certain item's content.[| __http://www.techterms.com/definition/metadata__]

__**Remix**__ - the right to combine the original or revised content with other content to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup). [|__http://www.opencontent.org/definition/__]

__**Tag**__ - keyword used to describe an article or website to help users search for relevant content.[| __http://webtrends.about.com/od/glossary/g/tag_def.htm__]

**References**

Churchill, D. (2011) Web 2.0 in education: a study of the explorative use of blogs with a postgraduate class. Innovations in Education & Teaching International, 48 (2). pp. 149-158.

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (2011, February 15). 'Mashup' technologies: Better contact with public authorities. ScienceDaily. Retrieved from [|__http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110215111154.htm__]

Lamb, B. (2007). Dr. Mashup; or, why educators should learn to stop worrying and love the remix. EDUCAUSE Review, 42(4), Retrieved from [|__http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume42/DrMashuporWhyEducatorsShouldLe/161747__]

Lippincott, R.M., (2011) The more we use it the more we love it. the Journal. the Journal, 38(6), 43-46.

Metros, S. (2007). Learning objects: a rose by any other name... EDUCAUSE Review, 40(4), Retrieved from [|__http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume40/LearningObjectsARosebyAnyOther/15798__]

Mashup. (n.d.). In Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from [|__http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashup__]

Mathes, A. (2004). Folksonomies - cooperative classification and communication through shared metadata. Unpublished manuscript, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois, Urbana-‍Champaign, IL. Retrieved from [|__http://www.adammathes.com/academic/computer-mediated-communication/folksonomies.html__]

Pitler, H. (2011). So many devises, so little use. the Journal, 38(6), 42-44.