e-wot?

There are a few places where you can set up a kind of homepage for yourself, with all the stuff you like in one place. For free. Here are four for you to try out.

click for Pageflakes

click for Netvibes

click for MyYahoo

click for iGoogle

Very handy: all your bookmarks are open, on one page, and show your most recent emails, news items, photos, etc…

And it’s easy…

1. Set up a free account.
2. Drag and drop your online email (shows the most recent emails), your favourite news sites (e.g. BBC), your Photos (e.g. Flickr), Music, Weather, Sudoku, currency converter, whatever you want (useful or silly).
3. Set it as your homepage in your browser.
4. tada!

Dress up your favourite celebrities online. Good fun for kids, I reckon.
Could be useful in class for learners to discuss celebs, clothes, accessories, etc…

It’s not free if you want to save your stylings, but you don’t need to pay to play with it, which should be good enough for a quick classroom activity.

If you get a user account (takes a couple of minutes and you need an email address), you can create a paperdoll of yourself. They didn’t have any fat, balding middle-aged male paperdolls, so I lost interest pretty quickly lol. I also couldn’t figure out how to get any clothes. hmmm.

The paid version is a social network thing: compare and chat about outfits, accessories, etc…

click for Stardoll

Nice video from the folks at CommonCraft to help remove the fear, uncertainty and doubt about wikis.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY]

Just unveiled by Microsoft. It’s called ‘Surface’. I can’t wait to get my hands on one 
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP5y7yp06n0]

Follow the link below and watch the video demos to be totally amazed. Available soon for business use (retail outlets, restaurants, casinos).

click for Microsoft touch screen table demo videos

Nokia has launched a service, Mobiledu, that enables people in China to download English lessons using their mobile phones.

The story first emerged in the Wall Street Journal on Monday. They explain:

“The service, which includes both audio- and text-based lessons, aims to capitalize on China’s enormous language-learning market, which has been growing quickly as Chinese embrace global business and prepare for an influx of foreign visitors during next year’s Olympic games in Beijing.” link

The report goes on to point out that China’s fast-growing market for language learning is expected to be valued at $3.9 billion annually by 2010, citing estimates in a Lehman Brothers report in February. China has 480 million mobile phone users.

Nokia will charge users about US$0.26 per download for the audio and text-based lessons. In addition to mobile language training, Mobiledu will provide career tips and ‘how tos’, shifting the focus away from learners in schools and on to working adults and adopting an “anytime, anywhere” learning mode.

Nokia has partnered with China’s English language teaching organisation New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc in this project. New Oriental runs China’s biggest chain of English learning and test-preparation schools. StreetInsider.com reveals:

“Michael Yu, New Oriental’s chairman and chief executive, said in an interview that the lessons his company has supplied to Mobiledu fit easily into cell phone learning. They include audio clips to improve oral English and text-based lessons on grammar and sentence structure, rather than graphics-heavy materials that often are required for test- preparations.” link

StreetInsider goes on to quote Joseph Kauffman, New Oriental’s assistant vice president for business development, who admitted:

“Mobiledu won’t boost New Oriental’s revenue much in the next three years, but that joining the service was a strategic decision. “We’re looking into the future. One day, people will be using phones as a learning tool, rather than a mobile phone,” he said.”

A spokesman from Nokia was quoted as saying that Mobiledu “is a Chinese service at the moment, but there is no limitation”.

click for Nokia launches English learning mobile service

Some interesting articles and presentations base on research carried out globally on mobile phone use.

click for Jan Chipchase - Future Perfect Archives

click for more articles from Nokia

click for BBC article on Jan Chipchase’s research 

Almost 80% of corporations believe Web 2.0 has the potential to increase revenues, says Economist Intelligence Unit. Here are five points from their press release:

1. Customers are helping to develop and support products. Nearly 60% of the surveyed companies say that they are inviting customers to contribute content that explains, supports, promotes or enhances their products, or that they plan to do so within the coming two years. About half of companies say they are, or are planning to, treat customers as co-developers of products that are in a constant state of improvement.
2. Ease of acquiring and supporting customers provide the biggest financial benefits. Most companies cited marketing and sales as an area where Web 2.0 could help to increase revenues, primarily through customer acquisition and service. Web 2.0 technologies were seen as a way to reduce costs in the areas of customer support, advertising and public relations, and product/service innovation.
3. Early adopters are to be found in many countries and industries. Companies based in the US, Germany, China, India and the UK are among the early adopters of Web 2.0 tools and methods, according to the survey. The top early-adopter industries are entertainment and media, technology, travel and tourism and professional services.
4. The C-suite is more enthusiastic than lower-level executives. A full 85% of C-suite executives see the sharing and collaboration aspects of Web 2.0 as an opportunity to increase revenue and/or margins, versus 75% of middle management. The C-suite is also more inclined to view Web 2.0 as transformative, affecting all parts of the business (35% versus 28%) and having a significant impact on the company’s business model (41% versus 22%).
5. CFOs are the most skeptical about the potential of Web 2.0. Compared to CEOs and the rest of the C-suite, CFOs lag in understanding and support of Web 2.0 initiatives. CFOs are less likely to view Web 2.0 as transformative, less likely to think that it will affect all parts of the business, and less likely say that it will change the company’s business model. They are also less optimistic than their C-suite peers about Web 2.0’s potential to increase revenue and margins.

What, no early adopters in education?
click for Web 2.0 EIU Press Release

The Economist Intelligence Unit finds that a strong government role in promotion and adoption of ICT has helped propel Asian countries upward in the rankings.

“Denmark and the US retain their number one and two spots in the rankings (with Sweden also tied for 2nd), but Hong Kong (4th), Singapore (6th), South Korea (16th), Taiwan (17th) and Japan (18th) have experienced a boost in 2007 in both scores and ranks. This is due in no small part to their governments’ vision and commitment in pushing digital development, and to continued progress in adoption of broadband and other advanced infrastructure.”

click for EIU 2007 e-readiness rankings

A good article by Michael Beavers on Boxes and Arrows. It’s about organisations and clients, but relevant in an educational context.

“…it is good to remember stakeholders can come from anywhere in the organization—often from unexpected places. While our long-term goal is to create a user experience framework, we have to remember that along the way we may also be creating or influencing interdepartmental operations within companies.”

click for Setting up stakeholder interviews pt1

Dave Pollard has written a ‘methodology for Web 2.0 collaboration experiments (in reluctant organisations)’. It’s a neat roadmap for getting collaboration experiments off the ground in contexts where cost, risk, culture and complexity are concerns.

Here’s a summary of his steps:

1. Champions self-organise. One point he makes here is to co-opt all Web 2.0 users (wikiers, bloggers, online appers, social networkers, etc…)
2. Champions get together face-to-face to understand the situation and brainstorm opportunities. Adapting to the context/culture, not trying to change it.
3. Design & create experiments extending existing relationships and integrating with legacy technologies.
4. Run the experiments
5. Monitor, celebrate success, learn from failures

I particularly like his points 1 & 2, because they focus on the people - the soft side. I think this aspect is often left out in the early stages of too many projects. Early stakeholder engagement done well is essential for the success of any project - particularly projects that are about collaboration.
click for Dave Pollard’s article