Diigo

www.diigo.com

Diigo is a social bookmarking tool. “Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to organize, store, manage, and search for bookmarks of resources online. Unlike file sharing, the resources themselves aren't shared, merely bookmarks that reference them” (From Wikipedia – Social Bookmarking). There are several features to social bookmarking that make it a useful tool, and there are several specific features of Diigo that make it particularly useful in education.
Core Features

The main feature of social bookmarking is not very social at all: Bookmarks are saved online instead of on an individual computer. Although there are tools that can synchronize bookmarks across different computers, tools like Diigo provide a central storage location of all of a person’s bookmarks. If you find a great link on your home computer, you don’t have to write it down or email it to yourself to get the link on your work computer. You just have to check you social bookmarking account.

Another feature of social bookmarks is that the number of bookmarks is virtually limitless. This may also be the case with traditional bookmarks within a web browser, but most people quickly run out of room on the screen. Regardless of how many folders you create, your bookmark list quickly consumes your entire page. Social bookmarking takes a different strategy to storing and retrieving bookmarks. Instead of organizing bookmarks by folder structure, social bookmarks are organized by tags.

Tags are one or two word descriptions of the web page you are bookmarking, and each bookmarked page can have multiple tags. For example, if you want to bookmark the PA Department of Education website, you might tag it with “PDE”, “regulation”, “legal”, “state”, or whatever else makes sense to you. Then when you want to find your bookmarks, you can search by the tags. So if you search for “legal”, you will see all of the bookmarks that you tagged with that term. You can also search by multiple tags, so you could search for “legal” and “ODR” to narrow your results further. The result of using tags and removing the limitations of traditional bookmarks mean that you can easily grow the number of bookmarked sites to well over 100, and yet easily find all of your sites. This has an effect of changing the way you think about bookmarks.
The Social Aspect

The social aspect of social bookmarking is that you can now share your bookmarks with other people (you are able to keep bookmarks private if you want). Some of the nice features of Diigo are that you can create groups to share bookmarks. You can control who can view the bookmarks, as well as who can add bookmarks. The other great features of Diigo are that you can highlight web pages and add sticky notes. These notes can be private, shared with a group, or open to everyone that has a Diigo account.

Programming Collective Intelligence

Programming Collective Intelligence: Building Smart Web 2.0 Applications by Toby Segaran

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Programming Collective Intelligence (Segaran, 2007) uses a multitude of examples to show how data can be combined and analyzed to produce results that are “more human.” The book intersperses text with Python programming snippets. The programming code allows someone to work through all of the examples discussed in the book. At times, some more advanced examples require additional library downloads, but everything in the book is accessible to the reader.

The book covers a wide range of topics related to data analysis. It begins with a simple algorithm that recommends movies based on your previous movie reviews and the movie reviews of others. Although this was the easiest task within the book, I felt that is was one of the most powerful examples. What is powerful about this chapter is that the mathematics behind the programming was very simple. I think this illustrates the power of the Internet and Web2.0 systems. Sometimes the analysis of the data is very easy.

I also think this chapter related to movie recommendations also points to some of the frailties of data mining. The results are only as good as the data that has been collected and analyzed. Thinking of my own personal experiences with movie and music websites that make recommendations, I know that we still have a long way to go to improve the accuracy of these systems. I think the algorithms behind the programming are sound, but I think we are missing some critical components in the collection of the data. There is something very personal about certain datasets that I believe we are still missing. I don’t doubt that we will eventually become more accurate, but I think we still need to find more indicators to include with the datasets.

I also think a powerful statement was made in Chapter 9 when the author stated that, “An important thing to take away from this chapter is that it’s rarely possible to throw a complex dataset at an algorithm and expect it to learn how to classify things accurately. Choosing the right algorithm and preprocessing the data appropriately is often required to get good results” (p. 197). This is a precursor to the chapter related to “Matchmaking” using advanced classification strategies. Throughout the chapter, Segaran talks about the raw data and discusses ways to restructure and normalize the data. I think this is important. For example, converting street address data to discern actual mileage difference between two points, and grouping interests into categories (e.g., snowboarding and skiing). Without this type of preprocessing, comparisons are limited.

Most reviews of this book focus on the fact that it is a balance between programming and mathematical computations. There is a great deal of code on almost every page, but there are little mathematical explanations in terms of formulas. For advanced mathematicians, most of the mathematics used in the book is probably already known, so the formulas may not be needed. In general, I would have liked to see some more theoretical discussions of the topics and perhaps the inclusion of more detailed information related to the mathematical formulas. I believe that this would make the process of applying examples in the book to other datasets a little easier.
Given my minimal programming experience and minimal mathematics experience, I found that the Python code made the book confusing at times. I was not interested in running the programs as I was reading the book, so I found myself trying too hard to decipher the code. If I focused on the text, I was fine. I did find the explanations, tables, and diagrams to be extremely interesting. I have never thought about the process behind search engine rankings, spam filters, or optimization used in recommending the best travel itinerary; however, the book did an excellent job explaining these concepts.

I think that the prospects of connecting datasets to mine data and produce “intelligent” results are particularly powerful. In my profession (K-12 education), I could see these concepts being used to analyze assessment data and make instructional decisions for individual students. I have already seen certain products that attempt this, but I have not seen anything that does a thorough job. Many schools currently assign students to remedial classes or activities to try to increase student performance. If a web application could model using decision tree logic as discussed in Chapter 7, schools could identify the student groups that need particular help in certain areas. I think this type of prescriptive-teacher would be very beneficial. Of course, all of this depends on the accuracy, specificity, and validity of the assessment tools. Education has wrestled with this concept for a long time.

My overall rating of this book is a 4.5 out of 5. Even though some of the concepts and programming were above my head, it caused me to rethink my pedestrian VBA projects and how I could use concepts within this book on future projects. For me, I will need to do much more research to learn and implement these concepts, but I do not think I was the intended audience for this book. I think the best audience for this book would be a programmer that has minimal experience with working with live Web 2.0 data. For a person with preexisting knowledge of programming, and a solid background in some advanced mathematics, I believe that this book would really open the doors to creating interactive websites or applications that use scraped data to enhance an end-user’s experience.




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Gapminder

Hans Rosling is a professor of international health in Sweden.  His background is in medicine and statistics.  He cofounded the Gapminder Foundation with some of his family members and developed a program called Trendalyzer.  The purpose of the software was to, “show major global development trends with animated statistics" (About Gapminder).   Trendalyzer’s purpose, “unveils the beauty of statistical time series by converting boring numbers into enjoyable, animated and interactive graphics” (History).  The data is presented in a sequence that allows patterns to be discerned over time.  In 2007, the Trendalyzer software was acquired by Google, but the tool remains at the Gapminder site.
The graphs display three different types of data.  In the graph below, the horizontal axis shows the average income per person per country.  The vertical axis shows the life expectancy in years per country.  The size of each circle represents the population for each country.  What makes the graphs unique is the Play button in the bottom left corner.  When you press play, the data becomes animated and you can see the circles move over time.  In the example below, you can view the change in income, life expectancy, and population of the course of the last century.

Uses in Education:

For a class discussing world cultures, Gapminder’s graphs are a great way to explore differences.  In the above example, it is very interesting to view how income impacts life expectancy, and to see the difference that across countries and continents.  This type of data would also be extremely useful in a class discussing world economics and politics.  A teacher could use one of Gapminder’s graphs to initiate a classroom discussion. 
The dataset available on Gapminder are numerous, and all of the data can be viewed and/or downloaded into an Excel format.  This would make it possible for students to perform further analysis on the same data.  The various datasets can also be combined in any way within the graphing display.  This makes it possible for students to view many different aspects of health, economy, education, and population.  For reports or projects, students could use the graphs to support their hypotheses. 
The data within the Gapminder database is expanding.  The website recently launched a section specifically for teachers.  Currently, the resources are limited, but there are some lesson guides available.  There is also a desktop version of the graphing application that allows people with limited Internet connectivity the ability to use the software.

Help and How-To:

I know that I am biased because of my personal affinity to statistical information, but Gapminder is a great balance between usability and ease.  When the graph is loaded within the web browser, there is a button that allows users to easily select data geared towards a specific line of inquiry.  If this is not enough, many of the elements of the graph can be tweaked or changed by clicking on them.  New datasets can be loaded on either axes, the lower and upper limit of circle size can be adjusted, and data can be grouped in various ways. 
There is a short video that explains using Gapminder graphs, and there is also a PDF document that illustrates the various graph functions.  Overall, there is not a lot of help, especially for students that may be unfamiliar with graphs.  They would need guidance to get them to the point that they could interact effectively with Gapminder.
Probably some of the most informative help on Gapminder and the usefulness of statistic is the videos of Hans Rosling.  He spoke at TED 7 separate times.  The following video illustrates his passion for the data, as well as some of the numerous insights that can occur from one or two different data combinations with Gapminder.

SoundCloud–Song #2

Here is another song on SoundCloud.  I really like the imbedded waveform it creates.  It seems like a nice visual.  On the SoundCloud website, you can also comment at specific times within the waveform view.  This makes it great to get feedback from others (e.g., ‘nice drum fill’ for music, or ‘good comment’ for an interview/presentation).
This song is something that I did a few years ago.  I am glad I took some more time to remix it, because it sounds better than the original.
My Time by witmerm

Lastpass

LastPass is a free password manager (premium version also available).  This sounds so unexciting, but it is a powerful tool.  I allows you to securely maintain all of your Internet passwords in one database.  The end result is that you can log into all of your websites by just remembering one master password.
LastPass is a browser plugin that installs very easily from the LastPass website.  It works on all major web browsers.  Once the plugin is installed, LastPass automatically recognizes websites you encounter that requires a username and password.  When you enter your username and password, LastPass asks you if you would like to remember the login details.  If so, LastPass stores the information in your ‘vault’ and you can now login with your single LastPass master password.
The following video briefly illustrates how LastPass works.

LastPass Instructions

Since there are so many cool Web2.0 tools, many people use the same username and login for numerous websites.  This is a bad idea from a security perspective.  If someone finds out your password on one site, they potentially have your password for all of your sites that use the same password.  By using one master password to access LastPass, you don’t have to remember numerous login information from various websites.
When you encounter a new website and your are required to create a password, LastPass typically automatically detects this and prompts you to use an automatically generated strong password.  If you use this feature, the end result is that you have a unique password for each website that is a long string of random characters, numbers, and symbols.

How secure is it?

This is a great question that I am sure people are thinking.  Just like any password, if you keep your master password written on a sticky on your laptop, then the answer is ‘not very secure’.  The security of the master password is critical.  It should be long, include numbers and symbols, and include lower- and upper-case letters.  It should also not be any word that is found within a dictionary.
The actual LastPass database that contains all of your website passwords is encrypted based on your password.  The bad news is that if you use your password, you are out of luck (LastPass does have a one time provision for this).  The good news is that no one is able to see your individual passwords without knowing your master password.  In an interview with one of the LastPass executives, it was made clear that not even LastPass employees could access your passwords, or anyone hacking their database (approximately minute 9:00)
.LastPass Interview by user4752733

Use in an educational environment:

Since more and more teachers and students are creating accounts online, managing passwords becomes a practical issue.  I personally think that managing passwords also becomes one of those core computer/technology skills that we need to instruct, just like teaching how to add an attachment to an email.  The result is that teachers and staff become more aware of security and their online data and profiles are less likely to be compromised.
If everyone within a school district used LastPass, the number of calls to the tech department to reset passwords would be drastically reduced.  Additionally, the tech department would not need to reset numerous passwords when a teacher’s index card full of passwords mysteriously disappears.  Students would also not have the same phenomenon of losing their notebook with all of their passwords and finding out that a peer hacked into their accounts.  
Probably the biggest difficulty would be to convince everyone to use LastPass.  Many people already have different systems (mental, pencil/paper, etc.) for remembering passwords.  To successfully use LastPass, all of these passwords should be entered into LastPass.  If LastPass is installed, the user is prompted if they would like to add the password to LastPass each time a new website login in encountered.  However, some people may continue to use other methods.

How-to Material:

The LastPass support website has many materials geared for installing, using, and troubleshooting LastPass.  This includes FAQs and screencasts.  There is also a user forum to discuss various issues.

Other Features:

LastPass has additional features that make it useful.  It is a cloud-based system, so it is not tied to one computer.  This makes it very useful in a school setting.  There is also an ability to add secure notes.  This could be credit card numbers, bank accounts, or a teacher’s PPID.  LastPass also has security test that tests the overall security of your accounts passwords.  This is very useful if you are interested in the security of your existing accounts.