Spam is a curse to anyone online. One way to manage it is by using filters to move suspected spam into your trash without bothering you with it. You can also use filters to organize incoming messages. Its really a great tool but its under-used. It too bad too because it could make working with email easier and quicker.

Click here to learn about Gmail filters.

Try using filters on your email.

What’s the problem with social security?

Millions of Americans were forced to invest in a government sponsored retirement program. They contributed to it with every paycheck they received. The federal government was supposed to invest this money to provide retirement income for american workers but instead raided it to pay for their big spending projects. Politicians now are saying things like “social security is broken” but the real problem is their willingness to pay. Don’t take my word for a bit of this. Investigate it and find out for yourself. What do you think we should do?

My freshmen students will be asked to watch this video and then participate in a discussion forum to answer the question above. I expected some lively debate and creative ideas given this is an election year.

The spirit of this exercise is to motivate students to participate in a discussion board forum. There are no incorrect entries into the forum as long as the students respect one another. The idea is to get students used to expressing themselves in an online environment.

Students will be asked to video the program before entering the forum. Once there they are presented with a question to respond to.

“Was the war wage against Iraq by the United States legal? If so, why? In not, who is guilty?”

The point of these forums is not to persuade students to any point of view. It is designed to get them engaging one another and with the faculty in intelligent discourse. By doing so online they can learn the unique skills required to communicate online.

Gmail is quickly becoming the standard email software for power users. Since my students are enrolled in computer science courses they might as well start using it now. Besides its full of benefits and features from the folks at Google.

Click here to learn how to sign up.

If you are in my class you should create your gmail account right away.

We are going to try something fun this semester with collaborative writing.

There are many types of collaborative writing projects. Eric Clapton & George Harrison collaborated on writing the song Badge. I believe they had some success on that project. Listen and see what you think.

Another famous songwriting collaboration consisted of John Lennon & Paul McCartney. Together they wrote nearly every song the Beatles ever recorded. Collaborative writing obviously worked well for them as the Beatles are one of the most successful rock bands in history.

Not only do musicians collaborate on writing music but the nature of a rock band is all about collaboration. Rockers even collaborate by sharing their music with other bands. Joe Cocker enjoys a highly successful career singing mostly covers of other songwriters. Listen as he sings one of the Beatles greatest songs at Woodstock.

You have heard of Woodstock haven’t you?

Collaboration is a large part of doing business today. Teams of engineers work together to design, build, and test new products. Actors, writers, and directors collaborate to create new films. Physicians, nurses, and other healthcare specialists work together to help keep us healthy. Collaboration is nothing new. Its all around us. However it has been getting a lot more exposure lately. Consider how Wikipedia works.

Wikipedia couldn’t exist without collaborative writing.

Collaborative writing is simply a process of people working together to make a writing project as good as it can be. Its easy. Its a natural process. Even children do it! Watch how children from diverse schools work together using Web 2.0 applications to create stories. The software tools used by participants in the Harris Burdick Collaborative Writing Project were Google docs and Skype. Google docs was the writing tool while face-to-face communication between divergent geographic points was accomplished with Skype.

“Valuable 21st century tools came into play during this project. Communication and collaboration were key to the students success with the story.”

Yes. You did see Mac-users and PC-users collaborating successfully. Imagine that!

The following video gives us a slightly different viewpoint on collaborative writing. These students share time and space so they don’t need to use email or Skype to communicate. We get to see a bit of the creative process and well as samples of the end product.

So at this point I hope everyone is excited about collaborative writing. I know I am. So let’s have a brief look at Google docs to see what my students will be using this semester.

You are probably wondering if each student in a group will receive the same grade on a writing assignment. The answer is NO. Its not fair for one student to carry another so students will be awarded points based upon their level of participation as documented throughout the revisions. I think this is fairer than merely having each member of the group rate their peers.

For my students only. Your first assignment is to go to create a gmail account for yourself. Once you have your account send me an email telling me a bit about yourself. I’m interested mostly in four questions. What you like to do with computers? What you do for fun? Why did you select Mount Marty College? And what you expect to get out of this course? Please write this in gmail and send it to me at mark.winegar@gmail.com. Be sure to copy yourself and include your full name and section number in the text.

So let’s have fun!

Do you remember those hot summer days at camp? Can you still feel the cold water hitting your skin as you dove head first into the lake? Do you remember your swimming counselor’s cardinal rule? Yes, stay with your buddy.

Every year thousands of freshman dive into the cold waters of higher education. It feels good. They are beginning to experience new degrees of freedom but far too often they miss the fact they also have new degrees of responsibility. Mom and Dad aren’t there to check on their homework so they have to learn to manage their own time. Unfortunately many fail.

I think creating an academic buddy system may be a productive way to reinforce positive behaviors in college and better prepare students for a modern world of work. I personally cannot create a buddy system for the entire freshman experience but I can do so for my general education class. Success can be assessed by analyzing student comments about their impressions of the buddy system.

My general education course introduces freshman to the use of Microsoft Office and the Modern Language Association’s style guide. The course goals are to equip them with the software skills necessary for success as undergraduate students. Focus is placed on Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The skills are important but Microsoft offers weak support for collaborative activity. What is really needed is something that enables students to closely collaborate with their buddies. Google docs offers an interesting alternative.

Google is all about collaboration. It provides a free email system called Gmail which serves as a jump off point to a variety of digital activities. Gmail can gather email from multiple accounts in one place so my students ought to be able to receive email from their college accounts there. It provides a convenient calendar to support time management and students can personalize their home pages with graphic themes and RSS feeds to their favorite blogs. These home pages provide a direct link to Google docs.

The key concept of Google docs is to provide a virtual work space where collaborators can work on word processing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in real time without regard of space or time. Files are stored on Google’s servers so they can be accessed anywhere you find a computer connected to the World Wide Web. Files are secure because access is password protected and routine backups are performed. Google docs are Microsoft compatible too!

Is Google docs an appropriate software suite to teach? Many major corporations and research universities have turned to Google docs over Microsoft Office because of the advantages it offers so it is a viable alternative. The skills learned in my course are word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation graphics. These skills are universal amongst alternative productivity software suites so there isn’t an issue of drastically changing the content of the course. The strategic advantage is offers is its rich support of collaborative activity.

I’ve visited with a few of my peers about this and they said “Go for it!” so I am diving in head first with Google as my buddy. Keep tuned in to see how it goes.