Google Wave: Paradigm shift or gimmicky app?

[weaklingrecords]

So I've heard a lot about Google Wave recently, mostly as I've been getting google alerts about cyberinfrastructure, metadata, and cloud computing and trying to view those through the lens of potential effects on higher education and higher education administration specifically. I'm reading a lot about e-archives and open access and scholarly

Comments

[amicablebitch]

i had started watching google's video a couple months back when a friend posted it...and maybe i didn't get to the good part, but it really didn't seem that exciting. it was like chatting within an email. i didn't see how that was drastically changing the course of communication. it was like normal email with some little extra features so god forbid we can make as little effort as possible when we converse.

but maybe it really is the most amazing thing ever.

[naughty_halo]

yeah, I am so excited for this. I need an invite too. And I also have 99 gmail invites to give... I remember when gmail first came our and I only had a handful of invites to give, they were like GOLD!! Now everyone has 99 by default. But I can't wait to see the wave and really use it!!

[i_am_vidoq]

"Anything You Want" by Spoon is playing now. Doug, if you don't have this. You would love it. In fact. Please play this song and dance with Claire. Thumb piano. Thumb piano.

I think google wave is "the wave of the future" but it's too much to figure out right now without having tried it. I'm not sure what I'd use it for but I like where they're going. The invite thing is so all their servers don't crash and at the same time they can build up excitement.

[novak]

I've been following with great interest your posts on technology and education, and I can see the benefits for what has been in motion over the last several years, in terms of just sheer information access. What I'm less clear on, perhaps given my subject area, is how the technology could impact the teaching of critical thinking skills or contemplative analysis. Do you have any thoughts on how these changes you are foreseeing could impact the reflective sciences like Theology, Philosophy, or History?

I think that the faculty I've talked with about tech shifts are looking a little askance at things like online courses and seeing it as missing out on much of what goes on in the classroom (and outside it) in more personal interaction with students. I don't know who had the biggest impact on you at ND, but I can certainly remember you talking about particular courses, like your Arthurian Literature one. Can you see what you are describing as adding to that "deeper end" of your own educational experience?

[weaklingrecords]

I'm less interested in the effects that technology can have on teaching and learning than I am about how the higher education enterprise is administered (although some would argue that teaching and learning is a critical component of the latter). I think apps like Google Wave can have an affect on the way students think about all disciplines, including theology, philosophy, and history, but the specifics of how that would look are a little fuzzy. Certainly in large lecture intro sections, Wave could be used by the lecturer to ensure the class remains engaged and is picking up what is being taught (mostly due to the real-time display option and the already widespread use of technologies such as smart phones and/or laptops during class

[weaklingrecords]

umm, yeah, those links didn't quite make it through lj's post a comment feature. Copy and paste, then save to your desktop or wherever.

[weaklingrecords]

And there's this, too: https://www.msu.edu/~mckenn62/cyberinfrastructure.htm

[wafwot]

It's a pretty neat app, but I still don't "get it" yet. I've been tinkering with it for awhile now* and all I can say is that it's pretty slow, and seems like the crack-addicted love child of Twitter and Facebook. At times, in a really busy Wave, there's just too much going on. But then again, I've only been looking at public waves.

Think of it as an interactive chatroom, of sorts. I can see it being a good collaborative tool, but I have a hard time picturing its usefulness in education, other than online course discussion.

Right now you need an invite because, as far as I can tell, it's not really on the "cloud" and is slow as hell. They're carefully scaling the severs with each batch of invites that go out to make sure that it doesn't break. (I already had a wave "explode" on me -- that's their technical term.) If I get another round of invites, I'd be more than happy to send one to you.

* I'm pretty sure I got an early invite because of the poem I attached with my invite request: Roses are red / Violets are blue / Bing really