Google Wave Use Cases: Education
Google Wave is a much hyped new Internet-based communications and collaboration platform. It was announced at the end of May, released as a 'Preview' product shortly after and 100,000 more invites were made available at the end of September.
Early users reported mixed feelings. But one month after Google Wave was opened to tens of thousands of people, how are people using it now? What use cases are being discovered? Let's start with the education sector. We'll explore other use cases in upcoming posts.
What is Google Wave Again?
A quick reminder of what Google Wave is. In a nutshell, Google Wave is a new form of real-time communications. Google describes it as "equal parts conversation and document." In our first 'hands-on' post at the beginning of June, we described it as "real-time email with a big dose of IM built-in" - although we noted that "this only describes a small part of what Wave can do."
In a recent CNN profile, Wave creators Lars and Jens Rasmussen described it as making email "collaborative and instant."
Wave in Class
After searching some public 'waves,' we came across an educational wave. Entitled 'Wave in Class,' this wave was started by Loren Baum (a self-described "collaborative learning enthusiast" and graduate student at Ben Gurion University) and Sam Boland (a Politics student and "Tech Enthusiast" at Occidental College, Los Angeles).
The wave was started to explore concepts like "Collaborative Note Taking" and "Wave as a Debate Host." Nearly 100 people are included in the wave, ranging from teachers to PhD students to IT professionals to high school students.
This particular wave was framed at the start as being "a set of collaborative documents, supported by a chat."
As a note-taking tool, Samuel Boland wrote that "there appears to be a concensus that this [Google Wave] will work as a note-taking tool, the only disagreement is over how to implement it." Options for note-taking include voluntary extra-curricular groups, rotating in-class groups and small in-class groups.
A few users enthused later in the wave that "Google Wave combines a lot of the best features from different applications" - but with a real-time twist. It was noted that while Google Docs can be used to share notes and collaborate on assignments, with Google Wave students can collaborate in real-time. This could be important in education for things like notetaking, asking questions (a.k.a. a backchannel) and collaborative projects.
Another feature of Wave that would be useful for education purposes, according to this 100-person wave, is the play-back ability - "so instructors can see exactly who did what, and see the progression of ideas."
Will Wave Make Students Lazy?
One concern that seemed to pop up several times in the wave was that Google Wave could make it too easy for lazy students to get by. As Justin Neitzey succinctly put it: "I don't think kids should be allowed piggy back off the work of others."
This is a similar concern that some in the education system had with Wolfram Alpha, another innovative Web tool that is set to change the way education is delivered.
Manny Guendulay responded that "reading those notes and participating in the collaboration of those notes hold totally different of levels of thinking." He argued that "the person simply reading the notes (passively learning) has no chance to perform at the same level as someone who helped collaborate (active learning) on those notes, or even watched and read along while they were being created."
In other words, engaging with Google Wave - and the Web in general in fact - will lead to smarter, better performing students. That sounds reasonable to us, but time will tell for both Google Wave and Wolfram Alpha on that score.
Conclusion
Overall, it is clear that Google Wave has potential to be very useful in the education system, particularly as a real-time collaborative note-taking tool. Three students experimented with just that in a lecture; the resulting notes were said to be "more complete" than if Wave hadn't been used.
If you're interested in exploring other education waves, check these out:
- Higher Ed Directory (meta)
- Software Roles in Education - a structured, goal driven exploration
- Wave for Notes - about note taking
- Student-side Class Management: a Wave template
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"I don't think kids should be able to piggy back on the work of others." ??? First of all, piggy backing on the work of others is how just about every great innovation evolves. Second, I guarantee that response has its genesis in a culture that has "taught" students to "do their own work" because that is what we currently think we know how to assess.
I think the question we have to start asking right now is "does every student need to take notes in class?" Seriously. Wave offers some pretty interesting potentials (and challenges) when it comes to collaborative capture and reflection. But with all of the collaborative tools out there right now, synchronous or not, why aren't we thinking differently more often about the work we ask students to do?
What excites me about google wave is the fact that it is an integrated and open ended tool for collaboration. Another tool we use to organize our behavior in groups is currency. I think google wave will prove a powerful context in which to devise innovative ways of "keeping score" that help groups better organize their activities.
I usually work with web-based applications like http://www.showdocument.com
I use it for sharing my designs and documents with partners and clients,
but i guess it can used for other purposes too. If you're looking for a free solution you should check it out.
- Laura W.
I'm excited to see how people are using Wave. I've been looking for artists to Wave with, as I think artistic collaboration has some possibilities. I'd love it if you guys posted something along those lines.
how is this different from a wiki?
Karl is right: the use explained here is not very different from a wiki (if substantially different at all). I suppose the selling point is that Wave incorporates numerous other features that amplify the collaborative authoring feature.
But I want to step back. This example hinges on the premise that collaborative note-taking is beneficial for learning, an assumption that is neither argued nor justified here. As Will noted above, not all students need to take notes--indeed, I believe there is research that shows that some students learn more when paying full attention to listening rather than splitting attention between listening and the act of writing. Further, I suspect that collaborative note-taking might be less effective than individual note-taking following by note-sharing. The note-sharing, on a blog, for instance, motivates students to take good notes (knowing they will be seen), and allows students to benefit from others' differently-complete notes.
OK, now I'm curious enough that I'll probably spend some time looking for some research, and maybe blog it up later!
Well, I’ve been trying to get an invite since they were released I so desperately want to try it out.
What a great article, Thanks! We have been working with Wave for months ( see http://www.dynamicalsoftware.com/news/?p=51 ) and I can totally see how Wave would be great for semester long group projects.
Thank you for posting an update on Google Wave.
I am especially interested in the use of GW for the business community and allowing business people to connect in regular "internet mastermind" initiatives. Meaning: take collective and collaborative thought on a daily basis, while being miles apart, with perhaps 10-12 others who provide synergistic input for decision makers.
I find the idea of collaborative note taking very interesting. I like how Will earlier pointed out that all true innovation is done via "piggybacking" on the work of others. Exactly true. News flash: I didn't invent a single English word that I'm using in this comment, I'm piggybacking on the work done by others who did.
Also, I like to think collaborative note-taking in this way. Imagine, for a second that the abstract idea trying to be presented by the lecturer is a 3-D object. But the lecturer is limited to communicating those ideas in a series of 2-D snapshots. Likewise those taking notes are doing their best to capture those 2-D snapshots to the best of their ability so they can start to piece together the larger idea.
By collaborating on the efforts they can become much more engaged and invested in the outcome. More people means more angles or views on the subject. Some people may specialize in finding a unique angle, others may specialize in stitching and morphing together several snapshots, others will specialize in asking "what's missing". Some people will be lazy, but everyone will benefit from the hard work done to make a more thorough understanding of the complexity of any given subject.
We are currently using wave as a "live project management" system.
According to our services, we might be using it as a customer tutorial service in future.
I bet someone said the same thing about students getting "lazy" when the PEN was invented.
I can almost hear it:
"This crazy new invention will ruin education because now students don't have to memorize everything anymore! It will make them lazy because now they can just look it all up!"
Hi there. This is Samuel Boland, one of the people featured in this article. If you wish to further discuss Google Wave, either contact me at samuelboland@gmail.com or follow me on twitter, username Samboland.
Thanks for the coverage, RWW!
Over the past couple of weeks I have been running a contest on my blog in which I offered to give away nine Wave invitations for creative uses of this new product. I had over 70 entries and am happy to share the winners with you! http://electriceducator.blogspot.com/2009/10/9-ways-to-use-google-wave.html
If someone believes that collaborative note taking is not beneficial, maybe they need to take a look at their test and the questions being asked to demonstrate knowledge or skills learned. What is our end goal...is it note taking skills, memorization, or is it the process, the discussion, the thinking skills?
I agree with Will, what is the gained value of 5 students sitting besides each other taking notes, when one could be taking notes, one asking the follow up questions, one brainstorming possible solutions and another aggregating the collective thinking of the group. Then switching those jobs throughout the process.
Great examples of wave, but identifying students that "piggy-back" on others thinking as lazy is a terrible misnomer and poor vision of what skills students need, in my opinion.
Not sure that this is true:), but thanks for a post.
Edwas
The experiment started this week..
We all sit apart in the classroom, but now we are connected. I write a sentence. She corrects it for grammar. Someone else adds some thoughts from the reading material. Another person adds media and content from the internet. The result is a living document which is made up of what various people view as the ideal summary of the class material. Wave is revolutionizing classrooms and hence, the way educated people think
When I first logged in to wave I really didn't know what to do with it. I know this tool has some great potential for eLearning but it's hard to get started.
Having read a couple of completely different, yet not totally unconnected articles on the evolution of education today, it seems as though whilst there is a new level of enthusiasm for learning at the present time, which is most certainly being fuelled by the internet's proliferation of information through society, nobody seems to agree on how to manage this positive energy the most effectively. Collaboration, in any form, is the way that information is shared, innovation is born, and success and achievemetn are realised. Although sceptical myself at first, I can see huge potential for Wave, and think that the whole idea is summed up best with the line "a set of collaborative documents, supported by a chat." What a great way to move forward with an idea, topic or concept between a group of individuals who may or may not be in the same country, or even continent.