Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Google Wave has arrived...

... well, for some people it has. I'm still waiting for my invitation!

Google Wave is going to be brilliant for teaching and learning. Here's why:

  • It's designed for collaboration - good teaching practice encourages learners to work together.
  • Conversations (waves) are place and time independent - you can invite new participants into a wave at any time, and they can replay the conversation to "catch up". Flexible learning (time and place) will be well-supported!
  • It will grow - Google will allow third-party developers to extend Wave beyond its initial design. After personally experiencing the power of open source educational tools (such as Moodle), I am convinced that innovative educators will find amazing ways to build learning experiences in Wave.
  • And most importantly, it takes the best Web 2.0 tools and combines them together into one application: wikis, multimedia, email, instant messaging, online applications, and more.
Here's a great little video from the creative team at epipheo studios explaining how Google Wave will change the way that we communicate online...



So, what do you think? Will it help you to teach or learn?

(And can somebody please send me an invitation?)

UPDATE (10 November 2009): I'm now on Wave (thanks Sid)! Add (and ping) me if you want to explore: peter.wagstaff@googlewave.com

3 comments:

Wags said...

@Laura: Whilst showdocument looks interesting (similar to Adobe's online offerings, and some of the features in Google Docs), it's still not fully integrated. That's why I love the Wave concept - everything together in the one online app.

Thanks for the pointer, though... I hadn't seen showdocument previously. Cheers!

Tapp said...

I'm excited for Google Wave. Great video!

Stephen Saunders said...

Great article on Google wave in today's Time Magazine