Recently I mentioned how useful Web 2.0 could be in the classroom. Well, since then, I’ve experienced the revolutionary new collaboration tool: Google Wave. I soon discovered that this pretty much does everything that’s good about Web 2.0, and then some. I’ve quickly forgotten that everything else in the world exists, and can’t wait for this to go completely public. However, there may be a serious danger of me never talking to anyone in person again.
I decided to play around with their logo slightly
If you have not come across Google Wave before then let me educate you. For the sake of variety, I’ve got three different videos which summarise the features of Google Wave.
- For those of you who are equal to, or greater than the amount of boring I am, here’s the official 80-minute video on Google Wave: Google Wave Developer Preview at Google I/O 2009 (even I slept through some of this).
- If you are anywhere close to normal, this 8-minute video should appeal to you: Google Wave Overview.
- If you easily get distracted or just like guns, then this video demonstrates some of the features against the soundtrack to Pulp Fiction: Google Wave Cinema: Pulp Fiction. WARNING: there may be an excessive amount of Samuel L. Jackson (i.e. swearing).
The Declaration of Independence being written in Google Wave*
Collaboration.
Web 2.0 applications, regardless of their primary function, often include some element of discussion. I think this is their best feature since pupils can take their work and then talk about it. Google Wave is predominantly about collaboration, and group conversations. Many people can be included in a single conversation; and the application is appropriate for brainstorming, since users can modify things that other users have written. It’s email, forums and instant messaging combined, as well as featuring some brand new concepts. In the screenshot, Google have demonstrated how the Declaration of Independence could have been written using Google Wave*.
Playback.
One superb feature of Google Wave is playback. Playback allows you to view the entire conversation in chronological order, as it was originally created. This means that you can trace all the changes made to a collaborative document, as they occurred. This presents a new idea for the classroom, since pupils who use it to brainstorm ideas as a group, can not only produce a final document to reference, but can also see how they got there. Perhaps this is a good way for pupils to see how well they work as a group, and how they can develop their ideas most effectively.
…and the best bit.
By far the most innovative feature, I feel, is the ability for instant translation. Google Wave has the ability to translate what someone’s saying into another language as they type. Not only can this allow us to break down barriers between cultures, but can also aid in language learning by exposure (since the original language is displayed along with the translation). This could be a huge innovation for children with English as an additional language, as well as language teaching, and experience of other cultures. I genuinely believe this particular feature could be gold in schools.
Google Wave is currently on release by invitation only, so to test it out you’ll have to either ask Google for an invite, or find a friend who has it already. I can only hope that they iron out the bugs soon, and that some innovative teachers can give it a go.
*Read more about the Declaration at TechCrunch
This looks AWESOME!