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New Assignment ITGS Grade 11, starting later this week ~

We are all in stuck with the same issues in our modern day technological world. Ask any of the teaches in the school, about dealing with the constant flow of emails, that take up hours of time a day. Think about every time you sit down to do homework, and find yourself in a multitasking world trying to do ten things at once - normally 'booking, chatting, gaming within the occasional word typed on your most recent assignment. So is there a solution - is there a way to GET THINGS DONE? David Allen thinks so....and many so called experts are given thousands of pounds to lecture and discuss with companies their GTD problems - just check out the Inbox Zero presentation at Google or Dave Allen's below?

Many educators have decided that the use of so-called Web 2.0 tools would be great in helping students learn and allow themselves and others to GTD, and they have even completed lists on some of those applications - Web 2.0 School Applications and here at Shambles. But some see this as just confusing the situation with more tools, that in fact complicate our lives even further and that Web 2.0 is a waste of time - check out this post on the shortcomings of Web 2.0.

So your mission to see if a variety of Web 2.0 tools and applications can actually allow you to GTD and are are they having the social and ethical impacts needed for our newly complicated lives?

From the options below I would like you to pick two areas in which GTD applications are flourishing and choose two specific types of application to test whether you believe this is a revolutionary new way that will help you GTD or that these Web 2.0 applications are just a waste of time. You will need to demonstrate how to use this tool, and for what this tool might be used (you might need to be a little persuasive!). You will also need to show how others have used these types of applications, and whether this would enable you to GTD in a more efficient way than how you did the same tasks before:-

• Every One MUST DO THIS - RSS Feedreaders - Sorry no choice Bloglines or bust...

1. Follow through this tutorial to setup your bloglines account or here as a PDF
2. View my public feeds at my Bloglines account
3. Produce feeds for news searches on valid ITGS content areas - check this post to help you at URLGREYHOT
4. Place at least 20 feeds to sites that you think are relevant to a technology based course?
5. Publish your bloglines public feeds to the weblog along with a post outlining the positives and negatives of the search coming to you rather than you going to the search?
6. Make sure your thoughts about its impact on areas related to any of the social and ethical issues of the ITGS triangle, are included along with sharing in discussion your findings related to the shortcomings article from earlier. Link it to the rules of GTD theory as well to assess its effectiveness.

Then choose one from below:-

• A - Social Bookmarking Tools (sillibilliboi + magicman)
  

1. Explore the del.icio.us website and other social bookmarking websites...and join one you think looks most effective
2. Visit Dr Tech's public social bookmarks and decide how these might be a better idea than normal bookmarks or favourites, what do you notice about how this links with this weblog?
3. Follow the seven habits of successful Del.icio.us users then bookmark sites that you have been using on a consistent basis on your recent Internal Assessment or in general
4. Prepare a comprehensive blog post outlining the use of the tool here, and your thoughts about its impact on areas related to any of the social and ethical issues of the ITGS triangle. Link it to the rules of GTD theory as well to assess its effectiveness.
5. You will present the tool briefly on the board, and share in discussion your findings related to the shortcomings article from earlier.

• B - Online Office Applications - The choice is yours.. (pass + mathuselar)
  

1. Research into online applications - a good review is here at the Computer World blog
2. Play with a variety of different online applications and decide on which you believe to be best
3. Bring together a presentation where you show how the application works and what would be the benefits of using such a system over a normal Office productivity suite
4. Post a link to a online document that you create discussing the negatives and positives as described above, not forgetting to discuss your thoughts about its impact on areas related to any of the social and ethical issues of the ITGS triangle, that you think are relevant.
5. Also place in your blog post and in your discussions your findings related between your application and the shortcomings article from earlier. Link it to the rules of GTD theory as well to assess its effectiveness.

• C - Web 2.0 - Start pages (swamp)
  

1. View a variety of different Web 2.0 start pages outlined on the weblog Pandia.
2. Decide on which you think would be the most appropriate for you and a group of students to use to help with collaborative work and set up an account - here is an example here, although i am sure that you can do better.
3. Give everyone in the group the ability to add to the start page
4. Show how the start-page works to the class, and write a post outlining this web 2.0 tools benefits always thinking through the shortcomings article above.
5. Make sure your thoughts about its impact on areas related to any of the social and ethical issues of the ITGS triangle, are included. Link it to the rules of GTD theory as well to assess its effectiveness.

• D - To Do Lists(almost too many) - Remember the Milk / Vitalist / Tada List (odo + perriwinkle)

1. View a variety of different to do lists - from above
2. Decide on which you think is the most effective and use the tool for a period of one week to organise your school and home schedule. Make sure you use a variety of its input techniques - if you have an ipod or PDA then all the better!
3. Show how the to do list works to the class, and write a post outlining this web 2.0 tools benefits always thinking through the shortcomings article above.
4. Make sure your thoughts about its impact on areas related to any of the social and ethical issues of the ITGS triangle, are included. Link it to the rules of GTD theory as well to assess its effectiveness.

• E - Browser Information Manager - Evernote / Iterasi (shakeandbake)

1. View the above very new - so called Browser Information/Archive managers.
2. Choose one to dowload and set up with your browser, and then use the tool to bookmark and manage your research based experiences for all your school work for a week
3. Show how the BIM works to the class, and write a post outlining this web 2.0 tools benefits always thinking through the shortcomings article above.
4. Make sure your thoughts about its impact on areas related to any of the social and ethical issues of the ITGS triangle, are included. Link it to the rules of GTD theory as well to assess its effectiveness.

P.S. Note assessment will be based on each of you reviewing each others posts and presentation of the tool, in the following areas:- How well do you understand the tool used? Does the post describe the positives of the web tool sufficiently for you to understand how you might use it in your studies? Do you understand the technology behind how the tool works and specific terms? Do you understand the social and ethical issues that might limit or push the use of such a tool/application? Has the presenter persuaded to use it in the future, or only when Dr Tech asks? Link it to the rules of GTD theory as well to assess its effectiveness.

Here is the PeerAssessment grid, which you will fill out during each students demonstration. Much better than Dr Tech grading you huh?

P.S. The distraction free browser - might help you with your GTD?

P.P.S Here is a list of 112 so called GTD applications - arrrgghhh, not all are considered Web 2.0 though. Why might that be?

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