Just what is Google Wave? Google initially premiered it with an 80 minute video that left people nearly parts equal excited and confused. The short answer is that it is a real time communication tool. The best way I can explain this is with an example. When some begins typing, you can see every keystroke, backspace, correction,, etc… This is about as close as you can get to actually seeing people think. This is unnerving for people who are not used to or prepared for it, but it is definitely interesting. Each conversation is called a “wave.” Think of each “wave” as living document. Anybody participating in Google Wave is able to participate in any wave. Here is a picture of the mass and variety of public waves that are being written at any given time.
One of the areas of Google Wave that needs work is first impressions. Reviewers have been universally negative about the initial user experience. Basically, it is overwhelming. However, Gina Trapani of the outstanding blog http://lifehacker.com wrote the Complete Wave Guide which you can read at http://completewaveguide.com; the guide helps beginners, which is basically everyone, get acclimated to Google Wave. Here is a picture of what it looks like when you first go to Google Wave.
Google Wave definitely has a lot of potential. It tries to rewrite the way that we communicate from the ground up. However, I have been vacillating between Google Wave’s usefulness and as-of-yet unrealized potential and its privacy issues, sometimes overwhelming natures, and unresolved privacy issues. However, I was using Wave during a lunch break at an in-service today and the situation was what it took to sway me. One thing that I have noticed in my own experience is that students tend to be much more open and honest in online settings. Anecdotal stories from Tomaz Lasic reinforce this: go to http://human.edublogs.org for more information on this. People in general tend to be more open online; there are less boundaries. I noticed a wave called “The Christian Wave” when I was browsing the public waves. It sounded tacky, but I was pleasantly surprised when I opened it. There are currently 108 blips (replies in a conversation) in the wave. There were about 80 when I started reading it and I read it to the end to get a feel for the conversation. It seemed that there were about half a dozen people being extremely honest about personal things, open, welcoming, and mutually encouraging. I was honored to participate. Interestingly, I was able to jump in both the middle and end of the conversation, both of which then continued as active branches of the tree that is the wave. The welcoming nature and honesty helped reinforce my great faith in the general good nature of most people; after that, I could see the usefulness of the tool and its ability to connect people and allow them to communicate in a genuine fashion.
I have happily read many waves talking about how to use Wave in the classroom, in the church, as a collaborative note taking tool, as a bible study, as a potential learning management system replacement, and more. These waves were started by pastors and laypeople. They were started separately by teachers, administrators, and students. Normal people are finding ways to use Wave to help themselves and to help others.
Having read and participated in a few waves where people are taking part in Bible studies and discussions, I see ways in which people could use people to that end. I have not seen educational uses abound yet, but the ideas are swirling and educators are one of the most active crowds that I’ve seen on Wave. The reason that educational uses haven’t started yet is that Wave is not public and I doubt there are many classes with all 20-40 people having already received invitations. Also, at present, there is no way to control who has access to a Wave to my (admittedly limited) knowledge; most teachers will want to make sure that all of there students can access a wave and no more. We need to do this to protect our students. This will most likely be implemented before Wave is released to the public.
There are definitely some drawbacks to Google Wave, some having to do with Wave itself and some having to do with its being so early in the development cycle. However, the potential is immense and I for one cannot wait to see the final product and to use it with my students. Do you have any experience with Wave? What do you think? Leave it in the comments.
Here is the original video if you are interested.
