Educational Mashups
Creativity often involves integrating two (or more) familiar entities in some felicitous way. As the internet becomes an operating system, mashups promise to be an important locus of creative development. At the recent NERCOMP SIG, "Educational Mash-ups 2," a number of presenters offered persuasive evidence that educators are already making good use of mashups, even if it is also clear that as a group we have only begun to explore what we can do with them. Over the course of the day (April 28, 2008 in Portsmouth, NH), the SIG presenters also gave participants the opportunity to reflect on the limits of what is and is not a "mashup" as well as on the question of whether mashups will ever be something that the "masses" can create.

Mashups for the Masses
Although his talk came later in the day, Alex Chapin (Curricular Technologist from Middlebury College) raised definitional questions that I would like to address up front. In particular, Alex suggests that we distinguish between two broad types of mashups:

1. Mashups by integration are the ones that capture our imagination because they involve true "crossing." Data from one resource becomes the input for processing by another. Geotags from Flickr, for example, can serve as the grist for a Google Map. Mashups by integration typically require considerable time and expertise to develop. They are the domain of developers who know how to work with an application programming interface (API). These are the mashups that make it onto the "Programmable Web" mashup blog (or into the roster for a NERCOMP SIG).
2. Mashups by aggregation, on the other hand, simply juxtapose information from disparate sources. One should think here of applications such as MyYahoo, NetVibes , PageFlakes, iGoogle, and others. Individual users assemble collections of "feeds" whose contents then live side by side within the aggregator. Even if the "feeds" are otherwise unaware of one another, the act of juxtaposition is already a creative one. Mashups by integration require little expertise to create.
   

Somewhere between the obvious extremes of integration and aggregation lie applications like Yahoo! Pipes with a graphic user interface that allows users with no (or minimal) programming knowledge to mix, match, filter, and repurpose data from various resources. Other web-based mashup builders include the Google Mashup Editor, Dapper, and Popfly.

For the most part, the SIG presenters showcased examples that would fall clearly into the category of mashup by integration.

Snap-Shot
In her orientational snap-shot, SIG organizer Eileen McMahon (senior instructional designer at UMass Boston) offered an overview of developments in the world of educational mashups. Of particular interest to educators:

• There are many more APIs and mashups available than just a year ago. (See the Programmable Web for details.)
  
• Google maps are easier than ever to work with.
• Governmental data is increasingly available in XML that complies with open standards, making it available for processing by third parties. See:
  http://programmableweb.com/government
  
• Many web applications now offer easy-to-use ready-made mashups that allow you to embed and repurpose content according to your own inclinations.

Among the most interesting projects Eileen cites are:

• the MIIM Project at the University of Minnesota, an example of the kind of leadership role universities can take in exploring the possibilities of the mashup genre.  According to the project website, "MIIM is a web-based application that introduces K-12 and post-secondary students to principles of geography and GIS. MIIM makes use of several open-source projects, including Mapbender, MapServer, and PostgreSQL."
• The Center for Advanced Technology in Education (CATE) at the University of Oregon has launched its ambitious Salamander Project to analyze and codify 3D learning objects in Second Life. Residents of Second Life can identify objects of interest as they move through the virtual world. The data that users so generate is then automatically entered into a database at sloog.org, a web-based tagging application for Second Life. In particular, the tagging data is passed into the Salamander Wiki. To better understand the process, you can watch an explanatory video on blip.tv.

Mashup Show and Tell
During a "Mashup Show and Tell," SIG participants were treated to a tour of exciting educational mashups.

H-Link
Larry Bouthillier (Media Technology Architect at Harvard University) explained the rationale and development process for H-Link, a mashup that integrates the Harvard class schedule with Facebook friends lists. Students had been entering the class schedules by hand in order to facilitate connections among classmates; H-Link (entirely opt-in) spares students this effort and also makes it difficult for someone to masquerade as a classmate. Surprisingly, the new application seems not to have generated any increased need for user support. Students apparently find it easy to navigate. To learn more you can read an article in the Harvard University Gazette Online and an FAQ page on harvard.edu.

Map Mashups in History Courses at UMass
Lisa Link from UMass Boston talked about a historical mapping work in progress sponsored by the Research Center for Urban Cultural History (RCUCH) and the Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies. The overall goal of the project is to teach cultural history through geography. In particular, the project will use the Google Maps application on historical maps. Users will be able to mark up the historical maps in the same way one marks up current maps. The markings on the historical map will link to corresponding locations on modern maps.

Manhattanville College Alumni on Facebook
Carmen Delessio and Jim Finnay presented details of a project by Harris Connect, a commercial enterprise, to leverage Facebook as a way to build support among the Manhattanville College Alumni. It can be difficult to persuade alumni to keep current profiles with the alumni association. The Harris Connect project will make it so that alumni can update their profile in Facebook and the data will flow back to the school.