Edubeacon

Today I’ve taken time to explore Google Wave, the new integrated platform on which Google sees as our online future with the move to HTML 5.0.  It’s still at preview stage with a full launch later in 2009, however, now’s the time to get our heads around the concept.  A wave is an open source, browser-based collaboration tool that combines email, document sharing, multimedia and social networking.  Reviews from the experts are very positive and if you’ve got 1 hour 20 minutes, I’d rcommend viewing the preview Google Wave presentation from the Google Developer Conference.

Google Wave has an Australian connection as it was developed out of Google’s Sydney office by brothers Lars and Jens Rasmussen, the designers of Google Maps with Stephanie Hannon as project manager.

A clear description with screen shots has been published by TechCruch who herald it as an exciting new development.  Working in real time it allows simultaneous, multi-user document editing and language translations.  In viewing it’s impact from an elearning perspective, Donald Clark explains the simplicity as:

A ‘Learning Wave’ can allow any combination of teacher(s) and student(s) to:

• step back and forth through content
• pull in/share resources
• pull in links
• provide live feedback
• poll the group
• assess the group
• teach in multiple languages (translates in real time)

It will really provide a functional place for learning in the ‘cloud’ and promises to simplify the process of providing elearning resources.