The Activity Feed
pearltowerpete
March 17, 2009, 08:14 AM posted in General DiscussionWe are proud to announce the Activity Feed. You can respond to questions, start arguments, and generally mix and mingle.
To access the Activity stream, please log out and then log back in. It will appear as a tab on your "Me" page.
Here are Hank's comments from the CPod blog.
The stream is still in the Beta stage. Everyone's comments and suggestions are more than welcome.
bababardwan
March 18, 2009, 04:15 AMsteve,
"intimidating than trying to hold your own in a Chinese discussion in the very public Community section"..
...so am I right in presuming that the Activity Feed is viewable only by paid subscribers? Also,if,as you suggest, users do find the Community section intimidating,then why make it so public? I can certainly understand why some would find it intimidating and think all barriers should be removed to encouraging people to post in the Community section.
bababardwan
March 17, 2009, 09:13 AMRJ,
Where did it even say that it was limited to a particular level? I agree with you though.I don't go for the idea of limiting it to a particular level.
RJ
March 17, 2009, 09:20 AMbababardwan
the blog has some info
you can also change your level off to the upper right, when in the application. Right now elementary has discussion, intermediate does not for example.
RJ
March 17, 2009, 09:43 AMWell its just my first impression and I will give it a chance but right now Im thinking its just another board to check. In fact the way its set up now you have to go through the painful process of changing your level several times if you want to see it all. Why do we need this? An in house twitter. I have to admit I am a little bias since I am not a twitter fan. Im thinking the resources required to develop this could have been better spent. Sorry. Maybe I will come to appreciate it. Time will tell.
Explain to me what determines whether a post goes on the activity page vs the boards, then maybe the function will be more apparent.
tarcy
March 17, 2009, 11:12 AMThis system is great. Thank you very much!
It might be easy for some users to start writing Chinese, because if you just write a few simple words, it is also OK.
rjberki, I agree with you, too. I would like to read all or several level's comments and communicate with more users in Chinese.
kimiik
March 17, 2009, 11:19 AMThis "Activity Feed" could replace the "Latest Study Activity" on the right side of the community page.
calkins
March 17, 2009, 11:37 AMMy honest reaction is that it's an added and useless layer to a website that is slowly becoming overwhelming. For users who have been here for a while, it's not difficult to keep up with a change here and there, but I'd imagine the site is very overwhelming for new users. Maybe I can't envision the value in a "twitter-like" function, but my gut tells me that it's not very useful to language learning, especially if limited to 140 words.
It seems like it's trying to be a vehicle to make communication easier and more accessible. Instead, why not make the Conversations section more accessible, searchable, easier to navigate, etc.? This is something that users have been requesting for a long time...a conversations section that is more updated with current usability.
As it is now, there's a Conversations section, a Forum, a Blog, a UserVoice site (which isn't really accessible from the main site), and now an Activity Feed. If I was new here, I'd have no clue where to go and would be completely overwhelmed.
And what about other loose ends that have never been tied:
- PDF's for all lessons (QW, PWP, etc.)
- Better Vocabulary Manager usability and better Flashcard function
- Completed Grammar Guide
- Native Traditional Support for the entire site (Vocab. Mgr., Grammar Guide, etc.)
Again, maybe I'm missing something, but why use valuable resources to create something that might work, when there are important items that haven't been completed for a long time?
I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, and I do appreciate many of the recently added features, but I just don't get this one. Hopefully I'll be proven wrong and will see some value in it.
tvan
March 17, 2009, 12:56 PMI'd second Calkins' comment.
bababardwan
March 17, 2009, 01:08 PMRJ,
Thanks for that mate.Ah yes,of course the blog.I'll know to check there in future.
Re:
"you can also change your level off to the upper right, when in the application"
...unless you mean by going on the Profile tab,I can't see where to do this on the Activity feed page.
Speaking of levels,for quite some time now I've noticed the test your level listening test button has disappeared from it's page.What's the story there? Also,I thought with the recent upgrade there was a plan for more testing so you could assess progress.Is this still in the pipeline?
pearltowerpete
March 17, 2009, 08:49 AMHi rjberki
You make a very good point. We are discussing how to do this.
dunderklumpen
March 17, 2009, 04:09 PMI support Calkins' and Henning's comments.
RJ
March 17, 2009, 04:19 PMbababardwan,
to the right of the text box at the top is says:
Your activity stream currently includes:
- Your Messages/Posts.
- Replies to your Messages/Posts.
- Elementary Messages. (Change level)
click on change level in parenthesis to change level.
zhenlijiang
March 17, 2009, 04:55 PMi too at first wasn't too excited, as it seemed like "one more thing to deal with". but am very quickly converted!
i see the merit in this is great for students like myself (intermediate, but still really struggling w/putting sentences together and generally making myself understood in Chinese), and i think also newbies and elles. these are opportunities to get little bits of writing practice, the kind of writing you couldn't do a lot of in the conversations and lesson discussions where participants are generally expected to make some "contribution".
many people may find that it takes too much time or effort to post comments in the conversations; especially if there is a heated discussion going on it can be intimidating, and if you're not yet confident in your Chinese writing you end up, like i do, posting virtually all in English. and we tend to see the same participants all the time which is ok, but i think the whole community benefits if more people get involved.
responding as best as i can to 2 or 3 simple, non-controversial questions every day i think is really going to add up and improve my ability and confidence. really good idea--bravo.
goulnik
March 17, 2009, 05:54 PMGood or bad, confusing as it may be, the proliferation of channels and tools is a reflection of what's going on out there on the net. Not all will survive, things constantly in flux...
Not questioning the need to fix what's broken or missing, I tend to agree with zhenlijiang's analysis. I see quite clearly with my News group that the task of reading, let alone writing Chinese can be daunting.
We'll see whether the same 'elite' group takes over this feed, but it should be a lot easier to jump into conversations.
bababardwan
March 17, 2009, 10:07 PMI just came across a minor problem with this Activity Feed that might be worth looking into.I just changed my academic level from Ellie to Intermediate to see what was going on in the Intermediate Activity Feed.The funny thing was that the comments I made on the Ellie Activity Feed migrated with me and now seem somewhat out of place.I'd be inclined to leave comments where they are made.
Thanks a lot RJ for pointing out where to change level.I can only blame Bailey's for blinding me somewhat,hehe.
flibberdie
March 18, 2009, 02:50 AMYes, that happened to me as well after I made some comments on Elementary and then went to look at the newbie page. My comments that followed me to the newbie page certainly are out of place. (And I don't know if they followed me back home to Elementary or if they're still there in Newbie; I mean I guess they'll be wherever I look....?.....? [which is weird].)
But I do like the activity whatchamacallit; I think it has potential for challenging learners using a construct not found in the other user areas of Chinesepod. As an elementary learner, I would vote to leave pinyin out of that construct; the reader is forced to look up characters that don't spring to mind. It's strengthening to be without pinyin to depend upon.
steve
March 18, 2009, 03:40 AMSome interesting discussion here - I want to address questions about the purpose of the activity stream.
Language learning requires input and output. ChinesePod does a great job on the input side, with 1000's of great lessons and a pedagogy that focuses on lexis etc.
However, we don't really help users with output. Some users practice their Chinese in the posts and comments, but if you are a newbie or a newcomer to the site this can be a bit daunting.
I think the value of the activity stream is it gives users a structured way to practice. Responding to a level-appropriate question in under 140 characters is much less intimidating than trying to hold your own in a Chinese discussion in the very public Community section.
I'm hoping that this structure and guidance will give people who have never typed a word of Chinese the courage to try to hold simple conversations in Chinese. We all know that one of the best ways to retain a language is to use it. Wouldn't it be great to see people who'd never typed Chinese start to use it to communicate!
henning
March 17, 2009, 02:18 PMMy personal wish list is prioritized as follows:
- Correcting Bugs ("-4 messages" anyone? Community search?)
- Adding learning related content (grammar guide, traditional support, interlinking lessons etc.).
- Additional learning functions (new exercises, games, better flashcards)
- Usability enhancements (direct links to HTML-files, tagging, enhanced search and grouping features)
- Maintaining already introduced interfaces and channels (m.Chinesepod, uservoice, groups)
- Flexibility enhancements through APIs, components, export formats, or database interfaces.
A connection to the 345rd hype Web-2.0 service, building the 14th communication channel, supporting yet another proprietary mobile device, or UI bells and whistles without clear learning focus are denied access to my list.
RJ
March 17, 2009, 08:43 AMI think limiting it by level may present a problem. Perhaps if it would let you see everything up to and including your level? Dont know, too early yet but Im guessing I would want it open to all levels - at least give that choice as an option. If one could choose either one level, all up to your level, or all levels I think it would be more functional. Many people here cross several levels in study and discussion. Anybody else have a thought on this?