Presentation describing what a mashup is and how some can be used in education.

1. Mashups
Taylor Jones, Angela Duran, Yolanda Carmony-Mies

2. What is a Mashup?
A web mashup combines web content such as news article, blogs, photos and videos
with some kind of other functionality, creating a service from two or more different
sources. There are numerous mashups on the web, for example: data mashups,
consumer mashups, business mashups, education mashups, media mashups, and
many more. Mashups take a combination of information, mix it up and deliver in a
new creative and unique way. The end result is creating another way of looking at
the information. The user can take a normally mundane source of data or API
(application programming interface) and think of a way to make it interesting. The
combination of data or the new way of presenting the information can provide extra
value when the mashup can be even more useful than the original websites. An
educator can mashup different educational sites, create new and innovative services,
aggregate and stitch together the third party data and engage the student while
being creative with their lesson and capturing student’s interest. Mashups are a new
breed of web-based data integration growing across the internet. The key to a
mashup is the power of information obtained from the internet. One of the most
recognizable forms of a mashup, are in the form of applications for mobile devices
like the iPhone. Mashup applications like language translators, restaurant finders
and many more available for these devices by the thousands.

3. What is a Mashup?
Image taken from: http://mashstream.com/semantic-web/about-mashups-and-linked-data/
This image shows how data of information can be taken
from multiple sources and integrated into one site
(mashup).

4. Take a look at some examples and see how they
can be used.
www.completeschools.com

5. Complete Schools Mashup
The mash-up that truly grabbed my attention is the
Complete Schools mash-up found at
www.completeschools.com. This mash-up consists of
data from EBAY, Google Search, and Yahoo Answers
and delivers a single source web-page on colleges and
schools in the United States. The mash-up allows users
to search colleges by the degrees offered, universities
by their state region, private and public schools in a
certain area, and also has a top rated function for
educational establishments. The site does this by using
U.S Department of Education data embedded with
Yahoo answers to deliver relevant questions and
answers about colleges and universities in the U.S
(www.completeschools.com ).

6. Complete Schools Mashup
The great thing about this mash-up is that it is very user friendly. The
average person could use this mash-up to perform a simple search of the
schools in their prospective areas. More importantly though, a parent or
student could use the site to research potential colleges that offer the
types of programs they are looking for to enhance future development.
From an education standpoint, the mash-up could be used as a presentation
tool in the elementary and high school levels to make students aware of
their educational options. Or as an academic advisor, a person could
provide students with institutions that meet their academic and location
requirements for post-secondary education. The advantages for a site like
this are numerous but two very important advantages are adequate
information to make an informed decision, and immediate access to
information that would take time to locate otherwise. The fact that this
mash-up provides access to information on all the universities and schools
in the nation at a click of a button is phenomenal and provides consumers
the opportunity to get all the information they deem necessary on a school
or program and make a decision. This process definitely eases the burden
of school selection. For instance, when I was looking at colleges in 1997, I
had to browse through hundreds of brochures and call the institutions to
get answers to technical questions. If I would have had access to this type
of system I could have used it to filter the requirements I was looking for
and saved an insurmountable amount of time.

7. Take a look at some examples and see how they
can be used.
http://www.epoliticalpower.com/

8. ePoliticalPower
Epoliticalpower is an online mashup site that offers a variety of mashed up data
bases closely connected to voters, candidates and causes. The ePolitical Power
mashup includes biographical, financial and campaign information on national,
state, and local levels searched by zip codes. This site has a wealth of
information on the political candidates as well as who holds office in the state
you live in by entering your zip code. This site offers several newsfeeds from all
over the United States, made simple for the user to only browse one site instead
of several. ePolitcal Power focuses on candidates and politicians with the need
to consider how the internet provides political candidates with a high touch
medium to reach new audiences and to enhance the existing constituent
relationships. In 2008 55% of the voters turned to the internet for information
on the Presidential election, changing the way winning candidates campaign.
This site offers three different power levels that you can register for with each
one of them offering more, the higher level you register for. For example, you
can access national database sorted by state of elected officials in some cases
down to the county level these levels are intended for candidates who are
getting their name and office advertised through a high traffic mashup site.

9. ePoliticalPower
An average person may use this site to retrieve
information on the 2012 Presidential election from
newsfeeds, locally, how to register, learn about the
candidates, career politicians and the issues they
campaigning for. Users can either do basic or extensive
research, depending on what they are looking. The site is
very user friendly and self explanatory. The ePolitial
Power site can be used to compare the many different
opinions of a candidates or career politicians. With the
newsfeeds offered a user can determine what they want
to read, who they want to vote for and what the issues
stand for. The newsfeeds give the factual information on
several topics.

10. ePoliticalPower
The site can create teaching and learning in the classroom by allowing
students to understand what the presidential election is all about in
Social Studies. Students love to engage in “adult” decisions. I know
my daughter will come home and ask me questions on issues and who I
am voting for. She said she would like to work the polls to see all the
candidates trying to get last minute votes. She knows this because
along with the teacher, I have her come and vote with me to see what
the hype is all about. It is very important that we teach our students
and children about voting and their rights as a United States citizen.
Educators can make a game with the Presidential Election so they can
research the candidates. Asking students who supports this issue and
why. Being creative with them, having them blog or make a video.
Students have textbooks that give information on this but textbooks
don’t have videos or blogs or current data. I am not an educator; if I
were I think this constant wealth of updated information from the
internet is easier than the textbooks that are outdated.

11. ePoliticalPower
When I researched this site, I started going into every tab
to see what was offered and it had everything a 21st
century Presidential Election needed for the internet. I
feel a Social Studies educator would benefit greatly by
having the students view the site. The site shows the
contributions, how to fundraise, how to get donations
online, absentee ballots, issues and candidates. It may be
used in Math also with the fundraising and how much
each candidate has and spent and how much people
donated. Also, by having the students keep track of
electoral votes by keeping an eye on who is winning each
state. I feel this site can be used in many subjects.

12. Take a look at some examples and see how they
can be used.
www.perspctv.com

13. Perspctv Mashup
Perspctv is an online search engine (mashup site) that uses
keywords to search different networks and gives the most
recent information on the topic. The networks the search
engine searches on are twitter, blogs, and recent news
(websites or news outlets). It will “compare, analyze, and
monitor” your keywords entered into the search engine. The
search engine will compare up to 5 terms or keywords at a time.
For example I can type in Tigers, playoffs, sports and it will
search for the keywords and bring up the most recent twitter
posts, blogs, and any recent news relating to the keywords.
An average person may use this site to search for the most
recent sports talk (as I gave an example of above), to research
information, or find the most recent information on a favorite
topic. The site can be used to compare the many opinions and
factual information about a topic. The Twitter account may
show quick perceptions of a topic, the blog may require more
reading but can give much more information and also be based
on opinion, and the news outlets may give factual information
on the topic.

14. Perspctv
This site can benefit teaching and learning in the classroom by
allowing quick access to multiple sources and by having the
most recent information. Quick access to multiple sources is
important because when a student is researching information
they need to provide a well-written paper with many sources.
With this search engine the student has 3 different networks
available within one site. They can use keywords to search and
find information easily. Another benefit of this site is the
information is current and up to date. A student can still use
textbooks provided in a classroom but as a lot of us already
know, not all textbooks are up to date. To have access to
current information provides the student with knowledge they
may not have access to within a textbook. As an educator, I
may find teaching easier by searching for up to date
information to teach to my students.

15. Perspctv
As I was “playing around” with the site, I started typing in many
different topics. I searched Campaign, Presidents and it gave me
information about Barak Obama’s campaign within twitter, blogs, and
news outlets. If I were to research about campaigning I can see and
compare opinions about campaigns, the amount being raised, what the
president is doing to raise money, and personal blogs regarding a
campaign. A student can use this to gather information pertaining to a
social studies topic and use multiple sources to write a paper about the
topic.
The site may also be used to look up science topics such as the process
of photosynthesis. I typed these terms and information came up
explaining different processes of photosynthesis. For example, on one
twitter post a photograph was posted about “the process of how these
grass portraits were made through photosynthesis”. On a blog site it
explained the changing of leaf colors through the process of
photosynthesis and on a news outlet they explained in depth about
photosynthesis. Each of these 3 informational outlets was posted
within the past 5 days. I think this is excellent to use for students who
are just trying to gather more information on something they may not
understand to help them understand.

16. Perspctv
In conclusion, I feel this site would be most beneficial
to people looking to investigate and research
information. The site gives information in multiple
networks. The information can be given in opinion
pieces or written to inform and give factual
information. A student or teacher can really benefit
from this site by finding the most recent information
given and compare it to what they know already. It
can be used to compare different sources and to
write different types of papers (opinion, research,
informational).

17. In Conclusion
Providing consumers with new sources of information by simply combining existing pools
of pages and data, the mash-up is by far one of the best resources for information and
education. The mash-up allows an educator or an individual with a particular interest
access to information that they deem important. For instance, mash-ups could allow
educators to look at ACT data across the United States to plan, change, or implement new
curriculum in the hopes of score improvement. Or a fisherman from Toledo, Ohio could
use a mash-up to view all of the fishing locations in the United States in hopes of catching
a trophy fish. In either case, the information was only made possible through the creativity
of an individual who decided to incorporate information from multiple sources into a new
source page. The value for this type of data is unlimited as long as there is a consumer
interested in the combination of information. The potential for mash-ups especially in the
field of education is great as long as the instructor is creative enough to use the
information in an informative way. The risks and problems of mash-ups surround invalid,
incorrect, or skewed information. Since mash-ups are a result of different API’s there is
always the possibility of bad information from one of the API interfaces. It’s like the old
quote, “garbage in, equals garbage out”, which shows how bad information in the
development of a mash-up will lead to bad output information for the consumer. If this
information is then used in instruction then a person could be learning the wrong thing. In
either case, the benefits of the mash-up and the unlimited capability of the mash-up when
incorporated with innovation far outweigh any risks in the utilization of mash-ups. Mash-
ups are here to stay and will continue to grow but it is up to us to incorporate them into
the classroom.