Thankfully, I was added to a Digital Humanities wave, and there I could see things in action. The most important thing I learned there, via Lifehacker, was the “with: public” command, where I could see all of the waves out there and decide which ones I might want to join.

Doing that “with: public” search actually led me back to the gracious soul who sent me the invite in the first place, Matthew Kaskavitch, a student at UW-Stout who I’ve never met, but who is an active Twitter user and social media in higher ed proponent. (Yes, that “one professor in the English department used Twitter in the classroom to communicate with her students” is me. I’ve actually gone on to incorporate some of those suggestions too and now more actively ask students to tweet on readings at the beginning of class then call on them to elaborate during large group discussions).

An interesting Wave that Matt’s started is the “University of Wisconsin Wavers,” which is allowing folks from any of the campuses across the state to communicate and collaborate in ways never before. Of course, things are still in the early stages, but I think it’s a great start to a dialogue amongst tech savvy folks and much more fun (to me at least) than listserv messages.

Other helpful WAVE how-to’s can be found here:

HOW TO: Get Started with Google Wave
Google Wave: A Complete Guide
Google Wave Guide: User Manual Released for Wave

Still, even with all of this, I don’t see myself becoming an active Wave user until I get some invites to share with colleagues. Where those at, Google???