ACADEMIC THEORY ON WEB 2.0

Several academics and educators from around the world have been applying Web 2.0 technology into their lessons, thus creating a digital classroom of the future.

1.http://books.google.com/books?id=RRLryxmw8icC&dq=WEB+2.0+%2B+TEACHING

Web-Teaching: A Guide for Designing Interactive Teaching for the World Wide Web –  By David W. Brooks, Diane E. Nolan, Susan M. Gallagher

Beginning with a brief history of the Internet, this book delves into a review of current research, active learning strategies, Web courseware, meta-cognition, strategies for Web discussions, promoting student self-regulation, building interactive Web pages, basic HTML coding, managing Web sites, using databases, automated testing, and security and legal issues. Experience shows that Web teaching may be used in an extremely wide range of subject areas. Therefore, allowing instructors to focus on instructional design and improving student experiences instead of only the technical skills of building Web sites. Web-Teaching helps readers pick and choose what aspects of the Web to employ to achieve the greatest student learning gains (ie. Facebook, Blogs, wiki). This academic source is a very thorough and detailed analysis of the application of Web 2.0 in the classroom.  

2. http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0621.pdf

Web2.0 A new wave of Innovation for Teaching and Learning – By Brian Alexander

Alexander’s article looks at the key concepts in Web 2.0 analysing its impact on the education system as a social software. For instance, it outlines the use and application of several practices and procedures that could be used as pedagogical tools within the digital classroom. For instance, Social Bookmarking, Del.icio.us, Wiki, Socialtext, Blogger – All allow for opportunities of collaboration and sharing within the lesson. He accounts for the growing services and applications, partly because of the changing face of education in this new age.  

BLOGGING IN THE CLASSROOM

Download Video: Posted by rachelboyd at TeacherTube.com

SO WHY LET OUR STUDENTS BLOG?

1. For communication

2. For literacy

3. For ownership

4. For sharing

5. For collaboration

6. For discussion

7. For empowerment

8. For interaction

9. For motivation

10. For participation

11. For engagement

12. For excitement

13. For conversation

14. For creativity

15. For reflection

 To extend the walls of the classroom 

To give the students a voice

To give the students an audience

To give the students a learning environment 

To give the students skills useful for their DIGITAL FUTURES 

WRITE TO LEARN… BLOG TO LEARN

BLOG VS. WIKI

The main difference between a blog and a wiki is the contributor. For instance, a blog is personal, with little collaboration and the posting is owned by the poster. Whereas a wiki can be personal, but is open to collaboration (access via password). Any information can be changed or deleted by anyone.

Within the classroom, the open style of a wiki can be useful for group projects, while a blog may aid in brainstorming or generating discussion. Also, a combination of the two may best suit educational purposes. Because a wiki can limit which users can login and edit the content, facilitator control can virtually be the same as a blog, where comments and posts can be pre-screened.

The main difference, then, between a wiki and a blog becomes the layout and organization of information. A wiki becomes a continually modifiable easy-access web page, while a blog’s journalistic style catalogs and dates content so readers can see the interchange of ideas related to the blog topic in question.

(Just an observation to pass along – setting up this blog has been many times more difficult than setting up my first wiki.) Blogs seem to be most effective when individuals have to research and reflect their own opinion and understanding on the research. (For example, this educational blog is designed to look at the application and implication of Web 2.0 and collaborative networked learning in the classroom). 

Wikis are best when you want multiple people to have full editing capabilities on the documents in question. www.wikipedia.com is of course the best example of a good wiki use. Plus check out my university wiki www.soymocha.pbwiki.com

The Wiki will be really useful and productive on our next practicum, that’s for sure. They are a perfect tool for group projects, communication and discussion! (with collaboration by students and fellow teachers)

Easy and educational = Perfect for the digital classroom

DEL.ICIO.US IN THE CLASSROOM

What is del.icio.us?

del.icio.us is a collection of favourites – yours and everyone else’s. You can use del.icio.us to:

• Keep links to your favourite articles, blogs, music, reviews, recipes, and more, and access them from any computer on the web.
• Share favourites with friends, family, coworkers, and the del.icio.us community.
• Discover new things. Everything on del.icio.us is someone’s favourite — they’ve already done the work of finding it. So del.icio.us is full of bookmarks about technology, entertainment, useful information, and more. Explore and enjoy.  

del.icio.us is a social bookmarking website — the primary use of del.icio.us is to store your bookmarks online, which allows you to access the same bookmarks from any computer and add bookmarks from anywhere, too. On del.icio.us, you can use tags to organize and remember your bookmarks, which is a much more flexible system than folders.

You can also use del.icio.us to see the interesting links that your friends and other people bookmark, and share links with them in return. You can even browse and search del.icio.us to discover the cool and useful bookmarks that everyone else has saved — which is made easy with tags.

What can I use del.icio.us for in the classroom?

del.icio.us is an open-ended system, so you decide how you want to use it. Here are examples of things you can do with saving bookmarks on del.icio.us:

• Research - Writing an article? Researching an individual? Use del.icio.us to keep track of all the source materials and commentary that you find online. 
• Podcast – Want to hear some great podcasts?  Want to post their own podcasts?
• Linklog - Save bookmarks to interesting websites and add a bit of commentary to create a lightweight link-log. This would be great use in a classroom, where the teacher having already completed the research can post all the great sites and offer the students a blurb on each.
• Collaboration - Friends, coworkers, school classes, and other groups can use a shared account, special tag, or their del.icio.us networks to collect and organize bookmarks that are relevant — and useful — to the entire group.   

del.icio.us has several advantages:

1. you can get to your bookmarks from anywhere, no matter whether you’re at home, at work, in a library, or on a friend’s computer.
2. you can share your bookmarks publicly, so your friends, coworkers, and other people can view them for reference, amusement, collaboration, or anything else. (Note that you can also mark bookmarks on del.icio.us as private — only viewable by you — if you like.)
3. you can find other people on del.icio.us who have interesting bookmarks and add their links to your own collection.

   Here is a link to my del.icio.us book mark page (naturally linking back to this blog)

   http://del.icio.us/mhicks1987

Check out my favourite bookmarks at my del.icio.us

DIGITAL CHALKIE IN THE CLASSROOM

Digital Chalkie is a Group Blog for Australian educators using ICTs to engage and facilitate best practice educational outcomes for their students. This means of collaboration assists in breaking down the barriers of distance when trying to work together… much easier than numerous emails. 

www.digitalchalkie.com is the ‘hub for all Australian Learning and Technology “Chalkies”(teachers), that is, an example of online discussions and collaborations through group blogs, wikis, webquests etc. This is one Web 2.0 application I will make the most of in my teaching career, as fellow teachers can provide guidance, support and feedback.  

For an example of a communal blog, visit http://digitalchalkie.wikispaces.com/ (a Web 2.0 video wiki online that consists of at least 23 videos about how networked learning is shaping the face of education)

FACEBOOK AND MYSPACE IN THE CLASSROOM

Facebook, more so than Myspace, can act as a classroom tool for a classroom community. As it can be employed as an effective pedagogical tool (consider Constructivist Learning). Teachers can use sites like MySpace or Facebook as a tool for developing a sense of community with students where everyone feels free to contribute. 

Facebook would be more appropriate and safer to use in the classroom, as viewing of ones profile is set to friends only (Private). This is not the case with Myspace, where any ‘Joe-Blog’ can check out your profile. As access has to be approved, it limits the risk of predators.  

Students will be able to collaboratively and constructively work together. This Web 2.0 software allows for social networked learning and is far more creative and challenging than just word processing (Web 1.0).  

Every student has their own unique gifts and talents and these can be capitalized upon in such a unique task/application. Especially in Myspace where multimedia (youtube, podcasts, photo slides) can be applied to add a touch of colour and difference.  Students can work within their group (school peers) only, and can offer constant support and guidance to fellow students on the ‘Wall’. (The teacher can use this application as well, making comments daily on work progress etc.) 

Both Myspace and Facebook allow for multi-tasking, as they are both highly organized and highly structured. There is nothing more boring for students then sitting at their desks writing pages of notes, at least this way there is an opportunity for engagement and excitement. Just like my Networked Learning Blog!!!

REMEMBER STUDENTS LEARN:

10% of what is read

20% of what is heard

30% of what is seen

50% of what is seen and heard

70% of what is discussed with others

80% of what is experienced personally

90% of what they teach to someone

FACEBOOK vs. MYSPACE

  vs. 

Many users are choosing sides when it comes to two of the most popular networking Web sites today, www.Facebook.com and www.myspace.com 

Both sites aim to serve the same basic purpose: creating communities and connecting people with common interests. Registered users on both sites can benefit socially, professionally or romantically due to the availability of information on the large population of users. While this is true for both, the sites have their differences. 

FACEBOOK

MYSPACE

limits its registered users to those with an e-mail address belonging to one of the chosen participating schools  level of security on Facebook is substantially higher, a user must be a confirmed friend in order to view a member’s profile.  Facebook members also have the option to change their privacy settings to restrict certain people from viewing personal information that may be posted on one’s profile.    Only now is the network growing from that of College students Always loads quickly

open to anyone who wants to join, binding they are at least 16 years old.  Allows users to add more than one photo (any number up to 10), whereas Facebook only displays one photo.  Bands, Clubs and even TV Shows have their own Myspace  MySpace members can see anyone’s profiles, communicate with a variety of people, share photos, and post journals, comments and interests. (However, Myspace now has the application of setting site to private, thus only allowing friends to view their profile)  Bigger network of people.

  Although some users are members on both sites, many have a favorite among the two. “I prefer MySpace to Facebook,” said Lisa Hartman, a senior psychology major. “MySpace is better. It is more advanced. You can put videos on your page and it’s more individual. Facebook is more one-dimensional.”Darrell Flynn, a senior sociology major, belongs to MySpace and refuses to join Facebook. “MySpace is not just students, it’s a whole community,” Flynn said. “Bands and random people can join. It’s nice because of the personalization, you can really make your page your own.” In the online networking community, the personalization of one’s profile is a huge selling point.Jen Muser, a sophomore math major, says her heart belongs strictly to Facebook. “MySpace is ghetto looking. It just doesn’t look as nice as Facebook,” she said.

With the growing population on both Facebook and MySpace, it’s rare to find someone who doesn’t belong to either one.

My own personal response to Myspace and  Facebook.

I found signing up to both sites quite easy, the only problem was the time it took to load all my favourite movies, music, television shows etc… but this I feel was more my indecisiveness than a problem with the software. I had already been affiliated with Myspace for the last year, having been introduced (peer pressured) into last year by friends, and needless to say I became immediately hooked. With the ability to search, message, blog and comment, plus load music, pictures and video clips – what is not to love?!? 

I was new to Facebook, and had intentionally avoided it, afraid that it would be another form of procrastination (and that it has). With the numerous application and various groups, I am finding Facebook just as addictive. However It does not allow for the personalization and creativity that Myspace does, thus targeting its older demographic. Plus I can already see the bruises piling up from all the super poking! 

In my eyes, and no doubt the other 100000+ people who have already signed up, Facebook is the new Myspace (branching out from its original targeted audience of just college students) 

MySpace now receives more daily hits than Google, and is second only to Yahoo as the Web’s busiest destination. The median age range of MySpace users is 18-24. Facebook is a similar site targeted explicitly to college students. The numbers of students who use this site on a regular basis is similarly staggering. On both sites, students compose profiles describing themselves in order to make or maintain relationships with others. Students form and join groups, reflect on their lives through blog entries, and document them by posting photographs. In both cases students are creating self-representations, seeking to convince an audience to understand themselves in a particular way. 

These technologies and associated software have enabled learning to occur as a result of connection with people and knowledge. These connections are made in real time and real life, but also in a virtual time and virtual reality.

WEB 2.0 on YOUTUBE.COM

LECTURE 3: The CLASSROOM OF THE FUTURE

 The Expert Teacher (Positive Behaviours) VS. the Digital Teacher 

THE EXPERT TEACHER	THE DIGITAL TEACHER
Feedback Prior ability Instructional Quality Direct Instruction Remediation/feedback Student Disposition Class environment Challenge Goals	Encourages collaborative and constructivist learning Moving from teacher to coach Assessment becoming performance focus Encourages socialisation in a mediated space Not locked down Fast adoption and change encouraged Get browsing to a minimum Create a knowledge network through social bookworking Instructional Quality varies

How do the STUDENTS benefit from the CLASSROOM OF THE FUTURE? 

(The Millenials)

• Collaboration/teamwork

• Experiential activities

• Technology assumed

• Internet better than TV

• Results and actions, not accumulation of facts

• Learning is trial and error (Nintendo)

• Multitasking is a way of life

• Typing is preferred to handwriting

• Staying connected is essential

• Zero tolerance for delays

• Consumer and creator are blurring

How does SOCIETY benefit from the CLASSROOM OF THE FUTURE? 

• “Shift Happens”

LECTURE 3: EDUCATION FOR A DIGITAL AGE

   At Work People are:  

• Communicating

• Team Working

• Problem solving

• Initiating

• Enterprise

• Planning

• Organising

Young People expect 

• Work to be interesting and fun

• Lifestyle to be more valued than money

• Their social lives to merge with their work lives

• No guarantee of loyalty

They are resourceful, adaptable and flexible

 

THIS IS WHERE WEB 2.0 COMES TO THE RESCUE!!!  

LECTURE 2: PB WIKI

PB Wiki- as easy as a Peanut Butter sandwich!

 A wiki is an easy-to-use web page that multiple people can edit.

It’s like a shared whiteboard online. Don’t worry about getting IT support or installing any software. We handle all of that. You just start typing and get an online classroom in about 5 minutes.       

Why use PBwiki?

No HTML experience required. Create a syllabus, share it with your students, and let them write collaborative essays online. Create online Powerpoint-like presentations right from your wiki.      

Who else is using PBwiki? 

We host over 135,000 wikis and thousands of others have used PBwikis for their classrooms, from elementary schools to Stanford and Harvard.    

http://mrlindsay.pbwiki.com  is Mr. Lindsay’s beautiful classroom wiki, where he demos his students’ work with book reviews, poems, stories, and tons of other resources. It’s a wiki run “by the students, for the students.”  

http://cas100b.pbwiki.com  is another excellent educational wiki. You’ll note the project proposals, class notes, and different sections for different classes.  

http://epochewiki.pbwiki.com  is the Penn State English 15 course, which is required for all freshman English students at Penn State.    

PBwiki can help you engage with your audience.

PBwiki provides educators an easy way to post class room material online and gives students the ability to collaborate through the internet.  

 PBwiki is helping educators educate. http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=455b3fa09a282e0d496f .

LECTURE 2: OVERVIEW OF WEB 2.0

Overview of Web 2.0 Web 2.0 is essentially an increasing range of software that supports a variety of technologies for open and collaborative communication, learning and creativity. 

It consits of 

1. A Platform

• This is browser based – e.g. Internet Explorer or Firefox. (Firefox is preferred because it is free and open software in a constant state of development (Web 2.0), whereas Explorer is owned and comes out in a fixed form and then has updates and upgrades on an irregular basis (Web 1.0))
• It operates on open and collaborative principles
• Communications are the key applications

 2. Social Networking

• Personalised and open collaborative knowledge spaces
• Access people as well as knowledge
• Copyright issues exist and have to be dealt with and replaced with a Creative Commons culture
• This is beyond the normal formalities of the classroom and can take place anywhere at any time

 3. Read/Write Web

• People are consurmers of content and services
• People and publishers of content and services
• Such people are called Produsers

 4. What makes Web 2.0

• Blogs
• Wikis
• Social Tagging – bookmarking, Tag Clouds
• Sharing sites
• Podcasts
• Mashups
• Aggregators
• Ubiquitous connectivity

And Kathryn (Lecturer/Tutor) added all these others.   

FLICKR

Flickr, the popular photo hosting service, by all accounts, seems to be the best and easiest way to store, search, sort and share your photos with the world.

 I found using the software quite easy and self-explanatory as the process

was step-by-step and clearly explained throughout.

1. Create an Account (thankfully already have existing Yahoo ID account)
2. Load Pictures (again found this quite easy, only challenge was finding a decent photograph!!!)
3. Label and Describe Pictures (this gives you an opportunity to account for your photography)
4. DONE

 All that’s left to do is to create your profile page and photo layouts – but again, these as easy as following the prompts. Now all I need to do is find some friends and join a group or two, so I can start commenting!

*** So after all the effort I went to, I think it is only appropriate you check out my space on Flickr. http://flickr.com/photos/11117081@N05/ 

So why use Flickr in the classroom?

Use it in the design of lessons that promote and build visual literacy skills in students. A wide variety of applications to learning exist by using Flickr photography, from using single photographs as writing prompts (either creative or interpretive writing) to using multiple image sets in digital storytelling projects. Student users can also contribute to the development of online stories about images, all the while loading their own images.

I would be interested in doing things like:

1. Getting the kids to produce a narrative with five separate shots.
2. Asking the kids to look at different pages on Flickr to get ideas for groups and sets. Ask them to set up sets themselves which the whole class could try to contribute to.
3. Get kids to be photographers on sports day and on trips out etc. They can then comment in captions giving recollections and memories.
4. Get kids to be photographers showing positive images of the school to show everyday life there.
5. Sets of photos showing a ‘typical day’ in their school life. Make comparisons. Get the kids to caption these and to comment on each others.
6. Gather photos of current events across the world or important places that may be relevant to other classroom work.

LECTURE 1: SO WHAT IS WEB 2.0?

Web 2.0 …

It is essentially an increasing range of software that supports a variety of technologies for open and collaborative communication, learning and creativity.

For instance, www.digitalchalkie.com is the ‘hub for                                                          all Austrlian Learning and Technology “Chalkies”‘, that is, an example of online discussions and collaborations through group blogs, wikis, webcasts etc.

Web 2.0 requires:

1. a platform                                   
2. social networking
3. read/write web
4. social software
5. gathering and sorting

 

IT BRINGS YOU WHAT YOU WANT… YOU ARE CREATING THE WORLD YOU WANT!!!

(For further information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0)

LECTURE 1: WEB 1.0 vs. WEB 2.0

Web 1.0 is getting information from the web

Web 2.0 is constructing knowledge collaboratively on the web

Web 2.0 is the heart and soul of online education eg. podcasts, ajax, mash-up, wiki

Web 2.0 is putting the “we” in “web”

Web 2.0 … ‘the living web’

  

(For further information, refer to expert Andy Budd) http://www.andybudd.com/presentations/dcontruct05/

 

WEB 1.0	WEB 2.0
Double click         Ofoto          Mp3.com          Britannica Online          Personal Websites         Content Mangament Systems Directories (Taxonomy)         Stickiness	Google Flickr Napster  Wikipedia Blogs   Wikis  Tagging (“folksonomy”) Syndication

(For further information, refer to expert Tim O’Reilly)

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html