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