Welcome to my presentation on the educational benefits of Web 2.0. In order to conserve a little bit of “teacher talking time” today, I thought that I would incorporate my blog into the presentation. Through this site, you can find links and examples of some of the Web 2.0 applications that I’ll be discussing during my time here.
I’d like to keep the focus of the presentation on this site and encourage you to read through what I’ve posted and offer your comments on anything that catches your eye. Over the course of the afternoon, I’d like to see some discussion take place on how to implement some of these technologies in our classrooms. So please, feel free to use my site as a forum for your comments. Just click on the comments tag at the bottom of my post to write your thoughts.
Purpose
The purpose of today’s presentation is to introduce you to many of the online tools available for your classroom. In the past, I’ve done presentations where I’ve guided other teachers through creating a blogsite or a wiki, but that’s not really my goal today. One thing that I’ve discovered is that these projects take a bit of planning. Just making a wiki or a blog without any plan can be a frustrating experience. So my goal today is to show you some resources and allow you the chance to come up with ideas on how to use them. If, during the course of the class, you would like to get started on one of these projects, feel free. But please let us know through the comments section what your ideas are…and how you plan to implement them.
Reasoning
The Internet community is undergoing a change. Surfing the web once entailed passively reading and consuming the information that was available. Today’s savvy websurfer is not only a consumer, but a contributor. Our students are adapting to this new socially driven web. In my classes, it is the rare student that isn’t on Myspace or Facebook or hasn’t visited Youtube or Flickr. As Will Richardson said in his book, they are “digital natives.” In many cases, as their teachers, we are “digital immigrants.” We’re trying to keep up with all these changes when we’ve just finished learning the previous ones. But we have to keep up. We even have to innovate sometimes. And we most definitely have to understand this technology so that we can teach our students how to use it safely and responsibly.
I hope you enjoy the presentation. Please leave any comments or suggestions for how I can improve it. You may download the powerpoint portion of this presentation here. Thanks!
Yeah, that was a terrible pun in the title, and I do apologize for it.
If you’ve ever been to Wikipedia, you have a pretty good idea what a Wiki is. At its most basic level, a Wiki is a collaborative website that anyone can edit. Now editing can be restricted to registered users or approved authors, but the principle is still the same. If two heads are better than one, than 6 million heads are better than one.
One of the key elements present in all of Web 2.0 is the idea of collaboration. No application puts this principle to the forefront like a Wiki. When using a Wiki, the reader can become the critic, the editor, or even the new author with a few clicks of the mouse. The grand idea is that multiple people working together can create something better than a single author. One of the “backronyms” for Wiki is “What I Know Is…” You write what you know…someone else writes what he knows…I write what I know…and all of us are smarter because of it.
Wikis in the Wild
If browsing Wikipedia is your only connection to Wikis, then you may need to take a look at how people are using Wikis for all kinds of things. The Librarian Chick is one of my new favorite sites. It is a Wiki, collecting links to various resources all around the Internet that are useful in research, writing, and education. If you know of a site that could be added to her collection, feel free to do so. It is a Wiki…that’s the point. Another one of my favorites is from Will Richardson. He uses a Wiki to collect and organize as much information on the uses of Web 2.0 in education as he, and his readers can find. Maybe one day I’ll add my own blog to the list. Bud the Teacher also uses a Wiki to display his blogging rules and student resources.
I used a Wiki to set up an online textbook for my film class. It was a really promising idea, and making that textbook probably could have been the main focus of the course, but I didn’t use it as often as I would have liked. I was still able to get some really good material from my students on the lab days where we focused on the site.
Starting a Wiki
Like Blogs, there are many online resources available to start your Wiki. Some of the best include PBWiki, Wikispaces, and Wikia. Some of the sites are easier to get started with than others, but all are pretty self-explanatory.
Other Ways to Collaborate on the Web
One of my favorite new web applications are online office suites. Google and Zoho are two of the most popular providers of online office applications right now. Both allow for collaboration and full integration with Microsoft Office files. Zoho has a few more options, including a notetaking application, and an online powerpoint application. All of these can be open to collaboration with the public or to private users.
My Wife Eve uses Zoho Show to archive her Powerpoint lectures on her websites for her students to review. Zoho provides a stripped down, easily accessed version of her Powerpoint slides that is much easier than converting a presentation into a webpage.
At my school, Kris Turner and Amber Owen use Google Docs to enable peer revision of pieces of writing. This provides almost a virtual writer’s workshop…where students can edit, change, and comment on each other’s papers. All changes are tracked through their user accounts. If these students have a Google account for the documents, they can also integrate that account with their weblogs from Blogger.com, further expanding the online community.
Ideas
There are many ways to foster collaboration through online applications. How would you do it? What would you use? What could work in your classroom?
One of the most enjoyable class projects I did last year was in my Film Studies class. We had just finished a series of lessons on the principles of cinematography and editing, and I was looking for a way for my students to demonstrate what they had learned. I asked the class how many of them had digital cameras and about 7 or 8 hands rose around the room. So the next day, based on who had access to a camera, I assigned them into groups, gave them a digital camera and told them to make a movie, demonstrating what they knew about editing and cinematography. I didn’t want them to use digital video, just the still pictures option. This way, they could tell a story through editing techniques and visual language. I only gave the students a few days to finish this assignment. They took their pictures one day, and edited them together with Windows Movie Maker the next two days. And I told them that I would post some of the best on Youtube for the world to see.
I was honestly surprised with the results. Some groups took a more fun approach, others made serious pieces of art, some slacked off (typical seniors), but I think they all learned something with their videos. Here are a couple of the winners that were posted on Youtube. Each of these videos currently has over 400 views on Youtube…so they haven’t hit the big-time yet…but I’m sure it’ll happen soon. :)
So what does this have to do with you? Your classes aren’t studying film (maybe they are, I don’t know), and you can’t think of any reason to use technology like this in your classroom.
Well, I’m here to set you straight.
Establishing a multimedia presence on the Internet can be as simple and straightforward as writing a blog or publishing a webpage. Many of the tools you need are at your school, or easily acquired, and don’t even have a steep learning curve. If you can use a blog, you are not too far away from establishing your first Podcasts…or even Vodcasts.
How do I start?
The Equipment necessary to create a Podcast is minimal. You need a computer with an internet connection…a microphone…and that’s about it. To make a video, add a digital camera to the list (can be a still or digital video camera, doesn’t matter). For audio, you can use the free software Audacity on a Windows PC, or Garageband for a Mac. For video, you can use Windows Movie Maker for your PC or IMovie for your Mac. There a multiple “Howto” guides on the Web to help you get started. This is one of the best I’ve found.
Once you have your materials, begin!
What do I talk about?
Well, anything really. But it can’t hurt to look around and see what is out there. The Education Podcast Network is a great place to start to see how other educators are using podcasts in their classrooms. Look at LibriVox to see if your class would like to perform a Radio Style reading of a classic piece of literature. Take a course at UC Berkeley without leaving your office. Or spend some time browsing on Youtube, where I’ve seen reenactments of Twelve Angry Men, Macbeth, and Othello. While some of these options seem more performance-oriented than you may wish for, there are many other ways to use Podcasts in your classroom. You could provide recordings of your lectures on your website to students who miss classes or are on homebound or allow stage-shy students to give presentations through a video. Your options are wide-open.
If the idea of podcasting seems a little clearer to you now, what are some of your ideas? How could this be useful in your classroom?
This Monday, I will be giving a presentation to a group of teachers at Daniel High. I’m a guest lecturer for a class sponsored by the Upstate Writing Project. I wasn’t really asked to do the presentation…more just given a date, time, and location, but that’s ok. I’m flexible about this sort of thing. What am I presenting on?
Well, I’m not really sure.
This summer, I prepared a presentation on the uses of Web 2.0 technology in the classroom. I focused specifically on Wikis, blogs, and RSS feeds. I did a pretty decent job, but I definitely feel like I didn’t quite cover enough to really present my topic and show its usefulness to other educators. I want to do better this time around.
At my own school, I’ve given presentations on the use of blogging and web forums, but also had a pretty narrow focus with those events. What I want to do with this presentation is something a little different. I don’t really want to spend so much time with my presentation explaining what this stuff is…I just want to show how it works and how useful it is. I’m not sure what my time limit is for this presentation, but I’m guessing its under an hour. When I first gave my demo at UWP, the “explaining” portion of my demo lasted a good 30 minutes of my allotted 90. I want to avoid that. So I have a few ideas.
I know I will have access to a computer lab for my presentation, so I am going to incorporate some things from this blog into it. My next couple of entries will be directly related to different aspects of the Read/Write Web and Education. I’ll include videos, maybe a podcast or two, and a few other things to help my audience visualize what I’m talking about.
To me, Web 2.0 is about integration. Integrating writing with researching, production with consumption, learning with teaching, etc… When my students really “get it”, I can see it through their blogs or wiki contributions or videos (on Youtube, which is blocked at my school now! DRAT!). And its wonderful that I have such a interesting way of seeing if my students really understand a topic…but what makes it even better is that they are not only showing me their mastery, they are showing the world.
Anyway, keep your eyes on this site for the next few days… I’ll have a few updates that are directly related to this presentation and will hopefully be pretty useful to the class on Monday night.
I’m excited about it…this is my first time going somewhere to present a teaching demo to STRANGERS! Should be fun!
Hi! Welcome to my Blog! My name is Scott Bevill. I'm an English grad student at Clemson University, and I'll be using this blog to write about some of my experiences from teaching, studying, and whatever else comes to mind. Thanks for stopping by!
