Teaching with Web 2.0 Spring 2009

America the Beautiful

Web 2.0 Jeopary Challenge

Horseshoe Crab

Over the last several weeks you have been exploring and learning about new emerging technologies to use with your students. Please reflect on what you have learned and the new tools you have used and answer the following questions in this post:

1. Do you see relevance for their use in the classroom? Can they be used to enhance the learning environment for your students and provide more engagement?
2. How do you envision using these tools? If not, why?
3. If you have used them with your students, what have been your successes, your failures?
4. How did your students respond to using these tools?
5. If you are not a classroom teacher how can you make these tools work for you?
6. Can you provide any anecdotes of your experiences using these tools?

RSS is referred to by  Will Richarson as The New Killer App for Education. What are your thoughts? Did you find it difficult to set up a feed? What have you subscribed to? If you have not subscribed to any feeds, why not?

Have wikis gotten bad press or are they bad? this is a question for many. I know that at first librarian’s were dead set against them but it seems, many, have taken a turn around.

Wikipedia seems pretty right on to me. For wikis to be effective in the classroom, I think as educators we will need to present them very carefully. We will need to show good wikis and bad wikis. I would want students to use them to refine and hone knowledge on specific topics. I would want students to self-correct themselves if they post inaccurate information. I would want their classmates and teachers point out and correct inaccurate information. Students will need to understand as in all information posted to the Internet the source is always a good way to determine accuracy of information and bias.

I think teachers can use wikis for baseline knowledge…like KWL charts. They can establish what students know and what it is we want to learn. As learning happens, students can post to their wikis about what they now know. The wiki can be the work in progress. As the learning scaffolds so does the wiki.

I for one support them as a way for students to collaborate. I have watched them at work in one of our 7th grade classrooms and find the students make greater efforts in the researching and writing to present information factually and with better composition.

One thing we know for certain is that our students need to improve their non-fiction writing. I cannot think of a better way to inspire them to improve this skill.

I used the Web 2.0 tool Wordle to create this using the lyrics from America the Beautiful

Can we start brain-storming some ways to use Wordle in our classrooms?

This is just a comment from Lory, the teacher. If you are feeling overwhelmed, that is to be expected. You were given a lot to absorb in one session. This process will be a lot easier as you become more familiar with the tools. Not all positions based on what you do and grade level in education are even appropriate to have a blog.

Will Richardson writes, Doing connective writing in blogs, then, is different experience than just posting. Consider what you write as thoughtful analysis and a synthesizing of the comments in posts. We want our students to be thinking critically and reflectively when they post to blogs. We want our students to employ a wide range of strategies as they write and us different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with diferenent audiences for a variety of purposes (from the National Council of Teachers of English). Please consider these elements as you post to the class blog.

In the book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson the second chapter is devoted to the pedagogy of weblogs. For me, this was one of the the most meaningful chapters in the book. Here, Richardson, actually drew from the national standards for English and Language Arts to illustrate the power of a weblog in the classroom. He writes, students emply a wide range of strategies as they writ and use different writing process elemnts appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes, something bloggers do by the verynature of their process, or Students participat as knowledgeable, reflective, creative and critical members of a variety of literacy communities. Blogs create and connect these communities like few other tools.

Students can use weblogs to collaborate, communicate, and illustrate about what they are learning. The weblogs can be their electronic portfolio that they share with a wider audience. They are able to get feedback from others.

When I first read this book three years ago Richardson said that myspace.com is just personal weblogs I was really surprised. I had heard such bad, bad press about myspace.com and facebook.com at the time. When you think of the sheer numbers of kids that blog daily to have them implement the same practice into the classroom would be motivating to students.

It is the weblog that has really opened the Read/Write Web and started the trend toward the development of all these powerful tools. You now have a weblog so you add pictures from flickr, link to your favorite websites, add/download a little music, let people know where you live (maybe not such a good idea) and a add a feed to a podcast you like to follow. Use these tools in the classroom not only are you with it but have your students attention.

What do you think after reading the first two chapters?