Web 2.0 Technologies for Classroom Use.

   

This morning I attended a webinar through PSU entitled Topics for Teaching: Web 2.0 Technologies for Classroom Use. This webinar was about how how various Web 2.0 tools and can be used to deliver instructional content. Web 2.0 tools are efficient and effective tools for sharing information in a collaborative and fun way! 

This presentation was given by Mark Thomas Meckel of Penn State. The notes taken below were written in  a collaboration doc by  a colleague, Monique MacAllan and I.Welcome in to the wonderful world of Web 2.0 . 

There are several groups of Web 2.0 tools - communication, storage, productivity, management, socialization, and aggregation. Each group has an array of tools and resources to use within each group. There are several levels of cloud applications. to keep in mind when utilizing web 2.0 tools:

• Level 0 app: Doesn’t work in the cloud at all
• Level 1 app: Limited functionality
• Level 2 app: Moderately functional
• Level 3 app: Fully functional in the cloud
• Skydrive-MS tool that stores things in the cloud.

Communication

• Advantages/Disadvantages
• Formative Evaluation-where we make changes along the way
• Diminish amount of face-to-face contact
• Customizable
• Easy to set up and utilize in and out of a classroom

1. Instant Messenger Clients - AOL, Yahoo messenger, MSN, Meebo (aggregator of IM clients)

Advantages/Disadvantages

Can be more direct and relevant

Interactive

Feedback which is immediate

Examples of use

    Monitor discussions

    Ask and answer questions

    Post additional information

2. Back channel such as Todaysmeet  for synchronous (same time) and asynchronous (later time)  discussions

3. Start pages - page flakes, igoogle, yahoo, netvibes

Advantages/Disadvantages

Easy to set up

Focus on what you find interesting

Dynamic

4. Blogs  - Blogger, Word Press, Live Journal

Advantages/Disadvantages

interactive

multiple media imports (video, audio, links, ...not just text!)

longitudinal

easy to make

Examples of use:

    Live journals of daily life or class

    Classroom discussion

    Read/review/discuss topics

    Group journals-let teams develop their own journal

    Feedback on assignments

    Document research articles or summarize articles in a blog

5. Other communication tools

• Micro-blogs such as Twitter

• hybrid tools - mash up of blog and IM feaures (Yammer)
• Audio  - podcasts
• Video - Jing, Captivate, Camstudio, Presenter, Skype, Youtube
• Photo Editing- Picnkik, Flickr, Picassa

Examples of use:

Skype for use in Student Teaching

Searching for images in Flickr for classes

Share images with class that are relevant

Storage

• On-line Storage
• Wiki’s
• Project Management Tools: Basecamp, Google docs
• Zoho, BPWorks, box.net
• Hybrid Web Tool: Drop Box
• On-line office suites

Productivity

• Presentation
• Collaboration
• Informatin
• Question
• Survey

Examples - 280 slides(create slides of upload a ppt), prezi,slide rocket (access to presentations off the web), wolfram alpha (computational aggregate), Harvard question tool, doodle

Management

• Project management
• file storage
• calendars

Examples - basecamp, box.net, 30 boxes

Socialization

• Blogs
• instant messenger clients
• communities of practice

Examples: facebook, Ning, blogs, Twitter, Link’dn, Twitter, Yammer

Aggregation

• RSS Feeds and readers
• Information Collectors
• IM/Chat Aggregation

Examples: Diigo, Delicous, RSS Feeds, Livebinders

Recommended Resources for more info about Web 2.0 tools:

• http://livebinders.com/play/present?id=25123
• http://mach2k.net/web20/
• Go2web20.net - find what you are looking for great web 2.0 tools for many, many different categories!