Assignment 1 Web 2.0

Visit the various websites of the contributors for this article. Try some of the suggestions on a small scale in the classroom.

Web 2.0 is a two way medium readers/writers or anyone can do.

"E-learning engages students in learning instead of making them recipients of learning."

Supports the Constructivist Theory in education.


E learning is great for students familiar with the web.


Use wiki's for student communication. In this way, teachers can model social learning through collaboration on "innovation networks."

Visit website http://schoolforge.org.uk/

RSS FEEDS

John Evans has information on RSS Feeds. RSS="Rich Site Summary" The benefits of this is it "controls information coming into the user" This is a time saver filter; note the following address:http://www.weblogged.com/

Find RSS Feeds on websites listed as XML or RSS RDL. Also use http://www.feedstar.com/ as a search tool for finding RSS feeds from a variety of sources.

BLOGGING

Student blogging suggestions by Alan November http://www.novemberlearning.com/blogs/alannovember

Free photo sharing with Flickr which is free. http://www.freeflickr.com/
Be careful with picture taking/posting as you may put out personal information or people's pictures without permission.

Class Blogmeister is a great option for students because the posts are secure and controllable with school codes; posts are not immediatly public. http://classblogmeister.com

Visit Mechelle De Craene for her discussion forums using blogs. She suggested using pen names and created separate blogs for the boys and girls. Great option for advisory classes discussing subjects that may be awkward around the opposite sex.

Use Elgg to share online work in a secure environment. Elgg and Moodle give students a "sense of writing for a larger audience."

Set blog rules. " Give strategies and tools to help them make sense of new ideas and evaluate the information."

Blogging basics available at http://www.edublogs.org/ or a book was suggested "Classroom Blogging" by David Warlick ISBN: 1-4116-2903-5.

PODCASTS
What are they? How do you set-up? Consider the following website for directions.
http://www.shambles.net/pages/learning/ict/podcast

Great communication vehicle between students and staff! Use iTunes to subscribe to a podcast.
Also use the Education Podcast Network located at http://www.epnweb.org/

RSS Feeds for Podcasting located at http://www,rss-info.com/

WIKI'S
Wiki's give a big picture view where as discussion forums are linear in appearance with a message post...response etc.
Wiki's tend to have alot of hyperlinks and less text. They are visual.

"Wikiville opens opportunities for students who never get the chance to lead within everyday school life." http://www.wikiville.org.uk/index.php/mainpage

SOCIAL BOOKMARKING

A forum for sharing ideas. More information is located at http://www.dlib.org//dlib/april05/hammond/04hammond.html

ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO PARTICIPATE ON WEB 2.0
Surveys and polls give a quick canvas of information.
Forums create a discussion record/must log-in to participate.
IM/instant messaging is a real time conversation but most schools ban it.