Thinking about Web 2.0

Some Web 2.0 Tools

In our Smaldino et. al. book we read, “Web 2.0 tools are organized to encourage author access and design rather than information presented in a designed framework that has been determined by someone else” (p. 127). There are now a wide variety of tools available online (many for free) that are tool for development rather than being simply something to read or watch. Many of these are open source materials. This means that anyone can use or edit these materials. What is so important about this is that collaboration is supported by such tool as is creativity.

In class, we spent time playing with four such tools:

• Kerpoof 
• Lexipedia
• Fotobabble
• Timeglider

I asked you to explore the above tools and come up with an instructional activity or a lesson that your students need to work with using this tool. This calls for creativity, problem solving, and thinking about the notion of designing experience. Also, this is useful for thinking about creating learning experiences for other people that are solid in terms of content but also have some of the important features of games that are also good for learning. Identity play, leveling systems, a win state, fantasy, collaboration are just a few of these elements that are so important.

We talked about many other tools in class and several were also mentioned in the book. Cisco mentioned Wikipedia and wikis generally as one such example. YouTube is another ubiquitous example. TeacherLingo is a place for teachers to exchange ideas and PodBean is a place to go for help with Podcasting.

I posed the following questions from Chapter 6:

Can you define these?

1. Define cyberlearning and provide an example of a classroom application.
2. Describe cyberlearning literacy and discuss how it may be used in the classroom.
3. Identify three Web 2.0 resources and demonstrate an example of how they might assist learning.
4. Explain why social networking issues are important for the classroom?
5. Identify four social–ethical issues and why they are important in working with students.

What can you say about these questions now?