Web 2.0 School

Scott Weidig and I are teaching a Web 2.0 School course this summer. We have broken the 5 day course (four hours/day) into Organizational tools, Social Networking, and Utility Tools. The remaining two days will be devoted to the participants creating lessons that can use the tools they find will support the lesson. Please visit the wiki to see the course and please feel free to explore any of the items on the site. Some of the wiki pages will look familiar because they are taken directly from the Fremd TechSpot wiki which is geared for Fremd Teachers. The Web 2.0 School wiki will be reserved for the class.

Today is the third day of the course and we have let the teachers go out on their own to discover everything they can about the tools listed under the Utility section of the wiki. The teachers are continually showing one another what they can do with the tools. Brainstorming classroom applications has become the mantra for the day.

I just observed Darrell Robin (SHS English teacher) and Karl Craddock (FHS Science teacher) having a conference call using Drop.io, an online storage site. The beauty of this tool is that you can 'drop' a file, fax, voicemail, etc. to the site and visit it from anywhere, anytime. Imagine students in a class conferencing live while looking at a document that someone has dropped for others to view. Drop.io could be the answer for teachers who want a place where students drop an assignment for the teacher to pick-up later. Drop.io has a widget feature that allows you to put it on your blog or website. So, students could visit your blog or school website and click on the 'Drop' icon and turn in their assignment right there. They are not able to see other files that have been dropped in so confidentiality is maintained. This offers a little more flexibility than relying on a drop folder on our Extras drive that one would have to access from school or via NetStorage.

Below is an example of a cartoon created by Karl Craddock. I've saved this as a delicious bookmark to most of you, by the way! Karl experimented with ToonDoo as part of his 'assignment' for the class. Is that a thong I am wearing? Enjoy the laugh but be sure to let us know your classroom applications! I can already see the World Language teachers jumping on this one!

Another example of a relatively new Web 2.0 tool that we investigated is Wordle. This tool lets you turn text into a visual 'map' that shows the frequency of certain words by making them larger than others. This is a wonderful tool for pre-reading a selection and getting the gist of what the selection is trying to convey. Below is an example of a Wordle that visually shows the highlights from a reading selection about using tags! Many options are available for your Wordle. Try it out and let us know how you might use it with your students!



I am very excited to follow these teachers as they finish creating their wikis, blogs, drops, Wordles, and other applications using Web 2.0 tools. Feedback from these teachers will help Scott and I tailor the course to meet the needs of teachers. I also look forward to learning how these tools are actually impacting their classroom teaching and student learning. You can help by sharing what you do with these tools or any form of technology. There is not much data out there on how the use of technology is affecting 21st Century teaching and learning so any data we can gather will help support or even disprove the notion that technology is, indeed, helping.

New Beginnings

Another year has whisked by with many new educational technology changes being put into place.

The DEG improved in speed, recently, and new features are making it ever easier to do the tasks we used to grudge over in the past. Many new improvments are in the works and teachers are generally pleased with the progress, albeit, slow progress that is being made. I am impressed with the patience teachers exhibit as they absorb every single bit of electron text I send as I report pro-active instructions, or reactive fixes to problems with the DEG.

The Apperson Scanners are another matter altogether. I encourage you read Nicole LaBeau's post on her own and department frustrations with the machines, especially during finals week. I could not write a better essay on this topic. I am hopeful that changes will be put in place either during the summer or during the coming school year.

I have more to write and will continue after I help my daughter get a truck to help her move out of my house to her own dwelling in Lincoln Park this Saturday!