Changing Education with Web 2.0 Tools

Changing Education with Web 2.0 Tools

By Cindy Wright Instructional Technology Specialist Columbus City Schools I believe that we cannot even begin to imagine the changes that are going to take place as the two-way nature of the Internet begins to flower, and that even those of us who have spent time imagining this future will be astounded by what happens. ~ Steve Hargadon Photocredit :http://leadinganswers.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/03/15/monarch_stages.jpg

Engaging today’s students means tapping into what is important to them.

We have a responsibility to prepare them for their future, not our past.

Technology allows learners get their information

When they want it

How they want it

Wherever they want it

Today’s students are Digital Natives ( Marc Prensky )

Visual learners

Multi-taskers

Short attention spans

Use technology to express themselves

Information analysts

Content producers

Real-time learners - instant messages, text messages

How students live with technology Different kinds of experiences lead to different brain structures. Dr. Bruce D. Perry, Baylor College of Medicine

Educators must get over the idea that technology will replace them. Any teacher that can be replaced by a computer absolutely deserves to be, because they just do not get it.

Ian Jukes

When I Become A Teacher

Technology is changing

Impossible to keep up with it

Skills learned today will be irrelevant in the near future

Focus less on the technology skill

Focus more on the 21 st century skill

Why Change? You change because you understand learning is dynamic and that to not change means to quit growing. ~ Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach http://21stcenturylearning.typepad.com/blog/ Photo credit :http://leadinganswers.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/03/15/monarch_stages.jpg

21 st Century Skills

Communication

Innovation

Creativity

Problem-Solving

Interactive

Collaboration

Critical Thinking

Applied skills refer to those skills that enable new entrants to use the basic knowledge acquired in school to perform in the workplace.

What Employers Want:

Professionalism/Work Ethic

Oral and Written Communications

Teamwork/Collaboration

Critical Thinking/Problem Solving

• Professionalism/Work Ethic , Teamwork/Collaboration and Oral Communications are rated as the three “most important” applied skills needed by entrants into today’s workforce. • Knowledge of Foreign Languages will “increase in importance” in the next five years, more than any other basic skill, according to over 60 percent (63.3 percent) of the employer respondents. • Making Appropriate Choices Concerning Health and Wellness is the No. 1 emerging content area for future graduates entering the U.S. workforce as reported by three-quarters of the employer respondents (76.1 percent). • Creativity/Innovation is projected to “increase in importance” for future workforce entrants, according to more than 70 percent (73.6 percent) of employer respondents. Currently, however, more than half of employer respondents (54.2 percent) report new workforce entrants with a high school diploma to be “deficient” in this skill set.

Welcome to Web 2.0

Web 2.0

Open source content and applications

Sites that get their value from their users

Blogs/Microblogs

Wikis

Social Networking/Bookmarking Sites

RSS Feeds

Podcasting

Open Source Content and Applications

Anyone can be a publisher

All open source material is free

Relies on a community that encourages reusing materials

Tools for commentary/free expression-text, audio, video

Supports social networking

Impacting the Classroom With Web 2.0 Tools

Create your own Personal Learning Network

How can web 2.0 tools help you become a better teacher?

How can you work smarter not harder?

How can you feel connected to teachers with similar issues, feelings, worries, struggles?

Get a Network!

Not this type of network

But a professional network

Begin building your PLN

Join a professional social network. I belong to Classroom 2.0 (Ning) and the Discovery Educator’s Network (Discovery Education) (http://socialnetworksined.wikispaces.com/)

Find 3-5 Blogs (Google Blogs) you like and subscribe to them using RSS feeds or Google Reader

Join a microblogging network like Twitter or Plurk

Lurk for awhile

Participate-Become a part of the conversation

Classroom 2.0 Ning http://www.classroom20.com/ A great place for building contacts with other educators who are interested in using Web 2.0 tools. A weekly live show on Saturdays gives members a chance to communicate and learn together. ISTE Ning http://www.iste-community.org A new Ning created by ISTE to promote communication among ISTE members. Special Interest Groups for Tech Coordinators, 1:1 and more give an opportunity for focused conversations. 1. Join a Social Network

2. Find 3-5 Blogs to follow

Really simple syndication, a way of aggregating web content in one place. Users subscribe to sites with RSS feeds and the aggregators collects new content and sends it to your desktop. So the content of 30 sites is visible in one place.

Aggregators

Bloglines.com

Netvibes.com

Subscribe to Blogs using RSS

www.bloglines.com

Instead of checking out all 25 student Weblogs every day, you could just collect their work in your aggregator using their RSS feeds.

Microblogging tool

140 characters or less

Use it to see what others are doing

Use it to ask questions and get ideas

http://www.commoncraft.com/show 3. Join a microblogging site

Twitterator

http://twitterator.org/

Use this URL to be added to STAR Discovery Educators list

http://tinyurl.com/4a7mnu

http://www.edutopia.org/twitter-professional-development-technology-microblogging

Impacting the Classroom With Web 2.0 Tools

Wikis

www.pbwiki.com

www.wikispaces.com

www.wetpaint.com

www.wikipedia.com

Wiki

A free online writing space that is created and edited by multiple authors

Encourages collaboration

Student interaction

Easy-to-use interface for creating Web pages

No software - all you need is Web-based

Public or private, and you can invite participants

What can you do with a Wiki?

Build a classroom/school newspaper online

Publish student projects and research

Manage documents

Use as a presentation tool

Debate course topics, assigned readings

Design a student-created “Solutions Manual”

Support service learning projects (build a website about a challenge in your city)

Wikis http://whsbulldogs.wikispaces.com

http://mehs-slockuk.wikispaces.com/Friends

Wikis

http://rdsc.wikispaces.com/Economics

Http://fpdm.wikispaces.com/FP+cookbook

www.wikispaces.com Now we're taking the next step - we want to give away 100,000 free K-12 Plus wikis. That includes all the features and benefits that normally cost $50/year - for free. No fine print, no usage limits, no advertising, no catches.

Social Bookmarking

Web based service where shared lists of user created Internet bookmarks are displayed. Allows user to locate, classify, rank, and share Internet resources by tagging sites.