Ideas, background and conclusions

Using Web 2.0 in your teachingBackground and conclusions to ‘TOP 10’ Web 2.0 apps
Matthew Allen, ALTC Teaching FellowCurtin University of Technology

Background
Founded in a desire to research Web 2.0 in its own terms and understand the relations ofWeb 2.0 to knowledge work

Learning in networks of knowledge
Project investigates ways of making learning happen within the paradigm of ‘networks of knowledge’
Goal is to focus on student learning through assessed, authentic tasks contributing to knowledge
One aspect of project is detailed implementation of key examples within Internet Communications course
The other aspect is identifying array of Web 2.0 applications, to reveal categories and features of ‘Web 2.0’ itself – this is the basis of the presentation

Empirical research into Web 2.0
Using lists of Web 2.0 tools, collate all available apps into a list, with brief descriptions, and rapidly judge yes / no / maybe (4000+ to 400)
Investigate the 400 by visiting site and thinking about educational affordances and then select (400 to 60)
Play in detail with 60 and select the most useful and interesting (60 to 25-30)
Today will present the ‘top 10’ – there are others of interest , of course!

How did I select these apps?
Apps that are easy to use:low cognitive load, free, readily available, manageable
Apps that embody contemporary knowledge work: collaborative, granular, distributed, public
Apps flexible across numerous situations:disciplines, cohort size, all mode of delivery
Apps that intuitively link to assessment and task design

How to think about using them?
These applications do not replace the learning management system
They work with it (especially for distance education)
They work alongside it (since each is already a public service)
They work independently (elearning is not just LMS)
Depending on situation, you can ‘plug in’ these applications to your teaching in many ways, regardless of how extensive (from none to much) your current use of the Internet in T&L may be

The scenario: think about...
the on-campus lecturer who wants to add a little, clever Internet-based learning experience to her existing unit, without changing much about the delivery mode, even if the assessment and structure changes – how do these tools ‘plug in’ without the whole LMS rigmarole?
the fully online unit which is running effectively in an LMS, but which lacks creativity and public engagement with the Internet in the way these online students experience it around their studies – how do these tools change the dynamics of ‘normal’ online learning?
The blended learning environment in which simply adding ‘campus equivalents’ (online lectures and online discussion) makes no sense – how do these tools do something different to the classroom experience?

What you will not hear about
Web 2.0 is such broad terms we probably have many different ideas about what it means totalk about online learning and Web 2.0

Interesting and useful but no...
Facebook and Twitter:don’t crowd out the informal learning spaces
Blogging, wikis, social networking:broad tendencies, not applications per se
Second Life:this is not Web 2.0, perhaps MOO 2.0?.
Conferencing, screencasting, AV streaming:useful contributions but not Web 2.0

Interesting and useful but no...
There are often different versions of the applications I will discuss – ‘which is best’ depends on the context
There are some self-evident tools –established reference points in Web 2.0 learning: flickr, delicious, ning and so on
I am deliberately avoiding reference to enterprise systems: this is not how Web 2.0 works
No ‘quick’ utilities, important as they are:bit.ly, sendspace, slideshare, 30boxes, google reader

Not ‘places’, but ‘spaces’
Web 2.0 / social media creates a wealth of ‘content’ to be accessed and used, embedded, re-used and mashed but this is not my focus: eg ted, youtube, scribd,
Many different ‘Web 2.0’ applications are actually specific communities with a specific purpose; this is not my focus e.g. dwellicious (real-estate site)
Many web 2.0 applications render the web’s content in new ways as a kind of media channel– interesting, but not my focus: e.g. evri

Bias towards...
Structured creation of ‘knowledge objects’, by individual and/or collaborative work, often with the option for public output
Tools that work for construction of ideas and knowledge in domains where ‘truth’ is intersubjective or, at least, interpretations of events more significant than facts
And yet... All web 2.0 apps can find their place in innovative learning approaches, with the right tweaking

What you will not hear about
I have argued elsewhere that the learning management system is dead; I am wrong. It is not dead, but it does move slowly, lacks agility and is too concerned with ‘encompassing’ the net, rather than acting as a portal for the net. It is very good at the things which make learning a special case in knowledge networking; it can be enlivened and improved by the itnerplay between it and small, purpose-specific tools
I am also not rehearsing or expanding on conceptual arguments about how to assess students in using Web 2.0 approaches, what institutional changes might be needed or implied, or why knowledge change is a cultural, as well as epistemological, phenomenon; these are important subtexts, which need more debate

The ‘top 10’ applications
By no means the best 10, the only 10, or the 10 for you: a selection to demonstrate broader possibilities

For each application
3-4 annotated images of how the tool looks and works
A list of key features which enable its value for higher education
3-4 annotated images of the tool ‘in use’, from an educator’
A brief array of examples of how to use it
Summary of how the tool embodies, and brings into higher education, contemporary knowledge work online and the way it activates student learning

Each has own slideshow separately
xtimeline
listphile
slinkset
posterous
mind42
quizlet
reviewbasics
springnote
knol
wiggio
Timeline generator
List creator
Social news builder
Quick blogging
Mindmapping
Flashcards
Annotated reviewing
Wiki plus benefits
Publishing engine
Great groupware

The big picture
How to think Web 2.0 through grounded theory, based on the applications reviewed here and the pool from which selected

Decisions, decisions
What are the circumstances of my students that will influence the effectiveness of the application I am choosing?
Is the investment of time that it will take to learn to use the application going to pay off with a greater dividend in student learning outcomes?
Is the difference in thinking going to be one that most students will learn from, even if they have to struggle with the change?
Can I build this tool into my teaching such that students see the value I place on it, and quickly come to an agreement about its value in their own learning?

Conceptualising Web 2.0
It is all about Connection: knowledge work is networked knowledge work(networks of information, people, processing)
Connectivism replaces Constructivism? (Stephen Downes)
And, within a connected world, applications mobilise the ‘4 Cs’ ...

Conceptualising Web 2.0
Components: what feeds into the knowledge work system
Cognition and Collaboration: thinking and working together forms the processing system
Communication: the results of processing become public and the basis of audience reception and conversation

Dimensions of classification
How does the tool change or re-express the form in which knowledge is represented and displayed?
What structures and forms does the tool use to delimit and shape the process of knowledge creation?
What cues and affordances does the tool provide to network people for collaborative knowledge work?
What kinds of controls and flows does the tool have to manage the process of publication of the knowledge?

Web 2.0 for learning...
Structured creation of knowledge objects, where the structure serves a cognitive purpose, requiring thinking and ordering to activate learning
Granular knowledge objects, where the whole and the parts work together, and granularity promotes collaboration through ‘parallel play’
Information processing for alternative output: a change in the way information is presented, accessed or made available to others
The conversation is in the knowledge: challenge assumptions made for offline behaviour about relationships of creating, sharing and then conversing about knowledge

More information?

From here...
http://netcrit.net/writing
Handout with many more applications lisfted
http://slideshare.net/netcrit
Slides for each of the 10 applications
http://altc-link.wikidot.com
In time, there will be a detailed report with more depth, more applications, and examples. (end, 2010)

Thankyou...
(and thanks to the Australian Learning and Teaching Council for its generous support)

http://www.knowledgenetworklearning.net	230
http://www.netcrit.net	166
http://www.slideshare.net	4
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com	1

Ideas, background and conclusions

by Matthew Allen on Apr 19, 2010

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Ideas, background and conclusions — Presentation Transcript