What are your experiences as to Web 2.0 tools?

Using Web 2.0 tools in the classroom is very important. Which one do you use most and what can you recommend to the group?

Tags: 2.0, Web

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Permalink Reply by dave garland on July 2, 2007 at 10:18am

Just experimenting at the moment but finding that mindmeister is very good with my Physics class and http://rafi.ki is a great international collaborative tool.

Permalink Reply by Mindy Faber on July 4, 2007 at 8:34am

This summer , we are using Wordpress to create and share digital content between Barbados and Chicago because we can post entries and embed photos and videos into one site. Also Democracy.TV is fantastic.

Permalink Reply by dave garland on July 5, 2007 at 6:30am

I have experimented with my Physics class.

We have used mindmeister and voicethreads. Our mindmeister was about measuring the distance to the stars and teh voice thread ( which we have just started 1 hour ago as I write ) is going to be about Measuring the mass of a black hole.

The students love the way that their changes have an immediate impact on the product as it develops, they are very much in the "let's explore and play" mode at present ( brilliant !!) and they do realise that for these things to work successfully they need to be sure of their Physics !!

Permalink Reply by Janek Wagner on July 16, 2007 at 8:58am

I am testing now for next lessons:

www.xtimeline.com
www.geni.com
instacalc.com/
codeide.com/ - my most preffered, I am an ex-programmer ;-)

and Google: Docs, Maps, Reader? Blogger etc.

Permalink Reply by Kristian Still on July 18, 2007 at 9:21am

I have been using a few tool lately...

www.jotform.com

Wink is a free screencast software that allows you to create HOW TO guides.

Use scribd to upload file and then embed files into your wiki. A handy way to present files within the wiki.

zamzar can convert files and convert files from URLs

Sorry a bit busy, but I know you will find the links.....

Permalink Reply by Matt Montagne on November 10, 2007 at 4:20pm

Hans-

In my practice as a technology integrator and a middle school media teacher, I've been experimenting with a variety of tools:

ning-I created two private networks that we're starting to use. One ning network is for our middle school faculty web2.0 study group that will be starting next week. The study group is composed of 7 teachers from our middle school-they are all interested in the world of web2.0. We'll be using ning as a tool to communicate, collaborate, share our experiences, upload and share videos/photos, carry out asynchronous discussion, etc.

-we also started a small ning network for members of our student council. This will be used by students of our student council and teachers who are advisers to the student council. I'm excited about this, because it is our first foray into using social network software in our school with students.

Skype-I'm really excited about skype. We used used this the other day to conduct a conference with an author of a book that our 8th grade science students read. The author is Gene Luen Yang and his book is American Born Chinese. I have a blog posting along with the audio recording from our conversation with Gene Yang. It was an awesome experience for us, and really created a buzz amongst our teachers. I have a feeling we will do a few more things with skype this school year. We will also use skype as a synchronous comnuincation tool for the teachers in our web2.0 study group.

Blogs-I've been using a blog off and on for close to two years...you can see my blog here or in my profile. I have been using it to try to model reflective teaching for the faculty members that I work with. Only a few other teachers at my school have been using them, but I think this is going to change. I believe we will see very active student blogging at my school in the next 2-3 years.

Wikis-I've been using a wiki for about a year now and have found it to be an indispensable tool. The 8th grade history teacher at my school used wikis with students at the end of the year last year for their last unit. It was a great experience for the students and for the teachers...it really gave us a good idea of some of the possibilities of wikis in the classroom. I use wikis right now to teach my digital media class with 8th grade students. Students use their wiki as a replacement for the traditional paper folders that we used to use. The log all of their handouts on the wiki and they upload their projects to their wiki along with a written project reflection. You can see my student wiki pages and their digitial portfolios by clicking here.

My mantra lately has been to increase student use of these power web2.0 tools this year. It is my mission to create opportunities for students to use web2.0 tools in ways that are engaging and meaningful. I'm hopeful that our faculty web2.0 study group will be a vehicle to creating more opportunities for our students to become a larger part of the read-write web.

There are so many other useful tools that I started working with just year...things like google docs, ustream, voicethread, twitter, and facebook to name a few (haven't done much w/Facebook, but just wanted to get started with it).

~Matt

Permalink Reply by leewin on October 20, 2008 at 9:17pm

Matt, I am usining most of the same tools that you are using. I am really excited for your group using Skype. I am trying to convince others that it certainly is a valuable tool for collaboration. I haven't involved myself too much into wikis but it is on my list of projects to do with my students. I am currently working on podcasting with my students and we are working towards creating our first podcast.

What is your access like to computers at school? How much time do your students get to work on projects, blogs, wikis, etc?

Permalink Reply by Mobbsey on August 15, 2008 at 6:31am

I use Nourish to send out a weekly blog summary to my students. ATM we're confined within a "walled garden" using Blackboard for our blogs (this is less than ideal and I don't like it, I'm looking into moving them to a private Ning shortly - just waiting on a green light) and the Nourish summary makes it very easy to see at a glance who's where with their blogs.

Permalink Reply by Durff on October 8, 2008 at 4:08pm

We use iPods to listen to Coffeebreak Spanish and cellphones to call our Spanish homework into Gabcast. We enjoyed a beginning of the year activity using cellphones to answer a polleverywhere

Permalink Reply by Rebecca on October 21, 2008 at 2:13am

The main Web 2.0 tools I have used in the classroom is Wikispaces - they are advert free for educators, you can set them as public or private- too many features to mention.
This wiki is for staff development http://derbydhs.wikispaces.com/
This was a collaborative project wiki I set up for my class in Derby Western Australia and two other classes one in London and one in South Australia http://boabs.wikispaces.com/
This wiki was set up for students to investigate Global Warming and Climate Change
http://primaryextension.wikispaces.com/
Another useful Web 2.0 tool is Slideshare, here you can convert Power Point Presentations so that they can be embedded into web sites.
Cheers for now
Rebecca McFadyen

Permalink Reply by Hans Feldmeier on October 21, 2008 at 1:46pm

Hi Rebecca, yes I like Wikispaces as well!
Additionally, do you know ~~SlideRocket~~ regarding online presentation?
Cheers
Hans

Permalink Reply by Jessica Nikula on November 6, 2008 at 10:28pm

I am just learning about all of these new Web 2.0 tools through a course that I am taking through the University of Alberta. I am amazed at how many amazing, free collaborative tools are available to teachers! Tools that I have explored and am beginning to use with my highschool students are blogs, wikis, and voicethread. Voicethread is amazing, and I am using it with my social studies students to create their presentations which would have been powerpoints in the past. I have also experimented with podcasting, and my students loved it once they had a chance to play around with it a little.