Stephanie Cheney

Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers

During the last week of July I participated in what might be the best professional development experience that I have ever had. I took a class on Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers taught by Alice Barr, an Integrator at Yarmouth HS in Maine. Being an integrator myself, I was excited to have the TIME to really dive into the free web-based tools that I had heard about and played with a little on my own. The class was fantastic, an incredible model in teacher as "facilitator"-Alice asked us to work at our own pace, on our own project, based on our own interests. Possibly the best feature of the class is the wiki: http://usmsummer2007.wikispaces.com/
which outlines each of the web 2.0 tools and has fantastic resources laid out in an easy to follow-teach yourself format. I learned so much from Alice and from the others in the class. It is a relief to know that the wiki will continue to grow (Alice is going to leave it up!) as people learn and add to it. Check out my project for the class: http://scheney.edublogs.org/
I've used a blog for about a year now but for the class, I added links to my del.icio.us acct (newly set up), bloglines acct (newly set up), and twitter (which I'm still trying to get used to). Would love some feedback. What web 2.0 tools are you using as part of your teaching practice? ~Stephanie

Tags: alicebarr, blog, education, readwriteweb, scheney, tools, web2.0, wiki

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Sounds like an incredible seminar. I'm always amazed at how many new Web 2.0 tools come out on a regular basis. I have found TechCrunch to be a phenomenal resource on up and coming resources. (OK, so it's not good to use the same word twice in the same sentence, particularly if they refer to different things.)

Reply to This

Stephanie -This does sounds like an amazing seminar. The wiki is really a great resource. If there's one reason to have a longer school year, it's to explore all of the really super cool web 2.0 tools out there. Thanks for sharing. Edwin

Reply to This

Hi Stephanie,

It's great to hear that seminars like this are starting to take place. I am interested to hear a bit more about how you came to hear about the seminar and why you went. Did you hear about the seminar through your school/district or did you find out about it on your own? Did your school/district give you any incentive to go or was it completely voluntary? Did any other teachers from your school attend? I am just trying to get a sense of how active administration is becoming in sending teachers to Web 2.0 seminars :)

I also wanted to share another Web 2.0 tool that teachers may find valuable (hopefully Steve doesnt take this down as a commercial solicitation.) Teachers can use Scriptovia.com to view real student schoolwork from around the world. This can be used to practice grading, to create fair assesment rubrics using real work, to get ideas for lesson plans/prompts, and to give your students examples of good work.

Disclaimer: I am the founder of Scriptovia.com and I am not a teacher, but rather a student at the University of Washington.

-Aseem

Reply to This

I posted my favorite tools and reasons why on my website at http://edtechvision.org/?p=20

1. Google products: Gmail, Google docs, iGoogle, Google reader, Google Earth, Sketchup
2. Del.icio.us
3. Flickr
4. Bloglines
5. Audacity
6. Wikispaces
7. Skype
8. Flock and Firefox
9. Moodle
10. YouTube

FREE is a very good thing!

Reply to This

I always wonder how long some of these great tools will be available and free. I remember the days when the exhibit hall at NECC was filled with great free sites: Blackboard, Riverdeep, eboard, epals, noodletools, Rosetta Stone, etc. Hmmm.

Reply to This

Aseem,
I learned about this course (offered through the University of Southern Maine) from the instructor who is my friend. It was a one week M-F course from 8-3 and I earned 3 grad credits for it. My school pays for the equivalent of 1 grad class each year so they endorsed it but not necessarily because of the topic. I went because I was interested in the topic and knowing the instructor, I knew that it would be fun and very informational and I wasn't disappointed! I was the only teacher from my school taking the course but there were 21 teachers from a wide range of subject areas, grade levels and technology comfort levels--all from southern Maine. Because Maine, statewide, is involved in a 1-1 laptop project at the middle school level, the local universities are offering more courses on technology topics than others in New England. Check out the USM website at: http://www.usm.maine.edu/cehd/pdc/index.htm

Your site looks interesting, I'm going to spend some more time investigating it.
Best of luck,
Stephanie.

Reply to This

Stephanie,
I'm in library school, and like you, this summer I'm taking a fantastic class on "social software literacy". We blogged, twittered, edited a wiki,
created podcasts, videos, and just about everything else you mentioned here, but with the focus on use in libraries. Since so many of will be going into school media centers, we also discussed web2.0 tools in education. I haven't used them in my job yet, but I am creating a private Ning for the teachers of our district to share their ideas. It was a wonderful experience. There's so much to learn!

Reply to This

zoho.com - especially their database app (called "Creator")
teachertube.com - YouTube for teachers!
del.icio.us - very cool! Thinking about putting the del.icio.us Firefox plug-in in a lab, pointing them all to the same account, and using it to let teachers make quick links to resources for all students in that lab.

Reply to This

I guess you didn't get into Twitter. What about Tumblr?

Reply to This

Can I please ask what is Tumbir and how do you use it? I checked it out but it looked more like a blogging program or is it a search engine of some kind. I am always looking out for more web 2.0 applications. And thanks in advance

Reply to This

Thanks for sharing this. I found the following really good web 2.0 tools
www.websurveymonkey.com - great tool for creating surveys
www.famundo.com - an online calendar
google docs
google page creator - web page creator
www.irfanview.com - great free digital image editing
http://www.toondoo.com/./Home.do - cartoon creator
www.del.icio.us
www.wikispaces.com
www.wordpress.com for blogging
mojiti - online digital video editing
www.bubbl.us for brainstorming
Of possible interest
http://www.circleup.com/my/cu/home - class feedback
http://www.tutorom.com/ - online tutorials
Anne

Reply to This

My all-time favorite Web 2.0 tool is called LibraryThing. It makes it easy to create an online card catalog of books. It uses tags to categorize and is a wonderful way to find new books to read. While I am not in the classroom right now, I wish I had had this when I did teach middle school language arts because I ran a reading workshop and it would have been great support for me and the kids.

PS You can look at my catalog here: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/witchyrichy

Reply to This

  • 1
  • 2

RSS

Chat

Loading Chat...

About Classroom 2.0

Steve Hargadon Steve Hargadon created this social network on Ning.

Classroom 2.0 Badge

LIVE Conversations

Don't miss our Classroom 2.0 live Web meetings. A schedule is on our wiki. From "Web 2.0 for Beginners" to our weekly "Web 2.0 Review" and our special guest sessions, there's something for everyone. Want to start your own show? Email steve@hargadon.com.

Translate This Network

Translate Ning
Click on flag to open new window in your language. For different language close window and repeat. Signing in reverts site to English. Code at Translated.

More Information

Create a Ning Network for your own class, group, project, or event:
Need help using Ning in an educational setting?
Ning announces trial program for grades 7 -12 student networks--now ad-free:
Finding Interesting Discussions:
Forum posts can be organized by the use of "tags." To see discussions on specific topics, click on the links below. Standardized tags you can use to have your posts included in the link results are shown in parentheses. You can also help by adding tags to others' posts. (To participate in the discussion on standardized tagging here at Classroom 2.0, see this page.)

By Tool:

By Subject:
By Area:
Search By Other Tags:
Forum:
Photos:
Videos:

Latest Activity

Natalia Klimenteva Natalia Klimenteva created a group called Soapie Freaks1 hour ago
Natalia Klimenteva Natalia Klimenteva joined Classroom 2.0. Leave a Comment for Natalia Klimenteva. 1 hour ago
cassie cassie joined Classroom 2.0. Leave a Comment for cassie. 2 hours ago
Tammy Cooksey Tammy Cooksey replied to the discussion Introductions 3 hours ago
Surjeet Singh Surjeet Singh joined Classroom 2.0. Leave a Comment for Surjeet Singh. 3 hours ago
Tammy Cooksey Tammy Cooksey joined Classroom 2.0. Leave a Comment for Tammy Cooksey. 3 hours ago
john john joined Classroom 2.0. Leave a Comment for john. 3 hours ago
Katie Leitzke Katie Leitzke joined Classroom 2.0. Leave a Comment for Katie Leitzke. 3 hours ago

© 2008   Created by Steve Hargadon

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Privacy  |  Terms of Service