So who is using web 2.0 tools with STUDENTS?

[Cathy Nelson]

Can anyone share specific cases where your KIDS use these tools? The only one I can think of is a book discussion blog, which almost seems very 1.0.

[Rosanne Zajko]

I don't agree that the book discussion blog is very 1.0. They are using the technology needed to post, which can't be anything but 2.0. The trick, I think, is to get them to respond to each other's comments, which is probably the 2.0 you are looking for. I blogged with 6th, 7th and 8th grades this year, and the 6th grade students treated the blog like a bulletin board; the 8th graders were much more interactive, commenting on other posts.

The 2.0 technology that we used successfully this year was a wiki. The 7th grade visits Gettysburg for their class trip, so to prepare them, we did some Civil War research. The students were responsible for posting their research to the wiki, which was then used as the source document for the web page they developed in Language Arts. One student commented that he thought the wiki was a great way to learn, since there was so much information that one student couldn't research it all alone.

Our Social Studies teacher had the kids do a podcast on D-Day. I'm probably going to steal that idea and have the students do book reviews.

[Cathy Nelson]

yes i should look at it that way. But its still low key. I will be doing another one this year--at a different school. I am relocating to the coastal area of SC right outside of Myrtle Beach. The podcast sounds much more 2.0. i guess i think i should be using more tools.

[ejdw13]

We had a lot of success with using wikis for several collaborative projects last school year. One with seventh grade science projects around genetic diseases and one with eighth grade social studies students dealing with issues surrounding the cold war. Since they were collaborative projects, we (the classroom teachers & me, the school librarian) did a bunch of team teaching incorporating information literacy instruction and instruction about ethical use of the wiki as a tool. We used WikiSpaces. They provide really nice services for educators and were helpful in setting up student accounts and allowing a higher level of privacy without the fee while we experimented with our teaching and student creation.

At the end of the year, I also started dabbling with social bookmarking as a replacement/supplement (? - not sure what direction this is going to go yet) to the static pathfinders I had been creating for projects. It seems as if del.icio.us offers some great new, collaborative ways for every learner to be involved in the process and to provide great opportunities in instruction in tagging & evaluating sites for quality.

I fell in love with LibraryThing this year and am looking for a way to incorporate that with students. I think I may have figured it out. In our catalog there is the opportunity to upload lists through visual searching. Student recommendation lists have been hugely popular in the last year, even more so than the faculty lists. I'm going to work with a core group of readers in the fall to develop librarything pages and see how that works to link with our catalog. I'd love to hear how others are using LibraryThing with students!

[Katie]

Like what was posted above, I am very excited about the possibilities of LibraryThing. I think it will be an easy tool to implement with my students ... and so many web 2.0 aspects are a part of LibraryThing - tagging, social networking (you can add other LibraryThing users as a favorite), groups, etc.

[M E Shenefiel]

I've done podcasts with my book discussion group, but have only been moderately successful. (I've attached one to this post.) We read a book as a group. We meet after school once a month for a group discussion (and pizza!) After the meeting several students (varies with each book) and I create the podcast. I try to use the same format for each podcast: music, a teaser, a short summary of the book (with no spoilers), a short 3 or 4 question interview with two of the students, and a conclusion which mentions the next book and gives credits.

The reason I say I've been moderatley successful is that I've not been consistant with publishing them. Time constraints and scheduling made it impossible for me to keep up with production. I tried to throw some of the production back on the students but by the second half of the year the podcasts were nonexistant. The time involved to get it done right is considerable.

Right now the few podcasts that I have are posted on a wiki. Ideally I would like to post the podcast in a blog. I'd like the students to handle the production and have my role be limited to approving the final product. I'd like listeners to be able to subscribe to both the podcast and the blog through an rss feed. I'd like the listeners to comment on the book/podcast through the blog. I just haven't figured out how to do this the right way.

[Sandra Carswell]

I thoroughly enjoyed your podcast. I really like the format. This is something I would like to do with my students, maybe my library assistants or book club this year. What program did you use to record and edit the podcast? I want to post them to our library website. We are using Schoolwires this year for our websites in my district and it has a template for linking podcasts to a webpage.

Thank you!
Sandra

[M E Shenefiel]

Hi Sandra!

I used Audacity (freeware) and a $30 mike to create the podcasts. Audacity's a little tricky to use because you have to download another application (LAME) to convert the podcst to an mp3 before you can post it. (Using LAME is the tricky part.) I took the podcasting class from Global Classroom the year before last. It was a very helpful class that addressed not only the technical aspects of creating the podcasts, but also how to create pedagogically correct (or as I say, podagogically correct) podcasts.

Will your podcasts have an rss feed then? I haven't heard of Schoolwires. (Then again that's not saying much...) Right now I'm doing everything outside of the district's server. I have plans to work with the tech department to get some other Web 2.0 projects up and running this year. I love wikis and see huge potential with them. It's slow going though.

Beth

[Sandra Carswell]

Thanks Beth. I have a new headphone/microphone set that I purchased last year to use. I also purchased a cd-rom from someone (can't remember who) that teaches the whole podcasting process. I have a teacher that is wanting to make a podcast to put on her website about the history club she sponsors. I will talk to my tech about downloading Audacity and Lame. I'm not allowed to download any programs without permission. I don't mind asking permission. I just spoke to my niece about playing an audio cd from her school computer instead of purchasing a boom box. She said the techs had disabled their cd-rom drives so they couldn't use them. Imagine that!
We do have RSS feeds on our websites.
Can you explain a little about pedagocially correct podcasts?

Sandra

[M E Shenefiel]

Hi Sandra!

Here's a brochure I developed for the same class that addresses this to some extent. There has to be an educational benefit to using them that could not be addressed with traditional methods of instruction. There are several benefits to creating podcasts; they're portable, they are asynchronous, and depending on your set-up you can subscribe to them using an rss feed and have them "delivered" to your computer.

One of my peers in this class was a band instructor. He created a podcast that allowed the students to practice a drum cadence that was to be used for an audition. I thought that this was a fantastic use of this technology. The student could dowload the podcast to an mp3 player and be able to practice along with the teacher at any time.

I think that many people are trying to use web 2.0 tools just for the sake of using them. I try to invertigate a lot of the new tools out there. Some seem very useful for different reasons (I like podcasts, wikis, and blogs each for their own purpose.) Some, however, I just don't get. I signed up for twitter...just to see what it did, and to tell you the truth, I really don't see the point of it.

[Sandra Carswell]

Thank you for the brochure on podcasting. It will help me help our teachers.

[Sara Stevenson]

Sandra,
I've set up private book club groups through goodreads.com with my seventh and eighth graders (not sixth). Even though our group is private, and no one can post who hasn't been invited, once they create a profile, they are out there on the world wide web. I tell my students to talk it over with their parents. Some choose to set their sites to private. Others have joined other online groups, such as Twilight Lovers and a Voldemort site. Most of my 8th graders already do My Space, and so they just take off with it. They're not posting as much as I'd like, though, except in the Fantasy club. One girl said it's because we meet once a week, so we can talk about the books in person. I'm thinking of starting a virtual only book club to see if I can get more strands going. I live in a pretty liberal place, but other librarians were aghast I didn't get my principal's permission, etc. I figure it's all optional, and it's their parents' decision if they join or not-- not mine. If you don't feel comfortable doing this with middle school kids, you should consider at least joining yourself. I love good reads. It's really fun. Another thing I love about it, compared to blogspot, etc., it's so easy and intuitive to use.

[Sandra Carswell]

Hi Sara, I've been thinking of setting up a virtual book club by using a wiki. I have set up a practice wiki for myself on pbwiki. However, I've seen others suggest wikispaces. I'm wondering if there is a way to moderate the posts in a wiki like there is a blog. Thanks for the encouragement. I think we will start it this spring and maybe have it figured out by next year! lol

Sandra