Jun 15 2008 02:22 pm
Posted by tcaras under chapter 3,collaboration
Chapter 3 – New Tools
This chapter I found very interesting because it gives information on useful applications of the Web 2.0 tools. Businesses and educators alike are using the new Web 2.0 tools. The advantage of these tools is that it allows people to work simultaneously together from any location with an Internet connection. In education students have the advantage of using these tools for projects from home with other students and teachers and all can collaborate without having to be in school to see the product.
The basic web 2.0 tools are blogs, wikis, and podcasts. These tools offer opportunities for collaboration within and outside of the classroom for teachers and students. There are sites that are available for students that are not accessible to the public. These sites are Class Bogmeister (http://classblogmeister.com) and Gaggle Blogs (www.gaggle.net) that are available. In our school system of Spotsylvania, VA blogs are offered on the blackboard system called Score. This is a self-contained system that offers protection for the students to communicate without advertisements.
Some other Web 2.0 tools that are popular are Social Bookmarking, and video showcasing. Social Bookmarking is available to allow users to create a page of URLs that are annotated. Del.icio.us is one site that is owned by Yahoo. It keeps a list of bookmarks which are public and other people can add this site to their Web page. Another site is Backflip which stores user URLs in folders Video Showcasing is interesting because a new tools to use for downloading video is Video Furnace (www.videofurnace.com) a video-over-IP solution. This device gives the user the ability to make a video broadcast to any laptop or desktop computer without requiring any software.
Web 2.0 mangement tools are now being integrated into the technology world. Search engines that find blogs on Technorati (www.technorati.com), and ePortfolios, content management using Moodle and calendars such as Google Calendar (www.google.com/calendar).
Tools that are used in education can include mapping with Google Earth (http://earth.google.com) and 3D Modeling with Google SketchUp (http://sketchup.google.com) which a student can use to create a 3D design of a model of house, school or other object in the community for a classroom project and then place into Google Earth. Mashups is an interesting idea for use in education. This is where you mix and match two or more sites to create something entirely new. HousingMaps is one such idea. Another popular mashup is Flash Earth. These are sites that combine two entirely different things and make an entirely new site.
New tools are constantly being added with technology. VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is a means of routing voice conversations over the Internet or through any IP-based network. This means that phone service could be free or cost much less than convention service. Skype and Google Talk are also two other means of using VoIP. Google is very interested in helping educators and there is a new service called “Google for Educators(www.google.com/educators/), this part of the Google Web site is a teacher’s guide to Google products such as Web Search, Earth, Book Search, Maps, Video, Docs & Spreadsheets, Blogger, Sketchup, Calendar, Picasa, and more. It includes basic information about each tool, examples of how educators are using them and lesson ideas.” (Solomon and Schrum, 2007).
The last part of the chapter mentions data mining for student assessment purposes. The idea proposed by the author’s of this book is that data mining can be used to analyze student behavior, learning style, retention of information and interests of students. Yes, I do see the huge potential for this in education. I know that it is being used quite successfully in the business world and it has huge benefits for companies to cut time and energy for individual tracking purposes.
Schrum, L. and Solomon, G. (2007) Web 2.0 new tools, new schools. (1st Ed). Eugene, Oregon:International Society for Technology in Education.
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