Web 2.0 in Your Middle School Classroom

Presenter: Erica Roberts

Session Description: Are you ready for a breath of new technology in your classroom? Web 2.0, also known as the “Read/Write Web,” provides online collaboration tools like wikis and podcasts to engage students and transform classrooms. How can you use these new technologies to enhance and support student learning? This session will focus on specific, middle school curriculum-connected sample projects as well as a resource list you can use to get started with Web 2.0 on Monday morning!

MY THOUGHTS IN ALL CAPS

ERICA AND I HAVE HAD SOME PHENOMENAL CONVERSATIONS ALREADY SO FAR DURING THE CONFERENCE SO I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO GREAT THINGS IN THIS SESSION.  NICE GROUP IN THE ROOM FOR THIS TO BE THE LAST SESSION BEFORE THE KEYNOTE…ABOUT 40 PEOPLE IN HERE RIGHT NOW.

Erica is a computer apps teacher in Woodridge, IL.  Came into teaching from the computer software/consulting world. “Business has no soul” so she came into teaching.

Lots of presentations on tools: this session will focus on how teachers are USING them.  THIS IS GOLDEN…THAT’S WHAT I HOPE TO DO WITH MY SESSIONS, PROVIDING USES ALONG WITH TOOLS.

http://www.go2web20.net

http://iteachyoucomputers.wikispaces.com

Discussing differences in Web now instaed of then. Showing The Machine is Us/ing Us

Good teachers overplan…the video stopped midstream…Erica’s ready to roll with other stuff.

Content Creation not consumption gives students more buy-in.

Social Networking

“Social Networking makes my brain bigger” – crowdsourcing allows you get more information than you can know on your own.  Plugging Twitter, “some of the smartest educators I’ve ever met, are folks I met on Twitter.”

Look at who “smart people” are following, then follow them yourself

Plurk – Like Twitter…but where Twitter goes vertically, Plurk goes horizontally…smaller network, less public network…THIS DEPENDS ON HOW YOU SET UP YOUR NETWORK AND ERICA ACKNOWLEDGED THAT FACT.

Showing Edmodo talking about how this is a private network for students to practice the use of social networking.

• Conversations
• Online Grading
• Asynchronous – don’t have to be online for it to work, can come back in and check later and info is still there
• Discussing setting up classes/groups
• File Storage…replaces flash drives that could break or be lost

Blogging

• Class Blogmeister – set up by David Warlick…get the kids blogging, give them a  global view, start working on collaboration
• Speaking of History – social studies/history blog

RSS – Really Simple Syndication

• Google Reader
• Netvibes
• Bloglines

**Fresh blog content sent to you daily via RSS feeds.

Wikis

Wikipedia is not the only Wiki out there.  It’s a tool for collaboration. Multiple users can edit a single page and provide the information on the wiki. Showing a Wiki that was created in her school rather than creating a book that would sit on a shelf and never be looked at again.

Analyzed grades of 2 years worth of students work comparing wiki to books, and the wiki grades were higher. Students can work on from home, parents can see, gives a wider audience for student work, improving quality.

Showing Wikis in Plain English

Podcasts

Don’t need to have an iPod to listen

Wonderful things available in iTunes

Google Docs

Gives students access to:

• Document creation
• Spreadsheets
• Presentations

Online, no version questions, no worries about updates/upgrading…Mac/PC compatible…can be worked on simultaneously by multiple students.

Ning

Your own private MySpace.

Can be accessed from home and school.

Have kids create accounts based on characters or individuals they are studying in class.  Post avatar pictures as if you were that person.

Can be a member of many Nings

• Smart Board Revolution/ IWB Revolution
• MIDDLE SCHOOL PORTAL
• MIDDLETALK

Creative Content Creation

Students are engaged when they can put stuff together and CREATE:

• Glogster
• Wordle
• VoiceThread

CONTENT CREATION IS SUCH A HUGE THING…WE TEACH KIDS WHO WANT TO CREATE IN ANY WAY POSSIBLE…GIVING THEM MULTIPLE MEANS OF CREATING AND EXPRESSING THEMSELVES VIA TECH IS VITAL.  STILL NEED TO MOVE FURTHER TOWARD GETTING THE STUDENTS USING MULTIPLE TOOLS AT ONE TIME.  TOO MUCH FOCUS ON “OKAY, NOW THIS TOOL IN MY ROOM”.

THANKS FOR SHARING ERICA! GREAT STUFF…WE NEED MORE FOLKS DOING SESSIONS LIKE THIS TO HELP REACH THOSE IN THE CLASSROOM THAT AREN’T YET USING THE TOOLS.  THERE’S GREAT INTEREST IN ALL OF THIS FROM THE EDTECH FOLKS, BUT WE NEED MORE AND MORE IN THE TRENCHES ACTUALLY USING IT.  THANKS FOR BUILDING THAT GROUP!