Sound CheckHere Comes Another Bubble
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6IQ_FOCE6I
The Only URL You Need To Write Down
• http://technologyinstruction.blogspot.com
S*&T Happens
Engaging Students Via Web 2.0 Tools
Presented by Alan EvansMontgomery County Community College
Shift HappensShift Happened
“Rumor is the world's oldest mass media.” -- Jean-François Revel (1924-2006, French politician and author)
What happened?
• Memorizing facts is no longer education
• Information availability– Just look it up on Google– A week of the NY Times contains more
information than a 19th century citizen was exposed to in a lifetime
• Education is now about analyzing information or creating information
“We must educate the student we have, not the student we used to have nor the student we wished we had.”
David Thornburg
How do we engage students?
• Entertain them?
• Expose them to entrepreneurship
• Educate them about tools to make their lives easier
• Encourage them to create and share information
What is Web 2.0?
• Shift to facilitation of communication, collaboration and information sharing– Web-based communities (social networks)– Video sharing sites (YouTube)– Wikis– Blogs– Folksonomy (social tagging)
Web 2.0 Support Groups
Entertainment
• Before class starts, show videos– Encourages on time attendance– Focuses student attention to the front of
the room– Let students find the videos– Can even relate to the topic!– Dead iPod Song
Expose Them To Entrepreneurship
• Use examples of companies using Web 2.0 tools
• Use companies students relate to (food, t-shirts, etc.)
• Read Inc. and Fast Company for ideas
Entrepreneur Examples
• Markus Frind
• Company had one employee (Markus) until recently
• Works 1 hour per day
• Company makes $10 million per year
• www.plentyoffish.com
Entrepreneur Examples
• Jake Nickell and Jeffrey Kalmikoff• College dropouts• Estimated $30 million a year in sales…from t-shirts!• Developed a social network of prospective customers• Customers decide what products will be sold• www.threadless.com
Web 2.0 Tools to Make Life Easier or Richer• Get Movie Recommendations
– www.clerkdogs.com
• Manage e-mail, instant messages and social networks from a single application– www.digsby.com
• Meeting planning– www.doodle.com
Web 2.0 Tools to Make Life Easier or Richer• Create Speaking Avatars
– www.voki.com
• Music Recommendations Based on Music You Like– www.pandora.com
• Put PowerPoint Slides Online– www.slideshare.net
Create/Share Information
• Why I like Student Blog Projects– Blogger.com
• Free and owned by Google• Makes blogging as simple as writing e-mail
– Letting students select a topic they are comfortable with gets them going quickly
– Forces them to think, write, and research– Its entrepreneurial!
Current Semester Student Blogs
• Boneyard Body Art
• the f-stops here
• Shoegasm
Wikis
• A web page with an edit button (like Wikipedia)
• Great for collaboration and group projects
• Pbwiki and Wikispaces are good free choices
Wikis
• Curriculum ideas– Have students create or update Wikipedia
entries– Group project collaboration
• Group Collaboration at Manor College
– Conveying information (could be edited by students)
• Teaching Students How to Blog
Social Networks
• The future is smaller, more focused networks– Classroom 2.0– 25 Tools
• Have students start their own social network– www.ning.com – http://studentcomputerliteracy.ning.com/
In Conclusion
• Nike was right...Just Do It!
• Students love this stuff!
• Students pay more attention
• Get students involved in collaborating via the web...they are doing it anyway
“Don't tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.”
George Patton
Questions or Comments?
• Alan Evans
• Montgomery County Community College, Blue Bell, PA
• E-mail: [email protected]
Top Related