Transcript Slide 1

Assimilating Social Learning into
Your Classroom
Application of Current and Emerging
Technologies in the Classroom
Dr. Steve Broskoske
Misericordia University
Outline
• Social Networking
• Social Bookmarking: We all help organize the
Web
• Twitter: Staying connected with your network
• Digg
• Flickr: Photo sharing
• Social Networking for Young Children
Social Networking
Social Networking
• One of the key elements of the Read/Write
Web (Web 2.0 capabilities) is the ability for
people to connect.
Social Networking
• Another priority is for people to be able to
harness and manage information.
• If the Web is becoming the sum of all human
knowledge, then connecting with people
becomes important.
– Learn from others.
– Learn with others.
– Evaluate the validity of others as sources.
Social Networking
• Requires new skills:
– Interacting online with avatars.
– Forming networks.
– Participating in groups.
– Evaluating the work of others.
– Organizing information.
Social Networking
• Facebook (and similar sites) is changing how
people meet, communicate, network
(professional and personal), and support
friendships.
Tools may changes, but
online networking will
remain (part of the
communication revolution).
New Yellow Pages
Social Networking
• Provides:
– Ability to join & participate in virtual communities.
– A feeling of belonging.
– Opportunity to explore and express own identity.
– Chance to achieve a measure of fame.
– Opportunity to possibly influence others.
Issues Relating to Social Networking
• Many schools ban various sites. Instead, we
should teach students…
– Appropriate use of technology (when, where,
how).
– How to evaluate content.
– Not to trust user profiles.
– That anyone can access profiles (employers,
school administrators, colleges).
– To consider how they want to present themselves
online.
Discussion Boards
Discussion Boards
• Discussion boards (aka electronic bulletin
boards, discussion groups, message boards):
– Modern version of the traditional bulletin board.
– Place to post public notices, announce events, or
provide some information.
– Online forum to hold asynchronous
discussions.
Discussion Boards
• Users post messages and reply to messages to
conduct a discussion
• Unlike a Wiki, users cannot edit each other’s
work.
• Anyone can begin a new thread (take
conversation in a new direction).
• Challenge: Create a sense of community with
trust, which results in more meaningful
dialog and better learning.
Discussion Boards
• Advantages:
– Takes (or continues) discussions outside of the
classroom.
– Convenient to participate in.
– Easy for shy people to participate.
– Allows time to consider and refine response
before posting.
– Teacher can respond to all individual postings
(more attention than possible in class).
Discussion Boards
• Disadvantages:
– Requires motivation and self-discipline to
participate.
– Dynamics different than face-to-face discussions
(gauging responses, assessing body language).
– Permanent discussion record can cause some
students to shy away from participating.
Social bookmarking: We all help
organize the Web
Social Bookmarking
• Social bookmarking: People help to “get a
handle” on all the info. on the Web.
• Users help to organize what’s on the Web. We
are the librarians of the Web.
• Folksonomy vs. taxonomy.
• RSS allows users to read what others write.
Bookmarking allows users to read what others
read.
Tags and Social Bookmarking
• To help organize information (in many media),
users participate in collaborative tagging.
• Tags are…
– One-word descriptors of content.
– Non-hierarchical.
• User can assign as many tags as desired to an
element of information.
• Users search tags vs. categories.
Tags and Social Bookmarking
• Tags: Users add words that describe some
element on the Web. Tags help organize Web
content.
Tags are
created by
users.
Web
Tags are
connected.
People are
connected.
Tags and Social Bookmarking
• Tag cloud: Group of related tags, visually
displayed by popularity.
Tags and Social Bookmarking
• A teacher could use tags to help students
identify themes and concepts, and help them
organize their thoughts.
• Let’s experiment with tags:
What are the 5 main items we have studied so far in this
course?
What are the main concepts contained in this course so far?
Wordle.net
Social Bookmarking
• Advantages:
– Users evaluate and organize content vs. search
engines (computer algorithms in most).
• Exception is Yahoo and other human-powered search
engines.
– Site may offer tools to evaluate users’ bookmarks
and rank them.
• Perform analysis of user bookmarks. View…
– Most popular.
– Most current.
Social Bookmarking
• Disadvantages:
– No standard set of keywords or keywords.
– Spelling errors in tags.
– Some users employ personalized tags that have no
relevance to others.
– No hierarchical relationships in tags.
– Some Web page authors abuse tags for marketing
purposes.
Teachers need to help students determine
how resources should best be classified.
Social Bookmarking
Diigo
• Approach: Saving
content.
• Highlight and create
sticky notes.
Diigo.com
For Educators
Research, Share,
Collaborate Videos
Del.icio.us
• Approach: Tag.
• Search:
– Bookmarks: Enter URL.
– People: See a user’s
bookmarks.
– Tags: Explore tags.
– Most popular/current.
Delicious.com
Info. Page
Special Interest Groups
and Social Bookmarking
• Example: books
– Connect with other readers.
– Get leads to other literature.
– Review and discuss books.
LibraryThing.com
Shelfari.com
Twitter: Staying connected with your
network
Twitter
• Twitter: Tool that allows microblogging.
• Select people to follow.
• Example of use: Twitter in the last presidential
election.
Twitter, twitter,
twitter…
Twitter
• Evolution of Twitter:
– “What are you doing right now?”
– Evolved into:
•
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•
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Ask questions of your network.
Communicate about gathering in real life.
Share resources.
Share news and gossip.
– Blend of professional and personal.
Twitter.com
Creative Ways to Use Twitter
• Many companies/people are using Twitter in
innovative ways.
– Online meetings.
– Marketing.
– Collaborative efforts.
Twitter Collaboration
Examples
Creative Ways to Use Twitter
AcademHack
Twitter Tips for
Academics
Using Twitter in
Academia
Digg
Digg
• Digg: Community of users submits and rates
the importance of information.
• Attempt to help organize and manage
information on the Web.
• Community collaboratively edits the
information.
Digg
• When reading information, users can:
– Digg
– Not Digg
– Bury
• If a story gets enough “Diggs” it is listed as
popular in its category.
Digg
• Other features:
– Discussions around stories.
– Network:
• Invite friends to see what you Digg.
• Follow what your friends Digg.
• You can also e-mail stories to friends.
– Advanced search tools:
• +b: Find stories that were buried.
• +u: Find stories that are upcoming.
Let’s Try Digg
• Ideas to search:
• Try:
– Japan earthquake and
nuclear disaster
– Scandals (local, national)
– +b: Find stories that
were buried.
– +u: Find stories that are
upcoming.
Digg.com
Flickr: Photo Sharing
Flickr
• Flickr: Photo publishing space and social
software (photo sharing).
• Approx. 1-2,000,00 photos uploaded every
day.
• Free to use (if you use <100Mb per month).
Pro Account: $25 per year.
• Need to register.
– Teachers might create one account to share with
students.
Flickr
• Site is policed by its members.
• Privacy:
– Can restrict access:
• Friends/family, invited people, or make photos public.
– Can turn off discussion on photos.
• Many photos covered by Creative Commons
License.
Flickr
• Users tag photos.
• Users can organize photos into sets/groups.
– More flexible than folders: one photo can belong
to several sets.
• Users can edit photos online: picnik.com
• Annotation tool: Attach notes to particular
parts of a photo.
Picnik.com
Finding Photos on Flickr
• Search:
– By geography, where the photo was taken (Flickr
maps).
– Groups.
– People (contacts).
– Commons (from Smithsonian, museums, and
other collections).
Uses of Flickr
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Use photos to illustrate stories/poetry.
Create virtual field trips.
Research current events.
Connect with people from other cultures (or
of similar interests).
• Use a photo to inspire writing.
• Create magazine covers or posters on a topic.
• Have students use annotation feature.
Uses of Flickr
• Search for photos based on geography (map
feature).
• Couple with Google Earth to appreciate
geography.
• Search for recent news events (local, national,
or global).
Let’s Try Flickr
• Search for photos based on geography (map
feature).
• Search:
– Japan crisis
– Hotel Sterling
– Items of local interest (Misericordia University,
mining, etc.)
Flickr.com
Social Networking for
Young Children
Social Network for Young Children
• Webkinz
– Chat: Children select from phrases.
– ChatPlus: Children type in words, but cannot send
personally identifying information.
• Club Penguin
– Avatar, play games and chat with friends.
Webkinz
Club Penguin
Webkinz Chat
Info. for Parents
Assignments
• Let's add a social learning section to our Wiki
to explore how these technologies can be
used in the classroom.
• Remote activities: Exploring copyright and fair
use [My Courses on e-MU]. Then let’s hold
and asynchronous discussion about these
topics on My Courses.
Next Week
• Student and Teacher Use of Multimedia in
Learning
– Podcasting
– Digital storytelling
– Using Excel and Word to support Constructivist
learning