Sunday, October 5, 2014
Reflecting on Web 2.0
As the World Wide Web has developed and changed, a veritable cornucopia of new and exciting tools have been unleashed upon the world. With the advent of what is now referred to as "Web 2.0," the focus has often been on social media. While social media has radically changed the way people can connect and share with each other, it often overshadows the tools that have been developed for creating the original content that is shared on the web. I use YouTube and Tumblr, but mostly as an observer. I haven't done much creating (besides the occasional blog). I have enjoyed over the last week taking the opportunity to see where people go to create the content that has been shared with the world. And it's way easier to access these tools than I imagined. So that means it is even easier for my students.While I merely adopted the web, my students were born in it. They haven't known a world without it, and they thrive in it. I'm excited to see what they can do with these tools.
Some Web 2.0 Tools for Education
Here are a few tools that could be useful and make my (and maybe your) classroom a little bit better:
Glogster is a website where students can create free digital posters (which the site calls Glogs). They have developed a unique digital canvas and supply a wealth of content in an effort to simplify the creation process for students. I just completed a poster creation project with one of my classes, and this site could have really helped streamline this process for me and my students.
Google Apps for Education is a free service (including free from ads) for faculty, staff, and students that was started by Google in 2006. It provides a way for students and teachers to collaborate and share projects and files. They also supply over 30 gigabytes of storage space for each user. One of the easiest ways to use Google in the classroom is for teachers to set up shared documents with students so they can help them edit papers and projects in real time.
Although Alice Storytelling is no longer supported online, the Alice software has been an incredibly useful tool in my computer science class. Students are able to learn the fundamental concepts of programming without having to worry about syntax while interacting with a 3D world. It gives students a tangible way to interact with common concepts in programming. It was developed at Carnegie Mellon University and was initially released in 1998.
Symbaloo is a bookmarking program that creates a personal startpage for users. This visual organizer of bookmarks can be accessed from any computer. With the help of cloud storage and a browser tool, Symbaloo tries to make it easy to save bookmarks and access them from any computer. These links can be easily shared with students using their service as well.
Everytime I've seen someone give a presentation using Prezi, I've been impressed. Instead of just flipping from slide to slide, Prezi lets the user connect different aspects of their presentation visually. They zoom in to the details and zoom back out to the next item on the map. There are also collaborative tools that can be used for creating group projects and presentations.
Glogster is a website where students can create free digital posters (which the site calls Glogs). They have developed a unique digital canvas and supply a wealth of content in an effort to simplify the creation process for students. I just completed a poster creation project with one of my classes, and this site could have really helped streamline this process for me and my students.
Google Apps for Education is a free service (including free from ads) for faculty, staff, and students that was started by Google in 2006. It provides a way for students and teachers to collaborate and share projects and files. They also supply over 30 gigabytes of storage space for each user. One of the easiest ways to use Google in the classroom is for teachers to set up shared documents with students so they can help them edit papers and projects in real time.
Although Alice Storytelling is no longer supported online, the Alice software has been an incredibly useful tool in my computer science class. Students are able to learn the fundamental concepts of programming without having to worry about syntax while interacting with a 3D world. It gives students a tangible way to interact with common concepts in programming. It was developed at Carnegie Mellon University and was initially released in 1998.
Symbaloo is a bookmarking program that creates a personal startpage for users. This visual organizer of bookmarks can be accessed from any computer. With the help of cloud storage and a browser tool, Symbaloo tries to make it easy to save bookmarks and access them from any computer. These links can be easily shared with students using their service as well.
Everytime I've seen someone give a presentation using Prezi, I've been impressed. Instead of just flipping from slide to slide, Prezi lets the user connect different aspects of their presentation visually. They zoom in to the details and zoom back out to the next item on the map. There are also collaborative tools that can be used for creating group projects and presentations.
Top Web 2.0 Sites
This post is an exploration and explanation of some selected Web 2.0 sites and what they are all about.
Twitter is a micro-blogging site founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Ev Williams, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass. Users write posts of up to 140 characters that may include pictures. They can also follow other users, stay up to date with the news, connect with friends, and along with over 57,000,000 others find out what Katy Perry is up to. Users' profiles may be public or private. According to Twitter, there are 271 million active users, who post over 500 million tweets per day. 78% of those users access Twitter through their mobile devices. According to Pew Research, 35% of 18-29 year olds use Twitter. I have used Twitter to keep track of what is happening in Ferguson, follow some of my favorite sports teams, and share invites to the growing social networking site ello.co.
YouTube is a video sharing site founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. Users can upload and share videos, subscribe to user channels, and view billions of hours of video. According to YouTube, more than 1 billion unique users visit their site to view over 600 billion hours of video each month. They also claim that according to Neilson, more 18-34 year-olds have access to YouTube than any single cable network. I use YouTube to listen to music, watch trending videos, and share videos from Khan academy and TED conferences with my students.
Flickr is a photo sharing site founded in 2004 by Ludicorp and bought one year later by Yahoo! In 2012 nearly 586 million photos were uploaded and publicly shared. I have used Flickr as a way to share photos with parents from our annual freshman class trip to New Mexico through our school's account.
Wikipedia is a crowd-sourced free online encyclopedia. According to Wikipedia, there are over 4.6 million English language articles. It is the ranked 6th among most used websites by Alexa. In 2011, the average Wikipedia user was 36 years old and visited about 5 times per month. I have found that as Wikipedia has grown, its content has become more reliable. I will frequently use their site as a starting point for research. I will follow their links and their sources to jump start my own research and encourage my students to do the same.
Jing is a screen-casting computer program designed for users to share captured images and videos through the web. It was created in 2007 by TechSmith. According to their website, teachers use Jing to share videos of content with their students; it can be used as a direct marketing tool for businesses; it can also be used by corporate trainers to create training videos for their employees. Although I have not yet used Jing, I look forward to exploring how to use it as a method for creating flipped-classroom lessons for my math and computer science students.
According to their website, SlideShare has become the "largest community for sharing presentations and other professional content." It was founded in 2006 by Rashmi Sinha and others and acquired by LinkedIn in 2012. Users can easily upload content including pdf files, infographics, presentations, and videos. They average about 60 million unique visitors per month. SlideShare can be used to share presentations with my students.
Wordle is an online tool for creating word clouds from text provided by users. It was created by Jonathan Feinberg. According to Wikipedia, the first time these types of tag clouds were used on a high-profile site was in 2006 on Flickr. You will see an example of a word cloud below. I simply copied and pasted the text from this blog to create it. Teachers can use wordle to create word clouds of their lessons to supply a visual representation of the vocabulary to be used. I have created a few word clouds mostly out of curiosity when they first became widely used on the web in the first decade of the 21st century.
Museum Box is a tool that can be used to create a visual display of online artifacts related to a particular subject. Its concept was inspired by the work of Thomas Clarkson in the 18th century as he tried to spread the word about the evils of human slavery. He created a box of artifacts he would take with him to various ports to support his findings and spread the word of abolition. This website was created in England for use in history classrooms. I could use this service as a way to organize information about the history of computers when I am teaching my computer science class.
Twitter is a micro-blogging site founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Ev Williams, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass. Users write posts of up to 140 characters that may include pictures. They can also follow other users, stay up to date with the news, connect with friends, and along with over 57,000,000 others find out what Katy Perry is up to. Users' profiles may be public or private. According to Twitter, there are 271 million active users, who post over 500 million tweets per day. 78% of those users access Twitter through their mobile devices. According to Pew Research, 35% of 18-29 year olds use Twitter. I have used Twitter to keep track of what is happening in Ferguson, follow some of my favorite sports teams, and share invites to the growing social networking site ello.co.
YouTube is a video sharing site founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. Users can upload and share videos, subscribe to user channels, and view billions of hours of video. According to YouTube, more than 1 billion unique users visit their site to view over 600 billion hours of video each month. They also claim that according to Neilson, more 18-34 year-olds have access to YouTube than any single cable network. I use YouTube to listen to music, watch trending videos, and share videos from Khan academy and TED conferences with my students.
Flickr is a photo sharing site founded in 2004 by Ludicorp and bought one year later by Yahoo! In 2012 nearly 586 million photos were uploaded and publicly shared. I have used Flickr as a way to share photos with parents from our annual freshman class trip to New Mexico through our school's account.
Wikipedia is a crowd-sourced free online encyclopedia. According to Wikipedia, there are over 4.6 million English language articles. It is the ranked 6th among most used websites by Alexa. In 2011, the average Wikipedia user was 36 years old and visited about 5 times per month. I have found that as Wikipedia has grown, its content has become more reliable. I will frequently use their site as a starting point for research. I will follow their links and their sources to jump start my own research and encourage my students to do the same.
Jing is a screen-casting computer program designed for users to share captured images and videos through the web. It was created in 2007 by TechSmith. According to their website, teachers use Jing to share videos of content with their students; it can be used as a direct marketing tool for businesses; it can also be used by corporate trainers to create training videos for their employees. Although I have not yet used Jing, I look forward to exploring how to use it as a method for creating flipped-classroom lessons for my math and computer science students.
According to their website, SlideShare has become the "largest community for sharing presentations and other professional content." It was founded in 2006 by Rashmi Sinha and others and acquired by LinkedIn in 2012. Users can easily upload content including pdf files, infographics, presentations, and videos. They average about 60 million unique visitors per month. SlideShare can be used to share presentations with my students.
Wordle is an online tool for creating word clouds from text provided by users. It was created by Jonathan Feinberg. According to Wikipedia, the first time these types of tag clouds were used on a high-profile site was in 2006 on Flickr. You will see an example of a word cloud below. I simply copied and pasted the text from this blog to create it. Teachers can use wordle to create word clouds of their lessons to supply a visual representation of the vocabulary to be used. I have created a few word clouds mostly out of curiosity when they first became widely used on the web in the first decade of the 21st century.
Museum Box is a tool that can be used to create a visual display of online artifacts related to a particular subject. Its concept was inspired by the work of Thomas Clarkson in the 18th century as he tried to spread the word about the evils of human slavery. He created a box of artifacts he would take with him to various ports to support his findings and spread the word of abolition. This website was created in England for use in history classrooms. I could use this service as a way to organize information about the history of computers when I am teaching my computer science class.
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