using web 2.0

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: aevans@mc3.edu