Web2.0 for active learning

At a recent presentation I was asked to comment upon web 2.0 tools and their usefulness to promote active learning. I've posted before on web 2.0 & mashups and even co-written an article for the Escalate subject centre, but this post is a bit more concise, and should give you some ideas on promoting active learning/ student centred learning.

The tableidea below is adapted from the JISC document entitled Web 2.0 and social software (September 2007)

An introduction:

• These excellent videos explain web 2.0 in plain Engrish :oP http://www.commoncraft.com/show
  
• My recent web 2.0 ESCalate article
  
• Another JISC report on " what is web 2.0"
  
• Active learning ideas PPT (to download) : http://www.slideshare.net/kevinbrace/active-learning-presentation
  

How to these tools to encourage student centered learning: (use these free guides)

• http://phoebe-app.conted.ox.ac.uk/browseGuidance.php
  
  
• http://crusldi1.staffs.ac.uk/bestpracticemodels/
  

• Access my presentation on Active Learning with Web 2.0 and Moodle here: http://www.slideshare.net/kevinbrace/active-learning-presentation

• Want to see someone actually using all of this stuff? Well, I stumbled across this blog to day. It really is quite something to see a school kid getting to grips with linking and embedding many different web 2.0 tools together. It puts my blog to shame :o( . If you wanted tangible evidence of the digitally aware generation. Look here >>
  

http://nicola-eportfolio.blogspot.com/

The Web 2.0 principle:

Characteristic		Definition	Example
The web as a platform		Allowing applications to be delivered and used through a web browser.	Online word processing such as Google Docs http://docs.google.com or www.Picnik.com , which can edit photos and link to flickr a huge database of shared images. This is a slideshow I made with flickr : http://www.flickr.com/photos/27118956@N02/show/ As an alternative to Picnik you could use the new Adobe Express web application to edit images online: https://www.photoshop.com/express/landing.html Photoexpress also links to your Flickr account allowing you to open and edit and re-save back your own Flickr account - which can be shared with the world. Don't forget the flickrCC website that allows you search for images that can be used copyright free for education, etc. Another tool is the online mind mapping software http://bubbl.us , which you can embed in a blog. Or the excellent Zoho creator which allows you to build applications online. http://creator.zoho.com/
An architecture of participation		Systems that have been designed to encourage and support users in contributing to them.	Blogs and wikis form the backbone of this group of tools. My old blog + esnips or my new blog + slideshare or my old blog + my videos on vimeo give you an idea of just how versatile blogging as a platform can be. Reflection, peer review, collaborate, mash up, comment, link to others, etc. Most eportfolios are not far removed from blogs. http://jiscinvolve.org/ blogs are available free for UK academics. some wikis : •http://wiki.rscwmsystems.org.uk/index.php/RSS •http://docs.google.com/#documents • •http://staffordshireuniversity.pbwiki.com/Collaborative+working+online • • http://www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/bizwiki/index.php/Main_Page • • http://rsc-elearn.pbwiki.com • • http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page • • http://tinyurl.com/3aeasw basic principles of making a wiki work in education, or some recent pointers • http://he.rscwmsystems.org.uk/wordpress/?p=232 Photo sharing such as www.flickr.com , which can add geotags to images (together with the new iphone). New mapping tools allow active collaboration http://quikmaps.com/new http://delicious.com/deliboy/web2.0 also allows you to share your bookmarks.
Data consumption and remixing		Often these are referred to as mash-ups, where content is often sourced from third parties via an API (Application Programming Interface). Essentially making a new web application from two unrelated web tools.	One of the best I've seen is http://a.placebetween.us/ , others can be found here http://www.webmashup.com/Mashup_Examples/index.php One of the new web 2.0 tools to hit the web is Twitter. This mirco-blogging tool is often mashed with other web applications, one of the best examples is http://twittervision.com/ : http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Mashups
A rich, interactive, user-friendly interface		Many of the tools, websites and applications are developed with user consultation, leading to developments based on user needs and wants.	One of the best ideas I've seen recently that covers this is http://www.netvibes.com/wesch . This concept is explained further here: http://kev-brace.blogspot.com/2008/07/knowledge-able.html Personalisation is key in the use of online media. The iGoogle homepage allows users to create their own look and feel, and access material from a wide range of sources http://www.google.co.uk/ig . You can do a similar thing with www.bloglines.com/ that aggregates RSS feeds or http://www.pageflakes.com/ . RSS feeds can be combined to push the web to you, here's an example I have created from a feed of my blog, my bookmarks and my wiki all together http://tinyurl.com/27t29x
Elements of social networking		Whilst not necessarily a requisite, the social elements of these technologies are important in generating the engagement and user data.	Two new free social networking tools that "we've" used are www.ning.com & www.crowdvine.com, both of these are a bit like Facebook or Myspace, but with less distractions and are also closed communities. Google groups http://groups.google.com/ provide a simple solution, that you can add Google docs and Google sites onto to create a modular platform and network. I know some people who have experimented with ecto : http://www.ectolearning.com/ecto2/Default.aspx A slightly more elaborate (Open Source) solution might make use of is the http://elgg.org/ platform, which is a social network of blogs. Brighton University have their own social network : http://community.brighton.ac.uk/ West Suffolk College have used these tools to create a platform : http://wscelearning.blogspot.com/ & http://newlearning.wordpress.com/2007/09/07/who-wants-web-20/