We have been having quite a bit of fun in my Advanced Technology in Schools course. A big part of the course is exploring the magnificent array of on-line tools for teachers.

Our usual modus operandi is to introduce a class of tools or services–wikis, blogs, video hosting, social bookmarking, mindmapping, etc.–and each person in the class takes a tool and works with it for a while. Then they prepare a short demonstration of the tool or service for the class (we used jing for some, and in-class presentations for some). A blog post is also prepared and posted in our community blog.

Because I have a small number of people in the class, I made it a rule that there could be no duplicates when selecting tools or services for review. So every time we start a new topic, I create a forum for students to “claim” their tool or service. A proper claim requires the name of the tools to be specified in the subject line and a link to the tool to be placed in the text.

It is amusing to watch the race to stake a claim. We all laugh about it, but the competition is fierce! And woe unto the absent student . .

As part of the exploration and documentation process, each student posted a discussion topic in a social bookmarking forum on our Moodle course. They gave a run down of the major features and linked to the site. Then, as they gave their presentation, we all logged in and started a reply. We took notes, added questions, mentioned the things we liked, or the things we disliked as the presentation proceeded. It was rather like organized back-channeling.

The idea is that each student will be able to use our shared document from google docs, the original post, and the notes provided by every other member of the class to create a blog post reviewing this particular bookmarking service and its potential for professional or K-12 classroom use.

These reviews will be published in our community on eduspaces.net with a tag of “social bookmarking”.

At the end of the class, we voted on the social bookmarking service that we thought would best suit our needs and diigo.com won. Everyone signed up and by Monday we should have all “friended” each other and started sharing bookmarks!

I have been struggling somewhat in figuring out the most sensible order for introducing web 2.0 tools in a 3 week course. Should I start with the goal (personal learning environments) and then explore the different venues for creating a PLE? Or start with the tools and end up with a good application for using them as a professional growth tool?

In three weeks, we don’t have a lot of time to grow in our use of tools such as blogging or social bookmarking, so it seemed more reasonable to start with the tools and applications of those tools, albeit in a rather separated manner, and then end up with a glimpse of what the future might hold (the PLE).

At this moment, I have planned to begin with Social Bookmarking (how to effectively collect information and find it again later!) and then segue into blogs and wikis. We do have a few non-web-2.0 things to cover as well. I want to show the students some whiteboard/web conferencing software; eXe and basic e-learning design principles; take some time to look at e-portfolios; and get an introduction to using an LMS (moodle, in our case).

If we can, we are going to read a manuscript from a colleague and provide some feedback on topics we cover in the class. I think the students will find it interesting to correspond with the author!

I am pleased to be teaching the Advanced Technology in Schools course again.  This one doesn’t come around very often, and it is one of my favorite courses to teach.  That is probably because I learn as much as anyone!

We are working in an intense, 3 week format.  About half the work will be done on-line and half in a computer lab on campus.  We focus on web 2.0 technologies and consider how those things can be used to engage students in communication, collaboration, and reflection.

This class uses two parallel moodle courses.  One with assignments and grades, where students have the student role and the instructor has editingteacher rights.  The other is a true, shared course and everyone in the class has editingteacher rights.  We keep the resources in the shared course and part of the fun is for everyone in the class to post resources and links so they will become part of the course the next time.

We will be experiencing the usual topics–blogs, wikis, social networking applications–as well as a variety of collaborative and multimedia tools to enhance learning.  I hope that each student will, at the least, contribute new artifacts to a digital portfolio and, at most, embark upon the creation of a personal learning environment woven together with a variety of tools.

We use a shared blog on eduspaces.net, mostly because there are some social networking tools there and I have been a member of that community for some time.  Hopefully, some other eduspaces members will drop in and comment on the student’s posts from time to time.

So if you are interested in technology and education and have a mind to do so,  please join the csc3315 community at eduspaces and participate with us!  We will be active for the remainder of the month of May (2008).