Web 2.0 Strategies for Teaching and Learning
Constance Pollard
Boise State University
Richard Pollard
University of Idaho
The term Web 2.0 originated in late 2004 (O'Reilly, 2005) and quickly became the “buzzword” that best portrayed the evolution of the Web from its original, more static nature (Web 1.0) to a more dynamic, participatory environment (Web 2.0). This second generation of Internet-based services has transformed the Web from a collection of websites to an infrastructure supporting user participation, social interaction and collaboration. The paradigm shift to Web 2.0 has been a dramatic one featuring an emphasis on sharing and creating content and a move away from simply retrieving constant, unchanging content. Today’s Internet users are not satisfied with merely viewing Web pages; with Web 2.0 tools, they are able to actually create content and interact with the Web and their peers.
The explosion of Web 2.0 technologies has progressed steadily over the last several years and most notably features the ability of the user to engage in a more personal, interactive Web. Web 2.0 technology allows one to run applications on the Internet eliminating the need to have the application installed on a computer. The range of tools available is a comprehensive one including everything from word processing tools, databases and spreadsheets to collaborative tools such as wikis and weblogs. Using Web 2.0 technology, one can create documents, share video and movies, record podcasts, develop an online course, chat with colleagues, and organize Web content. In fact, the list of Web 2.0 applications is growing so rapidly that it is difficult to keep up with every new tool and its possible uses for teaching and learning.
Educational Uses of Web 2.0
Of course, with the advent of each new Web 2.0 tool comes the subsequent discussion of how that tool can be used in education. Lauded as a new wave of innovation for educators, Web 2.0 applications are being used in a variety of ways (Boulos, Maramba, & Wheeler, 2006; Williams & Jacobs, 2004). This article provides an overview of educational uses of Web 2.0 programs that transform the classroom into a virtual e-learning workspace.
Social Software
In the broadest sense, social software includes all Web-based programs that facilitate interaction among users allowing them to work together and share data with others. These programs promote social human contact through computer-mediated communication and include such Web-based communication tools as weblogs, wikis, instant messaging, social bookmarking, social networks and virtual worlds.
For educators, the benefits of social software for communicating, collaborating, creating and reflection make these programs obvious teaching strategies. Weblogs and wikis in particular have become more popular as mechanisms for enhancing class communication and collaboration. These programs provide a form of micro-publishing enabling users to reach a wider audience than the traditional classroom. The author, without knowledge of programming code, can publish material to the Web and instantly update that material.
Weblogs
Weblogs have been around as early as 1997 and quickly gained in popularity in the educational community (Williams & Jacobs, 2004). The online equivalent of a personal journal, the blog provides a Web-based mechanism for teachers to post class assignments and course materials as well as a way to structure class discussions. Students can use blogs to collaborate with students and teachers from any location. Through the medium of this user-friently technology, student work is showcased and communican and reflection are supported.
And how have instructors used blogging as an instructional strategy? One of the most common educational uses of blogs is to replace a class Web page in which the instructor can post assignments and pertinent links. Some teachers have utilitized blogs as a means to establish a community of learners encouranging their students to post their reflections on class discussions or reading material and then to comment on peer postings. The blog then becomes a mechanism for promoting discussion and debate, and often is motivational for students who might not otherwise participate in the traditional classroom.
Blogs can also be used to stimulate discussion by having students post questions and inviting an expert to respond to those questions as one instructor (Olwell, 2008) did to teach about the use of oral history in historical research. Students were required to read a book about the Vietnam war and then post their questions to a class blog. The author of the text then responded to the questions over a period of a couple of weeks.
Of course, the potential academic applications of blogging have not been exhausted, and a search of the Web will disclose innovative methods educators are employing. Recently, an experiment in using an academic blog to peer-review a scholarly book was reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education (Young, 2008).
Wikis
And weblogs are not the only Web based collaborative tool available; wikis also provide a user-friendly Web-based environment, but with more versatility than a weblog. Unlike the blog, which features a more chronological listing of posts and responses, the wiki is a non-linear workspace for students allowing for multiple contributors. It is easy to move around a wiki webpage and quickly link from other pages. Typically authored and edited by a number of people, the wiki is the ideal tool for encouraging collaboration and showcasing student work. The Center for Scholarly Technology (CST) at USC identified six general approaches for how wikis could be implemented in higher education (Higdon, 2005):
- student journaling – demonstrate writing profieicney, understanding of conceptual knowledge and refelction
- personal portfolios – make connections among artifacts including documents, images, Web resources, audio/video files, and presentations
- collaborative knowledge base - create a shared knowledge base of information particularly as a group project
- research coordination and collaboration – using the wiki as a collective digital space for ideas, drafts, timelines, and study results
- curricular and cross-disciplinary coordination – common area for faculty and personnel to organize common course assets
- conference and colloquia Web site corodination – area for organizing events and/or providing access toc conference presenters and attendees to add and edit content
Wikis can enhance the learning experience by providing a rich digital environment in which learners are directly engaged and able to interact with others. Wikis, as social software, can involve learners in the construction of knowledge and with the ability to collaboratively engage in dialogue (Parker & Chao, 2007).
Virtual Worlds
Some instructors have taken advantage of another social software program that provides a virtual world environment ripe for learner itneraction and collaboartion. A virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment in which interaction is accomplished through the use of avatars. These three-dimensional graphical representations are able to communicate through text and/or sound.
The most popular of the virtual worlds, Second Life, has quickly become the top choice of educators and researchers with over 200 (Villano, 2008) established educational campuses. Educators currently teaching in Second Life cite similar benefits attributed to wikis and blogs, namely that it is a mechanism for enhancing student learning, promoting collaboration, and building student and faculty communities. The ability to create objects and actually have a classroom experience with students in a virtual environment make Second Life a unique Web-based learning environment. Moreover, instructors are able to build three-dimensional, interactive lessons that grab students’ attention much the same as popular computer games. The educational uses for virtual worlds are growing and include such things as: role playing, scavenger hunts, simulations, experiencing a historical period first hand, building objects, synchronous lectures and discussions. Sometimes termed, immersive education, students are actually able to walk in someone else’s shoes as in University of California, Davis (Elliott, 2007) island in Second Life where invited visitors get the chance to experience the frightening world of schizophrenia.
Current research efforts in the Second Life environment are focusing on determining best instructional practices to be employed in this unique virtual setting and the effects of immersive education on teaching and learning. More and more, educators are moving to Second Life to provide another platform for instruction particularly for their online learners.
More Web 2.0 Applications
The social software tools discussed thus far in this article provide Web-based environments conducive to teaching and learning. Educators and researchers have developed innovative uses for these tools in an attempt to enhance the learning environment and expand opportunities for student creativity and critical thinking. However, these are only a few the Web 2.0 programs available for instructional purposes, and certainly they are not the only programs that can be used collaboratively.
Online Application Tools
Anyone with an Internet access has a profusion of online tools available that once were only available when installed on a computer. These tools make it possible to create documents, spreadsheets, databases and presentations. Additionally, it is possible to store and share files online. On the surface, these tools provide access to students to complete assignments that require specific applications, but the added ability to share makes it possible for students to collaborate on projects – actually sharing files and editing them. Of course, the sharing capability can extend to include all students, even students who are geographically located at great distances. And these programs only scratch the surface of the Web 2.0 tools available for enhancing instruction. There are a number of sites offering the free use of online application tools, but this article will focus on the Google applications as they are very versatile and especially popular in the educational community.
Google Docs
Establishing a Google account is a relatively easy task requiring only a few minutes of your time. A Google account allows you to create, edit and upload documents spreadsheets and presentations or to create new ones from scratch. Files are stored online and can be easily accessed from anywhere as long as you have a Web browser and Internet access. Additionally, you can invite people to share your documents and make changes. The programs have many of the formatting capabilities already familiar such as toolbar buttons to bold, underline, etc. The possibilities for students using Google Docs range from assignments that require specific programs to complete (i.e. spreadsheet for a math assignment) to more collaborative, group assignments featuring group presentations and/or reports. Google Docs allows multiple users to co-write articles and collaborate on all kinds of projects.
A presentation can be shared in real-time or be available whenever needed by students so anyone around the globe can “virtually” attend. Presentations can be more interactive as during an online presentation, those attending can participate in a chat room to the right side of the presentation slides. Multiple users can view or edit a presentation online, and are able to embed a presentation in a Web page or blog so that it can be readily accessed.
Of course, educators have discovered many uses for Google Docs, one of which is to use it as a platform for collaboration on research projects. A recent report (Dekeyser & Watson, 2007) recommends Google Docs as an ideal collaborative research tool with the authors reporting the benefits of the online editing features and the ability to support multiple authors.
RSS Feed Readers and/or Aggregators
Although the acronym RSS can refer to Rich Site Summary or RDF Site Summary, the most common terminology associated with RSS is Real Simple Syndication. This technology, using a form of XML, allows the user to subscribe to content on the Web. Initially, that content was online news sources that syndicated their latest published articles, making them available to subscribers. Today, the variety of organizations offering users the opportunity to subscribe has grown, and is continuing to grow at a tremendous rate. A great deal of information is disseminated across the Web through the use of RSS technology.
In much the same way as you might peruse your newspaper scanning for those sections that are of most interest, RSS feeds scan the headlines from Web sources to which you subscribe. So, instead of having to go through every page of your newspaper, you can view the headlines on your computer screen, click on the headline for a synopsis of the article, and if it interests you, click to the Web to access the original, full article. In this way, the content on the Web to which you subscribe actually comes to you.
Using RSS allows you to organize frequently updated content so that it can easily be retrieved; and, of course, the content is not limited to news sources. One of the first uses of RSS feeds, and growing quickly in popularity, is to subscribe to weblogs. Moreover, the type of content currently being retrieved through RSS feeds is expanding and includes everything from PDF files to audio and video files.
Although RSS has been around since 1999, it wasn’t until 2003, with the tremendous growth of weblogs, that more and more sites have become syndicated. And, the number of applications using feeds is increasing daily, making it a valuable technology resource for educators and students. Avoiding information overload is often touted as a benefit of RSS technology. Surfing the Web for information is an overwhelming task for many people requiring that they scan whole sites looking for pertinent information. RSS feeds take over that task for you focusing on your particular needs and continually updating information as it becomes available.
An added advantage to subscribing to RSS feeds is the anonymity afforded to the user who does not have to disclose an email address when subscribing and is thus not increasing exposure to other dangers such as viruses or identity theft. And, finally, you do not have to formally “unsubscribe” from an RSS feed; you can easily delete the RSS feed from the aggregator. The idea of subscribing to RSS feeds may at first seem a little daunting, but it is a technology that is easily applied. You need only to set up an aggregator (sometimes called a news aggregator, RSS reader, feed reader, news reader, or feed aggregator) to collect the RSS feeds to which you subscribe.
Setting up an account with an aggregator, such as Google Reader, takes just a few minutes of your time, and learning how to use it is relatively basic. Additionally, Google Reader provides each user with a public page where one can share articles with students and/or colleagues by merely providing them with the link to the page. Instructors can easily keep students updated with the most recent developments in their discipline area by simply updating their public page and ensuring that students check that link on a timely basis.
Conclusion
This article presented some of the most popular Web 2.0 programs used in education and examined ideas for incorporating these technologies as teaching strategies. The capability of these tools for extending the walls of the classroom and providing an interactive, e-learning workspace brings another dimension to teaching and learning. The Web-enhanced environment provides a multitude of possibilities for student interaction and collaboration as well as a means of providing a virtual instructional environment.
References
Alexander, B. (2006). A new wave of innovation for teaching and learing. Educause Review , 41 (2).
Boulos, M. N., Maramba, I., & Wheeler, S. (2006). Wikis, blogs and podcasts: A new generaton of Web-based tools for virtual
collaborative clincal practice and education. BX Medical Education , 6 (41).
Dekeyser, S., & Watson, R. (2007). Extending Google Docs to collaborate on research papers. Retrieved April 10, 2008, from
http://www.sci.usq.edu.au/staff/dekeyser/googledocs.pdf
Elliott, J. (2007, May 9). What it's like to have schizophrenia. Retrieved March 18, 2008, from
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6453241.stm
Higdon, J. (2005). Teaching, learning, and other uses for wikis in academia. Campus Technology .
Mengel, M. A., Simonds, R., & Houck, R. (n.d.). Educational uses of second life. Retrieved April 11, 2008, from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOFU9oUF2HA
Olwell, R. (2008, January). Taking history personally: How blogs connect students outside the classroom. Retrieved April 15,
2008, from http://www.historians.org/Perspectives/issues/2008/0801/0801tea1.cfm
Parker, K. R., & Chao, J. T. (2007). Wiki as a teaching tool. Interdisciplinary Journal of knowledge and learning Objects , 3.
Villano, M. (2008, January 1). 13 tips for virtual world teaching. Campus Technology , pp. 1-5.
Williams, J. B., & Jacobs, J. (2004). Exploring the use of blogs as learning spaces in the higher education sector. Australian
Journal of Educational Technology , 20 (2), 232-247.
Young, J. R. (2008, April 2). Experimental use of blog-based peer review gives mixed results. The Chronicle of Higher
Education. pp. 1-2.
|
