Web 2.0 Technology:
Teaching in the "Clouds"
Alexandra M. Pickett, State University of New York
What might it look like to teach and learn in the "clouds"? In this presentation we
will let go and look up at the use of student-generated content, the social web,
and web 2.0 to enhance your instruction and engage your students.
Have you thought about using blogs in your course so that your students can
reflect or make their thinking visible to you? How would you assess and give
them feedback? Have you thought about empowering your students to peer
evaluate each other? What might that look like? Have you thought about
podcasting or screencasting to provide engaging online student feedback? Could
video enhance how you present your content? What would that look like? Have
you ever wanted to open your course and invite the world in? Would you dare? I
teach a fully online master's level course where the majority of the content,
interaction, and feedback for the course take place in the “clouds” outside the
context of the course management system.
This presentation http://prezi.com/yyzcr9_btox6/ will show you how I am
exploring what it really means to be student-centered - how I design online
interaction and online learning activities that make my students make their
thinking visible to me by having them reflect, apply, report, explain, defend,
refute, question, self-assess, peer-evaluate, summarize, synthesize, and analyze
their engagement with course content and as a member of the online class
community. I will show you what happens when several web 2.0 technologies
(twitter, voicethread, diigo, edublogs, jing, meebome, seesmic, youtube,
podomatic, audacity, polldaddy) are stitched together into one fully online course
in moodle. I will talk about how I did it and why, and what the students thought
about it. And I will also invite you to explore selected tools for yourself, and to join
my netoworks, so you can share with me what you know and what you learn.
In this presentation I will also discuss my criteria for the evaluation of instructional
technology/tools. The technology must assist you to meet an instructional
objective better, faster, safer, easier, or cheaper. I will share my lists of cooltools,
videos, blogs and resources: http://etap687.edublogs.org/2010/01/22/114/ . I will
also demonstrate how to be more effective at presenting engaging online course
content, how to engage students by creating authentic opportunities for student-
centered interaction/collaboration and building community and how to provide
more engaging student feedback and evaluation.
This presentation will ask you to step into the "cloud" with me to consider
possibilities for your own instruction. I will show you my “cloud” and how I
explore, test, and evaluate the instructional potential and use of web2.0 cooltools
to enhance online instruction, interaction, and engagement, how I have explored
the effects of peer and self-evaluation and the public and social representation of
self, how I have enhanced a fully online primarily text-based asynchronous
teaching and learning environment to provide student access to resources and
content they generated and contributed to the class so that they will persist
beyond the end of the term, and how I have blurred the boundaries of my online
course to expose my students to the world “outside” the walls of our online
course, and have invited the world “in” to our course.
Examples from my online course
http://etap687.edublogs.org – professor and student blogs for ETAP687.
http://etap687.edublogs.org/category/cooltools/ – list of cooltools.
http://etap687.edublogs.org/course-tour/ – tour of ETAP687 (example of
jing screencast).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvtxAkPP1xM – ETAP687 welcome.
http://voicethread.com/share/450225/ &
http://voicethread.com/share/38310/ – ice-breaking activities for ETAP687.
http://twitter.com/ETAP687 – ETAP687 text course announcements.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqRqYDEfKIs &
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxrmCuNX2bg – video course
announcements.
http://video.seesmic.com/videos/zoJ4Uxx9JO – ETAP687 video course
announcement.
http://groups.diigo.com/groups/ETAP687 – shared references for
ETAP687.
http://www.gcast.com/u/alexandrapickett/main , http://tinyurl.com/knqap9
& http://tinyurl.com/34vvg52 – ETAP687 playlist of podcasted audio
student feedback.
http://etap687.edublogs.org/2009/07/09/build-it-activity-feedback-from-
modules-1-2/ – pod- and screen-casted student feedback.
http://www.gcast.com/u/alexandrapickett/main – feedback
http://alexandrapickett.podomatic.com/ – feedback
http://www.screencast.com/t/whCXu3oj4b – feedback.
http://www.screencast.com/t/gvb43kilynw – response to question and how
to instructions.
http://www.screencast.com/t/P8rpgTNt1O – clarification.
http://www.screencast.com/t/hhrJp3h2 – instructions.
http://etap687.edublogs.org/2009/12/17/my-discussion-post-grading-
rubric/ - discussion grading rubric.
http://etap687.edublogs.org/2008/06/02/reflections-blog-post-grading-
rubric/ – blog grading rubric.
http://tinyurl.com/5l83or – exemplar courses for observation (faculty
podcasts) for students in ETAP687.
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=1106177&page=1
– my ratings.
http://etap687.edublogs.org/2008/08/26/i-teach-like-a-girl/ &
http://etap687.edublogs.org/2009/08/11/83/ – student comments/quotes
about course.
Cooltools
Edublogs – http://edublogs.org – free blogs for educators (wordpress).
Voicethread – http://voicethread.com/ – collaborative, multimedia slide
show.
Diigo – http://diigo.com – social bookmarking.
Twitter – http://twitter.com – microblog.
Gcast – http://www.gcast.com – podcasting.
Voki - http://www.voki.com/ - avatar.
http://etap687.edublogs.org/2010/04/07/hi/
Posturous – http://posturous.com - blog you can post anything to via email
& have it update other stuff.
Ning – a social platform. http://tinyurl.com/28spskh - alternatives to ning.
Evernote - http://www.evernote.com/ - online notebook.
Rockyou – http://www.rockyou.com– example animation made with
Rockyou – http://etap687.edublogs.org/secondlife-if-my-avatar-could-talk/
Animoto – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP40bLdmJ_4 – example
slide animation created w/animoto – http://animoto.com/projects
Wordle – http://www.wordle.net/ – word clouds.
Tagul - http://tagul.com/- w0rdle alternative, the difference is that the
words in the tag cloud generated are clickable!!!
Flavorsme - flavors.me – formerly meeid, social media aggregator and
online résumé.
Prezi – http://prezi.com/ – zooming prezo editor alternative to powerpoint.
SLN teaching presence survey – http://sln.suny.edu/teachingsurvey –
improve your online course!
Audacity – http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ – record and edit sound.
Skype – http://about.skype.com/ – voice/video/chat/file share.
Jing – http://www.jingproject.com/ – screen capture.
Seesmic – http://video.seesmic.com/ – online video blog/video threaded
asynchronous discussion.
The flip – http://www.theflip.com/ – video camera.
Youtube quick capture –
http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_quick_capture – capture video
directly into youtube.
Polldaddy – http://www.polldaddy.com/ – online polls.
Mogulus – http://www.mogulus.com/ – watch, produce, record live web
broadcast.
Ustream – http://www.ustream.tv/ – web broadcast.
Facebook groups and pages –
http://whyfacebook.com/2008/11/25/facebook-groups-vs-facebook-pages-
which-is-best/ – social network.
Flickr groups – http://www.flickr.com/groups/ – group foto sharing.
Drop.io – http://drop.io/about – online collaboration and file sharing.
Dropbox – http://dropbox.com/tour - dropbox is software that lets you
store, share, back up & sync your files online & across computers.
Meebo/meebome – http://www.meebo.com/ – web page chat.
Mindmeister – http://www.mindmeister.com/ – online mind mapping.
Moodle – http://moodle.org/ – open source learning management system.
Rate my Professor – http://www.ratemyprofessors.com – Prof. rating
directory.
Second Life – https://join.secondlife.com &
http://secondlife.com/support/downloads.php – 3D user-created virtual
world.
Flickr – http://www.flickr.com/ – photo sharing.
Slideshare – http://slideshare.net/ – slide and document sharing.
Web 2.0 web applications index – www.go2web20.net – web 2.0 directory.
Map of the world 2.0 – http://www.appappeal.com/web-2-0-application-
world-mosaic/ – web 2.0 directory.
Videos
http://www.youtube.com/user/SUNYlearningnetwork
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=10135682177CBD2D – PSWC
Competencies for Online Teaching Success (COTS). &
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=2B2D95F792BD3802 – PSWC
Strategies for Managing the Online Workload.
A Vision on Students Today – http://youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o
Did you know? http://youtube.com/watch?v=rjKBsfk_O8c
The Machine is Us/ing Us - http://youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g
Blogs
http://etap687.edublogs.org – my personal blog/course blog.
http://slneducation.edublogs.org/ - my work blog.
Articles
Ten Ways Online Education Matches, or Surpasses, Face-to-Face Learning,
Kassop, Mark - The Technology Source Archives, at the University of
North Carolina, May/June 2003,
http://technologysource.org/article/ten_ways_online_education_matches_
or_surpasses_facetoface_learning/
Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0, John Seeley
Brown & Richard P. Adler (2008), Educause Review, vol. 43, issue 1.
http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/MindsonFireOp
enEducationt/45823 or
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0811.pdf
“Do online students dream of electric teachers?” Jason Scorza (2005).
Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Vol. 9, issue 2.
http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/jaln/v9n2/pdf/v9n2_scorza.pdf
(My) Three Principles of Effective Online Pedagogy, William E. Plez, JALN,
Volume 8, Issue 3 - June 2004.
The Role of Questions in Teaching, Thinking and Learning, Foundation for
Critical Thinking, 2007.
http://www.criticalthinking.org/page.cfm?PageID=524&CategoryID=68
Assessment and Online Teaching, Australian Flexible Learning Quick Guide
Series, http://pre2005.flexiblelearning.net.au/guides/assessment.pdf
Join my networks!
1. http://www.twitter.com/alexpickett
2. http://www.slideshare.net/alexandrapickett/slideshows
3. http://www.youtube.com/user/alexandrapickett
4. http://video.seesmic.com/alexandrapickett
5. http://www.diigo.com/profile/alexandrapickett &
http://del.icio.us/alexandrapickett/
6. http://www.screencast.com/users/alexandrapickett
7. http://twitter.com/slnsolsummit & http://slnsolsummit2009.edublogs.org/
8. http://flickr.com/photos/alexandrapickett
9. http://friendfeed.com/alexandrapickett &
http://facebook.com/alexandrapickett
10. http://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandrapickett
11. Alejandra Subagja in Second Life:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/SUNY%20Learning%20Network/128/128/0
12. Skype: alexandrapickett
13. http://groups.diigo.com/group/slnonline
14. http://slnfacultyonline.ning.com/