EDTEC467: Emerging Web Technologies and Learning
Week 2: Learning and Web 2.0
Learning and Web 2.0
Various terms are being used for the set of technologies, tools, and practices that are currently part of the virtual environment including Web 2.0, two-way Web, interactive Web, social media, etc., but all of them move away from the traditional notion of the Web as a one-way push mechanism to a two-way discussion or interaction mechanism where the line between consumers and producers of content is becoming indistinguishable.
The two main texts this week focus on talking about how the use of these tools shifts our perspective on learning and instruction, with some examples to illustrate these changes. A main focus of this week's thinking and discussion is to distill some of the significant processes/interactions that characterize learning and facilitating (or teaching/instruction, if we want to be more traditional) in Web 2.0.
To this end, we'll be using Diigo to comment on the Brown and Adler articles and then using blogs to document our discussion around these texts. To make the process of reading/commenting more manageable for the semester, you will be engaging in the blog activity in groups of 4 or 5 -- you are welcome to read and respond to as many blogs as you want, but knowing that we will be engaging in multiple activities each week (and also to get some sense of the practice of bloggers who follow certain blogs consistently) I ask that you definitely take time to read and respond to the blogs of the 3 other members in your group every week.
Activities for week 2
Please follow this sequence of activities for this week.
Read texts
For this week, these are the activities we'll engage in:
- Read and use Diigo to comment on "Minds on Fire: Open education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0"
- Read and use Diigo to comment on "Learning, working and playing in the digital age"
- Read "10 techniques to get more comments on your blogs" and "How to write a great blog comment"
If you'd like to begin using Diigo to comment and highlight on the article, here are some quick steps on how to comment within the group:
If you've installed the Diigo toolbar in your browser, commenting is a relatively simple procedure. As you are reading each article, if you come across a section you'd like to comment on, select it and then click on the Highlight drop down menu item on the tool bar and select Highlight and Comment. A yellow sticky note will pop up. You can type your text and to make it accessible only to the 467 group, you can click on the status drop down selection and select edtec467fa14 under Groups. This will make your comments visible to anyone in this course. You can also comment on another person's comment by doing the following. When your mouse hovers over any highlighted part of the document, there's a little comment bubble on the top right side of the sticky note -- click on it, enter your comment and save it. If you want to edit your comment, you'll have to delete it by clcking on the trash icon and then adding a new comment.
Blog* and comment about the texts
Write a blog about the texts you read. You are welcome to comment on any aspect of the texts that you found thought provoking, important, useful (or not), and/or relevant to the topic of learning and education. Also in an effort to try to coalesce a group conversation around some key themes, I'd also like to solicit your reaction to the following questions in your blog post.
- How is learning presumed to occur within the context of Web 2.0?
- What are the differences in the role of the learner and the facilitator as compared to 'traditional' learning environments? (Do you consider these roles and processes viable/valid given your philosophy of learning?)
- What implications do these shifts have for how we think about designing learning environments?
Please also begin a conversation (via comments) with atleast two of your group members, and more of your peers if you so wish. Please check the guidelines and syllabus descriptions for commenting, if you have additional questions.
(A reminder that your first blog post should be posted no later than Saturday night and your first comment to your peers no later than Monday morning. This will allow some time for a conversation to develop and sustain before we move to the next week).
Post your learning philosophy and wordle
Reflect on your philosophy of learning. Based on your education and experiences, what is your view about learning and how it occurs? If you are aware of any philosophies/theories of learning, which would you subscribe to? What is the role of the learner and the teacher in a learning environment? How do you know if learning is occurring and what are visible indicators or signs of learning? What is the role of technology in learning? Respond to these questions in a blog post that you should title Personal learning philosophy v1. Identify 3-5 key words that represent your post and attach those to your blog.
After you have posted your blog, go to wordle.net (or any other word cloud software that you are familiar with). Click Create your own, then copy and paste your blog text into the wordle box and voila... you should have a word cloud when you press the Submit button. Either print as pdf or do a screen capture of your wordle (see additional instructions for saving or printing from Wordle) and then go back and insert this Wordle in your learning philosophy blog.
Please post this learning philosophy and wordle to your blog no later than Tuesday, 23:59 EST.
*Blog
If this is your first time writing a blog, here is some quick advice to get you started. You could consider a blog to be very much like an online notebook where you publish your thoughts and reflections for others to read. As it is a personal blog, I expect you will want to have your own style of writing and expressing (as long as it is respectful and readable). I don't have any requirements in terms of how you should write your blog -- I only ask that you reflect and expand on your thinking about the texts and also address the questions posed on the lessons page each week. You are welcome, and encouraged to add media (images, audio, videos, etc.,) and I also hope you will play around a bit with the blog templates available through sites.psu.edu to find a style that suits you. In addition, you might find the following resources helpful in writing a blog.
Here are links to blogs written by other bloggers that might spark some ideas as you consider writing your own blog:
- Will Richardson's blog (blog maintained by educator)
- The tempered radical (blog maintained by school teacher)
- Stephen Downes blog (blog maintained by an educational researcher)
Othere general blog posts of interest
- Ferlazzo's Why Teachers shouldn't blog ... and Why I do
- Gail Desler's Five Tips for Helping Students Become Better bloggers
- Schulten's Three Teachers Answers to Questions on Classroom Microblogging
Summary for Week 2
To be added at the end of Week 2 discussion