Using Web 2.0 applications in the classroom: #2 Social Bookmarking to organize and share resources

What is social bookmarking?
Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet with the help of metadata, typically in the form of tags that collectively and/or collaboratively become a folksonomy. Folksonomy is also called social tagging, "the process by which many users add metadata in the form of keywords to shared content".
(definition of social bookmarking by Wikipedia)

To get a better idea about what social bookmarking is and how it is advantageous, watch this short video from the Common Craft Show.



Getting started with social bookmarking using Diigo


Diigo is a social bookmarking service established in 2006. It's late arrival on the web compared to other social bookmarking services like Delicious (2003) means it has a smaller user base, but has learnt from the inadequacies of earlier services and thereby provides other features which other social bookmarking services do not - including special educator accounts that allow teachers to set up class groups. To get a good overview of what Diigo offers, get me to give you a demo, or just watch this promo video.



The advantages of using Diigo in the classroom are:

1. Bookmarks are stored online and can be accessed from any computer.
2. Teachers can share links with students (no more writing long URLs on the board) and students can share links with each other.
3. Bookmarks are categorised and searchable for simple retrieval later on.
4. Important parts of pages can be highlighted to make located specific information easily retrievable later.
5. Sticky notes can be attached to highlighted sections of pages. This means that with the web and Diigo, a complete replacement for manual (handwritten) note-taking in research is available. Indeed, once a student is familiar with Diigo, the process of note-taking in research becomes much more efficient.
6. Educator accounts are available (upon application) which allows a teacher to have a "teacher's console". This allows a teacher to set up class group. The class group can easily share links and message each other in forums. The teacher can see and monitor all students' bookmarks.
7. If students are submitting work online in the form of blogs, teachers can use the highlighting and sticky notes to offer comments to students about their work.
8. Diigo has "webslides" which allows users to assemble links in a list and then play them back as slides (eg: like MS PowerPoint).

For a more extended demonstration of how to use the highlighting and note-taking feature of Diigo check out this video by a teacher.

Using Web 2.0 applications in the classroom: #1 Introduction

What is Web 2.0?

"Web 2.0" is a catchphrase coined by web gurus at O'Reilly's to describe the revolution in web technologies that arose around the mid-00s. Essentially it is about the arrival of the read/write web - websites that weren't just about disseminating media to the user (eg: portals), but actively required the user to participate in the process of creating the information on those sites (eg: blogs, wikis, social networking, social bookmarking). This has coincided with greater intergration of audio and video media with the web. Therefore a site like YouTube is not just about videos, but is actually a Web 2.0 site in which the users upload and share video with one another.

Here is some further information that will provide an audio-visual introduction to what Web 2.0 is and it's significance.



Social Networking in Plain English (by Lee LeFever, Common Craft Show)


Social Media in Plain English (by Lee LeFever, Common Craft Show)


The Machine is Us/ing Us. (Michael Wesch, Kansas State University)



How is Web 2.0 relevant to education?

For a whole lot of reasons. Here are some:

1. Nearly all students are already using Web 2.0 applications and are frequently more knowledgeable than their teachers. Kids intuitively understand and accept that the Web is an integral part of their lives and can see how it is useful to them. They cannot understand why teachers and the education system in general don't get this point. (Read this article and this article for reports on student usage of the Web.)
2. The workforce of 10 years from now - which we are supposed to be preparing students for - will be even more reliant upon web technologies than today. To deprive students of the information literacy associated with our intellectual disciplines is to inherently disable students. Students may be using the Web, but this does not mean they are using it well or are capable of identifying reliable sources, etc.
3. By not utilizing the resources and services available on the Web we are depriving our classes of some very rich resources and teaching tools - nearly all of which are available for no cost.
4. As we enter the Information Age teaching will move away from being about locating and reproducing scarce information resources to dealing with an overabundance of information resources and identifying the most reliable and useful of these. For this we will be required to teach information literacy skills, including search strategies, identifying reliable sources, producing outputs (eg: essays, slide presentations, graphics, films) utilizing web applications and colloborative online networks.

The necessity of developing information literacy (identification of reliable information, processes, organizing, storing, retrieving and synthesizing in an online environment) brings us to the point where we need to get started. One of the best places to get started is with the next post which introduces social bookmarking in the classroom. Go to

Using Web 2.0 applications in the classroom: #2 Social Bookmarking to organize and share resources

How has Australia's colonial past influenced Australian society and culture?

• Investigation: Select an event* in Australian history between 1788 and 1901. Investigate this event and report on how it has influenced Australian society since 1901.

(* You may choose a specific event, or a year in Australian history, or a development that occurred in a particular place over a few years. eg: Victorian goldrush)

As part of this task you will be required to submit an annotated bibliography via diigo (utilizing the common tag "9SS_1" - you may use other tags in addition to this) or a printed copyof an annotated bibliography. You need to have a two pages of notes prior to writing up your answer in class in week 10.

To complete this task with high marks you will need to:

• choose a major event (from the period 1788 to 1901) that has influenced subsequent Australian history and society, and conduct research into this topic.
• demonstrate that you have a detailed and in-depth knowledge of at this event.
• develop an argument explaining how this event influenced australian culture or society (eg: government, economy) during the 20th Century.
  
• provide plenty of accurate, relevant factual evidence to support your argument and historical examples.
  
• be able to discuss the political, social, economic and/or cultural effects of this event upon subsequent Australian history, including into the 20th century. You need to consider both short-term and long-term effects.
• write up your answer in essay format, including an introduction (stating your argument about how a major event influenced the course of Australian history) and a conclusion (summarising your arguments main point).

Remember you need to write a well-researched article, supported by evidence that persuades the reader that a major event in Australia's past has influenced later developments (whether n the fields of economics, politics, culture or society). You argument needs be consistent and reference relevant source material.

British schools to teach about Web 2.0 applications

• British pupils to get lessons on Twitter: report - Yahoo!7 News

  Children in British junior schools could soon be taking lessons in Internet applications like Twitter under proposals to change school curriculums, the Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday. Under the shakeup, schools would require students to have a good understanding of blogging, podcasts, Twitter and Wikipedia, the paper said.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Whilst education systems are generally slow to adapt to change, some systems are not as slow as others and the British education system looks like it has decided to be relevant by teaching students how to understand and use existing web communications technologies.

My Family in History

By investigating our families' histories, we can gain a better understanding of modern history and how some of the big events, trends and changes of the past century have impacted real people who are known to us. The aim of this investigation is to learn more about the 20th Century (and on) through learning more about our families' histories.

First of all, draw up a family tree which includes three generations of you family - including grandparents, parents, and you and your siblings. (Note: you can use ancestry.com.au to do this for you neatly with all the data required.)

The research the effects of the following upon your family:

1. a major technological change that has changed the way we live or work.
2. a major event (e.g.: a war, a recession, a natural disaster).
3. migration, either from overseas or another part of Australia (and the reasons your family migrated).
4. social and/or cultural changes in society over time.

Then write up your findings explaining your family's history and how the above topics have effected your family.

(Remember! You are not required to discuss matters considered private or personal within your family. Use your judgement in what you include in your report.)

Change in the 20th Century

There was more change in the 20th Century than in any century previous to it. The Industrial Revolution combined with modern technology saw an exponential increase in the world's population, and for some, a dramatic increase in wealth and a change to lifestyles and culture.

Your task is to identify some of the key changes and symbols of the 20th Century. Provide a brief explanation (short answer response) of what changes were brought about by each.

You will research and describe:

1. 3 international conflicts (and name the warring nations, what they were fighting over and who claimed victory).
   
2. 3 inventions that changed the way people lived.
3. 3 big social or political changes that occurred in Australia.
   
4. 3 classic films or songs that changed the world.
5. 1 economic recession (when did it happen and what caused it?)
6. 1 fashion/trend that became popular for a whole generation.

Type these up in your blogs and discuss with your friends. When you get home on the weekend, ask your parents or grandparents about what it was like to live through these times.

Creative problem solving for a sustainable future

"We cannot solve today's problems on the same scale that they were created."

The threats facing humanity and the global environment have never been greater than they are today. But neither has our abilities and powers to deal with problems on such a large scale. The outcome is largely dependent upon how we, the human family, react to the problems that we face, and we will not need only technology, but ethics, creativity and imagination to overcome challenges on such a large scale.

Inspiration: Watch this presentation by Ken Robinson and consider what he has to say about how schools kill creativity? What do you think? How will you develop your creativity?



Above and beyond that, have you ever wondered what really makes us human beings happy? Professor of Psychology, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has and come to the well-researched conclusion that money and possessions cannot make us happy, and that lasting satisfaction only comes about through engaging in challenges that bring about a state of "flow".



The Task

You are to select a problem confronting the future of humanity that has a social, environmental, economic or political dimension. You need to and investigate this issue and devise a hypothesis as to what the main causes of this problem are and therefore, what the principle solutions must be. You may need to modify and adapt the investigation according to the nature of the evidence and the resources available. In outlining your solutions, you must demonstrate that your understanding that decisions on environmental, political and legal issues are influenced by and impact on natural, economic and social systems. Finally you need to analyse the validity and consistency of conclusions made by yourself or others according to the sufficiency of evidence gathered and avowed values positions.