Social Web Technologies and Student Literacy

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Social Web Technologiesand Student Literacy

• Sandy Stuart-Bayer
• Library Media Specialist
• Lees Summit High School
• Lees Summit, MO

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The Social Web

• Whats all the fuss?
• On covers of major magazines
• Called the best Killer Apps since email.
• Silicon Valley is smiling again.

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The Social Web

• Should this effect how we educate?
• 1990s business community pointed us toward
  cooperative work for 21st century.
• Now, moving along in the21st century,
  user-centered sites bring a whole new meaning to
  cooperative learning.
• May be cooperating a thousand miles away.
• Learning through/with the social web is
  preparation for future employment, productivity,
  and life!

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The Social Web

• Aggregators
• Social Bookmarking
• Online Photo Galleries
• Videoblogging

• Blogs
• RSS
• Wikis
• Podcasting
• Screencasting

Vocabulary test on Friday! 8)
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The Read/Write Web

• Fulfilling Berners-Lees original vision
• Becoming a Society of Authorship
• All contributing knowledge and experiences to the
  larger body of knowledge(Ruskoff 2004)

• Our students are Digital Natives
• Our educators are primarily Digital Immigrants
• We cant afford to be out of touch with the ways
  our students learn!

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The Read/Write Web

• Has the potential to provide
• Real
• Rich
• Relevant
• Learning

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Blogging

• Comes from weblog
• Its creators changed it to we-blog, or just
  blog.
• BUT, its not just an online journal or diary
  entry anymore!

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Blogging

• Can be a
• Class portal (Teacher, Students, Parents)
• Online filing cabinet/portfolio
• Collaborative space
• At its best, reading writing that
• Promotes critical analytical thinking
• Promotes creative, intuitive thinking
• Is a medium for increasing exposure to quality
  information
• Combines the best of solitary reflection and
  social interaction

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A Few Examples

• Merediths Page
• (Slide of Merediths Page)
• The Reading Room (Northfield Mount Herman School)
• (Slide of The Reading Room)
• The View from A106
• (Slide of The View)

• The Secret Life of Bees
• (Slide of Secret Life of Bees)
• Gateway Readers Award Blog 06-07
• (Slide for Gateway)

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Creating a Blog- with blog hosting sites

• Gaggle (slides)
• Originally a safe email site
• Recently added blogs
• Safety features
• Requires waiting on ID and password
• Free version has ads and subscription version is
  expensive (but includes student email.)
• 21publish
• Created for communities of blogs
• Set up as a blog portal with individual blogs for
  class members
• Less user-friendly than the others

• Blogger (slides)
• The easiest to create and manage
• Nice templates
• Dashboard for managing blogs
• Excellent, but ITS BLOCKED!
• Edublogs (slides)
• Great for a blog or two.
• Allows dynamic and static pages also a
  wikispace.
• Less good for managing several blogs
• Was blocked, now open. Will it stay that way?

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Creating a Blog-with blog-creation software

• Manila or
• Movable Type
• Somewhat pricey.
• Placed on a server
• Be sure you have technical approval and support.
• May be a good choice if planning a large number
  of blogs.

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Creating a Blog-Setting up your own Web Space or
Domain

• Usually has a monthly or yearly cost for the
  space.
• More flexibility than with hosted blogs or
  blogging software on your districts server.
• Takes more time and effort to set up, but not as
  hard as you might think.
• For an excellent tutorial, download Tom Marchs
  Class Act Portals

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Setting up your own Web Space
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Setting up your Own Web Space

• Choosing a domain name
• Network Solutions lets you try out names and
  check for availablity (for free)
• Finding a Host
• Network Solutions
• A little pricey, but offer great services.
• SiteGround
• Approximately 70 for a year.
• Has all the right technical stuff.
• Lots of others available.

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Setting up your Own Web Space

• Download WordPress
• An Open Source web development software with blog
  software included.
• Open Source means its free and available for all
  to use (and improve upon if you like)
• Open Source is true community sharing.
• Download some WordPress blogging templates from
  Alex Kings Theme browser.
• Youll need FTP software.
• Can be downloaded free if you dont already have
  it.
• Use this to upload the templates to your web
  space.
• (All the how-tos for the above can be found on
  Tom Marchs
• page--see previous slide.)

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Gateway Readers Blog
http//lmclive.org/gateway/
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RSS

• What is it?
• Rich Site Summary or
• RDF Site Summary or
• Really Simple Syndication
• THE New Killer Ap
• Why? Take a look!

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RSS-Why should I care?

• RSS helps out with the overwhelming glut of
  information.
• Allows reading more content from more sources in
  less time.
• Usually list-oriented content from news sources,
  blogs, etc.
• Comes to you instead of you going to it
• No SPAM
• Can let you know when something is published with
  certain keywords that might interest you.

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Keeping Current Before
Fav Blog
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Keeping Current NOW
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RSS Aggregator?

• Huh?
• An Aggregator is software that collects your RSS
  feeds (subscriptions).
• Aggregators can be online or downloaded to sit on
  your desktop
• Desktop Ex AmphetaDesk
• (I didnt find a good desktop aggregator.)
• Online aggregator Ex
• Bloglines is a simple, easy aggregator with lots
  of suggestions for feeds to subscribe to.
  (slides)

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RSS Aggregators

• Can I bring RSS feeds onto my own website?
• Yes, you can!
• Go to Feed2JS (Slides)
• Book News Blogs webpage
• If all my students have their own blog, how will
  I manage it?
• Use Blogdigger.com (Slides)

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RSS-Getting Giving

• OK, Im getting all these great RSS feeds. Can I
  give something back to the world?
• Can I send out an RSS feed from my website?
• Yes, you can!
• Its a little trickier than receiving feeds, but
  not as hard as you might think.

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RSS-giving to the world

• RSS feeds are created using xml
• a language used for dynamic (changing)
  information just as html is used for static web
  pages.
• News or blogs on your website need to be coded
  with xml
• Can be done with a code template
• Ask me for a copy if youre interested.
• Can be done with code-creating software
• FeedforAll
• Free trial version full version is inexpensive

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Creating an RSS Feed

• Example
• Special Projects Page
• Using Wizard on Feed4All
• Show code saved as xml
• Validate feed place xml feed page on webspace.
• XML button linked to feed code (xml) page
• Special Projects Page feed on my Bloglines
  (slide)

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Podcasting

• What is it?
• An audio broadcast converted to an MP3 file (or
  other audio file format) for digital playback.
• Time-shifted content-
• Listen to whatever, whenever, wherever!
• However
• Real-time content consumption
• It takes a minute to consume a minute.
• My problem Not enough ear time!

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Educational uses for Listening to Podcasts

• Book reviews
• Tutorials
• Written or oral responses to readings or programs
• Independent study, review, info for absent
  students
• Useful information, enjoyment
• Examples
• David Warlicks EPN broadcast Science Fridays
• LSHS LMC All Things Reading

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Listening to Podcasts

• You need two things
• A way to find podcasts
• Directories/search
• A way to download podcasts
• Aggregators or podcatchers
• Sometimes, these are two separate processes.
• Sometimes, one site does both.

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Listening to Podcasts

• Where to find Podcasts?
• iTunes
• Podcast directories
• Podshow
• PodcastAlley
• Podcast.net

• For educators
• Education Podcast Network
• LISPodcasts
• iTunes
• education links

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Listening to Podcasts

• How do I download podcasts after I find them?
• Catch them in a podcatcher
• Juice
• iTunes
• Playback
• On an iPod or other MP3 player,
• From a computer, or
• Burned onto and played from a CD

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Creating a podcast

• You will need
• A computer or digital audio recorder
• A microphone
• Recording Software
• Audacity (Its free!)
• MP3 encoder
• Lame (Also free). See http//sourceforge.net/proje
  ct/showfiles.php?group_id290
• Server space an FTP client
• RSS Feed
• Handcode
• Use blogging software and Feedburner
• Use Podbasket (Easiest! And also free!)

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RSS FEED

• Handcode
• Use blogging software and Feedburner
• Use Podbasket (Easiest! And also free!)

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Podcasting

• For more information on Podcasting, see
• Podcasting 101 by Greg Schwartz
• http//podcasting101.pbwiki.com/
• Podcasting 101 by Jenny Levine
• (Same title, different author)
• http//www.mls.lib.il.us/cats.cfm?catid205s4

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Screencasting

• A screencast is a digital movie in which the
  setting is partly or wholly a computer screen,
  and in which audio narration describes the
  on-screen action.
• Technology /software tutorials
• A newer use stories about software-based
  cultures such as Wikipedia
• Tools for screencasting
• Camtasia (capturing, editing, and production)
• Weak on video editing
• Smart Board Notebook-sort of
• Windows Media Encoder (for Windows)
• Convenient, no editing capability
• Snapz Pro X, edited by iMovie (for Macs)
• Excellent quality

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Wikis

• Comes from Hawaiian wiki-wiki, meaning quick
• WIKIPEDIA
• Imagine a world in which every single person on
  the planet is given free access to the sum of all
  human knowledge. Thats what were doing.
• Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder

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Wikis

• However. . .
• Theres a downside
• Human nature being what it is . . . -)
• On Wikipedia, anyone can edit anything anytime
  they want.
• And thats the beauty . . And the ugly of it!
• Over one million articles and growing
• But are they reliable? (See Tom Marchs article)
• Used as a tool to teach students to think for
  themselves and question accuracy, it can be a
  good thing.

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Wikis in Education

• Classroom wikis
• All students adding to, editing, contributing to
  a classroom wiki on a given topic
• A collaborative construction of knowledge
• Students editing an already-existing wikibook
  started elsewhere
• Reading to see what needs to be changed. Hmmm.
  Hows that for reflective, engaged reading?!
• Professional wikis
• Add what you know to a body of educational
  knowledge

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Wikis in Education
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Wikis in Education
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Creating a Wiki
Peanut Butter Wiki
(Requires a password to edit)
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Creating a Wiki

• Other Wiki creation sites
• Jotspot
• SeedWiki.com
• Wikicities.com
• Edublog has a wiki page included!

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Social Bookmarking

• FURL
• del-ic-ious
• Both sites save your bookmarks with keywork
  searching
• Allow sharing of bookmarks with others
• Can search other peoples bookmarks on a subject
  that interests you
• Very cool!
• FURL will also save an archived webpage for you!

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Others to explore

• Flickr
• Rollyo (Rollyo screencast)
• YouTube
• Pandora

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The Read/Write Web

• Its a whole new world!
• Have fun with it as you and your students learn!