Category Archive

I’ll try and keep this short; for myself as much as anyone else.

I was alterted this week to the March 2008 survey results for the Top 100 Tools for Learning via Judy O’Connell.

Here are my quick, initial observations (I’m sure I’d have more given the time):

• Really pleased that del.icio.us is #1
• Really pleased that I use 9 of the top 10 (sorry Skype!  I might get there one day)
• It’s good that the list is a top 100 and not a top 10; simply because there are so many good tools from 10 down that to only do a top 10 would be an injustice
• Facebook slid from equal 17th to equal 28th.  Am I surprised?  Not really; I know my interest in it has waned somewhat
• Every Microsoft Office Application, yes every Microsoft Office Application has slid down the list…
  Word was 10th, now equal 22nd
  Excel was equal 22nd, now equal 48th
  PowerPoint was 5th, now 7th
  Publisher and Access don’t get a look in

  I think this says something about a decreasing reliance on these apps for learning, especially given the multitude of Web 2.0 tools (just scan the top 100 list) and the rise of online work products such as Google Docs and Zoho (11th and equal 36th respectively)

• Finally, one can’t ignore how many of these Top 100 tools are free.  Software developers take note: school budgets are tight.  Thanks to Web 2.0, etc., your products inspire very cheaply-available replicas.  There are also many other exciting products out there that you can’t buy off the shelf.  Teachers will keep looking for cheap, exciting and useful tools to maximise learning.

Elsewhere, in reading my RSS feeds today, I found myself challenged to come up with my list of Web 2.0 tools that I have used, and would like to use in my teaching and learning.  The original post came from the blog of Doug Belshaw, and I do share a few of my favourites with him.

So, here goes… the Web 2.0 stuff I have (and would like to) use:

del.icio.us was probably one of the first Web 2.0 tools I used actively, as we introduced it into the school to replace the old library intranet pages of subject links.  Now everyone can contribute and share.  Brilliant.  Once I found that Mozilla had a del.icio.us extension with a sidebar, I loved it even more.

edublogs is another tool I enjoy using (duh, this is an edublog!).   The most successful learning use I’ve had so far is not my main class blog, but the reading group blogs through which students have regularly posted comments in response to text.  Never since we’ve started the blog have students tried to avoid writing the reading response.

I’m also interested in podcasting, and want to get it going in the classroom.  I’ve used Audacity to record podcasts (and music recordings - perhaps we can get it going in our school’s music room?) and posted the Learning 2.0 and Technoblog podcasts on Podbean.

Speaking of Learning 2.0, I’ve also used both wikispaces and pbwiki to make wikis.  One has been used in a classroom application, while Learning 2.0 has been for staff professional development.  Both are good tools.

I haven’t really used bubbl.us or Bubble-mind in the classroom because we have Inspiration, but if we didn’t, I’m sure we’d be on to those as well.

Then there are all the tools that I enjoy and/or use myself and want to get into the classroom, like Flickr, Google Reader, SlideShare, Scratch and YouTube (or TeacherTube, Google Video, etc.).  I was also alerted to VoiceThread today, which looks like a great product with amazing learning potential.

Well, if I really do get all of these into my classroom, I don’t think there’d be a moment in the day where we weren’t using Web 2.o tools.  I wonder how many I can integrate into rich learning next term?  Maybe I’ll get some more ideas at the CEC forum on Monday.

Firstly, a request for leniancy: If this post starts sounding disjointed, it’s probably because I’m writing it in between parent-teacher interviews that I’m conducting tonight and tomorrow.

Parent-teacher interviews are often the signal that the end of Term 2 is here.  Normally, after committing yourself to so much time and energy writing reports, marking assessment tasks and preparing portfolios, not to mention about seven hours of parent-teacher interviews, the one thing you look forward to is a nice, relaxing break.

It seems, however, that those in the computer world (often already known for their warped sense of humour) think it would be a good time to hold a conference or two for those technology-interested and focussed teachers who want to learn more.  I’ve shared the school holiday offering I’ve been made aware of on technoblog.

So, what to go to… if anything?  Well, I have to say each of them grabbed my attention.  Two of them overlap, however, and I’m not sure about spending too much time in conferences and forums given I want to dedicate time to really planning Term 3 in my classroom.  So I’ll give the Catholic Education Commission’s Learning with Web 2.0 forum.

It will be interesting to see how I find it.  I have to say the workshop offerings suggest a target audience that’s a little less familiar with Web 2.0 than I am.  Not that I’m an expert, but I got a good introduction from a Teacher-Librarians Professional Development day last year hosted by the Parramatta Diocesan TL Network.  Judy O’Connell will be presenting (amongst others), but I think I’ll give her social bookmarking presentation a miss, given I’m already familiar with some of the tools; primarily from participating in a workshop by her on exactly the same topic at the same TL PD Day.

One thing I’m thinking of doing is producing a podcast afterwards to share some insights from the forum with staff via technoblog.  Perhaps I can take some portable recording equipment (there are several inexpensive mp3 players nowadays that include voice recorders) to capture live the thoughts of others.  Maybe I could even find a minute or two to interview some of the presenters from Parramatta who I know?

Presented by the challenge of joining by Diocesan Web 2.0 “guru” Judy O’Connell, I decided to find out what Facebook was all about.

My initial thoughts (before signing up) was that it was another in the MySpace, Bebo, etc. line of sites; which it is.  It’s definitely a social networking site.  Not that I appear to be very social at present.  My public profile invites people to view my 0 photos, 0 wall posts, 0 notes and 0 groups.

But I do have friends (now doesn’t that sound sad)!  Besides Judy, upon registering I discovered that a friend of mine from my uni days (my BEd days, 1998-2001) was also on Facebook.  I kept on looking, and found another friend from past days.  Not surprising she would be here (or on some other social networking site) given that we used to keep in touch via MSN Messenger and she documented her overseas trip using this tool called Blogger which I thought looked good, but I hadn’t thought of an educational use for :-).  Thank goodness that’s now changed.  Further searching now suggests that compared to some of my friends, I’m a little bit behind the times.

I suppose I’ll keep playing and looking around; seeing what Facebook can do.  It seems to be a bit more ordered and “clean” than say MySpace or Bebo, so I’m wondering if, like those sites, it has/will have a “demographic” that prefers it over other social networking sites?

As far as Web 2.0 tools go, I don’t think I’m doing too badly.  I’m doing the whole blogging thing (on several platforms for a variety of audience and purposes), engaging in social networking and bookmarking, made a small start on Flickr, set up a wiki for a work Professional Development program and podcasted for the same.  Add SlideShare presentations, and a whole lot of extra things I’ve probably forgotten, and I’m pretty busy.  Not bad for a someone who’s still technically a digital immigrant!