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Using Social Software for Educational Purposes
by Joan Vinall-Cox, Ph.D. - http://joanvinallcox.wordpress.com/
The World Wide Web and computer-use in general have caused massive changes in how we communicate, and consequently, how we teach and learn. Currently, the Web has changed from a “read-only” environment to a “read/write” space where lack of technical knowledge is no longer a barrier. Anyone who can send and receive email has the skills required to be part of what is called Web 2.0, the Read/Write Web, or Social Media.
Web 2.0, the social web, is of special importance in education for two reasons:
1. It is a superb environment for teaching and learning as it allows, indeed almost demands, collaborative construction and sharing of projects and papers.
2. We must not abandon students to simply a youth-culture use of the social web. They are on it, they understand the technical aspects, but they need to balance what can be a rather unstructured space with an understanding of the possibilities for civil, educational, and business uses.
An Introduction to The Significance of the Social Media for Learning and Teaching
- How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century - http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1568480-1,00.html
- An Opening Education Report from Futurelab - by Martin Owen, Lyndsay Grant, Steve Sayers and Keri Facer
- Futurelab - Research - Publications - Social software and learning - The first 12 pages introduce the reader to what social software is, and the remainder discuss why it is so significant for education.
Regularly Updated Information and Ideas for Using Social Media in Education
In my blog, WebTools for Learners, I write regularly about new web applications and uses for educational purposes. To keep up-to-date, you can follow me there.
Uses of Wikis in Education
- Explantion of wikis - http://blip.tv/file/246821
- Wikis used for K - 12 educational purposes are often free
- Wikispaces for teachers - http://www.wikispaces.com/help+Teachers
- A series of screencasts (with sound that starts automatically) - http://www.wikispaces.com/site/tour#introduction
- PB Wiki for teachers - http://pbwiki.com/education.wiki
- A video introduction (with sound that starts automatically) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A204JcGQiY0
- An example of how a wiki can be used and a resource for teachers who want to link their students with distant others - http://flatclassroomproject.wikispaces.com/How+To
- A wiki connecting teachers using wikis - http://www.wikieducator.org/Main_Page
Uses of Blogs in Education
- Explanation of blogs - http://www.commoncraft.com/blogs
- Blogs can be set up to be individual or to have groups where everybody can post in the same blog. The teacher can maintain a single blog, allowing student comments, or can set up a group blog where all the members of the class can add posts.
- Blogs can private by setting them up so the readership is limited to the students, or to he students and their parents
- EduBlogs - especially for teaching - http://edublogs.org/ - powered by WordPress, free - http://edublogs.org/10-ways-to-use-your-edublog-to-teach/
- Blogger - easy, familiar, free - https://www.blogger.com/start - blogs here can also be set up to be individual or to have groups to post on.
Other Uses of Social Software - (Knowledge Management)
RSS and Aggregation
- An Explanation of RSS - http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english - used with applications called "Feed Readers" or "Aggregators"
- Bloglines - the Feed Reader I use - http://www.bloglines.com/
- My Bloglines’ Blogroll - http://www.bloglines.com/blog/SemioticExplorer (Scroll down to see the blogs & sites I subscribe to.) I can check for updates on one page rather than using multiple individual links;
- Google Reader - another popular feed reader - http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english
- Teachers can use an aggregator like Bloglines or Google Reader
- to subscribe to a collection of news outlets for current events,
- or to set up a collection of blogs & sites in the area they are studying
- or to collect their students’ individual blogs onto one page for easy reading.
Social Bookmarking
- An explanation of social bookmarking - http://www.commoncraft.com/bookmarking-plain-english
- Using del.icio.us, or other social bookmarking tools, you can save links and access them from any online computer.
- You can also categorize or “tag” them for future searching
- You can share all or parts of your collection, a feature which can very useful for sharing a collection of links with classes
- Using tags, you can also find URLs saved by others on the topic you are searching in, which can help you in your search.
Tagging & Folksonomy
- "Tagging" or "labelling" are a way of organizing links called "folksonomy" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folksonomy
- Tags (or labels) can be used with photo collection sites, social bookmarking, blogs, and many other online activities.
- The basics - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_%28metadata%29
- Flickr is a photo-sharing space and tool where you “tag” (or label) your own photos so people can search through public photos
- Blogs often allow writers to tag their articles - as can be seen in my blog - WebTools For Learners - on the right, under my Twitter links
Other Applications for Educational Communities
- H2O – a useful course support
- My H2O Playlist on Poetry