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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

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

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