Web 2.0 in your teaching (LINK presentation)
Beginning today (April 12) at the University of Adelaide, I will be presenting a ‘show and tell’ on Using Web 2.0 in your teaching: ideas, applications and affordances for enhanced educational outcomes.
I am going to look in detail at the following applications:
- xtimeline – great collaborative timeline tool
- listphile – lists and database tool
- slinkset – ‘open’ social news builder
- posterous – blogging flexibly
- mind42 – mindmapping collaboratively
- quizlet – flashcards are more than you think
- reviewbasics – co-annotation of documents
- springnote – wiki for personal and group use
- knol.google – publish your knowledge
- wiggio – great groupware
These and more are summarised in the handout for this presentation.
Formal abstract
The presentation focuses heavily on the way that a wide array of Web 2.0 / social media applications can be used in higher education, whether in distance or on-campus learning. The presentation will demonstrate the ‘top 10’ innovative applications which exemplify the different ways in which Web 2.0 can make a difference for university learning. Designed to provide practical, usable ideas, the presentation emphasises how the technologies which might be chosen must be understood in terms of their relationship to the content, assessment, outcomes of learning, and the particular context provided by students and the subjects they are studying. The presentation will involve detailed visual display of various applications. It moves beyond general discussion of blogs, wikis and social networking into consideration of unusual and valuable online services and sites which are not well known to educators.
Thanks to Elaine Tay, Tama Leaver and all the people at the 14+ universities who have helped organise this; thanks to the generous support of the ALTC
Good work Matthew. You have shown many tools and applications, I have not heard before. Keep up with your good work on updating us on the latest applications that can be good for the academics to use in their classrooms (online, onshore, on campus, off campus- various modes, we interact with diverse student cohorts).
Thanks for the kind words – I really enjoyed today. One thing I learned – don’t write off Moodle which, I am told, is starting to develop some of the possibilities I have seen in real public web space
I was hoping to get to your presentation at the UofAdelaide today but could not get away from a prior commitment.
Hoping you may have recorded audio of this (or poss future version) to share with slides?
p.s. If you are doing any more presentations in Adelaide pls shoot me an e/mail and I will try to attend.
Hi Matthew, I really enjoyed your presentation at UNSW today – lots to explore. I thought your emphasis on thinking creatively about how to use these tools was particularly pertinent – we sometimes get stuck with the obvious, if we even go out to explore new applications. Thank you for presenting your favourites!
Hi Matt
I went to your presentation in Adelaide and meant to ask – what do you think about Web 2.0 for research students (masters by research, PhD etc)? This is a different group to other students who are taught in a different way. Any ideas?
Andrea
Dear Andrea
I think the use of ‘web 2.0′ services is even more critical for research students than for undergraduates because, by definition, HDRs are going to be advanced knowledge workers increasingly dependent on the tools, affordances and challenges of the Internet as a knowledge networking system. The engagement here should be with, if you like, those specific tools and services which are aimed at such knowledge workers. One example is http://mendeley.com for managing PDFs of a scholarly sort, though it can deal with other documents too. Another is to focus students’ attention on the value of building an online presence, based around a blog or similar, which can manage their scholarly reputation. In some fields, especially media, communications, humanities, education and so on, one is much more likely to be successful post-PhD with knowledge and skills in this space. More generally, too, HDR students might want to experiment with Internet tools (such as mindmaps) to assist in ‘thinking through’ their research.
Ultimately, though, the higher degree students doing research need to focus on acquiring the core skills and tacit knowledge of their discipline and, at the same time, seeking to be on the leading edge of the changes to that discipline: web 2.0 tools may help, but only where the students understand they must be agents in their use and change (whereas for undergraduates we might enforce use rather more).
Hi Matt
I attended your very stimulating presentation at UNSW last month. Readers unable to attend the presentations might like to know that our videos of your presentation are now online at UNSW-TV (http://tv.unsw.edu.au/ and search for Matthew Allen).
cheers
Belinda
My thanks to the considerable work of the UNSW people for hosting me and organising the video capture and presentation of what I was saying.