“Social Web” Technologies and Student Literacy

1. “Social Web” Technologiesand Student Literacy Sandy Stuart-Bayer Library Media Specialist Lee’s Summit High School Lee’s Summit, MO

2. The Social Web • What’s all the fuss? • On covers of major magazines • Called the best “Killer Apps” since email. • Silicon Valley is smiling again.

3. The Social Web • Should this effect how we educate? • 1990’s 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!

4. The Social Web Blogs RSS Wikis Podcasting Screencasting Aggregators Social Bookmarking Online Photo Galleries Videoblogging Vocabulary test on Friday! 8^)

5. The Read/Write Web Fulfilling Berners-Lee’s 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 can’t afford to be out of touch with the ways our students learn!

6. The Read/Write Web Has the potential to provide: • Real • Rich • Relevant Learning

7. Blogging • Comes from “weblog” • Its creators changed it to “we-blog”, or just “blog”. • BUT, it’s not just an online journal or diary entry anymore!

8. 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

9. A Few Examples Meredith’s Page (Slide of Meredith’s 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)

10. 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 IT’S 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?

11. 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.

12. 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 district’s server. • Takes more time and effort to set up, but not as hard as you might think. • For an excellent tutorial, download Tom March’s “Class Act Portals”

13. Setting up your own Web Space

14. 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.

15. Setting up your Own Web Space • Download WordPress • An Open Source web development software with blog software included. • Open Source means it’s 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 King’s Theme browser. • You’ll need FTP software. • Can be downloaded free if you don’t 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 March’s page--see previous slide.)

16. Gateway Readers’ Blog http://lmclive.org/gateway/

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

18. 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.

19. Keeping Current Before Local Newspaper LIS News LSR7News NYT 1 2 3 4 5 10 9 8 7 6 Enter-tainment News 2nd Fav Blog Travel Deals Sports Shopping Fav Blog

20. Local Newspaper LIS News LSR7News Fav Blog NYT RSS Aggregator Enter-tainment News 2nd Fav Blog Travel Deals Sports Shopping Keeping Current NOW

21. 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 didn’t find a good desktop aggregator.) • Online aggregator Ex: • Bloglinesis a simple, easy aggregator with lots of suggestions for feeds to subscribe to. (slides)

22. 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)

23. RSS-Getting & Giving • OK, I’m 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! • It’s a little trickier than receiving feeds, but not as hard as you might think.

24. 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 you’re interested. • Can be done with code-creating software • FeedforAll • Free trial version; full version is inexpensive

25. 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)

26. 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”!

27. 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 Warlick’s EPN broadcast: Science Fridays • LSHS LMC “All Things Reading”

28. 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.

29. Listening to Podcasts Where to find Podcasts? iTunes Podcast directories Podshow PodcastAlley Podcast.net For educators: Education Podcast Network LISPodcasts iTunes education links

30. 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

31. Creating a podcast • You will need: • A computer or digital audio recorder • A microphone • Recording Software • Audacity (It’s free!) • MP3 encoder • Lame (Also free). See http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=290 • Server space & an FTP client • RSS Feed • Handcode • Use blogging software and Feedburner • Use Podbasket (Easiest! And also free!)

34. RSS FEED • Handcode • Use blogging software and Feedburner • Use Podbasket (Easiest! And also free!)

35. 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?catid=205&s=4

36. 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

37. 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. That’s what we’re doing. Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder

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

39. 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. How’s that for reflective, engaged reading?! • Professional wikis • Add what you know to a body of educational knowledge

40. Wikis in Education

41. Wikis in Education

42. Creating a Wiki Peanut Butter Wiki (Requires a password to edit)

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

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

45. Others to explore • Flickr • Rollyo(Rollyo screencast) • YouTube • Pandora

46. The Read/Write Web • It’s a whole new world! • Have fun with it as you and your students learn!