2008 MACUL Conference Blog

Michael McVey is a new professor Eastern Michigan University who began teaching a class, Web 2.0 Tools in Education, or something similar.  He basically threw a huge number of Web 2.0 tools at his students to see which would stick and which would be thrown away.  Everything was done in an online environment and he discovered that some work, and of course, some don’t.

Michael’s take on Web 2.0:

Recipients become Communicators…

How did they begin?  Started by using Flickr…everyone understands photo sharing.  What else did they use?

• Second Life
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google Docs
• PBwiki
• Ning
• Del.icio.us

One of the first assignments was to create a social network on Ning.  As they set up their social network, they were also researching sites and tagging them in del.icio.us.  This then created a common pool of information to reference.

They used Doodle to schedule meeting times.  They also dessiminated information by podcasting with Gcast…also used podOmatic.

Every student was required to set up a blog on Blogger, which Michael subscribed to via Bloglines.  Bloglines is a aggregator that collects and keeps track of new entries to the blogs (and other sites) you subscribe to.  Because students were connected to each other and the writing/sharing that was going on, their own writing was positively affected.

Students also stayed connected via Twitter.  Wrote collaboratively with Google Docs and PBwiki.

Michael really enjoyed watching how deep and thoughtful student writing and ideas became.

What were some of the conclusions? (Oh…he’s going too fast.)  Obviously, some good and some not as good.  Probably won’t use Twitter again…it didn’t really help with collaboration.

Good job, Michael.  You have a lot of first hand experience that benefitted the rest of us.  The last session on Friday is probably the worst time to have your presentation, but there were lots of folks and everyone stayed until the end.

This was a FANTASTIC session. I see Steve Dickie already evaluated the session, but I would like to reiterate how good the session was. I was impressed that I learned about three new sites that I was not aware of. Now I can’t wait to play and see how the sites work. We put on a 5 county wide tech academy every summer and I can see the possibility of making this a full day session with teachers actually learning how to use them and brainstorming the best ways to use them with students.

I will name them off as several people have asked about the session since they were not able to attend!

http://top10freesites.pbwiki.com

1.bloglines.com (using RSS, store all your blogs in one place)
2.del.icio.us (social bookmarking system)
3.Flickr.com (photo storage and much more! Create trading cards, memory games. It finds flickr photos with the same titles and puts them into the memory game)
There are Creative commons licenses that allows you to use the photos- gives the ways you can use it legally.)
4. Picnik http://picnik.com (This is so cool! This is new to me. Find pictures from Flickr to edit that you have the right to edit.)
5. www.jumpcut.com (Will let you store videos online privately. You can also do some simple editing)
6. Gcast http://gcast.com (Safe site. Upload your audio to gCast and it will create a flash player with your podcast. You can do modcasting by adding audio from your phone. Call 1-88-65-GCAST and use your pin.)
7. Garageband.com (Has nothing to so with the Apple program. Steve said if you can download the audio you can use it in your Podcast. Just state where you can got the audio)
8. pbwiki.com and wikispaces (Both good free wiki creation sites)
9. Google Docs and spreadsheets (Multiple people work on a document or spreadsheet at the same time. I have been using this since it was Writely and it saves so much time!)
10. vyew.com free webex software (share your screen online and notes online)

OK, Steve Demob is going to be another one of those speakers I look for at these meetings. Steve went through about 20 or 30 different websites while highlighting his Top 10 Free Web 2.0 Sites. All his links are available at 10freesites.pbwiki.com, so I won’t list them all here.

Here are some of the cool new things I learned:

• Jumpcut - A free online video creation/editing site now allows you to do the Ken Burns Effect with your photos
• Picnik - This is a free online image editor. I’ve heard of it before, but I’ve never used it. I will now. It does all the basic editing you need. You can upload photos or you can pull them directly from the web (including your Flickr). When you’re done editing you can save them, email them, dump them to Flickr, or send them to a number of places that will print them out for you.
• Vyew - Webinars free on the web. You can use your browser to host a webinar. The participants, who only need a browser, can watch your presentations or you can share a real time screen cast. There is a chat window available and you can share audio by having participants call into a phone number. Up to 100 people can call into the free version!

Steve talked about a lot of stuff more than I will mention here. His list of 10 Free Sites is great and you should give it a look.

So…I think it’s really cool that Ramit Sethi, the VP of Marketing for PBwiki, has come all the way here to give us the latest on what PBwiki is all about. I think it demonstrates some commitment from them that they want to reach out to educators.

What’s a wiki? It’s a web site where you can easily collaborate and share information. The most notable example is Wikipedia. Ramit showed us a comparison between common web tools…blogs, forums, and wikis.

• Blogs…One to many. One writer to an audience of many.
• Forums…Many to many, but there may be a repetition of content.
• Wikis…Many to many, but it’s always current.

The PBwiki team spent a considerable amount of time talking with educators to determine how educators use wikis. Why are they so hot?

• They’re easy to make…no technical skills or tech savvy personnel needed.
• Links! You can connect to many other pages of your own.
• Allows students to collaborate…essays, peer editing, comments on students work, teachers can keep an eye on what’s going on.

But what are the concerns for K12 education?

• Security
  In PBwiki you have to be logged in to contribute to the wiki or see any personal information.
• Safety/privacy
  Again, you must be logged in to view private information (and even some of that isn’t available).
• Accountability
  They’re working on a system to improve accountability…who is logged in and when/where are they?
• $$$ Money
  The access controls for PBwiki cost some money. Otherwise the cost is free!

They took the suggestions of educators and listened. Teachers hate ads, so they removed them on educational blogs. They want students to be engaged, so they continue to add features. They also want it to be easy, so they made a new WYSIWYG editor. They’re trying to listen to their hundreds of users and incorporating their suggestions.

Ramit showed us some of the little tools called Plugins that allow extra content to be added to your wiki. For example, add an online calendar or a Flickr slide show. Very cool. There is a lot of flexibility to types of content you can add.

For those of you who use PBwiki (or just wikis in general!) and tell others in workshops, PBwiki offers Presenter Packs which include

• a PDF handout with general PBwiki information
• a T-shirt of your choice
• a PowerPoint presentation to use in your workshop/session
• and three PBwiki upgrades (worth $750)

That’s awesome!…they’re really trying to support educators and their efforts to spread (PB pun!) the news.

What’s coming next?

• Videos and case studies to assist teachers in the use of wikis.
• Better sharing and linking. Ramit told us how you can make a portfolio of the content that has been published. It hasn’t been publicized well, but it could be a great tool for sharing.
• Educational Advisory Board

Again, I’m really impressed by the approachability of Ramit, and through him, PBwiki. These guys (actually five guys and a gal) are really trying to get it right and to create a useful tool for educators as well as the web community in general. Keep in mind…Ramit wasn’t down in the vendor area and wasn’t pushing his product (you get the Presenter Pack no matter what type of wiki you’re focusing on), but instead is extending a hand to teachers to help create meaningful online content and collaborative activities.

I encourage anyone who is interested in exploring wikis or who are already using wikis to explore PBwiki. For the latest PBwiki news, check out their blog, The Daily Peanut.